My UK trip

You can check out my trip progress on a different blog i created just for my trip.
Click here to access it...

more craziness

well 2 days out from leaving... all crazy... just all seems to be a lot of hassle.
so this morning i tried to do an online checkin and the web system was having a dummy spit at me... said i have to go to the airport to check-in... argh

it's been busy at work with lots of patients trying to catch me before i go. and i'm gonna miss so many of them. one patient is an awesome cook. today he decided to bring me some honey soy chicken wings. and because i am going to the uk, he decided to make me something british... i think it was a scotch egg.

so you boil and egg. then dip it in batter and then wrap sausage meat around it. then dip it in egg wash and breadcrumbs and then deep fry... ok sounds kinda gross but it was actually very yummy.

hehehe then i got talking with another patient this morning about food. she's hilarious cos she's an older lady with a dependant partner. so she was telling me about how she learned to cook from a show called 'yan can cook'. ok so a bit of an old show but it used to be hilarous. yan just came up with the strangest recipes.
so this lady was telling me about how she boiled her pork belly in coca cola... no joke coca cola... apparently it was so nice and tender. but seriously coca cola... oh i was laughing for ages...
i'm still laughing thinking about it... and far out... yan can cook. the guy was so corny... one show he was teaching ppl how to make won ton soup. so he boiled the soup and was adding the won ton's and he was saying "one ton, two ton, tree ton..." (chinese acccented of course). oh dear... as corny as a dad joke...

so today i also got really upset... i had to make a very difficult phone call. the things you have to do... so had been having a hard time with a difficult patient. i'm glad she wasnt booked in to see me cos i dont have time for this... but in the last week she's booked 3 appointments with eric and missed all 3... and she was booked in for next week. so i just pointed out to her that her track record wasnt good and that we have a few options: i can refer her elsewhere more convenient to her if she has trouble coming to my clinic, we can charge her a cancellation fee if she doesnt give sufficient notice or she can just not make a future appointment and can just call up on the day if she knows she is free and we will fit her in if we can. anyway so she took it very well and apologised for everything and it should hopefully be ok now. i just needed to make that call before going cos otherwise poor eric is busy and she takes up appointment times but doesnt turn up.

was a rush arvo... busy again and then i went to dinner with some close friends from church. was meant to be a small, low key do but in the end there were a few people. had a great night and was great for laughs. will miss my church buddies!

language difficulties

ok a funny little anecdote... well i found this funny.

i dont speak chinese!! i know i look it but i just dont.
one of my patients brought his mum and dad in to see me this morning. he explained some stuff and translated some things and then had to go to work and then i was left treating both of them. which was kinda funny cos they dont speak english and i dont speak chinese. i can ask if there is pain and tell ppl to breath in and out (for drop piece) and say sit and stand and that's about it...

so anyway while i was treating the mum, the dad was poking around my shelf - has massage oil, lotion, creams like magnesium, arnica etc that i use, strapping tape etc (you get the idea). anyway... i use massage lotion sometimes cos it's nicer on my hands and doesnt run everywhere like oil. it is a lotion that becomes oily with the heat of the skin.
well the dad must have thought that it was moisturising cream cos he started helping himself... and i was like... errr... i couldnt tell him that it's not so i guess he would have found out when it just became oily on his skin... but i couldnt laugh either and i wanted to so much...

then this arvo one of my interns had a japanese patient... we chatted after and i just kept mixing my vocab up eg tsukate vs tsukute (to use, to make). haha wat a fool i am cos i've just forgotten so much. he must have been walking out laughing.

craziness

well i'm off to the uk on the 25th sept. things have just been crazy busy leading up to going.
i guess i was a little worried about finances going away. there is the concern about leaving my baby clinic. but i think that the clinic will be ok. have felt like i needed a break since my last trip o'seas was 6 yrs ago. and i've wanted to go to the uk for a while now. so doing some chiro stuff over there gives me an excuse and also makes some of the trip tax deductible.

but... i also picked up a heap of shifts at mac uni. i kinda feel like i dont leave there actually cos i was doing mon, wed, thur and sat with rugby. one weekend i did oxfam sat and golden oldies rugby on sun so i was working 12 days stright.
chuck in church weekend away and kelly and greg's wedding on the weekends and it's been pretty hectic.

in hindsight i guess i might not have taken on so much but i guess you just put your head down and do it. so a week out i'm extremely sleep deprived and just tired in general including emotionally.

i'm actually very mindful of busy-ness atm. it's great that i have some great girls to keep me accountable. i have been working on my wed's which i tend to like to have off in the light of my 12 hr days on mon and tue. i also like to just be meeting up with people or having some time out to do errands and read the bible or other books to get my brain and heart ticking.
bible reading tends to go out the window when i'm tired but it's actually been good lately cos i know that i have a problem and i'm just making an effort. the challenge with travel too is going to be taking the timeout to spend with God and prayer time. it's harder when i dont have my awesome gals around to pray with and to chat through stuff with.

taking on the extra shift on monday kinda means i dont stick around so late at church which has been a bit of a bummer. it's just such a long day on mon that i cant afford to be getting home after midnight and waking up early. but i miss the conversations or rather fun, stupid mucking around with ppl.
i've just been informed that i wont be having the 12-4 shift on mon when i get back so i guess that is somewhat of a blessing. (will see what my finances are like when i get back but i'm guessing my clinic will also be busy). but yeh means that if i have a late night on sun i can have a powernap on mon arvo before going to clinic.

stressed about the planning for the trip. 2 weeks out and esther has told me that she is bailing on me with the road trip which is just great considering i had changed some of my travel plans to accommodate her. anyway the ireland coach tour was paid up so she will just have to meet me to do that.
oh well i had wanted to travel by myself anyway cos i was just gonna wing it. means i only have to please myself.

kelly and greg's wedding was also quite stressful cos i was helping out with wedding co-ordination duties. all was fine for the church but then they were running late with the reception. stuff had to get shuffled around. executive decisions made but in the end it all worked out well and it was a great day for the bride and groom cos it's their day so that's all that matters.
will have to write later about it cos there were many many funny moments.

so yeh 1 week out... i'm not sure how i feel... tired...

funneee

one of my interns totally cracked me up today...
was reading his clinical notes and he said "soft tissue work T-band"
and i was thinking 'what on earth is T band?' like where?

so i asked him and he pointed to the front of his shin...
and i'm like... oh u mean tibialis anterior... and he said "yes T-band"
apparently the lecturers always refer to it as that... so i'm like... oh "tib ant!"
funneeee

stuff... oh and twist...

it's hard to describe what's been happening in the last few weeks cos it's all a blur.
daph's mum's funeral was on mon 21st june. it seems like a dream cos i just dont remember. was trying so hard to keep it together.
i also crashed my car into a pole at mac centre the day before cos i was upset.

twist... good being away. felt vulnerable and ended up getting slammed in the songwriters workshop.
got there without getting too lost...
funniest thing... well for me was getting up for orderlies on sat morning. i'm sooo not a morning person so my idea of fun at camps is to climb out of bed about 10 mins before breakfast (if i even make it there) and chuck on something. brush my hair and maybe teeth before walking with my eyes still half closed to breakfast.
but... i was on orderlies which meant being there 15 mins before breakfast to set up tables etc.
i was going to go do orderlies and then climb back into bed... anyway so i get up maybe around 30-45mins before breakfast and wander into a shared bathroom. (the other dorm on the opposite side of the block shares a bathroom with us - we each have doors on opposite ends). so i walk into the bathroom... and wow... there's all these aussie young girls putting on makeup and getting ready... seriously it's a camp! such overkill...
gee and on sunday morning i didnt even make it to breakfast and ended up being a tad late to my workshop... sooo not a morning person!
but me being sleepy might have something to do with the late night jam session in the boatshed at the youthworks site... sooo much fun!!

hmmm i think i come out of twist realising a couple of things:
- i'm not a songwriter... better stick to being a muso (playing not writing)
- i actually find emu music too formulaic and boring...

God is enough...

ok this post might be added to at later dates...
basically i bought a book at Equip called 'God is enough' by Ray Galea.
http://www.matthiasmedia.com.au/god-is-enough

each chapter focuses on a Psalm and kinda goes through it in little chunks and in devotional style...

so i've been reading this book and really enjoy it. might be because i do really like the psalms. they are very poetic at times and angry psalms are great to read when ur feeling not so good...

so i thought i'd do my own devotional 'chapter' on some psalms that werent in the book but i really like.

Psalm 24
v 1-2 "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.
For he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.."

We're studying Job in bible study and in the last few chapters God speaks to Job "where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?..." (Job 38)
In the context of Job we see God's character - He is the amazing God who created all things and who sustains all things. Who knows all things. And who are we to question His wisdom...

This earth is amazing... look at creation. The other night i looked up at the stars at a friend's place and just marveled at creation. That God spoke and night became night and day was day and the stars in the heavens shine beautifully and constantly. And God is in charge of all of that...
He's also in charge of everything below the heavens cos He created it all...

These verses are a good opening reminding us of God's sovereignty and might in creation. But that we need to be humble in approaching God because we and everything on this earth belong to him.

black friday 11/6/2010

i dont know what to call this post...
i was out on friday night with friends when i got the worst call i've ever received in my life...

my best friend's mum had passed away very suddenly. she was like my 2nd mum and i just didnt know how to handle it all...
being out was torture... i just wanted to cry but i didnt want to ruin my friends' night. and then i just didnt want to be alone with my head. it was nice to be out.
for the first time in my life i thought about drinking away my sorrows... but i didnt get very far... only managed 3 drinks before just feeling terrible.

anyway, the friends i was with cheered me up... funny incident where clive was getting picked up by a guy at the bar... i caught it on video as well as having photographic evidence... sooo funny...
think the rest of the night was just getting lost in soccer...

i didnt manage to sleep at all that night cos i was just too upset... rugby the next day was a bit tough cos of no sleep.

sat night i was having ppl from church over to watch a movie and hang out... and i just wasnt sure whether i should cancel.
did go over to d's on sat arvo to see how the family are doing. i dont really know what to say or do... i want to be helpful but dont want to be in the way...
it was nice not to be alone sat night... just to feed of the energy of the people who came over. was a good night. we didnt end up watching a movie but just played a couple of light games and chatted.

the week is now a bit of a blur... every day has been busy with something. just feel like i'm going through the motions.
might just be that i feel so 'blah' today...