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jenny sudell wrote: > What are you all doing for Christmas? > we are moving on the 18th December to a new job, and I intend to sit > on a red hot beach, in my new house which is in 50 acres of woodland, > and watch the sunset while eating barbequed christmas dinner and > hoping to get a glimpse of a whale if Im not too late in the season. > Our first post here didnt work out well, too bloody busy, 4900 > patients, a hospital a full pharmacy no pharmacist, single handed and > covering an area about the size if England with only the flying > doctors for backup. 24/7 on callno breaks, (Chris got 47 phone calls > one sunday when he was covering for 5 other docs in the area between > 8pm and 8am and then had a 40 patient surgery booked in the next day) > On the plus side i am now a fully qualified xray operator so learnt > massive amounts while being here. > Also I ran the pharmacy so know a hell of a lot more about pharmacy > now too. > I have been slapped, spat at, sworn at and the latest has been a guy > who told me he was on his way to the surgery with a gun and he wasnt > afraid to use it on me! > What doesnt kill you makes you stronger for sure, including my latest > bit of fun when I felt a sharp pain on my boob, only to discover a > redback spider in my bra which bit me and then scuttled off before I > had a chance to stomp on it. I looked like I had grown a third breast > and wondered how long it would be swollen, and if there was a bra > manufacturer that could accommadate my new figure. > It made me really ill, sytemically I was in a poor way for a few days, > Arthritis, temp, visual and auditory disturbances, weird. I can see > how it could be fatal to elderly and youngsters. Made me feel bloody > rough. Anyway apart from that I have no regrets about leaving the UK, > although i do miss the rain, of which we get virtually none, and there > is a pipeline that brings water from Perth to Kalgolrlie hundreds of > miles, so waterwise is part of life here, no green and pleasant land > and living in a desert is a real change of lifestyle to living on the > isle of wight. > Poppy (my 12 year old) is doing well learning to fly, and will get her > pilots license as soon as she is old enough. > cool! So be grateful when your teens pester you to buy them a car, > mine are pestering me to buy them a plane.Happy Christmas Jen and Chris Ah, you've answered my question. Of course, you and Chris could have come to Redcliffe, have a job just like English GP, no on-call AT ALL, no hospital , no nothing you don't want to do, take an hour off early as I did today as it was a bit warm out, and earn almost as much as a full-time locum back in Blighty. I do as much as I feel like, no responsibility as I work for someone else, do whatever I feel skilled enough to do [ Friday I remove my first melanoma - at least I reckon its a MM on dermatoscopy [another new skill] - and if it is confirmed I'll pass it on to a better colleaugue to do the wide excision]. Now enjoying a Cabernet Merlot that cost £1.50 [glut in S.Australia at present] and enjoying the balmy evening, 80 deg F with a lovely sea breeze. Apols for the attachment but I'm feeling very mellow and couldn't resist! [View from my unit [aka 'flat] about 50 yards from surgery.] -- Cheerio, Graham