tuesday

How much does Alex look like Marky Mark?! What a sweet baby!

One of the toys J has borrowed for his clinical exam is this cool blood pressure reader. You just stick it on your arm and it does the rest and then gives you a reading. Turns out mine is 98/58 which is pretty good apparently (I have no idea really what it means!) Now if only we had an instrument that told me why I’m so active at night…

One of the things J has to do for his clinical exam is a long case where you have 35 minutes with a patient and need to take a full history, work out what’s wrong and then determine how you’d treat them. I reckon that taking the history would be well interesting – legitimately asking all sorts of questions. J advised me though that you don’t necessarily need to ask them all the questions I’d be asking!! Ah well! I have to say that he looks particularly handsome going to work these days – all smart with new shiny shoes and a black briefcase (borrowed!) The big Australian sun hat does somewhat spoil the look though! I’ll try and get a photo…

odds and ends

That’s Dr Wraight, don’t you know?!

He’s now examining me while wearing his suit just to get used to it!

Spinach soup for lunch – just pure goodness, and tasty too!

Who is this scary woman?!?

I watched the AFL final yesterday (Aussie rules football) because I’d decided that to get into the spirit of the culture I should at least watch some of it and actually had lots of conversations about it at church this morning! To help me understand it better I wikied the rules and then settled down with a beer – it’s what all the Aussies do!!! Honestly, it was actually rather exciting, the rules are weird but it was a good game. Not the same as ‘proper’ football though and I was epecially pleased when I checked the results this morning. Phil Jones if you’re reading I only have four letters for you H U L L !!! Chelsea then Liverpool at the top of the league makes me happy (and it should make my mum happy – both her children wil be pleased!)

A BIG happy first birthday to Anya!!!!

retro ties and slick salesmen (guest b)

So I’m only vaguely awake. They decided to hold a mock exam of sorts this morning at 10 o’clock. I finished nights at 8.20am, got home about 8.45 and got picked up to go the exam at 9.15. I did shower in between, throw down a coffee and some cereal. I didn’t brush my teeth but that’s what chewing-gum was invented for eh?  The exam went strangely well – I may stay up all night before the real one. Then, as I was adrenalised from the stress of it all we went to buy a suit for the real thing. The guy we bought it from was great. He charmed us, made me look good, managed to get me to buy a brown striped tie which I think dad already has in his 60s collection (which he bought to match a set of retro 50s kitchen units) and got me to part with about twice as much as I would have for the thing. The amusing thing was he got Morv completely on his side so she got him going on shirts as well – yellowy off-white! Seriously. I may wake to find in my sleep deprived state I was taken advantage of but it did actually look remarkably good. I may fail the exam but I’ll go down in charcoal grey style.

two very special happy birthdays

J’s sister Kate and Henry Cates both have birthdays today – 30 and 6 (I think!) respectively. We wish we could celebrate with you in NYC and Wellwyn Garden City!!

So, that’s me done. No more leading of home group, no more leading of playgroup, no more catechism talks, no more baking for anything. It’s all quiet. Which is quite bizarre but I think will be rather lovely. In the last 24 hours though a few people have given me quite big prayer requests and so I think I’ll spend the next wee while praying for them. One of the mums at playgroup told me today that her husband has been diagnosed with a brain tumour and is really pretty sick. They’ve operated but it’s not looking good. It’s just horrible. She’s got two wee boys. Anyway, I told her I’d pray. You can join me if you want.

J has a mock exam tomorrow which isn’t exaclty perfect timing – he finishes night shift and goes straight to it!! For his actual exam he has to wear a suit and he reckons he has NEVER worn a suit before, so tomorrow (after the mock) we’ll go shopping. We bought shoes today so at least he’ll look semi-smart at the practice exam. Mind you if Naomi is right and J manages to make even a kilt look scruffy then there may be no hope!

ant invasion

Jonathan is on night shift at the moment so I sleep in the bed at night and he sleeps there during the day. Well, tonight he came through just after he got up and informed me there had been an ant invasion and were currently about a hundred ants in the bed!!! He assured me he had killed most of them but their carcasses were still there!!!! WHAT!?!? Seemingly he had left food in his bag and then left his bag on the bed and, having eaten the food in his bag, they had moved out into the big wide world of the bed. This is not acceptable!!!! And now I have to go and sleep in the bed and not allow the thoughts of ants to seep into my dreams and make me do weird things in my sleep!! Seriously.

Good home group tonight – I have BIG thoughts in my head.

Okay, ignore my three chins and look at Ruby – she’s so cute!!

a second opinion

Tonight I was practiced (practised?) on by TWO doctors. One of the other doctors who is sitting the exam in October came over and I’m pleased to report the second opinion confirmed that my neurological functions are intact (or something like that!) I think I understood one out of every hundred words when they were discussing diseases.

This morning it was 1 oC!!! Yes that’s ONE degrees centigrade. The coldest September temperature ever recorded in Perth, WA. Awesome!! It did heat up a lot though and was a lovely temperature this afternoon when I went out for a big ol’ walk.

I’m reading Surpried by Hope (NT Wright) and finding it very interesting! I just do love having a good book to read! I’ve been underlining bits and last night J suggested that I maybe should underline the bits I DON’T want to go back to because that way I’d be underlining LESS!

We watched Monarch of the Glen last night and I’m pining for Scotland. LOVE that show!!

another beach photo

Are you getting bored of them? It’s just so bonnie!!

It didn’t exactly look like this last photo (the camera was on sunset mode!) but it was a lovely sunset… until the rain shower started!

Study day for J today and baking, catechism and Sunday school preparation for me. Tomorrow is our day off (after church!) BRING IT ON!!

bull

I’ve had this problem before. You know when you say something and people look at you like you’re talking a different language? It happened fairly frequently in NYC – I’d say ‘cook’ or ‘book’ or ‘foot’ or ‘look’ or ‘fully’ and first there’d be confusion and then laughter as they worked out what I was trying to say with my crazy accent. Even my husband laughs at some of the things I say (‘food’ and ‘body’ are his favourite words I say). Well at playgroup I had my first experience of that with Australians. I was trying to say ‘bull’ (as in the animal) but said ‘boool’. They just couldn’t work it out!! I had to spell it for them!! Surely I don’t talk THAT funny!

Busy few days for me – Wednesday home group, Thursday playgroup, Thursday homegroup, Friday playgroup. And then on Sunday J and I are full on at church – he’s on worship and I’m doing the catechism talk, Sunday school and we’re both on morning tea (which means we provide the nibbly snacks for everyone after the service – they’re big on it not just being a cup of tea and a custard cream!!) I know that compared to a lot of people that’s not busy but it’s quite a change for me!!

We rented our first DVD tonight since being in Oz. After many many recommendations we’re about to settle down and watch ‘Once’ – pjs on, snuggling under the duvet on the sofa with a bowl of popcorn – seriously, what a lovely way to spend a Friday evening!! And J just made the tastiest lamb curry – there are BIG perks to having a husband who can cook!!

cheese-and-candle-tastic (guest blog)

I got home from work yesterday to find myself in some sort of grotto, softly lit by the light of three dollars worth of mini-tea lights (you can get a lot of chinese tea lights for that kinda money). Amazing. It reminded me of my days as a glow worm. Some guitarist (Morton Tyler??) was playing jazz in the background, cheese and wine on the table and there was a tangy scent in the air. So I put some fresh socks on. Morv organised it all as a last minute surprise for our 3/4 of a year anniversary – grateful to have made it thus far. So two big shout outs  – firstly to Morv and secondly to the man who invented Gruyere.

slept like a baby

Peace, peace, peace last night. The key to my sleep activity might just be getting a back rub before bed!! Or at least that’s what I want to believe!!

If it’s possible to covet an entire store then I do! There is a grocery store – the Boatshed – in Cottesloe which is like Fairway in New York (I know Fairway is ‘like no other market’ but this one reminds me of it). The food options are varied and high quality. The choice of cheese, meat, fish, fruit and veg is vast and looks SO delicious but it’s not cheap and I could spend a lot of money here. And so I don’t allow myself to go in very often, in fact today was only my third visit and it was only as a treat to buy Gruyere and a Smoked cheese for J. Why is it that I get so excited by food shopping?!?

J had a hard working day – from morning to night. He’s doing a talk tomorrow at work on sedation in kids which he worked on all day and then was at a tutorial tonight. He did the talk for me – twice – my learning continues!!

Congratulations to Dave and Hayley and James and Marcie on their new sons both born on the same day!!