Pause... think... write (err... type, maybe...)

assalamualaikum warahmatullah and hello...

it's been a month now since my last entry... quite a lot of things happen since the past 30 or so days... i'm now approaching the end of week 9 of my Project Option... 2 more weeks to go... however, i need to hand in the final report by thursday next week (week 10)... and considering my current pace of 'report-writing', it will be magic if the report can be submitted on time... and on the last thursday (week 11) i'll be doing a presentation on my option... anyway, i'm doing a systematic review with a consultant surgeon, who is currently on annual leave... but personally speaking, he's very helpful and supportive... my option's title is 'criteria used for selection of patients to undergo elective surgery for chronic pancreatitis: a systematic review'... nice, huh?

my exam results came out earlier this month... alhamdulillah, the results were magnificent (in relation to the tiny effort being put in pre-exams)... can now concentrate solely on the november osce (mind + movement), and then off for my electives in the beautiful land far, far away... where else, malaysia lah, of course!!! again this project option sprang to mind... need to finish it satisfactorily before i can officially say goodbye to my penultimate year...

one more year to go as a medical undergraduate student, insha allah... may Allah gives me strength... will kick off year 5 on monday, 21st august in oldham, 8 weeks district placement... a 1-week study period follows, and will then continue with my community placement further north in preston... friday, 15th december will be my final day for community, and at any day from that friday until new year 2007, i will insha allah set my 2 feet back on malaysian soil... electives start on january the 2nd, for 8 weeks, up until february the 23rd... and then another 1-week study period before the teaching placement begins... this time back in the manchester royal infirmary... another 8 weeks, before the most 'dreaded' week of all... the FINALS!!! 14th-18th may 2007 insha allah...

still yet to finalise whether to do my foundations here in the UK, or go back home straightaway for housemanship... i might opt to stay for 2 more years, working 'work-permit free' as a foundation officer somewhere in the northwest... if i do stay, will try to get on a research posting sometime during F2 (2nd year foundation)... should look good in the cv... and maybe join any malaysian universities after that, or if my current interest doesn't change, i will apply for a job with the army medical corps... anyway, may Allah Guides me in everything i do...

lately i've been involved with lots of books... sounds good to people, but actually its not, at least for me... have been buying quite a number of books, but hardly read them... amazon, simplyislam.com, the history guild, etc... you name it, i've bought books from virtually all the online bookstores... and i've also received free books from my ex-housemate... at present, i've just finished 're-reading' Angels & Demons and am now looking forward to finish off the english version of Fiqh Sirah by dr s.r. al-buti...

another thing i've been busy doing recently was downloading + watching movies... i've accidentally watched '10 things i hate about you' on tv about a week ago... the last and only time i watched it was during my final year in sungai besi (as usual, via a pirated vcd)... and i've forgotten everything about the film... except that julia stiles was in it, and 2 scenes which i couldn't forget... scene 1:- heath ledger sang on the terrace by the school field (with assistance from the school brass band, and yes, for 7 years i couldn't recall who the hero was and what song he was singing), and scene 2:- julia reciting the '10 things' poem... downloaded it straight away via utorrent after that... other movies i've been watching from my 4-year old laptop's small screen since the past week were; chicken run, the last samurai, save the last dance (another j.stiles classic), mighty ducks (1 & 3; still waiting for D2), jurassic park, plus, surprisingly, 2 malay movies = p.ramlee's 'nujum pak belalang' & aziz m osman's 'pemburu emas yamashita'...

at the moment, this obsolete machine is downloading morgan freeman's 'lean on me' + tom cruise's 'jerry maguire'... watched bits of the former during my banting years, but yet to watch JM (maybe i've seen it before, and i didn't remember, just like most of the films out there)...

i've also just received dvds of transformers (generation 1, 98 episodes) and M.A.S.K (my peers should have heard of it, 75 episodes in all)... am awaiting 'blue blink' dvds now from the states... this might be an unknown anime series, but it was on malaysian tv in either '92 or '93... it's about a boy on a quest to find his kidnapped father, went on a weird bus-ride with a small pony-like creature call 'blink', made friends with all the passengers... i think i only missed one episode last time, due to a 'nation-wide' power failure... but, anyway...

some people might find it incredible not to come across anything referring to Germany 2006 up until this point... the world cup matches was good at times (esp. when the host is involved; p.s:- i'm a germany supporter since italia 90), but otherwise largely forgettable... have to control everything i write about my 'host'-nation i.e. engl*nd, or else... but from the way they played in germany, i think MY-Team is far better... did i tell you guys that i've played against MY-Team 2 months ago when they came here to manchester? it came out on majalah tiga twice, i think... you can find the "MY-Team vs MM-Team" clip via youtube... just key in the phrase above and you'll be able to watch it...

need to pen-off now (or is it keyboard-off???)... will continue later (within this century, hopefully)... may Allah gave strength to all of us, especially to our brothers and sisters in palestine & lebanon... still can't believe the lebanese road which i've travelled on 2 years ago have been turned to dust by the israeli shellings... wassalamualaikum warahmatullah...