31st May 1959 - This was the kind of stove we had when we moved to Rua Simpatia, 42, on 16 December 1960. That was the first time ever we had a gas stove. Up to that time Mother used to cut wood with an ax and set fire to it in our red cement stove.
Thursday, 22 November 2018
Sunday, 8 July 2018
Another one bites the dust... Bilú.
Bilú was a tiny Siamese kitten when was adopted by Lucas & João in early 2015. Soon he became a healthy good looking cat. He had a mind of his own and used to sleep over at an abandoned house on the same block...
Last week, Bilú showed up a little run down. In less than a week Bilú's health deteriorated alarmingly fast... Bilú died on 7 July 2018. God rest his soul. He'll be sorely missed.
Bilú photographed some 4 weeks ago just in the nick of time... a few weeks later he would come down with a fatal disease.
Monday, 11 June 2018
A normal day at RPAH's Anatomical Pathology
Kathy at her microtome.
Robyn Soper pauses for the camera...
Mickey & a mate of his at the Post Morten room.
Peace & harmony prevails at the office; from left to right: Linda, Sandra & Maureen.
Dr. Tatiana Jelihovsky being granted a Certificate of Appreciation 1954-2000.
Luiz Amorim ready to start filing slides away...
Linda Quinlan with Professor McGovern's portrait on the wall...
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital as it was in 1988... a flame tree in the foreground and a piece of masonry marked 1881 left over from the old pavillion whose columns were left over as a reminder of its grandeur... When I visited RPAH 30 years later in 2018, I realized with sadness that those columns were no more...
Luiz Amorim on the top floor of Gloucester House bldg. in 1988.
Gabriel & Miss Clarice Solway chat during a Christmas party (probably 1988).
I started working at the Histology Department of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in late September 1981. From the very first day I realized I had been lucky to have got that Technical Aide position. I had been advised by Edson Pinho Rosa as soon as Myself and Silvio Theodore arrived in Sydney, we should look for a job as a Technical Aide, which was routinely advertised at The Sydney Morning Herald. Silvio & I applied for the Technical Aide-position together but Silvio was the one chosen to start working. Silvio, who had already started working as an orderly at Saint Vincent's Hospital suggested instead of ringing them and telling them he was not interested in the position any longer we should both go to RPAH's in person and tell them personally he was out but I was still very much interested. Sari, who interviewed Silvio with Myself on the side, looked at me and said she'd be alright with this arrangement but she had to go and ask Professor Ng across the corridor for his opinion. Sari soon came back and said I could start working on Monday morning.
I have worked with health-related jobs ever since I was 12 years old, in 1961, when I was hired as boy washer of dirty phials in a small laboratory on rua Theodoro Sampaio, in Pinheiros. I acted as a nurse at the Brazilian Army, and now in late 1981 I was going back to the Health Industry again. I was most content with my position. I thought everyone was friendly and matter-of-fact.
I did small jobs like filling a trolley with 1 gallon glass bottles, go down the lift from the 7th to the 4th floor, fill all bottles with distilled water and take them back to the histology lab which was the centre of the Anatomical Patology department on the top floor of the Fairfax building, the mid-floor being occupied by the Gastro-Enterology department.
The main lab which looked over Missenden Road, Camperdown, had benches all around it, with about 6 girls (or ladies) working on microtomes most of the time except 15 minutes after 10:00 am for tea break and 12:00 for a quick lunch that most of them ate in the lab itself for there was no tea-room as yet.
Sooner than later, I fell into a routine in the daily life of the lab doing things without having to be asked for. I would visit the operating theatres of King George V, across the Missenden Road - there was a tunnel underground that orderlies and caterers used to go from one hospital to the other. Coming from the Fairfax Building one would turn left to ....... and right to King George V. The biggest of them all was the RPAH's Operating Theatre down next to the chapel. I visited these 3 operating theatres 3 times a day. First at 7:00 o'clock when I arrived, then before lunch at 12:00 and finally at 3:00 pm a little before I left to go home.
The morning period was the most interesting in the lab. Doctors and all sorts of people like clerical staff and technical aides from other departments came and went. There was a particular older gentleman from Scottland who was known by the name of Scotty, who was flamboyant and talked to everyone. Scotty was a riot. As soon as he showed up in the lab the noise level went up considerably. Scotty was soon to be retired for he was in his late 60s. All he did was talk about his looming retirement when he finally could fly to Japan and live there as he saw fit. He was fond of Japanese boys and usually spent his holidays in Japan. He used to be friendly to me and say 'coochy coochy' which I thought it was Japanese but it has other meanings in English. Scotty was popular with some people and not-so popular with others. There was a blonde girl called Lynn, who worked on her microtone diligently and was very matter of fact didn't care much for Scotty; he referred to her as 'that woman'! Scotty finally got his retirement sometime in 1982, and Bobby Sellers, took his place at the Media Room on the 4th floor, which was actually underground.
Thursday, 31 May 2018
Anatomical Pathology 1989 Christmas party - RPAH
Silvana Adioska & her son; Paul & Sandra Winstanley.
Silvana gets her present from Santa in person...
Anthony gets his due from Santa...
from left to right: Santa, Neville (PM), Ina (from the media room), Pam (Cytology) & Greg (media).
Saturday, 12 May 2018
RPAH's Anatomical Pathology 1984 Xmas Party
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital's Department of Anatomical Pathology formerly known as Histopathology Dept. had a Christmas party every year. Everyone contributed a little for the event. Dr. Jelihovsky never failed to bring a few branches of holly from her own garden; Dr. McCarthy usually brought a whole case of cherries; the secretaries would help with decoration etc.
By Xmas 1984, the Gastroenterology Ward had moved out of the Fairfax Building to the brand-new 10-story main RPA building so Anatomic Pathology could expand into what used to be a patient's area on the 7th floor.
These photos were taken on what used to be the Gastroenterology Ward.
from left to right: Dr. Tanya Jelivohsky (in a blue dress); Lipinska (partially hidden by the roses) & Debbie (sitting down); Luiz (centre); Silvana (?); Professor Alan Ng & Unidentified ash blonde.
from l. to r.: ...., ...., Helen Hoffman; Lipinska, Debbie & Luiz (sitting down); Dr. Jelihovsky; Miss Claris Solway from RPAH Archives.
right: Maureen looks at the camera, Lalitha Gupita looks at Dr. Brian Ronthal while Debbie chats away in the background: left: Dr. ? talks to Dr. Patricia while Anthony, Sue & Ted Will help themselves.
Around the world as a medical professor
article written by Harriet Veitch
for The Sydney Morning Herald
26 December 2008 at 11.00 am
Over the years Professor Alan Ng, a pathologist specialising in gynaecological cytology, worked in Australia, the United States and Malaysia. It led to some odd cultural crosses, such as his favourite Christmas dinner of lamb, gravy, potatoes and rice, but it allowed him to train new pathologists far and wide.
He was professor of pathology at the University of Sydney and head of the Department of Anatomical Pathology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital from 1981 until 1998. He wrote or co-wrote more than 180 articles for medical literature as well as textbook chapters, and produced teaching materials that are still in use.
Alan Beh Puan Ng, who has died aged 74, was born in Kuala Lumpur, in 1934, one of nine children of Ng Chin Siu and his wife Lim Boon Tuan, who had migrated there from southern China.
In 1941 Japan invaded and occupied Malaya. The war years were hard because the Ng family owned a rubber plantation and were forced to produce material for the Japanese war effort.
After the war, Alan resumed his education at St John's College in Kuala Lumpur. In 1951, when he was 17 years old, he was sent to Melbourne and enrolled at St Kevin's College, matriculating the following year. He studied medicine at the University of Melbourne, graduated in 1958, when he was 24 years old, and was appointed to St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne as a resident medical officer. That year he married Enid Charter, a nurse training at the hospital.
After two years at St Vincent's, he became a registrar in pathology there and, after further training in Ohio, became a lecturer in the faculty of medicine at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur. In 1964, when he was 30, he was appointed the first professor, and head, of the new department of pathology at the university.
In 1967 Ng went to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, as an assistant professor of pathology. He rose to be professor of pathology at Case Western Reserve and stayed there until 1975, when he became professor of pathology at the University of Miami, Florida.
There he continued teaching, researching and attending international conferences, where he presented papers and conducted seminars on cytology (the study of cells). In 1980 he was awarded the George Papanicolaou Gold Medal by the Evoikos Society of New England, for a distinguished physician/scientist in the United States or Canada who embodies the ideals and scientific spirit of Papanicolaou, the inventor of the Pap test.
In 1981 Ng took the chair of pathology at the University of Sydney and became head of the department of Anatomical Pathology at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he remained until retiring in 1998. Yet he continued to travel for research and teaching, and accepted a visiting professorship at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Ng was a member of many societies and academies of pathology and cytology around the world. He was at various times president of the American Society of Cytology and the Australian Society of Cytology, and a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia. He was an examiner in pathology for universities in Malaysia, Singapore and Papua New Guinea and an assessor for research grants from the Cancer Council of Australia.
During his time in the US, Ng had taken citizenship there but some years after returning to Australia he was proud to become an Australian citizen. He was recently recognised by the Australian Society of Cytology for his lifetime contribution.
In retirement, Ng remained interested in the work of the Royal Prince Alfred department of pathology. However, he was happy to enjoy retirement and travel for pleasure. He spent time in America and Paris, where Enid put her degree in French to good use, although Ng was proud of his ability to cope well without the slightest knowledge of the language.
He was a frequent visitor to Malaysia, where many of his siblings and their families still live. He took an interest in visual arts and began to collect paintings and sculpture. He loved to tell a joke, but often laughed so hard he couldn't get the punchline out. He loved food and making his special fried rice for the family. He was delighted to be a grandfather.
Alan Ng is survived by Enid, their children Amanda, Kathryn, Timothy and Denis, nine grandchildren and six of his brothers and sisters.
Hi, Sandra,
Look what I found at the SMH's obituary.
They just don't mention the "causa mortis". What was it?
Sandra Winstanley, 31 Mar 2018.
Hi Luiz,
Prof Ng was being treated by haematologist for multiple myeloma for many years so imagine that to be the cause.
Monday, 23 April 2018
Maria Gouveia
Myself and Maria Gouveia at her front-door garden on 16 Beach Road, in Bondi, Sydney.
The Ritz Cinema, next to the Royal Prince of Wales Hospital, in Randwick, in a photo taken in 2018. When Maria was staying at the Hospital in the last stretches of her illness, circa September 1998, I went to visit her on a late afternoon and she decided she'd like to go and see 'There something about Mary', a screwball comedy starring Cameron Diaz & Matt Dillon which was showing at the Ritz. Maria didn't even change; she just stood up, got hold of one of my arms and there we went walking through the Hospital byways, entered Saint Paul Street, crossed Avoca Street, kept walking another block, crossed Perouse Road and finally arrived at the Ritz.
We bought tickets and sat down at comfortable seats to wait for the show to begin. I acted as everything was right but I knew Maria was feeling pain even though she had an intravenous cannula in a vein on her belly to apply morphine in case the pain increased. I noticed Maria fumbled with the contraption once which meant she was feeling pain but was adamant to keep watching the movie.
Soon, the two of us had a pleasant surprise: Ray Conniff's rendition of Ary Barroso's 'Aquarela do Brazil' exploded on the big screen and both of us were taken back to São Paulo in 1962, when this record was Number One for a few weeks. It was like having taken a shot of morphine mixed with some upper!!! I'll never forget that moment...
indeed, it was Maria's last picture show...
Tuesday, 13 March 2018
one of Mother's favourite pot plants
it is called Starfish Flower Cactus or Stapelia grandiflora...
Mother with her prized possession...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)