Safe and Sound in Edinburgh

Hey everyone. My stupid post got deleted the first time by the computer so here's the second take.

We arrived in Edinburgh on Wednesday lunchtime and now it's Friday morning at about 11am in the morning. It's been pretty cold with the max temp yesterday getting to -1 and the min getting down to -9. Other than the cold, it's been an awesome time here! The place looks so wicked with the old windy streets and the cobblestone roads with the really old buildings.

You really need to wear heaps of layers - thermals, t shirt, long sleeved t shirt, jumper and coat! Add to that longjohns, pants, socks, scarf and beanie! And still you feel cold! The thing is that you can't really keep your face and ears warm sometimes. And that's the coldest thing ever...

I'm currently in this cool little internet cafe near Cowgate. See if you can look it up on multimap.com. It snowed about 2 inches last night and then it rained, so it got really wet and slippery on the way here. It's been really treacherous to walk sometimes with the slipperiness and all.

Yesterday we went for a walk down some tunnel near our place and then got lost, managing to find our way to Craigmillar castle somehow! Unfortunately it was closed so we weren't able to get inside although I did take some pics (which i can't upload cos I forgot to bring the camera). Then we caought a bus to Princes st to do some shopping in the huge amount of shops there are here. There are so many department stores compared to Perth (not just crappy Myer and DJ) and they're all in really cool old buildings that have been there for centuries. I bought some cool Pumas from a sports shop and also a scarf from GAP. Sa got a cool jacket.

Afterwards we went and managed to catch up with the Torchlight procession. Its this gigantic parade that goes through the streets of Edinburgh with Vikings (!) leading the procession, followed by heaps of people and the families with their kids. I got some great pics and a video of that too. Then they walked up to the top of a hill and burned this ginormous bonfire of a viking boat and also burned this huge cow. Sounds crazy but its true.

Then we walked back down again and had dinner at 9pm. The place we went to was pretty good in terms of the cost of the food, but generally food is quite expensive. Looking at the prices, they're the equivalent of cheap food in Perth, but with the $ replaced with a £ instead! But that's ok, I guess we expected that somewhat.

Today, Janes friends are coming over to stay with us so that will be interesting to have 7 people inthe apartment. Oh, the apartment! It's a really nice place and Dr Bagnall is such a friendly guy. The place is just as good or better than I could have imagined and you can also get some satellite channels to keep in touch with the football results! (which of course is like heaven for me)

The amount of coverage that football gets here is close to amazing. Its on the back page of all the newspapers and the news ALWAYS covers it! I love it. I could so live in a place like this if not for the Scottish accents which are sometimes really hard to understand - like you're not sur eif they're speaking English or not...

Anyway, I managed to get hold of Jonathan, and he reckons he might be able to get some tickets to the West Ham game! all i need to do is delay the Eurostar...

i miss all of you and I really want to be warm! But it's fun here and I'm having a blast. Sorry if this is a bit disjointed, I'm really trying to get everything down as fast as possible.

Take care everyone

Jinn

arrived in london

arrived in london safe and sound. so tired though. next plane to edinburgh in a few hours...

 

it;s so cold!

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Jinn and Sa in Edinburgh --> http://edinburghfun.blogspot.com

Lost in Transit in Singapore

Hey everyone!

We're currently in transit in Singapore - touched down at about 9pm and now with 2 hrs to kill before we board again at 11pm. There's free internet here at multiple internet cafes, which is awesome - and heaps of soccer on the TVs! Wigan v Man C and Chelsea v West Ham being shown at the moment.

We leave here at 11.20 pm, for a 14 hour trip to Heathrow.

It's sooo exciting! :D

We're off!

Off to the airport now, catcha on the other side!

Flight to Europe

Ok, so this is the journey plan:
1) Leave Perth at 4pm. Arrive Singapore at 915pm local time.
2) Leave Singapore at 23.20. Marathon 14 hour flight --> land in Heathrow at 05.25 local time.
3) Leave Heathrow at 11.00 local time, land in Edinburgh at 12.25pm.
4) Somehow find our apartment!

Closer and closer

As D-day (that's departure day) gets closer and closer, we're all starting to get a little nervous about whether we've brought enough warm clothes or not. Dino decided to try on Sa's nice Versace jacket to get a feel of how warm clothes can be.

If you ever want to know what a Sri Lankan eskimo looks like...

Immunisation forms

With less than two weeks to go before we jet off on our trip, we're really under the pump to get all our documentation and and forms sorted before we go. The latest one we need to get sorted is the Immunisation record, which Sa has just left at the faculty to get stamped and signed.

Now onto the final week before we leave. It's so close I can't believe it. It's almost surreal.

Perth Elective

Here I am sitting in the Gat room at SCGH, having completed my first ward round with Gen Surg 1. As you may have already gathered, there's not much going on this morning, although I do have to go to theatre in the afternoon. I hope it will be an easy two weeks.

I miss the holidays already!

Holidays

My my my. How time flies when you're not scared to death about an impending OSCE.

It's a beautiful feeling.

Well, I have actually gotten a fair bit of stuff done in this last week, so it's not like I've been sitting at home on my bum the whole time. Yeah right, you say. No, I'm serious!

Here's what I've done.

Thursday last week
Had my last exam - that SPM which was surprisingly difficult. I've never seen a patient with nephrotic syndrome in my life!

Friday
Can't really remember what I did to be honest. I think I stayed home and washed the car.

Saturday
I don't think I did much on Saturday either. Hmm, maybe I have been sitting on my arse.

Sunday
Went to the shops and got a USB control pad for Jeffrey (Sa's brother). It's a nice Logitech one with vibration feedback - so you can actually feel those crunching tackles coming in when you're playing Fifa06.

I love that game - I've been playing it since 1998 and its da bomb. I've never played PES, but I don't believe those who reckon it's better - I don't care, I love my Fifa. :P

Monday
Went to the city, had dim sum at Northbridge Chinese Restaurant and then went and got my mantoux done. For those not in the know, it's a test to see whether you've had or have been immunised against tuberculosis. They inject this bleb of TB fluid into your skin an see if your body reacts to it - they check again in 4 days.

Dim sum was good - hung out with Chong, Lin and Andy - as well as the Edinburgh crew (me, Sa, Jane, and Duy). There was this waitress there who kept trying to offer us dessert in the middle of our meal. By the third time, she was getting pissed off. But hang on, you say - don't you normally eat dessert after the meal?

Well, yeah! And we eventually did eat some egg tart, and after the meal too. She was much happier when we eventually said 'yes'. (On the 6th visit).

Tuesday
Stayed at home and tried to cook scrambled eggs. And played Fifa. Love it.

Wednesday
Went shopping at Garden City with Sa. We bought the boardgame Balderdash, which we should all play at some point. Sa got this nail buffer thing, made by Dead Sea (?). It's amazing - scrubs the nails until they're shing like they've been painted.

Thursday
Went to STA Travel at UWA to get our train tickets sorted. Another $430 later, we had them sorted - and we can finally get around Europe without having to walk. I like trains. Anyway...

Random: I also bought a Macbeth study guide for my brother - he's studying it next year.

Then we went back to the city and got our Mantouxs read. My bleb had shrunk down to a whopping... 0mm. Meaning my body doesn't recognise TB and I'm not immune to it.

Afterwards, we went to look at some cameras - I'm currently tossing up the Panasonic FX9 and the Canon Ixus 55. I think I'm leaning toward the Panasonic at the moment, but to be quite honest, they're both excellent and will certainly be an improvement on my current Canon A70.

Also bought an Arsenal shirt (finally!).

Friday
Finished downloading Age of Empires III. It's an awesome game and I'm still playing it. I was actually tossing up downloading it before the exam, but now I'm soooo glad I waited until afterwards. There's no way I would have even bothered to open a book if I had this baby on my computer.

What else... ooh yes. Also had my first OPV.
Yum. Actually no, it was disgusting. Not something you want to eat first thing in the morning when you've fasting for your blood test for 12 hours! So afterwards, went to Pathwest where I got my blood taken by a dodgy phlebotomist who missed my vein and made it really hurt! I'm no wuss - but when you miss the vein and have to dig the needle around the cubital fossa to find a vessel, it kinda hurts. Serious. I'm not a wuss. Sa's venupuncture site bruised (probably as expected!).

Also got my police clearance which cost a cool $42 for a piece of paper with a stamp. Can you believe it?

And that's it!