A new year's resolution

May next year be better than this year. Much better.

More satisfaction for hard work, less BS, thank-you.

Good-bye, 2009. You were challenging and saw a lot of changes, but I never want to go through you again.

Merry Christmas

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas!

We had a fine time, probably the nicest day in years.

The weather was perfect, everybody was pleasant, and I even went swimming a few times, which made the warm day much more bearable.

My brother managed another truly random and interesting present (a tradition of his) - he gave me a voodoo doll toothpick holder. It may have a similar future to that of Yay's family Christmas pigs, we will have to see.

For us, Summer Christmas in the tropics consists of cool drinks, cold meats, salads, cold desserts, snoozing, backyard cricket and swimming in the pool. People from the northern hemisphere often complain that "it just isn't Christmas", but to me, it is perfect.

The spirit of Christmas future

I'm scared.

I have found out that my Uncle and his new wife are both big Elvis fans. She is very new, both to him, and to the country, so we are all being quite polite and friendly.

That said, if Elvis goes into the CD player on Christmas day, there are many things that can and WILL happen to it at my parents' rural property. The nice thing is that there will be no way to tell who did what.

I don't go and put on Tori Amos and expect everybody to love it. That would be ludicrous.

Really, when you go to a group event with a very mixed demographic, you need to be a bit careful about what music you put on, particularly if you intend to play the whole CD, and play it loudly.

It is Christmas, for crying out loud. It is a time for jingles, for "togetherness", for loads of drinking and eating and relaxation. Some of my family will be working my last nerve. Put on Elvis, and I won't be responsible for what happens.

(One or two Elvis songs might be okay. But these are a group of people with so little insight into the diversity of human opinion or taste that they will put on Abba really loudly - for hours - and expect everybody to love it. Because the Abba movie was popular. Therefore, all young people must love Abba, too. FFS.)

Wine drinking tip for hot climates

I have grown up in the tropics, and always wondered why reds didn't taste as good as they should.

Apparently, the ideal drinking temperature for a red wine is around about 60F - or 15C.

If you live somewhere warm and drink the wine at "room temperature" (i.e. straight out of the cupboard) then it will be around 28C in summer, and probably warmer than 15C even in winter. You think you are doing the right thing, drinking reds at room temperature, when you are drinking them a lot warmer than they should be. Wines are all about releasing the right flavours, and if you drink them too warm (or too cold), they can be foul.

Those of us who know that traditional reds should not be served cold from the fridge can have a happy medium. Keep the wine in the fridge, or chill it a little prior to drinking, let it breathe a bit after you pour it so that it warms up a little (but not quite to room temperature) and it may be a lot nicer.

Or drink it at 30C and think you are being a traditionalist. It takes all kinds. Whatever makes you happy.

Things are looking up

I had such a happy day today, walking around the hospital (and working, of course!). One thing that has really struck me this time around is how much better the day seems when I'm friendly and helpful to the people around me, be they staff or patients.

I have also noticed the difference in attitudes that you get when you wear your own clinical clothes and a stethoscope, compared with when you wear a uniform. Most of the differences seem to come from junior doctors. Anybody who treats another person poorly or ignores them because they are wearing a uniform is a jerk and needs to wake up to themselves.

I hate it when somebody looks straight through me, and this happens a lot less when I am dressed in "doctor" clothes. Most interns are nice, but I have had one or two look down their nose at me and be very rude a couple of times when I have gone to the bed of a patient in my role as a radiographer. Seriously people, wake up.

Now that I have passed third year, I am getting VERY excited about fourth year. The big rotation that I looked forward to last year was psychiatry, and I did it first, so the rest of the year was a hard slog. It was all very interesting, but there were no other rotations that held the same sense of "ohboyohboyohboy".

Most of fourth year is exciting for me. I don't plan on working in any of the areas, but they are all very interesting.

I'm doing:

Neurology, Clinical Pharmacology & Obstetric Medicine

ENT, Opthalmology and Emergency/ICU/Anaesthetics

Paediatrics

Obstetrics/Gynaecology

Elective.

I'm the least thrilled about neurology, but I chose it because it is interesting, and it is an area that I want to get better in. The same principle applies with clinical pharmacology. I think I should be good at these areas, both as a future intern, and as a potential future shrink.

They are also very varied, which will make it all fly by. I can't wait!

Time to celebrate!

I am now a fourth-year!

I passed all components of surgery and can now move on to the final year of the degree.

It is such a relief!

This is the best Christmas present ever. :)

Our exams results may come out at some time in the next week. Possibly. According to rumour.

Is it normal for a medical school to never let its students know what is going on?

Bah. One year to go. Hopefully.