stories from the wilderness

well, here i am again, at the centre of the universe.

a few hurried days in melbourne - the highlight of which was having lunch with the remnants of group a on lygon street with lubie, who looks like either one of the hanson brothers or kurt cobain (depending who you ask). then got a ride to ballarat with mika. god knows my friends spoil me, and i will surely *never* learn to drive.

i'm unmistakably in the country. people behave differently here: they will go out of their way to help you, but are rather inefficient. what they lack in sophistication and subtlety they make up in warmth and generosity. each person wears multiple hats and the boundaries between people are blurred, which means there's less red tape but also less privacy. we've been told countless times that our reputation will definitely preceed us - so try not to get on people's bad sides.

we have a good bunch of interns here. there will be fifteen of us (including the urology intern rotated out from rmh). at the moment a few of us are staying on top of the hospital - looks like i'll be moving into our new accommodation (keith house on pleasant street - for group a it's the old girls house from semester nine) next weekend at this stage. it's still being renovated.

don't think i'll be coming back to melbourne this month. the next few weeks will surely be a blur. what i thought was going to be a cushy first rotation (subacute = geri, pall care, rehab) now sounds like the rotation from hell. i'll be the only intern in a place filled with oldies not quite sick enough to be in hospital but not quite well enough to be home. at least they're not putting me on call in the first couple of weeks. last time they did that the intern crashed and burned.

time to take my own pulse.