A Luce Affiliation

As our Adventure Year in Darwin draws to a close, here are some signs of the place. Looking for the hospital? Ride through the bush, past the nudist beach, and it's 500 metres on your right. If you're feeling lost, the hospital foyer's not a bad place to start. It has a huge map of the Top End's indigenous communities and recognition that the hospital is built on Larrakia land. The doors to the hospital are fitted with cyclone locks: And if you work at the hospital, you'll need to stop by the TB/Leprosy clinic for your annual Ancient Communicable Diseases check.  Happily, I'm in the clear! After a long day on the wards, remember to sober up before entering the hospital swimming pool. Outside of the swimming pool, you'd better stay Croc Wise. And Stinger Wise. And Sea Snake Wise.  Lucky Bat's a great place for a coffee, but don't park in Des Fong's car park you buggers.  Going on a road tr...

1. Harry Belafonte I have long tormented Jason with the Harry Belafonte song 'Did you hear about Jerry?' but this year we got into some other Belafonte classics like 'Jump in the Line', The Banana Boat song and 'Jump Down, Turn Around'.   When she winds up her bottom she goes like a rocket! 2. The Meat Puppets II In August we travelled to Melbourne to help mum move out of her house and into her fancy new retirement apartment.  Of course, this required a Kafkaesque bureaucratic marathon of conveyancing, bank transactions and change of address paper work.  Happily Tash and Leith lent me their big boat of a station wagon to run the errands in, complete with the CD 'Meat Puppets II'.  What a gem!  Lost on the freeway again...nobody knows which way it's going to bend.... 3.  Lorde- Melodrama I really really love Lorde's new album.  We listened to it endlessly as the dry deflated into the swampy build-up.  We went to her Melb...

We stayed up in Darwin for Christmas...and what a lovely time we had!  I made some fancy table decorations with some tree branches stolen from the Casuarina foreshore... On Saturday we had some friends over for our traditional Christmas Die Hard viewing, this time accompanied by Green Ant Gin. N found the leftover cheese on Christmas day and got straight into it Today we went on a family bike ride to Lee Point, through the mangroves and then along the bush track.  It was so green! The ride was great, but when we arrived at Lee Point beach the humidity was about 95%.  N had an understandable meltdown when we wouldn't let her go in the ocean (stinger season). N got a scooter for Christmas...she's getting better already! And Jason got a new hat, which came in a special hat box that I made into a boat.  By the time we painted it I was ready to apply for my new job on Play School:

We may have reached Peak Darwin. Last night we went out to the Darwin Festival park with Jason's friends the Notorious D.o.D. (Dads of Darwin) Nora and her little buddies danced and we drank beer and ate curry in the lovely cool evening.  Travis and Elise took their little one into the the Lighthouse for a gig.  After a while I decided that we should join them, and because Darwin, of course there were tickets left.  I'm so pleased we went.  Felix Riebl was playing and it was just a beautiful happy gig.  Nora listened quietly, she seemed tired but happy. Here's us earlier in the night: This morning after breakfast Nora grabbed her helmet and dragged it through the house saying 'Bike! bike!!' We took her subtle hint and went for a ride to Lee Point.  It's a beautiful bush trail, shady and cool.  I am terrible at mountain biking and the fact that I was on a flat-bar road bike with quite hard tyres wasn't helping.  But it was fun, I ha...

My bookclub has finally disbanded after 10 years.  Felicity moved to WA, I moved to Darwin and Camille moved to Germany. So many happy Sunday afternoons! I've joined the Darwin City Libraries, and we take Nora to story time each week.  It's shambolic, toddlers tripping over each other, occasionally listening to part of the book.  Nora loves it though she spends most of her time pulling books off the shelves. I just updated my reading list, here are my favourites in the past 12 months: 1. The Museum of Modern Love- Heather Rose I was so pleased that this book won the Stella Prize, because I just adored it.  A novel based around Marina Abramovic's installation/performance 'The Artist is Present.'  It explores ideas of stillness, meditation and enduring in a really beautiful way.  I read the final chapters over a bowl of pho in a tiny Vietnamese place on Smith street. 2. The Handmaid's Tale- Margaret Atwood I finally read this after seeing images of ...

Whenever I am asked if I am enjoying working in Darwin, I reply, "My bike ride to work is amazing!" And it really is. The journey only takes about 10 minutes.  After riding to the end of my street, I turn down a gravel track through the bush to the hospital.  As Jason says, "You're practically mountain-biking!"  Huge trees tower over the path to the left, and fronds of native grass brush against my legs.  There are two wooden bridges crossing the creek. I travel east in the early morning and west in the evening, so I'm always heading towards the rising or setting sun. One Friday afternoon during the wet season I road home through a thunderstorm.  It was a truly impressive storm.  The lightening was so bright it hurt my eyes.  I'd decided to take the bush track home because I thought I'd be more likely to be struck by lightening along the main road.  But I hadn't really thought it through.  One of bridges was in flood and I pe...

I'm in the dying days of my maternity leave and I can already feel myself being swept up in work again. Before I had Nora, everybody wanted to tell me how *hard* it would be.  But I think working as an emergency doctor is unusually good preparation for caring for a baby.  It's unpredictable, thankless and there's no end in sight.   Of course there are good bits too. So I want to buck the trend and write about these. You can just fill in the blanks about all the boring bits like changing nappies and shush-patting and breast pumps.  1.  No-plastic fantastic I developed an obsession with buying groceries sans packaging.  Handily, there's a Friends of the Earth co-op at the end of my street that sells all sort of things by weight.  I just take my own containers up there and buy oats, rice, tea, dishwashing liquid, flour, spices....It is extremely satisfying.  Admittedly I got some dirty looks when I took my shopping bag full of disposabl...

In April I reached Peak Maternity Leave. Nora slept at times and on Wednesday evenings I rode up the Johnston street hill to Fitzroy to do painting classes. I have no natural aptitude for visual arts.  In high school I disliked it so much I once volunteered to clean the studio sinks instead of painting.  I have since learnt to enjoy doing things I am bad at. The painting classes were terribly fun.  There was cheese, cake and apple cordial.  Actually there was wine too but I'm not much of a drinker these days.  The teacher was fabulous, he took us step by step through painting tonally (light and dark!) using colours (warm and cool!) and glazing (painting one colour over another colour!). This all culminated in my fairly rudimentary painting of an apple: My favourite part of the painting class was learning the artists' idiom 'to pull it out of the fire': to rescue a painting from a seemingly catastrophic error. I love learning new idioms.  Ther...

Just returned from a quick 50 minute trip to the Fitzroy pool. Sunday afternoon, 34 degrees, summer sounds DJs playing. Pool is heaving with people. Water runs slick over my sunscreened arms. Boy crosses underneath me at the deep end, skimming the bottom of the pool.

Baby Nora was born 1 month ago.  She is our smallest, softest team member. It's been a nice slow time of year to be settling in to life with baby.  It's always quiet in Collingwood around new year anyway.  The cafes are closed, there's not much traffic on the roads and no one is rushing in the heat.  In the first few weeks I would go for a late afternoon walk around the streets.  I walked slower than I've ever walked.  And I felt so adventurous being outside in the world.  I would amble very slowly around the block, sometimes down Gold street or just along Johnston street.  Each afternoon I would try to return with a community update for Jason.  Important community updates included: an enormous branch fell off the gum tree in the park opposite our house.   A branch as big as a tree! the old men's club around the corner of our house started advertising a small dinner menu.  And the Sonsa man was there so it must be a Turkish ...

2015 was a bit of a strange year of reading for me. Fewer novels and more non-fiction.  Overall I read more than I thought I had. I'll begin with my top 5: Beloved- Toni Morrison Brother of the More Famous Jack- Barbara Trapido The Luminaries- Eleanor Catton The Natural Way of Things- Charlotte Wood Slouching towards Bethlehem- Joan Didion Books I read in 2015: Feminism Unfinished- Dorothy Sue Cobble, Linda Gordon, Astrid Henry As I Lay Dying- William Faulkner Big Magic- Elizabeth Gilbert The White Album- Joan Didion The Wife Drought- Annabel Crabbe M Train- Patti Smith The Shipping News- Annie Proulx The Thorn Birds- Colleen McCullough Beloved- Toni Morrison The Dressmaker- Rosalie Ham Green Valentine- Lili Wilkinson Birth Skills- Juju Sundin Feminism is for Everybody- bell hooks How to Be a Woman- Caitlin Moran My Brilliant Friend- Elena Ferrante The Intern- Gabrielle Tozer H is for Hawk- Helen McDonald Why so Slow? The Advancement of Women- Virginia V...

Six months since I wrote here.  But I have not been idle! I passed the ICU fellowship exam.  It's funny how it completely preoccupied me for several months and now it's just gone.  Not that I expected to miss it.  Jason and I went to Tasmania for a week.  We spent three days driving down from Devonport, staying at the Bay of Fires and then Freycinet.  We had the most glorious morning's walk along the Bay of Fires.  It was completely deserted but sunny enough to lie on the sand.  In Freycinet we walked to Wineglass bay and the Hazards.  The weather was spectacular- it rained but it wasn't cold.  We saw seven rainbows.  We huddled under a tree at wineglass bay eating our peanut butter and banana sandwiches, watching the rain and the birds and the rainbow over the bay.  The waves crashed in completely straight line.  Then we went on to Hobart for Dark Mofo.  What a great festival.  I was obsessed with fi...

Last night I went out to dinner with our friends Arla and Jesse and Bonnie and George.  Arla and Jesse are just emerging from the baby-making madness, with a 3 1/2 year old and an 18 month old, and Bonnie and George are expecting their first in 8 weeks. Arla was so full of beans.  She'd just finished reading 'What I loved', one of my favourite books.  I was so excited that she had the same reaction as me: reading it compulsively until late into the night, and then being so involved with the characters that she missed them when it was over. It's also an Art book, and we talked happily about the bacchanalian art parties we would like to throw.  So I think the next obvious book for her to read is Emly Bitto's 'The Strays', about Sunday and John Reed. Anyway, Arla asked for some recommendations.  Here they are, my favourite books from the last 3 years or so. The Tin Drum- Gunter Grass Bossypants- Tina Fey May we be forgiven- AM Homes Just Kids- Patti ...

The first Saturday we went to Bright for a wedding.  Bright is actually paradise.  Especially when it's sunny and the trees are blossoming.  I wore a dress and sandals all weekend and threatened to go swimming.  Jason and I went for a long walk along the river and wondered if the Bright hospital needs a critical care doctor and  sonographer. We went to a wedding in Wandiligong (Paradise North).  We went off the reservation at the reception, down to the creek at the bottom of the property.  I didn't quite go swimming: But I did attempt a Dirty-Dancing re-enactment. It turns out Jason's no Swayze. Last weekend after a long ICU day we rode into the city to see Nihls Frahm, an amazing German pianist with all manner of amps. He played in the Melbourne festival hub, a big hot wooden box of amazing sound.  It was a balmy night so we rode home the long way, zooming down the Yarra to bed.  Then it was just a breezy (ha!...

This year my job involves seven 13-hour shifts in a row, followed by about six days off.  Followed by seven 13-hour nights shifts, followed by about six days off, ad infinitum.  So it's probably not hard to imagine that by working day 7, the wheels have started to fall off. Last week on Day 7, my resident and I had a long conversation about how medicine is an absurd profession.    There are so many other fulfilling, worthwhile jobs that don't require basically constant study for over a decade plus horrendous working hours. I was reminiscing about my year 10 aptitude test that suggested I should become an economist or an art critic.  At the time I thought they were  terrible  suggestions but now I marvel at how much I'd love those jobs.  My resident was keen on events planning or floristry.  At one point I realised that the medical student  thought we were joking .  I wheeled around to her, "You think this is a joke?!? ...

1. Sunday DIY Proper winter again today. We walked to the hardware store to get some wood to hang our awesome canvas throw/picture: It was so sunny on the way there, then on the way back it TURNED!  Windy horrible rain in the face, running down Wellington street with a 3 metre picture rail. You can't turn corners very quickly with a 3 metre picture rail.  2. Walking, not sitting.  If I'd been asked ten years ago what I'd look would look for in a job, I don't think I would have asked for a job that requires standing and walking around. But now I realise that THIS IS AMAZING! My job requires standing and walking for at least a third of the day.  imagine if I'd gone into academia or, in fact, most other jobs, I would be sitting down all the time. I think I would struggle to solve problems if I had to sit down to them.  I like walking around the ICU, mulling over something tangentially, to reach a solution.  But perhaps this is a cognitive weak...

1. If on a winter's night a traveller… Reading for next week's book club meeting. 2. Walking in Mornington Peninsula. Jason and I went down to Red Hill on the weekend.  We walked to Bushranger's bay and Cape Schanck on Saturday and then ate the tasting plate at the Red Hill Cheese shop as reward.  The walk was fantastic, heaps of kangaroos bounding across the trailer.  We also saw a very handsome fox with a bushy tail, just like Fantastic Mr Fox.   3. Mahler 1. We went to the MSO on Thursday to hear Mahler 1.  I loved it.  I haven't been to a classical music concert for ages.  Seeing some of my old MYO friends on stage had me reminiscing about band camps past. I loved hearing Jason's impressions of the concert, as he'd never been to a symphony orchestra concert before.  He kept looking at the players getting their instruments ready to come in, "You just lift your instrument up, get ready with your partner, and then…no…not now…put your inst...

1. 'The Strays' Emily Bitto's debut novel about the Melbourne art scene in the 1930s-1940s. A rambling house and garden, the Surrey Dive, evenings of Dionysian excess in the artists' commune. A great read. 2. Welcome to Night Vale. I may be the last person on the Internet to catch this podcast. Jason and I started listening on our trip to Finland.  Although it's set in a small desert community, it seemed well suited to the isolated arctic landscape of Lapland. All Hail the Glow Cloud. ** 3. Lake Elizabeth, Forrest. Jason and I went camping this weekend in the Otways, to catch some stars and some mountain-biking. Lake Elizabeth was created in the early 50s by a landslide into the Goulbourn river.  The dead trees in this lake reflect so well that it feels like walking around an immensely deep crater. 4. Lady-night I caught up with Tash, Mel and Mandy on Friday night and it was FUN.  Tash drunkenly ordered a bottle of Shangiovese.  So of course I h...

Welcome to the Department of Re-Animation I'm sorry that it's such bad news There is only one completely pain-free state. Whatever it takes? Everything! I could smell it from the waiting room. Where'd cub 7 go?  Oh, right. No, she's the one who just looks dead. Life is a time bomb Shall we begin?

Jason and I went to Golden Plains for the weekend.  We did our own thing, our own quiet thing I suppose. Arrived at 5pm and found a lovely spot in the blue gums.  Put up our tent.  I love putting up our tent.  It's an old three-man tent, which is very easy to put up and roomy but cosy inside. Then packed our cold bag with some beers and ciders and wandered down to the stage, running into Gen and her friends on the way.  By 7pm the sun was streaming golden through the amphitheatre.  We went on the Meredith Eye (ferris wheel) to look out over the plains.  Yep, them plains be golden. The highlight of the first evening was Charles Bradley and his extraordinaries.  (I thought they were extraordinaires, but he kept say 'extraordinaries', so I'm running with it).  The Extraordinaries were extraordinary.  Such a tight band. After Flyong Lotus we retired to bed.  Happily, I'd bought some earplugs and I slept like a very happy dead woma...