A Luce Affiliation

I had a throughly awesome weekend with Deanne, who flew up from Melbourne for a holiday. We started off at the pub on Friday night, discussing an important teaching of the Alice Springs ED: all assault weapons are either rocks or sticks. A stick is an object that the perpetrator holds onto whilst hitting their victim, whilst a rock is any projectile weapon. A tin of food and a TV are both rocks. A nulla-nulla is a stick, but so is a cooking pot. A children's tricycle could be either a rock or a stick. This expedites clinical handover; '28 year old man hit to the head with a stick;' and speaks volumes of the ridiculous amount of violence in this town. Saturday morning we went to the Steiner School Fair. I admit to being fairly cynical about Steiner schools, particularly as there is apparently an outbreak of whooping cough at the Alice Springs Steiner school at the moment. (Insert disparaging comment about hippy parents and vaccine-preventable illnesses). But by the t

This weekend was the festival of Miriam and Marcel's wedding. The Outback Wedding, and my first ever Jewish wedding. We were super-excited about attending our first Jewish wedding. Jason carefully packed a bobby pin for attaching his yarmulke, and then was quite proud when it stayed on of its own accord. We practised our three Yiddish expressions; schvitzing, schlepping and alter kocker; and carefully read the 'Guide to a Jewish Wedding' enclosed in our invitation. I even befriended a teacher of Jewish studies who told me about klezmer music and the hora. So exciting!! We gathered at the entrance to Alice Springs' botanic gardens, and were lead into the desert garden by two traditional owners and a klezmer band. Several people (including my Jason!!) carried colourful flags in the procession. It rained during the procession, but during the ceremony the sunlight snuck in right under the huppah. Miriam's little nieces sat around the huppah clutching their banks

I was struck down by a tummy bug at approximately 5:30pm yesterday. I feel this is the best way to describe it- 'hit me like a ton of bricks', 'struck down' or 'knocked out'- a sudden outbreak of WAR IN MY TUMMY!! I am now convalescing with Sarah Waters' 'The Little Stranger'. Things could definitely be worse.

I saw an ad for the ABC documentary series 'Outback Doctors' and immediately thought, "I should be on that show! I'm an outback doctor!" And I am Outback Doctor now, of sorts. I've worked in Alice Springs for nearly 4 months. I know about nulla-nullas and redback bites. I'm no longer surprised by the pus or the maggots, or the patient who sprints off half way through the consultation to retrieve his swag from the Todd riverbed before someone nicks it. Actually, I understand this one now: a good swag costs about $300. Of course, the real outback doctors consider Alice Springs to be the 'big smoke' so I guess I've got a way to go before I'm a documentary star. My friend Marcel is a paeds registrar working in community paediatrics. He likes to make fun of the short-term mindset of the ED doctor: after all, he works in preventative medicine. When he visited the ED the other day I gleefully said, "Slow day for preventative medicine Ma