emptiness...

lately, i've been feeling... umm... how to put it into words? listless should be a close enough word, i guess...

why? i don't know...

i just fail to see the meaning in the things i do everyday... at work or at home. i don't even find pleasure in music anymore. it's as if something's been stolen from me, or is simply missing.

i need a change. i need to find back that something to make me whole again.

i need to find what that something is...

Terry Fox Run 2009

missed last year's run... y ar? forgot y i missed it... but this year, i'll be running (if all goes well lar...)

here's the official announcement...

Terry Fox Run KL 2009


Sunday
1 November 2009
Flag off @ 9.00 a.m.
Taman Tasik Perdana
(Lake Gardens)

Rules & Regulations:
- All participants must run on the designated route
- For wheelchair bound and physically challenged participants, please note that there are slopes along the run route
- Participants are to be at the assembly area by 8.45 a.m.

Parking:
Limited parking is available on site, and public transport is recommended

Notice:
The organisers, their agent, representatives, successors and assigns, are not liable for any injuries suffered, damage and loss of properties by participants at this event.

Information

On the Road of Hope for Cancer Research
Terry Fox knew personally, the importance of the need for cancer research. At the age of 18, he was told that his right leg had to be amputated above the knee as a result of bone cancer. During this crucial period, Terry saw the intense pain and despair of other cancer victims and was deeply moved. In order to raise funds for cancer research, he decided to run across Canada asking for donations. This became "The Marathon of Hope". Terry Fox died before he could complete his crusade, but his legacy is carried in the hearts of all who participate or donate to the Terry Fox Run each year around the world.

How the Marathon of Hope began:
Since it began in 1983, the Terry Fox Run has become the largest, single-day, fund-raising event for cancer research. Here in KL, the organisers aim to continue the quest to keep Terry's dream alive. This year, with the support of sponsors and participants, we hope to raise both funds and awareness for cancer research here in Kuala Lumpur. The beneficiary in previous years and this year as well in the Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation (CARIF). You too, can take up the quest so that Terry's dream of finding a cure for cancer can become a reality.

If you would like to volunteer
Or
If you need more information

Please contact:
Ms Yoon / Mr Peter Kang, CARIF, 2nd Floor, OPC, Sime Darby Medical Centre, T: 56391874

Or email us at:
organizer@terryfoxrunkl.org

Departures (おくりびと)

me: N, this movie highly recommended by M. she said very good wor...
N: oh? what is it about?
me: it's abt a cellist who became jobless when the orchestra he was playing for in tokyo was disbanded. so he moved back to his hometown with his wife. one day, he came across a recruitment ad and he mistook it for a travel agent. it was only when he went for his interview that he realized that it was actually a company offering "encoffinment services" to the deceased. due to the high pay, he decided to try the job out. and even though his family and friends are strongly against him doing this 'filthy' job, he realized that this is actually a form of art in itself and found gratification in the process of assisting the deceased in their transition to the 'other side'.
N: so... what has this movie got to do with cello?
me: nothing lar...
N: but u stressed on the word "cellist" right from the beginning wor!
me: hehe... just to grab your attention mar...
N: =_='''

-------------

hehe... actually, there are some parts with the main actor playing the cello lar. not entirely cello-free... and the song is very nice! of course lar... composed by joe hisaishi mar! keke...

anyway, this movie really opens up our eyes to the ceremony of cleansing the corpse before resting it into the coffin. i find this part about the japanese culture very beautiful. the whole family will be present during the cleansing, and the noukanshi (encoffiner) performs the rite in a graceful and respectful manner, with measured movements and and expertise.

this is so different from the chinese culture, where it's considered bad luck (or whatever) to look at our deceased family members going through this process.

the movie also portrayed the protagonist's journey from being grossed out by the thoughts of handling a corpse to his full understanding and acceptance that death is just another part of life.

there is nothing gory or scary about this movie. on the contrary, the whole movie was filmed beautifully, with deep respects for the dignity and soul of the departed and their family.

for those who've not watched it, go catch it! but be warned... you'll need at least one packet of tissue with u! :)

visit the official english website here.



read also:
1) movie: 10 promises to my dog
2) august rush

St. John Ambulance Wilderness 1st Aid Level 1 - Day 2

the next morning dawned wet and cold, coz it rained at about 4am. when it first rained, i heard it first rather than felt it coz i was sleeping in the roofed section of the long house, with the hood of my sleeping bag pulled down low until only my nose was poking out... so that was why i thought we're safe from the rain... until i heard the gal next to me dragging her mattress to the wall-end of the roofed section. on her own! she just left me there! hmm... she must be thinking i'm some weird gal who reads by the light of my headlamp at night and was glad to get away from me! hehe...

it was still drizzling slightly when we woke up at 7am...

to the mess area for some hot coffee... and hopefully can beg a few
pieces of bread from some of the members, coz i didn't bring any food!

view of the long house from the mess... "borrowed" this pic
from one of the members from facebook... good shot, huh?

i found another use for my triangular bandage, when i realized that i forgot to bring a belt
for my loose shorts! hehe... see, i even applied the reef knot i learnt the night before!

after breakfast, it's theory again... i think by now, most of us were
really tired and worn-out, so everyone was just struggling to stay awake!

then we were mercifully woken up from our stupor to do these exercises...
no lar, actually we were practicing the various signals to the helicopter
in cases of evacuation by air. i think we're gonna fail if we were tested on this! :P

in the 2nd half of the morning, we had another mock rescue. this time really into the jungle, and more real! this is another "borrowed" photo... coz all the team members were quite serious in this mock exercise, unlike the night before!

our 'victim' slipped and fell, and had a compound fracture on her right knee. we had to make a make-shift stretcher from scratch to bring the casualty out from the hutan. in situations like this, we need to just patch them up and evacuate them as soon as possible... never try to wash or treat the wounds!

the first team to bring the casualty out! but we had
the worst stretcher! hehehe... well, good lesson learnt!

the wound looked so real! not sure if can see from this pic, but
they even made it look like the bone is jutting out from her knee!

gorry sight, right? in real-life situations, we're not supposed to flinch or go "yucks" or "OMG!" at such sights, because it will cause more distress to the victim. this is another use for the ring bandage, or "donut"...

this team found a creative way to inform the hospital on their
findings... by scribbling on the leg of the victim with the marker pen!

debriefing... demonstrating on the do's and don'ts...

the coordinator demonstrating how to fashion a make-shift stretcher from scratch... but actually, this was what my team did and it got criticized by the very same coordinator! just that my team's was a bit on the short side... hmm...

after lunch, we were shown the 3 rescue methods with abseiling...
method 1: a person stuck halfway up or down

we walk towards them slowly, and just before we're within the victim's reach, we
should stop and explain to them what we are going to do and what we want them to do.
this is to prevent the victim from grabbing us in a fit of panic and bring us both tumbling down like humpty-dumpty!

method 2: a person injured and can't possibly
abseil down him/herself... so we use piggy back lar...

method 3: carrying a casualty down on the spine board

as it was getting pretty late, we didn't get the chance to abseil down... had to go down the way we came up... i think this section of the course took too long a time. the coordinator was a bit slow in figuring out how to tie the various knots, and then trying to explain a lot of things to us in a short period of time... i think if i'm faced with a situation like this, i won't be able to do it!

lastly, we were taught the heimlich maneuver. when we see a person choking, we must first ask permission to help! then go stand behind the person, spread his/her legs a bit and stand in the forward stance with one leg in between the victim's legs. this is so that in case the victim collapses, we will have a firm stance to catch their fall and not fall together with them. next we push the victim's hands up and out of the way, coz if not, it'll be a bit 'chor-teng' (canto: "take up space" or "in the way") for us to perform the maneuver...

with one hand, find the victim's navel and put 2 fingers above it. then with the other hand, make a fist with the thumb tucked in (means the other 4 fingers covering the thumb lar) and place it above the 2 fingers just now. and then just push in in an upward motion, HARD! keep pushing, until:
1. the foreign object falls out
or
2. the victim collapse. then proceed with cpr!

our turn to try it, but not really pushing in hard lar... just to get a feel of how
it's done. N, i hold u partially responsible for putting me in this situation! >:(

our final lesson is the recovery position. 1. put one of the victim's hands up in a "hello" position

2. bend the victim's knee (the leg opposite to the raised hand) and cross it over the other knee

3. bring the victim's other hand over to the cheek, palm out

4. slowly roll the victim over onto his/her side, with his/her hand pillowing his/her cheek

5. slowly adjust the head in the 'head tilt chin lift' position to clear the airways and ease breathing

6. pat the victim gently and sing a lullaby... ok, not really!
this is also the recovery position for fits victims, after the seizure has stopped

and we're done! one group photo before we go!

on the way back, we saw a bad accident on the karak highway. we actually saw the bus swaying and swerving in front of us thru a bad jam! at first we thought the bus just failed to break in time due to the speed it was traveling in, but later we learnt that the bus's breaks had actually given way!

minutes after we saw it swaying and swerving in the emergency lane, we came to the accident scene. the bus had finally managed to stop after crashing into a lorry, an avanza and another bus. the avanza was turned turtle and it seemed pretty bad, but my carpool and i did not stop to help, even tho' we've just gone thru 1st aid training! :P coz there were a lot of other cars stopping at the shoulder already, and we did not want to contribute further to the jam! anyway, the newspapers reported the next day that thankfully no lives were lost...

St. John Ambulance Wilderness 1st Aid Level 1 - Day 1

last weekend, i joined the St. John Ambulance Wilderness 1st Aid (Level 1) course, organised by Malaysian Outdoor Trekking Hiking society (MOTHs). this is my first time joining a MOTHs event, and i should say they're an interesting and fun bunch of ppl...

this course is a 2D 1N thing, held at Awana Genting Long House. i think few ppl knew that awana genting has a camp site and long house tucked within its grounds. my previous company used to do seminars there at least once a month and i've been there more than 4 times, but i didn't know abt this little bit of info!

anyway, the event was scheduled to start at 8am and we were supposed to meet at 7am for breakfast at a mamak shop in gohtong jaya... so that means my carpool ride had to come get me at 6am, which means i need to be up latest by 5.15am!

but i had so many things to do the previous night, that i only managed to start packing at 1am... dilly dally a bit, this and that, and i only went to bed at 3am!!! so basically i only had 2 hrs plus of sleep... haiz... i really need to plan my time better, especially on the night before i'm to go on trips!

anyway, we made it to the ratha restaurant right on time, at 7am, and i get to meet most of the participants. some are first timers like me, but most of them knew each other from other MOTHs events before this...

after breakfast, we made our way into the 'jungle part' of awana genting, where the long house and camp site is.

going into the hutan...

we were a convoy of abt 20 cars that day...

finally caught sight of the long house...

the open balcony where some of the participants slept at night,
but not me. i slept at the roofed section in my sleeping bag...

preparing the place to begin our 1st aid theory...

ice-breaking session... we were supposed to intro our own name, and then call out all the names of the persons standing before us. eg. "hi, i'm C, and i met A and B at awana genting long house." i was unfortunate enough to be standing after a guy called Trip, short of Triptipal. the guy before him was Vegee (i know, weird name). so after a while, the 3 of us became "Vegee strip Sue"... =_='''

our handouts... look how thick it is!! *sweat*

practical session. this is how we do the "head tilt chin lift"

2 fingers under the jawline to push up, and the "karate chop"
on the forehead to push down. this is to clear the airways...

our turn to do the cpr... always remember dr abc.
D = check for danger before approaching the victim

R = check for response
"hello sir, r u ok?!" while tapping the shoulders firmly

ask for help. "excuse me miss, pls call 999 for ambulance! and get back to me pls..."

A = clear the airway by doing the 'head tilt, chin lift' and 'listen, look and feel' for any breathing...

B = breathing. give 2 blows, making sure our mouths cover the victim's mouth completely to prevent air from escaping, while pinching the victim's nose (the reason for making the 'karate chop' on the forehead during 'head tilt, chin lift' - so that we can just reach down to pinch the nose while our palms are still pressing onto the victim's forehead), and look for the rising and falling of the chest...

after 2 blows, check again for response...

C = circulation. place one palm on the sternum (at the middle of the nipple line),
the other palm on top in a finger lock and compress down with elbows straight.
and no, we don't need to smile... hehe...
my cameraman: "still can smile some more! the victim die oredi lar wei!"

do 30 compressions to the beat of ABBA's "Staying Alive" (i'm not joking!)

after 30 compressions, give another 2 mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. this is considered 1 round. we need to do 5 rounds of this before stopping to check for response again. if still no response, do another 5 rounds of 30 compresisons + 2 blows... continue until help arrives or we collapse from exhaustion, whichever comes first!

after that, we broke for lunch. some participants stayed back to do their own cooking in true camping style over a bonfire. the rest of us drove out to gohtong jaya for some restaurant food...

after lunch was theory session... all the way to dinner. so can imagine the tortured-lack-of-sleep state i was in! i was just struggling to keep my eyes open and focus on what the coordinators were saying...

after dinner, we had some practical sessions...
here, we're taught to do the different kinds of bandages...

this is called the ring bandage, or 'donut'

ring bandages can be used for knife stabs if the knife is still sticking to the wound...

here we're learning to do the reef knot...

this is an arm sling...

the arm sling i did on my partner... nice ler? (the arm sling, not the partner!)

this is an elevation sling, mainly used for broken colar bones or shoulder blades...

my elevation sling...

we also learnt how to move a victim onto a stretcher... my job here
is to push in the stretcher after the guys have lifted up the 'victim'

how to immobilize the neck... always assume a neck
or spine injury when a victim has fallen from a high place!

we were introduced to 2 way radio as well...

later that night, we had a mock night rescue exercise... here we're getting ready to go out into the jungle after receiving a 'distress call'. we're not supposed to be this happy in actual cases... hehe...

our 'victim' had fallen from a tree (god knows what's he doing up there in the
dead of the night!), so we had to use the spineboard, instead of the normal stretcher...

getting ready to strap the 'victim' onto the spineboard and get him out of the hutan...

debriefing... basically discussion on what we've done right and wrong, what we shouldn've done etc...

after that, we took our bath and rolled out our sleeping bags! it's been a long and tiring day... *yawn*