The Grim Spot

Remarkable indeed

2007-05-11T07:57:00.000+10:00

Yello all.
I'm enjoying a bit of computer bassed downtime at the moment while Anna is sitting next to me in a web cafe in Queenstown, doing her ICU exams over the net.
Thrilling ain't the word.
Today is day 6 of holidays, and my favourite bit, the first day that is actually eating into my holiday leave. Gotta love RDOs and public holidays.
It's been a pretty non stop trip so far. we've always been busy so far, most;y due to the whim, which i have to thank.
We stayed two days in Te Anau, which is the last town before milford sound via the road. We had planned to fly in the second day, so had nothing planned for the first. that morning i decided on a whim to drive down to the southern lake (can't remember the spelling, manopouri or something like that), then up to MIlford sound then a afternoon horse ride. Due to the horse ride, the drive out to MIlford was rushed.
The scenery was mind blowing though. Unfortunately, my camera went flat at manapouri, so no fantastic 7mp photos of milford. Anna had hers though, so we're not completely bereft of piccies.
The next day it was windy enough to blow a goat off a mountain, so our flight was cencelled.
That resulted in an early drive to Queenstown and a visit to Glenorchy (LOTR homeland).
Yesterday was shotover jet day (river was raised due to recent rains, so it was extra bumpy and uber cool) and helicopter trip to the top of the remarkables.
When we drove into Queenstown, i almost drove our black outback into the lake numerous times. the scenery here is just awe inspiring. There was no snow however. yesterday morning howrever, when i opened the curtains to our room and looked across the lake at the remarkables, in between whisps of cloud, i thought i saw snow. two hours later when the clouds had cleared i was right. the when we flew up, it was like something out of the movies, landing on a little outcrop just below the snow.
Because the afternoon was so clear, we decided to try and sneak in an afternoon flight to milford, but alas it wasn't to be. Still to rough out there. The weather here is so narky and changable.
This morning it has been pissing down, but all of the mountains sourounding queenstown are now covered in the most pristine white snow i have ever seen. Just beautiful.
once Anna is fininshed her exams, we;re going to grab a bite to eat, and hit the road to mount cook. Sorry, but there'll be no photos til after i get back. I think i might bring the laptop next time as every hotel we have stayed in has had data ports with free web access... Next time, Anna won't be doing online exams though :P
Anyway, I might get back to distracting her....
Cheers!

Grim in NZ.

The Doctor and the Madass

2007-05-03T19:00:00.001+10:00

The Doctor and the Madass, originally uploaded by graum.

Mt Archer, Sunday afternoon.

Lisa and I

2007-01-28T11:16:00.000+10:00

Lisa and I
Originally uploaded by graum.

Hey look at that, someone has a camera pointed at us...

Rocky grad

2007-01-28T11:15:00.000+10:00

Rocky grad
Originally uploaded by graum.

Suddenly doctors, every last one.

The Cronins with adopted 'Unke Grim'

2007-01-28T11:13:00.000+10:00

The Cronins with adopted 'Unke Grim'
Originally uploaded by graum.

They drove all the way from Coffs Harbour, only to turn around and drive straight back after this photo was taken.
Thanks guys.

Dr Special; Or not so much

2007-01-28T10:29:00.000+10:00

It's been two weeks on the ward as a doc now, and it's been interesting. That is, when I have the time to actually think about it. Things are pretty busy up here in Rocky. I am the intern for the busiest medical team in the hospital at the moment, so I am rarely without something to do.
It's a bit of an emotional roller coaster, with the lows being all doubt ridden - I am a shit doctor, I can't even explain to someone what to look out for in renal failure. The highs are small, and mostly related to having a good laugh with your fellow paper monkeys whilst passing in the hallway. One of the small triumphs for me last week was finally getting an IV in and working in one of my demented old men. It's amazing what you get away with, with a smile and bravado.
One of the more uncomfortable moments, was on the first Friday. I had a patient with suspected neuro-syphilis. It's pretty rare in these post anti-biotic days, but if someone is going to show up with it, it'd be in Rocky...
The patient was rather unco-operative, which in the circumstances is understandable. So they were not quite lying on the edge of the bed, screaming at me, calling me a cunt and motherfucker every time I tried to sterilize the puncture site. Then they almost jumped off the bed when I only touched their skin with the needle containing the local. After 5 mins of this I threw in the towel and refused to do it. Next time I try to do a LP, it's going to be on a comatose demented patient. Not a foul mouthed alcho from down the road.
I am really learning to love my patients.

Alkali flats Tvlle style

2006-11-23T13:58:00.000+10:00

Alkali flats Tvlle style
Originally uploaded by graum.

I took this photo at about 11am, after I had finished the climb. When I got back into the car, the thermometer in the dash said it was 38 degrees.
I believed it.

Magnetic Marlow

2006-11-23T13:56:00.000+10:00

Magnetic Marlow
Originally uploaded by graum.

On top of Mt Marlow, looking north towards Magnetic Island. Mt Marlow is on the north-western outskirts of Townsville, in the Town Common conservation park. The track to the top is at the end of 7kms of dodgy dirt track. The walk is 2.3kms and takes 30mins. Nice views though, as you can see.

Distant castle

2006-11-23T13:53:00.000+10:00

Distant castle
Originally uploaded by graum.

That's Castle Hill and Townsville around it in the distance. What a lovely day for a walk...

From whence you came

2006-11-23T13:51:00.000+10:00

From whence you came
Originally uploaded by graum.

It's a long walk home from the top, but at least the view is good.

AnnaandGraham(small)

2006-11-16T17:49:00.000+10:00

AnnaandGraham(small)
Originally uploaded by graum.

Taken by Kat
From the RMO awards series. The thing I love about this photo is that thanks to being caught in half-blink, it looks like I'm drunk. That's a Hahn light in my hand...
Oh well. Anna as always looks gorgeous.

MarceauGrim

2006-11-14T23:06:00.000+10:00

MarceauGrim
Originally uploaded by graum.

This photo was taken after we had finally finished all our rescue dive missions and were free to explore.
Praise Allah.

OKgrim

2006-11-14T23:03:00.000+10:00

OKgrim
Originally uploaded by graum.

What's that?
Tasty with a beard?
You betcha!

From the void comes a story

2006-11-02T17:28:00.000+10:00

Well it has been a long time since i've bothered to write. For that I am sorry.
It's been a combination of exam fatigue, new girlfriends, and post exam enuei.
Wow, that's about it really, not much news to add.
Well, that's a half truth actually.
I've been up to things here and there.
I went to Mackay a couple of weeks back, to see Jodi, Shane, Robbie and Lanni for a talk Jodi was doing about her expereince through doing her STEPS course. Long story short, she never finished highschool, but now she's a GP registrar in Coffs Harbour. And one of my biggest inpirations, as she no doubt is for almost any other person who gets to meet her.
Then last week, i met a couple who will be working here as interns with me next year. The thing that got me up to see them in 5 mins of hearing news of their arrival was the dropping of no other than Jodi's name. Turns out Rob had done his O&G term with Jodi as his boss. Small world.
I've moved most of my stuff into the new place with Micheal and Pete for next year. It's a nice house, a bit small, but really, I am begining to realise, it's everything we need, plus being pretty neat.
Best news however, is that yesterday I got my email from the University of Queensland telling me that I have passed all of my assesment for year 4 of medicine, and am elegible to graduate on Dec 15. Somehow, I have managed to do everything the uni requires of me to become a doctor.
Horray!
And yesterday, my preceptor allowed me to close in theatre. I sutured up a living person after a pelvic clearance. How cool?!
I have one more week left of my elective, in which time i have to also sort out my paperwork for registration as a doctor. Then off to Townsville for a week for the last time before Charmaine moves to WA with Todd.
Then Mackay for until Grad, then Mackay again, then Rocky to start work as an intern.
Fantastic. I can't wait to swap from student paesoes to doctor dollars.

Gemfields Oct 2006

2006-10-22T14:16:00.000+10:00

Gemfields Oct 2006
Originally uploaded by graum.

The girls after spending the afternoon looking for saphires. Anna found a really nice one which is being cut. Can't wait to see it.

Rural Exam

2006-10-05T11:44:00.000+10:00

Rural Exam
Originally uploaded by graum.

Our last exam as medical students
To the theme of Raw Hide!

Yeah!

Paeds & Med

2006-10-04T14:04:00.000+10:00

Paeds & Med
Originally uploaded by graum.

Written exam number two.
Not the worst exam I've ever sat, nor the best.
Counting down till the last.

Exam One - O&G

2006-10-03T14:45:00.000+10:00

Exam One - O&G
Originally uploaded by graum.

The first in the exam fancy dress series.
It's nice to think that I got my $10 worth out of the pink shirt and got to ware it in public once more.

Welcome Home!

2006-09-19T21:53:00.000+10:00

Welcome Home!
Originally uploaded by graum.

Meet Rob Jr.
I just got him today, to the envy of many of the other students. Purple dragons are as rare as hen's teeth in these modern days.
Imagine my surprise to find him when i got home tonight, like this with the following note:
"If I can not be Leanne's, life is over.
Goodbye - Puff"
Too bad I've got a sense of humour little guy. You're mine!

Timing

2006-09-17T15:15:00.000+10:00

Hey there. It's going to be at least a few weeks before I resurface seeing as my finals start in less than 2 weeks. So I thought I should say hello and stuff.

Actually, I just want to brag and be happy.

I went on the first date I've been on for about 4-ish years on Friday night and I'm pretty sure we both had a good night.
I asked Anna out on Monday, and I've been bragging about it to any of you that will listen since.
So this weekend I have found myself happy, full of new music and pumped to get into my study and finish uni.

See you on the other side of exams.

Cheers!

Another Group Hug Gem

2006-09-04T22:56:00.000+10:00

"Did you know that you can make someone enormously unconfortable by staring straight into their left eye? Just the left one, not both or the right."

$237 000 for a degree?!!

2006-08-16T09:39:00.000+10:00

I was just reading the Australian website, as I like to do on mornings when I get the time, and I came across that tasty little bit of news. It got me to thinking about how much I owe, and will do at the end of the year. After 8 years at uni I will owe somewhere around the $45,000 mark for my degrees.

When I saw the $200k + figure, all I could think was, that is so not worth it. What does a degree really give you? I think the idealistic would suggest it gives you the knowledge to work in your selective career successfully. Personally, I think that's a load of bloody bollocks! None of the tuition I have received has had the slightest bit of use in my career. Everything that actually had an influence on my abilities in the workforce, came from getting unpaid work experience off my own bat.

Everything I am battling with doing my UQ medical degree now, is about hoop jumping. Learning how to answer pointless questions, that if I had access to the internet at the time I could look up in 6 secs. Who really gives a crap about essays on what it means to be a GP? How is that going to make me a more effective doctor? How does that teach me skills which will make a difference face to face? If it wasn't for the fact that I have been doing my clinical years in the rural school, effectively doing an apprenticeship, I think I would have spat the dummy a long time ago about being a Doctor.

How can any university seriously charge such ludicrous amounts of money when they are not delivering vital skills?

Every single person with a conscience who goes into medicine deals every day with the insecurity that they are going to be inflicted upon the community at some point, and they may kill someone. I might add that it has been a long held colloquial belief that the mortality rates at public hospitals always spike at the beginning of the year when interns start working. I believe that my hospital is doing their best to prepare me for the dramatic change of roles that await me in the transition from medical student to intern. I don't think that it is something that they should justifiably have to do. Good luck to them too, in succeeding in as little as a week of orientation. No, I think it's certainly time the education we receive is held accountable for it's shortcomings. There is no way the Australian health system can become one of the most admirable in the world if we continue to short change our young doctors.

We need more hands on, clinical one on one training. As long as senior consultants become disillusioned with the public system and universities, they will shy away from teaching and the quality of the knowledge pool will continue to dwindle. I would never accept paying over $200k for the degree I am about to receive. As it is I am seriously considering staying in rural areas for the next 5 years just to take advantage of a federal HECS reimbursement scheme to pay for my MBBS.

The time for a major shift in how medical training and the health system functions is drawing closer every day.

Round the RMO table

2006-08-13T15:57:00.000+10:00

Round the RMO table
Originally uploaded by graum.

House colours included, duch iris (dark blue), razzle dazzle (pink), staghorn (light green), poolside (light blue), amore (red), and clover leaf (dark green).

Everyone seemed to be up for a big night, and all seemed to have fun. I am still nursing my hangover...

The gayest picture of me ever

2006-08-13T15:52:00.000+10:00

The gayest picture of me ever
Originally uploaded by graum.

Nothing like a party. The idea is that each house had to dress in the theme of their door colour. Our door, it's "Razzle Dazzle Pink"

I think I make a pretty fairy though.

Saturday night fever

2006-08-11T19:03:00.000+10:00

Saturday night fever
Originally uploaded by graum.

Every single person in this photo is in varying degrees of doctorness...

Think about that next time you injure yourself ;)

Sunset on Pelorus from the hammock

2006-08-04T23:43:00.000+10:00

Sunset on Pelorus from the hammock
Originally uploaded by graum.

sunset-from-jetty

2006-08-02T20:14:00.000+10:00

sunset-from-jetty
Originally uploaded by graum.

Taken by Todd. Kissing Point and the Rock Pool on The Strand

castle-hill

2006-08-02T20:13:00.000+10:00

castle-hill
Originally uploaded by graum.

Taken by Todd. A nice place to be kissed...
Before you wonder though, I missed out that trip :(

mad-rower

2006-08-02T20:09:00.000+10:00

mad-rower
Originally uploaded by graum.

Taken by Todd. Hinchinbrook Island from The Strand in Townsville.

TheStrand

2006-08-02T20:07:00.000+10:00

TheStrand email
Originally uploaded by graum.

Taken by Todd. Says it all really. Townsville can be beautiful at times.

Lion Fish

2006-08-02T20:06:00.000+10:00

Lion Fish smaller
Originally uploaded by graum.

Taken by Todd. I saw my first lion fish during my rescue dive course off Pelorus at Chunder Bay

Wetsuits leave nothing to the imagination

2006-08-02T20:03:00.000+10:00

Wetsuits leave nothing to the imagination
Originally uploaded by graum.

Thus the strategic position of the hat...

Panic at 2000mm

2006-07-26T08:20:00.000+10:00

Yesterday was a fun moment for me. It still only ranks as number 2 on the most shit-scared I've ever been list, but I did not enjoy it.

Picture if you will, a bunch of SCUBA nuts going through the usual self flagilation that is emergency preparation manouvres. Stuff like taking your gear off then putting it back on under water, flooding your mask then clearing it, swiming across the pool without a mask etc.

It's been ten years since I last dived, so it was a steep learning curve for me. Things have actually changed in that time.

Anyway, we had gotten to the bit where you motion that you're out of air and take your buddy's emergency second stage (they're no longer called an octopus for some reason). I had already gone through this one with Charmaine the night before, so I wasn't too fazed, even though I have forgotten all but the most rudementary hand signals.

I swim over to the divemaster I am buddied with, and signal that I am out of air.
He just looks at me blankly. I signal again I am out of air and I need to grab his ocky. Again he looks at me blankly, so I just grab it off him. While I am trying to grab it, it's get's snagged on his jacket. He helps untangle it, and I put it in my mouth. By this point I think I am fine and have spat out my 2nd stage. I put the ocky in my mouth, take a breath and...

Water!

The bloody thing is malfunctioning and not delivering air! I spit it out, he sort of shakes it and hands it back to me. I am starting to get a bit upset, cause what sort of self-respecting dive master doesn't ensure his emergency air supply isn't malfunctioning?

I put it back in my mouth and try to take another breath. More bloody water!

I take about three breaths of water, because I am starting to get desperate and start looking at the other people in the pool for help: I look at the instructor, my sister, then up at the surface.

We had just finished a 2 hour theory session about how all the worst accidents happen in diving when someone swims to the surface in a panic. I did not want to be that person, but I was quickly coming to the point where I could either risk popping a lung or two, I could stay down with them hoping they get that the ocky only delivered water and I am desperately screwed, or drown.

As you could see, none of those options really appealed to me. It was down to about 5 secs from taking my chances with a popped lung when the instructor realised what was going on. I was desperately trying to recover my second stage, and not succeeding cause it was on a shorter hose than I had been used to, when he grabbed it for me and handed it to me. I was so paniced by this stage I thought he was handing me his ocky. It wasn't until I had ripped through about 10 breaths and could start to breathe normally that I realized it was my own mouthpiece that he'd handed me. The instructor then pointed out with hand signs that I had grabbed the divemaster's ocky upside down, and that was why it was delivering only water.

He then motioned for me to try again. I shook my head quite emphaticly. I then somehow managed to force myself to stay underwater for the rest of the exercises. Ten minutes later, we surfaced, they all looked at me and I said,

I'm just going to sit on the edge of the pool for a while, you guys just keep on doing you thing. I need a moment.

Yep. I almost killed myself yesterday... At least I learnt not to try and breathe through an upside down ocky. Bring on the ocean exercises *shudder*

See ya'll again real soon.

Grim (^_^)

Beer and Hate

2006-07-22T00:03:00.000+10:00

I hate, that thanks to the combination of the most horrible two weeks of my life, trying to juggle studying to succeed in my life, and the confused jealous manipulation of a girl that I thought I loved, I can not enjoy listening to the best CD of one of my favourite bands that I bought at the time.
Thanks for that Anna. You ruined Sigur Ros' Agaetis Byrjun for me.

Kids, don't drink and blog.

It just makes you angry.

Birthday boy attacked by ballons

2006-07-17T22:01:00.000+10:00

Birthday boy attacked by ballons
Originally uploaded by graum.

Tradgedy struck once again when the ballon-bot's escaped their parallel dimension prison and wrecked their vengence on a poor innocent birthday boy.

A rose amoungst the thorns

2006-07-17T21:58:00.000+10:00

A rose amoungst the thorns
Originally uploaded by graum.

Maybe not the most original of titles, but it's close enough to the truth :P
Or maybe, just maybe it a promo shot of the new band? who knows...

"I think the spiniker is luffing..."

2006-07-17T21:56:00.000+10:00

"I think the spiniker is luffing..."
Originally uploaded by graum.

Now that's realism in cake-istry. Fantastic job Kat and Leanne!

Go ahead, you can laugh all you want...

2006-07-17T15:34:00.000+10:00

A few people have been asking me why I have been so quiet lately.
The simple answer is I think about stuff. A lot.
So I figured I may as well 'fess up to what it's been that has been keeping me up of late.
There are two things (At least that I am willing to talk about in a public forum) that are really causing me some quandary at the moment.

Number 1 - The struggle for integrity
Two of the corner stone concepts for integrity are loyalty and independence. The way to reconcile the two however, is not as clear to me.
Loyalty I think we can all agree has to do with maintaining a faithful, fair and equal allegiance with you family, friends and peers. No real problems there. I think of all the things I would want people to consider me, loyal would have to come up often and strongly.
Then comes independence, being able to act beyond the influence of others, be they person or establishment. Things start to become a bit difficult for me here. Up until recently I have always considered myself to be entirely autonomous in my actions. I still believe that I only have to answer to myself for them. Loyalty however can be confounder to independence, in that to maintain independence, sometimes you have to do things your loyalties do not want you to.
Unfortunately I find a reputation for integrity is ultimately what I should be aiming for both professionally and personally.
Just how does one maintain loyalty yet still attain integrity?
If any of you can work that one out and explain it to me in small words, I would be very grateful.

Number 2 - Acceptance, not belligerence
I have not yet been able to sort this issue/concept out in my head, so my attempt in words may be a bit askew.
Belief systems can be very emotive and hold great sway in how we relate to each other. Unfortunately this can at times lead to what is effectively a culture clash. I have never been unable to understand why two belief systems should have such difficulties co-existing. I find it very frustrating when values are used as reasons for this. I refuse to believe that different values can not result in effectively the same person.
To over simplify, 3 + 2 makes 5, 4 + 1 makes 5, ni and san make go. Different values, same result, different names for the same values, still the same result.
What I am trying to say here is that there are a lot of you out there, that I happen to care for and love very much, who also happen to have beliefs that are extremely different to my own. I don't want any of you thinking that I think any less of you just because we see things differently.
If anything, I admire and respect you more, for holding onto your beliefs with such conviction and desire such strength of conviction for myself.
What I want is acceptance of my views and reassurance that you don't think I am belligerent towards you because your values differ. I still believe with all my heart that the sum of our parts are equal.
I hope that wasn't too clumsy, as I said, I haven't quite sorted it out yet. Again if anyone thinks they get the drift of what I'm trying to say, and can explain it to me so I understand it a bit better, I'd appreciate it.

Alright, amateur philosophy time is over. Back to med study.

Peace out.

Grim (^_^)

Random crotch shot

2006-07-16T18:01:00.000+10:00

Random crotch shot
Originally uploaded by graum.

The eternal quandry: If it's accidental, is it still art?

Upper Stoney Creek

2006-07-16T18:00:00.001+10:00

Upper Stoney Creek
Originally uploaded by graum.

Something vague about nature... Can't remember what...

Bailey's flavoured X-Trail

2006-07-16T18:00:00.000+10:00

Bailey's flavoured X-Trail
Originally uploaded by graum.

Unfortunate license plate there...

Dougal is not a Cherub

2006-07-16T17:58:00.000+10:00

Dougal is not a Cherub
Originally uploaded by graum.

You take the kids out for a day in the bush, and this is how they behave...

Byfield By Blog

2006-07-16T17:23:00.000+10:00

Okie dokie.
I just got out of the shower after returning from the Byfield camping trip. I feel about 150% better for it too.
Lots of piccies as you can see. I am surprised how good they came out. It's amazing the difference turning off you flash on overcast days can make to your pictures.
The trip out was fun, and I'm going to be frankly honest, Dougal was right, I went with the girls because they are the much prettier option. It was getting a bit dark by our arrival though, so the tenst had to go straight up before we lost all the light.
Of course, drinks and squeals started pretty much at the same time. Fast forward to 11:30pm, when angry pan banging van man came down and started bellowing at us to shut up of he'd cut our tent's down with chain-saws. I would of thought one would have sufficed, but I disgress.
He was totally right about the noise we were making, as I am certain there are a few dazed bats still trying to walk home after being hit by Kristy's laugh last night. Van guy was totally off his rocker though, and a more introspective man probably would have thought twice about threatening a group of 13 tanked strangers on his own.
Fast forward to this morning, with most of the group on the other side of the creek eating breakfast. One person was still in one of the tents sleeping, when angry van guy stopped on his way out to tip a bottle of Baileys over Lowe's car, Kat, Leanne and Micheal's tents. He has no idea how lucky he is the sleeping person wasn't drunk...
Other than the unpleasantness, it was a cool trip, with lost of star gazing and bonding and stuff.
Yeah, you heard me; Stuff.

Cheers!

Grim (^_^)

Yamata already!

2006-07-15T14:19:00.000+10:00

I just finished wathing the Naruto movie, and I have to admit I should be ashamed of how easily I get teary at anime.
I was supposed to be out at Byfield camping today, but due to my own slackness at organising spots in cars out there, my gear is in Byfield, and I as of yet, am not. I'm due to be picked up in a couple of hours, so instead of using the spare time purely for self betterment (study) I thought it was about time I caught up with my favourite annoying ninja.
There's just something infectious about how earnest and hardworking he is.
Never give up, that is my way of the ninja.
Also something about never going back on a promise being my way of the ninja too. I think you can make the rest up for yourself yeah?
There's something in that for all of us really.
Anyway, I bought some fresh batteries for my camera, and it's out at Byfield as I type, so there should be some nice pics to add by tomorrow night. And also some diving trip pics in a couple of weeks.

Cheers!

Group Hug Moment #1

2006-07-11T22:09:00.000+10:00

758268823

Procrastic ambition

2006-07-05T18:43:00.000+10:00

So here I am, working on a presentation on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus for the 3rd years, listening to Modest Mouse, Good News for People Who Love Bad News. Just gently chilling to the quiet anger.
As I was pulling out the CD, a piece of paper flipped out from underneath it and turned over showing the text:

Wednesday 21 June

Psychiatry: The cure of the id by the odd.

As Modest Mouse say:

"And we'll all float on OK..."

Challenge Accepted!

2006-06-24T16:59:00.000+10:00

As I was fretting in front of Peter's room wondering what to do with myself for the next hour before we have to leave for dinner at Wayne and Sharron's place, he turned to me with what I hope was mock exasperation and exclaimed:
"Why don't you write something in your blog about what you got up to today?"
Not being able to think of a sufficiently evasive answer, I accepted his challenge.
I was going to write about a journey to the land of the underpants gnomes, as is my want whenever I become imaginatively challenged for a creative writing exercise, I saw the news.
It may be a bit tasteless for me to mention it, and as we all know I am far from tasteless...

*Cue tumble weed rolling*

Aaron Spelling is dead! Finally the television rein of evil has come to an end. Sorry if I get a bit misty eyed here, but I thought I may never see the end of his serial evil. Plus who will feed and wash little Tori and Randi?
So I feel I must pay homage to my unwitting adversary in the plight against the mass dumbing down of a generation. May the Idiocy Indoctrination decline. Yeah, I know it's not much of a war chant.
How about "Today is a good day for Aaron Spelling to die!"?
No?
Probably not, a bit too soon...
*Pause for thought*
Yeah, I'll work on it and hopefully get back to you with a better one ;)
So, back to today.
Not a huge amount on today actually. My sister Jasmine was in town, so we hung out and chatted and stuff. We saw The Break Up. I enjoyed it.
Gotta say a few things about Vince Vaughn.
He gives me hope.
If he can be a heart throb, then I could just be the next Hollywood lothario. All I need is the ticket to LA.
So, we here at the Grim spot are starting a non-profit organization to raise funds for the fare so my gorgeousness can be shared with the movie viewing public of the world.
His character in the movie, Gary, was a complete dick, and frankly Jennifer Aniston's character, Brooke, was far better off without him.
Plus, he was kinda fat.
It was enjoyable in a watching a train wreck kind of way though, and it had the tear jerking moments going for it.
On the whole, probably not the best date movie out there, as the fights are a little bit too realistic.
As Ikey Solomon in The Potato Factory trilogy used to say:
"You've got to leave a bit of salt on the bread"
For the non-Bryce Courtney fans out there, that basically translates to; Always leave a little something for later.
Alright. I think I have fulfilled the quest handed down by Housemate Number One, so I think I'll get back to my garlic bread.
Cheers.

P.S. My "Too Hot to Handle" boxer shorts have indeed managed to make leave of the premises. Turns out, maybe those pesky underpants gnomes are on the loose again. Stranger things have happened, albeit rarely outside of my mind.

An un-ethical diversion

2006-06-21T14:42:00.000+10:00

So this morning I was thinking about how I used to be such a leftist, socialist type person. I think those days are limited...
I caught myself thinking;
Why are we wasting heaps of money sending a self professed IV using, hep C positive, workers-comp layabout down to Brisbane, to have an extremely expensive procedure done that is going to prolong his life. That money by rights should be spent on someone who is already contributing to society, and will continue to do so after wards. Not some oxygen thief who doesn't take care of themselves and will only be back in X amount of time with the exact same problem.
Then the guy discharged himself against advice, fully expecting to be able to waltz back into the 'spital at his leisure for an all expenses paid trip down south. Sorry pal, it doesn't work like that.
It shocked me to find myself thinking such thoughts.
Yet I can't shake the nagging possibility that somehow they're not entirely unjustified.

...I used to be altruistic...

Spinoza!

2006-06-10T13:03:00.000+10:00

Wow... It's been a pretty hectic week this week. Especially seeing as I have been doing a six day weekend thing.
Tuesday night was the RMO cocktail night. I got very very drunk, as drunk as I have been in about a year (Since I thought it was a good idea to mix bundy and red wine in the same glass anyway). The cocktails were good, the company was good and at times amusing and mentally stimulating. Plus is was another shave for a cure thing. As you would have seen in previous entries, I have been pretty good keeping up my end of the shave for a cure bargain. Being me though, I stupidly said in the staff tea room 2 weeks ago, I would wax my chest for over $100. I was thinking student budget when I said it. Being surrounded by doctors however, the money was raised in less than 2 minutes. So now, I look like a luekaemia patient, with bruises all over my chest from overzealous waxing. Never again.
Wednesday was a show holiday here, so, some of us went to the show. It was fun, and I even won a huge stuffed toy in sideshow alley. A big grey warthog, who was promptly dubbed Grey-ham. Nice.
I had to leave the show earlier than I wanted though, as the intern recruitment talk was that night. It was interesting, yet entirely painful, consisting of four hours on every hospital taking interns saying pretty much the exact same thing. Except for Rocky, where Dr Benton started to say something, but stopped. My first reaction was, uh-oh, he's going to say something inappropriate. I found out last night however, it was just a case of mind blank.
Thursday was a horror 8 hour train trip to Brisbane to see The Ticket, who rocked out in a pretty good, radioheadish kind of way. Rob informed me that there was a fair element to Sigur Ros in their songs as well. Unfortunately I couldn't hear Rob's lead work too well, as I was wearing ear plugs (Always do these days, you feel so much more the better for it in the mornings), and they tend to block most of the higher frequency stuff. I enjoyed it though, and I look forward to hearing more of The Ticket in good course.
So yesterday morning, it was breakfast in the city with Rob before he went back to work, and a quick dash into Dymocks to buy a book to keep me sane on the train trip home. I bought The Great Philosophers, which in between strong urges to snot a few people in the back on the head, keep me busy for the ride back.
Synopsis so far:
Socrates - Didn't believe in writing things down, claimed not to know much, was a bit of a smart arse and got about asking people questions to disprove their beliefs. Extolled living your life by the five virtues; courage, moderation, piety, wisdom and justice.
Plato - Fawn eyed follower of Socrates. Most of his work consisted of transcribing conversations that Socrates had with different people. Was suspected to use Socrates as a conduit for his own beliefs in his later works. Hated democracy, did a lot of stuff about what sort of laws an ideal society would live by.
Descartes - Dualism guy. Gave us the line I am thinking, therefore I exist, which is often shortened to I think therefore I am. Started out quite promisingly, aiming to separate from his theories things that were held without proof. Thus his line. It was the simplist reduction of what could be proven. All he could prove was that He thinks. Came to the conclusion that means he exists, but could never determine in what sense. Then came the idea of mind being separate from body, yet could not explain how when repeatedly asked by Princess Elizabeth. Sort of lost the plot in the end, died young of pneumonia in Amsterdam.
Spinoza - Devised a series of proofs for the existence of God. In his Ethics series it basically came down to there are two fundamental types of things. Those of the universe, and those the universe came of. Both are linked to each other by definition. That which the universe came of must be the entire whole of everything, and this he concluded is God. Seeing as we all came of God, we are inextricably linked, and to attain happiness and fulfillment, we must strive to reassimilate with God. Some think he's a genius, some think he's a prat.
Berkley - Was a big supporter of trying to remove words from philosophy, as he felt they were too clumsy to express the fundamental truths. Used a lot of thought experiments to explain himself, such as asking people to imagine a triangle, in all it's physical states but no particular one, at the same time. Basiclly trying to get people to comprehend things as concepts rather than objects. Big guy on perception and it's subjectivity, but not adverse to fudging things to support his beliefs.

So the question is, what am I learning from my little foray into philosophy?
So far it is that these great men were not as bright as I first thought. I also wonder why philosophers are such lousy communicators... But hey, it's not like anyone is going to be writing books about my dazzling theories in 2000 years, so I think for now, I'll just let it go and get back to passing my degree.

Wow... I can't believe you just read all of that. You must really like me ;)

Cheers!

Grim.

Cue insightful pose

2006-06-02T23:34:00.000+10:00

You Are Somewhat Machiavellian

You're not going to mow over everyone to get ahead...
But you're also powerful enough to make things happen for yourself.
You understand how the world works, even when it's an ugly place.
You just don't get ugly yourself - unless you have to!

How Machiavellian Are You?

En garde the sun

2006-05-28T17:24:00.000+10:00

En garde the sun
Originally uploaded by graum.

I had to change the caption because Wayne thought the last one was too emo...

Velcro-head

2006-05-15T09:59:00.000+10:00

Velcro-head
Originally uploaded by graum.

"It's not funny guys!
I'm seriously stuck here, and it hurts!"

Queen-Leanne

2006-05-15T09:58:00.000+10:00

Queen-Leanne
Originally uploaded by graum.

If I was mean... I would have said:
"OK Dougal, on the count of three
1...
2...
3...
Heave!"
But I'm not mean so I didn't :D

Is is Is-la or I-sla?

2006-05-15T09:56:00.000+10:00

Yup, the pictures say more than I can.
Project cheer up Leanne was a success (I think...)
I'm supposed to be studying Paeds right now... I better get back to it ;)

Love thy record store

2006-05-12T17:30:00.000+10:00

Well in a quest to earn the reputation for biggest music geek in town, I went to my local record store this arvie to beg for the new Chili's album a day early.
It worked!
I love those guys.
I'm listening to it now of course! Sneaking in a extra bit of chili before Kristy's B'day party tonight.
I'm giving the second CD, Mars another go. It seems to be the more up-tempo of the two, with Jupiter being more lounge-y in feel.
I dunno yet... I like it, but 2+ hours of Anthony Kedis' voice in one hit is a bit much... It's just not blowing me away like 10000 Days did. There is one song on Jupiter that sort of shows the Mars Volta influence though. Funny that seeing as my favourite Mars Volta song, Cicatriz ESP features both Flea and John Frusciante.
I guess it's just not rocking out in the way I was expecting.
2 hours...
So much Chili in one hit...
I'll have to get back to ya'll on this one :P

Shave for a cure 2006

2006-05-08T12:30:00.000+10:00

G'day.
Just thought I'd add some photos for prosperity. I'm having a ball right now listening to my new Tool CD, again. It's pretty good. I'm also getting pretty hyped about the new Chili Peppers CD coming out this weekend. It comes out on the 13th, when Pete and I are going on a road trip out to Theodore. I'm hoping I can pull another swifty with the record store guys and get it on Firday. Then there's the CD party I'm hosting on the 19th, complete with fancy dress. I'm looking forward to it, and I am trying hard to resist the temptation to go the sock coustume. Fans will know what I'm talking about ;)
So yeah, here are some photos from Friday night's Shave for a cure. It was one of those spur of the moment things, but it was fun. I even went in to the 'spital this morning for ward round with the mohawke. Positive reviews all round. That was a surprise. Big cudos to Heather for her artisitic touch. I think I speak for everyone however when I say we were shocked by her choice of content.
Still water runs deep.

Work in Progress

2006-05-08T12:25:00.000+10:00

Work in Progress
Originally uploaded by graum.

I dunno, I think Dougal's looking a bit jealous there.

Team cure

2006-05-08T12:23:00.001+10:00

Team cure
Originally uploaded by graum.

To think, people actually gave us money...

Yeah...

2006-05-08T12:23:00.000+10:00

Yeah...
Originally uploaded by graum.

I feel pretty, so pretty...

Arise Sir Siggie

2006-05-02T15:49:00.000+10:00

Well...
I got home this morning at about 4am-ish. It was a very big weekend. So big I decided I had to take today off in order to recover. I feel even that may not be enough.
We left Rocky about 2pm on Firday, and drove up to Townsville arriving about 10:30pm while Char and Todd were playing mini golf with the neighbours. The first few hours of a road-trip are always the most reserved, so when the conversation turned to Coupling (The TV series) and Porn Buddies within 30kms of Rocky, I knew it was going to be an adventurous weekend. Unfortunetly I can't share too much of the in-car banter, but let's just say it was gold.
Saturday morning saw the team roaming Townsville in the rain, and Lowie looking for a new car. Before we left she had been contacted by her car-search mob to look at an X-Trail in Townsville. We checcked it out, and she was asking "What else should I ask about the car"
Can I test drive it? of course.
So we did. The salesman guy drove us out to Woolcock St and we swapped drivers. We got to the intersection where Darymple Rd comes off Woolcock, where we were going straight through, and the lights changed so Lowie stopped. It was raining the road was a bit slippery, but the X-Trail pulled up quite well except for the squealing noise. We all thought it was the brakes until we realised the X-trail had stopped, and the squealing hadn't. I turned around just in time to see the Jeep cheroke smash into us, shattering the rear windscreen in the process.
The person I felt the most for in this situtation was not poor Lowie though, it was the salesman guy. Two minutes earlier he was telling us how he's moved to Tvlle 8 weeks earlier and his wife had already written off her car.
So Lowie asked "OK, what do we do now?"
He replied "I don't know,in my 8 years of doing this, I've never been involved in a prang."
Classic stuff. It was all the idiot behind us' fault anyway. He was going full tilt and wasn't watching the road in front of him and *smack*
While the car sales guy was swapping details I was joking with Lowie that she shouldn't buy the car now as it's been in an accident, and her response was in all seriousness,
"Now that it's damaged, do you think I could get him to drop the price a bit?"
On to Cairns that arvo, to arrive in time for dinner and a bucks/hens party. I had fun crashing the bucks party, even got a beer cooler given to me, but I had far more fun crashing the hen's party. Plus being the token student at a Dr's function, it was free drinks all round. Yippe.
Sunday was out to Davies Creek to go camping. T'was good fun with a nice little open fire that consumed the equivilent of 3 trees over the night and a little bit of midnight skinny dipping. I whimped out though, and went to bed instead. When asked why I wasn't joining in, all I could say was that it's not my thing. Admitedly part of me whould have liked to, but not enough to actually do it. I am turning into such a prude in my old age :P
Monday was a total of 18 hours on the road, mostly playing 'shoot, shag or marry?'. Lots of stops and side trips to 'Whiiiiineries' will do that. and here I sit, still sleep deprived now. No photos yet as my camera went flat just before we left, but when Lowie gets back from her holidays in a couple of weeks there should be a few piccies worth showing that I can get off her.
Till then, Copenhagen.

10000 Days to Cairns

2006-04-28T12:21:00.000+10:00

Well, 10 hours to Townsville today at least.
I'm writing this while waiting to be picked up for a road trip to Cairns this weekend.
I just finished listening to my new Tool CD, 10000 Days. It't technically not due out until tomorrow, so a big thumbs up to my local CD store staff for doing a dodgy for me. Support your local CD store. Yeah.
Anyway, I thought I'd use this time to do a quick first impressions of the album.
Wow. It's good, but it's also a departure from the last 3 albums. In a way, you can sort of see a bluring between A Perfect Circle, and Tool with this album. But that's OK, as they are still stylisitcly two seperate entities.
The main thing I got from this is all about art. I think they have really streched to the limit what they as a band can get away with whilst still retaining accessablity for non-muso fans. The Wings for Marie songs are a huge departure from your standard sweaty, shaved head, 6' plus fans type of song. This album is all about the band evolving as artists. I can't help but think that the Mars Volta has really helped in paving the way for making these swirling epic type songs more acceptable from a consumer stance. That said and done, this isn't some drowning depth prog-rock concept album. More a collection of musical vignettes.
I've always been a fan of the prog-rock side of tool more than the thrash side, and they've really come through for me in this album. It's going to take a lot more listens than just one to fully digest it though.
Thematiclly, there's lots of religious undertones, mostly in a dyphemistic way, as well as a sweet little song called Rosetta stoned, which makes me wonder if Maynard has an interest in psychiatry, as it's a pretty graphic depiction of a schizophrenic psychotic episode. Fun for the whole family there.
As a complete album, it seems kind of short even though it comes in at more than 75mins. For now I'm probably going to give it a 4, and privately enjoy the fact that there are a lot of metal head Tool fans that are going to completely misunderstand this album and hate it.
You gotta love a band that purposely alienates a huge contingent of it's fan base in order to do some artsy posing.
More soon when I get back from the Cairns roadtrip.

Quick question for the snobista

2006-04-20T20:45:00.000+10:00

So today in clinic, the consultant was refering to a child who had an IQ of about 80, and said that the kid will never be a lawyer, but they're doing well in art.
That lead me to wonder:
If it's un-intentional, is it still art?
Hmm....

I was drunk

2006-04-17T22:48:00.000+10:00

I was drunk
Originally uploaded by graum.

...But I did ROCK!

What's Nasi Lamak?

2006-04-17T22:47:00.000+10:00

What's Nasi Lamak?
Originally uploaded by graum.

I make my guests work for their dinner

Chicks Dig Scars

2006-04-17T22:22:00.000+10:00

Chicks Dig Scars
Originally uploaded by graum.

Real men bleed for their art!

Dolce fa niente

2006-04-17T20:51:00.000+10:00

Yes... Yes it sure is sweet to do nothing.
So it has been a long time between posts. What can I say, for some unforeseen reason I seem to be spending more time at the 'spital, working on the whole being a good doctor thing. I'll get over it eventually.
The O&G rotation was actually a pretty good one. It was the one I had been worrying about, but now, I reckon if I get over the idea of being a surgeon, there's a good chance of me going down the O&G track. As long as I can concentrate on the O bit rather than the G.
Now, I am almost halfway through the paediatrics rotation. I do not like paeds. First day I got to meet two little kids who undoubtedly are about as messed up as you can get after your formative years consisting of systematic physical and sexual abuse.
It's not always happy families.
Those two really got to me, so much so that I went for my first ever counselling session. From that I learnt that transference and counter-transference is real, and can hit you when you least expect it. I feel bad for the kids, but at the same time I am grateful to have dealt with my reaction to them, and moved on. It was a very unexpected lesson however.
So yeah, since that day, I have been battling my dislike for paeds. I will certainly not be a paediatrician when I grow up. No thank you very much.
Happy notes though: This weekend was Easter, as I am sure a lot of you noticed. I've been busy in the last 4 days. Friday was cave crawling and movie day. Saturday was jam and picnic day. Sunday was dawn Easter service on Mount Archer, beach, dinner and movie day. Today was Breakfast and dinner day.
The cave experience was fun, under the guidance of Dan, Lana's fiancé. We did the cavern thing, then Dan and I did this freak out of a crawl space thing. I say freak out because it was about 4 meters long about 60cm wide and 30cm at best high. At the end of the crawl through was a chamber about 10m x 20x 1 1/2m. No photos unfortunately, as the camera would have been smashed in my pocket on the way in. Plus I didn't have a torch either, so I was relying on Dan's headlamp. Crawling out was worse, as Dan went first so I was crawling through the pitch black, and I got stuck on the way out. There was a very tight section where I had to exhale, just to fit through, thus my getting stuck. Funness.
The dawn service, was pretty cool I though, and that surprised me. I'm not a religious guy, but it was so beautiful up there it didn't matter. When Leanne and I got there, it was still dark and shrouded in cloud. As the service progressed, you could see the cloud drifting through, and as the air cleared the view of Rocky and the Dawson River materialised. It was just magic. Later that day after Leanne and Dougal went for a sail, to which I was invited but had slept through them coming round, we all went to the beach. It was another one of those I can't believe how lucky I am to be alive, where I am, with these friends to share it, kind of moments.
I had a very good day yesterday.
Topped by fantastic company for dinner where we all chipped in and husked coconuts to milk for the Nasi Lamak. It's a hard life.
This morning I had Deirdre, Kristy, Leanne and Dougal over for breakfast, primarily to spend a bit more time with Leanne before she had to go back to Theodore for her rural rotation.
And now here I am looking in horror at my kilo monster Easter egg I bought with the money my Mum sent me for Easter. I think it's going to kill me.
Anyway, I broke my short entry rule, so I will leave you with a parting thought;
There but for the grace of god goes me. Be humble.

Mt Jim Crowe

2006-04-04T12:30:00.000+10:00

Mt Jim Crowe
Originally uploaded by graum.

The couz on the Crowe. Just another imaginative way to spend a Sunday morning.

Sports day 06 in Rocky

2006-03-05T15:39:00.000+10:00

Sports day 06 in Rocky
Originally uploaded by graum.

Punk DIY ethic at it's finest. If you can't make it to Brisbane for the official sports day, make one of your own. Best night out in scrubs ever!

Cause it's me Birthday!

2006-03-05T15:27:00.000+10:00

Cause it's me Birthday!
Originally uploaded by graum.

Welcome to random shot found on my camera after going out for my birthday.

Congratulations, it's a stoner rock star.

2006-02-06T22:18:00.000+10:00

Just a quickie.
Today I delivered my first baby. He was a healthy little boy of 3.285kg, with the same name as one of my favourite stoner rock drummer and song writers.
This weekend should be fun, as we are having a shared birthday party for Lana and myself. A few of the students up here are feeling a bit run down by the intensity of their first rotations of the year, so a night on the town has been prescribed.
Also there is clandistine talk of a battle for the title of The Ultimate Aquarian.
Only time will tell who the winner shall be.
Stay tuned.

Cheers,
Grim.

Congratulations, it's a state in the USA...

2006-01-31T21:42:00.000+10:00

Yep, now is a scary time to be a final year medical student in Queensland.
Those still in QLD will no doubt be sick of hearing about how the health system is in a sate of decay and disrepair. All I can say is I wish that I could refute it.
There is a bit of what we would call a doctor deficit in my hospital at the moment.
Things are that crazy here, I decided to shave off my monster mutton chops because I feel the need to be taken seriously by the expectant women I have been seeing in the antenatal clinc. I normally wouldn't care what they think, but seeing as I have been seeing them without a doctor, I want to at least give some impression of professionalism. I still double check everything with the doctors and midwives before I send them home, but I still find it sailing a bit too close to the wind.
I am also concerned for my poor shoes. A fact I had not known before starting this rotation; Amniotic fluid eats leather. I found out the hard way when assisting my first caeser, and got covered head to toe in blood. The mother is placed on the operating table tilted slightly to the left, and as first assistant, that is the side I have to stand on. The explaination the doctor will give is to avoid compression of the vena cava (main vein) by the baby in the womb. I think it's so all the blood and crap runs away from the doctor preforming the procedure. As such, I got soaked and my shoes drenched in amniotic fluid. The next day when I was putting them on, I noticed they were peppered with little holes.
Great.
Today, I was assisting again, and I was aware of the trick, so I jumped out of the way when the sack was popped.
Too slow of course.
At this rate I won't have any clincal shoes left at all by the end of the rotation. I am seriously considering buying some gum boots.
I was un-inspired by c-sections to begin with, because you are focused on the mother, and the baby is pulled out in the first 10-15 min. Then there is about a good half hours work stitching her up again. By that time the baby is gone to the paeds ward and long forgotten about.
Yesterday I witnessed my first vaginal delivery. We have to watch two and deliver four. I thought it went very well. Very little screaming, a slight bit of groaning and boom, a baby. The mum did extremely well actually, seeing as she was 18 and the baby was her first, with labour lasting about 8 hours. First babies take for ever apparently. Then she named the baby after an american state. But not Texas, as she wasn't that big (cheesy joke of the day achieved...)
There is definately something about the viginal deliveries that seems cooler though from a spectator's perspective. I think it has something to do with all the exhasting hard work and then massive relief and happiness when the baby arrives. Everyone in the rooms is happy and thankful, even to the dodgy med student standing in the corner who didn't do a thing but gawk.
I love being a med student.
Oh well, off to bed, Gynae clinic in the morning. Then antenatal... I hope we don't get hammered again...
*sigh*

Last sunset of 2005

2006-01-22T19:20:00.000+10:00

Last sunset of 2005
Originally uploaded by graum.

Sitting back, drinking cask wine from plastic cups, watching the sun set on the Island. Life is hard...

Another fine day at Fong On Bay

2006-01-22T19:17:00.000+10:00

Another fine day at Fong On Bay
Originally uploaded by graum.

Yeah... Free campsite (cause there were no registrations forms left) on the shores of Tinaroo dam.

Xmas with the family

2006-01-22T19:13:00.000+10:00

Xmas with the family
Originally uploaded by graum.

Me, Sister Jasmine, Cousin Micheal, Cousin Chantelle, Sister Charmaine

Is Rob in the bathroom?

2006-01-22T19:08:00.000+10:00

Is Rob in the bathroom?
Originally uploaded by graum.

As Rob discovered, if you take too long in the shower, the troops get restless and start a prankin

Let's take Freddie for a ride

2006-01-22T19:07:00.000+10:00

Let's take Freddie for a ride
Originally uploaded by graum.

Yep, I now have my motorbike licence. Freddie is Charmaine's bike, and I took him for a ride up Mt Stuart the day before I left Townsville.

Act one, Scene, I dunno, six yeah.

2006-01-19T17:28:00.000+10:00

Well here we are...
I just got back to Rocky early this morning, and I can assure you it is really starting to feel like the year is begining in earnest.
The train trip down was as usual fun. The good thing about business class on the tilt train is I got a seat by myself. No having to keep it a secret that I am a med student. No one trying to convince me that they cured cervical cancer by using panadol as a pessary.
So we have a fresh batch of 3rd years, only 18 now, not the 20 we were initially promissed. It seems a couple were scared off staying in case they were balloted to the RBH in Brisbane... Even though 10% of the year have to go rural anyway... Sorry, just med school politics frustrating me there.
So the start of year party circuit is about to commence. I'm hoping to slip in a Aus day hottest 100 party too, so hopefully, there will be more wonderfull pictures added to the fold soon.
Stay tuned ;)

Windfarm - Ravenshoe

2006-01-08T18:13:00.000+10:00

Windfarm - Ravenshoe
Originally uploaded by graum.

...And welcome to Sky Valley

Holiday doldrums

2006-01-08T18:06:00.000+10:00

Hello everybody.
Not a lot is going on in Grim-world at the moment. You gottat love that about the student holiday time. All this spare time, and no money to spend it with.
Still, I did a road trip from Tvlle to Undara lava tubes and the Atherton tablelands with Charmaine and Todd last year before Xmas, which is where all the latest pics are from.
Xmas was with the family down in Mackay, and was not unlike every other xmas with the family. I'm back in tvlle now, at Char's place with the cat Missy. Char and Todd are in WA to see his family. I have been left in charge of the cat, flat and automobiles. I went up to the tablelands and Cairns yesterday, and drove back down this morning. I am considering going back up there on Friday as one of my friends starts doctoring at the Cairns Base A&E on Thursday. I on the other had and getting my motorbike license on Thurs.
Anyway, enjoy the pics, and hopefully I'll have some stories to tell in two weeks when I start my O&G rotation.
Baby-catching here i come!

Paronella Park

2006-01-08T18:05:00.000+10:00

Paronella Park
Originally uploaded by graum.

The Big Sister, her Boyfriend and an ancient Spanish castle in the Australian rain forrest

Lake Echam

2006-01-08T17:57:00.000+10:00

Lake Echam
Originally uploaded by graum.

A swim in the sunset

000_0583

2005-11-29T10:47:00.000+10:00

000_0583
Originally uploaded by graum.

Wandering patient alarm - Some things are so good I can't even make them up.

Horseshoe Bay

2005-11-23T23:34:00.000+10:00

Horseshoe Bay
Originally uploaded by graum.

The beach of my childhood. To this beach I compare all other beaches.

Milla Milla Falls

2005-11-23T23:32:00.000+10:00

Milla Milla Falls
Originally uploaded by graum.

Road-trip the musical. Coming to a theatre near you soon!

Three guys, a girl, a beach and a waterfall

2005-11-23T23:19:00.000+10:00

G'day once again folks.
The Atherton trip was a good roadtrip, but I am still pretty buggered even now. There is something wrong with a 4 day, 2500+km round trip. I still can't believe Christian did all the driving either. Man of steel that one.
The course was educational I guess, and now we all know how to extract someone from a car wreck without breaking their neck. Unless they happen to be as tall as me and drive a Pulsar. In that case there is no way that sucker is coming out of that car with his neck intack and the roof untouched. One of them has to go.
The only thing that had me shitty about the weekend was that the course went from 7:30am to 6pm, so we had bugger all daylight with which to explore. I guess that means I have to go back at some point as a doc. Can't wait!
anyway's enjoy the pics, one being Horseshoe bay in Bowen, and the other Milla Milla falls on the tablelands. Both beautiful places worth visiting.
I saw Pete Murray and Ben Lee last night too. I'm not really a fan of either, but you get pretty starved for good live acts up here. I was surprised to find I enjoyed Ben more than Pete. Not what I was expecting. The Rocky crowd was very enthusiastic too, and to be honest, they were the best crowd I've ever seen at a gig. Ever. Impressive.
OK, bed time. Too much to do, and not enough time. Same old story as usual I'm afraid.

Cheers.

Grim (^_^)

Where is the 7th Level?

2005-11-15T22:38:00.000+10:00

Hey all.
Well no more Brunei posts, and in a way, I feel sad about that. I enjoyed writing 6 page word files about travel. I have always enjoyed reading travel naratives, so it was cool to live it for a while.
I guess I'm writing tonight because I am feeling a bit down. I haven't been sleeping too well lately, I think due to the heat or something. I always get a bit sulky when I am sleep deprived. I also think I'm a bit down about the last weekend.
We had a big party to farewell the 4th years, and to welcome the 1st years. I had a good time at the party, but I'd be lying if I said I was happy with how the night ended. It all comes down to a misunderstanding with one of the 4th years who's gone now. I really wanted things to roll up on a good note. I don't seem to be having a good run when it comes to either me, or other people leaving.
Still there's very little I can do about it now. I just hope they find out that they couldn't have got things more wrong, and they don't know me anywhere near as well as I thought they did.
Anyway, I'm off to Atherton for a road trip and trauma course this weekend, so I think it'll be a good break from Rocky. It'll give my soul a chance to stretch it's legs, as I said to a good friend recently. Should have a few good road trip photos to enjoy when I get back too.
Till then, take care.

Grim (^_^)

DSCN1164

2005-11-09T22:07:00.000+10:00

DSCN1164
Originally uploaded by graum.

It ain't easy being green...

A shorter start

2005-10-30T22:27:00.000+10:00

Yep, the posts have been absent for a while. I got back to Rocky OK, in spite of about 5 million scooter riders in Saigon. It was sweet to catch up with everyone in Brisbane too. Things have been slowly settling back into the normal pace here in Rocky. I can't even remember what it was we did on the first weekend anymore, but I'm sure it was fun. Oh yeah, the picture of the jumping castle. That was for Wayne and Sharon's engagement. Last weekend was a trip to Great Kepple, where I gained a new scar on my shoulder to remember the weekend for ever.
This weekend was a halloween party, for which there will be some photos up as soon as I get my hot little hands on them.
I felt like adding cause I don't really know who to talk about face to face on this one. What better way to deal with it than to go public huh?
We were watching a Spanish movie about euthanasia tonight, and it got me thinking about a patient I saw on the ward on Friday. Medicine has a fantastic way of de-humanising people. This poor guy found out that day that he almost definately had lung cancer. While I was putting in his canula, he remarked that he guessed it was to be expected as he had smoked heavily since he was a teeneager. I had no idea what to say to the guy. What can you say to someone who has just been told they are going to be killed soon. I had nothing. Instead I put in the canula. Sad thing for me is that I will always remember the guy for the fact he was my first successful canulation. Not why he was there.
I'm sorry mate, but I still have no idea what to say to you. I'll stick to I'm sorry.
That's all I've got.

Castle Killers

2005-10-26T11:44:00.000+10:00

Castle Killers
Originally uploaded by graum.

Just another lazy Sunday afternoon

The Panaga Monkey Saga Continues.

2005-09-27T14:17:00.000+10:00

I've just sat through one of the more difficult consultations here.
It involved a young lad with a similar name to a certain brit singer who likes to rock DJs and the one and only Miffy.
The email Rumor mill has been working overtime with the return of Miffy to Panaga. The young lad we saw today had been at the bar at the Panaga club and decided to show off to his mates and pat the monkey. It seems that Miffy is one of your new-age feminist monkies, and doesn't like being touched. So she went angel loving boy, and savaged him like the british paparatzi do to his namesake.
So here we were this morning, trying to explain to his concerned mother that whilst there having been no reported cases of rabies in Brunei itself, there are numerous reports of it in Sarawak. Which is literally on the other side of the river. So yes, the rabies shots he is taking are probably in his best interests. She went on to complain about how nothing has been done about Miffy.
Topher explained that they have caught Miffy, had people set her free, and even reloacted her back to the jungle. I say Miffy is one bright monkey to find her way back. Topher then went on to expalin that it is illegal to posses fire-arm in this country (possessing of arms - That's a hangin'). Thaat rule harks back to the 60s, when Brunei was considering becoming part of the Malaysian federation, and Sukarno, the Indonesian leader at the time, was unimpressed by this. He considered the Malaysian federation to be a brittish imperialist lapdog, and was actively hostile towards the idea. So much so that he started the small scale millitary campain of confrontation, and incited a small rebellion in Seria and Kuala Belait, supplyingback up troops to the disident locals. Of course as we know through history, the Ghurkas were called in from Singapore, crushed the rebellion, and followed the indonesian paratroopers into the jungle. Only the Ghurkas returned. Without prisoners. Anyway, as a result of the rebelion, Brunei has been under martial law, and thus the ban on arms. I say arms because it's even illegal to import swords.
So the only people in the country to posses firearms are the Ghurkas and Brittish officers. Topher explaind that had Miffy been a Che Gorrila (Communist Guerrila), the Ghurkas would shoot her on sight. But alas, she is not, and in Topher's own words, "The Struggle Continues"
After they had left, Topher showed me some of the emails he has been inudated with as the acting CMO of the health services, including one imploring him for guidence and direction on what to do about the situation. Of course i was most unhelpful and suggested an anonymous email should be sent stating that Miffy should be punished and someone should spank the monkey. Topher got that I was taking the piss, but some people are taking the Panaga Monkey Saga a littel to seriously.
Topher then told me a story about how a similar thing happend at a resort near Victoria falls in Africa, but this time it was baboons, rather than monkies attacking people, stealing food and even bikinis apparetly. Thing desintergrated to the point where the hotel had to employ regular baboon patrols, shooting them on site.
So that said and done, Some of us here have taken it upon ourselves to go on monkey partol on Thursday. I promise to 'shoot' Miffy on sight, and if you're lucky, I'll have a picture of another lucky monkey to display.

Cheers!

Mt Kinabalu

2005-09-20T09:32:00.000+10:00

Mt Kinabalu
Originally uploaded by graum.

One word: Do it!

Danny's the man

2005-09-20T09:31:00.000+10:00

Danny's the man
Originally uploaded by graum.

Trust me, this is the best book ever!

2046 = 708, Minus Zang Ziyi and Maggie

2005-09-19T12:43:00.000+10:00

Yeah, I love picking titles for these things. Another oblique reference that very, very few people will get.
This weekend, I finally made the break out to Kota Kinabalu (KK). Something I have been meaning to do from the day I found out I was going to Brunei. I found out last Wednesday that Laura had other plans for the weekend, which was fine by me, as it meant I could take my time and do the KK trip over 4 days instead of 2.
Friday was another fun trip early in the mooring with the clinical waste to RIPAS hospital in Bandar. I caught up with Tim, the Kiwi student, and Gemma. Gemma and Zoey had just returned from their trip to KK the previous night, and the boys were still there. I was a bit jealous actually, listening to Gemma talk about their trip to Sandakan and Mount Kinabalu. They had taken a week off, and first thing they did in KK was book a trip to climb Mt Kinabalu. The earliest they could do it was in 5 days time, so they went to do a jungle camp out at Sandakan. The bit about the tarantula the size of a dinner plate was particularly sobering.
Gemma also made the Mt Kinabalu climb sound very cool, in a depriving sort of way. 2day, freezing cold, un-heated huts with facilities so grotty only one of the group was willing to risk them, with a dash of altitude sickness. As you could imagine, I was pumped.
Unfortunately, I had not booked ahead, and only had the weekend, so I missed out on the climb itself. If i were to go back and do things differently, it would definitely be to book ahead, right at the start of the rotation, and to have packed some warm clothes.
I said my farewells to Gemma, and Tim and I caught a water taxi into greater Bandar. After more of the usual tourist stuff with Tim, like taking photos of him in front of the mosque, we went our separate ways; him to the royal regalia museum, and me to the bus station.
While waiting for the bus, I had a brush with Brunei celebrity. In all the current Lonely planets with a chapter on Brunei, a mention is made of a friendly, bald, smiling local who goes by the name of Danny, who hangs around the bus station handing out free tourist advice. In all my previous trips to the bus station I had seen no sign of him, and was beginning to wonder if he existed at all.
That Friday morning however, a bald, smiling, friendly local in one of the loudest Hawaiian shirts on creation, came up to me and asked me if I had a lonely planet.
"You must be Danny" was my reply.
Yes, he was, and to emphasize that, he started pulling out endless magazines and travel guides from his bag, with articles about him. Unfortunately for Danny, things weren't going to his internal script as I had been in Brunei for 6 weeks by that point. I had already seen almost all the local tourist attractions; I knew where I was going and how to go about it. After he chased after a group of German backpacker girls who didn't read lonely planet and had never heard of him, we got to chatting about life in Brunei, his girlfriend in Japan and tourists.
Danny really loves his country, and is quite realistic about it. He enjoys meeting people and showing off the few things Brunei has to offer. He was telling me about how he found it a bit upsetting that a particular American writer had hammered BSB for it's pollution. In all fairness, yes, there is a lot of rubbish in the water here. But in Brunei's defense, compared to neighboring Malaysia, it is a hermetically sealed very sterile thing. Now that my views on Malaysia and pollution are public, I'll also say how grateful I am not to have been to Indonesia. The rubbish in Sabah really got to me for some reason.
The 'express' bus (buses and vehicles with trays are limited to 50kmh) was like most other bus trips here; A test of one's nerves and self control, in not going up to the driver and giving him a thwack around the back of the head for ignoring the incessant beeping of the speed warning device. In the driver's defense though, it seems like the beeps kick in at just over walking pace.
I am really starting to hate immigration checks by this point. What could be a relatively innocuous little boat trip, turns into a hour long stand in the sun fest waiting to have your passport indifferently 'chopped'.
On the ferry, I was a bad boy, and inadvertently snuck into first class on my quest for a spare seat. The division of classes on the ferries though, must be based on how much you like swaying (more) and how loud you want you Eminem played (much more).
Thank god for ear plugs. If there is one bit of advice that I feel compelled to extol when it comes to using public transport in Borneo, it is take ear plugs. The boats/buses/planes are loud, the people on them are loud, and the *cough* music is very loud.
Lubuan Island, the intermediate destination from Brunei to Sabah via ferry, was immigration all over again.
I hate border checks.
I hate them,
I hate them,
I hate them!
Another hour of immigration, five minute dash to buy a ticket for the next ferry to KK due to leave in - five minutes.
It's so hard to not develop an us and them mentality at times.
We do things very differently to them. We are richer than them. They know that. They want our money. They're touting us, not to help but to rip us off. etc etc etc.
Add to that, Being a tall, noticeable white guy, I get preferential treatment. Whether they're aware that they are doing so, like waving me through before them, and maybe this adds to tensions. I don't know. Maybe I am being too hypersensitive. I'll get back to this though.
The ferry trip into KK from Labuan was fun. 3 hours watching dodgy VCDs, Kung Fu Marghong, and some German dubbed to English speed racer 2 type movie. Kung fu Marghong was actually quite enjoyable, if somewhat split personality in nature. The first half was very slap stick, the middle quite somber, and the crescendo a mixture of the two. The best scene was the rip off of Kill Bill, from the fight scene in the restaurant with a cross dresser as the school girl with the mace. Very funny.
Danny had warned me about not eating any oily food before taking the KK ferry, and in all fairness it was a bit lumpy.
I arrived just after 6pm as it was starting to get dark. Coming into KK from the water, it looks like my kind of city, with hills in the background and buildings hanging off them. I was thinking, 'yeah, this is pretty cool, I could live in a town like this'.
Until I stepped off the boat and the smell hit me. I have been thinking about this a lot, what with the book I am reading at the moment, The Singapore Story by Lee Kwan Yew, the first Prime Minister of Singapore. The Singapore he describes from the 50s and 60s, sounds a lot like the larger cities of Sabah and Sarawak.
Smell is a very strong emotional drive, and I can unequivocally say that my experience is that the smell of SE Asia is raw sewerage. From Singapore to Kinabalu National Park, you're never more than a faint whiff away from the sweet smell of sullage. The wharf area of KK has to be the strongest yet that I've come across. This is probably due to all the paths being placed directly over the drains into the ocean, and at low tide they back up a bit.
Away from the wharves, things change a bit, and you're in a town composed of mostly old buildings that have seen their best days long past, with new buildings reminiscent of the HDB flats of Singapore shooting up.
The lonely planet advises against walking along the water front areas at night alone. I of course am stupid, and don't think about these things until they area bit pressing. I think however, the writers of Lonely Planet take on a default nanny setting when advising people of their actions. The waterfront of KK is no worse than any other town with too many teenagers with too much time on their hands. I was in no real danger, and any discomfort I felt was due more to obviously being the first white guy silly enough to go down there in 6 years. Punk kids are punk kids the world over.
after walking around looking for a good place to eat some local food, I chickened out, and went to Shananigians instead. Shananigans is an Irish pub attached to the KK Hyatt. I ordered the Chicken cannelloni, and at 18RM, it was undoubtedly both the finest and cheapest cannelloni I have ever tasted. I also had my first Carlsberg ever, and had a rosy glow when I left an hour later. I had previously been warned off going to Shananigans in Miri by one of the Australian patients (The only Aussie I've seen here, and a dead ringer for Crocodile Dundee) because of the Lady boys. It was too early in the night for me to see if the warning extended to KK though, as the only other people there were a group of English tourists.
I went to bed early that night, having decided to get up early to go to Mt Kinabalu on the first bus and ring Jasmine to wish her happy birthday.
The buses to anywhere outside KK all leave from the same 500m long strip, and seemingly at the same time. Walking down early in the morning, I was still a black from the station before the first tout latched onto me and pleasantly enough directed me to the bus that I wanted, arranged the ticket that I wanted (eventually, there was a mix up as the whether I wanted the morning or afternoon bus, they caught on when I got on the bus and waited for it to leave), with the company that I had been advised by Danny were the best. Seeing as I was early though, I got to witness the joy that is the street theatre of the KK long distance bus station. it was barely 7am and the place was already a seething mixture of people. One thing that stood out to me between Miri and KK is that there was a much larger degree of tribal variation in the people. That and the people seemed a hell of a lot poorer in KK. Kiri is an oil town first, then a trade and tourist town. KK has traditionally been an administration town, and only recently a tourism town. That day there were bugger all tourists. Just me, a weird looking skinny white guy in a narcissus T-shirt and his unimpressed Japanese girlfriend. The touts took them to a different bus, and I beat them up the mountain by an hour :D
The hawkers were like flies, humming around the people, setting on a target, then humming off when brushed off, hovering then settling on a new target. Usually me because I was overtly watching them. One skinny girl, who by my estimates would barely be 12, but could be 5 years either way as I am very crap at guessing peoples ages here, saw me watching her trying to sell fruit and came up onto the bus and tried to get me to buy some right up until the driver started the bus and the ticket guy chased her off.
My favorite bit was when a screeching, middle aged, chunky Chinese woman got on the bus and started whining about having to sit next to a 'boulay' (I don't know how to spell it, go with the phonetics), got off the bus and refused to get back on. I sneered at her as we pulled away as I know what boulay means, and I was the only one of them on the bus. Anna was good at teaching me the derogatory and complementary words in bahasa and mandarin.
The bus trip to Kinabalu national park was another exercise in white knuckle fear. I fear I may be getting soft in my older age. But then, I don't exactly want to die or be maimed either. i don't recommend the bus trip to the weak of heart. The diver took the 'ekpress' label on the bus to heart, and tried ever so diligently not to lose any corner speed, and accelerated at every opportunity. The road however, is very twisty, very slippery, and has many edges that drop off, seemingly for ever. The one time where someone almost did doe however, was surprisingly not the bus driver's fault, but the idiot that pulled out to overtake on a blind corner, to find us oncoming. To my utter astonishment, the bus driver sacrificed out momentum and braked hard, only scraping the oncoming car as it veered out of our way. Only after finishing their overtaking maneuver however.
Mt Kinabalu is stunning. Having never left Australia, the tallest mountain I had seen previously is barely half it's height, and quite flat. Mt Kinabalu seems to rise out of nothing, beyond the clouds, which seem to stick to the peak and smear across it as they pass. If you manage to tear your eyes from the mountain, you are rewarded with stunning views that I never expected to see in SE Asia, and in my mind belonged more in Nepal or Switzerland. Tiny villages far below, and roads snaking around the ridges, taking 20km to travel 5 in a straight line. Truly stunning, it made me glad that this was what I had decided to do on a whim. Seeing the orangutans would have been my first choice in coming to Borneo, but having gone to Mt Kinabalu instead, I feel in no way cheated.
The trip took only 2 hours instead of the predicted 3 in the good old Lonely Planet, and the air was quite crisp. Just walking up the hill to the entrance gate I found myself getting out of breath, and the headquarters are only at 1600m. I had intended to buy a phone card and ring Jasmine once I got to the park, and I walked about for an hour before I found the gift shop, where they had no phone cards, so I bought her a birthday present instead and kept walking. An hour later, it sort of twigged on me it had been a while since I had seen any guesthouses so I turned around. When I got back to entrance and looked at the map, I realized I had made it half way to the first base camp. That was naughty because you're supposed to buy a climbing permit (100RM) and hire a guide before starting the climb. Oops.
Once I was completely buggered from walking around in the thin air, I ducked across the road from the park to the restaurant come convenience store which was advertising phone cards. I bought a large bottle of water and when asked about the phone cards found out the phone was broken. Then the bus back to KK pulled up outside so I ran out yelling thanks in Malay over my shoulder, and up the road, banging on the bus as it pulled off. Thankfully they stopped, and I was treated to King Kong on the TV, and a quick 1 1/2 hour trip back to KK.
On the trip back it started to dawn on me how little work I have done this rotation (none) and how much I had to do (all of it) in the next 2 weeks, so I decided to head back to Labuan that day. The weather conspired against me though, and halfway down the mountain I saw the storm clouds. My stomach sank, and all I could think was "Oh shit..."
Amazingly we made it off the mountain via the road instead off sliding off, but I wasn't as happy at the ticket office for the ferry.
"I want a ticket for the next ferry to Labaun please"
"Labuan?"
"Yeah"
"It's cancelled lah"
"Cancelled? when's the next one?"
"There is no next one, come back tomorrow"
"Tomorrow?!!"
"8am lah"
"Right..."
I found a hotel room for half what I had paid the previous night, and as I watched the light display of the storm as it spread across KK from the 7th floor, I realized it was a good thing.
That afternoon I spent a frustrating hour repeatedly dialing my parents to get Jasmine's number as I had forgot my phone (It's been turned off for 7 weeks now...). Another hour later I finally got through to her. Admittedly, Dad had given me the wrong number, and her mobile was turned off in the afternoon, but half of the hassle was still with the phone. Malaysia telecom is plainly just crap. if it's not the company, then certainly it is their public phones at the Milimewah shopping center in downtown KK. I finally got through to Jasmine after her movie had finished and turned her phone back on, and we chatted until the card ran out. You better like you present Jasmine :P
Next day I was up bright and early, as the perfume of KK was getting to me, and I wanted out. From there it was a leisurely 8 1/2 hours, involving 2 ferries, and two buses to get home. Same movies and bad music on both ferries too.
Praise be to ear plugs.

Marriane and the jungle

2005-09-12T13:47:00.000+10:00

Marriane and the jungle
Originally uploaded by graum.

Tree houses, plank walks and sedge covered lakes.

Bridge to Labi

2005-09-12T13:46:00.000+10:00

Bridge to Labi
Originally uploaded by graum.

An upper tributary of the Sungai Belait

Kids of Kampong Ayer

2005-09-12T13:45:00.000+10:00

Kids of Kampong Ayer
Originally uploaded by graum.

These two greeted Laura and I with the friendliest happy hellos ever.

Then Along Comes Marriane

2005-09-12T13:34:00.000+10:00

Selamat pagi/petang/malam depending on the time of day as you read this (consecutively, morning, afternoon and evening).
Well it’s been another Bruneian weekend, as the passport hasn’t returned from the Vietnam embassy yet. No dive stories from the oil platforms either, as the club were doing dives at the shoals.
I was contemplating what to do when introduced to the English med student who’s based at the MRS (No idea what that stands for, but it’s the medic centre for the Ghurkha troops stationed out here to guard the oil for the sultan.).
Laura suggested going to Bangkok for the weekend, which I am totally keen for, except for the funds issue, the having to take two separate flights from Miri and the relative expense due to the short notice.
I was starting to get a bit depressed at the idea of another stationary weekend in the Belait region, when I remembered that the pharmacist at Panaga has a car hire business on the side, and offers special rates to the hospital staff.
Giddy-up!
So it was decided that Laura and I would hire a car from Azmi.
When collecting the keys from Azmi, the first thing he said to me is:
“Do you remember my name?”
Someone has a sense of humour obviously. It turns out it was because he had some inside knowledge and was told I asked around about him, and what his name was numerous times until I had the brain storm to write it down.
Friday afternoon, Azmi handed me the keys to his new pride and joy, Marriane the gun barrel silver Mazda 3. Such a nice car, I really didn’t want to give it back.
There’s a new safety consultant at BSP headquarters, and he’s running a mock emergency response this coming Wednesday. None of the doctors at Panaga really want to go, as they have clinics, and well basically they’re over it, so I am being promoted to doctor on call for the exercise. To prepare me so I don’t look like a complete pillock the doctor that liaises with UQ (Who’s just returned from his two month around the world holiday this week) offered to lend me his BMJ emergency response manual. He kept forgetting to bring it to the clinic though, so I had to drop off at his place on Friday afternoon on my way dropping Laura off at the British officers mess. Fast forward to sitting around on the back veranda in wicker chairs, drinking tea and sipping Tiger beer, surrounded by a family of blindingly blonde, arianesque Rhodesians. I say Rhodesians because Topher is from Rhodesia, the place that became Zimbabwe, before it became Zimbabwe. He’s a top notch laugh actually, as he’s one of those doctors who are old enough and comfortable enough to be able to not really give a crap about how good a job anyone thinks he’s doing. Not that I would ever argue with his opinion, as he is a fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. It’s such a laugh in our afternoon chats, him giving me crap for being a “Pinko, leftisit, greenie”, and extolling the virtues of unbridled capitalism. I laugh, cause although he’s being tongue in cheek, there’s a rather substantial element of seriousness in what he’s saying. I remember reading in a Sean Condon book, that when a girl meets a man she likes, she wants to marry him, but when a man meets a man he likes, he wants to be him. Give me another 25ish years and I hope I am as justifiably comfortable in my abilities as Topher.
So as you can imagine, the afternoon, looking into the jungle for monkeys as the kids played cricket in the back yard, smacked just slightly of colonialism. It was still pretty cool though.
Saturday morning I woke early, as Laura and I had decided the night before to drive to Bandar and do the water village hour long boat tour thing, then off to the Empire. Before I picked up Laura however, I was determined to take Marriane for a drive inland as far as I could, to a Longhouse community called Labi. It was one of the most fantastic drives I have ever done in my life. It was a poetic mix of fear for your life driving from the other people on the road, going local way too easily, driving far too dangerously, and jungle roads, which whilst sealed, were still in extensively varying states of disrepair.
I made it within 9 kilometres of Labi before I had to turn around to make it back in time to pick up Laura. I was quite annoyed by that, and if I ever return to Brunei, I might just return to finish that drive. On the way back I did stop at Luaguan Lalak forestry Recreation Park. The park is a beautiful sedge filled valley with tree houses and plank walks around the sedges. The shot with Marriane in the foreground was taken at Luaguan Lalak. The photo of the wooden bridge was taken a further 5 kms down the road.
Driving back the Kuala Belait I realised I was running late, and did the stupid, dangerous thing, that I will never do again and cannot condone. I did the entire trip back at 160kmh. Thank god for sparsely populated countries with dual carriageways. No one pays any attention to the speed limits here, so it is far too easy to fall into the same trap. Now that I’ve done it, and pushed my luck way too far by surviving unscathed, I shan’t be attempting to drive at 160kmh+ again. It truly is white knuckle stuff trying to maintain the level of focus required, for any length of time.
I was more than happy to let Laura drive at this point, especially seeing as she had the dubious privilege of having lost all the points she can for speeding back in the UK. 160kmh in Brunei was nothing for her.
The trip to BSB from Seria/KB usually takes 1 ½ - 2 hours. With Laura driving, we were there in 45 min… White knuckle indeed!
Doing the proper full length boat trip, including looking for Proboscis Monkeys is by far better than just a cursory trip like the one I had done a fortnight previously. Kampong Ayer is still a shanty town on stilts, but going to some of the more outlying areas, it becomes evident that new houses do exist. Our driver dropped us off and waited for us to visit one of the floating mosques. On the walk back a couple of small kids came running out of their home to practice their English. I’ve dubbed them Enrique and Eliza, and they were such cute kids, that I had to take their picture. It is so amazing how friendly the people here are, and if our boat guy wasn’t waiting for us, Enrique and Eliza’s family would have probably adopted us by now.
After not being able to find any monkeys, I introduced Laura to the fantastic would of SE Asian hawkers stalls, where lunch for the both of us cost less than $7 including drinks. Laura was particularly smitten with her can of Kickapoo Joy Drink. I was a wimp and stuck with the Milo, pronounced ‘Mee-Loh’.
After the dizzying hustle bustle of BSB, we decided that it was time for High Tea at The Empire. I’ve written of The Empire before I know, but it really is an excessive place. Tea was fantastic, although I am going to be a bit pompous here, and say that my scones are better.
That night we had a dinner party at the house of the radiographer from Panaga, and his wife, who is a Major at the MRS. Both lovely people, and the medicos were fascinating to talk to.
Sunday was a brilliant day, with a trip up the Sulai Belait to Kuala Balai on ‘The Narcs’, the garrison’s dive boat.
It wasn’t the best of beginnings when the starboard engine wouldn’t lower into the water however, and as a consequence of Brit bloody mindedness, we made the trip on one engine in just under 2 hours.
It was well worth the wait however, as the first thing that greets you in the village of Kuala Balai when entering via water, is a cage full of human skulls. A left over of a less publicised aspect of WWII in the region. The Iban people were banned from their head hunting practices by the British administrators prior to the war. Once war broke out however, they were given free reign to get as many Japanese heads as possible. When peace was declared, no one told the Iban who quite efficiently wiped out all the un-accounted for Japanese troops within the jungle. The only sore note from all this from my perspective, was that I forgot my bloody camera. This is where I have to tip my hat to the Scottish Major, who took heaps of photos for me with the intention of emailing them to me.
We moored off at the village longhouse, which was unfortunately deserted, but we had a good explore of the village and long house communal areas. One of the procurements officers had put on a fantastic spread for our picnic lunch, and for the second day straight I was stuffed with so much food I could barely even waddle afterwards. After 6 weeks of SE Asian food, I was unprepared for a good old fashioned English picnic. It feels like it’s been a long time since I’ve had such rich food.
The trip back was a bit faster thankfully, due to travelling with the current. As we were pushing off from our mooring at Kuala Balai, I spotted a rather massive ten metre ‘Log-a-dile’, which was a sobering reminder to keep a look out for semi-submerged logs which could put a hole right through the Narcs’ hull. Poetically, within sight of the Kuala Belait mosque, we ran out of fuel. We had filled up both tanks with enough fuel to travel almost 40 knots. Those figures of course are based on both engines running. As we had not even been able to get onto the plane, and the engines having separate tanks, we were caught out. It was almost funny bouncing uncontrolled into the palms growing out of the jungle on the bank. If the guy in charge of the trip had not of had the forethought to get a spare 30L drum of fuel before we even knew the other motor was out however, it would have been a different story.
The broken engine did get the last laugh however, as we were docking at the boat club, we rear ended the Panaga dive club’s boat at a fair clip, as our captain was unable to keep the boat straight with only one engine. It amused the people on the deck at the boat club restaurant at least.
Afterward I made a quick dash home, stopping off to buy some heavy groceries while I still had the luxury of Marriane, and the key was handed back at 5pm. I almost cried as I gave Azmi the key back. Though our time together was short, Marriane and I bonded, sharing many wonderful jungle experiences, and shall not be easily forgotten.
This weekend I am heading for Kota Kinabalu finally, with Laura in tow I think. Not really how I wanted to do it, as she has a final drinks night at the mess on Friday, and I wanted to be in KK that night. So it’ll be a much quicker trip, but that’s alright, as I still have one more weekend after that left in my trip, so I can always go back and do it properly then. Hard to believe it’s almost over.
I really am starting to look forward to getting home and seeing you all. Which reminds me, I really should get starting on working out my gift list huh?
So who has been naughty, and who has been nice?

Brunei round-a-bout

2005-09-06T13:31:00.000+10:00

Brunei round-a-bout
Originally uploaded by graum.

I can't even make stuff like this up. - So much material there for the taking in Brunei.

Panaga dive freaks

2005-09-06T13:29:00.000+10:00

Panaga dive freaks
Originally uploaded by graum.

One way or another, I was going to make it to one of the offshore platforms. (Chains around ankles out of shot)

Pringles connoisseur

2005-09-06T13:04:00.000+10:00

This week’s instalment is a relatively short one, thank god I hear a lot of you gasp in my imagination. It’s been a very low key weekend, which kinda frustrates me a bit, as I am getting quite bored hanging around in Brunei on the weekend. I should be off seeing the sights of Borneo and blah blah. Next weekend will probably be more of the same as I am sending off my passport for my Vietnam visa, and even though I’ve been told it should only take a week, I am not holding my breath.
As I mentioned in the past week, I was hoping to go diving off one of the offshore oil platforms this weekend. Unfortunately my cards haven’t arrived yet, but I am expecting them any time this week. Things seem to take about ten days to get here by post, and it’s only been eight so far.
I did manage to get into pretty regular contact with the Panaga dive club however, and as hoped they were fine with me going out with them to the platforms on Sunday. Of course I didn’t find this out until 4:30pm on the Friday. In other places that would not have been much of an issue, but everyone in Shell has shoofled off by 4pm, so I had no way of getting back to them to confirm. Again, if I had access to car this would not have been an issue, but seeing as the dive boat leaves at 7:15am, and I am staying a good 14kms from the boat club, fun ensues.
Saturday morning saw me riding a push bike to the boat club in order to work out how long it would take the next morning. The first half hour of the trip seemed pleasant enough, being mostly jungle suburbia. Another one of those interesting Brunei Shell peculiarities, the company housing is set between the sea and the main road between Seria and Kuala Belait. Each house has it’s own little pocket of cleared space within the jungle, connected by small roads that runs almost the whole distance to KB. The lack of cars competing with you for road space, and the occasional monkey jumping across the path make it a pleasant bike ride in the late afternoon. I would not recommend doing it in the middle of the day however, as the backs of my hands are still sporting rather embarrassing fluorescent red sunburn patches. I can not stress enough how gallons of sun screen and gloves are important when spending any time on a bike in the daylight.
Riding through KB is another scary lesson in it’s own. Where else in the world do you develop the personal mantra,
“Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me!”
whilst being passed by car loads of teenage Muslims doing 130kmh+, listening to the mid-day prayer blasting out the radio? It truly is a moment of my life that shall live forever. Mostly at 3am in the morning when I wake up in a cold sweat.
By the time I got to the boat club the dive crew weren’t due to arrive back for another two hours, so the decision was made to tough it out at the boat club restraunt, overlooking the Belait river and impenetrable jungle on the opposite shore 300m away.
Part of my little personal quest I have allocated myself whilst here, is to find the ultimate rendang curry. Those of the Rocky crew who are part of the old cooking circle will have a bit of an idea what rendang tastes like, as I have cooked it for them on a couple of occasions. I must hang my head at this point and say, sorry guys, I was close but I still haven’t gotten it quite right yet. Those of you who are feeling brave however, will be pleased to know I have sourced a recipe of how to make it from scratch. Fun for your taste buds lay ahead. I just have to work out what veggies will go well with it as a side, because the authentic thing is quite thin on the greens.
The rendang at the boat club was OK, but more of your western stew with a rendangy twist to it. It needed a bit more coconut and time to reduce. I enjoyed it for what it was, but at $6.50 it was getting to the upmarket side of the scale. Seriously, I love how cheap food here is. If there was a hawkers market within easy access from my apartment, I would have already put on 20 kilos and still be saving money.
As I was enjoying my post prandial glow, reading a copy of the ‘Borneo Bulletin’, the prestigious local newspaper which has had such fantastic headlining stories such as “More second wives to avoid un-wed virgins” and “Toilet cleaner college for Singapore”, the dive boat pulled up early.
I had a nice chat with the team who had just finished a set of training dives, and gratefully arranged a lift to the boat club the next morning.
Cue a early Sunday morning boat ride to a distant oil platform, 35 nautical miles offshore. I went for an enjoyable little snorkel around the platform, and tried not to think about what the indistinguishable large shapes twenty meters below me were. Being short sighted, good diving visibility is wasted on me these days. Oh how I long for the days of my youth, before I needed glasses to see anything in detail beyond arms length. *sniff*
I hope you all enjoy the pictures this week, which include one of the random roundabout monuments. The teapot is a gift from Brunei Shell Petroleum to the Sultan of Brunei and his peoples. It’s supposed to represent the boundless wealth of Brunei pouring into the teacup. At night it even lights up and you can see the oil pouring from the pot – Except these days the electronics mechanism in charge of the neon light representing the stream of wealth is broken. I don’t know if that too is meant to be a metaphor for something, but combined with Singapore’s fountain of wealth, that is all dried up except for special occasions, this is not boding well for the region.
On a side note, I have just been watching the Motorcycle Diaries again. Bless legal piracy btw. I first saw this movie the day of my last performance with The Lanterns. I had a whole speech prepared in my head that night about how I saw this movie, about a young man, who at that point in his life was not so dissimilar from myself. We are both medical students, of a similar age, embarking on great journeys that were destined to change themselves forever. I don’t pretend to actually consider myself in the same league as Ernesto Guevara, but it is humbling to think that a great man who achieved great things could have evolved from a man very little different from myself, or any one of my colleagues. It gives pause for thought about what he may have achieved had he not been killed.
But instead I just said thank you to those who turned up, and said the rest with the help of the band.
OK, frivolous side thought moment.
I have discovered in myself, amongst other things, a sadomasochistic streak in me that revels in experimenting in junk food in all it’s various forms here in SE Asia. Part of my journey of gastronomic discovery, is that not all Pringles are created equally. In Singapore, I tried tomato salsa Pringles, manufactured in Indonesia. They were alright, in a 4 out of 10 kind of way.
In Sarawak, the day before going to Niah Caves I bought a tin of sour cream and chives Pringles in a Miri supermarket. Malaysian supermarkets are bizarre by the way, totally unlike any supermarket I have experienced back home, but I have let myself get side tracked enough already in this piece. These Pringles were also manufactured in Indonesia, but I figured I would be leaving too early to buy breakfast in the morning and a snack on the bus would not be such a bad idea. I should have known better by this point, but I persevered. On the plus side, after about five chips, I was done for Pringles for life it seemed. Under normal circumstances I would be ashamed of the actions that followed, but then, those people who have tried Indonesian Pringles would understand. I threw those little bowel clenchers out with over three quarters of the can left. Some things man was not meant to dabble in.
Recently however, I was awed to see American Pringles on sale at the Super Save for less than two Brunei dollars. For the sake of research I was willing to jump back into the fray and dabble in Pringles as originally intended. They were everything their Indonesian counterparts were not: Flavoursome in a not entirely toxic manner, with a flakiness that dissolved in your mouth on contact.
I’m still giving the gong however to the good ol’ home grown Aussie Pringle counterpart, which possesses just the right blend of flavour and crunch for my unrefined palate. We export them to the Middle East, so they can’t be all that bad.
Alright, that is it for now.
Until the next adventure, take care ;P
Grim-e-o out.