Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Back from Banff (+Free Bad Joke)
Just a quick installment this evening to say that Mum & Dad White have made it back safe and sound from Banff on the bus. They had initially toyed with the idea of taking the long-haul trip to Jasper (9 hours on the bus), but in the end they settled on staying in Banff for a couple of days, seeing the sights there and taking it easy before heading home again. They can always head for Jasper the next time they're over. They seem to have had a nice time and took a lot of great photos, so hopefully they'll post a blog detailing their exploits in the next day or two.
Things continue as usual here - P settling into work well, me slogging along with Pathology. It's a good rotation, but there's a lot of 'cutting-in' involved (i.e. cutting up bits of excised organs) and as I'm the first Fellow to rotate with the Path guys, no-one is quite sure what to do with me apart from giving me lots of this to do. So I'm getting to do quite a lot in the lab in preparing organs for analysis, and also spending some time looking at slides of the sections I make. Not as exciting as it sounds, when you spend over an hour preparing a specimen - it takes time to do the job well, but it's a little tedious. Not really like 'Quincy' or 'Silent Witness' at all. But it has its moments, and its a real privilege to see another speciality from the inside, rather than just interacting with the Path Lab as a surgeon. I'm fairly sure that I'm the one of very few UK surgeons who will have spent any time in Pathology training seeing what happens to the specimens after we cut them out of the patient. Hopefully it'll give me a better perspective on the whole subject of cancer surgery...
In other news, we've added another link to our blogroll, Tuscarora Weather. This is the webpage of a neighbour of ours, 3 doors up, who has a fully functional weather station hooked up to his computer and web server, providing real time data on what the weather is like right here, right now. He's got info on the temperature in the sun, in the shade, indoors and in the basement and also windspeed and historical data summarising the last few months' weather. You can even see when he's got his furnace switched on!
Oh, I almost forgot - WE GOT OUR CREDIT CARD APPLICATION ACCEPTED! This is great news, as we'd been told we'd never get a credit card for a variety of reaosns, as our social insurance numbers start with a '9', as we're only here for 2 years and as we have no North American credit rating. Not any more! We have now secured a line of credit from VISA USA, which means if we spend on the card and pay off the balance, we have an instant credit rating! This should make things easier if we want a small loan to buy a second car, etc. It also means we can stop using our UK cards to buy stuff, and we can spend our hard-earned Canadian dollars with our flexible friend, Mr Fantastic Plastic.
Also, we have registered with a GP here. Apparently it's important to do this BEFORE you get sick, so we're going in to give our particulars in the next week or two.
So what else is new? Well, the barbecue is going a dinger, and we're using it maybe 4 or 5 nights a week. Steak, sossies, salmon, scallops, prawns, corn - you name it, we'll give it a go! And the weather has been good enough to eat outside on the deck for the last 2 nights on the trot. And it's to be good for the next 4 days, at least until the parents go home. It'll be 28oC on Saturday, so we've booked dinner for 20:30 at the River Cafe restaurant on Prince's Island Park. Should be good. We might even go up the Calgary tower in the dark for an extra thrill!
I'm on call tomorrow night (Thursday), so that's slightly wick. It's like the joke about the university professor lecturing on sexual behaviour who gets a show of hands from his class about how often they 'do it'. He asks how many are 'once a week or more' and a few hands go up. He asks for 'once a month or more' and all of the class puts their hands up except one guy, who looks really happy nonetheless. The professor asks him how often and the guy replies "once a year". The professor says "but why are you so happy, if you only do it once a year?" and the guy says "It's tonight! It's tonight!". .... Ahem....
So anyway, I only do three nights on call a month (which is super), but it's tomorrow (which is wick). Think of the money, that's what I say.
Oh, I also added my name to Roy Boy's Fantasy Football League courtesy of the Sun. Made the minor mistake of selecting only 10 players at first, but have now fixed this and dumped Wayne Rooney as he's injured (had forgotten this - duh). Hopes resting on Denis Bergkamp, Anelka, Viduka and part of the Arsenal defense. Didn't pick Owen as he may not be much longer for the premier league anyway!
DVDs rented in the last week or so:
Cold Mountain: 7/10, civil war epic, engaging but ultimately disappointing. Thwarted lovers are separated by war and are finally reunited for a single night before disaster strikes. Worth a look.
Calendar Girls: 8/10, middle aged chick flick but v. good anyway. Almost a must-see.
Miracle: 6/10: underdog US ice hockey team beats USSR in 1980 Winter Olympics. Good story, but flimsy characterisation. Missable.
The Last Samurai: 8/10, Tom Cruise as US veteran caught up in the battle between the old and the new in 1870s Japan. Kind of a cross between 'Dances With Wolves' and 'Shogun'. Too long but very satisfying. Recommended.
Anyway, that's all for now.. Off to bed before my night on call. Hopefully before I am home again (Friday afternoon), both P and the parents will have added to the Blog Log.
Love
J
Things continue as usual here - P settling into work well, me slogging along with Pathology. It's a good rotation, but there's a lot of 'cutting-in' involved (i.e. cutting up bits of excised organs) and as I'm the first Fellow to rotate with the Path guys, no-one is quite sure what to do with me apart from giving me lots of this to do. So I'm getting to do quite a lot in the lab in preparing organs for analysis, and also spending some time looking at slides of the sections I make. Not as exciting as it sounds, when you spend over an hour preparing a specimen - it takes time to do the job well, but it's a little tedious. Not really like 'Quincy' or 'Silent Witness' at all. But it has its moments, and its a real privilege to see another speciality from the inside, rather than just interacting with the Path Lab as a surgeon. I'm fairly sure that I'm the one of very few UK surgeons who will have spent any time in Pathology training seeing what happens to the specimens after we cut them out of the patient. Hopefully it'll give me a better perspective on the whole subject of cancer surgery...
In other news, we've added another link to our blogroll, Tuscarora Weather. This is the webpage of a neighbour of ours, 3 doors up, who has a fully functional weather station hooked up to his computer and web server, providing real time data on what the weather is like right here, right now. He's got info on the temperature in the sun, in the shade, indoors and in the basement and also windspeed and historical data summarising the last few months' weather. You can even see when he's got his furnace switched on!
Oh, I almost forgot - WE GOT OUR CREDIT CARD APPLICATION ACCEPTED! This is great news, as we'd been told we'd never get a credit card for a variety of reaosns, as our social insurance numbers start with a '9', as we're only here for 2 years and as we have no North American credit rating. Not any more! We have now secured a line of credit from VISA USA, which means if we spend on the card and pay off the balance, we have an instant credit rating! This should make things easier if we want a small loan to buy a second car, etc. It also means we can stop using our UK cards to buy stuff, and we can spend our hard-earned Canadian dollars with our flexible friend, Mr Fantastic Plastic.
Also, we have registered with a GP here. Apparently it's important to do this BEFORE you get sick, so we're going in to give our particulars in the next week or two.
So what else is new? Well, the barbecue is going a dinger, and we're using it maybe 4 or 5 nights a week. Steak, sossies, salmon, scallops, prawns, corn - you name it, we'll give it a go! And the weather has been good enough to eat outside on the deck for the last 2 nights on the trot. And it's to be good for the next 4 days, at least until the parents go home. It'll be 28oC on Saturday, so we've booked dinner for 20:30 at the River Cafe restaurant on Prince's Island Park. Should be good. We might even go up the Calgary tower in the dark for an extra thrill!
I'm on call tomorrow night (Thursday), so that's slightly wick. It's like the joke about the university professor lecturing on sexual behaviour who gets a show of hands from his class about how often they 'do it'. He asks how many are 'once a week or more' and a few hands go up. He asks for 'once a month or more' and all of the class puts their hands up except one guy, who looks really happy nonetheless. The professor asks him how often and the guy replies "once a year". The professor says "but why are you so happy, if you only do it once a year?" and the guy says "It's tonight! It's tonight!". .... Ahem....
So anyway, I only do three nights on call a month (which is super), but it's tomorrow (which is wick). Think of the money, that's what I say.
Oh, I also added my name to Roy Boy's Fantasy Football League courtesy of the Sun. Made the minor mistake of selecting only 10 players at first, but have now fixed this and dumped Wayne Rooney as he's injured (had forgotten this - duh). Hopes resting on Denis Bergkamp, Anelka, Viduka and part of the Arsenal defense. Didn't pick Owen as he may not be much longer for the premier league anyway!
DVDs rented in the last week or so:
Cold Mountain: 7/10, civil war epic, engaging but ultimately disappointing. Thwarted lovers are separated by war and are finally reunited for a single night before disaster strikes. Worth a look.
Calendar Girls: 8/10, middle aged chick flick but v. good anyway. Almost a must-see.
Miracle: 6/10: underdog US ice hockey team beats USSR in 1980 Winter Olympics. Good story, but flimsy characterisation. Missable.
The Last Samurai: 8/10, Tom Cruise as US veteran caught up in the battle between the old and the new in 1870s Japan. Kind of a cross between 'Dances With Wolves' and 'Shogun'. Too long but very satisfying. Recommended.
Anyway, that's all for now.. Off to bed before my night on call. Hopefully before I am home again (Friday afternoon), both P and the parents will have added to the Blog Log.
Love
J
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