Few days ago, my daughter picked up a book at my study: Father to Daughter: Life Lessons on Raising a Girl . So we read together. We became absorbed in the lessons right away. After all, one of the precepts in this book is to be involved in the daughters' lives.

Now my daughter is six this week. I know that's a big milestone for a little girl, and I'm glad that she put on her roller skates for the first time on her birthday.

The easiest way to distinguish between efficiency and effectiveness is applying the rule of the American management guru Peter Drucker: efficiency is doing the job right, effectiveness is doing the right job.

The only thing you need to know about ineffectiveness, on the other hand, is looking at the canonical example of demanding complete diagnostic coding in hospital patient discharge summary.

The truth is that doctors are supposed to code the diagnosis, besides writing a summary of what happened after a patient was discharged from hospital. Writing a summary deserves significant attention

I didn't work today.

I went to my daughter's school because it's the parent-teacher interview. The school principal advised us to list any questions that we want to raise. And, keep questions short. I felt that perhaps I should make use of this chance to tell my daughter's teacher one single life event that matters. A lot.

Our domestic helper will leave us after living with us for six years.

Two days later, we will bid her goodbye and I don

I proudly carry a hospital pager - known colloquially as a bleep - with me seven days a week. I view my pager the way soldiers view their honour badges - they're insignia not to be taken away. That sounds good for a workaholic like me.

The only mistake I made was not realizing the importance of pauses.

I learned about the beauty of the pauses and silences when I watched Circle Mirror Transformation by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker last night. There were quite a number of pauses between

Imagine someone asking her son, "How was school today?"

"Good."

Not so uncommon to find such economy of words, huh?

"What did you do?"

"Stuff."

Is this always the case when we ask our children about their experiences? It might not be, though - not by a long chalk.

Heck, it's sometimes harder to get a school-age child to open up than that of Ebenezer Scrooge's wallet. Try as you might, you just

We doctors have a long history of working long hours. We're trained to do so. Shortly after graduating from medical school, accomplishing the task of internship requires that we define forty-eight hours - not twenty-four - in a day.

With time, we unknowingly enter an addiction loop of long-hour working, which means staying on task until it's done instead of breaking the whole thing into manageable chunks. That explains why I won't be home until eight on most of my working

There's almost too much to do and see around Melbourne. Covering everything is impossible. We didn't include Phillip Island in our original itinerary. We changed the plan at the end - sorry, after the cut-off time for cancellation of hotel book with refund.

Such flexibility on my part is uncommon: my survival framework has been built on the harmony of clearly written plans. For that sort of impromptu schedule change on the fly, I can't. Or won't.

It speaks to

After the hotel stay next to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, we moved to an isolated and virtually traffic-free area, French Island.

The main attraction of this island is its serenity. Being two-thirds national park, French Island has a population of around 100, far outnumbered by their resident koalas.

We didn't camp this time. We stayed in an eco-friendly cabin which provided cosy dinner and basic facilities - minus hair dryer and wifi network.

So that's

Living right next to a hospital always ranks low when it comes to holiday. That's what we did in Melbourne during my daughter's term break. Our hotel is right next to the Royal Children's Hospital.

When I say "next to", I mean we shared the same elevator and car park. And I mean the hospital cafeteria is an integral part of our daily life. My daughter really appreciates this special place.

The Royal Children's Hospital, I must say, is a fabulous

Consider for a moment staying home with a child when it's all wet outside - what makes it more miserable is the strong wind and then typhoon signal.

If this sounds humdrum, that's because it is: "Borinnnnnnnnng." Any time this word boring is part of a child's whine, it's as scary as fingernails on a chalkboard.

Nothing in the parenting almanac says we have to put up with boredom like that, so we decided to unwrap a box of Lego when we were