The Staroba69 ReUnion @60 (V)......

Pakdokter's batch of STAROBA69 ( the batch of pupils who studied at STAR - Sekolah Tuanku Abdula Rahman, Ipoh , who were in Form 5 in 1969) had recently organised the Staroba69 Reunion @ 60 at the Perdana Beach Resort In Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Everyone in the batch would be turning 60 this year - and that was how the gathering got its title.

Pakdokter was supposed to join them on the second day of the Reunion - direct from pakdokter's golf outing in Bali. However due to an urgent issue with pakdokter's visa for a soon-to-be trip to China and the need to sort out the week-old eye problem, pakdokter had to give this ReUnion a miss.

Pakdokter had obtained permission to download the pictures below from pakdokter's batchmates who have posted the pictures on their FB pages so that at least pakdokter will have a pictorial record of that special gathering. Pakdokter's had attended a similar gathering 5 years ago in Shah Alam, Selangor, and pakdokter was told that the next one will be in 2014 in Ipoh.

36 out of a batch of 120....

the guys who stayed in the Blue House hostel block

the Green House gang...

only 4 from Black House..

the biggest contingent from White House?...

The Staroba69 ReUnion @60 (1V)....

yang 'tersengeh' tu is Mat China a.k.a. Mat Majid...

whenever we met the MGS or Convent girls

he would 'jual' pakdokter as a very clever student

always second in the exams.....

because he was always first!........

Sulaiman Latif was pakdokter's dormitory mate from Form Remove in 1964

he made it all the way from Brunei.....

beware of this guy....

look at his 'sinister' smile....

tak bolih caya punya...

Mr Chong Kon Sim was the only non-Bumi in the batch

style dia sekarang macam Lim Kit Siang saja....

yang paling kuat 'kelentong' tu mesti Mat Majid....

tengok Che Boer and Nawi Dul pun sudah kena jual....

his years of selling palm oil for Felda to Saddam Hussein

must have polished his natural skill....

Prof AliYusobMZain is still teaching in Brunei (left)

yang dikanan tu looks like one in

the top ten CIA wanted list....

Chong Kon Sim and his family....

yang di tengah tu 'scholar' dari Yunnan ke.....

The Staroba69 Reunion @60 (111)....

Suhaimi Mat - the local orgainising Chairman..

Baharom Othman and Tg Sidek Ibrahim...

Dr Zainal Abidin Maidunny
ex-chemist with RRI...

dia ni member JI ke or Al-Qaeda....

Md Noor Ismail flew in from Muscat.....

long-lost batch mate, Jumi Md Nor

he was the biggest in class then

tough rugby player and all round sportsman

tapi 'nakai' sikit...

Ir Dzulkarnain

very smooth with the girls from MGS and Convent...

la ni tak tau la....

Che Boer, our head-boy

now a successful medical practitioner in Kajang..

Abdullah Jusoh....

perasan pernah nampak dia 'terguling' atas

jalan masa demonstrasi PAS di Kuala Kangsar hari itu..

some of these guys

masa sekolah dulu pi breakfast pun lambat

nowadays takzirah subuh tak miss....

ada camporgh topik politik tak.....

Wahab Chik sama besaq dengan Jumi now....!

The Staroba69 ReUnion @60 (11)....

STAROBA69 Got Talent Show in Kota Bharu

Suhaimi Mat

a fish-eye view of the Grand Dinner

in the centre is Shaolin Master Teng Koo See Dik....

yang apit dia kiri dan kanan tu semua nya

pahlawan-pahlawan Melayu....

wah! Cikgu Tahiaq bolih nyanyi nu....

dulu 'stressed' by the MGS girls

now nyanyi on stage no problem....

Baharom ni memang selalu dok nyanyi

dalam bathroom di Blue House dulu...

yang ini memang tak di sangka

bakat tercungkil agak lambat sikit....

Akib nyanyi lagi 'cinta' ke?...

The Staroba69 Reunion@60......

STAROBA69 Got Talent Show Bab Kedua...

Suhaimi Mat tengah announce voting results kut....

Anoiar Jalil tu dah tak dak gigi pun bolih nyanyi lagi...?

Alias Shaarani dok dangdut ka...?

depa berdua memang 'romantis'....

Harmain and Md Rom....

lagu puisi la kut.....

budak-budak White House ni

ramai-ramai baghu bolih nyanyi...

Zuklifli Mohamad ni memang berbakat..

masa di karaoke club di Ipoh dulu pakdokter

dah tengok dia memang bolih nyanyi punya...

A Day at the Doctor's........

Pakdokter was having a mild "sticky left eye" when pakdokter left for Bali last week. It was mildly itchy and pakdokter assumed that it was probably an allergic conjunctivitis as the other eye was not affected nor was it passed on to pakdokter's partner. But after one week and upon return from Bali - the left eye was still red and itchy and pakdokter did not want to risk the problem becoming aggravated and causing more serious complications. So pakdokter made a visit to one of the private hospitals near pakdokter's residence.

Approaching the front-desk, pakdokter was impressed by the efficiency and speed at which pakdokter was directed to the available eye-specialist there. Pakdokter only asked for the list of eye-specialists who practised there ( and being one of the more senior and soon-to-retire members of the medical profesion, pakdokter did not recognise any of the names of the specialists who obviously belong to a much younger crop of doctors) and asked to see whoever was immediately available as pakdokter did not want to have to wait too long. Creating the new file for pakdokter took a wee bit of time and the doctor ( who seemed to be wanting to rush somewhere else) saw pakdokter immediately.

He immediately saw that pakdokter had a red eye - directed pakdokter to sit in front of the eye-examining machine - put a drop of red dye into both eyes - and looked at pakdokter's eyes through the other side of the lens of the optical machine. At the same time he asked how long had the eye been red. Then he told pakdokter not to eat prawn and crabs, not to share pakdokter's towel with anyone and not to sleep in the same bed with pakdokter's partner. He said he will give pakdokter an eye ointment to be applied twice a day for 10 days and a little bottle of eye-drops to be applied 4 to 5 times a day for the next 10 days. By the time this finished pakdokter's newly created file came in and he scribbled his notes and prescriptions and charges for his nurse to complete the remaining instructions.

Pakdokter took the chance to ask him whether it was an allergic conjunctivitis ( since he asked pakdokter not to eat prawns and crabs which happened to be one of pakdokter's many favourite foods) - he said no but it was a viral conjunctivitis and quite likely to affect the other eye also and can spread to others. And he said he had been seeing quite a bit of these cases lately especially after the recent outbreak of 'haze' from the spell of hot weather recently. With that he quickly walked out to his next destination and told pakdokter that pakdokter need not come back for a follow-up.

This whole contact, to pakdokter's estimate - was not more than 5 minutes at the most. Waiting for the prescriptions and the bill at the counter took about 30 minutes and walking to the pharmacy and waiting to be given the prescriptions took another 15 minutes.

And it cost pakdokter RM210 - RM130 for the consultation fees and RM80 for the medicines.

Pakdokter had been lucky with an almost 60 years of good health. Pakdokter, in all his life, had rarely gone to the doctor and being a doctor and being married to one also helped. Many of the more common medical conditions which pakdokter came down with were self-managed.

This blog posting was written as an observation of what a patient had to go through and how ( at least in this case) the staff attending to patients treated the patient, and this is also pakdokter's thoughts and feelings about it. It is also an observation of how things have changed over time......

1. This private hospital has ample cark-park so parking was not a problem unlike another hospital which pakdokter had gone to some time ago. The front desk reception was efficient and gave good clear answers and directions to pakdokter's requests. Filling up the form to open a new file was easy and quick - perhaps because pakdokter knew what to fill in and the fact that no insurance claims forms need to be filled in and no insurance eligibility need to be checked out also helped.

2. But pakdokter must say that the doctor-patient contact could have been much better. Pakdokter did not expect the doctor to give pakdokter more of his precious time but how pakdokter had wished that he had explained a little more of what pakdokter was suffering from. No effort was made to tell pakdokter how to apply the cream into pakdokter's eyes etc and probably pakdokter did not look clever enough for him to explain what pakdokter was suffering from except to say it was not an allergic reaction and even that was a response from pakdokter's reflex questioning upon his advise not to eat crabs and prawns.

3. And medical fees have really sky-rocketed from the days pakdokter left medical school 34 years ago! Then for a problem like this one would probably get an almost similar treatment for RM20 to RM30 at the GP clinic and a visit to the Eye Specialist would at most probably cost at most RM100. Pakdokter wonders how people afford medical cost these days.

4. The pharmacists, have for years, been clamouring for their rights to be allowed to prescribe and dispense medicines to the patients as they are rightly trained to do so. As pakdokter got very little information from pakdokter's doctor as to how to apply the ointments and drops, perhaps, pakdokter hoped, the white-coated pharmacists would do a better job. Perhaps pakdokter was expecting too much from this private hospital - the pharmacist merely dished out the prescription and read out instructions as printed out on the box. Maybe she thought pakdokter could not read!

Yes, things have changed greatly in pakdokter's profession......

Cafe Bali at Seminyak...

We went back to Seminyak on the final night - and checked out Cafe Bali - which pakdokter had noticed while driving down the main street of Seminyak the previous two nights. Pakdokter was attracted to it from thefull-house crowd that filled up the outfit as well as its 'interesting' looks.

The restaurant's patrons were mostly if not completely Ozzies. In fact the construct and decor of the restaurant itself reminded pakdokter of some of the old townhouses along the streets of Melbourne.

As for the food - well pakdokter would rate them at best just average.