Singapore

Hey everyone.

We're in Singapore at the moment. I've been posting on the "365 Challenge" website instead just now so keep an eye on it. Hope you are all well.

Next stop Singapore

At last it's here. The countdown timer says 11 hours and something till we take off and I'm just about to head to bed as the taxi is coming for us at 4:30am!!! We've got a short flight to Heathrow then by 12noon we'll be en route to Singapore where it's pouring with rain just now as has been for the last week. Great.

None the less, I can't wait.

So next time I blog it'll be from the wireless connection in the hotel and I think a great deal of what I'm writing will be on the "365 Challenge" blog so remember to check that out now and again.

See you all in 14 months.

Chris Moyles

I am a big fan. Everyone knows that. Sophie and Iain bought me this for Xmas but unfortunately it is hard back and weighs a ton and I'm already over my 20kg weight limit for going to Oz. So I only had one option open to me and that was to read the whole thing today.

Actually, it was quite easy. It's 280 odd pages but it's double spaced and easy to read. However, it's full of typos and font changes and actually it's a bit rubbish. I was quite let down. I find the man really funny but I guess his humour doesn't translate well to the medium of the written word.

That said is it really quite interesting finding out about his background and where Comedy Dave got the name "comedy" from. Definitely a beach read. 6/10 I think.

So this is Christmas...

...and what have you done?

Well not very much is the answer to that! It's been a really weird xmas this year as it's been overshadowed by the fact we are leaving for Oz and also Mum and Dad have organised to leave for 3 weeks in Spain on the same day.

The build up to Xmas was actually non-existant as I spent most of it going to and from the flat with bags and boxes to get it cleared out. No interest in it yet but the letting agent says that's to be expected until the New Year.

Arrived at the Olds for the final time on the 23rd and I've been here since. Unfortunately since they are also preparing to go on their hols there was lots of "Zain, can you go into the loft and get the suitcases down?" and "Zain, can you feed the animals?" followed by "Zain, can you put these CDs onto my MP3 player?" You get the picture.

The next thing that sullied the xmas build up was the fact that it has become a bit of a tradition for Saira and I to spend Xmas Eve together catching up and righting the world's problems. This usually involves several bottles of wine and attempts to make the strangest combination sandwiches at 1am. Last year's winner I think was Honey-Mustard dressing, Kettle chips (salted), tomatoes, stilton cheese, ham and mango chutney. Awesome! This year, however, Saira was at Sophie's. I was supposed to go up there for the night but decided to stay with Mum and Dad as I still had some packing and things to do. Didn't seem like a big deal at the time but looking back I wish I'd headed up to Sophie's for one last spectacular sandwich blow-out before Oz. I would have had my own sandwich competition but since Sophie was hosting xmas this year, Mum and Dad didn't have the usual tasty treats to fabricate a breaded gastronomic delight.

Instead I had a bowl of Special K (old and stale) and then went to bed early. Rock-star lifestyle I tell ya!

Xmas day involved pestering the folks for an hour to get them into the car and head to Sophie's. We were supposed to be leaving at 8:30am instead were on the road for 9:30am. This was further hampered by the fact that the Special K didn't agree with me and all of a sudden it felt like cacti were rapidly growing out of my stomach. I had to pull over at Glasgow Airport to use the toilets.

This deserves special mention as unbeknownst to me the car park has it's own toilets and unlike the ones at Central Station or any other public WC (not that I frequent many of them) these were the nicest bogs I've even been in. They must have just opened the day before or something.

One rough-cast toilet bowl later we were back on the road.

Got to Sophie's after 10:30am and then it was time to open presents. The focus was on Sophia as I think it's the first time she's really got to grips with the whole present opening thing. However, she opened the first thing and it was a childrens oven/kitchen set. She loved it straight away and that was the end of the present opening as she spent the next hour only wanting to play with that. Soon though Sophie coaxed her into opening a few other things and the next item of note was a new baby doll which she was ecstatic about. So much so that she took "baby" straight over to the toy oven, pulled out all the plastic oven trays and shoved the doll right into the oven. She even got a bit violent when it wouldn't fit and started battering the oven door closed until "baby" was crushed inside!

I'd bought Sophie and Iain all the accessories that they would need to use Skype and spent until 3pm getting their crap computer to recognise the CD in the drive and have the USB ports function. I even ended up having to go to the webcam manufacturer's website and download new drivers. Mental.

Anyway I got it working and soon we were chatting to Isla face to face up in Perth. I think Sophie was a bit stunned as she said, "I didn't think that we would have the technology to do this!". I didn't want to look like a super geek and start talking about how Amit, Angus and I were using Battlecom 10 years ago to do this. Don't gimmie crap, I know there are some of you out there that are into that stuff you World of Warcraft playing freaks. (If you by it online from Play.com it only costs £9.99 instead of £14.99rrp!).

ANYWAY... enough of that.

Dinner was amazing. Soph had got a big shellfish platter for starter and then we had roast beef instead of the unbiquitous turkey. I took a break after the main course to have a Skype conference with Isla, KP and Matt which was great. Matt and KP are in the States at the moment so it was a bit of a trial run for how Skype is going to work when Isla and I are in Oz, Matt is in Glasgow and KP is in Swizerizerizerland. Was good to catch up and happy birthday to Matt the Christmas baby.

After that I headed back down the stairs and the most mental portion of profiteroles was waiting for me, double cream and all. Approximately 3 mins after that I thought I was goin to be sick. I wasn't, so I had some more.

Before I knew it it was time to go home and Xmas was over for other year. We are definitely getting older as this was "The driest year in history". I think in total I had about 5 drinks over the whole day and none on either side. It won't be long before Sophia is staggering in at 3am on Xmas eve saying "I've not been drinking, I'm just really tired... My friend spilt juice on me and I think it had vodka in it... Everyone else was smoking and now the smell is on my clothes". You get the picture (since you all did it when you were younger).

And that's it. Next year Xmas will be on a beach in the sun. Strange. Hope there will be plenty of people out there to share it with. And Saira, if I win the lottery between now and then I'll pay for you and Ross to come out for the Xmas Eve sandwich competition 2007!

Rent My Flat

It took a while but at last the flat is totally clean and ready to rent. If you know anyone that's looking for a place to stay then they can rent this place by getting in touch with Gilpro letting.

Isla is my saviour!

Did you ever watch the program "Malcolm in the Middle"? There is a great episode where Hal's wife leaves home for a few days and he goes totally mad. Well that's what's happening to me. I swear that Isla keeps me sane.

She left three days ago to take all her stuff up to her Mum's in Perth and she has been there since. She's spending her last few days, quite rightly, with her family before we head to Oz.

However, I've been in the flat by myself for the last few days (my folks keep the heat up so high in their house that the more time I stay away from their bit the better - I have a high fat content and would end up as a case of spontaneous human combustion if I stayed there for too long at a time) and everytime I find more booze to take down to Sophie's for Christmas, I end up drinking it! I'm turning into a jakie. I can't do without that girl. She keeps me correct in the head.

Thanks Babe. I owe you. X.

Phone unlocking

It seems that if you are moving to Oz (or any other country) then the best option for mobile phone issues is to get your phone unlocked and then buy a sim card out there. Simple enough yes?

No?

Nothing is ever simple in the life of Zain. First I go to this shop on Dumbarton Rd near my flat and two uber-weegies give me some rubbish chat about my phone being too difficult to unlock. You see, I just upgraded from my pretty basic Nokia (I've always loved Nokia phones) to a Motorola KRZR in a moment of weakness. The only other option I had was a Sony Erricson and I've broken 3 of those in one year before so I vowed never to go back to them. That said, the KRZR is actually quite a good phone (for a free upgrade). Then they phoned "the Man" and he said he could do it but it would cost £30 and take 3 days? What???

I told them exactly what they should do with their 3 day £30 "bargain" and went into town to find another shop that could help. There is a place under the bridge on Argyll St that I'd heard tell of and yes the guy could do it.

"Takes 15mins and will cost you £20 but I can definitely do it!" he says. "Go for it," I say.

However, it would appear that after putting all the pieces of the phone together, Motorola then dip the phone into liquid metal to coat all the circuits and make them impervious to tampering. So an hour and a half later all manor of tools, drills, screwdrivers and computer connections have been employed and nothing has happened. The bloke then mutters to me, "I've got to cut this bit of the phone open? You realise that is will invalidate your warranty?" No shit mate.

During this ordeal about half a dozen people come into the shop asking if he can unlock their phones. I kid you not when I tell you that he was able to unlock every one of these within seconds while still footering with mine. For one of them he simply shoved what can only be called a "doofer" into the charge-port of one and 3 seconds later is was unlocked!

No word of a lie, there was sparks coming off my phone as hs filed off metal plates and played about with the electronics. But eventually he proved true to his word and shouted "Your in business mate!". I was quite excited but I couldn't understand why he was so excited until he told me that my KRZR was the first one he'd unlocked!!!

Experiment with my phone will ya? Why I oughta...!

Well, job's a goodun and the phone still works. Australian Vodaphone Simcard here I come!

Amit Claus

Has anyone noticed that the stylised Santa in the Debenhams advert with the "santa baby" theme tune dances the same way Amit does? What a gimp.

Mission Impossible IV

Yeeeee Haaaaaa!

At last! With one working day left until Xmas I received an email from the Immigration people in Sydney saying that they have updated our visa details. It only took about twenty phone calls and emails to 3 different departments in the DIMA in Parramatta, but it's done.

We are finally and definitely heading to Oz. Now I a really excited. Special thanks to Steve at International Medical Recruitment for leading us by the hand every step of the last 12 months. For you medics out there who are thinking of going to Oz I definetly recommend going with these guy. They really have made everything easy moving to Sydney.

This is a test

For some reason I can't get the pictures from my photo album to link via URL to the blog. Everyone just gets a generic "myphotoalbum" pic instead of the real deal. I've just shoved this pic up directly from my computer to see if it works.

Charity begins at home

I do believe that if you have stuff that you don't need and you can't sell it then you should donate it to your local charity shop. However, it's a real shame that in this day and age so many people rely on the generosity of the public instead of the ability of their Government to provide for them.

Rant over.

So today I took a whole bunch of books and clothes to the British Red Cross. I suppose being from a medical background then this make sence as my charity of choice but alas it had nothing to do with that. It was the closest shop to where I parked the car. Books are heavy man!

Now I'm in a real state. I've pulled about 3 muscles in my back and I can't walk or sit without getting shooting pains down the right side of my back. Also I'm kinda stuck on the couch cause and I can't do any further packing until this goes away.

But the absolute worst thing about my predicament is that I've already taken all my DVDs and books to the folks so there in nothing to do in the flat and the only that is on TV just now is bloody Kevin Costner's Waterworld. I don't know what's worse, my back or Costner's rubbish acting. All this because I was trying to do a good deed!

Flit

Tonigh I moved a bunch of my stuff down to the olds house. 5 big boxes of DVDs, CDs and books and all my snowboard gear. It was all a bit of a disaster.

Firstly they wouldn't let me leave any of the stuff in the house since there was "no room". Bear in mind that they've got a 4 bedroom sandstone house in half an acre of land! Then they said that I would have to leave the stuff in the garage. I really don't mind this but the fact is that I'm sure my stuff is merely going to end up as rat nest material in that place. None-the-less I moved it in there as I don't really have a choice short of putting everything into storage.

But that wasn't the best bit of the night. That came when I when onto Dad's computer to show them this blog and Mum says "What a shame you're writing all this stuff and nobody has time to read it!"

It's great to know that you put in all this effort to make sure that you rellies are kept up to speed without having to wait for phone calls or letters but they don't have time to read a blog. Retirement must be rubbish. It seems to use up more time that when they were working. I'm beginning to regret my decision to get the whole family sorted out with Skype for their Christmas!!!

Anyway, because of the last paragraph, I'm writing this in on the assumption that it's not going to be read be the folks and if it is, well it's their own fault for lulling me into a false sense of security. That aside I'm eternally grateful for them looking after my rat-nest material for the next year (especially as they maintain that they are going to be moving house in the next 4 months. I'm sure at their age they'll pay some young 'uns to lift the boxes for them though!). I had to spend the rest of the night watching Barb Wire to make me feel better. Ah well, all's well that ends well.

Good-Bye to Chodda Boy

This sucks.

I've spent more and more of the last few months getting increasingly excited about leaving and going to Oz but over the last couple of weeks I've been saying cheerio to a growing number of mates. It's really dving it home that we are leaving.

Tonight I said my goodbyes to Amit. I think he's feeling the same way that I did about a year ago. MMC crushes the spirit of another NHS doctor. With a bit of persuasion I think he might find himself winging his way out to Oz in our slipstream.

Anyway buddy, was good to see you and stay in touch over the next year.

LOL!

So this has absolutely nothing to do with Oz but it is the funniest thing that I've ever seen on youtube.com and it's definitely worth watching. Enjoy. Click here to see the Star Wars Kid in action.

Things I Won't Miss in Glasgow

Anyone that watches any TV will realise that most of it nowadays is utter crap (with the exception of Planet Earth, Blue Planet, Lost and Battlestar Galactica). In particular I hate River City. Why would someone even dream up this rubbish. Quite possibly the worst program I've even had the misfortune to see. I'd rather spend all day in Daniel Craig's torture chair with that rope being whacked off my bits than hear anything about that show ever again.

This is also something that's totally mental about Glasgow. Everyone is out and about with chibs (that's a blade for all you folks not familiar with the lingo) like it's the same as wearing shoes. Last year Glasgow was rated "The city you are most likely to be stabbed in - IN THE WORLD!". Just to give you an example of how many stabbings there are, Glasgow Royal Infirmary treats 700 stabbings are year in Accident and Emergency and that number doesn't show any signs of decreasing.

I think everyone will agree that the weather in Scotland blows (literally). This picture accurately portrays the Scottish seasons. Apparently there was a couple of nice days this summer but I always seemed to be working when the sun was out so now I have bendy bones, pale skin and seasonal affective disorder. Today there is a chance of rain in Sydney - but it's 24 degrees!

This is a major problem in Scotland. I was a student for 10 years and spent a fair amount of it trying to find the elusive bottom of the bottle. In Feb of this year Isla and I did the Thirst For Life thingy which was a 40 day abstinence from alcohol. I have to say that it wasn't that hard but the main problem was that after about 10pm in Glasgow there is nothing to do. Seems a bit pointless to go to a pub or a club to drink diet coke. I realise that there is a big drinking culture in Australia but if you wanted to be tee-total at least there is plenty of other things to do as well.

Of all the things that I will miss the LEAST in Glasgow - well that would be the Neds. I'm absolutely positive that if you were to go on that game show where they say "We asked 100 people what the hated the most about Glasgow..." This one would be right up there, if not the top answer. I'm sure that there is the odd one that's OK but I've yet to meet him. The number of times I've been walking down the street (at any time of day or night) and heard that innane nasal chat is impossible to count. Also I hate the fact that every single one of them ESPECIALLY the ones under 16 posture continuously like they are on the verge of violence; usual without provocation or reason.

Perhaps there will be similar things that I dislike about Sydney and the rest of Oz but I severely doubt it.

Starship Trooper Action

So after my curry I opened a tasty bottle of Gamay from M&S and sat down to watch Starship Troopers. This is one of my favorite films. Not because it's any good but because it's one of the films that used to be on constantly in the Board Members Room of the GUU (along with Happy Gilmore). Many many many drinking games were played to these movies - remember "you can blow off a limb and it's still 86% combat effective" means you have to finish your drink!!!

Anyway, earlier on today I rescued Isla from a massive spider which was all of 1cm long and then we had a bit of a chat about the daemon spiders that are kickin about Oz and I think she had a bit of a panic. She was wanting a book of Aussie Spiders so that she would be able to identify the poisonous ones. However, I don't see how she's ever going to get close enough to one of them to tell whether it's black, white, short-legged, large-fanged, tree-dwelling or whatever.

Then during Starship Troopers I realised that when an arachnaphobe sees a spider it must be like Joe Bloggs seeing one of the "Bugs" from the movie like the one in the picture above. So I've decided to lay off the "don't worry about the spiders" chat. I'm sure that I'll have the odd natural world panic when we are out there too. Mind you, I've already had a red back bite and I don't fancy another one - EVER!

Merry Xmas when it comes

As you can see here, this is a Christmas tree. It's our tree from last year. Unforutnately by the time we went to buy decorations for it almost everything was sold our so most of them are homemade courtesy of Isla. Anyway, since we have practically moved out I thought I'd have a "virtual tree". Merry Crimbo everyone.

Moving Out

This is how the flat is looking now. Sad isn't it? We are in the process of moving out and it's a bit upsetting. I've had a great 2 years here and I hope we find just as nice a place to stay in Sydney.

Isla's Dad brought his van over today and all Isla stuff is gone and the place is totally barren. She's already headed up to Perth for Christmas and I'm going to be heading to the Olds hoose in the next few days. Moving should be so much more fun than this. In fact this is totally depressing. I think I'll head to Sainsbury's and get a curry and some vino to make myself feel better.

Clean up

Just thought you guys would like to see how much mess you made on the Crimbo dinner night! I gave up with bin bags and just dragged a wheelie bin up the stairs and shoved everything into it. Made things really easy and I recommend that method of clean up for anyone having a party in the future.

Anaesthetic Crimbo Dinner

Last night was our Xmas dinner for all the anaesthetic team at Monklands. It was great. We had the party at my flat which was catered by Morag Todd. The menu was awesome and everyone was stuffed by the end of dinner. We had gallons of wine and beer and people did their best to make a dent in it, however, Isla and I still have enough left to see us through the festive period.

A major thanks to everyone that pitched in with cleaning the dishes etc. Morag was astounded this morning. Much less work for her today I think.

After dinner Natasha and I ran the Xmas quiz and I'm happy to say that everyone got right into it. There was a lot of competitive streaks on display which was particularly evident by the fact that everyone was willing to "shock" themselves to gain/steal points. I wish that I'd managed to get more of it on film but unfortunately I didn't. I did however get a good clip of Scott Marshall doing an impression of an Orthopod by dragging his knuckles along the ground - chimp style.

It was amazing that everyone was so up for it. Leslie Baird was desparate to do a pole dance but alas we never got round to that. She did do a cartwheel though which almost ended in her crashing drunkenly into the TV. Tash's Tina Turner outfit was cool and I think her "Alien Lung Physiology" question stumped everyone. Ruth's Christmas chocolate balls were really tasty (I'm presently enjoying one of them).

The winners of the quiz got a big hamper full of tasty treats, booze and some fun stuff.

Anyway, the funniest part of the night happened once most folk had left. Rory's booze kicked in with avengance and he became midazolam-tastic with his dribble. If you click on the "my photos" link to the right you can see all the pics from the night.

Click here to see Rory talk nonsense.

I hope nobody gets offended by this but I felt like I had to put it up as normally it's me who's in this state and for once it was nice not to be. Honesty, Rory, I think I've found a drinking soul-mate!

Anyway, hope everyone enjoyed themselves. I had a great time!

Good bye to Matt and KP

Hey guys,

Just a wee note to say cheerio. Was great getting to meet up with you 2 tonight. Hope you manage to make it out too Oz to see us. Would be a shame if you didn't. Great curry tonight and even better company. Irish pipes in the flat at 1am - awesome.

ITU night out

Hey everyone,

I had a great night out with the ITU team. will really miss you lot. Thanks for keeping some scran.

Z

Mission Impossible III

I don't know why I hate him so much but Tom Cruise is insane. Fact! Also I don't know why I'm wasting so much time looking for JPEGs of Tom being a fool as he really doesn't have anything to do with my Visa (apart from a tenuous link to Mission Impossible and the fact that the second one was shot in Sydney). But I mean look at him!!! He's acting like a damn chimp! Click here to see Tom kill Oprah!

Anyway, 10 Minute phone call and another £10 down the drain.

The premium line does eventually get you through to someone that seems to have a clue but the first 5 mins go a bit like this...

"You've reached the Australian High Commission not-so-hot-line. The answers to most questions can be found on our website. That's www.immi.gov.au. Let me spell that for you w for world, w for wide, w for web, dot for dot, I for idiot, M for moron, M for mongo, I for Insane, dot for full-stop, G for Gawd Almighty, O for obtuse, V for visa?-ha-ha-you-ain't-getting-one, dot for period, A for awkward, U for useless. I'll repeat that for you...

...I'm sure that you get the picture. It's a real money earner for them I think. Anyway, eventually got through to someone who seemed to know their stuff. There was no pausing to look things up on her computer or being put on hold while she asked a collegue. However, she did say that we had to fill in more forms (like that bit in Wayne's World 2 where they try to get the permit for Waynestock) and that we had to send them to the issuing office.

THE ISSUING OFFICE!!! That's the fools who told us to go on this wild goose chase in the first place. This whole thing has been like shopping for shoes with a chick; try 42 pairs on in 13 different stores and then go back to the first shop and buy the original pair.

So, the forms are filled out and scans of the new pasports have been sent and hopefully we'll hear from them by the morning. At least we don't have to take a trip to London (yet!).

Mission Impossible II

As this image shows, Tom Cruise is a whack-job mentalist. However, he is not alone. It would seem that after our 2nd Trip through to Edinburgh today the people who run the Australian Consulate are also mentalists.

This time we found the place without a problem and were greated by a nice sectretary who said that there were 3 people in front of us and we should just take a seat on one of the nice lobby couches. When I say lobby, I mean it was more of a hallway that had a ridiculous amount of through-traffic from all the other companies that share that building (I counted 23 on the plaquard behind the receptionist) and weirdly they all seemed to use the same receptionist. Although to her everything was "no problem" and by the 15th time she had said that down the phone I wanted to beat her within an inch of her life with the Bill Bryson novel that Isla was reading.

After about 45 minutes a plump girl with less dress sense than colour-blind cave-woman that buys her mirrors from "the Hall of Mirrors" and shops at the Sally-Army called us into The Consultate. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when the consulate official showed us into her office and it looked a great deal like this one <-------. There was a single desk, three chairs, a small filing cabinate and a wastepaper basket. I don't really know what the bin was for as the only things on the desk were a pen, a pad of post-it notes (the small ones) and a rubbish plastic Australian desk-flag. There certainly wasn't anything electronic and no sign of a computer.

None-the-less we told the girl of our situation and she said that "The Consulate" only deals with passports in her jumbled accent (actually think that she was Canado-Pole working in the Australian Consulate in Scotland - Mentalists I tells ya!). Instead she phones her head office and they give her the number for some department in the High Commission in London that deals with this kind of thing. So we thank the girl and she says something along the lines of "Good luck wubba weeba and have a bree brinnng great mungbean holiday" like a fat Polish R2-D2/Jar-Jar cross. (She wasn't that bad but I was getting a bit worked up with the fact that we'd spend loads of time trying to sort this mess out and so far not really got anywhere. It's not that I don't like going through to Edinburgh. It's just that it reminds me how shit Glasgow is.)

Anyway we headed home and got into the flat just after 4pm. I pulled the number out of my backpack which was stuck to my passport (don't you love Post-its?) and called it. It rang once then went to an automated message. I'll not bore you with the details but 3 things are important 1) "This is only a message. To speak to a human you'll have to phone our other number 2) their offices are only open 9am-4pm and so it was already closed for the day and 3) the number it gave us to call was a premium rate £1 per minute number! The irony of all this was when Jar2-D2 was writing down the number she told us "Call this one as the one on the website costs £1 per minute beep beep". ARGH!!!

So far this caper has cost us about £40 in train and underground tickets and we are still none the wiser as to what we are supposed to do about our visa/passport mix up. If they tell us tomorrow that we have to go to London I'll... well I don't know what I'll do as we have neither the time, the cash, nor the inclination to go down there, especially at this time of year. I guess we'll find out in about 15hours.

Mission Impossible!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to try and find the Australian Consulate in Edinburgh.

I swear that the place doesn't exist.

Isla and I headed through to the 'Burg yesterday as we needed to rectify a faux pas that we made with our visa. We recently updated our passports to those new ones with the micro chips in them so that Big Brother can have an easier time tracking our movements and the powers that be can continue their War of Terror (as Borat put it!) by knowing where their friendlies are so that they can abuse their power by fingering me in the airports (up yours Denver!).

Anyway, the new passports have different numbers which don't correspond to the ones that are on the Electronic Visa acceptance thingy, so we had to head to the Consulate to try and get the numbers changed.

I dare you to have a look on the Net for the Consulate and see if you can find a) more than 1 page with the same address on it and b) a phone number that works and doesn't just go to a crappy info line.

After not baeing able to find it at 69 George St (a derelict doorway) I phoned and 118-118 and they said that is was 93. So we tried this building called Forsythe House and it was just a bunch of accountants. Then I phoned my mate and he looked on the Net again and said that it was 83 (this is on the Australian Government website incidently). But alas, no, There was just some banks and hairdressers around this area. So I phoned another mate who works for the Scotish Exec. and he said that it was 93 (again) so we headed back to Forsythe House and looked again at the brass plated buzzers in the doorway.

Sure enough there WASN'T a sign for the Consulate. There was however, a tiny white piece of paper stuck down with some selotape which said "For Buisnesses not listed here please ring this buzzer" which we did.

The quietest voice in the world said "hello?" which , with my ear pressed against the panel, I could hardly hear.

"Hi, I'm looking for the Australian Consulate" I shouted, assuming that she was probably unable to hear me also, although in hind-sight she was probably thinking "I wish people would stop shouting into the mic down there".

"Wait a moment!"

I wait a moment then her voice whispers back.

"Sorry it's not open today. It's only open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 1pm to 4pm".

What a load of crap. Working for the consulate (note I've stopped using a capital letter as they don't deserve it) must be the cushiest job in the world. Anyway, looks like we are going to be heading back there tomorrow. Oh well, a few more hours away from the Neds can't be a bad thing.

Tenacious D-light

OMG,

what a great night. For those of you that couldn't make it to the D concert, you really missed out. It was wicked. Isla and I were standing about 50m from the stage but I think that Tim and Co had a better view as they were seated up the back.

Of course the finale was Tribute and we though it was ace. Certainly much better than sittin in the Brechin in Govan having pints before hand with isla and thinking that the whole bar was about to give me a kickin' (of course before the 4c crew pitched up!).

Anyway, good night and good pre-concert chat with everyone from 4C Design.

Z

Locum headaches

Last night was fun.

Met Jo, Steven, Davy and Alan for some drinks in November. True to their word, there were no tables available. We were sitting at one that appeared to be not reserved but within ten minutes an over efficient waiter had stuck a "reserved from 4:30pm" sign infront of us. Rubbish!

However, Jo gave him some chat and he managed to put together a "reject" table for us in the corner.

We stayed there till about 7pm them did a wee food run up Buchannan St. Chips all round (although some weight-watchers had sandwiches from Sainsburys instead - I don't really understand why people would bother going out on the piss but watch their figures when it comes to food on the same night out?!?).

Then we headed to Bunker and again Jo managed to get us a table. I'm too honest for my own good though as I went up to the bar and ordered 2 bottle of white-fizz. When I got the reciept the guy had only charged me £0.50!!! Of course I blurted out "sorry mate, I think you've under-charged me" which resulted in my wallet being £30 lighter! D'oh.

Anyway, ended up being really quite wasted and thankfully Isla got me home. Of course we did go via the Chinese and I had some awesome kung-po chicken. However, I was hoping to have less of a hangover than I've got just now as I'm doing a shift at the Western later and I feel rubbish. At least I don't start till 1pm and once that shift is over I'll only have 2 more shifts EVER before going to Oz.

Groan!

Well I decided to go to the Grand Opening of the new M&S next door. Unfortunately I am writing this with one hand and I'm using the other to clutch my groaning stomach.

I just couldn't resist the fantastic array of gastronomic delicacies on offer and decided to indulge. It was a bit of a weird event. The carpark was the fullest that I've ever seen it and there was balloons and all manor of other tat outside the shop. Inside there was a 2-piece band (whom I just missed while they were taking a break) and there was champers and bucks-fizz for free.

The shop itself was the usual M&S affair. All the layout and selection was the same as every other M&S however, the clientelle were a bit different. All the old ladies with purple rinses and too many shopping bags were replaced with suits (a fair proportion of them I suspect were M&S employees) all purchasing sushi and hoi-sin duck.

I can't say that I was that willing to leave but my basket was filling up with enough food for 2 lunches so I hoi-sin ducked out ASAP having spent £13 (about £10 more than I wanted to spend - curse you Percy Pig). I was also feeling a bit too domesticated so I've just watched Jeremy Clerkson race an Apache Helecopter gunship round a race track in an Lotus while trying to avoid getting a missile lock - Awesome!

Anyway onto the honey roasted cashew nuts...

This isn't a joke, this is an M&S joke!

Can you believe it? 20 days before we are due to leave for sunnier climes, M&S opens it's new "simply food" shop next door to our flat!

I'm gutted that I'll only have just under 3 weeks to eat my fill of lush M&S food. It opens today at 10am so I'm going to head over and see what yummy stuff they have on offer and stuff myself prior to this afternoons drinking sesh with the ITU staff.

Quiz antics

So last night Natasha and I spent about 4 hours trying to put the finishing touches on the Crimbo quiz that we are running for the Monklands anaesthetic crew post-xmas din-dins.

Managed to get it all done but unfortunately we had to drink 2 bottles or red vino-collapso and the better part of a crate of Coors (but chill your waste-bands; it was the low-cal Coors light stuff!). Also we had "Be good to yourself" chow for dinner so that means I can enjoy the beer I'm having at the moment, guilt free!

Watching Scrubs just now... Molly, Jordan, Carla or Elliott??? (Look away now Isla!). Molly/Elliott sandwich I think.

ANYWAY, got the quiz done and then spent ages (being forced) to watch cat clips on utube! Just kidding Tash. Then started watching Dog Soldiers but only got to the bit where they get to the house and then I fell asleep. I'm good at that (former Olympic champion). Think my own snores woke me and then we called it a night. Sure Tash got home safe as she left a very amusing 3am entry on her Blog (doesn't that sound a bit kinky/wrong/dirty?).

No just Molly would suffice...

So back to the quiz. Think that it's going to rock and hopefully we'll get a few funny pics out of it and some good Monklands memories to take to Oz. Although I am still having a mental about how we are going to get enought tables in the flat for 20 people! Any ideas?

Good-bye Monklands

So yesterday was my last day at Monklands Hospital. I was quite sad to leave as it's been a great 16 months and I can definitely recommend working in the Anaesthetic/ITU dept for any of you medics out there. Highly supportive medical staff with that are eager to teach and don't treat you like a minion, combined with a great set of theatre/ITU/recovery nurses, makes for a fantastic working environment.

I've learnt loads during my time there and I'm sure all of it will stand me in good stead for my A&E Reg job in Sydney.

Anyway just wanted to say thanks to you all and if you are off on Friday the 8th Dec then I'm going to be in November in Princes' Square for a few beers starting from 3pm so I hope you can join us.