The Phuong Effect!

Today was my first day on the job as an Obstetrics and Gynaecology (O&G) resident, having done a week of nights last week to kick off my residency. The nights themselves weren't too bad courtesy of a ward reallocation amongst the night JMOs which meant a fairer distribution of workload. Managed to get on average 3-4 hours sleep each night but the hot days made it tough to sleep and thus I felt perpetually zonked out!

Anyhow, it was nice to go back to a normal daytime job today and I rocked up to labour ward at 8am utterly terrified of what awaited me! For some reason, pregnant women who are considered the only 'healthy' patients in hospitals suddenly seemed like strange alien like creatures from another world that I had never dealt with before. And actually, if you've ever witnessed a live birth, newborn babies do kinda look like aliens all covered in goo!

However, despite my apprehensions, the day turned out to be pleasantly bludgy! It started off with what seemed like an incomplete ward round seeing mainly the gynae patients, followed by doing a few discharges and ordering a few tests. I was done by 9.30am and had coffee with my O&G colleagues! All along I was wondering whether there was something I was meant to be doing that I didn't know I should be doing... Then I thought to myself maybe I'm displaying 'the Phuong Effect!'.

Now let me explain. Phuong is a fellow resident at my hospital who somehow managed to get through pretty much most of her internship doing next to nothing work! She had bludgy terms, bludgy overtime shifts and basically if you were looking for her, there was only one place you'd find her - the doctor's lounge! I labelled this 'The Phuong Effect' - the ability of a doctor to repel work thus allowing the doctor to bludge! There's also 'the anti-Phuong effect' - doctors who have this effect possess the remarkable ability to attract non-stop paging by Tom, Dick and Harry, a list of jobs that only seems to grow bigger, and the unenviable privilege of staying back after 5pm to finish the aforementioned list of jobs!

Today was certainly a bludgy day and for the most part I didn't really know what to do with the time! I guess we'll have to see what tomorrow holds in store as I attend my first antenatal clinic...will 'the Phuong Effect' have worn off??!

Definitely a dog person...!

Spent the last two weeks of my relief term doing orthopaedics which was surprisingly pretty bludgy! I was paired with a resident who had been doing it for the whole term so she was with it and I saw my role more as one of just helping her out wherever she needed me. Without elective surgery over the holiday period, we averaged just 15 patients between us. So last week, our reg just told us to take turns going home early!

Monday - Left early and walked Di's dog Peekay at Centennial Park. He's a Maltese Shitsu and sooooooooooo cute!!! Nice small dog, really fluffy and never barks at you! I wanna take him home!!! We met up with church ppl for dinner at Happy Chef in Maroubra. After dinner they crashed my place as the folks were down helping Jon move to Albury, which I thought was as good an excuse as any to have ppl over!

Tuesday - Had to pick up parents from airport after they flew back from Albury.

Wednesday - Went out with Di to Leichhardt to an Italian cafe place recommended by one of her colleagues. Had nice pasta and gelato!

Thursday - Picked up new phone from seller on eBay. We met under pretty dodgy circumstances - late at night at a train station...probably not the smartest idea... Anyhow did the deal and loving my new Sony Ericsson w810i after carrying my old Nokia for the past 5 years!

Friday - Went over to Pete dog's new place all the way out in whoop whoop for dinner. Good to catch up with ppl I hadn't seen in a while...!

Today - Had lunch at Di's place before taking Peekay for a walk to Centennial Park again. Enjoyed lying on the grass staring at the sky and playing with Peekay!

Tonight - beginning a week of night shifts =( having just done one over Christmas! Oh well...at least I get it out of the way for a while...

And so my internship comes to an end officially on Monday morning when I walk out of the hospital an intern and return later that night as a resident... =P

A Formule 1 hotel, a carpark, and a garbage bin...

Exactly 10 days, 16 hours and 30 minutes ago, I was lying on the top bed of a Melbourne Formule 1 hotel bunkbed staring at the ceiling having just woken up. Checking the clock on my phone, I found the time to be 5.30am in the morning - I had at least another two and a half hours until I had to wake up for our trip to the Great Ocean Road. Ordinarily, for me that would be plenty of time to go back to sleep. And yet, lying there staring at the ceiling with thoughts buzzing around my head, I knew I wouldn't be able to...

I was thinking about a girl. A girl from church who I'd only gotten to know better over the last 6 weeks or so. We'd been chatting heaps on MSN and had gone on a couple of late night bike rides together that I've previously written about. And yet I still didn't know the answer to the question that bugged me - did she like me??? You might think a girl who agrees to go bike riding at night with you would most likely be interested in you too but I was really finding it difficult to get any vibes from her! She's normally pretty outgoing and spontaneous and well maybe she just does these kinds of things with all her friends!

And so I lay there in bed wondering as I had been alot over the last few weeks or so, should I ask her out?? Is now a right time?? What if she says no?? How will I ask her out?? Will our friendship be ruined if she says no or things don't work out down the track??

And then, a most wonderful realisation dawned on me! One that would liberate me from the what ifs and all those heart aching deliberations I had had! I remembered that God has a plan for each and every one of us. And all I had to do was to trust His plan! That's it! It was so simple! I had known it all along but had got caught up with the silly ways of worldly dating. All I had to do was ask her out and leave the outcome to God's plan for her and myself! I was so excited and thrilled and relieved I was pumping my fists in the air as I lay in bed! When I fully trusted God in that moment I knew I would be able to happily accept whatever answer she gave me. I knew then, that day would be the day I asked her out...

About 3 hours later, I was standing in the carpark of that Formule 1 hotel, packing bags into the car, which happened to be parked next to a huge garbage bin. I couldn't help smiling! I wanted to leap in the air and do the Toyota ad star jump! As God would have it, Di just happened to be with me at the same time packing the car. And that's when I shared my realisation with her and asked her out!

And her answer - "How can I say no!"

Melbourne Roadtrip '06/'07!

Happy happy new year!!! And what a start to the new year I had!

Just got back from 5 nights and 6 days in Melbourne over the new year period! Here's a quick summary of the highlights from the trip:

Sat 30th Dec - Drove down with Wilson and Cheungster! Met up with Jono and Wendy for dinner at Lygon St where we got rorted by a persuasive restaurant manager! Met up with Yoke and Di and headed over to Crown for supper and the hourly fire show!

Sun 31st Dec - Spent the day in Melb CBD. Went bike riding around the Yarra and after dinner at a Jap restaurant, headed over to Docklands to watch the 9pm fireworks. Turned out we weren't in the best vantage point but even so, we weren't overly impressed so headed back to Wilson's apartment to make sangria and watch the midnight fireworks on tv!

Mon 1st Jan - Cheungster and I headed down to Phillip Island for the day as the others had weddings and other things to do. Wasn't the best day weatherwise but we enjoyed amazing scenary and caught sight of all kinds of unexpected wildlife! Caught up with the others for supper at Crowns again before heading over to a Formule 1 Hotel in Fawkner to spend the night.

Tues 2nd Jan - Met up with Mike, Lulu and Charms at Wilson's place and headed off together to the Great Ocean Rd! It was a perfect day and the views were breathtaking! Stopped in Lorne for lunch and then Apollo Bay for a swim! Then headed on to the Twelve Apostles and I was completely blown away by the scenery!!! I was totally awestruck and spent all my time there lapping up the views and contemplating how awesome God is! We watched the sun set upon the apostles and then headed to Port Campbell for a pizza dinner before heading to a small village called Princetown to spend the night.

Wed 3rd Jan - Went for an early morning walk by the river near where we stayed. Then we headed back to the Twelve Apostles and decended Gibson's steps to the beach by the first two apostles. Next headed over to Loch Ard Gorge and after admiring the spectacular rock formations there, enjoyed a refreshing swim and explored this really cool beach side cave!

Thurs 4th Jan - Headed back to Sydney!

So all in all an awesome trip! Really enjoyed every second of it and just can't get over how amazing God's creation is! Really enjoyed getting to know ppl from church better and strengthening relationships, including one special one that deserves a blog of its own...!