Holy freakin' moly! The dive bombing birds have come to Ottawa!
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Canada/Ottawa/1305550861/ID=2238979489
Other funny things about this video include the hilarious uber-Canadian accents and the guy who keeps saying "I seen". *Cringe*
Urgh. Better be going...off to a school I only go to once a term who has decided that mandatory parent permission forms aren't necessary despite my repeated badgering about having the forms signed before I get there. "We have verbal permission" - GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH, not good enough!!!! so, looks like I'm in for a fight. Woohoo! I also need to leave home a bit early because this school is not on any maps or GPS and it's really hard to find. Fun fun!
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
It never ends!
I thought that after applying for jobs at the end of last year, I would be done writing selection criteria. No such luck! Now it's Jeremy's turn, and since he's applying in multiple states there are many applications to be done. he's outsourced a couple of the states to me, so I'm trying my best to make him look fab on paper (which he already does, doesn't really need help from me!)
It makes this whole thing even more real. So does it look like we'll be staying in Australia longer than the original four years? Yep. If it was a simple matter of just coming back and both being able to work immediately, that would be different...but alas, there are all sorts of exams and hoops to jump through and certifications and verifications and it makes my head spin just thinking about it. Everything ends up being a lot easier if I get a few more years in as a working speechie and Jeremy finishes his qualifications here. Speaking of Jeremy, he's out tonight at the GP information night, so hopefully he comes back with some helpful news.
As for my job, I feel like second term has been infinitely more enjoyable than the first term. I feel like I kind of have a handle on things, all the kids are fairly well behaved, I feel like I know more about the SLI process (never mind, way too complicated/boring to explain). This Friday morning I get to go to a cleft palate education day at the Mater Hospital, which is where Jeremy is currently doing his paediatric rotation. I think it will be really interesting, and helpful since I have a couple of kids with cleft palates on my caseload. We only got a very brief overview of it in school and it will be cool to see the clinical side of things. Not to mention, if you get into that area, you can go overseas (to Africa, etc) and do some amazing volunteer work with organizations like Operation Smile.
This weekend looks like a quiet one, which is fine with me. I have some library books and some nice cozy slippers to protect me from the cold! The weekend after that is a long weekend and Lisa is coming back to Brisbane...It's our friend Nicole's wedding shower and that should be really fun! We're planning on taking Nicole out afterwards to this trendy dumpling place called Harajuku Gyoza in Fortitude Valley - the grilled duck gyoza are to die for! We were going to make a big night of it, but Nicole's medical issues have ensured that it will be a peaceful and early night.
It makes this whole thing even more real. So does it look like we'll be staying in Australia longer than the original four years? Yep. If it was a simple matter of just coming back and both being able to work immediately, that would be different...but alas, there are all sorts of exams and hoops to jump through and certifications and verifications and it makes my head spin just thinking about it. Everything ends up being a lot easier if I get a few more years in as a working speechie and Jeremy finishes his qualifications here. Speaking of Jeremy, he's out tonight at the GP information night, so hopefully he comes back with some helpful news.
As for my job, I feel like second term has been infinitely more enjoyable than the first term. I feel like I kind of have a handle on things, all the kids are fairly well behaved, I feel like I know more about the SLI process (never mind, way too complicated/boring to explain). This Friday morning I get to go to a cleft palate education day at the Mater Hospital, which is where Jeremy is currently doing his paediatric rotation. I think it will be really interesting, and helpful since I have a couple of kids with cleft palates on my caseload. We only got a very brief overview of it in school and it will be cool to see the clinical side of things. Not to mention, if you get into that area, you can go overseas (to Africa, etc) and do some amazing volunteer work with organizations like Operation Smile.
This weekend looks like a quiet one, which is fine with me. I have some library books and some nice cozy slippers to protect me from the cold! The weekend after that is a long weekend and Lisa is coming back to Brisbane...It's our friend Nicole's wedding shower and that should be really fun! We're planning on taking Nicole out afterwards to this trendy dumpling place called Harajuku Gyoza in Fortitude Valley - the grilled duck gyoza are to die for! We were going to make a big night of it, but Nicole's medical issues have ensured that it will be a peaceful and early night.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Slices of Life - 2012 so far
All fancied up for May Ball.Friday, May 18, 2012
Accidental Man's Day
First things first - yay for long weekends! I have today off because it is "Ipswich Show Holiday", something very similar to Ekka Day in Brisbane...the bad news is, because I get this public holiday I can't take Ekka Day off. Oh well! I think I prefer a long weekend to a random mid-week holiday.
Jeremy had the week off after finishing up his Obs/Gyne rotation. It seems like he's been productive - looking into applying for internships, hacking away at the trees around our house, mowing the lawn, taking care of random errands, etc. Jeremy and his friend Sean often go for a "lunch" at the German Club on the week between rotations. They met up yesterday for a few beers and some German food - little did they know that it was actually MAN'S DAY. They were at the perfect place and met some German guys who had been celebrating since the morning. Jeremy was ecstatically excited - he tried to keep up the Man's Day tradition in Brisbane but after being disappointed two years in a row, decided to forget about it. But an accidental Man's Day is even better than a planned one! When I met up with them, they were sitting with a random group of people, the Germans were playing traditional music from a laptop and dancing around, and everyone was just generally in a fantastic mood. I'm very happy for Jeremy that this random coincidence occurred :)
Other news...Well, my friend Nicole has been going through some tough times lately. She moved to Tasmania for a job and was loving it. I was just thinking recently that I hadn't heard from her for awhile when she posted a picture of her arm in a cast on Facebook with the caption "In recovery mode". It turns out that she fainted and fell - but did it in true Nicole fashion, hitting her head, breaking her wrist and injuring some vertebrae. She was in post-traumatic amnesia for 10 days and had to stay in the hospital for three weeks. She recently had a GP appointment and apparently he looked at her CT/MRI scans and told her she should be on bed rest and he was shocked that she was alive. What the hell?! All this from a fall...she doesn't remember much about the incident and it's really all so baffling. She had to take some cognitive tests before returning to work but they told her that she "wasn't up to the standard of a speech pathologist" and that she should take another month off work and re-do the tests. If she hasn't gotten better, they said she may have to rethink her career. It's absolute craziness. She's also getting married in less than two months and is trying to figure all that stuff out. Fortunately, her fiance flew down and has been with her since it happened and her family all went there as well. I really hope she's okay...Nicole is great fun and a fantastic person.
I better go hang my laundry out before the sun goes down. Yes, it's only 2:30 pm, but the sun goes down so early here in winter. Oh yeah, one more thing - it's still technically "autumn", but it's damn cold. My new favourite purchase is a pair of slipper boots which I wear around the house constantly. One night, the temperature dipped to 4 degrees. FOUR DEGREES. Do any of you Canadians sleep in non-insulated houses where the temperature of the house actually goes down to 4 darn degrees? I didn't think so!!!
Jeremy had the week off after finishing up his Obs/Gyne rotation. It seems like he's been productive - looking into applying for internships, hacking away at the trees around our house, mowing the lawn, taking care of random errands, etc. Jeremy and his friend Sean often go for a "lunch" at the German Club on the week between rotations. They met up yesterday for a few beers and some German food - little did they know that it was actually MAN'S DAY. They were at the perfect place and met some German guys who had been celebrating since the morning. Jeremy was ecstatically excited - he tried to keep up the Man's Day tradition in Brisbane but after being disappointed two years in a row, decided to forget about it. But an accidental Man's Day is even better than a planned one! When I met up with them, they were sitting with a random group of people, the Germans were playing traditional music from a laptop and dancing around, and everyone was just generally in a fantastic mood. I'm very happy for Jeremy that this random coincidence occurred :)
Other news...Well, my friend Nicole has been going through some tough times lately. She moved to Tasmania for a job and was loving it. I was just thinking recently that I hadn't heard from her for awhile when she posted a picture of her arm in a cast on Facebook with the caption "In recovery mode". It turns out that she fainted and fell - but did it in true Nicole fashion, hitting her head, breaking her wrist and injuring some vertebrae. She was in post-traumatic amnesia for 10 days and had to stay in the hospital for three weeks. She recently had a GP appointment and apparently he looked at her CT/MRI scans and told her she should be on bed rest and he was shocked that she was alive. What the hell?! All this from a fall...she doesn't remember much about the incident and it's really all so baffling. She had to take some cognitive tests before returning to work but they told her that she "wasn't up to the standard of a speech pathologist" and that she should take another month off work and re-do the tests. If she hasn't gotten better, they said she may have to rethink her career. It's absolute craziness. She's also getting married in less than two months and is trying to figure all that stuff out. Fortunately, her fiance flew down and has been with her since it happened and her family all went there as well. I really hope she's okay...Nicole is great fun and a fantastic person.
I better go hang my laundry out before the sun goes down. Yes, it's only 2:30 pm, but the sun goes down so early here in winter. Oh yeah, one more thing - it's still technically "autumn", but it's damn cold. My new favourite purchase is a pair of slipper boots which I wear around the house constantly. One night, the temperature dipped to 4 degrees. FOUR DEGREES. Do any of you Canadians sleep in non-insulated houses where the temperature of the house actually goes down to 4 darn degrees? I didn't think so!!!
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Gangs and just regular stuff
I think I've mentioned that now that I drive every day, I hear much more news, current events, etc. I just switched gyms to this awesome 24 hr one nearby (old one was good, but further and the hours were terrible!!) and they have TVs on their treadmills and other cardio machines. Since I generally go after work, I usually end up being there around 5 pm which is the perfect time to watch the news while I murder myself on the machines.
A trend recently has been the topic of gangs in Australia/Qld. There have been a few incidents in and around recently and this has led the government to propose a crackdown on laws concerning "bikie" gangs...yes, they call them bikies. It just sounds so misleadingly cute! Seems like the main thing is more serious charges for selling guns. So just for interest's sake, let's investigate what the bikies have been up to lately:
A BRAZEN gunman was still on the loose last night after a terrifying double shooting at the Gold Coast's busiest shopping centre, as a bikie war on the Glitter Strip escalated to potentially deadly levels. A woman, 53, was shot in the crossfire as a heavily tattooed bikie opened fire on a rival gang member, believed to be Jacques Teamo, at the packed Robina Town Centre. Hundreds of shoppers ran for their lives while shopkeepers closed stores and cowered behind counters with customers as shots rang out outside a phone shop near the centre's busy food court and cinema complex.
Four men have been injured in violent attacks at two businesses in Brisbane's east on Thursday afternoon. At around 4:00pm AEST a group of five men armed with baseball bats entered a tattoo parlour on Wynnum Road at Norman Park. Police say the men used the bats to assault two men inside the parlour.
The two injured men were taken to the Princess Alexandra Hospital with arm fractures. The shop was also badly damaged. Police say around half an hour after that attack, the same men entered a locksmith business on Wellington Road in nearby East Brisbane. Another two men were assaulted and the property was also damaged.
A vehicle linked to the Bandidos was burned last week, not long after Mr Teamo's tattoo parlour was sprayed with bullets.
An attempted drive-by shooting of the Gypsy Jokers clubhouse at Everton Hills followed, but the offenders targeted the wrong building.
Arsonists on Tuesday set ablaze a car in a Moorooka saleyard owned by former Queensland Bandidos president and convicted heroin trafficker Mario Vosmaer.
Pretty crazy stuff, eh? I don't recall events of this nature taking place in Ottawa, but maybe I was just blissfully ignorant!
What else...well, another long weekend 'done and dusted' - urgh, I love long weekends, but I hate when they're over! I might have another one coming up not this weekend but the following one - "Ipswich Show Day". All of my schools will be out, but Ipswich and Brisbane have different show holidays and I'd rather have the Brisbane one. Makes kinda more sense to take the Ipswich one though, so I might just have to suck it up! Oh woe is me, making decisions about public holidays!
Jeremy is studying away - he has exams tomorrow, Thurs and Fri. Obstetrics and Gynecology will be FINISHED! Next onto Paediatrics...and then to Canada for a bazillion years (or two months) for elective while I stay here and bring home the bacon!
A trend recently has been the topic of gangs in Australia/Qld. There have been a few incidents in and around recently and this has led the government to propose a crackdown on laws concerning "bikie" gangs...yes, they call them bikies. It just sounds so misleadingly cute! Seems like the main thing is more serious charges for selling guns. So just for interest's sake, let's investigate what the bikies have been up to lately:
A BRAZEN gunman was still on the loose last night after a terrifying double shooting at the Gold Coast's busiest shopping centre, as a bikie war on the Glitter Strip escalated to potentially deadly levels. A woman, 53, was shot in the crossfire as a heavily tattooed bikie opened fire on a rival gang member, believed to be Jacques Teamo, at the packed Robina Town Centre. Hundreds of shoppers ran for their lives while shopkeepers closed stores and cowered behind counters with customers as shots rang out outside a phone shop near the centre's busy food court and cinema complex.
Four men have been injured in violent attacks at two businesses in Brisbane's east on Thursday afternoon. At around 4:00pm AEST a group of five men armed with baseball bats entered a tattoo parlour on Wynnum Road at Norman Park. Police say the men used the bats to assault two men inside the parlour.
The two injured men were taken to the Princess Alexandra Hospital with arm fractures. The shop was also badly damaged. Police say around half an hour after that attack, the same men entered a locksmith business on Wellington Road in nearby East Brisbane. Another two men were assaulted and the property was also damaged.
A vehicle linked to the Bandidos was burned last week, not long after Mr Teamo's tattoo parlour was sprayed with bullets.
An attempted drive-by shooting of the Gypsy Jokers clubhouse at Everton Hills followed, but the offenders targeted the wrong building.
Arsonists on Tuesday set ablaze a car in a Moorooka saleyard owned by former Queensland Bandidos president and convicted heroin trafficker Mario Vosmaer.
Pretty crazy stuff, eh? I don't recall events of this nature taking place in Ottawa, but maybe I was just blissfully ignorant!
What else...well, another long weekend 'done and dusted' - urgh, I love long weekends, but I hate when they're over! I might have another one coming up not this weekend but the following one - "Ipswich Show Day". All of my schools will be out, but Ipswich and Brisbane have different show holidays and I'd rather have the Brisbane one. Makes kinda more sense to take the Ipswich one though, so I might just have to suck it up! Oh woe is me, making decisions about public holidays!
Jeremy is studying away - he has exams tomorrow, Thurs and Fri. Obstetrics and Gynecology will be FINISHED! Next onto Paediatrics...and then to Canada for a bazillion years (or two months) for elective while I stay here and bring home the bacon!
Saturday, May 5, 2012
So perfect that the weekend we are NOT at the beach and Jeremy is studying like mad it is sunny and beautiful, when last weekend we were drenched by rain every time we attempted to leave the hotel. GRRRRRRRRR! Oh well, I shouldn't complain about current good weather. It is a long weekend, which makes me happy and we're not doing much which is okay. The big event of the day (besides Skyping with the in-laws, which was enjoyable as usual) was doing the laundry and hanging it outside without worrying that it would get soaked. YAY. Life is so exciting and action packed!!
Tonight I am having dinner at my good friend Jules' house. There will likely be board games involved. I just tried to make nutella caramel brownies. Interestingly enough, they don't have caramels here...just regular caramels...nope. I scoured the store and found some Werthers caramel chews, so hopefully that works out. I don't bake very often, but whenever I do I am sure to find that this country is lacking in some random ingredient which seems like it should be commonplace.
Oh, I think I forgot to mention that my EQ contract has been extended till 21/12/2012. They didn't even ask me if I wanted an extension, just sent me a letter informing me of it. Hahahahaha...I'll take it. Next big thing will be examining intern spots for Jeremy next year and ranking hospitals for him to apply to. I think I've come to the conclusion that I really don't care where we go. Preference would be for somewhere close to a beach, but I'll survive if that doesn't happen. It's all an adventure, and I don't think leaving Brisbane will be that bad because so many of my friends have already left and all the med people will be doing their own thing too. We can always come back and visit! I think Jeremy mentioned that Victoria would be his #1 choice and he would also love to live in Tasmania or WA. As long as I can get work, I'm happy to move around the country.
Anyhow, I think that I will go and read in the hammock now so as not to waste the rest of this sunny day!
Tonight I am having dinner at my good friend Jules' house. There will likely be board games involved. I just tried to make nutella caramel brownies. Interestingly enough, they don't have caramels here...just regular caramels...nope. I scoured the store and found some Werthers caramel chews, so hopefully that works out. I don't bake very often, but whenever I do I am sure to find that this country is lacking in some random ingredient which seems like it should be commonplace.
Oh, I think I forgot to mention that my EQ contract has been extended till 21/12/2012. They didn't even ask me if I wanted an extension, just sent me a letter informing me of it. Hahahahaha...I'll take it. Next big thing will be examining intern spots for Jeremy next year and ranking hospitals for him to apply to. I think I've come to the conclusion that I really don't care where we go. Preference would be for somewhere close to a beach, but I'll survive if that doesn't happen. It's all an adventure, and I don't think leaving Brisbane will be that bad because so many of my friends have already left and all the med people will be doing their own thing too. We can always come back and visit! I think Jeremy mentioned that Victoria would be his #1 choice and he would also love to live in Tasmania or WA. As long as I can get work, I'm happy to move around the country.
Anyhow, I think that I will go and read in the hammock now so as not to waste the rest of this sunny day!
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