Brrrrrrr

Dear friends,

Another month, another tardy update, and basically no excuse since I am, as Tim reminds me every so often, a lazy sod who's only working part time. Even less excuse - it's horrid weather outside right now. Tim's supervisor spends most of her time shaking her head and wailing, "it's not meant to be like this! This is the most rain Gisborne has ever had!"

It's making me just a little bit homesick for the UK.

Easterlies are indeed blowin' hard for Easter in Gizzy.  It's been raining here 'solidly' for three weeks, if by 'solidly' one means 'in gusty showers and with plenty of fine spells in between', but everyone's been complaining bitterly about it and how it's basically 'ruined' the giant pumpkin festival.

They really are giant, aren't they? The biggest one in that group was 190kg.

And how much do you think this one weighed?

(PS - I guessed wrong.)

The pumpkin festival was a perfect Sunday activity of Gisborney joy, summing up all that's great about Gisborne - so much community, lots of farmers from the market setting up different stalls (snail races and pumpkin bobbing, for example - see above for some immense pumpkin bobbing), scarecrow making, pumpkin petanque, squash throwing.....it was just immensely enjoyable. And it made the front page of the Gisborne herald, because obviously this is front page news.

This, for example - the longest apple peel IN GISBORNE. Definitely newsworthy.

speaking of snail races....

Obviously we chose number 42 as it seemed the most lively and also, well, you know, 42. How could we not? I loved the idea that someone had been out to collect all those snails and paint those tiny numbers on the backs of each. It was just so wonderful.

Sadly, our snail came in pretty much last. It got into a big snail orgy in the middle and never quite recovered. 

We also met up with a small friend of ours who was having a great time selecting some squashes for the squash throwing competition.

Otherwise, things are going much as usual in Gizzy. My most recent clinic highlight was a nice older chap who after the examination, came over and said, 'well you've been a lovely girl, so would you like some peppermints?' and before I could react had tipped a HUGE load of peppermints all over the table - I mean, all over the notes I was writing in, and the desk and everything. 

'Good for the digestion,' he assured me as he toddled out.

I wasn't sure what to do with about 20 peppermints rolling for their tiny lives around the ophthalmology clinic so I wrapped them up carefully in a bit of tissue paper and I put them in my bag. I couldn't throw them away - I mean, really - but I'm just not that sure about eating them. How clean is the ophthalmology clinic? I mean - pretty clean - but clean enough to put in my mouth? But clearly this is ridiculous as I've been known to eat stuff that's fallen on the floor in my house and I know how dirty that is (very.)

Anyway, the peppermints remain in my bag to run away and fight another day while I ponder this conundrum.

***

I am really quite looking forward to going back to the UK, really. I've found out my first rotation, which is Windsor. I'm not sure how I feel about being so close to Maidenhead, for it reminds me of the poem. Still, Windsor looks very jolly and it's a nice eye department, so I hear. I'm looking forward to it all. And a cold Christmas! I'm definitely looking forward to a cold Christmas.

Still, we have 2 months and a bit left in Gizzy, and when the sun has been out, we've been making the most of it:

Ice creams on the beach.

These are wonderful 'real fruit'ice creams where they tip a load of fruit (blueberries, strawberries, whateverberries) in with a load of ice cream and blend it all up and then squirt it out into the biggest cone in the world. 

Note to self: you've done this before, Connie. You tried to eat a whole one and made yourself sick So when Tim says, 'no, I think we can just share one', don't have a tantrum and demand a whole one to yourself. The words, 'it's fine, I'll finish it no problem' will come back to haunt you. And while doing that once is a bit silly, doing it twice is just ridiculous.

Snorkelling in the Marine Reserve.

What is it about snorkeling that makes you so tired? The water here was so warm (and this was only a couple of weeks ago) that it was like being in a spa. A lovely, lovely spa. 

Well it's all buggered now of course. Bloody freezing out there. I had to wear a cardigan today. UNBELIEVABLE.

We also went for a walk up Kaiti  Hill, which has a memorial to Captain Cook which does not resemble Captain Cook (a plaque at the bottom apparently reads, 'who was he? We just don't know.') We tried and failed to find this statue, perhaps hindered in our attempts by this helpful notice. Where exactly are we again?

This was a lovely sunset I have to share with you off our balcony. With the eye of faith you can just see the sea in the far distance.

This was an almost daily scene for us after work, before the clocks changed anyway - a bit of post work surfing down at Makorori, which in Maori roughly translates to, 'watch the idiot beginner surfers fall over for free.' 

You can just see me in the car window...

I think there's just nothing more beautiful than this landscape.

Except for the rest of NZ, I suppose.

Mum and daughter team about to take to the water for a sunset surf.

What a country. 

Still 2 months left. 

Winter is coming

These are the last glorious days of summer. I've lost count of how many people have commented to me that 'Winter Is Coming' in a voice laden with Capitals. Is Gisborne simply filled with Game of Thrones fans or are they just very preoccupied with the seasons? We have heard that there's not much to do in winter here. Given that the town is famous for surf, beach, and vineyards, I can see their point. Still, time to drink all that wine accumulated over the years eh?

So these are the last days of summer.

We went to Auckland again over the weekend. I had an ophthalmic meeting in Hamilton, which was heaps of fun - really very very nice to meet registrars my own age or just a bit older and to chat to them about careers, eyes and non-related silly things. I shadowed Graham in clinic then did acutes, and then we had  a very relaxed lunch out, an afternoon of presentations, and then quite a riotous dinner afterwards on the little kids' table (translation: the registrars' table. Reg1: "come sit with us!" Reg2: (waving a bottle of wine) "we have little kids' juice!"). Lots of laughter and fun and exceedingly frivolous chat in contrast to the adults' table followed (translation: consultants' table. Reg3: (raising her voice) "hahaha! Yes, we are laughing, but we are just having a good chat about the latest ophthalmic trials.")

Auckland was lovely - saw Rich and Kiri again, now all moved in, and we ate a lot of delicious baked goods on the way over to Waiheke on Saturday (see above) in preparation for our bike around Waiheke.

Mistake.

Tim and I have biked around a few vineyards in our time. Napier. Martinborough (we didn't even bike Martinborough - we just walked). Marlborough. I bike around Gizzy (though not to vineyards) and around Palmy (ditto that) for work. Everywhere we've done was pretty flat, and we've become old and lazy in the face of NZ's exceeding flatness. We were dimly aware of all the volcanoes and hills around, but 'surely nothing is as bad as Headington Hill' as we said to ourselves, blithely picking out a bike for our tour of Waiheke. 

Hideous. 

Waiheke is basically one big hill, studded all over with little hills, up and down and up and down and up and bloody down all over the place. I was clearly far too self congratulatory about having done Headington Hill at one point in the dim and distant past, conveniently forgetting that I hadn't cycled a proper hill for about 2 years. I was destroyed. 

Luckily we had a lot of wine and delicious food to comfort us, and then beer and delicious dessert, and then more wine and more food, and then eventually we ran into the sea in our underwear as we were just too bloody hot, and that was the best thing ever, until we had to put our clothes back on again.  

Me and Rich 

underweared

beautiful Waiheke

Auckland gets a bad press really in NZ as it's almost a real city, but it was very beautiful in the sunset, with the Sky Tower on the horizon. I love the summer light and night in NZ. It's sad it's starting to fade. 

One more day of blue sky

We also thought we'd document the last days of Gizzy summer to remember it all by. Here's the railway bridge we cross all the time, with some kids sitting on - there are always kids sitting on the bridge daring each other to jump off. I've been saying I'm going to jump off for ages but never have yet. Maybe this week.

Classic after-work drinks at the Gisborne wine centre - a flight of Chardonnays.

Making vitamin D like there's no tomorrow. I love that light.

Our morning walk to the Farmers' Market - about 10 minutes down the river. 

Need a pear?

Our local cheeseman, who keeps us in halloumi

It's melon season!

and the very last of the strawberries

Brunch after the market (well deserved)

Roll on Autumn 2014 :-) (and then Summer, and then Autumn again!)

YES EYES YES

Sorry for the deathly silence, dear chaps. It has simply been that things have been somewhat hectic around here, first with our pre-emptive holiday to the South Island, which was thoroughly wonderful and involved more sun and sand than I could comfortably shake a stick at:

- and then our rather sad journey back to the UK for interviews - one week apart from each other, so we crossed in midair somewhere above the Pacific - in which we spent approximately 1.7% of the time attending interviews, approximately 45% of the time travelling, and approximately 100% of the time feeling jet-lagged, grumpy, and generally unhappy - 

- and then coming back to NZ (magically, the jet lag did indeed reverse itself, which was a relief after a week of waking up at 3am. I drank more warm milk than you could possibly imagine. To no avail.) Our beautiful friends Rich'n'Kiri had just moved to Auckland so I spent a happy weekend helping them unpack, lubricated by a trip to Waiheke island and of course, some more wine at their notable vineyards.  

Lunch with Kiri.

Rich'n'Kiri's glorious Deck overlooking Auckland harbour

All this was very pleasant of course but it could not truly distract me from the horror that was my interview. Dear folks, I will keep you out of suspense (and you probably know anyway) by telling you straight off that both Tim and I got our first choices so we will be back in Oxford this coming summer. This is such unbelievably wonderful news that it hasn't quite sunk in for either of us. We got our notifications on the same day, at 3am NZ time. We were, of course, fast asleep, despite Tim suggesting that I might not be able to sleep:

Me: "I think I'll sleep fine tonight."

Tim: Good. Do you think you'll be able to get to sleep ok?"

Me: "Yes."

Tim: "That's great! I think I'd probably stay awake worrying if I were you. Like, not forever. Just for maybe an hour. And I'd probably check my email a few times in that time. But just for an hour. And you think you'll sleep through?"

Me: "Yeah probably."

Tim: "Good! No, that's good for you. But if I were you I'd probably be waking up every half an hour or so just to check my email. And then if there wasn't any news I probably wouldn't be able to get to sleep for another half an hour or so. These are approximate timings. And I'd probably wake up maybe 3 or 4 times. Probably. Max, anyway. Anyway I'm glad you think you'll be able to sleep well."

Me: "!!!"

Generally I do sleep well, as I am of a fatalistic bent. My well sleepingness, however, has no relation to how complacent I felt about the upcoming revelations. I have bored everyone stiff with just how awfully I thought I'd done in the interviews so I will not recount it here. Suffice to say, I had spent most of the preceding weeks googling 'ophthalmology masters' 'volunteering in malawi' and 'things to do if you don't have a job but all you're really interested in is eyes HELP' with mixed results. 

So when the results came through it was very, very exciting and now we can at last relax and start making plans about our future! The wedding! The honeymoon! Buying a house! All sorts of grown up things!

Getting the news also meant we were able to kick back and really enjoy our weekend in Napier. It was Art Deco weekend, and I have never seen so many people dressed up and thoroughly enjoying themselves. It was blisteringly hot and absolutely beautiful and we spent it with people that we love. And ended it with a particularly camp performance of the Marriage of Figaro. Which was wonderful. We stayed over at Sarah's wonderful parents' vineyard again. I run out of superlatives.

The view through their living room window

I love this little man

Wine tasting with Rick

So many options

Insanely hot

Frolicks in the fountain

Cheese goes well with wine eh?

Serious peach eating faces.

These people make me happy. As do peaches.

So in summary: 

we will all be seeing you back in Oxford in August. 

Can't wait, but also sad our NZ adventure is slowly drawing to its inevitable close. Graham offered me another year in Gisborne as ophthal reg if I didn't get the Oxford job, and that would have been the sweet silver lining on a very bitter pill, to thoroughly mix my metaphors. Still, Oxford!

There isn't anywhere quite like it. 

 So, since my supervisor has gone off on a 3 week long holiday, leaving me bereft and without work, I suppose I have run out of excuses to update this blog. Sorry.

So to pick up where I left off. This has been (so far) a beaut summer in Gizzy.

 We’re drinking heaps of Gizzy Fizzy and Sweet As (local bubbly at £5 a bottle – we’re now addicted, possibly in the strict medicolegal sense), and going surfing as often as humanly possible. We’ve been put off by a cold (joint) over the last weekend but before that the most number of surfs we racked up was 3 days in a row, followed by a 1 day break and then another outing. It’s just so much fun! Our surfboard is so big it’s basically a boat, so standing up is easy. Have graduated from watching endless snowboarding videos to watching endless surfing videos, along with looking up all-inclusivesurf holidays in Costa Rica. If anyone wins the lottery and fancies buying me an early birthday present, this would be just fine.

(basically a pro surfer)

Despite this inhuman amount of exercise I have eaten so many Christmas pralines, pudding, cake, panettone, stollen, mince pies, and then in a fit of insanity, an entire batch of pretzels which I made last week, that I am still sporting a post Christmas paunch which, handily, makes me quite buoyant in the water.  Tim rearranged our cupboard when I was out so I returned to the spectre of an entire SHELF of Christmas related snacks which I’d hidden away cunningly in other parts of the cupboard. When displayed like that all at once it was somewhat shaming.

 Climbing up the wharf in Tolaga Bay with a belly constructed entirely from Christmas carbs.

We’ve met up and made friends with the Gizzy RMOs who are no longer disconcertingly shy around us. In my first conversation with one of the first years, she replied to everything I said with, “that’s so fascinating”, which I know for a fact is a lie. This is a first year who was interested in ophth and therefore devastatingly polite and interested in everything I said. Luckily she has now got over it and we have normal human conversations.

The lead-up to Christmas was manic in the eye department (and by eye department I mean, me, Graham, Debbie). Graham did 4 extra lists, we came in at all hours to see post ops. The good thing was that with all these extra lists I’ve progressed in the theatre stakes. Yes, I have now completed my first INTRAOCULAR procedure, which was a highly tame IA (removing the viscoelastic from the anterior chamber after intraocular lens insertion - don’t ask, I tried explaining this to Tim, it took 15 minutes and 3 diagrams and Tim had to go and have a lie down in the middle) using a little hoover I was operating with my feet. My feelings about this: the eye – surprisingly roomy. I also did my first intraop Avastin . My feelings about this: the eye – can be surprisingly soft. I also chose the day that Graham chose to teach me to do IA to forget to bring socks to the operating theatre – embarrassing. A good ophthalmologist remembers their socks. My feelings about this: OT floors – surprisingly sticky. Also, moment of huge awkwardness as Graham tried to get me to jump on his chair (fully scrubbed) and manoeuvre myself towards the patient. Me: “Graham, this chair is far too high” Graham: “no you just need to move forwards.” (Graham repeatedly attempts to push me forward) Graham: “something’s in the way, it keeps hitting the table.” Me: “Graham, that’s my legs.” Graham: (long pause) “you’re shorter than I imagined.”

Otherwise, great fun. Easier than I’d thought (and worried about) and I enjoyed wiggling the little probe about doing as Graham suggested (“tap the lens” “burp the capsule” “be brave with the vacuum”). All too soon it was time to relinquish my throne. Boo hoo.

The next list was a set of lid surgeries – also lots of fun, and I got to do a lateral canthoplasty and some extremely agonised suturing with some 7/0 vicryl (“for God’s sake Connie I want to leave this theatre before Christmas. It’s only skin and he’s completely wrinkled anyway.” Patient: “I am quite wrinkly.”) And then it was HOLIDAY!

We had a lovely Christmas Day – neither of us working, which was quite blissful, and obviously we celebrated by going out surfing, having too much fun, and returning far too late and completely ravenous. We ended up by having Christmas lunch around 4pm at home (roast pork and crackling, the works), which, in hindsight, was an error as we’d been invited round to have Christmas dinner with Tim’s GP supervisor at 6pm. Tim to my shock and awe put away 2 helpings (roast pork and crackling redux). I ate what can only be described as an unhealthily large portion but our hostess still looked concerned and asked me if I was feeling unwell as I “didn’t seem as hungry as usual.”   Had to get Tim to help me with dessert – the dear boy was indefatigable. This may have been the first time in history that Tim has eaten more than me at dinner.

Tim got a ukulele for Christmas, by the way, to add to the stock of things we were clear we would Not Buy in NZ since we were NOT accumulating so much STUFF this year, including tennis racquets, wet suits, and a bistro set.

Boxing Day was relaxed, though RUINED by how rubbish Doctor Who was. Deeply disappointed. Skyped folks at home, was smug about general niceness of weather here. Then we went away for the w/e to see Sarah’s folks in Napier, who own a vineyard, like everyone else in Napier. We ate an insanely large amount of food, drank a stupid amount of wine, and then were generously loaded down with bottles to take home and consume. Fun tip for everyone – do not go to a winery for breakfast. It’s just a bit too much.

Looking wan and interesting at a winery for breakfast. We did not have any wine.

Last week, I did some locums in ED, which were unbelievably cushy. ED here is a dream. I also happened to be on with some docs who really didn’t like kids, so I got to see all of the kids.

Them: “soo…..there’s 2 patients waiting, one is an alcoholic, depressed 17 year old who’s just OD’d on some methamphetamine and there’s also a 4 year old….with some kind of ear problem oh god I hate looking in children’s ears, will you take it?”

Me: "SOLD”

I also got to do some suturing with 4/0 prolene which was SO MUCH FUN. HUGE NEEDLES!!!!!!! It’s like a child’s suturing kit! Needles which you can see without a microscope! Everyone mocked me but I maintain those needles are unnaturally large. Cannot really remember when I used a 1/0 in O&G. 1/0 prolene! Madness.

ED was quiet despite R&V being on (which I’ll get to, be patient) but there was a variety of minors (which I like as an ED locum – fill my day up with minors and pay me) all beginning with, “fell over in moshpit…”. My favourite R&V related injury is still the Listerine kid. Did you know that Listerine contains methylene salicyclate – the most toxic form of salicyclates? It’s like drinking a bottle of aspirin. Kid was fine, apart from the ignominy of everyone in the department asking him if his breath was minty fresh.

SO.

R&V.

For those who don’t know, R&V or Rhythm and Vines is NZ’s biggest music festival – the biggest thing on the NZ social calendar basically. Last year over 30,000 people descended on Gizzy, which is INSANE for a town of this tininess and general backwateryness. This year they capped numbers at 25000 but town was still absolutely rammed. It’s a festival amongst the vines with lots of international acts (none of whom I’ve heard of) and general jollities. 

Fun amongst the vines

Tim and I went for all 3 nights and danced our little hearts out, drank a lot of red bull, dressed up briefly as a pirate (me – Tim wore a frilly green shirt which I maintain was a mistake, it was not quite obviously fancy dress enough to be taken as fancy dress but could instead have just been quite a poor fashion choice – especially given he wore it with completely normal other clothes. He got the gentlest heckle ever – “mate, this isn’t ballroom dancing you know” and a lot of pitying looks), drank chai in the chai tent, lay down in the hammocks, and generally had a wonderful time. So now I can say I’ve done the whole Huge Party At New Year’s thing, and can happily move on. Boy did I feel old.

a Very Young person, almost certainly under 21 and behaving like a 14 year old. One of many to be seen descending the Fruju slide. 

New Year's Day itself is a big occasion in NZ and we enjoyed some riverside fireworks on our balcony. This photo was taken with a 15 second long exposure and I love it. I now understand fully why the Victorians looked so serious - their photos took minutes, and no one can hold a smile for that long. NO ONE.

This weekend we’ve had colds so the surfing has been on hiatus (boo boo double boo) but today felt well enough to go to Tolaga Bay and check out their historic wharf – the longest in…the Southern hemisphere? Somewhere, anyway. It’s 660m long and was built in 1929 and when we saw it we knew we had to jump off it.

So along with 1000 kids (we were by far the oldest) we took the plunge. It was delicious. 

look at that happy face

easily satisfied

I did it 3 times

 and Tim only did it once because he was a wimp. 

Near us on the wharf was a little girl who clearly really really wanted to do it but was too scared to and was therefore extremely grumpy about it. She kept on lingering near the edge, looking down, and then as soon as her parents suggested she might want to jump, bursting into tears and hitting them – then looking down over the edge hopefully as soon as they weren’t looking. She never did go for it, though her older sister did.

After plunging, we did some boogie boarding. Did I mention we bought some boogie boards? To add to the number of things we weren’t going to buy this year. (Tim: “I’ve told Renee we’ll buy her surfboard off her when she leaves.”)  Boogie boarding is like a gentle version of surfing – it’s easy to catch green waves on a boogie board without nose diving and ride it all the way in to shore. Bad things about boogie boarding – because you’re lying down in the waves, the danger of your pants being pulled down and your top being pulled up is shamingly high.

In summary, from New Zealand:

Chill out. Catch some fish.

Love
Connie