Long time no blog! In the last couple of months I have been frantically packing, sorting out my visa, sorting out flights, moving countries, trying to get settled and stressing about whether I would get paid... luckily it has now all been sorted, I'm settling into the hospital (i.e. no longer having to look up every single unfamiliar medication in the BNF) and I'm planning some travel around Europe.
I flew into London early last month, via Hong Kong - which gave me a last chance to have some decent Chinese food before getting to the United Kingdom. Seriously, does anyone even know what Yum Cha is here?
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| This looks like it should be an Instagram photo. |
Luckily I had some spare HKD from my Dragon100 trip, so I spent my remaining change on a meal which was breakfast, lunch, dinner and a mid-night snack - breakfast because it was early morning in Hong Kong, lunch because I'd had a breakfast meal on the plane, dinner because that was what time it was in London, and a mid-night snack because it was about 2am in NZ!
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| As does this, really |
I'm working and living in West London, and to be honest the medicine is not that different, apart from the shocking availability of radiological imaging (same-day semi-urgent inpatient MRI head, anyone??) and all the medications that aren't funded by Pharmac back home. Sadly, we also see a lot of lonely older people who come to the hospital - many with medical problems that need inpatient treatment and loneliness as a significant comorbidity, but some whose presenting complaint could be avoided with a bit more companionship. I don't remember seeing this in New Zealand as much, but I also wasn't working at the front door. It actually reminds me of the old-fashioned idea of having a "companion" - perhaps it isn't such an antiquated notion after all. That in turn reminded me of the Anne of Green Gables novels (Charlotta the Fourth, in particular) and Anastasia novels - I think the third one is where she decides to be a companion with hilarity ensuing.
I leave you with some pictures of stuff.
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| At the Victoria and Albert |
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| On a bridge |
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| My place! |
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| I wasn't actually trying to get here, but I took a right turn and thought this was a great photo opportunity. |
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