I could have been Road Kill!

The night shift is pretty long. It's longer when there is very little to do. It's also longer when you're having a hard time. That would be my case as the workload at the ED piled up along with many sick patients waiting outside to be seen. I only had a good 7 hours sleep, got up about 10am. Work starts at 10pm, my plan to sleep in between didn't succeed, hence I had to struggle through the night feeling pretty much light headed all the time.

At one time I was convince I had some sort of viral fever, but I shrugged that thought away an focused on my patients. I've seen quite a handful, since we were short couple of people. Couple of them were genuinely sick, some were crappy admissions, which will always be the case in Caboolture Hospital.

I always believe that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. But today, I thought if I wanna gamble with my life, going home when I've stayed up for 23 hours was probably not a good idea at all. I thought to myself when I got home that I should had listened to my colleagues who suggested that I book an accommodation at the hospital and sleep for couple of hours before driving home.

I slept off while waiting at the traffic light, not to mention dozed off while driving at speed of 100km/h. It was a very dangerous gamble I thought.

I'm grateful that I got home safely, although I'm still a little shaken, but I hope I've wised up and probably would not repeat the same mistake as I may not be so lucky the next time.

Houses Houses Houses!

I like to think of myself as someone who is simple but sophisticated, dull but interesting, mysterious yet predictable in many ways. There are only a handful of things which interest me; cars, houses, furnishing and exotic places. That is why I decided to tag along with my friends, and learn how exactly to acquire a landed property here.

This is what I've gathered so far, to buy a house, you must first acquire a piece of land, and the land must be approve by the government to build a house, whether it's single story or double story... it all depends on what the government approval says. Next, you must pay the booking fees to book the land, which estimates to about AUD1,000. An average cost for a land to build a house varies, depending on location, size of land, and the contents of soil as well. On average, they cost about AUD150,000 - AUD200,000 in the suburbs of Brisbane.

You can start looking for your builders once you've found an ideal piece of land to build a home. The builders can only start building when the finance approval goes through for that piece of land you've purchased which can take awhile. You can choose any builder of your choice, it's always good to choose one of the major building companies who has lots of experiences with houses, eg Plantation Homes, Metricon, Aus Homes, Orbit Homes, and so on.....

I saw this display home at Plantation homes and I instantly fell in love with it. The double story house was exceptional and spacious indefinitely. Just to build and extra story, one can choke up an extra AUD50,000 to AUD 80,000. An average double story house could go up to AUD500,000 to AUD600,000 including land. The single story houses average up to AUD350,000-AUD450,000. All of the above houses mentioned are 3-4 bedroom houses.

I dared myself to dream of a place of my own, have my own home theatre set, to share my life with someone in a home such as the one displayed at North Lakes was certainly something I've want, I thought to myself.

Hence I've set my goal for the next 2 years. I need to save up at least AUD100,000 in 2 years. By then I would expect the interest rate to rise. The bank interest rate is at the moment 7.0%, where else some of those home companies affiliated with banks are willing to offer 5.5-6.5% interest rate to home buyers. The housing developers have gave incentives to help boost property sales by offering different amenities for the houses such as.... a free driveway into the garage, fencing, air cond, stainless steal window tilts, and many more for free, all of it which packaged it up can cost up to AUD 50,000.

It was very interesting going into different housing displays, and awe at the artistic furnishing or repertoire of the house. At the moment, I would need to try to save up more by cutting cost on expenses. So I guess I need to start saving to secure a better future for myself. :D

Stabbed a girl twice and still for away being a hero!

Today I broke my record of seeing 9 patients. I've seen lots of cases, some were funny, some were dodgy and others were interesting and intriguing. Anyway, lets cut the chase.... I saw this 12 year old kid, little school girl, the giggly type. Problem? She fractured her wrist, and would require sedation to get it back aligned. Nothing hurts me more than to inflict more pain to this little girl, but a doc has got to do what a doc has got to do.

So, details of the story? Girl is scared. Like any child including myself when I was her age, I'm scared. Reason, I imagined the worst case scenario ever, and I bet my very ass so does she. People are scared because of the unknown, not because we're going to fix her wrist. Alot of reassurance is required to settle her, even for the cannulation, which i failed twice.

Right, after that, abit of ketamine was given to induce a semi conscious state. When she finally go sleepy, full traction was applied, wrist was plantar flex, and the fracture area was manipulated and reduced back in, with a simple firm push, back into alignment. From here, now I've figured why age matters. The older they are, because they have more muscle fibers, the harder it is to overcome the strength of muscles.

Anyway, I didn't do very much, but I learned alot from it. I hope in future it would be me who does the manipulation next time. hehehe. Very satisfying result!

:D

Korean Food in Brisbane Along Elizabeth Arcade

Thanks to Mr & Mrs Chang, I've been invited to the city to have some nice and to be expected tasty sushi(Hanaichi). However, because I couldn't find parking around the city, circulated like for almost an hour, I had to park at the private car park space which cost me some amount of money.

Anyway, as soon as I parked my car, I rushed out of the building and gave a call to my invitees.

Partly my fault, but they were cheesed off by the waiter/waitress at Hanaichi restaurant, they decide to head down to Elizabeth Arcade for some nice Korean Food.

I had some kimchi fried rice, and my other friends, some Mongolian Claypot rice, and kimchi soup. It's been awhile since I last tasted kimchi, the sour taste, and the spiciness of it was awesome. I didn't take any photos unfortunately, will do so whenever opportunity comes again.

Got out about 8.20pm, my parking ticket is more expensive than my food.... It's funny how it hit me. I still don't get how to park in the city. Apparently, the streets with the metres, you're allow to park for max 2 hours, after 7pm. Thats all I know, you could say there potentially legal places to park along the street, but I wouldn't want tot risk getting my car towed, while I have a good time in the restaurant. :D

Surfs Up: Caloundra

Temp 31 degrees, checked!

Wind speed, 20 miles an hour, checked!

Wave height, 1-2 metres, checked!

Surfing board, big enough!

Wave surf trainer, bug hunk and reliable!

Time: 11:00

Weather was good for surfing today. Lou took us me all the way Caloundra to try some wave surfing. We got lessons from an Australian trainer, name Graham. He charged us 40 AUD for 2hour lessons which I thought was good. Fee includes surf board as well.

There were 4 of us all together, Lou and I, and Urna, and a beach babe who happened to live just couple of blocks from us, forgot her name though.

The waves were pretty good, not too high, hence it's relatively safe. I started out with the basics, that is how to get up from a surf board. It's easy practicing on the beach sand, the difficult part is actually getting the timing right when you get on top of the wave. I had a couple of nose dives, drank half the sea water possibly, and paddled back with my chin grazing on the board a couple of times.

I was actually pretty good on my 1st few tries. Managed to stay balance until the wave died out couple of times. That sort of gave me some motivation, and insight that I can definitely do better when practice.

Anyway, Caloundra has some really beautiful beach spots as well; Kings Beach, Shelly Beach, and one more I couldn't remember. It is even possible to see whales if you're lucky enough.

I got home about 8.30pm, feeling wrecked and tired. My body was aching all over by then, I could hardly lift myself up. Still it's good sport, I'm looking forward to invest on some surfing gears in near future, while I'm still young.

Sunshine Beach

Partly cos I'm a little annoyed by my housemates, I've decided to take a long drive down Sunshine coast to see the rumored beautiful beach side there. It was about 120km drive, which took me almost one and half hours to get there, excluding the time getting lost between highways. One thing I'm glad about it is I got there on my own, one hand holding the GPRS(iPhone) and the other on the steering wheel.... who said guys can't multi-task?

There were lots of interesting things to see along the way. Fir trees along the road, a dead baby wallaby(me thinks) along the highway, highway police with their speedometers(hope they didn't catch me speeding!) and also some high up hills as well. Bringing my ipod was a good idea since I'm able to plug it straight into my audio player, listen to songs which I enjoyed singing. Driving alone makes me happy for some reason, takes your mind off a lot of troubling things. It's nice to be away from people at certain times, as you're not sure whether you're an annoyance to them or vice versa.

Sunshine beach is a small town, surrounded by small houses looking out to the vast blue sea. The sea water was cold, but not chilly. The sand was warm, however really hot if you're walking far off from the shore. I really like it there, the sound of the calm rustling waves, the cold wind blowing on my face, the salty smell of the sea and most of all, the feeling of accomplishing what I set out to do in the morning.

Decided to go home about 3pm. Reached home at about 5.30pm. I was quite exhausted by that time but still had the energy to talk about my short adventures.

I often wonder if it was such a good idea coming down to Australia. A lot has changed and there were times I feel a bit stressed out being here. New job, new place, new environment, new life, new car, new friends... and now I have this new scheme I need to apply to save me some money.

My first USS fetal/embryo

This may sound funny to many of you guys, but I've never used a USS machine before, until quite recently at the ED. I was seeing this 18 year old 11/40 pregnant women who came in with LOC and fit, who was rather worried about her child. Being a concerned mom, she insisted if I could do a USS pelvis to see her baby for the 1st time.

I of course, didn't know what to say. I mean this is well above my capabilities I thought, at the same time, there is this curiosity feeling of trying out new stuff for the 1st time, without supervision from anyone. I thought to myself, USS is pretty harmless stuff, what is the worst that could happen?

So yeah, I tried that, of course mentioning to her that this would be 2nd time doing it(Obviously I lied to them to give them a bit of confidence). So, some squirt of jelly on the belly, and abit of probe rub over the tummy, thats when I witness the miracle of life. :D

Small 10cm baby, by the looks of it, already has a heartbeat, and well formed head. I thought to myself this is pretty amazing stuff. I felt amazing myself. :D

Well, thats the highlight of today. I'm off on MOnday. ANyone fancy going out with me, give me a call! :D