My Very First Seminar… Aww…
17 July 2005 — haha, such an irony, I have actually just attended my very first seminar after just graduating! Hmm… how can like dat? Not living up to the Singaporean kiasu rep, am I? So what’s the seminar on? It’s on “Endometriosis, PCOS & Uterine Fibroids/Menorrhagia” aka all the typical female nasties. Held by MediHerb, and presented by Francesca Naish and Angela Hywood. Naish is the founder of The Jocelyn Centre, reputed to be Sydney’s number one natural fertility clinic. It’s also known for exploiting Nature Care students as free labour, making them slog for hours dispensing herbs and conducting yucky urine tests in exchange for some measly observation hours. Yes, myself included. And would you believe it, while they don’t pay the students a dime for working in the dispensary, clients are charged a whopping $700 for the first 2 consultations. It’s quite tragic really, I’ve seen couples cower in shock when they hear the price. To be fair, their success rate is supposedly quite high, so if you’re simultaneously loaded and barren, you may want to call on them.
Anyway, coming back to the seminar. It was actually very enlightening and I was impressed that Naish was so generous with her information. Among other things, I discovered female bits I didn’t know were there, learnt how to chart my monthly cycle, got put off using the microwave/tampons/cosmetics, and swore to save as many uteruses as I possibly can. Of course, this being a MediHerb seminar, there was also a lot of not-so-subtle selling of MediHerb merchandise including the 3 new products they had developed together - Endofem, Fibrofem, and Polyfem.
One thing I realised about these seminars is that they are actually social events masking as something educational. Everywhere you looked, people were hooking up, strangers were chatting up other strangers. For instance when I was at the “bar” (yes, the herb bar, where they served up yucky bitter concoctions like immune tonic or brain tonic, etc, instead of cocktails), this woman from who-knows-where asked why I was drinking the immune mix. When I told her I was getting worried that lots of people around me were coughing and spreading their germs, she tried to convince me I should embrace the germs instead of avoiding them. Okay. and I thought this was a naturopathic seminar, not a psychic fair?!?
And of course, what better place to socialise than during the buffet spread at lunch. These seminars are famed for providing pretty good food. Like Gabby said: the only thing that was missing was the wine. In terms of other antics, the presenter was also “pleased” to announce that for one day only, Kerry Bone, the founder of MediHerb, was signing copies of his new book. And to top it all off, the seminar ended with a lucky draw! Talk about enterprising. Well, it was definitely an eye-opener, and yes, I did enjoy myself. All that for $60, not too bad, not too bad at all, hee hee, especially considering the stash I got away with…
Francesca Naish’s presentation
Sumie & Darlene
lots of socialising in the foyer
info booth
Andrea & Kristy
herb bar
bland boring healthy teabreak muffins, where’s the real stuff?!
Kerry Bone @his booksigning corner
so cute!
more socialising in the foodhall
makan time!
lunch of fish and vegies