Today some of the guys from work wanted to go for lunch. We were all off work and I thought a couple of pints with them and some chow would go down well. However, they wanted to meet at a bar in Hornsby and luckily for me there was a guitar shop nearby and I'd been thinking about splashing out on one. When I say splashing out I really mean buying the cheapest guitar in the shop. This one was about the equivalent of £70 so it didn't really destroy the bank balance too much.

After that I rushed to the pub to meet some of the guys. We ended up spending about 6 hours there playing pool and chatting. I think I've managed to get most of them to commit to buying a bike and joining the bike club. Tomorrows cycle looks like there are going to be about 8 of us on the cycle and it should be a bit of a laugh. Hopefully I'll get some good pics and chat to post on the 365 website.

Rocky Bal-boring (almost)

I had a day off and the weather was still plsying up. The inaugural cycle of the Respiratory Cyclists was cancelled as there was too much water on the roads and lately I'd discovered that I don't stop at 50km/h on a road bike in the wet - especially since the brakes are pish. I want my disc brakes back!

I went up to the Chatwswood cinema instead and bought a ticket for Rocky Balboa. Where do I start? It was...OK. There are some ultra-cheesy rants by Stallone and a bit of fake tears going on near the start but the premise is quite good. Also is worth spending an hour wandering through shite script to get to the fight scene at the end. Not as emotional as the first couple but still drums up a few butterflies when he's punching it out in the ring. Perhads a 3 out of 5.

While I was in there I got a text from Isla. She was wanting to go to the cinema later that night to see Ghostrider. The trailers looked pretty good and 2 movies in one day are no big deal besides it was Tuesday and the cinema prices are discounted.

Oh Dear, what a pile of crap. I'm normally a fan of Marvel Comic film adaptations but this was a bad as the time they screwed up the film "Spawn" or the time they had to remake the end of "Spiderman" because of the 911 incident. There was really no plot and it was full of plot mistakes. Also the acting was guff which was to be expected. I have to say that Nick Cage does a really good impression of Ben Stiller at the end of "Meet the Parents" when he's talking to the mirror that has a video camera in it. Other than that complete rubbish - 1 out of 5.

Dragon Fly Physics

I was on the train to work yesterday and I had a sudden revelation.

It was pouring outside as the train trunddled along the track and my mind was just wondering, thinking about nothing, when I dragon fly flew into the carriage and started hovering just infront of me.

I had that feeling like the time I came up with the thought "If the dirtiest part of the body is the mouth, do you think cat's lick their arse to clean their mouth?"

My thought was this... we are in the carriage and the dragon fly is hovering. However, the train is moving. So is the dragon fly hovering or infact is the dragon fly flying forward at the same speed as the train. Afterall Newton's first law is every body continues in it's uniform motion unless some external unbalanced force acts upon the body. Not that this is really relevant in this situation by I wanted to prove that I learned something in high school physics.

So to me it looked like the dragonfly was hovering yet it's not part of the train and it's not attached to the train. My conclusion was that because the air in the train was moving at the same speed as the carriage therefore the dragonfly didn't have to fly forward.

I bet your glad you read this!

Drought My Ass!

The whole time that I've been here they've been going on about it being the worst drought in 100 years and how there is no rain for the farmers and how they are going to have to start drinking recycled sewerage and how the Murray River is 50 meters lower than normal and how you must shower using dust and a stick and how the toilet is not for flushing but only there to provide your bathroom with some interesting fragrances, etc, etc, etc.

How come then I keep getting bloody soaked on my bike when I'm coming home from work??? I don't just mean a little wet, I mean completely ringing! Tonight the downpour was so bad that I didn't so much as cycle home as aquaplane home. At one point I tried to put on my brakes for a red light and the bike just happily slid it's way through the intersection without even leaving a skid. Luckily it was 1am and there wasn't much in the way of traffic.

Oh well, at least it's warm - even when it's raining!

Bored to the max!

I don't know what the hell was going on this evening but there were 5 of us in the department and there was no patients to see. When I say no patients to see I don't mean that we had run out of beds in the department, nor were we being bed-blocked by the surgeons or orthopods, nor were we full but just waiting for results having seen everyone.

I mean there were not patients!!! We had only 3 in the whole Dept and they were all about to go home. It was torrential outside and I think everyone had decided to stay home and nurse their MIs and strokes by themselves.

From this picture you can see that we had nothing to do - (from left to right) MD looks mad probably because I was so bored that I shouted at him a bit just to give me something to do, David is reading a $2 gossip "Heat" style mag! Carl has just spent 30mins trying to come up with something for us all to do next week when we are all off together (which I think will end up involving beers, poker and shouting at MD) and Luis in the distance is checking his email.

Things were so boring that I even had time to go outside and spend about an hour pissing about in the rain with my camera trying to get a good shot of the dept. Briefly the rain stopped and I got this pic which shows how nice and shiney Hornsby's new Emergency Dept is. It really is a great dept and basically it's a slightly smaller version of the layout at the Royal in Glasgow (only sees about a quarter of the patients though!)

One thing that happened tonight that was interesting or amusing depending upon how you look at it was a man with iatrogenic priapism (go look it up if you don't know what it means). For all you women out there that say "You men don't know what pain is! You should try giving birth!" well this has to be a close second as he'd had it for 24 hours and was in agony. The treatment of sticking a big needle into the poor guys penis wasn't much better and definitley one to bring a tear to the eye of even the hardiest of souls.

Hopefully, tomorrow evening will be a bit busier and will involve less mutilation of peoples genitalia.

Respiratory Cyclists

I know that it's a bad pun but this is the name of the Hornsby Emergency Dept Cycle Group that I'm starting up. I've set up a new Blog for it and a Ride Calender etc, so check it out and see what you think - any ideas will be greatly received.

Respiratory Cyclists

Good bye to Aly and Elizabeth

Howdy readers. Sorry I've not posted for a while but Aly and his wife Elizabeth were staying with us for the last 6 days and it was awesome to have some familiar faces about.

We managed to spend a fair amount of time together as Isla was off all weekend and I was off from Monday till Thursday which was great. I took a few pictures of the weeks antics and here follows a few of the pics and brief history of what we were up to at the time.

This was taken outside the Chinese Gardens of Friendship in Darling Harbour. We thought it would be nice to chill out in the gardens and have a blether but unbeknownst to us there was a cover charge and we were feeling a bit cheap. Then Elizabeth came out with the class line of "I'm sure we'll see plenty of these in China!" so we dingied the gardens and went for a boost juice instead. I felt chilled after that anyway!

Darling Harbour has loads of fountains and water features and we had quite a bit of fun playing in them. This feature was really cool but it's labyrinthine construct had Elizabeth stumped for a while and she couldn't find her way to the center!

All that water and Boost Juices made Aly a bit desperate for the toilet and when he couldn't hold it any more he ended up doing the most spectacular impression of a thoroughbred racehorse.

Over the week we did a reasonable amount of beer tasting (although not to excess of course) but here is Elizabeth showing us all how it's done. You gotta love the Stein!

We also went to see the QE2 which has been moored in the Harbour for a few days. This pic looks crap but actually the bloke with the white shirt on is Tim Bailey, one of the local weather men (channel ten I think) so I thought I'd kill 2 birds with 1 stone and save a few kilobytes!

All in all it was amazing having you guys visit and you know you're welcome back anytime. Isla and I would be delighted to have you stay again (and Aly - hopefully my kick will be better by then!!!)

Magical Mystery (Cycle) Tour

I had another week day off and as always during the week its difficult to find stuff to do that doesn't cost at least some moolah.

After some pondering I had a look at the map of the North Sydney suburbs and thought I should take the opportunity to get on the bike and explore some of the local coast line. I didn't think that the traffic would be too bad as most of the streets leading out to the coast are not main roads.

Sure enough, there wasn't that much in the way of traffic. I first stopped off at Stanton Library to drop off some books of Isla's, and I actually took the time to join for myself. It's such a nice library and it's in a lovely part of town with nice parks and buildings around it. The local council buildings are there also and there is a beautiful fountain just off to the left of this picture (which I forgot to photograph - sorry). I was good to get rid of all those books from my back pack and it made the cycling a lot easier.

After leaving there I headed over to the North Sydney Oval and sat in the park and had another look at the map. It seemed easy enough to make my way to some of the coastal lookout points so after watching some old men playing bowls I jumped on the bike and went in search of the sea. From the park there really is only one road that you can take and that's Miller Street. It divides that part of North Sydney in two and the only other main road there is the Freeway.

Over the next hour I spent all my time scouting around Miller St and the adjacent streets trying to find a way to the coast. Sure there were plenty of roads that supposedly led to the various coves and lookout points but they were all mentally steep. It didn't matter where I went. Every road was practically vertical and reinforced the difficulty in cycling in Sydney - it's incredibly hilly. I certainly don't have a problem with going down hill but the thought of trying to cycle back up them was far too daunting and I ended up bailing out. Instead I just cruised around the suburbs and enjoyed the sun and my time off work.

In total I spent about 2 hours just checking out all the different streets in the area and working up a sweat on the bike without even realising it. The more time I spend in Sydney, them more I like it and buying the bike was definitely one of the best things I've bought since I've arrived. People at work have noticed that I'm cycling to the hospital and a few of them have started blowing off the cob-webs from their own bikes and there is now chat about getting a big group together once or twice a month to go cycling. Apparently there is some amazing cycle routes north of the hospital so it'll be fun exploring those with some of the locals.

Day Off!

If you have a day off back home, what do you do? Normally my plans revolved around trying to find someone to get pissed with and then spending the next day hung over, eating chinese food or Dominos and watching DVDs (that I've already seen 10 times). I'm sure you're all familiar with that.

Well here things are totally different. I've not really seen any evidence of the drunken beer culture that i was expecting - seven weeks since we've left home and we still haven't felt the need to over do the booze. So today, even though I was off, I was still up at 6:30am for a swim and then spent the rest of the day at Rocky Point, chilling out and reading my book. Not that I want you all to feel jealous but are you jealous?

However, i did have that crap walk back up the hill to the bus stop and by the time I was at the top I was soaking. Believe me, it's steeper than it looks and it's definitely longer than this photo makes it out to be.

Buckfaster!

Howdy everyone.

I know that this has nothing to do with Australia but it was such a funny photo and I thought I should share it with all of you. Thanks Glendo for sending ti to me - reminds me of why I'm so happy not to be in Glasgow!

The Newly-Weds...

No we didn't come here to elope!

Aly and his wife, Elizabeth, are dropping into Sydney on Friday for a few days on their honeymoon/busmans holiday/world tour thing. It's gonna be great to see some familiar faces and have a beer and a chat with someone without being asked "where abouts in Ireland are you from?" in the first 2 minutes!

Bring it on cuz. There's beer in the fridge and the forecast is for sun sun sun!

Home Sweet Home

I had just come off night shift and I was pretty knackered. Isla was talking about going to the beach and much as I wanted to go I thought that I needed to get some shut eye. So after doing a bit of emailing anf some stuff about the flat I headed to bed. Isla said cheerio and went to get a bus over to Balmoral Beach to enjoy the sun.

I'd been asleep for about 30mins and was woken up by an increadibly loud hissing sound and it took me a while to realise that it was pouring like mad outside. We had the washing outside drying so I jumped up and went out onto the balcony to bring the clothes horse in.

All I could think of was "well this reminds me of home!" and then I remembered that Isla was at the beach. Poor girl. These pics will show you exactly how bad a soaking Isla must have been getting at the beach.

Death to the Bean

Our Bean is no more.

Poor bugger. Beanjamin (as we'd come to call him) exploded. I don't quite know what happened but last night he was doing his job helping us get our washboard stomachs then this morning he had given up the ghost and deflated.

Turns out he burst a seam which is really annyoying. Perhaps it was his was of telling us that we are fatties and the only people that can use him safely are TV body models from infomercials.

At least we have the receipt so he can be replaced. Shame.

Should I stay or should I go?

I don't quite know the point of this post but I think that it's a way for me to sum up some things that I like about Sydney and some things that I don't like.

Well I could spend all day talking about all the good things out here. Everything is new. There is loads of cool things to do and try. The people are friendly. The weather is great. There are no neds. Patients are appreciative. Transport is good. Exercise is promoted heavily. Fresh food is everywhere. Working conditions are good. Beer is cheap. Wine is everywhere. Although I'm a tax payer, I'm also a tourist. Everyone is enviroment conscious. It's cosmopolitan. There's a million cultures here including aboriginal culture. There is no stress.

On the down side... I would like to know a few more people here. I'm used to walking up Byres Rd and meeting a bunch of people that I know. Here I don't know anyone appart from my work collegues and they live in a 30 mile scattered radius around the hospital. That's my only real issue. I suppose it's easy to know everyone when you live in the city that you went to Uni at.

Honestly there isn't a single thing that I'm not enjoying in Sydney apart from that. I'm not in the slightest home sick and I'm so glad to be away from Glasgow and getting to see another culture. However, it would be good if there were a few of the gang here.

For all you medics out there - it beats the hell out of MTAS!!!!!!!

Open door to you all should you that are thinking about visiting/moving.

Top Chow!

I was watching TV with Isla and we were planning what to have for dinner. We banded about a few ideas but before we decided on the evening's menu my phone rang.

It was an annonymous number but since I don't really know anyone here I thought it might be someone from home so I answered it. Alas, I was wrong. It was work and the consultant was mumbling something down the phone along the lines of...

"Eh, tonight's senior is not able to come in as his kids are sick and his mum's just been admitted to hospital. Any chance you could come in and cover his shift?"

I didn't really have time to think up an excuse and I've only just started in the department so I'm still having to make a good impression. So instead of having a tasty meal with Isla on my day off, I found myself getting on the train for a 10 hour night shift.

The night wasn't too bad apart from the 3 hours I spent holding down a massive first-presentation psych patient with florid symptoms while trying to inject midazolam into a vein in his foot. After he settled down I spent ages trying to get to the bottom of why he thought he had "nitrogen compounds coming out his nose" and why the "bacteria in his body was causing build up of anaesthetics in his lungs and putting him to sleep?"

Quite a crazy night - literally, so when I was on my way home I thought that I deserved something to replace the meal I missed last night.

These bruchetta are amazing and really easy to make. We came up with the recipe by accident but their are so tasty that I had to share it with you so here goes...

1. Chop a couple of fresh on-the-vine tomatoes and mix in a bowl with fresh chopped basil, rock salt, ground black pepper and balsamic vinegar.

2. Half a baguette length-wise and coat the insides with chopped garlic and olive oil then grill for 5 minutes under the grill

3. Add the tomato mix to the top of the baguette halves and grill for another 5 minutes.

4. Eat!

5. Sit back, pat your stomach and grin.

Celeb-watch

I totally forgot to mention it, but a few weeks ago I was walking along Circular Quay and I happened to bumped into Mike Skinner from The Streets. Unfortunately he seemed to be in a bit of a rush so I didn't get a chance to ask for a photo so you'll just have to do with this one.

Turkish Bath

I got up for a swim this morning and what greeted was me a face full of steam as I opened the pool door. The place was roasting and it seemed that the heating control for the water was broken. As I got in the pool it felt more like a jacuzzi than a swimming pool but I managed to get 40 lengths in before the heat totally got to me.

It wasn't until I got out the pool that I realised how murky the water was and I think that there has been some bacterial goodies growing in there for a few days. If you don't hear from me for a few days then I've probably been admitted to the hospital with Legionella or some other crazy water-bourne illness.

Our Pit!

Whooo Haaaa!

No more sleeping on the floor. We've been on an inflatable mattress for over 2 weeks now and much as it's been reasonably comfortable, I'm sick of waking up pretty much on the deck. Also it need pumped up every few days and that's a chore that I can't be bothered with.

Anyway this bed is amazing and cost us relatively little in the sales. It's awesome!

"Old Woman Attacks Train Passenger"

What the hell is up with old people?

I was on my way to work the other day and I was sitting on the train engrosed in my book. Opposite me was an old dear that got on a few stations after me. She seemed harmless enough as they always do but I was totally mistaken.

About 5 minutes after she got I felt somethink smack off my cheek and land on my lap. It was an orange boiled sweet and the old women had thrown at me. I looked up and she was sucking away on a similar bit of confectionary and sort of grunted at me. I didn't really know what to do next but the sweet was still wrapped so I think she was offering it as a gesture of kindness as opposed to actually trying to take my eye out.

So I said thank you and opened it and popped it into my gob half expecting to start having some crazy acid-induced trip. However, this seemed not to please her because she started making a face like one of the Hobbits does in the First Lord of the Rings when Gandalf drives his cart past the old boys house setting of fireworks while the old hobbit is raking the garden.

Thankfully my stop was right after that so I boosted out of there ASAP is case she started hitting me with her walking stick for no reason. Mentalist. Sweet was good though and I didn't get a hit of it.