Dead fish

From the highs of celebrating our first Christmas in Australia, it is amazing how quickly everything can unravel.  The day was off to a bad start when I came downstairs to find Coppertail had passed in the night.  It seems the shock of moving home was too much for him after all.  Barnadi then burried him with his brother Bronzefin under the lemon tree.

The second piece of bad news came at work when I was phoned by the Staff Clinic with a piece of very unexpected news.  It seems at some point in the last year I have become exposed to someone with TB and I am now infected with Latent TB.  In a way I should look at this as good news, as if I hadn't started work at the Alfred, I would never have had the blood test and I may have lived with this hidden disease for years without even knowing about it.

To put everyones mind at rest, latent TB is not contagious and I am in no ways unwell at present, but between 5-10% of people with latent TB will go on to develop the full infection if left untreated.  The gold standard of treatment is 9 months of isoniazid which has a 92% chance of success, but it is 9 months of treatment, and due to the risk of liver toxicity also means 9 months of abstinence from alcohol.  Other treatments do exist but efficacy is not so good.  I do not have to make the decision just yet as I wont see the doctor until next week.  It just goes to show the BCG vaccine was a waste of time, a scar and an unusual patch of arm hair and I still got TB.

Christmas Orphans

I was really looking forward to celebrating Christmas this year, last year we were in Vietnam and still in transit from the UK so we didn't really get to celebrate at all.  The year before that I was on-call and despite our best efforts to celebrate Christmas together, the constant interruptions did nothing for the atmosphere, and I couldn't even relax with a nice glass of mulled wine.  So as well as being our first Christmas in Australia it is also the first Christmas we have properly been able to celebrate in 3 years.



Melbourne Town Hall

Perhaps the most obvious difference between Christmas in Australia and Christmas in the UK is the weather, last Sunday being the hottest day I have experienced since we arrived (depending on which weather forecast you believed it was anything from 39-41 degrees).  Luckily for us that was a one off and it cooled down again by Christmas eve allowing us a trip into the city to see the Christmas lights, the most spectacular light show being at the Melbourne town hall.  The town hall, on the corner of Collins and Swanston street is a beautiful old building normally, but for Christmas they had stuck a big red bow on the front and parked giant toy soldiers in the arches.  Then at night time a complex light show was projected onto the outside walls, turning it into a winter wonderland one minute and a strange mythical beast the next. 

Possums in the park

Walking back to the car we went by the Treasury gardens, a small park in the corner of the CBD, which I remember going to the first time I came to Melbourne to feed the possums.  Feeding the possums is something most locals resent tourists for as they have become considered a bit of a pest.  A lot of trees in the park are now banded with plastic sheaves to stop possums being able to climb them in an attempt to rid them from the park.  At first we thought the attempts must have been successful as we hadn't seen any at all in our walk into the city, the trees instead were full of giant chattering bats.  On our way back however as we walked through the park with our heads looking skyward distracted by the bats, Barnadi felt something brush passed his leg and before we knew it we were surrounded.

We got home and Barnadi had obviously been a good boy this year as Father Christmas had been and left him a stocking full of goodies, I on the other hand must have been very bad.  Still the following morning we had plenty of presents to unwrap with our breakfast, including a new home for Coppertail our fish.  So as Barnadi spent the morning getting dinner ready, I helped Coppertail move in. 

Coppertail's new home

Barnadi had invited the staff at Narai Thai over for dinner as most of them like us have no family here in Australia to spend Christmas with.  As we weren't sure how many people might tum up Barnadi prepared a Christmas feast of epic proportions, chicken, duck, ham, prawns, potatoes and stuffing.  Also mince pies, panettone and mulled wine to wash it all down with.  It is not surprising then that after eating all that some of the guests (no names mentioned here) had to take a quick nap on the sofa when Barnadi put a movie on. 

Barnadi surveying his creation

All in all it was a perfect first Christmas in Australia

Rosanna Vs. Kingsbury

The longer we look for a house, the harder it seems to become.  Even such a simple thing as picking a suburb seems to be getting harder.  Just as we think we have narrowed down our search, other opportunities and possibilities open themselves to us.  The problem is there are good points and bad points to most of the suburbs we have looked at and it is a matter of finding the right balance.  Some we can rule out straight away, Northcote for example is just too expensive. 

Rosanna is a suburb we have recently started to consider, it lies just to the North of Heidelberg and is approximately 12km out from the city centre.  In a recent survey by the age it was ranked 177th most livable suburb in Melbourne (out of 314).  To put that into some sort of perspective Northcote lies at 36th, Heidelberg West was 216th, Bundoora 235th and Reservoir just beating Rosanna at 176th.  Rosanna has a small commercial region of local shops, restaurants and cafes which are centred around a zone 2 train station.  Previously when we have looked at house prices in Rosanna we have found it too expensive, but a recently discovered unit on Lower Plenty Road could be perfect for us, although we wont be able to arrange an inspection until the new year.

We have considered Kingsbury before, although not made any special effort to search for properties there, until now.  In the age survey mentioned earlier Kingsbury features at 124th, much higher than any other suburb we have looked at.  Kingsbury is a very small suburb and could possibly be considered almost part of Reservoir if it wasn't for the Darebin creek forming a physical barrier between the two.  Kingsbury is pretty much a purely residential area with the only commercial sections lying on Plenty road or a small block of shops on Link street. The main public transport route is the 86 tram that runs from the docklands up to Bundoora, making it a very convenient location for Barnadi to get to work from but not nearly so convenient for me.  What Kingsbury lacks in culture it makes up for in green open spaces with Bundoora park to the north and the Darebin creek trail forming a protective green barrier around the eastern edges, giving us plenty of places to take a dog for a walk.

I am finding one of the first things I check when we consider a house is how easy it is for me to get to work.  Normally this might seem a sensible consideration, but I have to remember my current job is only a 6 month temporary contract, of which I am nearly a month into already.  There is no guarantee that a house that is convenient for work now will be as convenient in the future.  Work at the Alfred is however going well, and my orientation was kicked up a gear last week in order to get me up and out on the wards a little quicker. 

The way the clinical pharmacy service runs at the Alfred is completely different from anywhere I have worked before.  Pharmacists are assigned to a clinical team rather than a ward, and so look after all patients within that team regardless of their location within the hospital.  Clinical pharmacist at the Alfred are also just that, clinical, with no dispensary slots, just out on the wards all day.  It is great as it allows me to go on all the consultant ward rounds and counsel all my patients on their medications properly.  I am currently assigned to the Trauma team which is a relatively small surgical area and despite the fast turnover I have only had approximately 20 patients to see a day (apparently it can go up to 40).  The only negative is the early starts, since starting at the Alfred I am seeing less and less of Barnadi, a problem which will be amplified if we move anywhere with poor transport connections, so I suppose this is the true reason why it is such a big deal to me.  My job at the Alfred is almost too good to be true, their clinical service being quite unique even in Australia, I would seriously consider applying for another job there before my 6 months is up,  moving to another hospital just wouldn't be the same.

Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside.

Unusual sandstone cliffs at Sandringham

In the run up to Christmas Barnadi has been doing a lot of extra shifts at the restaurant, working lunch and dinner.  So last Sunday when he was only working the lunch shift we decided a trip down to the beach would be a good way to unwind.  I caught the tram up to Bundoora to meet him at work and then he drove us back down to the sea.  Not wanting to face the crowds at St. Kilda or Brighton beaches we carried on around the coast until we got to Sandringham.  It was quite a windy evening which kept the temperature down despite being a clear sunny day.  The sea was still too cold to consider swimming in so instead we walked along the beach exploring the unusual formations made by the large sandstone cliffs.

Trout and Kingfish Carpaccio

Once we had our fill of cliffs and sand we decided it was time to fill our tummies too, rather than driving straight home and having to cook we stopped in St Kilda and got a table at Cicciolina on Acland street.  Cicciolina is a rather pricey place, but somewhere Barnadi had always wanted to take me to, mainly because they serve brains on the menu.  The restaurant is very small and some would say cosy, others cramped, I would just say if you have a waist size over 38inches this might not be the place for you!  For starters we had the brains of course and we also shared the trout and kingfish carpaccio.  The brains were served wrapped in pancetta and reminded me of pigs in blankets, although they had a much softer texture once you bit into them.  The carpaccio was really nice too, but the blood orange segments that were served with it completely overpowered the delicate flavour of the fish.  Then for a main course Barnadi had the duck while I had a snapper fillet, both were good, but I did prefer my choice.

Back to the Start.

It has been just over a week since we got back from the UK.  Our arrival into Melbourne was greeted with heavy rain and thunderstorms and in many ways it feels like we have arrived in Australia for the first time again.

The first and most important job for us when we got back was to acquire a Christmas tree, after all we needed somewhere to put the Christmas presents.  We found a man selling trees that seemed in good shape outside of Bunnings near the Northland shopping centre and so our Christmas tree was sorted.  The only downside was we managed to pick the one day of the year to buy our Christmas tree that Melbourne was suffering an infestation of large green beetles, which hitched a ride with the tree and infested our house and car as well.

Our First Christmas Tree in Australia

The second job of the day was good old house hunting, starting with the auction of the house in Heidelberg West followed by a second visit to a unit in Reservoir.  Although we both really liked the house in Heidelberg West (much to our friends disappointment) we didn't actually place a bid as our provisional pre-approval for a mortgage was just that, provisional, the bank still requiring more proof of Barnadi's income.  The house didn't reach its reserve price, and so one of the estate agents working at the auction came up to check if we were still interested in making an offer.  He explained that we could always put in a 'subject to finance' clause, but as the agents wouldn't give us an indication of what the reserve price would be we left it without placing an offer.  The unit in Reservoir we looked at was one we had looked at before but the auction was set for a date we were in the UK.  It didn't sell at auction so now was back on the market.  Although we spent a long time there considering all the possible confirmation of furniture we could squeeze in, the final decision was that it was just too small for us to be comfortable in.  So we are back to square one in the house hunting stakes.



The Alfred Hospital

On Monday I started my new job at the Alfred, my first two weeks are set aside to the pharmacy departments induction programme.  Weighing up the options for transportation I decided that public transport would probably be more bearable than facing the traffic on Hoddle street every day, and so far the tram ride has been quite pleasant allowing me time to read a book, a simple pleasure I have struggled to find time for in quite a while.  The first thing I noticed since starting work at the Alfred, is the large number of us POMS working there, the second was the relative youth  of the department, although this might be linked to the third thing I noticed, the high turn over of staff, most people I spoke to having been there for less than a year.  That all aside, everyone has been very friendly and welcoming and in the first week I have been out for dinner with a small group of staff as well as being invited to join in a departmental football game (I haven't the heart to tell them how much I hate the game, being English they must just assume I love it).  Most of my induction so far has been spent in the main dispensary, trying to get my head around their computer system iPharmacy and the prescription pricing process.  If you thought pricing of prescriptions was complicated in Australia for community pharmacy, you ain't seen nothing yet.  The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) may be a brilliant system in assuring affordable medication is received by the good people of Australia, but it is the most convoluted and complex system to work with as a pharmacist, making me miss the UK's one price fits all model.  Another problem with the PBS model (other than being overly complicated) is that it prohibits doing one stop dispensing to wards, the use of patients own drugs on the ward and pretty much the whole medicines management service.  I know Australia has developed its own systems so I shouldn't keep comparing it to the UK, but I can't help feeling that PBS will prevent Australia ever releasing the full potential from their pharmacy technicians.  I am only one week in and I still have a lot to learn.

Love and Marriage

The Wedding day of my best friends David and Kirsty saw us take our second trip back to the UK  within the year.  When Barnadi and I had the Australia leg of our wedding, nearly 6 years ago, both David and Kirsty came out with us, David was my best man and Kirsty a bridesmaid (a slightly erroneous term, considering there is no bride in a gay wedding). 

BBQ on the Balcony

Our flights did not leave until after midnight and so we decided to host a BBQ at our house during the day to pass the time.   It would be the first time we got to use the new gas BBQ we had bought from Bunnings almost 2 months previously.  Amongst the guests who turned up were Sam and Athina, the last time I had caught up with them was at the Fringe festival, since then both have now got full registration and Athina had even got a job.  Sam however was still unemployed although had a few interviews set up.  It was this combination of events which led Sam to the decision he would be coming back to the UK for David and Kirsty's wedding after all (provided he could get a cheap enough ticket that night).  This was very good news as Sam and Kirsty had lived together at university and had been friends as long as I had with David.  The rest of the BBQ went very well, and finished early enough to get most of it cleared up before we had to leave for our flight.  The flight itself was long but completely uneventful, which is always a good thing for a flight to be. 

Racing Santas at Martin and Laura's Festivitiness party

We spent our first night in London as we didn't fancy getting off the plane and facing a three hour bus journey to Bath.  We didn't really do much in the way of sightseeing in London, instead we did a bit of shopping (Clothes in the UK are much cheaper than in Australia and they usually have better cuts and sizes) and met up with a friend for coffee, but that was about it.  The weather was wet, but surprisingly not too cold, and to be honest I quite enjoyed the misty drizzle that is so eponymous with England.  The rain was much heavier when we got to Bath, and the river Avon was much higher than I had ever seen it, the footpaths on either side being completely submerged, the weir completely indistinguishable from the roaring torrent that made up the rest of the river and the bottom of bridges normally high enough to allow a narrow boat under now not even letting any sunlight through.  The weather forecast for the actual wedding day had changed from a sunny day to that of continued downpours.  The weather combined with the development of a nasty cold was giving Kirsty a great deal of anxiety about their wedding day.  Most of our time in Bath was pretty much planned out for us, with dinners out and Christmas parties to attend as well as making the time to catch up with old friends and colleagues.  The rest of our 'free' time was taken up making important trips such as to the bank to transfer the rest of our money over to Australia to put towards the deposit on a house.

The night before the wedding we went to help decorate the hall the reception was to be held in.  It was a monster task with lots to do, but it was a miraculous transformation from a barren looking hall to a warming winter retreat.  The photo walls that covered the halls notice boards helped disguise the halls many other uses as well as giving the whole place a more personal touch and the blue filters for the lights completely changed the atmosphere of the place.  After we had done as much as we could to the hall we then took a trip over to the church for the wedding rehearsal.  My role as best man seemed quite simple stand to one side with David and present the rings to the vicar when asked.  David never actually asked me to be his best man, it was merely ever implied that I would be.  The first definite clue I had was when Kirsty wrote a message in the invitation that ended "..you had better start working on your speech..."  I also didn't know I was to be one of the witnesses until the vicar mentioned it during the wedding rehearsal. 

Wedding photo's in the rain

In keeping with tradition the bride and groom slept in separate beds the night before the wedding, Kirsty stayed at a hotel with her mum, whilst Barnadi, Sam and I kept David company at his house.  In the morning the house was a hive of activity David and his father had to go to the reception hall to accept the delivery of flowers while I took a trip to the florist to pick up the buttonholes.  We then enjoyed a slightly staggered champagne breakfast before getting changing into our wedding suits and heading to the church.  Sam sorted out the candles, Barnadi helped attach buttonholes and the photographer and camera man set up whilst the ushers handed out the order of service to the early arrivals.  Everything was going well until David's brother managed to drop a cuff link down through a grate in the church floor.  With a great deal of luck he managed to locate it again before the wedding service started.  When Kirsty entered she looked resplendent, the dress, the hair and make up all complementing each other perfectly, the happiness that shone from her eyes completing the image.  The service went without a hitch even though none of us could quite remember what to do when from the rehearsal.  Trying to get the wedding photo's done in the rain was a bit of a shambles however and in the end  it was decided to give up trying to get them all done and just head on out of the rain and onto the reception.

Adding the finishing touches to the hall

The reception was the part of the day I was dreading, not the whole reception, just the speeches.  I had written my best man speech a couple of days ago and had run through it a few times by myself but when the vicar stole one of my anecdotes during the wedding service I began to panic.  By the time we sat down to eat I had already had a couple of kia royales and had developed a headache, thankfully I was sitting near Kirsty's mum, who had come prepared with a wide array of analgesics to choose from.  The best man speech is always last, and by the time it got to me I was shaking so much I could hardly hold my champagne flute for the toasts, but once it was over that was it, I could relax again and enjoy the rest of the night, and what a night it was. 

We spent another couple of nights in Bath before making the trip back to Kent to visit my family, the weather continued to be rainy but it also had grown considerably colder too, so the thought of coming back to an Australian summer was somewhat appealing.  My sister Rachel and her husband Glen drove us back to the airport where they waved us goodbye, much the same as they did only 6 months previously.  Coming back to Australia was going to feel different this time however, Gemma and Dan would have moved on after 2 months living with us and I am about to start my new job.  Not only this but with the pre-approval for our mortgage going through we will be busy looking for a new house.  Everything is about to change.