Brian Bush

Today we headed out to Youngaleena, an Aboriginal community about 2 hours away from Tom Price. We were having a great time playing with the kids... and then this big red land cruiser pulled up with the number plate 'snakes' ... never a good sign!! Out hopped Brian bush with his 'pets'. His lizards were even wearing hats! Unfortunately I wasn't brave enough to hold the head end of the snake. I was instead holding the 'penis' end according to Brian. And, great fact for the day, snakes have 2 penises and can mate for up to 17 hours!! I am learning bucket loads in Tom Price!

Brian takes his snakes all around Australia - and his technique for snake catching has been taken to over 400 countries! He was once even bitten by a king brown... true australian legend!

(Dad just informed me that there are not, in fact, 400 countries! Oops... I do however stand by my australian reptile facts:)

Best day I've had in Tom Price yet! Sarah suggested I may even be the love child of Steve Irwin and Malcom Douglas.

In Summary, I was brave enough to hold reptiles, and I got nits... Win:)

WACHS TRAVEL ALERT

22/02

I went by myself, for the first time, to Paraburdoo today. All was going well until I received this urgent email...

URGENT – WACHS STAFF TRAVEL ALERT

Due to unusual weather patterns in the past week and expected over the next ten days, which have led to flooding and rising floodways, all non essential regional road travel by staff is now cancelled.

Please contact your line manager to discuss options if you are not currently in your normal workplace. Staff are encouraged to use videoconferencing and teleconferencing for scheduled meetings.

For clinical services such as clinics, outpatients, specialists services please refer first to your line manager to plan a strategy with the relevant regional executive member.

All staff should be checking the Main Roads - Road Condition website and Bureau of Meteorology Weather and Warnings website for regular updates on weather changes.

OH MY GOD! There was even talk (mostly mine) of me being housed in Paraburdoo for the night. Probably a fair option seeing as my hyundai i30 would likely struggle across the floodways. And to think... I had no clean knickers!

I ended up driving home... There was one huge downpour along the way, but even scarier was having to stop for 2 cows moseying in the middle of the road! My first REAL experience of country driving I guess...

Cyclone Carlos didn't end up bringing much damage to TP, just a lot of rain. As if we weren't already lush enough...

Thank you Barney Stinson

20/02/2011
I have had an epiphany, after what was probably the worst birthday ever. I always get a bit down on my birthday, but this one was a disaster. Turning (god forbid) 25 was always going to be horrid... a quarter of a century! But I didn't even have friends and family around to console me and tell me I have achieved things in my first 25 years. People couldn't even tell me that over the phone seeing as the reception is still down. All in all, it was a really bad weekend.

BUT... Barney Stinson, who is fast becoming an idol, helped me get out of this rut. And I quote...

"When I get sad, I stop being sad, and be awesome instead... True story !"

and so that's what I'll do. I have to make the most of this experience. How many people can say they lived and worked in the Pilbra for a year. What I will learn here is like no other, so I may as well make the most of it. Being sad is a waste of my time, surely.
I decided to seize this new attitude and take a walk up to the lookout near my house... and look at the amazing view that was waiting for me there

Me against the Magpie

19/02/2011
I have had to find a new route to ride to work! There is one pesky magpie living in the tree near my house. It seems to bide it's time, waiting for me to leave the house. I literally have dents on my helmet from it's attacks! I would NEVER venture out without sunnies, can you imagine?

Do you think this is because I have single handedly killed half of Tom Price's spider population, and thus the magpie's food source? I don't regret it!

Oh god, this just means I always need to be looking over my shoulder!! Mons, the ever-vigilant.

And so begins my obsession with reptiles...

The past couple of weeks have brought with them some great ups, and of course some not so great lows.

Everyday here something surprises me, here are the top 5 for the week.

1. In order to fit in here you must be pregnant. The average age of the town is 11... which certainly makes it hard to meet people...
2. Everything here shuts at lunchtime... When are working people supposed to go to the post office/bank/bakery? Tom Price. Sleepy town of the Pilbra?
3. Skinny snakes aren't necessarily friendly.... A whip snake caused a lockdown at the hospital on Monday. Like his name suggests he is very skinny, fast and aggressive. He was lurking around the automatic doors of the hospital, and then devoured a lizard! The snake man came and caught him with a hessian bag, just like they do on tv! Crocdile dundee eat your heart out.
4. One of my patients rocked up to the hospital in just boardies... no singlet. Is this normal country beahivour? He also had the foulest cigarette breath, which seemed to linger within his chest length beard. He gave me a lasting headache.
5. I treated my first ever 'high' patient. Although I'm not sure why it is called high? She was so sleepy and out of it. And will obviously experience no benefit from seeing me. In order to get her pain medication, which is integral to her way of life, she needs to be in pain. So nothing I can do will help with that. Win!!

What can next week possibly bring?

The end of my first week...and the end of my phone

By the start of week 2 I'm feeling only marginally better about the grand life choices I have decided to make/ endure.

1. On Thursday we went to Paraburdoo hospital, a place I will service twice a week. I shouldn't go throwing around the word hospital... it only has 2 beds and is built on a station. You literally step outside only to be eye level with a cow! I feel like cows should be friendly, but I'm not willing to test it out. That night it rained SO much, buckets could have been falling from the sky! I did not think the Pilbra would be so green and lush... the side-effects of a great wet-season!


2. On Friday I had to walk to work in the pouring rain. I put my clean clothes in a plastic bag inside my back-pack so I could at least look somewhat fresh for my first ever Pilbra patients. It was quite tricky to get my brain into physio mode after my fantastic travels. What I wouldn't give to be back in Bali or Japan... After work on Friday I went to pick up my bike. In what seems typical fashion for me here, the tyres were as flat as pancakes and the bike therefore unrideable! There was also some form of fury bug that had made a lovely home inside my helmet. That night I played my first game of touch for the 'mad hooligans'... to a phenomenal electrical storm backdrop no less. All the rain has brought in a multitude of bugs. One flew in my mouth... hacking and screaming was not the first impression I was hoping to make with my new team. After the game we hung around for some drinks. Everyone here drinks Bundy in a can... that's when it really hit home that I am not 'home' anymore!

3. On Sunday the 6th of February my phone lost all reception. I couldn't think of anything worse than to lose contact with my family and friends... brilliant!

4. I decided to start a war on spiders. I bought do-it-yourself 'bug-bombs' from Coles and lit them as I left for work on Monday. I cannot tell you how great it felt to vacuum the critters up that afternoon, there must have been hundreds. They were wolf spiders (quite aggressive I hear) and they were HUGE! Literally as big as my palm, I could feel the weight of them as they flew up the vacuum tube... I will sleep (semi) easily from now on! This is also how I came to meet my lovely neighbour, Jean. I didn't know I was screaming so loudly as I vacuumed the creatures up (they are terrifyingly big)... she came racing over to make sure everything was ok!

At least it's interesting here...

The heat wave continues...

02/02/2011

Today was a far better day. It started with an orientation of the hospital. This didn't take long seeing as there are only 8 beds... quaint some may say:) I was also temporarily relocated due to the aircon situation... thank god! My tears as I arrived at work must have said it all... The hospital lent me a car to do my relocating in, another huge plus. This gave me a chance to get to coles and buy the things I couldn't usually lug back, ie: freezer items and 30L of water. Apparently you can't drink the water here, something else I would have loved to have known prior to moving here! Yesterday even...

That night I headed out to dinner with a friend I've known since high school. He works on the Marandoo mine site and invited me up to the mess. It was lovely to get out and meet people, although slightly awkward as I was wearing the same top as the wait staff. I arrived in my very flash country road SLEEVELESS top... and was refused entry. Apparently singlets are unhygienic... what, with my locks of plaited underarm hair? So a waitress lent me her work top which caused quite the stir. Meanwhile, I sat next to two men, in their full mining get-up, stinky from a hard day at work. I would honestly love to know who was more hygienic?

Tom Price, I do not love you!

Tom Price... Top Town in WA?

01/02/2011

6am: This morning mum took me to the airport to start my life as a new graduate physiotherapist in Tom Price, one of Western Australia's most remote towns, looking like I'd been punched in the face due to excessive crying...

7am: I pay a whopping $120 in excess baggage (probably my fault, I last minute packed giving myself no time to ship things up).

8:30am: I arrive at Paraburdoo airport, and straight away see maybe 5 out of the top ten world's largest bugs... some type of record? I think so! The airport is archaic to say the least. I walk inside to find the 'baggage claim' only to be told to 'wait outside for the trolley love'. I lug my excess baggage towards the Tom Price bus to discover I am not booked on it... 30 more dollars down the drain... and an insight into the West Australian Health Department.

10:00am: I arrive in Tom Price, top town in the pilbra? My senior physio Beth picks me up to take me on a tour of the town. This takes all of 2 minutes, and I leave my sunglasses on to hide the now common 'face punched' look I'm rocking. She tells me it is a telstra town only, I do not have a home phone or internet ($140 on an internet USB later) and I am not provided with a hospital car. All things I probably should have looked into before packing up my blissful life in Mosman Park.

10:02 am: Beth drops me at my new apartment.
FOUR THINGS I NOTICE STRAIGHT AWAY...
1.) My 70's style shit-hole is insanely hot!! Is the air-con old and rusty? Probably....
2.) It is very sparsely furnished... will I cope with only one chair? Have to...
3.) There is a large sign on the fridge... 'common household snakes, who to call'. Great, snakes are now of a household variety.
4.) I potentially have provided home to half of Tom Price's spider population.

1am: The air-con is not old and rusty, it just doesn't work. I sit in the cold shower wondering whether I've made the worst decision of my life...