Rainy Season

Been a bit rainy the last few days - storm season seems to be here again. Makes for some impressive displays of lightning, and fills up the depleted reservoirs here, but the locals are up to their usual tricks - complaining for months about the lack of rain and the water restrictions and then after about 4 hours of rain whining about the bad weather.

No other news of note. The boy remains hungry, pukey, happy, and well-behaved (mostly). Have lots of footage of him doing nothing with which to bore the family in a few weeks' time. So far he has managed, on camera, to do the following:

to take a dump during a reading of 'Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy',
to puke all over Stephanie's boyfriend, Andrew
to refuse to smile on several consecutive days but only during the time that the camera was pointed at him.

In fact, to watch any of the recordings we'd made you would think he was neglected or beaten or something. Maybe he's camera-shy.

On nights at the moment. Dull. Nothing ever happens when I'm on night shift. We did get one post-cardiac arrest patient in last night but by the time he arrived the paramedics had already stabilised him and put him on a ventilator. Wasn't much to do really from our point of view other than transfer him to ICU (which is about 8 yards from the resus bay). Took the opportunity to put in a few lines that could have probably (actually, definitely) waited until he arrived in ICU, much to the chagrin or the nurse in charge who thought I should keep seeing patients and let ICU deal with it. I thought that some practice would be more useful than seeing the usual procession of trivial ailments though.

Have another few nights to go still, then a few days off. Off to bed now so can't be bothered to write any more.

Action Hero

Spend $761 on a camcorder in the end. The golden-tongued salesman won me over with his talk of free stuff (three DV tapes, a bigger battery, and a camera bag). There were some pretty good cameras for more money but for the sake of what we wanted it seemed like a bit of a waste of money, so we're quite happy with what we've got. Apart from Jen, who objects to the fact that I keep waving it in her face, especially when she's just got her bra on or is breastfeeding.

Have started to compile lots of footage of the boy grunting and objecting to things like being put down. The novelty will wear off soon, I expect - then it'll just come out for things like Christmas and when we get stopped at the airport when the sniffer dogs pick up the dirty nappies as possible weapons of mass destruction.

I'll see if I can put some video up on this site but not too sure if I can, or if anyone will be keen to download something that takes half an hour to see five minutes of sleeping baby.

Off work tomorrow, having re-arranged my shifts to allow a visit to the paediatrician. At 9am though, which is a bit of a let down given that I would otherwise not have to get up in the morning. Although the boy isn't too keen on late starts, so it may be that we've been up for hours before we have to head off

When September Ends

Bedtime for the Campbells
Once again, no news of any particular interest. Jen and the boy are enjoying scooting around in the new car, and run me in to work when my shifts suit.


Life is hard
The wee yin is growing happily, despite his regular regurgitation of his dinner onto his parents as he is a little pig and eats far too much. He is following along on above the 90th centile, up to 5kg at around 4 weeks. For those unfamiliar with centiles, that means he's a fat little bugger. He's due to see the paediatrician in a few days' time for a six week (roughly) check, which as far as I can see involves him fleecing us for about 80 bucks to tell us that he's fine. I don't think he knows I'm a doctor so I might compile a list of the most annoying questions I ever get asked and ask them all, for the sake of a little value for money.



Jen is getting smaller by the day as the parasite feeds. I think at the rate they're both going, they'll be the same weight in about a month, before Callum swallows Jen whole sometime near the end of the year.

Have decided (probably) to buy a camcorder before the trip to the UK at the end of the year so we can bore the relatives with more than just still photos. As I know nothing about the things and don't want to spend $600 on a lemon (about the cheapest ones out there) I will probably leave decision making for so long that I make an impulse buy of some piece of crap just before getting on the last plane, and meaning I have to go back to Dubai to return it.


Callum and cousin Tom...

...arguing about who's the bigger burden to their poor mothers

Finally gave in and let the boy have a dummy, for the sake of sleep and the sanctity of marriage. He still manages to make almost continual noise with it in his mouth though. We've also relegated him to his bedroom too, so that I don't sit awake for hours listening to him whimpering in his sleep, dreaming baby dreams, which presumably involve nappies, nipples and the nightmare of the ordeal of birth.