Biking in the City (Part 2)

Wew! I got lazy and almost decided to throw this whole blogging stint completely into the bin.  It's been a while, I've been busy lately (sorta..busybusyhan?).

Should I continue this "Biking in the City" story.  I kinda lost the momentum. Nyahaha!!  I'll just make this short just to bring this to an end.  So as I was saying...

I drove down the hill to the main road of V. Rama.  It was indeed scary to ride along with all the jeeps, cars and big trucks that you have to compete with for a share of the road add to the fact that I had to ride with a flat tire!  I was self-conscious the whole while.  I feel paranoid when people stare at me as if they were thinking and snickering "What the hell is she doing?","Does she even know how to bike?","Pffft..such a noob!","What is she doing with a flat tire?", "Is she committing suicide?".  Yah! I know, I am a pessimist like that but somehow it was overshadowed by my wanting to brave the city road.

I had a lot of bloopers!!!Super!!

1. When I had to cross the street, I had to step down (is there such a term?) from my bike and like carry or drag (?) it to cross the street.  Yeah! I looked lame and pathetic.  What?! I was too terrified to do it while riding the bike.  Drivers here are so not forgiving I tell you (well, mostly).  I had a mini nervous breakdown when I had to cross from Lola Eat to the other side of the road and it was a very wide road, mind you and there were no traffic lights there or even just a simple pedestrian lane. Gosh! As I attempted  the most death defying stunt I had ever had in my dear life, my legs were trembling but of course I tried to not show it in my expression.  So, as I was able to cross the first half of the road, I got stuck at the middle of since the rides on the second half of the road DID NOT GIVE THEIR WAY TO POOR LITTLE ME!  As I was standing at the middle of the road, with all the cars going fast and furious on both sides of the road, I thought of backing out.  Good thing this driver of one humongous cargo truck stopped and gave me way to cross.  Perhaps he was cautious he might squash me to the ground.  Thanks man!

How I wish there would even be a bike lane here.

2. I decided to take the short route which is the road behind the 7eleven to Lola Eats.  However, I forgot to note that the exit way from 7eleven was barricaded with chains.  I would lose face from all the onlookers there if I would retreat.  So I tried to loosen the chains to no avail.  So I just summoned all my chakra and  lifted the bike to be able to pass over the chain.

Keep cool.  Keep calm.

3. The funniest thing is that the one that almost hit me was not a car, not a jeep but a fellow biker and as I was almost near CDUH, I got all giddy and exited that my legs just collapsed.  Come on legs! Just when were almost at the finish line that you had to betray me.  I was lucky no one saw my pathetic fall. Teehee.

Mama be like...

4. I did not know how to bring down the stand of the bike so the guard at CDUH assisted me in doing so.  Kuya knows better than the actual owner of the bike.  What the heck! I feel so ashamed at that time.

5. When I was already on my way home, I was so exhausted that I just dragged my bike from an area in Guadalupe to home.

That was quite a long post for what was supposedly a short, quickie follow through.

So here is the route that I took on the way to CDUH.

And this is the route on the way home.  I did not disclose the exact end of this route for safety purposes (as if anyone is reading this..haha..feelingera lang?)

And that's how the epic journey ended!

Biking in the City (Part 1)

Something awesome just happened today that I just have to share it!

I braved the City road biking! Say whaaaaaaaaaat!!!

So here's how my day rolled:

The shift at the lab just went at its usual monotonous routine.  Release results.  Process specimen.  Deal with people sometimes. Eat.  Process specimen once more.  Stain slides.  You know, just the usual (we did had a meeting though with our head, which still did not count as an awesome thing..oops!).

Then my shift ended (hurray!).  So as I was walking my way home (yah, I hike home from work sometimes and yah I had to lay it out and brag), I thought of recounting my biking skills.  It's been a long time since I rode a bike.  We do have a bike that's been gathering dust and rusting in the garage of an unoccupied house beside ours (teehee..freeloading since our garage now acts as laundry area/dishwashing area/cooking area/area-where-we-hang-and-dry-clothes..yep it is an area for everything other than an area to park vehicles..lol).

Anyhoo, where were we? I got lost with the garage thing.  Bike, right? So yah!  The bike we have is a nifty one.  It's like the ones you see school girls and boys ride in anime/manga with the basket in front and everything.

The only problem is..it is too high for me.  I knew how to bike when I was a kid and I started with the ones with small, thick wheels and I did not progress from that.  I was too scared to try the big stuff, you know, like the mountain bikes with the big, thin wheels, high seat and all that stuff.  It is too hard for me to balance and I am too scared and thus never dared attempt to try and get used to it.  The bike we have here is some sort of a variant of the mountain bike, it has big and thin wheels but it is a "kinder" looking one.  I already asked papa to lower the seat but I still have trouble reaching it.

I don't know what entered me.  Out of the blue, I decided to practice biking.  At first I was hesitant.  I don't even have an idea how to unscrew the stand of the damn thing for Christ sake.  When I finally figured out the whole contraption, the next problem was balancing.  After a few minutes of struggling, I already got a hang of it.  Imagine, after all those years of being scared and doubting myself to ever learn how to ride the big guns..all those doubts have been debunked just because of minutes of impulsive courage.  I started circling the vicinity of our subdivision and then I got bored.  I thought of going outside to explore the neighboring subdivision which was bigger but the guard blocked me and said "Dili ka pede magduwaduwa diri dai..private property ni" (boohoo!).

So I went back to our little subdivision.  Then I saw my brother and he said that he was going to buy some grocery and adamantly asked for my share.  That's when I remembered that I left the Hungarian hotdogs or some sort that I bought that day from my coworker (Hello Miss Betty!) at the lab.  It was placed inside the ref and not the freezer so I thought that I have to get it lest it would spoil.  I gave P200 to my brother reasoning out that I had some hotdogs left at the hospital and that should be added to my share (yah I'm cheap and Scrooge-like).  I told him I was going to get it biking my way to the hospital.  And he said Noooooooooooooo!!!  Grace, our household help, added that the front wheel of the bike was flat (and yes, it was indeed flat).  They both agreed that it was too dangerous for me to ride the bike in the city streets.  So I said alright with a heavy sigh.

But, I thought "If not now, when? "(chooos!!sounds like a cheesy welga line ayt?).  I keep convincing myself that I have to get the hotdogs.  The whole moment was like a sign from heaven.  Why did I leave the hotdogs at the lab stupidly?  Why did I decide to practice biking at the spur-of-the-moment?  Why did our food supply at home run out?  Everything fitted perfectly!  I had to get the hotdogs!

-to be continued-

        

It's a TB Life!

We process our specimen for TB culture and sensi using generally the BD BBL MGIT System.

Honestly, it's quite burdensome in a way especially that the printer is technically rendered useless since it does not have any ink for quite some time(in fact almost a year already), and so it is difficult for us to determine the time of growth(sigh) add to the fact that the cumbersome procedure is difficult to schedule and designate since we so lack staff in the lab right now.

Excuse my ramblings..*swoosh*.....Now to the point of this post...

Since the task of reporting positive growths and processing sensitivity tests now falls on my shoulders, I had to review and study the whole procedure.  With that, I thought of leaving the notes I made here (teehee).  I hope this would be useful to anyone who may bump into this humble blog of mine.  Cheerio!

LINK TO PDF FILE OF TB CULTURE AND SENSITIVITY

Impulsive Buyer

So, I was just randomly browsing some books at Booksale Robinson when I happened to come across a medical book of some sort.

Principles of Anatomy and Physiology 13th ed(hardcover) 

by Tortora & Derrickson

Something inside me urged me-self to buy the book.  Was it a calling that I should proceed with Medicine? Or was it just a simple case of impulsive buying?

I was attracted by its smooth hardbound cover, its colorful images in its immaculately glossy paper and a reasonable price to top it off.

Revel in its glossy texture!

Bakit baliktad? lol ..See, it has colorful illustrations ayt?

Maybe I was just a tiny bit frustrated on not proceeding with medicine.  I am not really sure, actually. I generally did not buy any reference books and relied more on hand-outs when I was just a medical technology student but survive anyhow(hambugera), then why buy now when I am no way a student no more?

Anyhoo, anyone interested with this magnificent reference material I got here? (haha..ibaligya ra diay gihapon).  It's still in good condition though, slightly crumpled on the top of some pages, no writings, highlights or whatsoever.

>Selling it for 1 kyaw! (P 1,000.00).  It's already a steal for you save 50% considering the average selling price of the used book!

Amazon is selling it at $221.05 (around P9,800).  For used books, selling price averages $47.67 ( around P2,100).

>I'll throw in this WONDERFUL ATLAS as a bonus! (Haha, parang tv homeshopping lang kung maka "I'll throw in as a bonus".)

The title page.

 

Just a few teaser pages of the atlas.  Cool right?

Calling all Med, MedTech, PT students based here in Cebu! This book is definitely for you!  Grab it while stocks last(as if..hahaha).  Seriously, holler me when you're interested.=D

PAHABOL: I also bought this cute book just in time for Father's Day.  I don't usually buy gifts for my parents.  It was just that day that I got the feel of buying stuff.  Impulsive buying?  I guess so. Anyhoo, I hope papa likes it somehow.

It's the thought that counts right?