Who First Gave? (14)

Part VI. Abducens nerve

Don't hold things too tightly

A

I've already mentioned how I was blessed with a $15 per month rebate because someone decided to buy my mobile broadband modem. And how a researcher contacted me for a project where I was paid $37.50 per hour. Ooh, but that's not all.

Let's talk about food.

• During the fasting month, plenty of iftar's (breaking fast at sunset) were held. I love the sweet baklava.
• Our stage props team boss treated us to brunch one fine Saturday morning.
• My archi friend treated me to some delicious cakes just before he left Aus.
• Another archi friend treated me Vietnamese food in Richmond.
• A 3rd archi friend treated me with lamb kebab. Tells you something about my archi friends, eh?
• A friend (non-archi this time) treated me curry noodles. Nice.
• Two free pizzas during Uni Open Day week (pooled 3 vouchers).
  
• Free food in the GPCE (General Practitioners' Conference & Exhibition).

Apart from food:

• My rent was supposed to go up by $100 per month. Then we found this place that's $30 cheaper. In effect, that's minus $130 monthly.
• Cash rate recently went up by 0.50 points in 2 consecutive months. That means more income from my savings!
• Very cheap flight tickets (KL > KK | KK > KL | KL > Melb). Only Melb > KL was a bit expensive. But that's in return for lab work experience!
  

And the invaluable:

• Basically these are opportunities that come in an unpredictable manner. Like the visit to the RACS (Royal Australasian College of Surgeons), where I "did" laparoscopic (keyhole) surgery on a plastic model.
• Staying with several housemates gave me access to Clinical Medicine (Kumar & Clark), Pathologic Basis of Disease (Robbins & Cotran) and Pharmacology (Rang & Dale).
  
• Learning western blot, cell culture and ELISA at Howard Florey.

B

Hence I live out the life of giving. Time, money, energy and opportunity. Like KidShapers Conference, blood donation to Red Cross, Mei Ling's song, PlanetUni stage props team, and church guest services team.

For who first gave, if not him?

Picture credit: origins-photography.co.uk