Saturday - 4 hour flight, watched Jack Reacher, chatted to the person next to me, got extra leg room, was lovely.
Taxi to Sydney hostel was fine with Little Tom and Sarah, having met them at the airport. Hostel room was really nice - roomy, 6 bed dorm with just 2 other randoms when we arrived who were leaving the next day (when Rebecca and Chris arrived).
We went for an explore to find some food and get our bearings, with Little Tom as our 'expert' guide, having been here before. Anyone who knows Tom will know that this was an error, but we thought he could do an ok job of it. Besides, we had a guidebook and a map, so it was all ok in the end, despite us going in circles for a good hour and a bit. Ate at a cheap thai place, as it turned out our hostel is in the centre of Sydney, but that is also right next to Chinatown.
We wandered up to the harbour/quay, which took a lot of effort to find due to Tom's certainty in directions and a stubborn refusal to return to the well-populated high streets. It was actually just a straight road north of our hostel, but we ended up meandering off to the north west, completely missing the actual harbour at first. An hour later, we found the right roads again and were able to grab a drink at a lovely bar opposite the opera house.
Headed back the easy way, unpacked and slept.
Sunday - Powerhouse museum till 2 pm, much like the science museum in London, but had a Wallace and Gromit exhibition on the day, and lots of stuff on space and physics. Was cool and I enjoyed it lots.
We grabbed some lunch, and met Chris and Rebecca at Sydney central train station, opposite our hostel.
Photo slideshows of electives from the others. Some great photos and stories. Turns out I was indoors and actually working the most, but as the others said, "Tans fade, publications don't"
Chris, Rebecca, Sarah went to a church that provides the music and is essentially the HQ for their Nottingham one - kind of a big deal apparently. Tom and I, naturally, went to the bar and had some (finally!) cheap pints.
The others got back, we went exploring for dinner, found an italian at 9.30 pm, was nice, excellent meal
FroYo with Sarah to round off the evening. This place was fun - pick a frozen yoghurt flavour (or many) and choose from a ridiculous range of sweet toppings, weigh it at the end and pay by weight. Lots of sugary goodness. Like pick n mix, but with ice cream flavours as well. Need to find one of these in the UK...
Tuesday 9 April 2013
Week 6
Tuesday - Clinic in the morning, saw some interesting cases - a lid laceration, cataract, CMV retinitis, corneal ulcer from bacterial contact lens damage.
King's Park in the afternoon for a very hot day of sunbathing. Lovely. Could get used to this...
Wednesday - Woke up at 12pm, oops. I have no idea how or why. I went to bed at normal time and wasn't overly tired. Normally I'm up at 9ish, which was the plan. 12 was a bit of a shock!
So much for the revision I'd planned for the morning. Sent them an email explaining the situation - they were fine with it and gave advice by email instead, because they are amazingly friendly.
Determined to make something productive of the day remaining, I did laundry and other jobs, went to the wifi park for some sun, and had dinner at Cafe Italia. Best carbonara since... a long time. I have a lot to learn. Ridiculously friendly family-run Italian café, the main manager (Dad?) was the kind of stocky Italian chap who was genuinely friendly with all his customers, and liked shaking your hand and patting you on the back as you said hi. Immediately made you feel welcome. Excellent service and incredibly busy, definitely worth me getting there early. The frosted glass of Peroni was much enjoyed. Reasonable value too - $20 for the pasta. Amazing.
Thursday - Theatre in the morning as per usual, blepharoplasty and a basal cell carcinoma removal from the lower right lid. Excellent to watch. Lunch with the consultant and reg, said goodbye and thanks.
Went home, did some packing and revision with an aim to go over some things on Friday.
Friday - Revision didn't happen due to the staff not being around - all had other jobs to do that cropped up at the time which was a shame, as it meant I didn't get to see them before leaving. Prof came up and said goodbye though, which was very nice, and said to send more UK students his way if any were interested.
Home, more packing and sorting the room out for my early morning departure. Emptied the fridge, donated leftovers to mates, re-checked all my flight details and route planning etc. I'm obsessive about that kind of stuff. To the extent that I actually listed the bus journey steps vs. the taxi journey steps and compared the pros and cons of each, changing my mind twice.
Said my last goodbyes after watching Shawshank Redemption (amazing as always). Sorted my taxi for the morning.
King's Park in the afternoon for a very hot day of sunbathing. Lovely. Could get used to this...
Wednesday - Woke up at 12pm, oops. I have no idea how or why. I went to bed at normal time and wasn't overly tired. Normally I'm up at 9ish, which was the plan. 12 was a bit of a shock!
So much for the revision I'd planned for the morning. Sent them an email explaining the situation - they were fine with it and gave advice by email instead, because they are amazingly friendly.
Determined to make something productive of the day remaining, I did laundry and other jobs, went to the wifi park for some sun, and had dinner at Cafe Italia. Best carbonara since... a long time. I have a lot to learn. Ridiculously friendly family-run Italian café, the main manager (Dad?) was the kind of stocky Italian chap who was genuinely friendly with all his customers, and liked shaking your hand and patting you on the back as you said hi. Immediately made you feel welcome. Excellent service and incredibly busy, definitely worth me getting there early. The frosted glass of Peroni was much enjoyed. Reasonable value too - $20 for the pasta. Amazing.
Thursday - Theatre in the morning as per usual, blepharoplasty and a basal cell carcinoma removal from the lower right lid. Excellent to watch. Lunch with the consultant and reg, said goodbye and thanks.
Went home, did some packing and revision with an aim to go over some things on Friday.
Friday - Revision didn't happen due to the staff not being around - all had other jobs to do that cropped up at the time which was a shame, as it meant I didn't get to see them before leaving. Prof came up and said goodbye though, which was very nice, and said to send more UK students his way if any were interested.
Home, more packing and sorting the room out for my early morning departure. Emptied the fridge, donated leftovers to mates, re-checked all my flight details and route planning etc. I'm obsessive about that kind of stuff. To the extent that I actually listed the bus journey steps vs. the taxi journey steps and compared the pros and cons of each, changing my mind twice.
Said my last goodbyes after watching Shawshank Redemption (amazing as always). Sorted my taxi for the morning.
Tuesday 2 April 2013
Easter Weekend (Fri - Mon)
Friday: Went to the shops with the intention of getting Tor something and getting me some food, but everywhere was shut, so bummed around in the sunshine and in my room all day. Was nice to not do anything as a one-off.
Saturday: Went to King's Park for the first time - it's a half hour walk away up an impressive roadside hill, but that makes my sandwich at the top all the more deserved. I wandered around and took photos - it's absolutely huge, with massive trees only 50 years old and memorials to fallen soldiers and regiments liberally strewn about the park's vast expanses. Thing is, it doesn't look that big as you walk around it (the bit I was in anyway) as it's kind of split into sections by clumps of trees and has lots of pathways to follow for walks. And it's busy on nice days. I passed at least 3 weddings at various stages of completion!
Having gotten knackered from wandering about so much, I sat down for a bit, had a drink, enjoyed the weather and came back. I looked for a present for Tor on the way back, but it's so hard to find something *right*!
This evening, the group fancied an outing to the casino. This turned out to be a 40 min walk away (my legs ached after today), but it was good fun, and I came out with a win ($5 up, woo! Yeah! Screw the system, man!). It was nice as we all came out either even or in the plus. One of the girls won $66. My winnings were second best. A lad won a dollar. The other girl won $0.60, and the last chap broke even. Not bad!
Finished the night by writing some character bits for the book. Lovely.
Sunday: Having enjoyed the ambiance of King's Park so much yesterday, I decided that I wanted to go back, but this time armed with a towel and sun lotion.
As you can imagine, not much more to report from the day. I figured out what to get Tor though, among other musings, which was nice.
In the evening, I finished Monkey Island! Huzzah! Only taken me...years. Literally years. Good lord.
More writing ensued before bed.
Monday: Went shopping for food and Tor's present in the morning, had lunch, watched Game of Thrones Season 3, Episode 1. Happy days. They changed a few minor bits from the book, and I'm not sure how they'll play out over the rest of the series, but it won't have too big an impact as all the key events still happened. And I'm further convinced of my theories from reading the books about the "The Dragon has three heads". There's a reason certain speeches are kept word-for-word from the books!
Got to speak to parents and family on Skype for mum's birthday and Easter (yay, the bunny didn't forget me!), but I have no chocolate with me. Will rectify this tomorrow.
I played a bit of Mark of the Ninja to round off the night (awesome game!)
NB: I have been doing some OSCE 2 revision across all these days intermittently, but not huge amounts. Just acting through examinations by myself with notes on the laptop, and pointers to myself about what I can do for similar retake stations based on what I know I'm rubbish at and what mistakes I may have made. Naturally, it's a bit tricky for the stations where I don't know what went wrong until I get feedback (comms skills and ethics!) Also MDD is tricky as I don't have any notes for it out here. Will have to rely on friends in Sydney and revision back home. Should be fine though - stations have to stay roughly the same.
Saturday: Went to King's Park for the first time - it's a half hour walk away up an impressive roadside hill, but that makes my sandwich at the top all the more deserved. I wandered around and took photos - it's absolutely huge, with massive trees only 50 years old and memorials to fallen soldiers and regiments liberally strewn about the park's vast expanses. Thing is, it doesn't look that big as you walk around it (the bit I was in anyway) as it's kind of split into sections by clumps of trees and has lots of pathways to follow for walks. And it's busy on nice days. I passed at least 3 weddings at various stages of completion!
 |
| Wedding 1 preparations |
 |
| The bride of Wedding 2, celebrating in style. Classy bird. |
 |
| This tree is huge. Like, massive huge. |
 |
| Pretty pathway |
 |
| Pretty view from one balcony of the park |
 |
| Queen Vic! Woo. |
 |
| Big memorial |
 |
| Zen man is Zen |
 |
| Eternal flame memorial - very nice. The other side reads "A moment of silent contemplation is all that is asked" |
 |
| Ha. |
 |
| See how big this tree is? I mean, really, it's just silly. |
 |
| The road into the park |
 |
| Another memorial |
Having gotten knackered from wandering about so much, I sat down for a bit, had a drink, enjoyed the weather and came back. I looked for a present for Tor on the way back, but it's so hard to find something *right*!
This evening, the group fancied an outing to the casino. This turned out to be a 40 min walk away (my legs ached after today), but it was good fun, and I came out with a win ($5 up, woo! Yeah! Screw the system, man!). It was nice as we all came out either even or in the plus. One of the girls won $66. My winnings were second best. A lad won a dollar. The other girl won $0.60, and the last chap broke even. Not bad!
Finished the night by writing some character bits for the book. Lovely.
Sunday: Having enjoyed the ambiance of King's Park so much yesterday, I decided that I wanted to go back, but this time armed with a towel and sun lotion.
As you can imagine, not much more to report from the day. I figured out what to get Tor though, among other musings, which was nice.
In the evening, I finished Monkey Island! Huzzah! Only taken me...years. Literally years. Good lord.
More writing ensued before bed.
Monday: Went shopping for food and Tor's present in the morning, had lunch, watched Game of Thrones Season 3, Episode 1. Happy days. They changed a few minor bits from the book, and I'm not sure how they'll play out over the rest of the series, but it won't have too big an impact as all the key events still happened. And I'm further convinced of my theories from reading the books about the "The Dragon has three heads". There's a reason certain speeches are kept word-for-word from the books!
Got to speak to parents and family on Skype for mum's birthday and Easter (yay, the bunny didn't forget me!), but I have no chocolate with me. Will rectify this tomorrow.
I played a bit of Mark of the Ninja to round off the night (awesome game!)
NB: I have been doing some OSCE 2 revision across all these days intermittently, but not huge amounts. Just acting through examinations by myself with notes on the laptop, and pointers to myself about what I can do for similar retake stations based on what I know I'm rubbish at and what mistakes I may have made. Naturally, it's a bit tricky for the stations where I don't know what went wrong until I get feedback (comms skills and ethics!) Also MDD is tricky as I don't have any notes for it out here. Will have to rely on friends in Sydney and revision back home. Should be fine though - stations have to stay roughly the same.
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