Had my first day duty today after a 3-days off and Mondays were not as busy as Saturdays in the hospital but still went through gruelling 8-hour duty. With no breakfast, headed to ICU and 1st hour was urgh! Freakin' toxic! (That's the term we use when we're busy at work!). The usual morning routine was doctors, in plural form, rounds- all specialists, consultants, residents, anesthetists, name it and they will come to see patients and do nothing but ask the nurse tons of questions. So the challenge here is for the nurse to memorize everything in the patient's chart - assessment, medications, laboratory results, latest vital signs, and don't ever miss out the seem-like the most important of all - urine output for the last 24 hours. Duh?......Ok, justified! My patient has renal impairment so asking me the total output makes sense! Needless to say, I survived! Just in the nick of time, polished off my nurses' notes, carried out all doctor's orders and sent all laboratory exams, medicated patient, did afternoon all bedside care and off I rushed to go home after munching on my Big Mac for both breakfast and lunch, all in one. Tired, I straightway went to bed after checking on my FB account with nothing exciting so for the first time after 2 weeks, had a nap after my duty. But my deep slumber was interrupted with a loud noise coming from outside my room. Some inconsiderate homo sapiens just can't have a little common sense! So what I did was to put on my MP4 at its loudest and never went back to sleep, but well of course, no normal human being can sleep with full blast music on the ear!
Inah, my roommate, has her off duty today and never went out our room since she woke up (well, maybe she did when she took a bath and used the bathroom) but never really spent a "real day off" today. That's when we decided for a walk at Corniche, Dammam, a great walking /jogging track alongside the Arabian Gulf. I was thinking like, it was a good idea since I cancelled all my dates today because I was "tired". And so we dressed up for a walk, called up a friend to drive us to the beach but the gruelling stomach kept me uneasy. We decided to drop by at Starbucks for a cold frap, chocolate chip cream flavored with cheese croissant for me and blueberry muffin for her. "To go". That's how they call it for "take out" here. With these foodies on hand, we walked through Corniche from 6:45pm to 7:30pm. I personally enjoyed lots of things during this awesome activity.
First, it was a break from my usual dining in dates. For those who follow me with FB, you probably are envious of my resto adventures hahaha. Sure, I will make a blog of all my dine in galore. Soon. But this unplanned activity I had with Inah is one thing I enjoyed the most.
Second, I sure loved to shed off the excess fat. with that 45-minute walk? I should have shed off hhmmm, 200 calories the least? Oops, did I? With the choco frap and croissant? Well, never mind, the most imporatant is that, I had this little exercise. Haven't done this for the last 6 months.
Third, bonding with Inah is also a different story. I've been going out with Rushelle and Aizza most of the time, but Inah, being on an evening (3-11pm) shift and me, on morning (7am-3pm) shift never really got the time to talk and "bond" the way we did the past months. So this walk was something memorable.
Fourth, taking time to enjoy and appreciate nature is another reason. Malling was my kind of thing and going out to see the beach and walk through its shore, even at nighttime gave me the opportunity to once again reconnect with mother nature. Nothing beats the natural beauty of this world we live in.
And so, I had fun! It was a stress-free afternoon. I was relaxed! No boys, no mega spending, no worldly pleasure - just plain fun! For me, it was an Arabian night walk to remember. I thank Inah for her time and sharing the same interest with me today, a Monday.
How we end up? Another 1 hour walk at Marina Mall, adjacent to Corniche. After all, we're girls who have vanity at times. :)
Corniche, Dammam, KSA
