So not a lot happened yesterday - met my project supervisor, decided on a project, did some reading, that kind of thing. The project is cool. Not sure how much to disclose, so going with the minimal approach here, just in case (Project is preciousssss). Suffice to say, it involves eye disease genes (duh) and direct-to-consumer genetic screening companies (oooOOOooo).
Oh, and FPAS screwed up big time. No longer sure if going to Notts - it's basically back to square one as they manually re-check every paper.
Science happened. You know, the kind with a capital S, and spoken in the voice of GLaDOS. Fortunately test subject losses were limited.
Today, it was like day 1 of proper work. I turned up at the office for my early (...10 am) start, and did more Science. The office is lovely - air con, spacious, good internet, a sofa, and a large table-tennis table are all highlights. I browsed the internet on a high-speed, free connection with no limits (finally). I chatted and made a new friend with the junior ophthalmologist who was sitting next to me, preparing to teach med students tomorrow (also part of Mackey's Lackeys) - by which I mean that I waxed lyrical at him about the failures of FPAS and explained how the UK system of med students->doctors works. It takes a long time to explain. This may indicate why there are so many problems. Food for thought.
I played table tennis at lunch time, and lost both games (21-8, 21-10, respectively) to opponents who had clearly been playing more than me recently, judging by their scores on the whiteboard in the office. My initial, the solitary 'P', now has its pride of place squidged on the end of the league table, with two tallies in the 'L' column. Good start. However, I am determined to rectify this over the next 5 weeks left. I have all the tactics, but pulling them off never quite worked. I lost count of how many times the 'perfect' backspin floater *just* landed on my own side of the net. Shots to their corner were just a tad overpowered. Little things. It'll come back to me. Hand eye coordination clearly out of practice. Need to play more.
Found out FPAS and Finals are now out on the same day, next Friday (8/3/12). Eeeeeeeeeeeep.
Struggling a little bit for dinner options - no kettle means pasta takes longer than I'd like, but the supermarket doesn't sell microwave meals or even oven-based ready meals of any substance bar pizza - was looking for something like a chinese/indian ready meal a la Sainsburys & co, but they only have pot noodle equivalents. I am sometimes a man of odd principles. This is one principle I have set myself. I will not eat microwaveable cardboard 'flavoured' noodles. Besides, they probably need boiling water, which defeats the object of what I'm looking for anyway...So I'm eating pasta and boiling the water in the saucepan, like a pro. Starting to need variety though. Bought a microwaveable pack of chinese-style posh rice, to have with chicken. May go all out and eat at a restaurant over the weekend, because I can - yeah that's right, I'm kind of a high flyer. Gotta keep up with my fast living.
Also, it turns out I've been over-estimating the costs here, which is nice. Means I can spend a bit more without feeling so guilty all the time. $15 = £10, which means that actually the $16 pizzas in the restaurants are about right. This had earlier outraged me, but my head calculator was apparently wrong. Yay.
Freedom Day weekend coming up - all that means to me is "Bank Holiday Monday". Good times.
Thursday 28 February 2013
Tuesday 26 February 2013
Tuesday
I'm starting to question if I'll do one of these for every day. Probably not if it gets routine and boring or I get too busy.
Today was almost routine and boring, except I remembered why genetics research was cool after Prof Mackey practised a lecture on us that he's giving tomorrow evening. Very interesting, and actually pointed out some practical applications of this stuff, about knowing how to modify therapies appropriately once we know how much of a disease is really genetic and how much is environmental.
Lots of twin studies in collaboration with Mr Hammond (the consultant ophthalmologist who recommended I go here in the first place, and a very nice man I met pre-medschool during work experience) with interesting results about different squint types being either completely environmental (smoking during pregnancy is bad - we knew this already, but now we can 'threaten' with the fact that their kids won't be able to watch 3D movies, you know, alongside the risks of birth defects etc.) or completely genetic.
He's also written an interesting article about timelines of research to interventions, and it's worth noting that the Human Genome Project ('finished' in 2003), based on some research to effective therapy timelines, still has up to 20 years to go before we're expecting any treatments to appear as a direct result of it. Left me optimistic about the future.
Work wise, that was it for the day. Tomorrow is going to be discussion of the research project I can get involved in, with a team member who's coming for the aforementioned evening lecture (and other things, it's a gathering of ophthal people).
Decided to do something tourist-y in the afternoon, and wanted to go to the zoo but it shuts at 5, and the river cruise to get there was at 2.15 (cruise takes an hour and a bit). So I just did the river cruise to Fremantle and back. Sunny, lovely weather, and got to be on a boat. Happy days. There was a commentary, but not much of interest. Some rich Australian people's houses. Yachts. A passenger cruise ship in the port. Saw some pelicans - they were cool and partially made up for lack of zoo. Was perhaps a waste of money, but I wasn't to know that until I'd tried it.
Zoo is booked for Saturday. I have the entry ticket and ferry tickets for there and back and everything.
Forgot to mention on yesterday's that I found out I got my 1st choice of location for F1/F2 jobs - Trent deanery (Nottingham and Lincoln and Chesterfield hospitals). Now just waiting for Finals results. Argh.
Today was almost routine and boring, except I remembered why genetics research was cool after Prof Mackey practised a lecture on us that he's giving tomorrow evening. Very interesting, and actually pointed out some practical applications of this stuff, about knowing how to modify therapies appropriately once we know how much of a disease is really genetic and how much is environmental.
Lots of twin studies in collaboration with Mr Hammond (the consultant ophthalmologist who recommended I go here in the first place, and a very nice man I met pre-medschool during work experience) with interesting results about different squint types being either completely environmental (smoking during pregnancy is bad - we knew this already, but now we can 'threaten' with the fact that their kids won't be able to watch 3D movies, you know, alongside the risks of birth defects etc.) or completely genetic.
He's also written an interesting article about timelines of research to interventions, and it's worth noting that the Human Genome Project ('finished' in 2003), based on some research to effective therapy timelines, still has up to 20 years to go before we're expecting any treatments to appear as a direct result of it. Left me optimistic about the future.
Work wise, that was it for the day. Tomorrow is going to be discussion of the research project I can get involved in, with a team member who's coming for the aforementioned evening lecture (and other things, it's a gathering of ophthal people).
Decided to do something tourist-y in the afternoon, and wanted to go to the zoo but it shuts at 5, and the river cruise to get there was at 2.15 (cruise takes an hour and a bit). So I just did the river cruise to Fremantle and back. Sunny, lovely weather, and got to be on a boat. Happy days. There was a commentary, but not much of interest. Some rich Australian people's houses. Yachts. A passenger cruise ship in the port. Saw some pelicans - they were cool and partially made up for lack of zoo. Was perhaps a waste of money, but I wasn't to know that until I'd tried it.
Zoo is booked for Saturday. I have the entry ticket and ferry tickets for there and back and everything.
Forgot to mention on yesterday's that I found out I got my 1st choice of location for F1/F2 jobs - Trent deanery (Nottingham and Lincoln and Chesterfield hospitals). Now just waiting for Finals results. Argh.
Monday
First day 'at work'. Buses are numerous and unfortunately not free as I'd been led to believe by blearily reading their website late on Sunday night. Got the hang of it eventually.
Met the team, "Mackey's Lackeys", and we discussed what I was doing here (my elective, so it's really up to me...) as I was a surprise to all but the Prof and his PA (she's also my saviour/surrogate mother while out here), and what I wanted to do here (watch some cool eye stuff, get something productive done that'll help with ophthal application).
I filled out some ID forms to observe at a different local hospital. This was as fun and interesting as it sounds.
Next, I read through a load of Prof Mackey's papers and got an idea as to who he is/what he does. He really likes genetic research in eyes. He found the main gene for glaucoma, and has found a bunch of other genes for all sorts of eye diseases. Fair enough. Initially this was not what I'd call thrilling, but some people really like genetics research. I may yet come around to like it. I would like a CV boost, so am looking to get on board with something, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing to work with a real specialist in some cutting-edge research. Ideal. Theatre and clinic sessions are also in the works for me to watch some cool stuff and learn some practical things as a research break. Happy days.
That was it. Bus back to city, bought some lunch food and a pizza and came back. Tired. Needed to update CV as part of the ID form process, but CV hasn't been looked at since A levels. Took a while. Started blog. Organised self for tomorrow.
Sleeepy.
Met the team, "Mackey's Lackeys", and we discussed what I was doing here (my elective, so it's really up to me...) as I was a surprise to all but the Prof and his PA (she's also my saviour/surrogate mother while out here), and what I wanted to do here (watch some cool eye stuff, get something productive done that'll help with ophthal application).
I filled out some ID forms to observe at a different local hospital. This was as fun and interesting as it sounds.
Next, I read through a load of Prof Mackey's papers and got an idea as to who he is/what he does. He really likes genetic research in eyes. He found the main gene for glaucoma, and has found a bunch of other genes for all sorts of eye diseases. Fair enough. Initially this was not what I'd call thrilling, but some people really like genetics research. I may yet come around to like it. I would like a CV boost, so am looking to get on board with something, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing to work with a real specialist in some cutting-edge research. Ideal. Theatre and clinic sessions are also in the works for me to watch some cool stuff and learn some practical things as a research break. Happy days.
That was it. Bus back to city, bought some lunch food and a pizza and came back. Tired. Needed to update CV as part of the ID form process, but CV hasn't been looked at since A levels. Took a while. Started blog. Organised self for tomorrow.
Sleeepy.
Sunday
Arrived as per previous post. Couldn't sleep for a while, I was nervous and pretty scared it was all going to fall apart without phone or internet access (i.e. no communication and on my own in a far away country, not fun).
Slept from 5 am - 10 am local time. Got up, grabbed my security blanket (a jobs list with lots of handy details written down like "Ask about buses, wifi, and building entry/exit") and sat by reception till someone who worked there appeared. As per previous post, they were very helpful, answered all my questions, sorted out the payment mistake due to the night manager being a tool, and made me feel an awful lot happier about my life.
I then played with my phone, changing various network settings, switching it off and on and off and on again, growing increasingly desperate as nothing worked. The problem was that my messages were 'unable to send'. Thanks phone. No other information? Really? Anyway, turns out it didn't like the network I was connected to, despite that network being the 'automatic' network choice for the phone in Aus and the network recommended to me by the phone company to connect to. Shows how much they know.
Having sorted the phone, and temporarily (by which I mean I paid for 2 hours usage thereof) gained internet access, I sorted my life out a bit.
Exploring Perth, getting my bearings, and food shopping were my next priorities.
I wandered out to see Perth, noting the bus stops for future use and generally marvelling at how clean and shiny and hot everything was. Really clean city. Can't stress enough how clean and well kept all the parks/buildings/streets are. For the costs of living here though, they bloody well better be.
 |
| Shiny! |
 |
| Standard Historical Building |
 |
| Small Church 1 |
 |
| Small Church 2 |
 |
| It sits there and emotes. |
 |
| The Cathedral |
St George's cathedral was holding a Welsh Night on that Sunday evening, complete with "Welsh refreshments" to finish. I spotted a Rev. pouring red wine into those plastic party cups outside though - definitely not Welsh. Didn't see any cheese on toast. Doubt there were any Welsh refreshments at all. Who wants leek and cheese on toast on a hot Sunday evening anyway? Moving on.
The high street was busy and full of all the shops I could ever need. Thanks to Perth's nice grid design, everything is easy to find and it's impossible to get lost. There is even a "Ye Olde Englishe Street" with mock-up Tudor buildings and Ye Olde signposts for them, and a mock-up statue of Shakespeare stands at the end of the alley in an alcove above an entrance/exit archway.
Despite being located in what I thought was a jokey tourist thing, there were occasionally pretty serious bits of writing on the signs. A solicitors, for example, had their signs in Ye Olde on a grainy piece of wood hanging from a pole off one 'Tudor' building. I wondered if anybody had ever noticed them, because they were difficult to spot and blended in perfectly with their tacky surroundings.
 |
| The entrance to Tudorland |
 |
| Shakespeare is at the end of this alley. Fact. |
Confusingly, Woolworth's are a supermarket chain here, but that's where to get food from. A different Mr. Woolworth I suppose. It's expensive, but still the cheapest place to get food. Food is expensive in Aus. As is everything else. Having got dinner, I dropped off the food in my allocated fridge space and cupboard shelf space before heading back out, with a plan to explore more and find internet.
I bought a prepaid mobile wifi modem from one of the mobile phone shops - and that is how I'm able to write a blog. Blogs are low data usage, but I'm on the web a long time writing - the opposite of what I would get from paying for limited time but unlimited downloads. It's also less stressful as I can effectively be always online, sitting on Facebook for conversation as and when it crops up, as opposed to having to pre-plan my every internet move to maximise time efficiency!
Now armed with a permanent internet solution and dinner for the evening, I could relax a bit more, theoretically. But I couldn't and I still don't know why exactly. I've put it down to jetlag and being alone abroad. I spent the rest of the time exploring to stop the feelings of loneliness coming on again, determined not to go back until 6 pm and enjoy the sun while I had it. This was a very good thing to do in hindsight, as it meant that I quickly figured out where everything in Perth was, and presumably got more Vitamin D than I'd had from all of 2012.
The city centre/tourist bit is pretty small, and everything useful is within 15 min walking radius from my accommodation, so it has another plus.
Tourist bits found so far: the waterfront and piers (for cruises on the Swan river that runs through Perth), the big bells (another phallic-shaped building in the world striving to be the biggest in some way, this one is the largest musical instrument...but perhaps disappointingly it's not a wind instrument, it's just bells), gardens and parks, the mint, and many brochures for a variety of outings.
 |
| Big Bells |
I came home, set up the internet and had dinner. I sorted out my stuff for the first (potential) day of clinicals abroad, and planned the bus route to take. I browsed the tourist brochures and made a note to figure out what I wanted to do while in Perth. Then I wrote some of my book until I felt tired, which wasn't long after.
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| Home |
Day 3 done. Another long day in hindsight, but it didn't seem that way due to the 5 hour sleep from 5-10 am.
Monday 25 February 2013
Day...1? And 2? And maybe 3?
Friday night: Heathrow airport, UK. It's big, never actually been around it before to see quite how big. It being February, it's also really, really cold. On the inside, it was a pretty standard English airport. Nothing new or exciting to say here.
Said bye to Tor, which was sad, but it's ok, because I will be back. In at least 6 weeks. 9 at most. Weirdly, we're all hoping for the latter, since it means I passed Finals.
Got through security quickly, no problems there, no queue either. Surprising. Hung around duty free land of wonders and magic for some time. Bought 2 bottles of safe, non-explosive duty free water. This is important for later.
Flight time: 10.10 pm on an A380 airbus to Singapore. I've written "wowzers" in my note book here. Sums up the first impressions nicely. Big, cream-coloured, roomy, and everything slid and clicked into place. I got a hot towel handed to me via a pair of tongs handled by a dolled up hostess. There was chillout music playing. A 10.6" LCD screen was in the back of the headrest in front of me. Excellent.
12 hours of flight time is a really long time. Films were ok - Wreck it Ralph was meh, Argo was good, Seven Psychopaths was meh/wtf?
Food was good (pasta for dinner, omelette for breakfast)
Everything was free. This was awesome later. I didn't use this to my full advantage at first, wary of traps and tricksiness.
Semi-comatose, we arrived in Singapore. My next flight was in an hour. I stood up, ready to go, and realised we still had to wait for doors to open. Nerves started kicking in. 10-15 mins later, I'm off the plane, but need the loo. I go (they were very posh, and it's true, you can judge an airport by its toilets), come out and check the time.
Not much time left. They were also very clear that doors close 10 mins before departure time. Uh oh. I don't even know what gate it's at. Following the traffic stream, I find the info terminal and manage to check my next flight - it's boarding, that's ok, and I've got 20 mins to go.
I follow directions to the gate by helpful signs on the ceiling. Segways trundle past, and there's free wifi everywhere! Amazing. No time to marvel at what is clearly the future for civilisation, as the helpful sign above me happily says I have a 16 minute walk to get to my gate. Balls.
I get there in just under 16 minutes and feel pleased with myself, only to face a security gate *in* the gate I'm trying to get through. No water, laptop out and in a separate box, and all that bollocks. My duty free, non-explosive water had to be angrily abandoned in the nearby, overflowing bin. I was thirsty, but in no way downing a litre of water before a 5 hour flight to Perth while under an already significant time constraint. Good job I hadn't bought vodka for the trip.
Got through the gate security, relieved at arriving on time amongst a group of relaxed people waiting to board. Perfect, I think, sitting down, before the announcement that anyone left still to board needs to do so now.
Less impressive plane tech-wise, the TVs were naff, but it didn't matter as it was still just as roomy seating and I had had my fill of TV. The hostesses/creepy dolls came round with salted peanuts and offered drinks off the (still free!) menu. On my brother's recommendation previously for the airport wait, I finally got round to trying a Singapore Sling. Amazeballs. I wrote down the ingredients to make one when I got home again.
Filled out the (unintentionally) humorous Aussie Immigration slip. No, I'm not a terrorist. No, I'm not carrying guns, drugs, over $10k, fish, fruit or worst of all, soil, into your country. Wasn't 100% on whether Singapore counted as a country in its own right, and had to keep checking the GPS/map display they put on the front TV screens to see if the word Singapore applied to more than just the airport.
Sleepiness hit as I'd been awake for too long and at weird hours. Passed out more than slept. Not comfortable, but seemed to help.
Arrived in Perth at 00:30 on Sunday local time (4.30 pm Saturday my time), and immigration were nothing like what I'd been led to believe judging by their form they gave me and anecdotal tales. I was asked about the purpose of my visit being education. I replied,
"I'm on my elective. I'm a medical student."
To which she replied,
"Oh cool, it'll be awesome." And she waved me through. Sweeeet.
Taxi to accommodation, the building sucks, and room designs are atrocious (the only 2 plug sockets directly above the pillow). Not to mention Night Manager incompetence/gruffness, but I'll blame that on it being 3 am on a Sunday. No internet, and phone was refusing to work on the appropriate network. Panic began again. Fortunately, the staff later on Sunday were much nicer, more helpful, and put everything right. Happy days.
Tomorrow (in my head, actually later that Sunday) I had some serious settling in to do.
Said bye to Tor, which was sad, but it's ok, because I will be back. In at least 6 weeks. 9 at most. Weirdly, we're all hoping for the latter, since it means I passed Finals.
Got through security quickly, no problems there, no queue either. Surprising. Hung around duty free land of wonders and magic for some time. Bought 2 bottles of safe, non-explosive duty free water. This is important for later.
Flight time: 10.10 pm on an A380 airbus to Singapore. I've written "wowzers" in my note book here. Sums up the first impressions nicely. Big, cream-coloured, roomy, and everything slid and clicked into place. I got a hot towel handed to me via a pair of tongs handled by a dolled up hostess. There was chillout music playing. A 10.6" LCD screen was in the back of the headrest in front of me. Excellent.
12 hours of flight time is a really long time. Films were ok - Wreck it Ralph was meh, Argo was good, Seven Psychopaths was meh/wtf?
Food was good (pasta for dinner, omelette for breakfast)
Everything was free. This was awesome later. I didn't use this to my full advantage at first, wary of traps and tricksiness.
Semi-comatose, we arrived in Singapore. My next flight was in an hour. I stood up, ready to go, and realised we still had to wait for doors to open. Nerves started kicking in. 10-15 mins later, I'm off the plane, but need the loo. I go (they were very posh, and it's true, you can judge an airport by its toilets), come out and check the time.
Not much time left. They were also very clear that doors close 10 mins before departure time. Uh oh. I don't even know what gate it's at. Following the traffic stream, I find the info terminal and manage to check my next flight - it's boarding, that's ok, and I've got 20 mins to go.
I follow directions to the gate by helpful signs on the ceiling. Segways trundle past, and there's free wifi everywhere! Amazing. No time to marvel at what is clearly the future for civilisation, as the helpful sign above me happily says I have a 16 minute walk to get to my gate. Balls.
I get there in just under 16 minutes and feel pleased with myself, only to face a security gate *in* the gate I'm trying to get through. No water, laptop out and in a separate box, and all that bollocks. My duty free, non-explosive water had to be angrily abandoned in the nearby, overflowing bin. I was thirsty, but in no way downing a litre of water before a 5 hour flight to Perth while under an already significant time constraint. Good job I hadn't bought vodka for the trip.
Got through the gate security, relieved at arriving on time amongst a group of relaxed people waiting to board. Perfect, I think, sitting down, before the announcement that anyone left still to board needs to do so now.
Less impressive plane tech-wise, the TVs were naff, but it didn't matter as it was still just as roomy seating and I had had my fill of TV. The hostesses/creepy dolls came round with salted peanuts and offered drinks off the (still free!) menu. On my brother's recommendation previously for the airport wait, I finally got round to trying a Singapore Sling. Amazeballs. I wrote down the ingredients to make one when I got home again.
Filled out the (unintentionally) humorous Aussie Immigration slip. No, I'm not a terrorist. No, I'm not carrying guns, drugs, over $10k, fish, fruit or worst of all, soil, into your country. Wasn't 100% on whether Singapore counted as a country in its own right, and had to keep checking the GPS/map display they put on the front TV screens to see if the word Singapore applied to more than just the airport.
Sleepiness hit as I'd been awake for too long and at weird hours. Passed out more than slept. Not comfortable, but seemed to help.
Arrived in Perth at 00:30 on Sunday local time (4.30 pm Saturday my time), and immigration were nothing like what I'd been led to believe judging by their form they gave me and anecdotal tales. I was asked about the purpose of my visit being education. I replied,
"I'm on my elective. I'm a medical student."
To which she replied,
"Oh cool, it'll be awesome." And she waved me through. Sweeeet.
Taxi to accommodation, the building sucks, and room designs are atrocious (the only 2 plug sockets directly above the pillow). Not to mention Night Manager incompetence/gruffness, but I'll blame that on it being 3 am on a Sunday. No internet, and phone was refusing to work on the appropriate network. Panic began again. Fortunately, the staff later on Sunday were much nicer, more helpful, and put everything right. Happy days.
Tomorrow (in my head, actually later that Sunday) I had some serious settling in to do.
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