Yesterday gaz and i got to speak to ivory (gaz's grandad). Gaz was thrilled to see how fit and well he was looking...its great to be able to speak to family whilst being able to see them swell via Skype. Today we were able to speak to enid (Gaz's grandmother) which again, was very nice. We are both very much looking forward to going home and seeing friends and family again...we will be sure to make the most of our few months in the uk before we head back out to australia in january.
Gaz was trying to cook me dinner tonight but left the pan on the hob so by the time i got home, all i could smell was burning. Bless him. So instead we went to noodlebox...rather embarrassingly we are regulars there now and the owner recognises us when we walk in and knows what we want.
This evening, apart from speaking to enid, gaz has been on the computer and I've been cleaning, getting things ready for our move. I didn't realise just how much kitchen stuff we have accumulated! we will have to line it all up and put it in to piles...process of elimination as to what we are going to take!
I am working tomorrow (friday) which will be my let ever friday at hervey bay dental clinic! getting very excited about the move...yet a little apprehensive that we don't know where we are going to end up as we have no where to stay yet...but it makes it very exciting!
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Tuesday 14th February - Valentines day
I couldn't tell if gaz had a) forgotten completely it was valentines day or b) was playing dumb so he could have this huge surprise for me when i got home from work. It would appear he had forgotten lol.
work was boring...had some arsey patients, one of which i snapped a tooth on due to a curved root and spent a while getting the root out. She wasn't pleased when she left...miserable cow. I had pacific smiles ring me and tell me they would like to fly me down to forster so that they can show me around the forster and the salamander bay practice so that i can decide which one i prefer. With time being an issue, this wasn't feasible but when we get down there on 28th feb, they will show both gaz and i around then. Im thinking i may just ring pacific smiles and tell them, although it is very kind they are giving me a choice of where i want to go, i would be happy with the forster job. I've been saying for months i would like to go and work in forster...with only 3 dental practices actually in forster, i feel so lucky to get a job there!
In the evening i got home from work and gaz took me to the boat club for some food and a spin on the pokies. It got rather stressful when we got back to the house and were trying to look up methods of transport to get our belongings down to forster. A van/car/roof rack/trailer are all a good 400AUD at least! We had a little dummy run of packing the car, putting in empty suitcases and boxes to get an idea of how much we will be able to fit in. The neighbours must have thought we were doo-lally packing the car with empty cases and then unloading it 10 minutes later! We may have to get someone in work to post one or two things down to us but i think we should be able to fit everything in the car. Im being positive about it all but Gaz's negativity was not helping so we huffed a few times at one another...but its all sorted now...and I'm determined to fit everything in the car :D
work was boring...had some arsey patients, one of which i snapped a tooth on due to a curved root and spent a while getting the root out. She wasn't pleased when she left...miserable cow. I had pacific smiles ring me and tell me they would like to fly me down to forster so that they can show me around the forster and the salamander bay practice so that i can decide which one i prefer. With time being an issue, this wasn't feasible but when we get down there on 28th feb, they will show both gaz and i around then. Im thinking i may just ring pacific smiles and tell them, although it is very kind they are giving me a choice of where i want to go, i would be happy with the forster job. I've been saying for months i would like to go and work in forster...with only 3 dental practices actually in forster, i feel so lucky to get a job there!
In the evening i got home from work and gaz took me to the boat club for some food and a spin on the pokies. It got rather stressful when we got back to the house and were trying to look up methods of transport to get our belongings down to forster. A van/car/roof rack/trailer are all a good 400AUD at least! We had a little dummy run of packing the car, putting in empty suitcases and boxes to get an idea of how much we will be able to fit in. The neighbours must have thought we were doo-lally packing the car with empty cases and then unloading it 10 minutes later! We may have to get someone in work to post one or two things down to us but i think we should be able to fit everything in the car. Im being positive about it all but Gaz's negativity was not helping so we huffed a few times at one another...but its all sorted now...and I'm determined to fit everything in the car :D
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Sunday 12th February - A day of rest
After my riding lesson this morning, i came home to find gaz still in bed, fast asleep. I had a cold shower to get rid of all the sweat and jumped back in to bed. We slept right through till 1.30pm! when we woke, gaz played on the computer and i read a book (such an interesting day!). We will b moving in 2 weeks so i had a little tidy up of all the junk mail we have accumulated and went through all our important documents putting them all in order...we have decided to give our christmas decorations to work so they can decorate the reception with a fibre optic tree and some nice decorations next christmas and will take some other stuff in to see if anyone wants it (saves throwing stuff away)...stuff like the evaporative air cooler which we bought and found out it does bugger all...but would make a good fan (we have two other fans so don't need a third!). We have done a half hour training session and spoke to gaza parents on Skype. It was good to catch up. I rang nanny to see how she was getting on...nanny informs me it is very cold back home so I'm glad to be here in the 33 degree heat. sorry for the boring post!
Saturday, 11 February 2012
Saturday 11th february - where has time gone?!
This week has gone so quick! i must get back to writing my blog daily.
So at the start of the week, i knew i had till the end of february to find a job as my contract will end at hervey bay dental clinic. i had so many options and i didn't know which one to take. Here is the plan...
Gaz's visa end in august and i want to be home in july for dads 60th and my friends wedding. Therefore, i need a job to last me from 1st march to 20th july. Gaz and i will then be home from july to january. We will come back out to aus after christmas and i want to locate around forster region (new south wales) so that once a month, i can drive to sydney to partake in a year long implant course that i am going to sign up for.
Option 1. Aura. This practice i have been waiting to hear from for AGES. the owners have just had a baby so i put it down to them being really busy as to why i haven't heard back from them...but they finally rung me on wednesday and said although they would love to have me, they can't only have me for august, they would want something more long term. Which is fair enough, i was just glad to hear front hem to be honest! They said if in the future though i decide to move to hervey bay again, then to let them know because they would love to have me on board.
Option 2. Stay on at HBDC. So i asked at work if i could stay on but was told they would have to change my visa and put me on a minimum contract for 12 months which i couldn't accept....so another options down the pan.
Option 3. Spike Jan (a dentist fromt he esplanade who was interested in my cv)...he hasn't got back to me so I'm going to take it as a no go.
Option 4. Go tail between my legs back to the job i was offered at premiere dental studio which is still being advertised....HELL NO!
Option 5. 1300 smiles who have practices located in queensland. Being left handed, they only had one surgery going for me and that was in gladstone. A bit too far north for me....another option crossed off the list!
Option 6. Got in touch with iain dalton the guy that got me the job at hervey bay. Told him what i was after...he got back to me with a job for 'pacific smiles'. This is a corporate company who have a number of practices between forster and sydney. i had an interview with a woman for pacific smiles on wednesday and she was lovely...She said there is a long term job going in forster...PERFECT!!! there was even talk that if i liked it there, finishing in august, getting someone to locum over christmas and then having my job back there in january whilst on a sponsorship visa...and they can sponsor me!!! The forster job isn't deffinate yet, if it isn't there, it will be in one of their other practices between forster and sydney....either way...im bloody excited!!!
It means we are giving our 2 week rent notice in on monday. It will be very sad to leave this house and to leave hervey bay now that we have made such good friends...but still, we must not get too comfortable in one place when there is so much of the world to see. Gaz at first wasn't too keen about leaving hervey bay ...'what about the friends we have made, what about moving all the stuff'....yes its going to be a pain moving things...and yes we are leaving behind friends but the good friends will keep in touch and we will make new friends! he's coming around to the idea of moving now as he's been told what great fishing and lovely beaches they have down there....and they got lots of horses! yay!
Nothing much more to report from the week just gone...gaz and i have been doing EXTREMELY well with our healthy eating. We have the calorie counter on our phones which we have become a little obsessed with...and we have trained every other night. We are feeling great so rewarded ourselves with a cheat day today.
Im going to make an effort to remember to do the blog every night next week!!!
So at the start of the week, i knew i had till the end of february to find a job as my contract will end at hervey bay dental clinic. i had so many options and i didn't know which one to take. Here is the plan...
Gaz's visa end in august and i want to be home in july for dads 60th and my friends wedding. Therefore, i need a job to last me from 1st march to 20th july. Gaz and i will then be home from july to january. We will come back out to aus after christmas and i want to locate around forster region (new south wales) so that once a month, i can drive to sydney to partake in a year long implant course that i am going to sign up for.
Option 1. Aura. This practice i have been waiting to hear from for AGES. the owners have just had a baby so i put it down to them being really busy as to why i haven't heard back from them...but they finally rung me on wednesday and said although they would love to have me, they can't only have me for august, they would want something more long term. Which is fair enough, i was just glad to hear front hem to be honest! They said if in the future though i decide to move to hervey bay again, then to let them know because they would love to have me on board.
Option 2. Stay on at HBDC. So i asked at work if i could stay on but was told they would have to change my visa and put me on a minimum contract for 12 months which i couldn't accept....so another options down the pan.
Option 3. Spike Jan (a dentist fromt he esplanade who was interested in my cv)...he hasn't got back to me so I'm going to take it as a no go.
Option 4. Go tail between my legs back to the job i was offered at premiere dental studio which is still being advertised....HELL NO!
Option 5. 1300 smiles who have practices located in queensland. Being left handed, they only had one surgery going for me and that was in gladstone. A bit too far north for me....another option crossed off the list!
Option 6. Got in touch with iain dalton the guy that got me the job at hervey bay. Told him what i was after...he got back to me with a job for 'pacific smiles'. This is a corporate company who have a number of practices between forster and sydney. i had an interview with a woman for pacific smiles on wednesday and she was lovely...She said there is a long term job going in forster...PERFECT!!! there was even talk that if i liked it there, finishing in august, getting someone to locum over christmas and then having my job back there in january whilst on a sponsorship visa...and they can sponsor me!!! The forster job isn't deffinate yet, if it isn't there, it will be in one of their other practices between forster and sydney....either way...im bloody excited!!!
It means we are giving our 2 week rent notice in on monday. It will be very sad to leave this house and to leave hervey bay now that we have made such good friends...but still, we must not get too comfortable in one place when there is so much of the world to see. Gaz at first wasn't too keen about leaving hervey bay ...'what about the friends we have made, what about moving all the stuff'....yes its going to be a pain moving things...and yes we are leaving behind friends but the good friends will keep in touch and we will make new friends! he's coming around to the idea of moving now as he's been told what great fishing and lovely beaches they have down there....and they got lots of horses! yay!
Nothing much more to report from the week just gone...gaz and i have been doing EXTREMELY well with our healthy eating. We have the calorie counter on our phones which we have become a little obsessed with...and we have trained every other night. We are feeling great so rewarded ourselves with a cheat day today.
Im going to make an effort to remember to do the blog every night next week!!!
Sunday, 5 February 2012
Sunday 5th February - Fitness day 2
Gaz and i are both sticking to the fitness/healthy eating thing rather well...though it is only day 2 and will be interesting to see how long we last. I was up this morning for my riding lesson which confused a very tired, confuzzled gareth who thought i was going for a run. I had every intention to go for a run this morning before my riding lesson but as i turned to get out of bed at 5.30am, my legs were so sore i couldn't actually move. Not wanting to over do things, i re-set the alarm for 8am before my lesson. I had a great lesson on Buddy who behaved very well (as always). The sad thing is, we have been banned from riding in the bush now as the farmer feels we 'do gooders' are to blame for the kangaroo shooting getting out of hand? The farmer didn't appreciate it all being in the papers so is now punishing us for it. What a (inset expletive here).
I got home and gaz was playing on the computer. Today he did well so is happy that he is now on a positive for the month, rather than a negative. I tried ringing Aura today to see if they had decided if they want me or not seeing as they hadn't replied to my email...they didn't answer the phone, nor respond to my answer phone message so I'm taking it as a 'no we don't need you' so i will carry on looking elsewhere. There are plenty of jobs in Aus for dentists, it just sucks that we may have to leave the house which we love, and leave the people who have become our friends. We really like it here...Our last option of staying in hervey Bay is to ask work if i can stay on for another 5 months....they may or may not let me. It will mean changing my visas but it could work...i am going to see the man in charge tomorrow. If they say no....well, then we have to move.
Gaz and i went for a walk on the beach tonight. It was lovely...weve heard about all the snow back home....well its 20 something degrees here, hot and sunny. It did Gaz good to get out of the house...he becomes a bit of a recluse shut away in the bedroom! He tells people i don't let him out lol.
Ive just don't my 45min training session...loved it! I can now hear Gaz punching the crap out of the punchbag..angry man!
Day 2 of healthy eating is going well. Im going for the little and often approach having breakfast cereal at 8am, piece of fruit at 10am, lunch such as chicken breast and salad at 1, piece of fruit at 4, meat/veg stew at 6 and yoghurt at 8 after training (as well as a protein shake). Gaz has been going for the 2 big meals a day - a huge bowl of cereal at lunch time and a 300g chicken breast and salad for dinner, protein shake after training. Will be interesting to see if either of these diets work. Its really cool that we are both being 'good' though as it makes it so much easier to eat healthy when there isn't chocolate lying around or one of us is wanting to eat out.
I got home and gaz was playing on the computer. Today he did well so is happy that he is now on a positive for the month, rather than a negative. I tried ringing Aura today to see if they had decided if they want me or not seeing as they hadn't replied to my email...they didn't answer the phone, nor respond to my answer phone message so I'm taking it as a 'no we don't need you' so i will carry on looking elsewhere. There are plenty of jobs in Aus for dentists, it just sucks that we may have to leave the house which we love, and leave the people who have become our friends. We really like it here...Our last option of staying in hervey Bay is to ask work if i can stay on for another 5 months....they may or may not let me. It will mean changing my visas but it could work...i am going to see the man in charge tomorrow. If they say no....well, then we have to move.
Gaz and i went for a walk on the beach tonight. It was lovely...weve heard about all the snow back home....well its 20 something degrees here, hot and sunny. It did Gaz good to get out of the house...he becomes a bit of a recluse shut away in the bedroom! He tells people i don't let him out lol.
Ive just don't my 45min training session...loved it! I can now hear Gaz punching the crap out of the punchbag..angry man!
Day 2 of healthy eating is going well. Im going for the little and often approach having breakfast cereal at 8am, piece of fruit at 10am, lunch such as chicken breast and salad at 1, piece of fruit at 4, meat/veg stew at 6 and yoghurt at 8 after training (as well as a protein shake). Gaz has been going for the 2 big meals a day - a huge bowl of cereal at lunch time and a 300g chicken breast and salad for dinner, protein shake after training. Will be interesting to see if either of these diets work. Its really cool that we are both being 'good' though as it makes it so much easier to eat healthy when there isn't chocolate lying around or one of us is wanting to eat out.
Saturday, 4 February 2012
Saturday 4th February - Fitness
I was very pleased with myself this morning because i was up and out for my run at 7.45am. I have the nike app on my iPhone now which is the same one i used on my iPod touch when training for the marathon last year but because the phone has gps and 3g, it is more accurate with distance i have run and people can cheer me on from Facebook when I'm running and ill hear it...how cool is that! I felt great 2 minutes in to the run....i felt like death 5 minutes in to the run....and after 15 minutes i thought oh bloody hell I'm going to die i think i had better turn back now. I managed only a half hour run which is shocking really when you think i ran all that way last year. Any way, i guess i shouldn't be too hard on myself as that was the first time i have been running outside since the marathon in may 2011. It also didn't help that by 8am it was 28 degrees and there was little shade where i was running.
I was home by 8.20am and gaz was still snuggled up in bed so i had a quick cold shower and then joined him...i slept for a further 2 hours lol. Gaz has been playing on the computer all day so I've been cleaning the house downstairs. I think Bob the gecko has been having a little party whilst we have been away, there was poop everywhere! The downstairs is all tidy now...just got the upstairs left to do tomorrow.
I have downloaded an app for the iPhone called 'myfitnesspal'. for anyone wanting to watch what they are eating, this app is great. You type in your current weight, how much you would like to loose each week and what your goal weight is....and it works out how many calories you should be eating a day. You can then search for the food you have eaten (in the uk you can scan the barcode of food into the phone and it finds it automatically) but i have to do a manual search...and you basically inset all the food you have had for the day into the diary and it works out how many calories you have consumed...its very clever!
I have just cooked gaz and i a chicken breast with some salad...we are letting the food go down before an hours training session in 'our gym' aka the garage which is now fully equipped with a punch bag, boxing gloves and pads, a dip station, fit ball, kettle bell, some exercise mats, skipping rope and pull up bar. We are looking forward to finally being able to train without any distractions! bring it on!
I was home by 8.20am and gaz was still snuggled up in bed so i had a quick cold shower and then joined him...i slept for a further 2 hours lol. Gaz has been playing on the computer all day so I've been cleaning the house downstairs. I think Bob the gecko has been having a little party whilst we have been away, there was poop everywhere! The downstairs is all tidy now...just got the upstairs left to do tomorrow.
I have downloaded an app for the iPhone called 'myfitnesspal'. for anyone wanting to watch what they are eating, this app is great. You type in your current weight, how much you would like to loose each week and what your goal weight is....and it works out how many calories you should be eating a day. You can then search for the food you have eaten (in the uk you can scan the barcode of food into the phone and it finds it automatically) but i have to do a manual search...and you basically inset all the food you have had for the day into the diary and it works out how many calories you have consumed...its very clever!
I have just cooked gaz and i a chicken breast with some salad...we are letting the food go down before an hours training session in 'our gym' aka the garage which is now fully equipped with a punch bag, boxing gloves and pads, a dip station, fit ball, kettle bell, some exercise mats, skipping rope and pull up bar. We are looking forward to finally being able to train without any distractions! bring it on!
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Friday 3rd February - Back from Gayndah
Apologies for no blog all week, we have been in Gayndah (ie. the middle of nowhere) and the internet was a little bit rubbish and Gaz was hogging it (jokes).
I was working in a dental surgery as the only dentist for the area which meant i was dealing with a lot of tooth ache appointments and doing a lot of tooth extractions. Gandah was an interesting place - the main street being a bit like one of those streets with the old saloon on in a western film. The main street had a lot of shops that had closed down and one little supermarket...2 very old looking pubs and umm...not much else. The house we were put up in was a 4 bedroom house (apparently the same house adam and gemma stayed in when they also had to work at gayndah clinic). We went up sunday night (just incase it was raining on monday as the roads would be too flooded to get there) only the air con wasn't working so we were boiling hot! We ordered a chinese from the chinese takeaway but it was a below average meal. The next day i had to go to work (luckily the clinic is only up the road). The nurses were lovely and were very surprised to hear the air con was broken. The next door neighbour has been getting annoyed at the sound of the air con fans outside the house as they back onto where his lounge is so he takes it upon himself to turn the air con off for the dental house from the mains in the garden. He's a grumpy old sod apparently. Anyway, i directed gaz to the mains and he was able to switch it on and get it working again....so we had the air con running non-stop 24/7 all week...that would have pleased the old man next door!
The patients were very polite and really appreciative of the work i was doing for them and on wednesday i went to munduberra clinic for the day to an even more remote part of queensland. I enjoyed the day there.
Gaz and i went to get a takeaway last night from the fish and chip shop. As Gaz doesn't like fish, he wanted a burger...despite all this meaty food advertised not he board such as sausages, burgers, pies etc. the place didn't have anything left in stock other than fish and chips. We therefore went next door to a 'bistro' which was a rough as guts pub with a takeaway dinner. We sat and had a drink in the bar between a grumpy looking old man to our right who kept staring at us and a very angry old man to our left, swearing and blinding next to me about something on the tv. The bar man was rough too....gaz said i couldn't have looked more out of place in my work uniform and my queensland health tshirt on with a big yellow smiley face with the slogan 'healthy teeth are happy teeth :D'. We weren't long in the bar before leaving. Looking out how grotty the place was, we were tempted to bin the food and buy some fresh stuff elsewhere but it didn't look too bad...ignorance is bliss!
Today was my last day in work and i was happy to finish there. It was a little bit too remote for my liking. Gaz came with me to keep me company but he was bored in the house...we watched lot of films and television as thats about all there was to do!
To our horror, when we got home, the garage door was wide open, giving everyone free access to the whole of our house. I thought gaz was joking at first when he said the door had been left open, he's joked about it before...but no, this time he was serious. We ran inside expecting to see all our belongings gone...but nope...everything was as we left it. We had been gone all week and no one had stepped into our house...everything as we had left it. We feel so lucky right now!!!
Its nice to be back in hervey bay.
I was working in a dental surgery as the only dentist for the area which meant i was dealing with a lot of tooth ache appointments and doing a lot of tooth extractions. Gandah was an interesting place - the main street being a bit like one of those streets with the old saloon on in a western film. The main street had a lot of shops that had closed down and one little supermarket...2 very old looking pubs and umm...not much else. The house we were put up in was a 4 bedroom house (apparently the same house adam and gemma stayed in when they also had to work at gayndah clinic). We went up sunday night (just incase it was raining on monday as the roads would be too flooded to get there) only the air con wasn't working so we were boiling hot! We ordered a chinese from the chinese takeaway but it was a below average meal. The next day i had to go to work (luckily the clinic is only up the road). The nurses were lovely and were very surprised to hear the air con was broken. The next door neighbour has been getting annoyed at the sound of the air con fans outside the house as they back onto where his lounge is so he takes it upon himself to turn the air con off for the dental house from the mains in the garden. He's a grumpy old sod apparently. Anyway, i directed gaz to the mains and he was able to switch it on and get it working again....so we had the air con running non-stop 24/7 all week...that would have pleased the old man next door!
The patients were very polite and really appreciative of the work i was doing for them and on wednesday i went to munduberra clinic for the day to an even more remote part of queensland. I enjoyed the day there.
Gaz and i went to get a takeaway last night from the fish and chip shop. As Gaz doesn't like fish, he wanted a burger...despite all this meaty food advertised not he board such as sausages, burgers, pies etc. the place didn't have anything left in stock other than fish and chips. We therefore went next door to a 'bistro' which was a rough as guts pub with a takeaway dinner. We sat and had a drink in the bar between a grumpy looking old man to our right who kept staring at us and a very angry old man to our left, swearing and blinding next to me about something on the tv. The bar man was rough too....gaz said i couldn't have looked more out of place in my work uniform and my queensland health tshirt on with a big yellow smiley face with the slogan 'healthy teeth are happy teeth :D'. We weren't long in the bar before leaving. Looking out how grotty the place was, we were tempted to bin the food and buy some fresh stuff elsewhere but it didn't look too bad...ignorance is bliss!
Today was my last day in work and i was happy to finish there. It was a little bit too remote for my liking. Gaz came with me to keep me company but he was bored in the house...we watched lot of films and television as thats about all there was to do!
To our horror, when we got home, the garage door was wide open, giving everyone free access to the whole of our house. I thought gaz was joking at first when he said the door had been left open, he's joked about it before...but no, this time he was serious. We ran inside expecting to see all our belongings gone...but nope...everything was as we left it. We had been gone all week and no one had stepped into our house...everything as we had left it. We feel so lucky right now!!!
Its nice to be back in hervey bay.
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