Summer - Autumn 2007
19 April 2007
It doesn't seem long since we were last heading into Winter and hoping for rain. The drought here has at least focussed the minds of politicians on the importance of environment policy as we head towards a Federal election later in the year.
Half-time private practice and half-time public hospital work has been keeping me quite busy, more so than I had expected as there has been a lot of fill-in work while other anaesthetists have been on vacation. Hopefully I will start getting my work fixed into a regular schedule over the next few months. It has also been a relief to have staff from the private group I joined to chase up billing issues rather than doing it all myself. In other work-related news, my study notes for trainees in the ANZCA training program have been republished by the Anaesthesia UK website.
In January, a few days before it started, Jay mentioned that it would be interesting to see the Australian Open. Surprisingly there was no problem buying tickets to see some early centre-court matches including Venus Williams. I don't imagine that is as easy with any of the other Grand Slams. We weren't there for any of the rowdy crowd behaviour which made the news.
The weather has been so dry here for two years that the grass outside Melbourne Park had been spray-painted green for the tennis. Watering of gardens is very limited. The sunny weather meant trips to the beach with Saxon and also with our friend Jim who came to visit from Sydney for the weekend.
Summer is also the cricket season, and since Jay had developed some understanding of Australian rules football during the Winter, I exposed him to some cricket during the Summer. We went to one of the one-day games as it's a bit more exciting and easier to maintain attention than at the Test cricket. Australia defeated New Zealand in this day-night game.
With friends we went to the Midsumma carnival, which is a daytime gay event in Melbourne. It was very low-key with lots of kids. We joined JOY-FM as supporters and had some lunch with Tats and Blake. Our other gay-themed event was going to Mardi Gras at the start of March. Unlike last year we went only for the weekend and exactly like last year, Toybox was the pick of the events. We hung out with Jim at both events and were very pleased to see some friends from the US who made the trip: Jerry and Jeff and Dan.
Recovering from Mardi Gras we had a very butch weekend, going to the Australian IFBB Pro Show (won by Dexter Jackson) and the Motor Show. It was a little disappointing not to see more outlandish concept cars at the Motor Show. The biggest crowds were around the Chrysler stand as they are making quite a push in reentering the Australian market.
Both my sister and I had our birthdays in late March. For Cathy's, we went bowling. In a fine demonstration that strength can in no way compensate for a complete lack of skill or timing, Jay and I both lost to Cathy. The place we went to had a sort of nightclub feel with dim lighting and dance music. It became clear that they also had a nightclub approach to cleaning the carpet.
Easter is a four-day weekend in Australia, so we were able to take a trip to Tasmania while saving Jay's vacation days for going to Europe later in the year. We flew into Hobart and rented a car. Unfortunately I messed up the car booking and we had to take the only one they had: a Hyundai Santa Fe, which managed to combine boat-like handling with gutlessness on hills. Much of the driving was through the mountains.
We visited a number of National Parks, stopping at Lake St Clair, travelling up the King River in a jet boat, driving to Dove Lake near Cradle Mountain and taking the steep walk to see Wineglass Bay on the Freycinet Peninsula. We visited the former convict settlement at Port Arthur. We also discovered the complete absence of activity on Launceston's streets at 7:30pm on a Saturday night while looking for an open restaurant. There are a lot more photos in a separate photo album.
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Half-time private practice and half-time public hospital work has been keeping me quite busy, more so than I had expected as there has been a lot of fill-in work while other anaesthetists have been on vacation. Hopefully I will start getting my work fixed into a regular schedule over the next few months. It has also been a relief to have staff from the private group I joined to chase up billing issues rather than doing it all myself. In other work-related news, my study notes for trainees in the ANZCA training program have been republished by the Anaesthesia UK website.
In January, a few days before it started, Jay mentioned that it would be interesting to see the Australian Open. Surprisingly there was no problem buying tickets to see some early centre-court matches including Venus Williams. I don't imagine that is as easy with any of the other Grand Slams. We weren't there for any of the rowdy crowd behaviour which made the news.
The weather has been so dry here for two years that the grass outside Melbourne Park had been spray-painted green for the tennis. Watering of gardens is very limited. The sunny weather meant trips to the beach with Saxon and also with our friend Jim who came to visit from Sydney for the weekend.
Summer is also the cricket season, and since Jay had developed some understanding of Australian rules football during the Winter, I exposed him to some cricket during the Summer. We went to one of the one-day games as it's a bit more exciting and easier to maintain attention than at the Test cricket. Australia defeated New Zealand in this day-night game.
With friends we went to the Midsumma carnival, which is a daytime gay event in Melbourne. It was very low-key with lots of kids. We joined JOY-FM as supporters and had some lunch with Tats and Blake. Our other gay-themed event was going to Mardi Gras at the start of March. Unlike last year we went only for the weekend and exactly like last year, Toybox was the pick of the events. We hung out with Jim at both events and were very pleased to see some friends from the US who made the trip: Jerry and Jeff and Dan.
Recovering from Mardi Gras we had a very butch weekend, going to the Australian IFBB Pro Show (won by Dexter Jackson) and the Motor Show. It was a little disappointing not to see more outlandish concept cars at the Motor Show. The biggest crowds were around the Chrysler stand as they are making quite a push in reentering the Australian market.
Both my sister and I had our birthdays in late March. For Cathy's, we went bowling. In a fine demonstration that strength can in no way compensate for a complete lack of skill or timing, Jay and I both lost to Cathy. The place we went to had a sort of nightclub feel with dim lighting and dance music. It became clear that they also had a nightclub approach to cleaning the carpet.
Easter is a four-day weekend in Australia, so we were able to take a trip to Tasmania while saving Jay's vacation days for going to Europe later in the year. We flew into Hobart and rented a car. Unfortunately I messed up the car booking and we had to take the only one they had: a Hyundai Santa Fe, which managed to combine boat-like handling with gutlessness on hills. Much of the driving was through the mountains.
We visited a number of National Parks, stopping at Lake St Clair, travelling up the King River in a jet boat, driving to Dove Lake near Cradle Mountain and taking the steep walk to see Wineglass Bay on the Freycinet Peninsula. We visited the former convict settlement at Port Arthur. We also discovered the complete absence of activity on Launceston's streets at 7:30pm on a Saturday night while looking for an open restaurant. There are a lot more photos in a separate photo album.
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