Cuti Rehat

Known as CR, this is a luxury/right (depending on whom you speak to) given to all government workers. For us humble officers, this accounts for either 8 or 9 days per posting, INCLUDING MCs and ELs (Emergency Leaves). So try not to MC or EL too hard 'kay.

CR has to be informed in advance and, depending on where you are, can only be taken during certain periods and only for certain maximum durations. According to a briefing by my hospital, if you have remaining CRs in a posting, they can only be carried forward and taken after your MOship has started and cannot be used during your other postings during housemanship.

For example, you are such a hardworker you only took 1 day of CR in your first posting, before moving onto your second one. Your second posting turns out to be difficult, and you are thinking of taking more than 8 days' leave throughout the entirety of the posting. However, this is not possible without some actions being taken by the hospital- the remaining 7 days from your previous CR allocation cannot be used on top of the 8 days allocated for your second posting; or your third, or your fourth, and so on. However, the balance of unused CR from your previous postings during HOship can be used during your MOship, after you are fully registered. So make sure you finish housemanship and get fully registered, mmkay?

For any more doubts or clarification, kindly seek out the admin staff in your hospital, particularly the ones in charge of HOs. They should be able to help you more!

Anyway, I'm not here to talk about these technical things, which will be explained to you during PTM and your respective hospital orientations. I'm here to talk about CRs and why they are essential. So I would definitely be the party that says CRs are a right- a basic human right. Hehe.

I've listed several reasons why you SHOULD use your CRs and not try to accumulate them to a time in the future which may or may not arrive. This is because I've known of people who try to save up all of their CR so they can use it in that transition period from HO to MO.  It's doable, to be sure, but not for everyone. In fact, it's not for most people. But here I've listed down the reasons fr you to not feel guilty and use your CR:


1. De-stress
No need to kid anyone: This line of work is especially stressful, and that's saying something because ALL jobs come with their own sets of stress factors. You need the time off of your job; time for you to unwind and leave behind the stress for a bit. Not only will you be doing yourself a favour, but also, potentially, your colleagues and patients.

And for the ladies out there, you know how the stress can affect your more womanly cycles. It's not pleasant.


2. Change of perspective
It's all too easy to be caught up in the hospital walls. To forget that there IS life and boundless opportunities outside of your hospital. Your CR will hopefully be longer than your off-days, and give you the needed time to get away from your department, hospital grounds, and even the district of your hospital. Go do that thing that made you happy before, even if it doesn't seem like it's going to work! Get outta that place and see something new! Meet new people who are NOT healthcare personnel! A breath of fresh air is more than needed after some time, to jolt yourself back. It's highly recommended, particularly when your working environment may be a little toxic for your emotions.


3. Recharge
Drained and apathetic- the usual feelings you get during work. This tends to accumulate, particularly if you have been repeatedly experiencing negative experiences for days in a row. I believe that we also have our emotional gauges, and sometimes our positive, more happy gauges get low after multiple beatings. A day or two off may allow for these gauges to refill, but some postings do not offer you the privilege of too many off days, or simply expose you to a lot of negativity. Perhaps you're not the type to recharge too quickly.

So take your CRs to recharge. But do not think of it as the only solution. Perhaps a change of perspective is needed (See #2); think of your work in a different way, of your possibly intimidating superiors in a different light. Somehow, you need to make your work more bearable. How you do it, ultimately, is up to you, but some days off should help you to revisit your options.


4. Make others happy
When you are less stressed, and your happy meters are higher, this positivity is bound to show in your work. You are then more likely to make your colleagues and patients happy, too! And giving others happiness is an easy blessing in and of itself, not to mention the fact that you're taking active part in trying to help mankind. Tell me, how can that not be a reward?


5. Rezeki
Your leave is also your reward, blessing or rezeki. If you find it approved, that is rezeki! Far be it for me to push away my reward, or as we say it tolak rezeki. Seize it and use it wisely.


And for something unexpected: During my rather lengthy CR, I missed my work.
I enjoyed my CR days, don't get me wrong. I was loathe to come back to work when the time came to it. However, I did not expect a part of me to always wonder how my patients are doing. How my colleagues are coping (my poor groupmates, one lady short!). Did my patients improve? How many were discharged? What cases are they seeing without me?

And this was what I needed:

6. You cannot miss something until you've left it
This is a feeling you should experience, even temporarily. It makes me appreciate my job even more. And hell, the first time splurging on things with my own hard-earned money feels AMAZING. So yes, it won't be too far-fetched to say I miss working more than I expected myself to.

And of course, it's always good to reserve some days and not use all of your CR days in one go. You never know when an emergency happens, God forbid, that you may need to use your EL for. Remember, MCs and ELs count towards those 8 days per posting- that's about 2 days per month, should your posting go as planned.

I hope these feelings will remain in my future postings. Until then, good luck planning out your days off and keep on dreaming big!

Hello, 2016!

Some days, I feel like I thrive solely upon the smell and taste of heavily-sweetened coffee.

I think this is something most students can relate to- the absolute power of coffee. In fact, I do recall most of my blog posts during undergraduate days being absolutely littered with caffeine-related words and descriptions.

Some of my best works were caffeine-fueled.

What progress have I made so far since the last post?

I have entered a new year. Hello, 2016!

Prior to that, I learned a new skill- I learned to knit, with the help of one of my dearest friends. I quickly learned that such a skill requires physical teaching for anything further than the start. When I made mistakes, any attempt to correct them (with the help of video tutorials) ends up with me unraveling my entire work, sometimes worth days. That is NOT cool. So I did what any sane person would do when faced with this situation- I leave the mistakes be, and hope that they are not disastrous enough to be corrected when I see my teacher again.

Prior to that, I went to IKEA and with the help of my faraway sponsor (i.e. father) bought so much home stuff, I was surprised. Like, 4 full IKEA bags' worth of assorted knickknacks for the home, and an entire furniture trolley filled with furniture- so much that the bulk of it had to be delivered to my current home, as I do not have enough space in my car for all of them. Granted this was split two way (the other way went to my brother and sister's shared uni accommodation) but the main bulk of the stuff belonged to me.

You see, I rarely shop for anything other than books and essentials, but when I do, I tend to go really big. And then I will cease almost all shopping activity for years.

Did you know that there are now 2 IKEAs in Malaysia? Rumour has it that there will be a new IKEA somewhere in Penang as well. It would probably be profitable, as all IKEAs tend to be. It's not all about the furniture, either. IKEAs are famed for their food, and both for their very affordable snacks and also the more costly but still rather affordable proper Swedish-based dishes.

Although, I do not understand the hype around the meatballs. I had some, and though it wasn't bad, it was personally not worth the hype. I did, however, enjoy their baked chicken leg with some sort of minty, clear gravy, which was surprisingly as refreshing as it was savoury.

The novel thing about IKEA, I believe, compared to other furniture outlets is the accessibility to the living spaces in the showrooms. You can sit on the chairs and beds, and feel the furniture; walk around the multitude of living, storage, and dining spaces almost as if they were your own (ignoring the masses of people around you). No one would tell you off for these actions. The sheer amount of different places to chill is almost enough to psyche anyone. My brother and I sat down on almost all of the chairs and beds, and approved several ranges for their comfort and design. We even spent some long minutes just sitting in several of the cozier, quieter living areas, pondering life, and no one shooed us away. This experience must be one of the reasons that makes IKEA so popular.

And yes, as you may be able to tell, I rarely go to IKEA.


The prospect of being able to choose my workplace for the next two years is becoming more and more imminent. I am scared and excited. I am anxious.

I hope I will be strong enough to face what is to come.

For now, I have registered for a preparatory course for my HO stint soon.
I dearly hope that it helps, at least in kick-starting some serious revision, and at most in preparing me for the worst of what's to come.


As for now, I shall continue doing some minute revisions here and there an trying to finish off several more books in my TBR list before my book-reading days are over!

Shopping Under Sleep Deprivation

I daresay I have never shopped for so many clothes online in my entire life until the past 24 hours.

In total, I bought 4 pairs of baju kurung from one shop, then 3 pairs of (the most instant and convenient) tudung and a brooch from two other different sites.  Eek!

One of the sites was Zalora, which promised me a RM 25 discount if I signed up for their newsletter, so I did just that. Only, I didn't read the fineprint which states I needed to spend RM 125 for that discount to be in effect- not until I keyed in the discount code and this statement appeared in glowing red font. Grumbling slightly, I looked for something that could raise my cart total by at least another RM 13, which is also on discount because if I had to spend more it better give me even more savings! The brooch was slightly short of RM 20 and looked appealing, so I chose that and proceeded with my purchase.

When I checked my e-mail for the confirmation, I realized I wrote my postcode wrong.
Bugger me. So I sent them an e-mail lickety-split quoting my order number and the error and correction, and as soon as that was done and sent, I changed the address on my account.

Ugh. I have never written my address wrongly before. Lack of sleep must have engineered this silly blunder.

HAHA.

I must get used to writing stuff perfectly in the most extreme states of sleep deprivation because that will be my life in 2 months!