Aidan & Karen’s Travels

At last I have had some instruction in this world of blogs and can write my own message. Just aswell its a physio job I have got sorted out in NZ and it was only a little white lie about my computer skills I told!

I can’t believe we are actually going, we’ve talked about this for so long. We had such a brillaint send off from Newcastle. Thank you all for making the effort and all the pressies and cards we got. Aidan is already very jealious of my new shades. Obvioulsy I couldn’t leave without a trauma or 3 but they do say bad things happen in 3s and hopefully that’ll be it for a while. Good news is I haven’t got any nasties from my needle stick, my car is sorted and functioning and I have finally been paid. I am now ready to face the world!

Needless to say I am not missing work but I do miss the banter and laughs with all my friends. Keep in touch!

8th February 2007 Russian healthcare 1st hand!

Not sure where to start but this incident definately deserves a mention of its own and if I wasn’t sat here with my left wrist in a cast I am not sure if I would believe the past 2 days have happened. We got off the train on Tuesday am after 3 nights on it shareing with an elderly Russian lady who seemed to eat, sleep and then eat some more. We were met and driven up to lake Baikal whick is beautiful. Its the largest freshwater lake in the world and most of it is frozen at the moment. People drive cars across it apparently, not sure I’d want to run the risk but the locals know best. we stayed with a local lady who turned out to be a great cook and after breakfast headed out for a look round the village with a guide. The sky is so blue its beautiful and no clouds about make it all abit surreal as the white lake finishes and the sky then begins. Anyway to cut a long story short after a great walk we were on the way down and I slipped on the ice. My wrist was totally deformed when I took my mit off and I knew it was broken. The guide wondered if it was just a sprain but I said I needed to see a doctor and from them on in it was like a bizarre comedy show. looking back now I can see the funny side but at the time I was pissed off and in pain. Sergy (our driver) soon became known as Manwell and he totally looked the part. In his oversized sheepskin coat and aviator shades with a massive crack across one lens he was stopped for speeding twice in half an hour and as we hit town he stopped at a place which sold all types of splints and bandages. He pulled the arm off one of the manekins and had us in fits before I convinced him that I needed a doctor and not just a splint! We then rocked up infront of the town hopital…..

the hospital was like something out of a carry on film from the 50s but it seemed clean at least. Sergy then went round onprening doors all over the shop and just wandering in, whether there were patients in or not. finally found a doc who took a look and sent me for an xray. wow, we are so lucky back at home. no such thing as pacs so the ‘radiographer” just held it up to the light and sent me back to the docs. i was just grateful it was clear cut and my scaphoid was ok. it just got wierd from then on in as i sat on the chair feeling really rough just hoping that i wouldn’t loose any control of my bodily functions and make a mess as this doc made me sniff this stuff (ether?) off cotton wool. whatever wit was made me really woozy and next thing i know 2 blokes are drgagging me under my arms and lying me on a plinth with my feet in the air. when i came round life was strange and seeing as my wrist was pain free and i could move my fingers i thought it was over. no such luck. next thing i know i am sat on the chair again with a nurse pulling my arm from behind and the doc infront pulling and re setting my wrist in front. i wouyln’t recommend that exoerience, the noise was sickening and the painkiller didn’t seem to strtch to my thumb. Anyway he the plastered it up and sent me on my way - or rather asked for the cash at that point.

so much for patient confidentuality and note taking, the nhs could learn a lot from that. he did a great job too as the check xray showed and maybe new technologies are not the best way forward.

16th february 2007 Beijing

i have only really had one major sence of humour failure about the whole thing as aidan has been brilliant and super patient but a week after a break the last thing you need is some doc to prod it constantly whilst chngeing the cast. what a shocking job he’s done too and i am kind of regretting getting it done. hey ho, you live and learn and its another country, another healthcare system experienced. we don’t want thins to be an ongoing theme of the trip though. we truely are having the time of our lives. we’ve seen so much and met some great people and the stresses of england currently seem a long way away.

26th February 2007, Hangzhou China
I can’t believe we’ve been in China a week already. Every now and then i look through the photos on the camera and can’t get my head around the fact that we have been to all those places and seen those things. What a great part of the world. Chinese Year year has been a great thing to experience, although i admit last night was the first night without a constant stream of bangers and fireworks going off and it was bliss! We finally found some great food yesterday too as the sweet and sour fat and bones and unidebtifyable bits in soups have been pretty terrible. 5 lots of dishes for 7 quid and it was gorgeous. The constant staring at us is abit much at times but we have our own way at making them feel unconfortable too which is fun. China ia so farst and colourful and there are just people everywhere. i’m not sure i could live here long term - as much as people take the mick out of the politeness in britain there is alot to be said for queueing and generally having some regard for your fellow humans.
We have had our first experience of a dorm too which wasn’t too bad. I put some perfume (thank you so much vicky) on last night though which was a right treat and the smell in the room transferred from the pong of boys to niceness. We are off to shanghai today though for some shopping and chilling on the bund. we have got tickets for the bullet train which goes at 300mph which is pretty cool. thins trip has turned me into a train spotter, what is going on?

31st March 2007 Bula! Fiji sends a warm hello.

It’s been a while since I have added anything to the blog, we’ve been having such a great time and email has been prety expensive so I never got round to it. Hurrah, I not have 2 hands again and the tan has helped to make it a little less ailen looking. Yes, all you physios out there I have been doing my exercises! It has been an interesting experience travelling with as a broken person as Aidan kept telling me but its helped that Aidan is such a star. Thank you Aid, I love you very much and couldn’t have got here without you.

I loved Oz, the fact we headed south along the coast from Sydney to melbourne meant we steered clear of the 1000s of 18 year olds along the east coast and therefore did not feel too old! The weather was amazing and the beaches were so beautiful. Kayaking down a river with an aboriginal guy was definately a highlight just before we made it to Melbourne for Aidan’s birthday. Both of us definately want to go back there. There was so much going on and the syncronised swimming final we saw at the Fina world championships was brilliant and completely different from the norm. Aidan has been practising his moves in the pools since so what out, there may be the worlds 1st male syncronised swimmer about to make it onto world stages!
Fiji wasn’t quite what we expected as we got off the plane on a grey day and then the heavens opened and it chucked it down for 3 days. That wasn’t a great start to the tanning but it didn’t dampen our spirts too much and we went out kayaking in the sea, we were soaked anyway from the rain. It’s so laid back here and the desert island we were on was fantastic. The owner used to play for the All Blacks and him and his wife had loads of helpul hints about NZ. They seemed as excited about our plans as we do.
Reality seems to be creeping up on us though as there have been a few bits we’ve had to sort out for work. A few weeks ago we were quite up for it but as we are both now fully in the swing of bumming about all day it’s going to be a major shock to the system. Still, we just have to keep reminding ourselves its uping the bank balance for all the other great places we are going to see and things we are going to do. I am really looking forward to seeing Alex and Rob and having abit of Girl chat. I love Aidan to bits but sometimes you just need abit of gossip time and I am missing that at the moment.

Its our last day here so we’re of to sit by the pool and catch the rays. At least we’ve used factor 30+ all along, there are some very painful sights around the pool and I cringe when i see it. Witch hazel is a miracle cure but it can’t fix a whole torso of blisters. Silly people! I will get round to filling in the main blog in Nz I am sure but in the mean time thanks for all you emails, its been great readign all the news. Keep them flowing.

8th June 2007

At last I have managed to catch up with the blog a bit and thought it was time to write something in my page too. Life is good over here despite having a few moments of homesickness last week. They were mainly around the fact that good friends got married, others had a baby, there were birthdays to celebrate and an engagement which I wanted to be there to drink champagne for. Everything seemed to be all at the same time and we both really felt that England was a very long way away. Still, we have got each other and we are enjoying live over here.

The whole work life balance is much better and with having to get up so early we seem to cram so much more into our days and definitely at the weekend. I know, I know some of you will find that one hard to believe but its true! As we lay in bed reading this morning Aidan’s phone went and Doug (fellow teacher) asked us if we wanted to head out for a walk (we haven’t been here long enough to call it tramping yet) so out we headed and saw some gorgeous scenery and had a great time. The drink afterwards was much appreciated but all in all the nicest thing is that we have some friends and getting a call on the mobile from people who live in the same country is great! Friends mean so much to me and I really miss you all from home.

There are subtle differences we are starting to notice about the culture here and its fun being tourists as well as part of the real world of work. My first week at work we had students and believe me one of them needed lots of input and support. Pity he didn’t make the most of it and in the end we had to fail him. That was an eye opener to me if there ever was one. I know everyone does things differently but I have realised that I am a positive person and can see the good in most things. Over here it’s different and there is more blame and you have to take responsibility for your actions type culture. Its great being in a massive hospital again and there are plenty of speciality areas of physio to potentially get more experience in. Senior physios are in short supply over here as everyone seems to graduate then head off round the world on their “overseas experience”  so its great having so many opportunites open to me. I am glad I made the career choices I did in years gone by as I have a variety of skills now and feel like I know a lot over here. The hospital is in south Auckland and the main population around there is south pacific islanders so there have been lots of cultural differences to get my head round – frustrating and fun and definitely new experiences.

As far as my wrist goes things aren’t particularly good. I was in denile about the things I couldn’t do for a while but it is painful most of the time and is resticting me a lot so I have finally got myself to a GP and have got an appointment with a hand surgeon on Monday. Trust me not to just have a simple break. At times we can’t believe it happened at all but then I got my down jacket out the other day (yup, its getting cold here) and put my hand in my pocket and pulled out a load of plaster of paris from the ridiculous cast I had on in Mongolia.

We have had a few people to stay with us already which has been great and I am looking forward to the NTGH girls visit next month. If anyone finds themselves over this side of the world please get in touch as we’d love to see you!

Keep the letters flowing as well, they are very much appreciated and I love hearing about the goings on at home – exciting stuff as well as everyday things. I hear Big Brother has started again too, I can’t believe that. It always makes me think of when Aidan and I met as I was utterly addicted to it and went home early from the pub to watch it. Sad but true! And here we are living it up on the other side of the world.