Singapore, Day 4

This was so exciting that I needed to blog about it:

I got free lunch!

Ok, that"s part of what I"m going to blog about, but definitely the most exciting (for me). The food was significantly better than FMC, sort of on par with those "all you can eat for $8" places in Central Market. Which is acceptable, but not the greatest.

Of course, if I wasn"t such a cheapass, I could have paid a whopping SGD$1 for a plate of noodles or SGD$5 for just about anything (as mentioned in the last blog post...).
Note: SGD$1 = AUD$0.75
SGD$5 = AUD$3.80 i.e CHEAP.

What else I"m impressed with is the internet I"m using at the moment at a family friends house: 100Mbit connection. That is a theoretical maximum speed of 4x the best of what Australia has to offer (at least, until the NBN comes through... Someday...)

So I was having a conversation with one of the MOs which waiting for a thumb PVNS excision to finish up, and it seems that there are lots of pros and cons to living in Singapore.

Pros:
Minimal income tax - Even for earning $300,000 you pay about 13% tax. Above that rises to about 20%.
Food - The food here is spectacular, cheap and available all hours of the day!
Travel - The Singapore MRT is bloody awesome, reliable, fast and pretty cheap.
Internet - As mentioned, super fast!

Cons:
Pollution - Air quality ain"t the greatest here.
Rent - From what I can figure, quite expensive.
Cars - I also discovered something crazy about this:
Singapore have freakin' expensive cars.
Now, I don"t mean like, Ferrari"s and all that, but even just regular cars!
From what I can work out, in order to own a car, you must first be able to afford to pay a "certificate of entitlement". This is a sort of registering of the car with the government. I think they do this to put a limit/quota on the number of cars in Singapore (due to increasing pollution, population etc), which is a decent idea, as those that can"t afford, use the MRT which reduces carbon emissions etc.


So yeah, how much would cars be?

Lets see, I am contemplating getting a Ford Fiesta. You can get it on sale in Australia for a scratch under $20,000.
Second hand Ford Fiesta here? $70,000.

Seriously. What.

Darwin - The Saga Begins

So we"ve started at the hospital now, so our holidays are over...

Monday was pretty much just administrative issues with a brief period on the wards.

Tuesday was much of the same, though we had a lunchtime JMO teaching session with food! Very impressed with the food, as I was pretty much expecting sandwiches but instead got greeted with trays of lasagna, chickpea curry, stirfry, cottage pie, salad... So yes, a good feed. The teaching session was quite interesting as well as it seems that they have started using an electronic prescribing system up here. An interesting change from the written ones back in Adelaide...

Today is when the real fun began, as I rode into the hospital, leaving my items in a room and having a shower before handover and ward rounds. I have a feeling that I will be a lot more fit by the end of this, assuming I survive biking around everywhere...

I"m based in the Isolation wards, which is pretty much infective things. Most patients appear to be bronchiolitis and diarrhoea. So I"ve been trying to remember things about these, especially dehydration and rehydration issues. Not so easy to remember.
Luckily, everyone here is very helpful, printing protocols and guidelines off for us left/right/center!
In fact, as I sit here typing this, I probably should be reading these guidelines on dehydration and paediatric fluids... But I"ll do that later.

I"m actually currently still in the hospital, as today is the day I"ve been allocated as being "on take". I"m not entirely sure what that means, but so far it involves me eating the rest of my lunch and trying to read up on different conditions. I will have to ride home in the dark too :S

I"m sure I"ll survive, though I"m supposedly supposed to be here until 10pm, though I"ve been told by my superiors that I can leave whenever I want to. I do want to admit a patient at least though.


Anyway, hopefully I"ll be able to get some real internet soon (at home rather than only here at the hospital) and I"ll be able to blog a little more frequently.

Don"t hold your breath though.

There's a fine, fine line...

Big day yesterday!

Had a nice sleep in (9am! Wow!) after staying up until 1am playing 4-player Super Mario Bros. on Wii. Sat around browsing the internets for random things for an hour or so before deciding it was probably time for breakfast. I threw together some goodness (ham, mushrooms, basil, chives, iggs) into a pan and a magical omelette appeared. It was magical.

Started transferring my little assorted notes taken on ward rounds into my computer. Took a lot longer than I expected, as I have horrible writing, partly due to my rush to get the information down, partly due to having nothing to adequately brace my pad on, and partly due to my own mutant inability to write legibly.

Finally noticed the time and after a warp speed shower, threw together a ham/cheese sandwich and rushed out to get to the city, where a group of us saw Avenue Q!
It was amazing!
I"ve been listening to the soundtrack now for a few hours, with my favourite song in the title above. Personally, I still liked Wicked better, partly due to the easier sung songs (yes, I like to sing, despite having the vocal range of a deaf mute bear), but Avenue Q had very memorable moments (and one in particular that cannot be unseen...) and was hilarious.

Went to a friend's place afterwards for a house-warming, which was really good. Had okonomiyaki, cold rolls, and beer/cocktails/wine/mead (yes, mead!). Good food, good drinks, good company, what more can you ask for? An amusing quote? Yes, that was done too. An amusing period of confusion as a friend on the phone was confused as to the people that were at the party. Ah, good times.

[EDIT: I forgot to mention the dessert! Banana cake with a cream cheese/icing sugar icing, with ice cream covered in chocolate flavoured topping, chocolate and rainbow sprinkles!]

So now its Sunday, I have minimal work done, I have washing to do, cleaning to do, music to listen to. So much to do, so little time...

Maybe if I sit here for a while, things will just go away...

A fine, fine line between reality and pretend.