How'd That Get On the List?

Got to check out the Aussie health care system today. Apparently medical clinic waiting rooms are the same all over the world and I should know - I had plenty of time to sample it! I will say it was a rather interesting experience, but I'm certain I could have happily left that item off our "list of things to see and do". Oh well, if you gotta, ya gotta.

I was definitely feeling like crap this last weekend, but thought it had subsided into just a bit of a cold by Monday. Every morning I'd go into work thinking I was getting over it, but I think I was totally deluding myself. Eric's delusion detector must have been in high gear because he had been telling me for days I should go to the doctor, but hey, I was getting better so why would I do that?

I woke up this morning and the gig was up. I called a nearby medical center and managed to get an appointment. I thought it was odd they didn't ask me to get there early what with me being a new patient and all. Oh well.

I arrived a little early anyway and found out why they don't need you to come early. The "new patient information" card was one-sided and about 4x6 and consisted of my name, address, phone numbers, birth-date, a couple of lines about Aussie health-care stuff, next of kin, next of kin phone number, and next of kin birth-date. What?! Why in the world do they care what his birth-date is? If I collapse in the doctor's office and it happens to be Eric's birthday, will they first wish him "Happy Birthday"?!! Maybe I'm being obtuse, but I just don't get it.

On the bright side, I had an hour to ponder this while I waited to be called. Since I couldn't solve it, I was relieved when the Dr. called my name (yes, the Dr.). I guess they don't have nurses in medical clinics like we do. The Dr. asked me several questions, checked my ears, throat, and chest, asked a couple more questions, and then printed off a prescription. I was out of there before I realized I hadn't had any of my "vitals" taken; apparently they aren't so "vital" here.

Verdict? Ear infection and bronchitis. Isn't that exciting, my first infection in Australia - NOT! Since we aren't part of the Australian health-care system, we paid our bill in cash - a whole $70 AUD. Cheapest Dr. visit I've had in years!

With prescription in hand we trotted off to the chemist's to get it filled. This is where it got really weird. I hand the lady the prescription and she says,
"Have you had a prescription filled here before?", I say,
"No.", and then she says,
"Well then I'll need your Medicare card". To which I replied,
"I don't have a Medicare card. I'll just pay cash".
This causes her to get a little belligerent and she said,
"You have to have a Medicare card to enter the prescription in."
At this point I'm doing a surreptitious look around for Rod Serling because I'm just positive I've found the chemist Twilight Zone. She proceeds to give my prescription to another lady and gives me a bit of an evil eye while she explains my deplorableness to her.

The good news is the other lady didn't think this was one of the seven deadly sins and, amazingly, entered the prescription in without a Medicare card (will miracles never cease!). I paid my $13.85 AUD and we went on our merry way. There was one more oddity, though. The prescription was for 5 days of antibiotics. The Dr. said that he allowed one refill so if I was still feeling a bit under the weather I could get another 5 days of pills. I get to decide for myself - what power!

Doctor visit - cross that experience off the list - PLEASE!

Land Mullets and Bottlebrush Trees

Land Mullet
Bottlebrush Tree
We took a short walk today in a small reserve near our place. Eric had been there earlier in the week and had spotted a couple land mullets. This meant we really weren't walking so much as putting on our stealth moves in hopes of getting a shot of these creatures. Land Mullets are native to Australia and can get up to 50 centimeters in length (about 20 inches). We found two and they couldn't have been very far from 50 centimeters in length because they were big dudes. We got a few shots of them which was impressive considering their shyness (maybe it was our great stealthiness - ri-ight!).

In addition to interesting animals, Australia also has some of its very own cool plants. One growing right next door to us is the bottlebrush tree. They're blooming now and they are spectacular!

Today was very nice - the warmest day since we arrived. We celebrated by wading on the beach and soaking in some sun on our deck. We just did short stints outside - the sun down here is pretty penetrating. That and we just had to catch some Aussie Rules Football on the telly - what a crazy game! I think the best way you could describe it is organized mayhem!

I'm starting to think Foxtel (their cable TV company) must operate similarly. We still don't have cable and I'm beginning to think we never will. On the bright side, the last of the furniture finally came in so we are sitting pretty (sorry, I just had to say it!).

We're going back to Bay Life Church tomorrow after meeting several people at their "Life Group" on Tuesday. Now we just have to try to remember their names.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Shrieking Echidnas

We checked out a Celtic festival this weekend. I don't think I've ever seen so many kilts in one place before and all with their family tartan. We watched some caber tossing and enjoyed the sheaf throwing competition. We didn't enjoy the tug of war quite as much, but that might have been due to the plumber's crack display (get a belt, please!).

On our way back to the house I spotted an echidna! This is one of Australia's "spare parts" animals. The best way to describe an echidna is a porcupine with something like an anteater nose and mouth. For the record, echidnas do not shriek, but apparently I do when I see them! Poor Eric, who was driving at the time, couldn't decide if he should slam on the brakes or take some unknown evasive action since the echidna was not on the road or in his visual line. At least he passed his shriek-o-cardiogram so we know his heart is good (in more ways than one!).

We had box seats to the rugby game Saturday morning and we didn't even have to leave the house! There were a bunch of young men staying in the holiday house next door and they decided to have an impromptu game on the beach. We enjoyed it, but have concluded we need to have an Aussie watch a game with us and explain some of the finer points because sometimes things just don't make sense.

We tried a new church Sunday morning and happened to meet another couple who were also there for the first time and we had a great time chatting. As it turns out, they are from California and moved here a month before us. We found it entertaining that we happened to meet on the other side of the world. Everyone at the church thought we came together - same accent and all you know.

Hope you all have a great week. My goal for the week is to stifle my shriek if I see a cool animal. I'm sure Eric will appreciate it!

Budgie Smugglers

Every Friday morning at work we have a stand-up meeting for the entire team. The meeting is run by the commanding officer and he imparts a lot of information along with some great humor (er humour). Unfortunately it's great Aussie humor; I walk away feeling like a dullard because I either didn't hear it or I didn't get it. Today was one of those days where I didn't get it.

Today the commanding officer of the commanding officer was here (I'd give you their ranks, but it kind of goes over my head before I can grasp what they said). Anyway, they had this fake little bird and were saying this one gal may have been having some problems with budgie smugglers. I knew a budgie was a bird, but why was that so funny and why was that gal turning so red? Hmmm. She said she happened to see the commanding officer of the commanding officer last week on holiday in Fiji, but I didn't quite see the connection. Oh well, chalk it up to another thing that makes me feel like a witless wonder.

After the meeting, one of my coworkers, Jim, asked me and a couple others if we understood what was so funny and we said no, we didn't. Jim has been here the longest so he's had more time to get tuned into things so he was kind enough to explain to us that a budgie smuggler is a man's speedo swimming suit! Um, I didn't have to think too hard about how they came up with that one - Aussie slang is something else! Suddenly, the gal seeing the not-so-young commanding officer of the commander officer in Fiji was seeming awfully relevant to budgie smugglers! I'll say no more.

This weekend the base is holding an Air Show and they expect to have 30 to 40 thousand people in attendance. Eric and I debated on whether or not we were going to go, but knowing how most Aussie systems work we came to the conclusion that if we went we'd have to spend an awful lot more time there than we'd like because we wouldn't be able to get out of there! I was fortunate enough to see most all of the planes from out the window at work today. There was a Constellation out there which just about made Eric decide he wanted to go.

Today I became more convinced I didn't want to go to the air show because I got to see some of the practice maneuvers they were doing. The best was the F-111 which will soon be retired from the Aussie fleet. I also saw some cool formation flying. I definitely appreciated the show without fighting the crowds, but the downside is it sure made it hard to concentrate on work!

Heaven knows it'll be hard to concentrate on the beach now that I know those speedos are actually budgie smugglers!

Pelicans Everywhere

There are lots of pelicans here, but today we found the mother lode! We happened by a fish cleaning station where a man was cleaning his fish and the pelicans were there in force for the event. The man was the maestro and they were the orchestra because all he had to do was wave some fish parts around and every one of those pelicans moved in perfect synchronization to track that prospective meal!

After being entertained by that show, we had to get back because it was time to take A.J. to the airport. It seems like the month he was here went super-fast. Sadly we had to say goodbye so he could get back in time for classes this fall. In keeping with our pelican theme, he flew out on an Aeropelican turboprop airplane and Eric and I stopped by at the end of the runway to watch his plane take off.

In just a few weeks, Eric will be returning to the States for a month. I'm starting to think we're in a phase of constant, constant change. Just what is everyday and normal anymore? I have no idea. As they say, change is good. If that's true, we're most excellent!

It would also be excellent if we had more visitors in the pipe. While my assignment was initially set for two years, there is no guarantee on our time here as it's dictated by the changing tides of business decisions. So, please don't wait to set those wheels in motion - get that passport now and start planning! You won't regret it - Eric and I will make sure of that!

To the Top

A.J.
Since it was A.J.'s last weekend here before he heads back home on Tuesday, we splurged a bit and did some ATVing on the Stockton dunes. What a kick! Our tour was through a Worimi aboriginal group so we got to zip around on restricted areas of Stockton beach. Our guides gave us lots of good training as we went along and we got to do some serious zipping up to the top and down some pretty seriously tall dunes. I was the only one of us who thought to check my speedometer when we were going flat out and we got up to 47 miles per hour!!! It was way cool and we were sorry when it was over. Eric thought it was so cool he was thinking he'd like to buy one of those quad bikes, but there's that issue of money. Dang! Of course maybe the next visitors will be interested in going so he can get another ATV fix!

Yesterday we went out to the Barrington Tops area which is a few hours away with gravel roads and streams to ford no less! We didn't exactly have our trip very well planned so we didn't manage the big hike, but we did a shorter hike to the Hidden Treasure Mine which has an abandoned gold mine and goes through a "dry rainforest" area. I'm not so sure how a dry rainforest makes any sense, but that's what the sign said it was so I'm sticking with it. There were some interesting plants there, but mostly it seemed like a regular Australian forest with a few seriously huge trees.

We noticed lots of signs about fire danger and reporting fires which wasn't surprising considering how dry it is here. What really didn't add up was the half dozen fires we saw that were obviously intentional. It appears to be standard practice in the spring to burn off fields and even some forested areas which was rather puzzling because it does seem like you'd be tempting fate with it getting out of hand.

Today we found out we live on a 'nudie' beach. Whoa! Okay, so they were all six years old or less, but it was still strange. For a while there we were afraid the next time we looked out our window we might see the parents in the same state. Fortunately for us, it was restricted to the kids. Whew! All beaches in Australia are essentially public so I'm sure we'll have more visitors as time goes on. Fine by me just so long as they're sporting their 'swimmers' as they call them.

We're getting settled into the place more, but are still missing some of the furniture we've ordered. After the "3 weeks" passed by since our order, Eric decided to stop in and check on the order status. Their reply? "It'll be here before you even know it." Huh? Like we said, "3 weeks" means they have no idea!

We just bought the tickets to come home at Christmas-time. I'm not looking forward to the Seattle weather, but I can't wait to see everyone. I guess we'll be back "before you even know it"!

Fishing Around

Eric and A.J. went fishing the other day from the pier at the end of Wanda Beach (dare I say our beach?). They had fished other times without success from some other spots and were getting a little discouraged until A.J. saw someone catching a fish at the pier. So, the next chance they had to cast a line in the water you know where they went!

Now I only have their word that this is a true story because there are no pictures to prove it, but I've decided to believe it because they haven't been fishing enough to get good at telling a fisherman's tall tale. Their claim is that A.J. first caught a small leatherjacket. I couldn't find a picture of one that didn't have copyright restrictions so I'm just including a link to a picture of it on the New South Wales fishing site (leatherjacket picture). Even their fish are strange!

Fresh from that success, um, well, actually it is saltwater, they tried again. A.J. then caught a ray, an electric ray to be exact. It was pretty good size and when A.J. tried to pull it out of the water, the line snapped. This turned out to be a really good thing because if you read the information on the electric ray you find out they can shock you unless you pick them up just right! "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!" is what comes to mind.

For my part I was at work while all this was transpiring. The sum total of my adventures at work was fishing around for the right words to describe software regulation compliance processes. Man, do I know how to have fun!

We're going to spend the weekend in Sydney doing some sightseeing with A.J. so the fishing will have to wait for a few days. I do know I'll be "angling" for some Starbucks visits!