Halfway through the weekend already!?

I can not believe that its Sunday morning already. Still miss the Sunday morning routine of being 5 minutes late for School of Leaders =). It sounds like everyone is really launching into it down there which is cool. This morning I’m going to check out Wellington Central Church (where convergence was) and tonight I’ll be going to Elim (pay my respects to Mr Brown’s roots). I will make a decision after that. I was going to keep looking, but I feel it would be better to get settled and planted. Basically, as much as I enjoy the first time chocolates, I think I’ll be better off with proper food ;)

In terms of getting settled, I’ve made some pretty good friends in my class. After the intro week debacle, my group went and played mini golf on Thursday afternoon because there was nothing to do. It was quiet funny as everyone else was still doing stuff. Had to laugh though. For Thursday I managed to achieve a drive out to Lower Hutt, sat around for several hours, played mini golf, went for a run, cooked tea and started another game of starcraft.

Thankfully, we had Friday morning off. So I thought that I’d get a haircut. On my ID card there is a fuzzy halo around my head where all my hair has shot out. Its quiet funny. So, I ended up calling around the hairdressers/barbers in Kilbirnie for a free appointment. One looked OK (as in cheap), and they had a free slot. Upon arriving at the hairdressers, it definitely wasn’t cheap. It was very artsy and flash. $40 later, I had a nice washed haircut, but I don’t think I’ll be going back in a hurry. Had coffee with my friend Ingrid before going around for drinks on Friday night with some classmates. Just a quiet one, and I didn’t drink any alcohol. It was nice to get to know a few people on a social setting.

Saturday morning was bright and sunny. I can’t claim to have achieved anything meanthingful, but that’s what Saturday mornings (without theses) are for right? My Aunty Betty, Uncle Chris and cousin Sarah came round and we had lunch with them. Sarah is so funny trying to be assertive and throw her opinion around (she’s ~3?). Well, that and licking all the cheese out of the roll before throwing it back on the plate.

Checked out the Cuba St carnival in the afternoon. It was very crowded and um, well hippy-like. It was good, although showing my conservative colours it was just a bit to “free love” if you know what I mean.

Saw “Meet the Fockers” last night. It was pretty funny, although did cross the line on several occasions, including the swearing baby gag. I’d give it a solid 8/10, enjoyable, but not outstandingly memorable. It was so frustrating trying to park in town. There were actually no parks anywhere. It was pretty annoying, because everyone was in town. It makes parking around the Rialto look easy =).

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Extra, Extra! Paramedic treats girl at beach, young med student gets credit

On Friday, we finished at about 2pm so the others left, and I went for a wander around the Hutt. I was hanging round to go to Tuari’s youth group BBQ at Day’s bay. It was really hot, so I went to Avalon Park to “do some reading”. Which is really student speak for sleep in the sun on the grass. I also went around town, and saw my Grandparents. I then drove out to the BBQ. At the beach were heaps of people, and the youth group were in full swing jumping off the wharf into the water. Feeling old, I watched.

Someone then came up to me, and asked if I had a first aid kit. There was a girl on the beach, about 13 or so, who had jumped of the wharf and stood on a bit of glass while getting out of the water. She was really crying. What really scared me was the fact that everybody was looking at me like, “You’re a med student, do something.” So I went and took a look at her foot. I was like “um, ok, what did they teach us in first aid?” After making a bit of a hash at introducing myself and assessing her foot, I started to clean it. A guy in a wet suit then came along and said “do this… then this, and now this…” before wandering off. So I did it, Raewyn from church told the girl to watch out for infection, then everybody started patting me on the back, and making encouraging noises like “You’ll make a good doc some day” and “Good job Brendan”. That was kinda humbling, as I think I learnt more from the experience than I contributed. Like calming the patient while assessing them, and remembering to mention what to do with further problems. I would like to improve on how I handled the “you’re a med student, do something to fix her” scenario.

The BBQ was also pretty cool. It was a predominantly maori youth group- just the area where St John’s is. This meant that everybody was a lot freer in expression and behaviour. It was quiet funny, as most people took part in such risk taking behaviours as eating fatty chops (hmm, cholesterol), shared drinks (meningitis amongst other infectious diseases), and eat mussels from Wellington harbour (there are many dumb things one can do in one’s life, eating anything from that highly polluted piece of water is one of them). Ok, so Wellington harbour isn’t that bad, but still pretty dodgy. And then I realized that they were having fun, and you know what, at the end of the day it really wasn’t affecting their lives that much. I hope this doesn’t sound like I’m dissing many years of research, because I’m not. These factors are really important in these diseases, and can have a huge impact in their happening or not. It was just funny because a week ago, I probably wouldn’t have given two hoots. How med has changed me!

Saturday was meant to be spent cleaning my room in Upper Hutt. Unfortunately, there was cricket on TV. Oh well, I have a few weeks yet.

Other cool things this week:
Went to two very different but cool churches on Sunday. Have signed up for small groups/cells/life groups at both. I figure I should try everything. Decided at the Street on Sunday night that I’ll make a decision next week after visiting two others. I would like to get planted if possible quite soon.
My ex flattie Brent came to stay in Wellington. He was going for a job interview in Masterton. I hope that he gets it, it would be cool to start a northward migration of dunedinites here. It was also good just hanging out with him again, because I haven’t done that in ages.

Quiet times are getting more settled.

Newcastle bet Chelsea 1-0 in the FA cup. Nuff said.

Certain times in the hospital. Like getting to know the patients. Seeing my friends Lanky (pharmacist) and Jane (Nurse) around the hospital. Learning stuff of house surgeons, registrars and consultants. My group is pretty cool too, so I’m sorry that we’ll change for our main runs.


Not so cool stuff
Having to decide about churches.

Our intro week has been a bit of a dud in terms of organisation. But still, it has bonded us and made us proactive. It’s also important to realise that the world doesn’t revolve around us, and that we should just get used to it. However, it is annoying that other groups have had full on tutorials and teaching sessions. You do feel slightly let down.

The cricket.

So that’s me in brief. Or not so brief, but you can read it in parts if you want. What do you mean it’s too late, and you’ve already read and thoroughly enjoyed it? :p

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Changes

It’s weird. I’ve started clinical and it really does feel like third year again. Today we sat in lectures feeling rather stupefied until 4ish. It was really quiet surreal. On the plus side, I only fell asleep once- in the course convenor’s lecture unfortunately. but I definitely wasn’t the only one, and there were many others in the same boat. Partly because it is all introductory stuff, partly because we have nothing to do. I’m also on info overload. I’ve met about 70 people in the past two days, and it shows. I’m normally pretty good with names, but 70 is a bit too much. Thank goodness there are some familiar faces in the class.

I think that it will get better once things get underway, we start seeing patients on Thursday. I’ve been placed out at Hutt for that, so there’s a bit of a commute there.On the plus side it does provide an opportunity to get to know a few people better. I don’t really want to say what my BMedSci project was again. I think I’ve said it about 70 odd times too because I’m one of the newbies to the class. But everyone is welcoming and friendly, although I’m looking forward to doing activites with them, as I think that’s how I make friends best. I’m also looking forward to seeing some of my old buddies from my old year again. They start next week, so it will be good to catch them up.

Speaking of classmates, I’ve already met one girl who’s my aunt’s niece (That is by marriage. I thought it was quite a weird description too when she said it). There are also some people from UH who are working in the hospital labs. Clare Ryan and Emilenne Smith for those who are interested.

My Uncle Des’ place is really nice, about 15 min walk from the hospital. I look out over Evan’s bay, which is pretty similar to Otago Harbour. Kilbirnie (the suburb where I’m staying) reminds me of South Dunedin in shape- my view would be similar to looking out from Roslyn, or Mornington, with South Dunedin on the flat below and Waverly on the other side of the bay.

I went for a walk around Kilbirnie shops yesterday. They are ok, and definitely not as random as the ones around the hospital, which are like a catergorised junk yard. Ok, they are very funky, but not very useful. But I digress. There’s an apostolic church in the middle of Kilbirnie that’s called The Powerhouse. It looked ok, and I think it will be the first church that I’ll visit. I don’t know why I’d want to go there rather than the student churches in town, but it seems right, so I’ll try it prior to the others. I can’t wait to get into a new church, it will be nice to get settled

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Fulltime 2

Saturday

Dad was meant to arrive this morning, but because of the crazy weather in Wellington, his flight was cancelled due to fog. So instead I kept cleaning up my room until after lunch. Wandered out to the airport and picked up Dad, then went to visit a friend in hospital while Dad wandered in town. Also bumped into a fellow BMedSci’er, Helena- who I shared my good news with. Went to the curry box as a final dinner in Dunners with Dad an Gus, then Gus and I whipped into a last couple of games of Starcraft before bed. My poor car was exploding with stuff, yet I still had stuff in my room

Sunday

After promising not to sleep in, I awoke an hour after my alarm. Yay! Why was my alarm on? Because Dave P was coming in at 9:45. So, the Turnbull and Ng Taxi Service Ltd drove out to meet him. My car would have had issues fitting any luggage or passengers, so Gus’ Legacy was called upon. After shooting back home, and then off to church with Dad and Dave, I felt a twinge of sadness that this was pretty much it. I guess I’d been more focused on this “last” Elim service before I’d started focusing on my thesis. I was stoked that Thida, and Mike and Kate Reaves had come back. The service was pretty funny, I guess God was pulling a few strings. We sang some of the local songs- “Amazing Love” and “???” Andy’s one that I can’t remember the name of. Opps. Had the pleasure of announcing that I’d finished my thesis to the family, then announced that I was leaving. Some friendly abuse from Suzie lightened my mood somewhat. The sermon was from a visitor from International Needs Network- Jeremy Denmead. They train local missionaries, including in western countries. His sermon on 2Chron 25:9 “God can give you so much more than this” was very cool, and a timely reminder that God was with me, and with Elim too.

The “final” prayer was quiet sad, being surrounded by a whole heap of guys and gals who I had grown to know, like, and love was pretty humbling. More for my memoirs than anything else, there was Pastor Mike, Justin, Scott, Andrea, Bjorn, Becs, Rach, Esther, Josh, Jared, Dave, Summer… I feel like I’m missing some people. Yes, there were tears in my eyes. And there was the final whistle blowing in mind.


The rest of the week

So Dad and I managed to get everything in the car except the washing basket. Once we got home, the amount of stuff took up the whole living room. Go my little car! Also got the coolest letter from Kristy just prior to leaving, which was very nice.The drive up was so hot! I did most of the driving on the Sunday, then Dad drove up most of the Monday, because I had a headache. I’m really glad that he was there, because I’m not sure what I would have done. Sorry if the last post was misleading in that I was on the ferry on Wednesday. That was something that I didn’t realise until after I’d posted. I’ve also tried to avoid too much typing this week.

Caught “Finding Neverland” with Sam on Tuesday. It was pretty good, probably par with the Incredibles. Really enjoyed the chat that we had afterwards. We walked most of Oriental Parade and Courtney Place just talking about life and what God was teaching us. One cool thing that I had revelation on was doing the basics well. That probably most of the stuff we would learn would not be new, but timely reminders. This actually came from a comment from the cricket game between Australia and Pakistan (Which is why I’m sharing it). Both of these teams have nearly equal amounts of talent, yet Australia is the best team in the world, and Pakistan is one of the most erratic. The Aussies consistently win both ODIs and Test matches, but Pakistan can be on fire one day, then lose to the worst team in the world the next. Often I feel like Pakistan in my walk. During a run out decision, the comment was made that the Pakistani batsman did not slide his bat, and so put himself at more risk of not having anything grounded over the line, and being ruled out. This was in contrast to the Australians who always do (and is drilled into every childhood cricketer from the time they start). The commentator was saying that it was these differences in the basics that was the difference between the two teams.

On Wednesday I tried to cull my clothes and other bits and pieces. Oh my gosh, I actually have enough clothes to clothe a small Indian





…village (that’s for you Sam). So, I managed to cull about half of them, yet I still have a lot. I do not want to go through the rest of my stuff.

Had tea with Nicola and her family on Thursday. There has been a lot of talk in the media about Chinese New Year, and in particular the fortune tellers predictions. I’m all for enjoying Chinese New Year as a tradition, but some of the spiritual associations seems to worry a little. For instance the fortune tellers predictions- even if they are “just a bit of fun” in the West, are taken quiet strongly in the East. At the moment, I guess I’m pretty undecided about the whole thing, but your comments are appreciated. Anyway, back to Nicola. We talked about this topic, and many others including her trip to Indonesia and what each others plans were for the future. She goes back down on Monday, so it was a pleasure to see her again.

Met Aimee H for lunch on Friday. It was crazy to think that we were both 5th year now. Really nice café in J’ville called Queue. It was nice to see her again, because I have faithfully gotten Christmas and Birthday cards from her for a number of years. I haven’t quiet been as faithful back =( . Then went and brought Jane and Dutton their Wedding presents for tomorrow. Also clocked up a 1000km for the week in the car. (Yeah Friday was really exciting!).

This is getting kinda long- almost thesis like. The wedding was really awesome. Jane looked like a princess, and Dutton (Chris) looked pretty sharp too. It was so nice to see a side of Chris that I hadn’t really seen before. The sweet, caring, romantic side that was within. I also enjoyed catching up with heaps of friends from school, although some people hadn’t really changed since college =(.

And now, I sit half an hour from starting clinical. It’s like that moment just before you jump off the diving board. Very weird. I’m now in Kilbernie, shifted yesterday. The weather is overcast, but dry, unlike earlier this morning. Right, blathering, so better go.
P.S. happy valentines day =).
P.P.S Final word count: 37,724, or 111 pages. And my submission date is dated 2004 (Thanks Gus!)

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Fulltime

Well, that’s it. I’m sitting on the Lynx on the way back home. So I have a few hours to report on what’s happened since Wednesday. You can read it in sections if you want to.

Wednesday

I raced to finish my thesis on time for the bindery. If you get it in by 2pm, it can come back the next day, which is advantageous. I’d already taken an extra day because the “12 months” prescribed in the calendar is a little bit more lenient- like 6-7 weeks. So, 1 day was quiet ok. Funny how it doesn’t matter how much time you have, you’re still rushing – nay sprinting to get it done. Once finding the bindery- I’ve parked behind it so many times opposite church, yet I still got lost- I handed my thesis in at 1:45pm. It felt sooooo good. I had to celebrate. So I went and got a dental filling. Well, I celebrated properly with the purchase of a ‘Macaddict’ magazine and a Third day “Live wire” CD. Good times. I also went out and enjoyed the sun in the octagon, prior to a tying up meeting with Paul.

Came home to find the kitchen window black with flies- that was gross. I went against my principles and sprayed the little rotters with fly spray. Thankfully, I went up to Andrea and Becs’ for tea. It was so hot we got icecream prior to life group. Life Group at nova was huge. Like 13-14 people. It was weird just being able to talk to people, and chill out. Very cool to share the celebration with Scott, and nice to see Em there too. It’s weird how many new people I’ve met – like Esther, and Phil and Kasey, Nothing really happened afterwards, just talking and Becs doing her seminar. And you know what, that suited me just fine. Home to bed on the bed roll. Hmm, so comfy-not. But as I said earlier, it would actually be weird sleeping on the couch or in someone elses room.

Thursday

Mmmmm, sleep in. Well till 9 anyway. Went and got my thesis from the bindery. Had a few anxious moments while it was in my bag. Like is my drink bottle out? Are my shoelaces tied up? No need to J-walk, or run. That rain better hold off. I accept full responsibility for the nasty fog- obviously now that I had finished, the weather had decided to pack in. There were also some carpet layers in the way between myself and the HOD’s office. After circumventing them, I had a thought- There is my blood, sweat and tears in this- it really does feel like I’m giving away part of life and soul. Do I really want to do this? YES, Emphatically YES! I guess another analogy would be yesterday was like hearing the final hooter in the World Cup final, but today was like kicking the ball finally into touch and hearing the final whistle. As I handed it in, the whistle went off in my head, and a large weight lifted off my shoulders.

However, I was not finished- I still had to copy all my data for the lab, and clear my desk and yuk- all those nasty tasks. Started doing them- sorting papers and samples out- but not really making much progress. Once Paul left for the Sevens in Wellington, I went campus wards. Paid my bindery bill, went and saw a friend in the microarray facility, and went and visited Justin in his lab. I’ve actually been meaning to do this all year, so I’m glad that I got to do it before I left. Later that night I locked myself out of the flat on my way to Tull with some people from the lab. Luckily Jane still had a key from when she shifted, so Tull was a pleasurable experience without too much distress. I realized that I still had so much stuff to do, and yet so little time.

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Jn 19:30

It is finished
Scrapped, battered, twisted and shattered, but it is finished.

I really want to go to bed, but they'va already taken it

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