A Luce Affiliation

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...