Jingle Bells

Some coastal rocks. Proper name is the Twelve Apostles (not all are here, obviously)

Tuesday morning. Most of the way through a nine-day haul, then five days off. Flying out Friday morning to go to Mt Gambier, with an eight-hour bus journey (though that includes stops for lunch and a few wineyards) at the end of a three hour flight. Drunk on a bus – hopefully nothing like the medics' rugby tours. Working this afternoon from half three until midnight, then a ten o'clock start tomorrow.

Not much has happened since I wrote last as I've been working pretty much the whole time. Am part way towards growing a beard but that's more due to apathy than appearance – it'll come off today (four 8am starts doesn't help with extra time in the shower in the morning).


Jack and Jen

My contribution to Australian culture has started, however – I have taught baby Jack to say 'poo', 'bum', and 'titties', which he is overjoyed with. I'm not sure his parents are though – especially as he seems to know exactly what titties are and points to or grabs his mum's when shopping while shouting out 'titties'. I now feel that my neice, Kathryn Mae, is missing out on my contribution to her development and Indo-Anglo-Chinese culture.

Have taken to wearing shoes on the patio because of these bloody ants (stamps on one). They might outnumber me but at least I can hurt them more than they can hurt me (stamps on another) (and another, but this one keeps wriggling even though it is in a very different shape to what it started as). Maybe I should see if there is some sort of spray I can put down. Or invest in a magnifying lens.

Work remains much the same. Have had a pretty uneventful week so far, I feel like a GP with the so-called 'Accidents' and 'Emergencies' that I've been seeing. Doctor, my eczema is getting worse. Or, I've had an ulcer on my lip for six months, four GPs and a dentist haven't cured it. He told me, 'fuck you buddy' when I said it was an inappropriate use of the service and I wasn't going to treat him. Lovely.


Mt Gambier's tourist attraction, the Blue Lake

Not got round to posting this yet and it's now Tuesday the next week. Back from Mt Gambier, which was a fairly enjoyable weekend despite it being all band. Managed to get a sore throat before leaving and my ears were giving me hell on the plane before landing, but I'm mostly over that now – just a weird deep crackly wheeze that's remained.


Part of the Christmas Parade at Mt Gambier

Once again didn't get round to posting this. It's now Friday the 26th, don't start work until noon. Work the last few days has been pretty quiet but tomorrow's Saturday, which might be busy, then I've got four nights to contend with. There's a Christmas do at work on the 11th which will be a bit odd as it's a BBQ in the sweltering summer heat. I doubt there's much chance of a White Christmas here.

Rainy Season

Weather's gone all to hell. Showers and thunder most days. Still hot though. I think it's fairly normal for Spring here, but at least it's a bit of a break from the heat.

One of the ants has just bitten me on my toe. Little bastard. Stings a fair bit. He came off worse from the exchange though as he's now thoroughly dead. As a display of strength to the other ants I have put my feet up on the other chair where they can't reach.

Went to the see Dido in concert at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre last night. Was pretty good – I think Jen enjoyed it a lot more, but she's quite a fan whereas I'm not that fussed. Took some pictures with my phone which make the stage look miles away but the seats were actually close(ish). The supporting guy was obviously musically talented but had a few failings, namely: his songs were crap, he thought he was Bob Dylan, he was a complete tool, his chat was atrocious, and he had some faux-accent thing going on.


This guy was crap, but you can't see him anyway

Obviously trying to create some sort of image for himself and feels his London accent (I think that was underneath) is not exotic enough. Dido did most of her songs, from both albums, which is quite a lot for a concert. Only one show though so I suppose she doesn't have to rest her voice or anything.


Dido from afar. She's the white blur in the middle of the stage, I think

The ants are circling beneath me. I think they smell blood, or fear.

Have been timetabled on for all the days off I asked for as the rota-maker-upper forgot. Swapped a couple but it looks like I can't swap next Friday, which is a pain. Will either see if I can just change it for another day, or else see if I can take it as annual leave.

My toe still hurts.

Not much else to say – my tax thing's sorted (well, I'll find out tomorrow when I get paid), work's been pretty dull this week. Jen's sis has just found out she's pregnant again, though only on a home pregnancy tester so although almost certain, not absolutely.

Jen's at work at the moment but has an exam later in the day. Biosciences, which is stuff I should know but having looked at it again, I see that I have little or no idea about a lot of it having had a few years to forget. The bits which are relevant I know, but most of it is just academia without any real-world use. Fortunately for me I no longer have to know all that crap.

Band Camp

Have found myself drinking coffee on the patio again. This is becoming a bit of a habit. No exciting news – work is much of a muchness, been kept late a few times this week as had to transfer patients requiring an escort to other hospitals. Was off on Sunday and so Jen dragged me up to Nambour (about an hour's drive from Brisbane) where there was a band competition. Toot toot. Very poorly thought out – they were on at about 10am then not until about 6.30pm. So a gap of about eight hours, in a small town with nothing to do, so by late afternoon everyone was just tired, bored, and wanted to get it over and done with. They won, narrowly, which was lucky considering that the entire band for some reason unknown to me played the melody of one of the pieces completely wrong throughout. Not bad considering they'd been reading music for years. To be fair, the only reason I noticed was because it's a piece I know (it was a theme tune for a BBC programme a few years back).




Then it was back to work yesterday, totally un-rested. Very quiet for a Monday. A few of the usual crap GP referrals (please see this man who was bitten by a dog. The dog was vaccinated against rabies. He requires no other treatment other than: Does he require a rabies shot? Consultation to patient - “There is no rabies in Australia. Have a nice day”). You would think the GP could phone and ask but evidently he thought that this man's time was of no importance.

I have decided one of my neighbours is a complete prick. This is on the basis that, of the two visitor parking spaces (which are not to be used by the tenants, as each house has a garage, and there is no end of on-street parking), both are always occupied. Now, to be honest, their monopolisation of the two spaces is not a big deal to me, as we are a one-car household. I will park there in an instant the moment I get a car, but just because they do and I am an argumentative twat. But anyway, it was apparently not enough to park there, but also park another two cars behind it, so when I got up to go to work on Saturday morning I found he'd parked in front of my garage. He didn't even apologise when I woke him up and got him to move it so I could go to work. Tosser. His card has been marked.

Other news is I may now have a tenant to live with Amy, although I haven't managed to speak to her about it yet. Seems like a nice chick, and I got the impression from her that when Amy showed her around the flat, she was quite happy for her to move in. But getting hold of the girl to okay it is fairly hard as she never answers the bloody phone (admittedly due to nightclub shift work). I'll sort it out this week though.