Random bloke who's hopefully worth getting to know.
Well, I guess I'm resigned to my IAM page never being a work of art, but it does the job and has pretty pictures on so yay for that.
IAM: 24, 5'9 and a halfish, blondish with dark brown eyes.
IAM: Living in the joy that is Whitechapel, London. Renowned for Jack the Ripper, curry, smack heads, tuberculosis and a million and one fried chicken shops.
IAM: Hopefully easy and fun to get on with, and accepting of most things as long as you don't say 'innit.'
IAM: A doctor. Yes, I still think it's a bit odd too.
IAM: A lover of all creepy, crawly, slithery and slimy things other than politicians.
IAM: Completely lost when it comes to writing out these descriptions.
IAM: A massive fan of fencing. Best sport ever.
IAM: Less modded than lots of people here.
IAM: Trying to find an appropriate social niche.
IAM: Misunderstood. God, is that a cliche?
IAM: Not a fan of football, R'n'B, stupid people or political correctness.
Last week's HTML lesson was brought to you by
joker. This week's HTML lesson was brought by
Povallsky. Thanks be to them both for putting up with my ignorance and the fact that I don't seem to be improving in anyway. I shall forever be condemned as a ludite.
My pokeage thus far:
One sort of inversy-frenum type thing at 10ga (retired)
10ga Apadravya 6/8/06 -> 6ga 12/1/07
One left horizontal nipple at 14ga 27/7/05
Plans for the future, in a vague unspecified way:
Right thigh Polynesian piece
Right nipple or navel
2007/09/16 13:08 Time to let you all know what's been happening in the World of Adam. Obviously I should have updated you all earlier, but frankly I couldn't be bothered. So. I can't entirely remember where I left you, but I think it was bitching about housing issues. Fortunately a couple of weeks ago I managed to find two places on the same day - one lovely big semi-detached twon house which was great but had several other people interested and wouldn't be available for a couple of weeks, and a two-bed unit that had only appeared on the market the previous day and had not been viewed by anyone else. The unit became available on the Friday, I viewed it on the Saturday, applied on the Monday and was approved later Monday morning. At last! I went into Ikea for a few things later that week, and moved in last Saturday. And to finally finish off I got the fridge and washing machine delivered yesterday; though cold beer is obviously more important than clean clothes.
I've been gradually stocking up the kitchen all week but will wait for George to arrive before I kit out the house any more - at the moment I have everything I need and she'll be here in just 11 days. Hurray, at last! I've also had my hair cut which is my defining part of living somewhere rather than just visiting (that or owning a house). So what else to say? I have adult things like gas, electricity, water, rent and a pension plan. I need to sort out home contents insurance and a couple of driving lessons but otherwise everything seems to be pretty much sorted. The weather today is glorious; I may try and track down the man-made Brisbane beach, and also have a look into train details for travelling down to the coast.
There should be more to say after not writing here for a couple of weeks but I can't think of anything at the moment.
2007/08/16 16:59 I've finally finished both my first week in Oz and my first week at work so figured that it's about time I wrote some more stuff in here (or at least as much as I can manage before I get bored).
I'm still suffering from a bizarre sort of jet lag, even though I'm used to the time difference now - that's because work starts every day at 7:30am, and I need to be there a bit early to print out lists and get notes and blood results. It's very much the same as being a PRHO again, or possibly even more hardcore; there was a locum to help me for the first couple of days but now I'm on my own with the registrar. In addition to that I have no knowledge or interest in haematology or haematological oncology, or of the finer points of chemotherapy. Add that to getting to grips with a new hospital in a new country, and that both the locum and the registrar haven't done the job before, and it's been draining! One of the nice things about the hospital (and this is because it's Private, rather than just Australian) is that you're valued here so they give you decent food at meetings, free food when you're on-call, taxi chits when necessary and best of all - you don't have to do your own bloods or venflons, and the ward secretary books the investigations you need! Amazing. Fortunately everyone in Australia seems to be really friendly and it's easy to strike up a conversation in lifts/shops/the street which is nice. Tuesday night I went out for dinner with the locum guy and his brother, which was nice, and had grilled kangaroo with couscous. How dreadfully tourist.
My accommodation is okay for now but pretty basic, and worse doesn't allow alcohol on the premises. Needless to say I feel guilty breaking that rule but needs must - and I've had one of the least alcoholic weeks in years (I think I've probably lost weight...). Pottering about in the evenings is okay, and gives me a chance to see some of the local beasties. The other night I was walking along and saw a possum climbing up a lamp post. Very cute and got me into a chat with a bloke walking his dog - he was amazed that we don't have them in Britain as they're everywhere here. Fortunately no big scary snakes or spiders thus far though.
Wednesday was nice as it's a public holiday here. Despite that I was still up by seven (voluntarily) which most of you will realise is a bit odd for me. There's a big farm show on this week in Brisbane but I decided not to head along (partly because I didn't know where it was, partly because it's supposed to be expensive, partly because there's a flu epidemic (literally for once) going around and attendees were given a 30% chance of catching it (rubbish I'm sure but just an opportunity to throw a random fact in)). Instead I wandered around the shops and some hog flesh for breakfast before wandering around the Botanic gardens by the river. Apparently when the convicts first came over the Brisbane river was surrounded by rainforest - this area was cut down to allow them to grow food, and later became an area where foreign plants were planted to see how they tolerated the Queensland climate. Now it's a natural park and quite pleasant to wander around. I also spent some time wandering among the mangroves by the river and watching the egrets and ibises.
The shopping in Brisbane is really very good. Rather than being spread out as much as London it's mostly in a grid of streets in the city centre by the river and has pretty much everything you could want. Including a couple of Irish pubs. Cliched I suppose, but goes to prove that you can get Guinness anywhere.
Today I had an early finish at work, in so far as I started at 7:30 and finished at 2:30. I'm rostered to do 8 hours a day Monday to Thursday and 6 hours on Friday plus occasional out of hours stuff, but obviously have to stay until the job is done. I've managed over 38 hours this week despite havingWednesday off! Anyway, the reason I left early was to try and sort out a few things in the city. I have been productive and now have my visa stamp (took an amazing 2 minutes rather than queing for hours), my certificate of registration with teh Queensland Medical Board, and a bank account. These collectively mean that I can a) Stay in the country for a while, b) Aim towards getting a provider number (basically my own legitimate hospital identity) and c) Get paid (the most important bit). My bank account will cost the princely sum of $5 a month and not give me any interest, but that's the way things are here.
So what to do tonight and this weekend? I have discovered a fencing club (it sounds like a decent one too) nearby that I shall patronise and I shall also do a bit of shopping and hopefully speak to a few estate agents. But in the meantime, food and beers.
2007/08/15 17:07 I have arrived in sunny Brisbane after a long and exhausting journey. Despite nine days off to see friends in London and visit my parents it all went extremely quickly. Nice to have a break, lovely to see George again before leaving, and time for a carnage-filled leaving do; I had a great time, and it was good to see people though unfortunately the memories are a bit hazy of anyone who arrived after mid-afternoon. I felt truly terrible the following day, with one of the worst hangovers I have had for years.
So what to say about Australia? The accommodation seems like some sort of charity thing (It's the Red Cross, so I suppose that's a given) - it's generally for people to use short term if they're in the area for medical treatment or can't afford/don't know anywhere else. I fortunately have a room to myself though the walls are paperthing and I have sneaking suspicions that at night some small beastie is leaving things on the other bed. Am too worried to investigate further. Anyway, after the huge epic journey to get here (about 27 hours all together) it was great to have somewhere to crash out. Unfortunately at night it's bloody cold; the room seems to have refrigerant properties and doesn't even become hot during the day. Apparently they have had their coldest winter for 66 years but that still allowed for a bit of a warm 28 degrees celsius yesterday (mmm sun). I've been waking pretty early and wandering around which I think will be good practice for work - I'm going to ahve a rather tragic 7:30 start every day. Yuk. Unfortunately I'm going to be starting with ten weeks of haematology/oncology but hopefully after that it'll be surgery all the way. We'll see.
Greenslopes is interesting - big 'Queenslander' houses that are mostly rather gorgeous, big and with lots of space around. The roads are equally big and generally pretty empty, with street lights few and far between. It's odd walking along the pavements during the day as you keep hearing the rustling of lizards and little beasties in the hedges. Last night when I was walking home after a bit of evening food foraging I disturbed what I'm pretty sure was a large fruitbat - it leapt out of a tree about four feet above me and flew over to a branch on the other side of the road. There are also a huge number of birds around, mostly making a lot of noise. They include the rather gorgeous lorakeets - green bodies, blue heads, red beaks and red and yellow breats - and magpies that are a lot prettier than the British equivalent. Unfortunately Greenslopes doesn't actually seem to have any bars or pubs - people seem to live away near the pubs and travel to work, or live near work and travel into the city for entertainment. I have fortunately found a small shopping centre a few minutes walk away and it contains an off-license with an inspired walk-in beer fridge. I may pop back there later though the Red Cross place is supposed to be alcohol-free.
At the moment I am in the centre of Brisbane. I came in on the bus which doesn't seem to be as bad as I'd expected (just a bit less frequent than London) though it does look as if I'll have to sort out a driving license and an old car sooner rather than later. It's useful to find an internet cafe to keep everyone updated as I haven't found one closer to the accommodation/hospital yet (though I assume I'll be able to access it at work from tomorrow). As well as a car I think I may try and find a doctor with a spare room I can rent until George comes along. House rental prices look good but apparently they are very much in demand so you can't head off and consider them for a while.
2007/08/02 13:04 Again, a long time since I've written anything here but I've been busy. Had an eventful weekend last weekend with altogether far more traveling around than I'd like. After work on Friday there was a leaving-do for one of the registrars who was leaving. It was very pleasant but unfortunately ran on until after 11pm, which meant my lift back was delayed and I was unable to get a train back into London that night. Result: I had to get up at 5:20 next morning to catch a train shortly after 6. After many hours of traveling up to the middle of nowhere in Shropshire I finally managed to get to Mike and Catherine's wedding at five past twelve, just in time to take a seat before the wedding started. The service was lovely, in a little church just like the one in the local village where I grew up.
Anyway, after the wedding headed off on a bit of a drive to the reception. Had a great time there - fantastic to see Mike again and he's got a nice group of friends, but unfortunately had to leave to get the 20:01 train from Wem (change at Shrewsbury, then Birmingham to get back down to London). Fortunately caught my train, got to Shrewsbury... see that the connection had been delayed. So I sat around waiting, then, with two minutes left to go, my train disappeared to the board. A bit worried I spoke to the information desk to be informed that my bloody train had just left from another platform. Not only that but there no other trains to Birmingham that would get me there in time for the last train down to London. Bummer. Their suggestion; that I ask at the taxi rank ('it's only 45 miles to Birmingham'). Needless to say, the taxi office said that they couldn't get me there in time. So back to the train information desk to ask when the next train back up to Wem would be - an hour and a half. Needless to say I was a bit peeved by this stage, but fortunately the nice men in the information office paid for a taxi to take me back up to the wedding reception.
After all of that I decided that the least I deserved (and no doubt Fate had pushed me to it) was a decent amount of alcohol and a bit of a party.It's the first time I've seen the Bride and Groom step out to dance to Metallica but it worked! The rock and heavy metal towards the end of the night also went down well; a lot of Mike's mates are into that sort of music, or in his band. Unfortunately the hotel the reception was in didn't have any free rooms, but I was bailed out by some of his uni mates who offered me a bed... in Liverpool. So at about one in the morning we headed off on a two-hour drive. Had a bit of a sleep, felt rubbish in the morning but was really looked after by Vanny and Laura without whom I'd have to have slept on a golf course and walked a lot more. Unfortunately the next day I didn't have much chance to see the sites of Liverpool but fortunately did catch (by the skin of my teeth) a quick train back down to London.
Since then I had my last day at work in Southend. I fortunately didn't have to present my audit but will have to email it into them. And very kindly I was given a bottle of wine and have had a meal paid for and waiting for me in Australia. They're a nice group to work with but I have to admit I won't miss General Practice (other than the hours) or the journey to work every day. That night I came back up to London and had a few drinks with Chris and Renal. Nice to see Renal again but I have to admit I'm really going to miss Chris over the next year; had to say goodbye to him as he's since flown back to Holland to stay at home until he can sort out another job. It's looking increasingly like he's not going back to medicine.
So now it's just the final drive (metaphorically) to Australia. Tuesday spent the whole day packing what turned out to be an even larger amount of shite than I had initially suspected. After a bit of a wait for the van George drove my stuff down to Whitechapel where we had lunch with my parents and then they very kindly took most of it back to Somerset for me. When I get home on Sunday I will go through it with my mother and see if we can decide on throwing some of it away. In the meantime I have to arrange shipping for some of the stuff still here in London and plead with Singapore airlines to increase my baggage allowance; 27kg is not a lot to take a year's worth of stuff. I've also spoken to the Captain Kidd pub about my leaving do on Saturday - hopefully we'll get a good turn out of people and some decent weather. I know I'm looking forward to catching up with some I haven't seen for a while.
Can't say I'll miss working in Medicine for the next year or two, especially with all the job application fuss and dumbing down that's been going on for the last year or two. It'll be interesting to see what sort of delays and misery are going on after virtually all junior doctors (those who have a job now at least) have suddenly had to change jobs and hospitals in a less than 24-hour period. Scary.
Sun, driving, weddings and all manner of miscellany
2007/07/19 19:45 Somehow I have managed to spend nearly two weeks without writing anything here. Hmmm. Unfortunately no prompts from eager readers. Bastards the lot of you. Unless there aren't actually any readers in which case I'm just muttering to myself and have saved myself some effort over the last two weeks. So what to say? GP land is all much of a muchness and I can't say I'll be sorry to see it end. I've had the usual trivial complaints; 13-year-old boy brought in by his mother with sore arms after doing pull-ups, sore throats, 85-year-old lady who wonders why she doesn't have as much energy as she used to. Ho hum.
So last weekend (or the one before it even) went very quickly. I'm sure I had fun though can't really remember why. I think I only went back to London on the Saturday and had a fun time with George though I can't remember what we were doing. Sunday no doubt equally exciting which leaves this whole paragraph rather boring.
Last weekend was Euan and Claire's wedding. First time I've endured a catholic service and it was a bit odd; the congregation seemed to know lots of words I didn't and sat for hymns (silly word spelling isn't it?) and stood for prayer - all very back to front. I actually trooped down early to help fulfill my usher-ial duties the night before and then on the morning of the wedding prevented Euan from fleeing and tied up some balloons and stuff. The reception was fantastic - one of the nicer weddings I've been to. It was held in a nice marquee (helped by gorgeous weather) in the garden of a large country house. Copious amounts of free booze and lots of nice food. Everything very well arranged and capped off with Scottish dancing - awesome, especially as a few of us were in kilts. Got suitably tipsy, had a great night and luckily managed to get back to the hotel afterwards, despite the most stupid taxi driver I've ever had the misfortune to meet.
This week since I've mostly stressed - I fly off to Oz three weeks today which seems to have arrived with unseemly haste. Things are generally looking good but for everything I sort out something else arises. Currently I have to try and chivvy along the visa application as certain silly terrorist doctors have rather snarled everything up in Brisbane. I also have to try and find a way of getting all my crap from Southend somewhere else. I'm really not looking forward to dividing it up into hand luggage, shipping luggage and stuff to get home. I've also got to finish off that bloody audit (yes, I know I've been banging on about it for months).
So, to cap it all off; I failed my damn driving test today. Despite being really nervous I felt that mostly I did really well. Apart from passing the centre line when reversing around the corner... I also drove over a mini-roundabout (which, I hasten to add, I had always thought was acceptable, especially as the car in front also had. Bloody hell.) Such is life. I'll see if I can do it again here, if not then something else for Australia!
