And suddenly....it was Friday!

I've noticed myself how slack I'm getting with the posts recently. And that's mainly because of extreme tiredness. Well, it feels extreme to me.

Friday means more Primary Health Centre, more teaching and more grumbling about the computer system! I phoned the help desk twice today, both times experiencing the rather strnage phenomenon of having someone control your computer on Thursday Island from their call centre in Brisbane. (The second time, though, the computer was truly broken and someone will have to physically come up from Brisbane to hit it with a very large hammer.)

One of the other doctors (who shall remain nameless for now, and has not been mentioned in these blogs before) had this converstion with me today:
"Where do you go at 11am? DO you have a very long lunch break?"
"No, I go to teach the registrars {ie junior doctors}"
"What do you teach them?"
"General Practice" I said.
"Oh. What is there to teach?"
"Lots and lots" said I, starting to think more defensively now. "There's the whole of medicine!"
"But they're going to get bored, really, really bored for the whole of their career."
"Er...No they're not. I don't get bored."
"Don't you?" said with a look of amazement.
"Er...No. Maybe I'm just young and very naive."
Cue short reminiscence of General Practice in Toowoomba.

I suppose it's possible to get bored in General Practice, but I don't know how. You can get a lot of other things - frustrated, upset, angry, elated, warm and fuzzy, chicken pox - but not usually bored. The key, though, is to find out about the person, not the sore throat. Sore throats are very dull, but the people who have them are usually not dull at all. However, I know some doctors who call this "Social Work" or even "Priesting" - no, that should be "being a priest" - though I've never met a social worker who discusses the relative merits of COX-II inhibitors with their clients, and "Evidence Based Priesting" would rather defeat the nature of faith.

(By the way, if you're interested in how medicine has replaced religion read Foucault, who writes in impenetrable French, can only be translated into more impenetrable English and will very quickly persuade you not to keep on reading.)

Meanwhile at home, Emily and Charlotte are getting in plenty of practiced at their new skill: Having tantrums. They are naturals at it and I don't beleive they need any more practice. However, once they're over it, they were telling us that "Santa Claus is a very friendly man." Which is nice to know. Especially after they got pretty frightened by him at playgroup ("cay-boop" as Emily calls it) yesterday.

And so, to the weekend. The highlight may well be the Grand Re-Opening of the Thursday Island Swimming Pool. It's all everyone is talking about here.