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...!

Christmas, silent nights, and roadtrip!

Hope you all had a merry Christmas spent with family and friends! This past week I've been working night shifts starting last Saturday night so at the moment I'm kinda disoriented as to what day it is and whether I should be awake or sleeping...not unlike some of the patients on the wards!

Christmas Eve we had a special carols service at church. We sang 10 carols with bible readings and lessons in between each one and a short message at the end. I'm really really happy with how the music team did with the 10 carols considering we had our first and final rehearsal that same afternoon! Good job team - thanks to God for your gifts!

Didn't make it to Christmas Day service cos was too zonked out (that's a cool word!), but all in all it's been a good week of nights. With only 2 wards to cover during this time of year, I've averaged 4-5 hours of good uninterrupted sleep each night! How's that - literally paid to sleep! But if I had it my way, I'd rather pay NOT to have worked over this past week...but what to do?!

Anyhow, the offset is that my super nice medical admin person gave me next week off as compensation and so I'm heading down to Melbourne early tomorrow morning at 6am (yup - knocking off work a bit early courtesy of the cool resident who will cover me!)! Going down with some church friends to meet up with some other church friends already there. So we'll spend NYE down there and then head off to do the Great Ocean Rd! Should be exciting!

...and maybe for more reasons than one... =P

And that's a wrap for 2006 - seeya all in the new year!

Random collection of...stuff!

A random collection of stuff I've done in the last 10 days or so:

• Hanging out with church friends! Has been awesome staying back at church for dinner, and seeing Casino Royale last Tues. Great to meet some newcomers too! Have really enjoyed getting to know ppl better!

• Bike riding in the rain with a friend! Went for a ride to Port Botany hoping to do a bit of plane watching. Instead, I stacked it on the way there, the rain got quite heavy so we had to hide under a bridge from where we couldn't see any planes, and my friend punctured both her bike tyres! Maybe that wasn't the best day to go, but it was fun anyway!

• Have been quite busy with music at church. Songlead at church for the first time last Sunday since I really can't remember when...quite enjoyed it actually! This Sunday's Christmas Eve service is going to be HUGE for the music team as we'll be singing 10 Christmas carols with short sermons/lessons interspersed between them. If you like carols, come along to St Mark's this Sunday 5pm!
  

• Discovered Jimmy Eats World, another cool band Jon discovered a while ago that I found in his CD collection! Awesome songs include: For Me This is Heaven, Futures, Work, and Night Drive.
  

• On a Gilmore Girls watching spree! Powered through the 2nd season on DVD and just started the 3rd season! Despite what you may think from the title, this isn't a series just for chicks! The witty dialogue and relationships are refreshing and keep me coming back for more! Makes me wonder if I'd ever wanna live in a small country town...
  

• Still reading Dan Brown's Deception Point - highly recommended! Trying to stick to my read-thru-the-Bible-in-a-year reading plan but slightly behind. Have just read Titus - lotsa pearls in there!
  

• Lastly, work - did a week of evenings last week - not too bad! Loved having the daytime free and sleeping in! This week did geris! I actually really enjoyed it despite it being a busy week! I think I really love the multidisciplinary aspect of it! Next week doing a week of surgical nights 11pm-8.30am from Sat night till Sat morning.
  

So overall an amazing past fortnight really! I think in the last month or so I've really felt like work has stopped being all consuming energy sapping part of my life and that things have turned around! Whether I've felt tired or not I've thrown myself into doing different things, going out, doing crazy things! And I've loved every second! Bring it on!

'This could be the very minute I'm aware I'm alive...'

If it's one thing I love, it has to be spontaneity! And what could be more spontaneous than deciding to go bike riding with a friend at 1am in the morning after Carols last Saturday night!

Maybe it was the caffeine... maybe it was because I was still glowing after an awesome Carols event... maybe it was because I thought 'what the heck, why not?!'

So off we went, stopping by the Mobil first to pump some air in our tyres. I was a bit wobbly still, having not ridden a bike since I can't really remember when. The air pump hose wasn't attached to the pump so we had to ask the kwik-e-mart guy for the hose. At first he refused, perhaps thinking what? That we were gonna run off with his hose??! Eventually some pleading and begging melted his resolve and soon we were on our way with pumped up tyres!

It was a nice ride under a full moon in warm weather and a cool breeze streaming in our faces. We reached the Centennial Park gates to find the main gates locked but we were able to slip in through the pedestrian gates. Don't know why, but it kinda felt like we weren't supposed to be in there. I mean, who goes bike riding at 1am in the morning in Centennial park?!

Without street lights and with the trees obscuring the moonlight, we had to rely on our makeshift bike headlamp - a camping style headlight strapped to the front of my bike - to guide us.

Then it was without warning that my friend suddenly said "Look! Lights! Ranger's coming! Let's get off the road!" Sure enough a jeep was approaching with flashing siren lights. So we kinda tried to go stealth, switching off our lights and heading over to the pedestrian walkway and the cover of some trees.

It was too late.

We were spotted!

The ranger called us over and we thought we had had it! We were gonna get kicked out of the park. Or maybe even fined!

Actually, the ranger was really nice and just wanted to make sure we were ok. He had spotted a group of 4 youths lingering around near one of the gates and just wanted to warn us to stay away from them.

Somewhat relieved but slightly alarmed as well, we thanked him and headed on our way.

We cycled uphill towards the Woollahra gates and turned right to follow a road towards where they have the moonlight cinema. Then we enjoyed a long downhill run back down to the main circuit! Ah...hadn't done that in a while! And certainly not at what was now 2am in the morning!!!

What can I say...it felt good to be alive! So good, I was ready to do it all over again the very next night... =P

Carols by Candlelight 2006!

Wow! What an awesome week of annual leave and to top it off, an awesome weekend!!! Spent the rest of last week hanging out with my cuz mostly, playing golf, watching Open Season, and of course heaps of DVDs!

Then our church put on its second ever Carols by Candlelight on Sat night! Having missed last year's one cos of Gradball and having only seen photos of it, I wasn't quite sure what to expect but what a night it was!

We arrived just after lunch to help set up and to do a last minute run through rehearsal. Randwick Council had kindly provided a bigger stage and a marquee this year so we didn't have to fry in the hot arvo sun!

After sound checks and what not, we ran through the program. The drama team were running through their first and last rehearsal for the skit, which was rather frantic but it came together and the props were outstanding!!! Go the dual function outback dunny/ATM machine and the rusty holden ute!!!

Jon and I did a squishy run to 7/11 to recharge before the evening's program got underway! Around 5pm people stated rocking up and we had the BBQ, jumping castle, and kids games going! At 7pm some kids from Malabar Public did a few musical items as well as some dancing girls from some private dancing school. Then it was time for the carols and skits!

The program was much the same as last year but bigger and better! This year we had the NTE team on stage for a Hi-5 style kids song! We had santa who preached the gospel! It was all happening man and if you missed out this year you'll have to come back next year!!!

I think I spotted some angels!

There were apparently more people than last year and a real feel of community spirit! From what I hear there were great gospel conversations and God was really working in Malabar! Bring on Carols 2007!!!