change of scenary

I have been absent from the blog scene for a while. Just had a change of scenary at work- moving on from the good old renal deparment, to the "whole scarey hospital" department..I am the official reliever so If anyone is sick or on leave- I am the cover ..kinda scarey.. I used to think of relievers as the supermen and wonderwomen of th hospital..cos you are just all over the place. One minute in sugery next minute in ED next minute on the medical ward..etc ( not literally minutes..but everyday a new venue!)

So far it hasnt been too bad. I have had to be the cardiology cover for quite a while cos their docs have been on holiday- forever. I havent worked in cardio before but it has always scared me. Just walking past their ward with their big computerised base- they have this huge monitor/computer/desk monster thing that reminds me of something off star trek or something. Like a spaceship control centre...buttons and beeping and images and nurse-patrol-police who never fail to confront you with "IS YOUR CELLPHONE SWITCHED OFF COS IT INTERFERES WITH THE MONITORS?????" cos they can see the freaken tip of the antenae of my cellpnone peeping outa my bag. LOL!

I can never work out which freaken beep means "RUN TO THAT PATIET HE IS DYING!" and which one means "this patient dropped his nametag"..I mean for freaks sake if you're gonna have any beep at all could it just be the one that counts!! ( keeping things simple for moi poor brains please!!)Slowly over the last few days I have managed to calm my anxiety over the monster machine.(its all about ME versus THE MACHINE) No one has done anything exciting yet-and I have cheerfully been reminding my patients they are not allowed to have heart attacks!!he he!!Always makes for cheerful talk-most are like "I'll try!!lol!"

They have asked me again, for the third time this year ( they being my bosses),to present something to the weekly staff teaching lectures on pacific islanders and /or Samoans ( being the interesting and foreign beings that we are!!) It seems they can never get enough of my tales (Maybe because they are so tall!!) I can never get over how little some people know about samoa/ns despite being a neigbouring pacific country. My shock all started when some kiwi in Otago ( admittedly FROM Otago as well) asked me where I was from, I told him, then he asked where in auckland that was again (Samoa) ..no seriously . Since then I have easily convinced people that we samoan woman walk around in grass skirts and coconut shells for attire ( its too damed hot for cotton) and men wear little loincloths or nothing if they have a pe'a, that we samoan women are so beautiful because we all go down to the beach in the morning and exfoliate our skin with the sand (watch while palagis go 'oooohhhh' and remind themselves to take little bag with them next time they go to beach!) and we still travel by canoe and horseback cos we dont have tarsealed roads....I mean seriously, maybe its the particular type of people I work with, but they lap it all up..like where were they brought up????

Anyways, I am now stuck with trying to drum up another vaguely interesting presentation. I know what most of it will consist of. Statistics that make us look fat and lazy and unhealthy. Then there will be discussions about how we value our food and the wrong types ( whilst I eat my deep fried lunch) and discussions about our culture and what we value.(i.e do we value being big-ger(fat/healthy and wealthy!!) errhhhm..i think we value not-being-hungry) anyways..apparently fascinating stuff for them..kinda broken record player music to me. Anyways..we'll see how it goes.

I am actually really looking foward to this weekend ( its friday today) I have worked 12 days in a row- 72hours in the first week -so I am so looking foward to just kicking off my shoes and relaxing. Maybe actually start on my cardio excercise plan I have been meaning to launch in the last 3 months - we'll see what the weather decides!! Har har- the weather dictates my fitness level- as you can see i have become a whale after winter!LOL! anyways- gotta go so til next time- take care all!!