Well it had to happen eventually and I survived. 8 months of form filling finally came up trumps. I'm working 2 days a week in a surgery with 2 charming female gps who have been there for 20 years. They don't have a practice nurse, which has been bothering me a bit, as I've been spoilt by working with fabulous nurses over the last few years. I have decided to take most of it on the chin and learn about dressings, smears, etc but I can't bring myself to use the antiquated ear syringe (yes that one they have in medical museums), so I'm going to have to spend the next 6 months finding ways of avoiding it.
I saw a lot of cute and snotty kids, and spent considerable time trying to work out what the medications I would normally prescribe are called here. I doubt I looked competent or slick, but I played the new girl in town card frequently. In total I only saw 13 patients all day and seeing as I get paid per punter then we may still be shopping in Aldi, and undergoing the indignity of having our bags searched at the checkout (routine policy here).
Howard perfected the supportive husband role by taking the kids to nursery and picking them up, feeding them and putting them to bed, before making my dinner. I was sent off for a swim, which I managed to fit it in between torrential downpours (outdoor pool). Any of you who thought I was a little smug about the outdoor olympic swimming pool at the end of the road can take an opportunity to snigger now, its not so much fun in winter.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Koala and whales
Another thing on my must-see list is to seeking out and meeting some authentic Aussie animals in their natural environment. It seems important to do this in case I never make it back, or they aren't able to hang around until I do. So I was very excited about our trip up the coast to Port 
Stephens, the home of the koala and a motorway for migrating whales.
We rented a house on the beach with fantastic sunset views. The major downside was a lack of opportunity for Howard to make fire.
We did manage to spot a koala, but it wasn't at the special reserve we visited. The volunteers there said they'd been too busy making a mosaic to notice any koalas, but if we saw any to let them know. Fortunately there seemed to be a resident koala in a tree outside our house, so all was not lost. He was a cute fellow, but try as we might we couldn't spot him moving at all.
At 32Km long, the nearby Stockton beach sand dunes are the worlds biggest continuous mass of mobile sand, and we set off in a 4WD bus to experience sand dune surfing. I don't think its quite as demanding as real surfing, but a bit more like sledging. The kids loved racing down the slopes, we finally seem to have found an activity that all of us are willing to take part in. It was quite a buzz, but hard work trudging up the hills again afterwards, lugging the suddenly exhausted children.
The vast, sparsely populated coastline, posed a real problem to the Aussies in the second world war, so they left thousands of concrete pyramids up and down the coast to act as tank traps. There are also other relics of different civilisations in the dunes from Aboriginal middens, to the rusting hulks of ships, and a tin shanty town from the depression of the 1930's.
We wouldn't be us if we didn't attempt to drag our kids on a walk, but we kept it small. At 2km long and 161m ascent, even Evan managed to walk a lot of it. He definitely more impressed by the the chocolate frogs than the view.
There is something quite magical to me about the idea of a whale, and I really wanted to go and see them, but my past experience of whale watching have been mixed. There was the boat trip off eastern USA where after hours we may have seen a black dot on the horizon, and then almost bumping into a whale in the breakers 50m off a beach in South Africa. We weren't disappointed by our boat trip out into what was effectively a whale motorway. They seemed to be all round blowing, sky-hoping, waving at us and even jumping out of the water. Even Carys was impressed and started to get excited, although it was hard to drag her away from her Peppa Pig magazine. I'd love to bore you with the photos, but somehow they are all faint black dots or splashes, so you'll just have to trust me on this one.
On the way home we stopped to check out Newcastle, a large industrial town on the coast which is being regenerated. Australia really is an amazing country in that there are fabulous beaches and coastline wherever you go. And even in winter at 22 degrees and with a immaculate blue sky, you wonder why you would ever want to live anywhere else (don't panic mum).
Stephens, the home of the koala and a motorway for migrating whales.We rented a house on the beach with fantastic sunset views. The major downside was a lack of opportunity for Howard to make fire.
We did manage to spot a koala, but it wasn't at the special reserve we visited. The volunteers there said they'd been too busy making a mosaic to notice any koalas, but if we saw any to let them know. Fortunately there seemed to be a resident koala in a tree outside our house, so all was not lost. He was a cute fellow, but try as we might we couldn't spot him moving at all.
At 32Km long, the nearby Stockton beach sand dunes are the worlds biggest continuous mass of mobile sand, and we set off in a 4WD bus to experience sand dune surfing. I don't think its quite as demanding as real surfing, but a bit more like sledging. The kids loved racing down the slopes, we finally seem to have found an activity that all of us are willing to take part in. It was quite a buzz, but hard work trudging up the hills again afterwards, lugging the suddenly exhausted children.
The vast, sparsely populated coastline, posed a real problem to the Aussies in the second world war, so they left thousands of concrete pyramids up and down the coast to act as tank traps. There are also other relics of different civilisations in the dunes from Aboriginal middens, to the rusting hulks of ships, and a tin shanty town from the depression of the 1930's.
We wouldn't be us if we didn't attempt to drag our kids on a walk, but we kept it small. At 2km long and 161m ascent, even Evan managed to walk a lot of it. He definitely more impressed by the the chocolate frogs than the view.There is something quite magical to me about the idea of a whale, and I really wanted to go and see them, but my past experience of whale watching have been mixed. There was the boat trip off eastern USA where after hours we may have seen a black dot on the horizon, and then almost bumping into a whale in the breakers 50m off a beach in South Africa. We weren't disappointed by our boat trip out into what was effectively a whale motorway. They seemed to be all round blowing, sky-hoping, waving at us and even jumping out of the water. Even Carys was impressed and started to get excited, although it was hard to drag her away from her Peppa Pig magazine. I'd love to bore you with the photos, but somehow they are all faint black dots or splashes, so you'll just have to trust me on this one.
On the way home we stopped to check out Newcastle, a large industrial town on the coast which is being regenerated. Australia really is an amazing country in that there are fabulous beaches and coastline wherever you go. And even in winter at 22 degrees and with a immaculate blue sky, you wonder why you would ever want to live anywhere else (don't panic mum).
Monday, June 14, 2010
Hunter Valley
We finally realised Howard's dream to visit the Hunter Valley and some of its vineyards. We selected the vineyards based on strict criteria the most important of which was having a children's playground. Having spent the weekend flogging himself on-call, Howard was in the mood for kicking back and spoiling himself.
Obviously the kids wanted to join in, but the staff didn't always appreciate Evan's snorting and spitting techniques. Carys was able to redesign some of the tasting notes using her crayons, she did an especially good job with the Wyndham's logo. All in all it was successful trip, and we were able to leave of our own accord with some very quaffable wine.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Sydney in Winter
What do you do in Sydney in the winter time?
Well it depends if its raining or not. We were surprised to learn that the average rainfall here is twice that in London.
You could check o
ut a West Tigers rugby league match. We happened to be passing the stadium at the end of the road so went along. We pretty much had a stand to ourselves, and decided to support the Bears as we were all wearing red and black. We'd been told that they had crowds of about 20,000, so were a bit surprised by the poor turnout until we realised it was the reserve teams playing.
Or you could take a trip to Palm Beach, where they film Home and Away, and the
sand is the same colour as Carys' hair.
Or how about a ferry trip into the harbour at night to see the light show being projected onto the sails of the Opera House? I wonder if any visitors objected to the icon being defaced? Howard and I enjoyed the show and Carys and Evan found the ice cream more than compensated for being dragged out after bedtime.
Well it depends if its raining or not. We were surprised to learn that the average rainfall here is twice that in London.
You could check o
ut a West Tigers rugby league match. We happened to be passing the stadium at the end of the road so went along. We pretty much had a stand to ourselves, and decided to support the Bears as we were all wearing red and black. We'd been told that they had crowds of about 20,000, so were a bit surprised by the poor turnout until we realised it was the reserve teams playing.Or you could take a trip to Palm Beach, where they film Home and Away, and the
sand is the same colour as Carys' hair.
Or how about a ferry trip into the harbour at night to see the light show being projected onto the sails of the Opera House? I wonder if any visitors objected to the icon being defaced? Howard and I enjoyed the show and Carys and Evan found the ice cream more than compensated for being dragged out after bedtime.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
