No more work!!

I have finally finished my slog of 5 nights!! It all seems a bit of a blur, I was so tired by the end. On my last three nights we had a party, first one with Helen T, next one with Anna and the crew and the last one was the biggest. We had a HUGE tea trolley with cheese, dips and chocolate. The night went pretty quick and I am glad that the lactulose and charcoal days are gone. I will miss everyone alot. I wrote this poem for them

Working in the ICU
Patients many, nurses few

Doctor in bed one wants some ABs
While bedspace five hides the keys

With 10 turns to do the float's job is never done
When the beep goes off to an arrest she will run

Watch out on Tues, tubes will go
And strumming on the ward round makes it very slow

Geoff loves to show us his machine
We know the Infusrite helps us to wean

Listen up- dont give Gent
And with APC the budget's spent

Beware if the unit is smelling foul
Its Joyce again and her love for the bowel

Helen's baking keeps us full
And Hilmar with his chocolate too

Germaine keeps us on our toes
And with her help our knowledge grows

A pregnancy epidemic happens now and then
We dont know who, we dont know when

Thanks Helen for your work on the roster
Ensuring us a normal life to foster

Nikki grants our holiday wish
Though she knows we will be surely missed

We will never know the difference we've made
To the grieving widow who's worst fear is displayed

When a loving husband's heart is breaking
We gently guide him through the news he has taken

Dont stop doing the precious work that you do
You all deserve a payrise and a medal too

Thankyou all- you are an amazing group
It is sadness I feel as I fly the coup

Breckenridge, Colorado

So, I'm in Breckenridge, Colorado, and it's cold. It's really ncie and fun though. It's like 3 km in the sky, so the air is mighty thin, helps me get "fit" though!

It snowed the other day and it was like a foot deep, and it was pretty fun, it's 0 humidity, so while it's cold, it's never really miserable. I missed all the -20 weather and these days it's around 2 degrees so that's pretty managable. Also, Americans HATE to be uncomfortable, so it's always warm inside.

And the food. I tried to take some photos but I can't upload them here but the food is amazing in it's extremities. It's also ridiculous what Americans have to be reminded about too. I saw an ad for a car, and the guy drove off a jetty into the water and at the bottom of the screen "do not attempt" but I guess it's because they love to sue over here.

I had a terrible plane trip, because I hate flying, maybe I need to drink more water, I'm not sure really. In America I got pulled over into a seperate customs office to get interrogated, because they thought it was dodgy I was travelling without my wife. Typical American hardass enforcers though. They took me through and I asked why I was in there and they'd say "just wait there" and they wouldn't help me out at all until they actually talked to me, they love to intimidate with their black uniforms and bolbous abdominal regions.

LA airport was crazy, instantly someone gave me a hardcover hari krishna book, and then I got a quarter pounder at the airport (how could I not?) and was served by a sassy mexican girl that sounded like rosi perez (? from white men can't jump) and then found the way to my other terminal, and managed to not buy burger king from the two burger kings on the walk from the start of terminal 4 to gate whatever-it-was.

I got picked up by Tim and his girlfriend Christine (thanks!!!!) and driven to Breckenridge, about an hour away.


I'm going to go to Denver on Thursday I think, get into a backpackers and explore the city, and then on Saturday at 6 am I've got a flight back to LA to meet Alice, and I honestly can't wait! I've missed her so much in the last week, well, half week, but it seems like so long!

We're going out for $2 wings tonight in a different city I think, it should be fun. And tasty. Oh, and the microwave pizzas here are the very best, they also contain approximately 120% of your daily recommended dosage of fat so I share them.....

Oh and did I mention I hate tax? Think that $0.99 burger is actually going to cost $0.99? You'd better think again buddy. And it means I end up with the worst change in my pocket because everything ends up costing $x.43 or something and it's a pain in the ass, but then again, if you're being served, you just round up to the next dollar or so as a tip, they're actually pretty trusting here, you really do just leave the money on the table and leave and they grab it later. Pretty cool really.

Americans are pretty friendly, but I will admit, not very smart.. Not really arrogant though, although I am in Colorado and not LA so maybe I'll experience something different.

Anyway, time to go buy some toilet paper and some lunch for tomorrow from the city-mart supermarket.

Goodbyes

The fun thing about going away is all the nice goodbye do's you have before you go. So far we've had a great time
Having Indian with Douglas and Raewyn
Having Pizza with Kris, Sam, Paula, Cam and Jane
Having beers with the boys from Cutting Edge (Andrew's work)
Having lazy afternoon drinks with Rach
Having prayers and mud cake with the bible study crew
Signing papers and saying goodbyes to our awesome lawyers
Late night coffee with Sarah and her boys
Cheese with Tina and baby Adelin

We look forward to
An Indian extravaganza with the Browns
Teppanyaki with the Birses
Book club yummies with the nursing girls
Cornish pasties after work with Sue
Hanging out with Mike, Katrina and all the many Sampson children

Perhaps we could delay the trip and just keep having goodbye do's..................

not long

I'm off on the 22nd, today is the 10th.
I think the only thing left to finalise is the insurance. We decided to pre-book a place in Amsterdam, as it's expensive and popular (why?)
1 week of work left. 6 1/2 years at my job, I can't believe I'm finally finishing, wow it's amazing!