Onwards and Upwards!

Since my last post, I have... - applied to a Country SA Health job in Clare (which I don't expect to get since they're looking for full-time, and I have this whole research thing which gets in the way, but at least I'll be in the system). Holy moly though, the application was incredibly time consuming! The selection criteria were intense, and I don't even really intend to GET the job. - decided that after our July holiday, I will move to Clare permanently and if I'm not working for SA Health, will work privately...on my own! - had a conversation with the country SA allied health manager which was very positive and indicated that as a private practitioner I could do locum work for them as well as other work on the side, which suits me very well. - hiked 30 kms and my whole body is so incredibly sore from the massive climb up to the highest peak of the Flinders Ranges (St Mary Peak) and then the brutal climb down. So many muscles. All sore. I have been hobbling around today but still feeling quite impressed with myself. - hit a kangaroo with our bloody new car! Okay, new = 2009 but that is VERY new to us. We drove about 15-20 kms from Wilpena Pound to Rawnsley Park Station for dinner Sunday night after our hike. After hearing that someone had written off his car the night before on a kangaroo, I was extremely nervous and contemplating cancelling our booking and having dinner at our accommodation...but we decided to risk it. I can't even tell you how insane and suicidal the kangaroos are. I'm not sure what it is - are they attracted to the lights on a vehicle? Anyway, Jeremy was driving more slowly than he normally would have because of the aforementioned story and we saw heaps of kangaroos at the side of the road, looking like they might just bounce out in front of us any second. We also saw tons of kangaroos ahead on the road just hopping away. Those were okay to deal with, as you just slow right down and honk and wait for them to get off the road. But our special kangaroo just launched itself from the side of the road and collided into the side of our car! It was a pretty big one and made a really dramatic THWACK/THUD noise and because I'm a terrible person I was more worried about our car than the kangaroo (BECAUSE IT SLAMMED ITSELF INTO OUR CAR!!) But when we arrived at the restaurant and took a look, the car seemed to have escaped unscathed and on our way back we didn't see any kangaroo bodies at the location where the incident occurred...so hopefully we were both okay! Anyway...apparently we are now getting a 'roo bar' for the new car. - received confirmation of ethical approval for my PhD study! This may not sound like a big deal, but I submitted a 160 page document and it took forever to write everything up. All to do some semi-structured interviews and surveys. BUT we all know ethics is very important from the horror stories of completely unethical and damaging studies carried out in the past. So I think that I have been pretty proactive in trying to solve these things which have been making me feel stressed and anxious. I'm not looking forward to telling the boss that I'm finishing up, but when it comes down to it...it's a job. One that I loved at a great hospital, but it's not working any more for many reasons. So watch this space...we shall see!