Kapasi Catch-up

Hello everyone. I've been a bad bad boy and not written anything for ages so here's a bit of a round up.

Last time I wrote I spoke about Newcastle and since then we have been quite busy. If you've been keeping an eye on the 365 blog then you will notice that we went up to the Hunter Valley a couple of weeks ago. It was an awesome experience and if any of you make your way over here then we'll have to take you up there. There are something like 120 vineyards up there and we only made it to five of them. Mind you that was enough - I don't think that we could have handled any more wine by the end of that day.

The week after that we went to The Blue Mountains for the weekend. We took the train up into the "mountains" and spent a couple of nights at Peppers Fairmont Hotel which was excellent. There were several great bush walks and we had a fantastic time. Although it's a really nice place to visit, there isn't really much to do. The views are amazing but once you've seen one of them the rest seem much the same.




The Three Sisters are really the highlight but it's not much of a highlight. If you've ever spent some time up in the North of Scotland then there really much here that will stun you. That said, it is a nice place to visit and I would go up there again. I think though, that I'd just want to spend the whole period in the hotel where there are lots of ways to spoil ones self. Leura (the town we stayed in) is really quaint and there is lots of little chocolate shops and cafes etc. You could easily spent you time here without even going to see the vistas.

Other than those two trips what else have we been up to?

Well, we've been to the cinema a couple of times and far in away the funniest film I've seen in ages was "Hot Fuzz". I had just come of nights and Isla and I went to see it at 4pm so I'd been up for 22 hours and was almost asleep when the film started. I was trying hard to stay awake but for those of you who have seen the film, the bit where the two cops figure out that one of the dead women liked older men because "When I was in school my mates older brother @*%£#!^* her up the ?%£$ &^%*" (sorry but I had to sensor that bit for the folks), well that bit cracked me up and I was in hysterics for about 5 minutes after that. You must see this film. It is totally wacky and incredibly funny - especially for people how haven't been in the UK for a few months.


Also a couple of weeks ago Matt emailed me telling me about a really funny episode of South Park he'd just watched that reminded him of me and other computer geeks (season 10 episode 8 if you are interested Amit) and it's about World of Warcraft. For those of you who do know about this it's an online computer game that months ago I said to Isla I wouldn't buy. However, having laughed my head off at the episode I bought the game and now can't stop playing it.

Ross if you are reading this - Remember that adventure game that you used to play on the xbox (I think it was Neverwinter Nights or some such) well this is much the same but seems to be infinitely large and the game keeps going on and on. You must watch that episode of South Park first though as it totally hits the nail on the head about the futility of these games. None the less I'm finding myself a bit addicted.

Work is still good and it's a bit weird being the senior. I've not had a JHO since I did ortho and it's strange having interns and residents asking me (of all people) for advice and opinions about treating their patients. Emergency here is a bit more involved than A&E back home as you are expected to stabilise, diagnose, treat, formulate a plan, do all the paper work, organise further investigations, admit under the appropriate consultant etc. So if things are not done when the consultant does his ward round in the morning then it's your fault, not that of his "team". It's certainly been a learning experience and I would encourage anyone who's having problems with MMC to head out here for a year until the dust settles in the UK.

The weather is still awesome but there is definitely a change in the air. When you are out of the sun you can feel a bit of a chill. I cycled home from work the other day at 8am (and almost died but that's another story) and my finger tips were frozen from the cold. Within a few minutes I'd warmed up but the message was that the season is changing. I guess that I'm used to the temp here now and if I was arriving tomorrow then I'd be boiling.

One major issue that's got me down recently is that I've just found out that GRI are no longer able to keep me a "Run-Through" job for coming home in Feb 2008. That's really pissed me off as one of the main reasons for coming away was that I'd have the safety net of a job to come back to. It seems that's not the case anymore. I don't blame the Royal - it seems that they have had the options taken out of their hands which is a shame.

So when I heard about that it pretty much sealed my plan for 2008. I'm going to come home and finish the MCEM exams and apply for MTAS - ST3 in A&E - and I'll NOT be planning to stay in Glasgow. Once I've been allocated a job for August I'll be selling the flat and getting out of the city. I don't know yet where I'll be applying but I think I've had enought of 'Vegas. I'm sure that won't come as a shock to any of you but there it is.

The only other thing I wanted to tell you about is how amazing our latest purchase is. We were trying to find a George Foreman grill here but we couldn't find one anywhere. Instead we had to settle for a Breville but to be honest I'm loving it. I've been cooking everything on it. I don't know how I ever did without one. Tonight Isla is at her dance class and I'm sorting us out with chicken and veg skewers with lemon, honey, black pepper and corriander marinade. Should be great.

Anyway, I'll try to keep up to date on this a bit more. If you've been reading the 365 Challenge you'll see that I've just gone passed the 100 mark which is exciting. I realise that a great deal of that is different wines and beers but when you are working in a place it really is difficult to do, try, taste and see different things every day. It means that I have to make up for my work days during the days off. We've out together a bit of a plan for the future and we've got some great trips planned over the course of the next 8 months. Stay tuned.