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...