Did I Ask For Fries?

…although since my previous post was well over 2 week ago, I’m obviously not in Broken Hill anymore.  The 2 weeks I spent there were pretty amazing and really started to open my eyes about rural and remote health issues within Australia, both in Indigenous and non-indigenous communities.  I really liked the town of Broken Hill itself a lot, and definately hope to return someday!

After returning from Broken Hill I had 3 nights in Sydney before buggering off again.  For the past 3 1/2 weeks D and I have been in Egypt.  We’ve pretty mucd done it all: Cairo, Alexandria, Siwa oasis (my fav bit so far), Aswan, Luxor and finally, where we are now, Dahab.  We’ve seen more pyramids, temples, feluccas, deserts and museums than yuou can poke a stick at.

I had fully intended to update this blog well before now, but this is the first time I’ve sat down in front of a computer to do more than send a perfunctory email to my parents telling them that I’m still alive.

We’ve got 6 days or R&R here in Dahab, before we head back to Cairo for a full-on day of souvenir shopping at the Khan-Al Kallili bazaar there (we’ve left all our shopping till then so we don’t have to lug it around with us).

I think we need the rest too.  For the last few days I’ve had a horrible sore throat and fever, and as I type D is back in the hotel room where’s he’s been laid up for the entire day with what seems like a nastier version of the same thing.

We’ve had an awesome time here though.  I love, love love the food here, and am already lamenting how I need to get back into the exercise when I get return.  The skirt I am wearing right now is definately tighter than it was when I left home - too many felafels, tahini, bread and pancakes.  Mmm!!  

Having said that I’m hungry right now, and need to go out in search of a snack, but first, the obligatory photo share!!!

Shali Town, Siwa by night:

Me trying on a Siwan costume on Xmas night:

A felucca on the Nile:

Abu Simbel, amazing, except for all the tourists there!!

D and I onboard a felucca:

Apologies to anyone I may have freaked out with the previous lot of images (especially you Mary!)  I promise the post below includes no guts or gore, and does not harm animals in any way!!!

Right now I feel like this pelican.  I can’t decide whether I’m yawning or excited, but either way it’s a great feeling because I’m officially on holidays – YAY!!!

This is assuming I passed the OSCE that we’ve had over the last 2 days.  I find out next Friday, and I’ll be pretty gutted if I don’t pass.  I feel optimistic about my results, but with some of the stations it’s hard to know if I got enough of the criteria to pass or not – 6 minutes just isn’t long enough (for me anyway!) to take a full developmental, nutritional and paediatric history, or to do a complete cardio exam including peripheral signs, limb pulses, chest and back as well as summarise results!!  Anyway, not much I can do about that now so I’m not going to dwell on it!

Instead I think I’m going to go for a walk.  I have a dentist appointment at 2pm that I’m really not looking forward to, because I already know it’s going to be long and painful and traumatic.  Earlier this year an old filling of mine broke off the side of one of my back molars.  The dentist that repaired it was awful – she spent the entire time bitching at her assistant, while at the same time not doing the best job because there is now a big gap between that tooth and the adjacent one so that food always gets stuck there.  I think I’ve bought about 4 boxes of floss in the last few months.  So I’m getting this filling repaired, and a new one in another tooth.  And yes I am feeling sorry for myself.  I hate my teeth!!!

It doesn’t help that a house across the road is undergoing renovations involving an extremely loud drill that has been going non-stop for the last 45 minutes. The knowledge I will have an actual drill doing much the same thing in my own mouth in the next few hours is quite disturbing.  I need to escape!!!

Since a picture speaks 1000 words, here’s yesterday afternoon in 2,000 words for you.

In case its not easily discernible from the wonderful quality of my phone camera, what we were doing was learning how to suture on pigs feet.  Apparently its the closest thing to mimicing human flesh.  We only learnt one stitch - the interrupted stitch - but even that took me a few goes to get the hang of.  I found the activity quite interesting, and kind of soothing in that it reminded me of the crossstitch and tapestry I used to do when I was younger.

After about an hour in the room with 15 pigs feet I have to say the smell did get a little too much for me though.  The ethics of using dead animals in this way doesn’t really sit easily with me, but at least it is for a more useful purpose than simply eating them.  I don’t eat pork because pigs are one of my favourite animals, and the way most pigs are raised and bred really appalls me.  I’m ashamed to say that at the time I was so interested in learning to suture I didn’t stop to think about, let alone ask where these pigs feet came from and how they were raised.

Next week I will be asking where the pigs came from and suggesting that they source future pigs feet from a cruelty-free farm if they don’t already.

Even though I have no interested in eating pork, I’m also going to email supermarkets and suggests that they do the same.  If you are at all interested in this issue, why don’t you go to savebabe.com and make the Pro Pig Pledge yourself?

We’re heading up to Qld tomorrow morning. I would be more excited about this:

a) if I didn’t have to wake up at 5:30am
b) if it wasn’t forecast to rain every day we are going to be there
c) if I hadn’t just spent the last hour packing.

Still, I’ve taken my snorkelling gear, and I fully intend to be a tennis pro at the end of the next 4 days, rain, hail or shine.

In the meantime, here is proof of life of my fingerless gloves, and of me post-haircut, proving that it is possible for my hair not to look like a birdsnest of curls. Only happens every 6 months when I go to the hairdressers though. It does make me seriously consider getting my hair permanently straightened….maybe in another 6 months!

Judging by the number of past posts here that are little more than “woe is me” bitch sessions, you can probably tell that I’m feeling a little bit emotionally labile at the moment. My exam is in exactly eight days and I’m packing it.

That’s why I’m sitting here writing what I think will turn out to be my longest entry here yet. Go and get a cup of tea (or something stronger) folks. You’ll need it by the time I’m done….

I don’t think I’m coping very well with stress right now. In the last week I have managed several times to lash out at people who are just trying to be nice to me, and I’ve managed to pinch my C6 spinal nerve.

The result of the former is that I think Dante was actually really looking forward to being able to escape up to his parents place for the day for his Mum’s birthday, and in a couple of hours time I think I should call up my own Mum and grovel a bit as well.

The result of the latter is that my back is strapped up with elastoplast tape and I have to go back to physio on Wednesday. Friday’s session helped immensely though, and the tingling and numbness all the way down my right arm has practically gone!

So with this background of high stress and poor coping, I could really have done without yesterday even existing.

Looking back on it now, it all started off when having breakfast in the café just up the road. This place is literally 200m from our front door so we go there for breakfast at least once a fortnight. Eighty percent of the time we get the same meal: ricotta pancakes with fruit and yogurt. Yum! The pancakes are fluffy and fresh, the yogurt to fruit ratio is always spot on, and it’s not over oily or over syrupy so it doesn’t make you feel all gross afterwards. When we go on days that I have netball we usually share the one meal (much to Dante’s disgust), as - speaking from experience - playing netball with a stomach full of pancakes is not a good idea.

So we were just in the process of saying we didn’t need to look at the menu because we know what we wanted, when the waitress told us that a few of the things weren’t on the menu because the oven was broken. This included sausages, some of the burgers and the pancakes. We quickly went with plan B, which was the big breakfast with extra mushrooms (to replace the sausages that were out) along with coffee and a serve of banana bread.

While we drank our coffees, I got to thinking. If it was just the oven broken, and not the pan bit, then why were the sausages and pancakes off the menu? You don’t use an oven to cook them, do you? And then how were they able to bake banana bread? Perhaps it was baked before the oven broke, or perhaps it was done off the premises.

I wasn’t really too fussed by the change in food choices because poached eggs and their yummy mushrooms are never something to complain about. But I hate not knowing stuff, and this apparent inconsistency in cooking methods really bugged me (and continues to do so one day later).

Surely it’s not possible to bake pancakes is it?

One of the few bright points in my day yesterday was netball. It started off pretty shaky when we only had 6 people turn up, leaving us a player down. I had to play centre, and after doing only some cycling and no jogging for 2 weeks due to my neck I was completely buggered by ¾ time. I swapped to GK though, so I made it through the last 15 minutes alive. We managed to pull a win out of our asses as well. At the end of the game we were actually 1 down, but then we had to play 30 seconds of injury time, in which we scored 2 goals and ended up winning. Of course we had no idea the score was so close, I actually thought we were down by about 5 by then, so most of us didn’t even want to play injury time. An unexpected victory like that is pretty damn sweet!!!

Unfortunately things started going pear shaped after that. I had to go down to Wollongong for the night for my brother’s birthday. He was having a heavy metal themed party, which I was really looking forward to (I used to be a bit of a metal head back in the 90s!!!)

Since I had a crapload of study to do the next day I knew I couldn’t really have a big night. Despite my brother’s offer to crash the night I planned on heading back to Sydney on the last train. Thanks to ShittyRail’s new timetable that removed a heap of services, the last Sydney-bound train now leaves Wollongong before 10:30pm. How ridiculous is that!!!!

So I left home at 6, thinking I’d make it there by 8, which gave me time to have a dance and a few drinks but not get too trashed before leaving at 10:30. luckily S gave me a heads-up that the local bottleshop wouldn’t be open, so I grabbed a bottle of red to take down with me.

I get to Central to find out that due to trackwork I have to get a bus from Central to Waterfall, and then a train from Waterfall the rest of the way. This supposedly only takes ½ hour longer. To make things worse the bus didn’t leave until 30 mins after the scheduled train departure time, which means it was after 7pm by the time we even left Central. It was a full coach too, making the trip even more uncomfortable.

As I was trying to get as much study done as possible I’d brought my laptop with me, and it was damn near impossible to get anything done on the coach. The distance between seats is tiny, meaning I couldn’t even open the screen fully. In the end I had to sit sideways across 2 seats with my back to the window. I’m sure this position was not great for my neck. Luckily my outfit, and the volume of my laptop bag, brown paper wine bag and big coat had discouraged anyone from sitting next to me. Then the driver turned all the lights off, so I had to rely on my highly inaccurate touch-typing skills in order to do anything.

We got to Waterfall around 7:45pm, which wasn’t too bad really. If we had a connecting train then and there all would have been sweet. Unfortunately the next scheduled train wasn’t until 8:20pm. How freaking crazy is that!!! 50 people getting off a coach and having to freeze their asses off at 8pm on a Saturday night. How the incapable idiots at city rail manage to explain their lack of ability to coincide coach services with connecting trains when they are the ones scheduling this damn trackwork is beyond me. I fully intend to track down some addresses so I can write to and abuse these people. I am so not impressed!!

So I called my brother to let him know why I was so late and to have a bit of a whinge. He’d been drinking for a few hours by then and was feeling quite jovial. When I told him I had a bottle of wine with me he said I should start drinking it. In my current foul mood, and feeling so cold, I did, brown paper bag and all. Thank goodness whoever invented the twist top wine bottle! Pure class.

At 9pm, an hour and half a bottle of wine later, I arrived at the station. In my haste to leave I’d forgotten to write down the address. All I knew is it was right near the surf club, and I should listen for the music. I’d never been to my brothers place before. Technically its not his place as he rents a corner of the lounge room for 4 nights a week so he can be close to the surf. The other 3 nights of the week he is back at my parents place, a whole 20 minutes drive away.

So its 9pm, I’m a little cold, tired and tipsy and wandering around the streets near the beach looking for my brother’s house. Neither brother is answering his mobile. The last train home leaves in an hour and a half so if I want to get in some quality partying I need to find this place quickly.

Finally I find a house that’s having a party. I can hear everyone out in the backyard, so when I knock on the front door and no one answers I am not really surprised. I wander inside and start trying to make my way out the back. Then this teenage girl bursts through a door calling out for her mother. Thinking this whole thing is going a little pear-shaped, I ask if this is S’s house. Of course it isn’t.

So I have walked into a complete strangers house and frightened a teenage girl into the bargain. My night is just getting better and better.

Luckily a few minutes later my other brother rings me and gives me some good directions. I finally make it to the party, with exactly an hour and five minutes before I have to leave.

It was a good hour though. Any longer and my resolve to catch that last train would have been dead in the water. As it was I had to run to make it to the station ontime.

I have to say my outfit paled in comparison to my brothers’. They were so metal.

And yes, that is a wig on the right!

The train-then-coach-then-bus ride home after all that excitement was not without event either. After having had consumed the other half of the wine whilst at the party I was a little snoozy and had dropped off within the first few stations. I was sitting downstairs in an empty carriage when this couple got on and sat RIGHT ACROSS the aisle from me, and started talking loudly in Spanish to each other.

I’m studying Spanish, so I eavesdropped for a bit, but could only make out the odd word here and there. So I cracked the shits, stood up and ASKED THEM TO BE QUIET IN SPANISH before walking upstairs and reseating myself. I think that was my proudest moment of the night.

I was slightly less proud when we all got off the train at Waterfall and back on a coach, and I had to sit within 5 metres of them again, but I fell asleep pretty quickly anyway.

Some days just don’t end quickly enough.

I’m not even going to apologise for my absence this time. If anyone still reads this, then I guess you have come to expect it already.

So from now on I will not apologise, nor will I explain my lack of apologies, mokay? Otherwise this entire blog will become as mundane as these last two paragraphs have been!

So anyway, it’s cold here. Winter has arrived with a vengeance, and brought with it a crapload of rain, which I would be happier about if it was bucketing down as much in the catchment areas as it has been in Sydney.

In response to this nasty weather I have done two things.

Firstly, I’ve gone out and procured a pair of reindeer boots that are possibly a little immature for someone of my age. But they’re cute, and they’re warm, and with a 15% off sale and a voucher at Target they cost $12.50, and I’m over seeing people walk around in ugg boots.

And don’t worry, over my dead body there will no WEARING THESE OVER THE TOP OF JEANS¹.

Second thing I have done is hibernate. I only leave the house when I have to. As well as keeping me warm, it gives me more time to study². My exam is 3 weeks – 2 days away now.

Expect this self-imposed vegetation to continue for the next few months. But right now there is a break in the rain, and we need bread, so I might actually leave the apartment for the first time today.

¹ Although I reserve the right to wear them over a pair of pyjamas only within the privacy of my own house, where no-one else will see, STRICTLY to keep out the cold and in no way, shape or form a fashion statement of any kind.

² Amongst other things of course, like reading blogs, watching TV, making soup and FREEZING TO DEATH IN THIS DAMN WEATHER.

The other day something weird happened. I was sitting in front of the computer (that in itself is not weird of course), but then I touched my nose and realised MY NOSE RING HAD FALLEN OUT.

I still don’t know what the hell is up with that. I’ve had this nose ring for close to 9 years now, and the only time this baby comes out is when I play netball, and until this year even then I only took it out if the umpire noticed it, or if another player complained about it. Netball can be a bitchy game, so yes that does happen. This year I’ve started being good because I now have my tragus pierced as well, and I can’t take that out even if I wanted to, so I have to wear it taped over, which technically you’re not allowed to do. I figure if I voluntarily take my nose ring out now, they are less likely to pick at me about my taped up ear too.

So all of a sudden my nose was naked and it didn’t feel good. I tried to retrace my steps that morning to find the ring, but as that was only one of two mornings all fortnight that I had managed to force my ass out of the house to go for a jog, it was a tad difficult. I searched all around the apartment though, but I couldn’t find it anywhere.

Luckily I’d been given another nose ring for my birthday years ago. It is very pretty, but I had never worn it because:

1. Its gold, and I’m a silver person.
2. Its got a real diamond in it therefore it is expensive and I am always scared about wearing expensive jewellery.
3. Its bigger than the plain silver ring I got when I got my nose pierced, and I just like it plain and simple.

It was shaped a little differently to my silver ring, but I managed to put it on. It feels so much more natural wearing a nose ring, even if it was bigger and gold. I went to a piercing shop the other day to ask how much a new silver one was going to be, expecting it to be around $15. I was shocked when the guy said it was $35 for a plain one, $50 for a diamonte one. That’s crazy. To get a new tragus ring it’d cost $75 for a plain one – I only paid US$25 to get my ear pierced and a titanium one put in there in the first place (I did get it done in Ecuador though).

I’m glad I held off on buying a replacement though, cos look what was on my bathroom floor 5 days later!!

Needless to say I am sterilising the hell out of this baby before putting it back in my ear. Who knows what has been on our bathroom floor!!

Wow how fast have the past 2 weeks gone? I used to think 2 weeks was the perfect amount of time for a “quick” break, now I realise it’s just not long enough. 3 should be the absolute minimum I think:

Week number 1 to go away somewhere.
Week number 2 to be at home and do a mixture of bludging and around-the-house chores.
Week number 3 to catch up on uni work.

Now what do I need to do in order to make this the official rule from now on???

In the past 2 weeks I stuck to week number 1 pretty well. Fraser Island was wonderful, and I’ll indulge myself with a few pics here at this point I think….

Yes that is a tent you see in the foreground. In the years we have been together, Dante and I have NEVER gone camping together before, so this was an interesting experience. I must say you really start to appreciate the creature comforts that you take for granted in everyday life such as chilled water to drink, showers and a proper toilet that you don’t have to dig in the ground yourself as well as being able to eat food that isn’t either dried or tinned. It was great fun though, and I’d be keen to do it again once all the mozzie bites heal!!!

The beach looked absolutely gorgeous here, but my only gripe is you can’t swim in it because it’s way too rough and apparently there is heaps of sharks there. I am a real water baby so being that close to the water and only being able to wade it in really frustrated me I have to say!!

I love the contrast between the sand and the sky. Trust me there are a lot more photos where this one came from!!

I wasn’t sure if I was going to love or hate Noosa; in the end I quite enjoyed it. The hustle and bustle was a stark contrast to the remoteness of Fraser Island, but it did feel nice to have creature comforts again!! It was also still way less crowded than any Sydney beach I’ve ever been to!!

A random sunset photo. Can you tell I love sunrises/sets, but is there anyone that can resist them??

A gratuitous piccie of me and the sunset. I think I got a little bit of a tan over the past week, but unfortunately most of it is concentrated on my forehead. I don’t I think am ever gonna be able to get rid of that forehead line now!!!!

…

So that leaves me with one week to do 2 week’s worth of activities: working and bludging. I’ll leave it to your imagination to discern which one I achieved most of!!!

Contrary to what the gaping silence of this page suggests, I haven’t been kidnapped in the jungle of Ecuador. I’ve just come home, and been really really busy with a little thing called uni starting back for the year.

I’ve been back for nearly 2 weeks now, and while it is great to be back, it has taken some adjusting to. I really, really miss Ecuador, it is a country that’s very easy to become enchanted with. “What exactly do you miss?” I hear you ask, well allow me to elucidate.

The top 10 things I miss about Ecuador (in no particular order):

1. The drinking yoghurt - so smooth and creamy and no yucky bits in it……mmm Toni!!
2. Speaking Spanish. I am by no means fluent, but damn it is fun (and frustrating, and embaressing) to talk in another language.
3. Reggaeton music, especially Gasolina.
4. Walking around various cities, towns and villages every day for hours on end.
5. Batidos and jugos…..mmm lovely fruit.
   
6. Saying good morning, good afternoon and goodnight to practically everyone you walk past in the street. Here in Sydney you don’t even make eye contact, let alone say hello.
7. Lots of pig, goat and cow spottings, even in the middle of decent sized cities.
   
8. The gorgeous people dressed in bright colours, especially the ladies in hats, cardiagans, skirts and long socks. That is exactly how I’m going to dress when I’m older.
   
9. The “party buses”, where every ride is an adventure. There might be animals onboard, there may be interesting people to meet, or you might jsut get squished to death. They’re cheap and they’re frequent, and they put Sydney buses to shame. And they show Stephen Seagal movies!
10. The kids that we taught (and all the other cute kids we saw too). Crazy as they are, they were a great bunch. I would love to know what happens to them in the future. It is scary to know that some of the 12 year old girls we taught are going to be married and popping out kids within a year or two!!!
    

So having been to South America twice now, I am still keen to go back for more. Such a big continent, and so many different things to see and do. I’m really keen to do my elective somewhere there in 3rd year, but exactly where, well that’s the million dollar question.

…prospero anos, felicitad! So the song goes anyway.

This is what William, a boy in my class wrote in the sand for me, Iz and Ang. What a sweetie!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! I’ll be celebrating it Ecuador style!!!