Home & LB

This weekend has been hectic but enjoyable. It's so good to be back home. After a non-stop 28 hour shift, I rushed home to get changed and was on the flight home. I ended up getting 6 hours of sleep over 48 hours but it was worth it. Even the air seems different at home. Better somehow.

Sunday morning the drive actually happened. I half expected it to blow off but in the end we had four sports cars in the entourage. Lawyer Boy (LB), Computer Guy (CG) with his fiancee, me and Laywer Boy's friend. It was a good road up the highlands and we ended up doing ridiculous speeds on winding roads. Cutting in and out of traffic, safely though.... and overtaking on single carriageways. I must admit that I got a little overcompetitive and had a narrow scrape when I took a sharp downhill bend a bit too quickly. Thank goodness for traction control and ABS, or else I'm convinced I would have skidded and hit the barriers.

But Sunday was good. CG and his fiancee were so sweetly still in love, holding each other's hands throughout breakfast. I took the opportunity to catch up with Lawyer Boy. I haven't seen him in over a year. I am glad he came because we started the drive early and Lawyer Boy hasn't woken up this early since he had to catch an international flight about a month ago. At least he made the effort.

I met LB again the same afternoon when he introduced me to his best friend TZ, whom he met when they were working in the same law firm. It was a Sunday so after the prolonged tea, we decided to get some rest and carry on in the evening. We each had dinner with our parents after which he came over to my house with the intention of going out for dessert but he ended up staying at my place to chat and left after 2 hours by which time it was past midnight.

Monday was a half day for LB and once again we met up for lunch followed by a spot of shopping. I accompanied him to the doctors as he got some medication for a flu. It felt odd to be accompanying him to the doctors. I offered to cause I thought the wait would be better with a friend, but there ended up being no queue and it felt oddly as though we were a couple and not just friends, whilst we were waiting for him to be called into the consultation. He briefly showed me his office as he grabbed his laptop and bag.

Dinner was meant to be at his best friend's apartment, TZ, but I was caught up at a family friend's dinner party so couldn't make it. But we have planned lunch tomorrow before I fly back. Lunch with both our parents (remember they have worked with each other years ago so are vaguely acquainted). I hope the parents do not think this lunch is of any significance.....

I seem to be seeing an awful lot of LB this trip.

I finally got one day off today! After finishing a 24 hour call on Saturday, my registrar must have pitied me as I have been covering two jobs all month without a day off and he told me not to come in on Sunday for the morning ward round. Amazing.

So I got up early, went to the gym, had brunch with computer guy and went shopping for a new satnav wiith him. We talked about his upcoming wedding and the renovations on his apartment. I'm finally going to meet his fiancee this weekend as she is flying into town.

I'm also meeting Lawyer Boy this weekend. I'm going on a driving trip on Sunday morning with Computer guy, his fiancee and Lawyer Boy. I'm looking forward to meeting him as I haven't seen him since I met him a year ago in the UK. LB is moving to HK soon if he can find a job there and I suspect he's dating someone in HK.

It'll be good to meet up anyhow since I haven't seen him for so long and our only form of communication has been whatsapp. That application is amazing. So this weekend, I'm going back home. I miss home...

In the meantime, one of Computer Guy's friends has be-friended me on facebook and has been constantly messaging me. He's working in the middle east at the moment and he knows CG through cars and track racing. I'm going to call him Racer Boy (RB) as I have a feeling he may come up in future posts :)

NW

I fell ill last week. After an intensive week at work without a rest day, I started with a dry tickly cough. Before I realised it, I was shivering and down with a high fever of 39.3 celcius. I was lucky that I had a day's rest with the national holiday, but ended up having to take an extra day off because the temperature wouldn't come down.

But I went back to work early in order to fullfil an on-call commitment such that I ended up working 36 hours straight without a break. By the end of it, I was completely exhausted and slept for the rest of the day.

Over the weekend, I met up with VC and his friends. VC hosted a house warming at his new apartment and threw a bbq party by the pool. Then today, VC organised another dinner with a different set of friends. It's nice that he is introducing me to his friends and at least now I know a few more people here.

And the biggest surprise of all was that I called computer guy to join us at dinner and he told me that NW was here for the night. NW's grandmother had passed away earlier this month and NW had to come here to settle a few family matters. So at long last, I finally got the chance to see him again.

He made me so happy. I really do have a soft spot for NW.....

Surgeons...

So it's been only 4 days since I've started in my new surgical team but somehow it seems like a better place. I never realised just how unhappy I had been in the first surgical team. The registrars and junior consultant kept heaping abuse on not just the Medical Officers but also the House Officers. They would find fault with everything we did. If we made an honest mistake, instead of telling us what to do the next time, they would sneer and sarcastically tell us off in front of the patient. It was a commonplace occurrence that other teams would see us with our heads down getting scolded or insulted by the registrars or junior consultant.

We rallied together and supported each other psychologically and emotionally but it was a bit too much with the sarcasm, insults and long hours. I realise now having left that team, how bad the psychological abuse had been.

Now, although my registrar is not the most friendly guy on earth, at least he doesn't find fault with every single thing I do. He actually answers my questions and treats me like a human being.

I hope things improve from here on...

Only human

It's taking a little bit more effort to acclimatise to this country. The surgical culture here is so different. The junior trainees are cut-throat, back-stabbing and super competitive. They are like rats that scramble over each other and go into a feeding frenzy when one of them gets run over.

Perhaps I paint a rather dramatic picture but I am not exaggerating. There is no bon homie that exists between the surgical residents here. Instead of a helpful culture of everyone pitching in to help, instead it is a culture of "to each their own". Thankfully, there are a sprinkling of non-general surgical trainees that are doing a short stint in general surgery.

These trainees are more normal and alive than the animalistic general surgical trainees. Apart from that, the hours are slowly wearing me down, but what is worse is that the registrars are unsupportive and put the blame on us when they omit to do or tell us something.

My house officers work even longer hours and my heart goes to them though we all share the blame if something doesn't get done. Sometimes the consultants and registrars forget that we are only human too...

CG is leaving

I went out for dinner with CG tonight. After working for 30 hours straight, I went home and crashed. I was falling asleep as I was chewing my lunch! Managed to get some sleep then woke up in time to be an hour late for dinner with CG.

Over dinner, we discussed many things, among them the fact that NW runs a strip club.... I just had to clarify and confirm and he did. He realised then that I never knew that the bar was actually a strip club. But he insisted that there was nothing more that happened apart from the dancing. Apparently by 7pm, all the girls were home as they had families. He said that NW was really a good guy even though he ran a strip club, or rather, helps his father run it as the establishment actually belongs to his father.

CG is also moving back to my home country next month. He told me today and I'll be missing a good friend :( Although I haven't known him for long, he's helped me settle in and I'll miss him when he's gone.

Perhaps it is just as well that work is all-consuming at the moment. I just realised that 30 years is not far off and it looks as though I'll be spending that birthday alone.

Life

So I went home for a whirlwind trip to my hometown before I started work here, and boy was I glad I did. I briefly met NW but only for 15 minutes as he was busy with business meetings and didn't get to see him again in that weekend. So I didn't get to ask him about his strip club.

I ended up spending most of the weekend with CG and two girls (his boss and her cousin) that followed him home for a holiday (they had not visited our country for several years).

It's amazing to think that I only met CG for the first time exactly a month ago. But since then, I've seen him more than I've seen NW in an entire year. I can't help but think that his fiancee is a lucky girl. Or rather his wife, since they are already registered as married. He's funny, helpful, intelligent and generous. In many ways, he reminds me of NW, except that CG is a lot more forthcoming than NW.

I guess I have NW to thank for introducing me to CG as CG is fast becoming one of my good friends in this country since I like him as a person and he has been immensely helpful and kind to me.

I only realised today that I am fast approaching the big 3-0. And still wondering when I am going to meet "The One", if I ever do.

Work has been crazy in that I am now starting work at 7am and have yet to get home before 10pm at night. I worked on Saturday as well and starting tomorrow, I will be working non-stop for 12 days in a row including three 30+ hour shifts.

But at the end of it, I get two days to speed home. Let's hope I can hold out!