dr benny's rural adventures

cannibal creek in flood

2011-11-27T13:43:00.001+11:00

out for a walk with Finn

2011-10-12T11:37:00.004+11:00

Now playing: Sufjan Stevens - I Walked
via FoxyTunes

matty's dream store

2011-10-04T11:02:00.003+11:00

I'm in Beechworth at the moment sightseeing with mum and dad. Couldn't help but notice the rather odd combination bike and chainsaw shop, and muse on how it would be the perfect store for Brother Matt.

won't be buying tomatoes this week

2011-10-01T20:24:00.001+10:00

lol

2011-10-01T20:05:00.001+10:00

doctor shopping

2011-10-01T13:33:00.002+10:00

Jobs for next year will be finalised within a fortnight, so many of us have been making a last-minute dash around General Practices to sus out the territory and try to make up our mind as to where we'd like to spend the next year working. There have been lots of phone calls after the interviews with registrars and practices trying to agree to put one another as their first preference.
I'm currently in Corowa making one of the most important evaluations - testing the coffee from the milk bar next door.

hike in the warbys

2011-09-28T07:30:00.008+10:00

Liz and I both had a day off today, so we decided to go for a walk in the Warby Ranges.

Had I realised how much rock climbing we were about to embark on, I would not have been so brave as to simply sling my 5D over my shoulder. It copped a few too many knocks for my liking, but, I guess that's what Canon had in mind when they built the beast.

When we finally got to the top, we were met with dozens of spectacular grass trees.

This view from the top is roughly in line with the first photo from this series, only further up the mountain. It is a composite of about half a dozen photos taken in a line.

Stretching off into the distance are the treelines along the roads that lead to Wangaratta. You can click on this image to see it a tad bigger, and if you are clever, you'll even be able to find the links that let you see it full-size. Or you could just click here.

We even spotted a few kangaroos as we descended the mountain.

getting creative

2011-09-27T23:15:00.003+10:00

I've long umm'd and ahh'd about which operating system is best. Linux, Mac OS and Windows each have their merits and their pitfalls. I've used all three extensively, but am yet to declare a favourite. The recent announcement of Final Cut X as a standalone video editing product for Mac almost had me converted. My next computer would be a Mac - especially because it would make people like me more. Seriously.

That was until the reviews for Final Cut X hit the forums.

Seems the re engineering of Final Cut Pro - previously only available in their full software suite and so only accessible to either those who were willing to fork out thousands of dollars or those who were happy to copy it without paying - left much to be desired.

And so Adobe was quick to jump at the chance. They offered Premiere at 50% of the price, to lure disgruntled customers away from Final Cut.

I was almost going to persist. When the new Mac Pro came out (rumoured for release in August), I'd get my hands on one of those and get Final Cut X. But with no word on the Mac Pro's release, and time ticking for the Adobe deal, I grew impatient.

So a few days ago I took the plunge. In spite of my genuine fear of losing face by choosing to stick with Microsoft, I placed my order for Adobe's Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium (Windows version). The DVDs came in the mail today!

Bit of a mouthful, but in short, I'll soon be editing videos shot on my 5D. I'm also doing what I swore never to do, and straying from the free, high quality GIMP and UFRaw, to test the waters of Photoshop.

So hopefully this long-neglected blog will soon be reborn. I have a backlog of photos that are now ready for the blog, so have been preparing to update it anyway. But I guess this just helps set things into motion.

melissa and the canola

2011-09-14T19:49:00.005+10:00

My friend Mel and her brother Jeremy are jetsetting to Europe for a few weeks of adventure. I took them to the airport today.
We just had to stop at one of the many vibrant canola fields for a photoshoot!

walk up mount cannibal with nate & (his) gran

2011-08-27T18:21:00.005+10:00

Today Nate has been visiting Gran and Brupa, so Gran, Nate and I went for a walk up Mount Cannibal.

We reached the top just on sunset.

My phone's clever panoramic feature makes a composite of 8 photos taken automatically as you move it in a semicircle.
This view facing the opposite way to the traditional panorama produced a rather interesting effect.

you beauty

2011-08-12T15:16:00.003+10:00

Had a job interview in Mount Beauty today. Really nice place.

welcome back muz

2010-12-21T23:25:00.009+11:00

Muz has been in Brazil for a few months, and is due to get back very soon. Dogga, Gav and I decided it would be fun to create a bit of a welcoming surprise.

1600 balloons, 7 blisters & 10 hours later, we had a masterpiece!

Word is that the random popping of the balloons through the night is making sleep quite difficult for the household.

juan and gen

2010-11-29T18:52:00.008+11:00

I was honoured to be invited to witness my friends Juan and Gen get married today. They both share my love of candid photography, so were quite happy for me to bring my camera along and invade their personal space in order to frame my shot just right.

You wouldn't think it, but this was taken with Dogga's 17-40mm wide-angle lens, so I was only 10-20cm from Juan's face when I took this photo.

The wedding was held at Immaculate Conception in Hawthorn.

I love Gen's smile. It's very distinctive, but I have no idea where she got it from.

I didn't want to make a nuisance of myself for the professional photographers, so this is about as good as it got from me during the ceremony.

Gen's two sisters (above, on the flanks) formed a part of the bridal party. I can't remember who the other people are...

Dan, in my opinion, is perpetually dapper. He doesn't even try.

Much to the surprise and delight of onlookers, we took the train to the reception venue.

Ahh, weddings. The one day when it's not gross to make out in the middle of the street.

I included this one as it shows the back of Gen's dress, more than anything else.

quotes

2010-11-17T17:51:00.003+11:00

Nurse to the patient with bleeding haemorrhoids:
"Don't worry, we'll get to the bottom of it."

Intern meeting the ED consultant for the first time:
"Are you the fat controller, today?" (It was taken remarkably well)

Patient: "This rash on my scrotum is driving me nuts."

Triage nurse to mother of boy who had swallowed a dollar coin.
"If there is any change, bring him back."

Opening line in patient notes:
"Crazy old lady who lives alone with cats."

More to come.

2011

2010-11-11T15:33:00.003+11:00

It has just been finalised as to what I'll be doing next year.

I'm spending a year at Northeast Health Wangaratta, doing the following rotations (a total of 4 terms):

1) Obstetrics and Gynaecology
2) Obstetrics and Gynaecology
3) Emergency
4) Paediatrics

This is pretty well exactly the mix I was hoping for. The double O&G rotation means I could sit for a Diploma of Obstetrics (Dip Obs), which I'm keen to look in to. Women's health isn't a key area of interest for me per se, but becoming a qualified baby-catcher would be a great achievement, and very useful should I spend any time working overseas or in a remote area.

sufjan stevens tour dates announced

2010-11-11T15:19:00.002+11:00

Thanks to my brother Tim, who found this out via the ABC, Sufjan's dates have been announced:

Thursday 27th Jan - Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
Friday 28th Jan - Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
Saturday 29th Jan - (nothing yet announced)
Sunday 30th Jan - Tivoli Theatre, Brisbane
Monday 31st Jan - State Theatre, The Arts Centre, Melbourne
Tuesday 1st Feb - Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
Wednesday 2nd Feb - (nothing yet announced)
Thursday 3rd Feb - Regal Theatre, Perth

So it's a no brainer as to which cities I'll be in on what days, with the exception of the 29th Jan and 2nd Feb. I'm thinking if additional shows are added, they'd be in Brisbane and Perth, so I'll bank on that.

Here's hoping.

binary watch

2010-11-05T10:40:00.003+11:00

Not really helping my online shopping addiction, I stumbled across this watch today. If it were about $330 cheaper, I would totally buy it! Thankfully I'm not much of a fan of any of the same store's other products. Especially not their manbags. So my money is safe for now.

sufjan stevens coming to australia

2010-10-27T16:56:00.005+11:00

My good friend Mel told me just now that our beloved Sufjan is planning a trip to Australia.

So far, only one show in Adelaide has been leaked (his website has not verified this). I'm going. No really, I've bought tickets already. I'm going to drive to Adelaide for this show.

Anyone else coming?

farmer wants a wife

2010-08-28T21:46:00.001+10:00

working bee

2010-08-21T20:46:00.004+10:00

The horsey ards at Mill Valley Ranch have served us for many decades, but are now in need of some repairs. Of note, the wooden fence and its rubber lining have decayed with prolonged exposure to the elements. So a group of us gathered together to remove and replace them.

So it was out with the old...

...and in with the new.

Girls and boys alike pitched in to help where they could.

We had a whole range of skilled and unskilled workers coming out for the day, ranging from people like myself (left) with shamefully little experience; through to Duncan (right), who is a builder who runs his own business. Together, we put both the "power" and "tool", in powertool.

Chainsaws were used to trim the logs to size before slotting them together.

more spy lens photos

2010-08-21T15:17:00.000+10:00

So you might not love these photos as much as I do, but I'm putting them up anyway!

the super secret spy lens

2010-08-20T19:22:00.003+10:00

For quite a while, I've been wanting to try out photojojo's super-secret spy lens, a lens attachment that has a 45 degree mirror on it, perfect for candid photography.

I showed it to Em, who loved the idea, and thought it would make a great gift for Woz. So we bought one each.

They arrived today, and I just had to try it out. So here are a few of the shots we got.

Clearly it's not a professional-grade lens attachment. It's difficult to use, sits rather clumsily and only takes "clean" photos with lenses with a relatively narrow angle of view (or cameras with a cropped sensor).

It does, however, provide quite a bit of fun.

family walk up mount tout

2010-07-24T21:14:00.001+10:00

up close and personal

2010-07-24T16:38:00.001+10:00

getting plastered

2010-07-06T15:50:00.002+10:00

The building has progressed a great deal in the time from taking these photos to writing this post (27th Oct 2010), however, it is still worth sharing.

I happened to be around when Beau, Julian and Bruce were putting up the sheets of plaster in the family history room of the new building that they are working on.

It has only occurred to me now that I did nothing to offer to help, but they didn't seem to mind me taking a few photos nevertheless!

not dead yet

2010-06-20T18:42:00.006+10:00

Late on Thursday night, as I was driving through Yea, I came across a wombat in the centre of my lane. Knowing the worst thing you can do is swerve, I braced myself and hit him head-on.

I went back to check on him: he was certainly dead. Pupils fixed and dilated. No response to pain. No heart sounds, no breath sounds. Time of death: 0044 18/06/2010.
May his soul rest in peace.

And then I checked on my car. Bad news. It was haemorrhaging oil. By the time I pulled over, it had lost all but the small amount that was still on the engine parts - and that wouldn't last long.

So I left my car by the side of the road, grabbed all the valuables I could find, and headed into town to find a motel.

Thankfully there was one such motel, with one spare room.

The next morning, I called my folks, and mum came up with the ute and a hire trailer.

From there it was a full day, getting the car onto the trailer, the slow journey back home, and then returning the trailer to the service station before sundown. Repairing the car would have to wait for the next day.

Given that the car was devoid of oil, but the easiest way to get the car onto the trailer would be to drive it, I bought a bottle of the cheapest oil I could find and filled the car with it.

Measuring up the wheel spaces to get the perfect fit onto the trailer, I waited for a gap in the traffic, started it up and headed straight for the trailer.

The car had been running for only about 20 seconds, but that was time enough for it to lose most of the oil I had just poured in.

We secured the load, and hit the road.

Back home, I wasn't quite so cavelier when it came to moving the car. With Dad and Matt's help, we towed the car backwards onto the hoist, from which I was able to inspect the bottom of the car.

It turns out the sump, which I initially thought was the culprit, was fine. It was the oil cooler (above, centre) that was busted.

A tiny crack about 10mm long and 2mm wide in the base was responsible for hosing the oil out while the engine is running. Being made of aluminium, we didn't have the right welding consumables, so I sourced a replacement from the wrecker, popped it back in, and we were right as rain.

the best medicine

2010-06-16T23:28:00.004+10:00

I had a patient today who said he was allergic to honey.

"What kind of reaction do you have?" The nurse asked.

"I break out in hives."

prank pages

2010-06-09T15:12:00.004+10:00

Sent to the oncology resident:
"Pls call Dr C.Lion at the Austin, 92859300, re: oncology patient transfer."

Despite hearing promotions about seeing the new baby elephants, she persisted when put on hold. When she finally realised that she had the wrong number, she called the Austin and tried again.

"Pls review Mr Sauerkraut, 4N [ward 4 North], post-CABG. Feeling ill, looks green."

No biters with that one.

Sent to the social worker:
"Please call 2 South [paediatrics] re: Oliver Twist. Admitted overnight for exacerbation of croup. Now unable to discharge home as we have discovered he is an orphan and is becoming involved in petty crime."

He called 2 South.

steer riding

2010-05-30T23:55:00.002+10:00

A small crowd gathered at the ranch this weekend to do some steer riding. I was totally keen to join, until I had to sign the indemnity waiver, the fine print of which I could not agree to.

The other boys had fun anyway.

this is photobomb

2010-05-29T23:08:00.001+10:00

les misérables

2010-05-15T22:16:00.006+10:00

Warragul Theatre Company is an amateur theatre group that puts on about one show per year. This year, it was Les Misérables, and it also happened to be about the time of my birthday.

So mum and dad decided to take me to see it.

I must say, it was pretty darn spectacular. At first I was merely distracted by the protagonist's outrageous hair, but then when they I stopped and looked past that detail - or listened, rather - I realised that this was one spectacular show.

Until now, I hadn't realised that there is not one word of spoken dialogue. It's entirely song - and it's amazing! I now have a new favourite musical.

I was only able to get a few photos in before the usher told me to put the camera away. I don't know why they have such silly rules. I mean, what if I was just a family member, keen to preserve the memory of my brother's achievement? It's not like I was going to publish them anywhere.

Reuben and Esther's wedding

2010-05-08T21:58:00.001+10:00

This weekend I flew up to Townsville for a night. My cousin, Esther was married, and so I went up for her wedding. It was a great day, and I've finally culled my photos down from 1000-odd, to just over 150. So I'll share a few of them with you below. All of them can be found from my flickr profile, and if you wish, you can also download the full sized images from there.

newlyweds

2010-05-08T19:55:00.000+10:00

This couple, guests at my cousin Esther's wedding, have been married for only three weeks.

doogie howser

2010-05-01T23:03:00.003+10:00

Today I went to check on an elderly, demented patient who needed more analgesia for her fractured hip, for which she was awaiting an operation.

I'm not sure if it was my curly hair, or the shirt I was wearing, but somehow I managed to catch her attention before I had even managed to introduce myself.

Patient: "Who's that kid?"
Me: "I'm your doctor."
Patient: "Fancy that, being treated by a 12-year old!"
Patient's daughter: "He was a child prodigy."
Patient: "Oh, well isn't that nice?"

The next part of the conversation I found equally amusing.

"Are you in any pain?"
"No, why would I be in pain?"
(daughter chimes in) "She was complaining of pain just a few minutes ago."
"Why would I do that?"
"You broke your hip, mum."
"No, that doesn't feel too bad."
"Other hip, mum."
"Oooh. Gee, I guess you're right."

compus mentus

2010-04-06T18:56:00.006+10:00

I received a page at work today that simply read "94486".

I hate phone pages. They're the stuff of last century, well superseded by the text-based LAN (Local Area Network) pages. You know, the ones that read "Hi Ben, Patient x has a BSL of 21.2 Would you like to order some insulin? Lisa" or "Mrs Jones, BP 85/p, feeling light-headed, pls review ASAP. Jenny"

A LAN page allows you to prioritise. It also allows you to simply communicate, such as today:

Pharmacist: "Script sessions today at 2:30 on 4th floor. Susan and David"
Me: "No scripts to write today, so won't be attending script session"
David: "You can't be expected to write scripts if you don't have any patients."

Snap.

It's true. My patient load today was remarkably low. Two patients, three after lunch. Which brings me back to the phone page. I really had no excuse not to respond, so I called back straight away.

It was the pathologist (strange, I thought... I haven't ordered any investigations today that would get a response directly from a pathologist). Usually they won't call unless it's really important, such as a potassium of 9, and even then it's usually the scientist who works in the lab, not the pathologist. But he wasn't calling about any tests. He was calling about a patient I'd discharged last week.

"Do you remember (patient's name)?"
"Oh yes, he went home last week..."
"Well he's turned up here (in the morgue) - dead."
"Oh no." (I can't remember my exact response, but it was one of genuine sadness)
"I understand he discharged himself against medical advice?"
"Yeah, that's correct..."
"Can you tell me as much as you can remember about what brought him here?"

The next eight minutes or so was simply an exchange about the patient's medical history, why he had come, and what condition he was in when he left.

We hadn't managed to get very far with this gentleman before he decided he wanted to go home. We had our suspicions about what had made him so unwell. Smoking 50 cigarettes a day for the last 40 years, and not having seen a doctor for at least 20 were somewhere near the top of the list. But there were other things about his condition that may or may not have been related to the smoking that concerned us. However, when we started talking about needing to investigate further (while he was still alive), he flatly refused permission, so our hands were tied. He didn't even let us tell him our suspicions; and he didn't accept any medical treatment other than CPAP and oxygen. Even those he refused as soon as he was able to speak.

I expected him to become more unwell after leaving the hospital, and we warned him that he could die, but I honestly didn't expect death to come so quickly.

So, because a cause of death was not immediately clear, the death had to be reported to the Coroner.

That doesn't mean I'll be dragged into court for manslaughter. The patient clearly understood the implications of his refusal of medical care, and voluntarily took full responsibility for the outcome of such refusal. No, the coroner is involved in investigating virtually every death which was not expected to occur.

So why am I making such a fuss? Well, this is the first death I've seen where I've known the patient, tried my best to provide the best possible standard of care, and have still failed. Sure, I've seen patients die, but they've usually been patients whom I had never known before, who come into the emergency department by ambulance, already half-way to greeting St Peter; or patients on the ward who we expected to die soon, and who did not wish to be resuscitated. In these cases, we always do our best (whether it's for resuscitation or comfort), but if we're trying to save their life, we know that we're fighting a losing battle before we even begin.

This time around, we actually could have prevented him from dying. We had all the resources there to accurately diagnose his condition and provide the highest possible standard of care, be it curative or palliative - whichever would be most appropriate. But really, only if we had had the patient's permission. Provided that someone is compus mentus, which he was, then autonomy dictates that the patient decides what treatment they will and will not accept. Even if we all know that refusal of treatment will be fatal. So I was saddened by the death, but in reality I know that we all did our best to help him. I even found a GP that he said he would trust, convinced him to agree to see the patient, and phoned the patient the next day to make sure that he knew that this option was available.

The pathologist summed it up quite well: "You did your best, but he never was a fan of doctors"

the next rotation

2010-03-29T22:22:00.004+11:00

My world has, once again, been swept into chaos. It feels like only just last week I had finally begun to grasp the basic concepts of being a good emergency doctor when all of a sudden our security blankets have been ripped out from under us.

We've all been rotated to new departments. I've gone to the medical ward. Others have moved from medical to surgical, or vice versa. Others, still have gone to the emergency department after having been on the ward. And then there's the intern who goes to geriatrics.

Ok, so I'm using a bit of hyperbole, but it really is as though we've started a whole new job. New expectations, new levels of excitement, and new things to call mundane. No longer will I be treating the "I've come to the emergency department because my foot has been hurting for six months", but I will be writing notes on ward rounds, preparing discharge summaries, and rewriting drug charts. Of course, there will also be new things to call exciting, but it's much to early to know what they will be. So for now, I'm catching up on Season 1 of Scrubs after work, in order to get a better understanding of how to do my job well.

Oh, and happy birthday, mum!

MVR essentials

2010-03-08T22:08:00.000+11:00

This weekend. Mill Valley Ranch ran their biannual camp to upskill the voluntary staff. In addition to having plenty of teaching, it is also a fun, relaxing opportunity to catch up with our friends. Here are a few snapshots I thought I'd share.

There were plenty of quality sessions, run by MVR locals, as well as a few guest speakers from interstate.

The formal dinner is a regular highlight of weekends such as these.

The dining room was beautifully decorated with antique tablepieces on each table.

Relaxing outside between sessions.

supermassive downpour

2010-03-06T15:30:00.004+11:00

During the March staff training weekend at the Ranch, we had been informed of a large hailstorm that was on its way. One that had been reported to drop golfball-sized hail that broke windows, chipped cars, and even caved in a few house roofs.

We were just about to go for a swim in the lake when the lightning came from over the ridge. Having remembered something about water conducting electricity, we decided it would be best to head back to camp. We had just enough time to sneak a few cars under shelter when the downpour came. Although for us, while there was hail, it was mostly water. Just lots of it!

a lesson from the ED

2010-03-04T06:22:00.011+11:00

I understand if your response to this one is "TLDR" (too long, didn't read). It's more for the sake of a diary for me than it is a story for you, but read on if you dare.

Chloe (not her real name) presented to the ED with her husband, Marc (name also fictitious). Chloe had recently been diagnosed with gallstones, but was not able to control the pain with tramadol, which only took the edge off the pain, and made her very nauseous (a common side effect of this drug). She had been seen by one of my very competent colleagues three days earlier, and followed up through her GP with an ultrasound that found two large gallstones, although the gall bladder itself was not inflamed.

She was a classic case - "fair, fat, female, fertile and forty", with exquisite tenderness in the right upper quadrant (of her abdomen). She was fair skinned, obese, aged in her early forties, and her periods are regular - the last menstrual period was ten days ago, lasting six days. The only thing working against her fertility, per se, was the oral contraceptive pill.

Curiously, she had only first developed the pain three days ago, there was no association with food, and the only drug that we've given that has helped was morphine (which often causes the gall bladder to contract, making the pain of gallstones worse).

When I saw her, I noticed that of the drugs given, we hadn't tried an antispasmodic, which relaxes smooth muscle, of which the gall bladder is lined. An antispasmodic can often relieve the pain associated with a gall bladder contracting on hard stones.

Given that her pain was 6/10, and she was visibly distressed by the pain, I put up a bag of IV fluid with 20mg of hyoscine butylbromide added, with the plan to review her half an hour later and do a proper examination when her pain was under control. While I put the cannula in, I took bloods for LFTs (liver function tests, which can give a picture of where the stones are). My thought was that we should withhold the morphine for now, as I wanted to find an analgesic that worked for her that she could take from home. Hyoscine comes in tablet form, IV is faster, so I chose the latter while she was with us.

When I reviewed her, she was still in pain, although the pain was much better if she lay still, with her legs curled up. She was tender in the right upper quadrant, but she was also tender in the left and right iliac fossa (lower quadrant of abdomen), with guarding (involuntary contraction of the abdominal wall muscles to protect her from the assailant, me, who was poking her). I didn't test her for rebound tenderness, though I should have in hindsight. I discussed the case with the consultant, and we decided to give her some morphine after all, and some metoclopramide to control her nausea (both from the tramadol, and the nausea that I will cause her with morphine).

We also added an FBE (full blood exam - looks at the numbers of red cells, white cells and their composition), U&E (urea and electrolytes) and lipase (an enzyme that normally has very low levels in the blood, except in pancreatitis, which was one of our differentials) to the bloods. The FBE is in a different tube, so unfortunately for her, I had to do a venepuncture - and there I was trying not to waste resources! The other reason not to order unnecessary tests, is because of the question of what to do if one comes back abnormal. Is it related to the condition? Or is it going to be a red herring? Will you treat on an abnormal blood result alone, without any clinical suspicion? Investigations are only ever meant to be an adjunct to your clinical judgement, not instead of it.

As you may suspect, my fears were confirmed when we got a result I was not expecting. The FBE came back first, and her haemoglobin had dropped from 13.8 to 10.1 - in three days. This almost always indicates bleeding, and from those numbers it was roughly a litre of blood. But from where? And how was it related to the gallstones?

Occult (hidden) bleeding is most commonly from the bowel. Chloe had no symptoms that would suggest such a bleed, but we tested her for it anyway - which came back negative. She didn't even have any trace blood in her urine, though trace blood would be nowhere near enough for this kind of drop.

The rest of the bloods came back normal, including the liver enzymes, so we were back to square one. Severe pain, history of gallstones, and now occult bleeding. We decided to confirm every radiologist's nightmare by ordering a CT with so little clinical guidance that we may as well have written "my patient is broken" on the request slip. I noticed that we hadn't yet done a pregnancy test - always a good thing to confirm before you irradiate the contents of someone's uterus - so I handed her urine to the nurse while I gave Chloe the oral contrast for the scan.

The pregnancy test takes a few minutes, so we had some time to spare. I realised as I was handing Chloe a 1L bottle of liquid and a cup that I had no idea what this drink I was asking her to down would taste like. So I grabbed another cup for myself (only to taste a mouthful). Turns out it's not all that unpleasant, an aniseed-liquorice taste, but I can imagine you'd tire of it by the second cup, let alone the fifth. The taste also lingered for a good hour and a half afterwards.

I ducked out to see another patient, but didn't get very far before the aforementioned nurse came to find me. This is when the cowpat hit the windmill, so to speak. Chloe's pregnancy test was positive. Suddenly, the elephant in the room that we'd all failed to see for the 20mm stone was staring us in the face. Pregnancy explains everything. She was pregnant, yes, but it was almost certainly ectopic. This means it was lying outside of the uterus - something that is always fatal for the foetus, and unless treated, often fatal for the mother also.

The pregnancy had probably implanted in a fallopian tube, grown happily for a while until the sheer lack of elasticity caused problems for the rapidly growing foetus. Push comes to shove, and the tube bursts, causing pain and internal bleeding for the mother, and death for the child. Asking the lab to do some quantitative tests on the bloods we had sent up today and three days ago, showed that the foetus was failing to grow as you would expect for an intrauterine (normal) pregnancy. This made us very sure of what was going on.

I had to break the news to Chloe and Marc, and it's one of the hardest things I've had to do. This is especially because I knew that they would have been delighted with an intrauterine pregnancy, as although it wasn't the plan just yet (they are only newly married), they did want to have children very soon.

We did an ultrasound, which confirmed our diagnosis. A 30mm growth in the right fallopian tube. She went up to theatre that night for a salphingotomy/salphingectomy (cutting or removing the fallopian tube, respectively). Over the next few days she recovered and was discharged home. Unfortunately, I have no idea how they are now, so I can only assume that "no news" is "good news".

Three big lessons were learned today:

1. Don't take a previous diagnosis on face value. No matter that my colleague was much more capable than I, we still miss things, and I should have taken a step back and reconsidered her diagnosis, especially when it started to look very different from what gallstones usually look like.

2. Every woman of childbearing age who presents to the emergency department is pregnant until proven otherwise. That means anyone aged 10-60 should be asked if she's had a period in the last 12 months. If she has, and if it's relevant to her care, then you need to [do a test to] exclude pregnancy. It's a good idea to gain consent for the test first, for obvious reasons.

3. Every pregnant woman (as defined by the above rule) who has abdominal pain, has an ectopic pregnancy until proven otherwise. This doesn't mean ordering an ultrasound on everyone, it means considering the possibility of an ectopic, and if it cannot be ruled out on history or examination, then progressing to the appropriate investigations to do so.

stephen and claire's wedding

2010-02-20T20:58:00.006+11:00

danielle

2010-02-20T19:34:00.001+11:00

happy birthday brupa!

2010-02-16T20:46:00.004+11:00

Em, Woz and Nate are in town to celebrate Stephen and Claire's imminent marriage.

We were also gathering to celebrate someone's birthday, though I wasn't sure who. So when the cake came out, I leant across and asked dad discreetly "whose birthday are celebrating".

He leant back and whispered "mine".

Well, you can't win 'em all.

Uncle Matty found gold when he offered for Em and Nate to stay with him for two weeks before Woz arrived. Nate soon learned his name, and it set in. Whenever he saw me, he would yell out "Uncle Matty!"

And here we are, the entire family together in one photo. We haven't all been together for a photo like this since 2007.

a case of transient global amnesia

2010-02-14T20:33:00.009+11:00

"Why am I here?"
"Your husband was worried because you're confused."
"I'm not confused, I'm just Irish. Did my husband bring me here?"
"Yes. Now, can you tell me why you're here?"
"Oh... I wouldn't have a clue. Why am I here?"
"Your husband was worried because you're confused."
"I'm not confused, I'm just Irish. Did my husband bring me here?"
"Yes. Now, can you tell me why you're here?"
"Oh... I wouldn't have a clue. Why am I here?"
"Your husband was worried because you're confused."
"I'm not confused, I'm just Irish. Did my husband bring me here?"
"Yes."
"Oh, you're a nice doctor. I'd have you for a song! Why am I here?"
"Your husband was worried because you're confused."
"I'm not confused, I'm just Irish. Did my husband bring me here?"
"Yes. Now, can you tell me why you're here?"
"I wouldn't have a clue. Oh, I'd have you as my doctor any day! Why am I here?"

Best consultation EVER.

Canon's next consumer-level DSLR

2010-02-10T10:15:00.006+11:00

Canon have just announced their soon-to-be-released EOS 550D (Rebel T2i in the States), a consumer-level Digital SLR that looks to competitively expand the capabilities of the low-end camera market. I'd be interested to see how it fares against my high-end, but 2-years-older 5DmkII. With a redesigned APS-C sensor, DIGIC 4 processor, ISO 6400 support and HD video (with selectable framerates), among other features, I'm sure it will cause a stir.

No details on the price yet, but I'd take a punt around the AU$1,500 mark for the body only (Australian stock).

Sources:

http://www.canon.co.uk/About_Us/Press_Centre/Press_Releases/Consumer_News/Cameras_Accessories/EOS_550D_Press_Release.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_EOS_550D

the first week - survived!

2010-01-23T11:36:00.002+11:00

I love my job.

Come Monday afternoon (when I started), I was terrified! Thankfully that only lasted a few hours, and by my third or fourth patient I was well into the swing of things. Of course, I can't tell you about any of my patients, but what I can tell you is how I felt. It's been fun, exciting, scary and sad. I've never been so worried in my life, and I've never felt so useful. I've also had plenty of time to feel quite useless. I've felt both very smart, and very stupid.

On at least one occasion, I felt all of these at exactly the same time.

a new era

2010-01-17T21:32:00.003+11:00

Firstly I apologise for my lack of correspondence lately. Holidays, it seems, get incredibly busy! I'd been trying to keep things in chronological order, so not posting anything until I've caught up with all of the things that occured prior to that, but I've decided now to simply start fresh from now, and update the things over the last two months when I can. Those of you who subscribe to an RSS feed won't be fazed, but I know it is annoying for those who rely on seeing something new on the page itself.

So here I am in Ballarat, the night before my first shift as a real doctor. Oh that's scary! Last week we had an orientation period. Essentially this meant we were taught things like how the drug charts, pathology requests, radiology requests, outpatient clinics, and other things that we do each day work here. Each hospital has it's own slant on things, you see, so it's never universal. We also scrubbed up on our knowledge of some basic procedures such as suturing, gowning and gloving, getting IV access and basic and advanced life support. They talked to us about time management, mentoring opportunities and how the (very confusing) payroll system works. It was a great few days, and surprisingly very tiring. We also spent a few hours in the departments that we'll first be rotated to, and did some specific orientation there.

Tomorrow is when the rubber really hits the road. I'll be actually doing the doctor thing - for real. Seeing patients, working up the diagnosis and implementing the treatment plan and/or referral. I'll be in the emergency department, where anything - ANYthing can walk through the door. It's both very exciting, and extremely terrifying. But we're well supported. For at least the first three weeks, we'll run everything by one of the consultants, and after the first three weeks, that period of close supervision can be extended at either party's discretion. Even still, we won't ever be expected to manage complex things on our own. Gone are the days when the intern is left to run the hospital overnight. We've also been told over and over that no question is too dumb - and we can call for advice no matter what time of the day or night. So that's a great comfort!

Nevertheless, my nerves are running high. So for those of you who pray, I'd really appreciate your prayers. Otherwise, wish me (and my patients) luck!

canadians at christmas

2009-12-25T15:52:00.006+11:00

This year, Matt's Canadian friends Thomas and Kiah (above, in reverse order) joined us for Christmas day. We had a fairly traditional Christmas (for us), only with slightly less excitement than I remember 15 years ago.

The major variation on the theme, though, was that not all of the family who were in Australia stayed at mum and dad's. So we left he gift-giving until after church, when we had all managed to gather together.

Matt gave the Canadians a footy.

We went for a ride on the T-model.

And took turns to drive (it's a LOT harder than you would expect).

Finally, we went up to Andy's house for dinner.

carols by candlelight

2009-12-24T22:08:00.001+11:00

This week, Aaron organised a gathering for the Carols by Candlelight dress rehearsal at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

Several years in a row I've known friends to go to this show. I had heard it was a great budget option - all the bells and whistles of the real show, but at the cost of a gold coin donation.

I'm not sure whether it was just this year's rehearsal that was a little slow, or if my expectations were too high, but there sure was a lot of waiting in between performances.

Nevertheless, we found ways to entertain ourselves.

The strange thing is, apparently my camera was not allowed - others with lower-end models were turned back. I suspect because they didn't want any photos of the ceremony leaking prior to Christmas day. Somehow I got away with it.

mere meerkat

2009-12-23T17:01:00.001+11:00

roundup 5! 4! 3!

2009-12-20T12:39:00.005+11:00

This week at the Ranch, it was Roundup 543, December Open. Dogga and I came along to make a video, and played on the "543" theme to introduce each day by counting in, as is normally done off-set.

These images are not strictly in chronological order. If you hover over the images, you'll see that both Dogga's 40D and my 5D were used over the weekend. We did almost all of the filming on my 5D. The only exception was some of the footage from the first night, as we were not sure how my camera's microphone would perform. After we went home to put together that night's footage, we saw the quality of the 5D and never looked back.

Unfortunately the video is too large to upload to flickr, youtube or vimeo, but I'm thinking I might separate it into each day and upload them.

Rachel and Millie.

As seems to be a welcome tradition for the December camps, it bucketed down rain on Wednesday. The kids, as usual, went nuts playing in the water.

Dogga took this one of Mitch with his 40D. The cropped sensor has really complimented the composition, I think.

I fell in love with Dogga's 17-40mm lens this week - especially on a full-frame camera. It has great clarity, is sufficiently fast for indoor use (f/4.0), and the fisheye effect is acceptably mild, even at 17mm.

jesse mitchell at escobar

2009-12-09T23:05:00.000+11:00

Brother Matt is a member of Jesse Mitchell's band, Jesse Mitchell, and has been playing a few gigs lately. Tonight a small group of us came along to hear them play at the Escobar on Lonsdale street in Melbourne.

aimee's tea party, mark II

2009-12-07T17:53:00.009+11:00

Aimee once again hosted a tea party this afternoon, with quite a few more blokes than were expected turning up. At one stage, greater than half. My friend Gen, from Wangaratta, had shown me a film when I was up there called Before Sunrise.

It's an excellent film, and I've been recommending it to many people.

These were the latest crowd that I subjected to it.

As is usual fare for these parties, it was accompanied by a great deal of sweets and savouries, and a large assortment of teas. Always a winning combination.

Oh, and we had good company.

matt and aaron's pizza party

2009-12-06T17:37:00.004+11:00

graduation

2009-12-05T22:31:00.003+11:00

The date for our graduation has finally come. Today is when we come back to where it all started (when we enrolled) - Wilson Hall, to finish our student life with a graduation ceremony.

The practical application of this is that we all get a piece of paper with our names on it that says "Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery", and some of us also get one that says "Bachelor of Medical Science".

Contrary to popular belief, this does not yet make us doctors. To gain that title, we have a registration ceremony on Monday. There, we will be provisionally registered (as we must do an intern year before full registration), and I'll finally be legitimately called "Dr Benny".

This shot I'm particularly proud of, and at the same time can't claim much credit for. I swapped cameras this weekend with Dogga, as he was taking some family photos and could make much better use of my 5DmkII than me. So I was using his 40D, and after adjusting the settings, I quickly looked through the viewfinder and took a sample shot to test it, using Benny as my subject. This is what came out!

happy birthday danielle

2009-12-03T22:57:00.002+11:00

Tonight we celebrated Danielle's birthday at one of the restaurants in Berwick. She had a huge turnout - around 25 or so, and so was able to book out the top floor. We shared an enormous banquet dinner, and then enjoyed one of Sharon's famous cakes.

summer staff training

2009-11-28T20:15:00.008+11:00

This weekend at Mill Valley Ranch, we had Summer Staff Training. This is a weekend when the voluntary staff come to brush up on their skills, catch up with friends, and hear some great teaching.

Wally was our keynote speaker this weekend. He came from............ and spoke on......

Naomi, Eleanor and Sally relaxing on the grass.

Jordy came down from Youth For Christ in Adelaide this weekend to see how things run down here, and to share some of the things he does.

One of his passions is in dance (hip hop), so during one of the elective sessions he ran a dance workshop.

Soda up was again a popular game. The basic premise of the game is to smash cans with a baseball bat, run around, shake up some cans, and race to drink said shaken cans.

On Saturday night we had the formal dinner. The kitchen staff spent the afternoon decorating the dining hall, while the rest of us spent between 2 minutes and 2 hours (median = 20 minutes) getting dressed up for the evening.

As we expected, it was a great weekend. All of encouraging, fun and enjoyable.

waratah bay

2009-11-25T22:12:00.005+11:00

This week, a few of us boys went down to Waratah bay, where Stefan had hired a house.

We travelled down as a group, playing games like "I spy", "Counting Windmills", "Spot the Speed Camera" and "Hey Cow!"; and singing along to our favourite Rolf Harris, Franciscus Henri, Colin Buchanan and Beach Boys songs.

Our plan was to get there fast, and then take it slow.

Our beach house was barely 100m from the shore, so we were able to walk down there at our leisure. The beach provided spectacular sunsets each night, which we made the most of with our 40D and 5DmkII, especially with Dogga's 17-40mm L series lens.

Hover over the images with the mouse to see what camera, lens and settings were used.

Matty brought down his game Flick It, which we played on the grass between the house and the beach.

We came across this baby seal when we were visiting a nearby beach. He appeared rather friendly, reaching up to touch Matt's hand with his teeth and rolling in the water, but he drew the line when we invited him to go clubbing with us.

rcs graduation dinner

2009-11-21T19:28:00.000+11:00

To celebrate our imminent graduation from the Rural Clinical School, the school held for us a graduation dinner. Remarkably, all of the graduating class of 2009 were able to come to the evening.

Mum and Dad came with me for the evening. This year the dinner was held in Ballarat. The three sites (Wang, Ballarat and Shepparton) take turns each year to host the dinner.

Here was our semester 8-9 group, together again for probably the last time in a while.

Neils and Benny.

Lara (centre) was credited with the ingenious idea of getting a signature bear for each student, and dressing them up in surgical scrubs. Throw in a few marker pens, and you've got yourself a hit!

rotary dinner

2009-11-19T21:06:00.000+11:00

Sarah, right, is involved with the local rotary; and received an invitation on behalf of all of the med students to come to one of their barbeques. As nothing is very far away in Wangaratta, we walked, enjoying the late Spring warmth on the way.

As always, I took my camera along for the ride. The photos that you see are more a reflection of who I was comfortable photographing without consent, rather than us being cliquey.

The owner of the house lives on the bank of one of the many creeks that run through Wang. Sadly they had to build a concrete flood barrier along the length of the creek, so they lost much of their garden, but this set of steps still allows you to walk freely between sides, and provides a nice viewing platform for the paddocks that lie out west of the creek.

finished!

2009-11-18T16:39:00.001+11:00

We've finally finished all of our exams. Now it's just the anxious wait to see if we get a phone call to come back to resit an exam, but with our examiners (who determine our mark on the spot) having farewelled us with "Enjoy your holidays", I think we can safely hope that we have all made it through.

The photos from dinner didn't turn out so well, so unfortunately none of those shown in these photos are from our year level... but they celebrated with us anyway!

declan's dedication

2009-11-17T15:43:00.010+11:00

Today we had Declan's dedication ceremony at church.

This basically means that Ash and Hannah, Declan's parents, vowed to raise him in a Christian home, and the rest of the church vowed to support them in that. Afterwards a few dozen of us went to one of the parks in Drouin for a BBQ lunch to celebrate.

Ellie greets Matt, her favourite Weatherhead, with enthusiasm.

dan's ray-bans

2009-11-14T15:50:00.003+11:00

setting up the frame

2009-11-14T15:48:00.001+11:00

happy birthday mel!

2009-11-09T13:51:00.003+11:00

Today was Mel's birthday, and so to celebrate we met for breakfast at the Kallista tea rooms in, well, Kallista.

We went for breakfast, so paradoxically no tea was involved.

Afterwards we wandered through the market, though none of us actually committed to buying anything.

Mel (not the birthday girl... another Mel) took most of these photos, using my camera.

moovin health ball 2009

2009-11-06T21:43:00.003+11:00

I very nearly didn't come along to this year's ball. I'm fairly introverted, so often tire of events such as these shortly after the entrée has been served. The selling point however, was that Benny offered to loan me his 50mm prime lens (f/1.8) for the evening.

This lens is far better suited to low light conditions than my 24-105mm f/4.0, as it allows two and a third stops more light in (which, according to my calculations is five times more light). The f/1.4 50mm prime is the next lens on my list to buy.

The ball was held in Mooroopna, a slight variation from the traditional Shepparton

Each year there is a slave auction in two parts. There is a live auction of some of the prominent people, such as Prof. Bill Adam's coveted pavlova making lesson, and then there is a silent auction for a few dozen other items.

This part of the action, however, was far from silent!

a day at the races

2009-11-03T12:43:00.008+11:00

On the first Tuesday of November, we hold the Wangaratta Cup. Thousands of people come to the showgrounds for an impressive community event as the whole spread from horse-lovers to the horsey-indifferent get together to dress up, enjoy the Wangaratta sun, and watch the ponies run around the course.

I hear there is also a similar event in Melbourne on the same day.

Sarah H and Katrina (above), and Laura, Zoe, Ella and Mel (right).

I heard on the grapevine (and from people's display pictures on facebook) that overhead shots are back in - so I thought I'd give it a go myself!

Ray catches the early stages of Dave's mo for Movember.

One big part of the day is the "fashions on the field". The men's category often struggles to find worthy candidates, but the same can not be said for the women. For such candidates, the competition is fierce.

Matt borrowed my camera to spy this photo of Zoe's hair from behind. It's certainly one of my favourites.

The semester 12 group in Wangaratta. Benny, Ella, Zoe, Liz, Laura and Ben (me).

stormy night

2009-11-02T23:28:00.002+11:00

Taken at 10:32:58pm. An extremely active storm blew past us tonight, just missing us by a few kilometres. Sadly, the rain missed us also. It did, however, give us a great opportunity to climb onto the roof and get some great photos.

Taken at 10:33:07pm. This progression of photos is a small sample of what I took that night. I've never taken photos of a storm before (except for one embarrassing attempt), so it was very experimental.

Taken at 10:43:11pm. The only lighting provided was that from the moon, diffracted through the clouds, a few houses, a streetlight and the lightning itself.

Taken at 11:08:49pm. Hovering the mouse over this one, you'll see that I managed to produce the daylight-like exposure simply by having the shutter open for over two minutes.

You can view the other photos in the series by going to my flickr page. Simply click on one of the images above, and scroll through the photostream that appears to the right of it.

farwell bbq

2009-11-02T20:40:00.003+11:00

This week is the last week that the interns will be in the hospital, before they will rotate with another group. We'll also be finishing up on Friday, however we will be hanging around to complete our exams over the ten days that follow. So, in Rural Clinical School tradition, we called together a barbeque to bid them fairwell.

Nisa (ED) and Bella (Med 1).

Mel, Kelsey, Laura and Bec. Being cup weekend, a few of us also had extra visitors coming up to stay. Some of you will recognise Mel, who did semester 8 with us, before taking a year off to travel.

I'm afraid I didn't manage to catch too many more photos from this evening, as I was distracted by lightning, just a few kilometres away on the Northern horizon. Benny and I then climbed up on the roof to get a better view, and try to catch it on camera.

wangaratta festival of jazz

2009-11-01T19:06:00.002+11:00

Reid Street, Wangaratta, has been closed off this weekend for the Jazz tent, a free event in which a long lineup of bands take to the stage to perform for the public. Their is covered seating in the middle of the road, stretching the entire block. The cafés lining the street pull out all of the stops to cater for the crowds. In addition to this, street vendors line up along where all of the cars would normally be parked.

optical allusion

2009-10-31T21:10:00.000+11:00

john gehrig winery

2009-10-31T13:34:00.004+11:00

oxley market

2009-10-31T12:55:00.006+11:00

The Wangaratta Festival of Jazz is now in full swing! A small troupe of us headed down to Oxley to check out their annual Bush Market before eventually heading back to Wang for some Jazz.

At last I can introduce to you Matt, the latest of our visitors from Seattle, Washington. Matt is a final year medical student at the University of Washington, who has come here for his elective placement. As far as we can tell, his timing with the Jazz festival was not intentional, but fortuitous nevertheless.

We managed to convince Matt to buy the hat, thankfully however, we weren't so successful with the parasol!

down by the river

2009-10-30T14:51:00.011+11:00

This afternoon after school, a few of us gathered down by the river, where the Ovens and King rivers meet. It's a very popular spot for the locals to swim, with a very good reason. It has a natural beach, does not have too strong a current for children, and the characteristics of two rivers allows you to choose your water temperature based on where between them you swim.

The Ovens River feeds mostly from the melted snow off the mountains, and with larger volume than the King, so when it reaches Wangaratta it is still quite cool. The King River flows more slowly and is more shallow, so it is noticeably warmer. The only problem is, from the beach you must first swim through the Ovens' flow before you can reach the water from the King River!

Dan, here has... well... very unique skin! It requires only very minor trauma (such as rubbing with a fingernail, or, as seen here, the slap of a hand) to produce a marked inflammatory response. The skin becomes raised and reddened, very quickly. Fortunately for him, it does not itch. So it simply provides entertainment for him and us - as you can draw or write, and the image remains for a good half hour.

This bulldog pup was one of the locals' pets. That is all :)

grand round

2009-10-28T20:10:00.001+11:00

At most hospitals, there is a regular Grand Round, where a guest speaker or two is invited to share on a topic of interest. The event is usually catered, and the food can get quite fancy.
Student attendance is often very high.

So tonight, we had our monthly Grand Round. Dr Leonard Wu presented a case study on a rare form of breast cancer.

model students

2009-10-28T19:48:00.003+11:00

Not posed, although two students' faces were substituted into this photo from one three frames forward (in which they were smiling), using GIMP Portable.

While this photo wasn't posed per se, Andy and Gus both knew very well that I was pointing the camera at them.

dinner @ tread

2009-10-28T18:31:00.003+11:00

1830s vintage muzzle loaded rifle

2009-10-25T17:26:00.000+11:00

This weekend, dad brought out an antique shotgun that he keeps locked away, to test it out. We developed a new appreciation for how hard it must have been to hunt duck in those days, as loading and even firing the rifle was very laborious.

First you pour in the black powder.

Then you pack it down with a wad...

...using a copper-tipped ram.

Then you pour in the shot, and pack that down with a wad again.

Put a percussion cap on the firing mechanism, cock and...

Fire!

buttongrass track

2009-10-25T16:28:00.000+11:00

inebriated teetotaller

2009-10-25T14:23:00.001+11:00

Dad spotted this koala at the bottom of our driveway. In my memory, we've never had a koala so close to our house. Only recently, 15 koalas were placed in the nearby Bunyip State Park, in an attempt to repopulate the area. We can only guess that this one was either trying to find his way home, or searching for a suitable place and a suitable mate to make the most of the relocation.

As for the title, it's probably a little too obscure, so I'll explain. Reading up on koalas, I noticed two things:

The name koala, is believed to be from the Dharuk gula, meaning "doesn't drink".^1,2 This is, in fact erroneous, as they do drink water occasionally.¹
Popular culture would have you believe that koalas spend most of their lives drunk from the fermentation of eucalyptus. This is also not true.¹ They simply have a very low metabolic rate,² similar to the sloth, and so spend most of their day sleeping while they digest their food, not from intoxication.

References:

new! now with EXIF data!

2009-10-14T18:25:00.004+11:00

As my blog transitions more and more from a written diary to a photo journal, I've observed that one thing I always appreciate in other photo journals is when the photographer publishes the data on the camera and the settings used. In virtually every digital photo, the image comes packaged with this information as a part of the file. It's called EXIF (Exchangeable Image File) data.

So I've decided to start extracting it, and making it visible on the blog, for the sake of other photographers who might wonder how I produced a particular photo. I've been doing this for a few weeks now. You can find it by hovering the mouse over each image.

taboo

2009-10-10T21:42:00.000+11:00

the wangaratta show

2009-10-10T17:59:00.005+11:00

I took this photo using manual focus, after auto-focusing to where the arm of the ride would swing out. If I had my time again, I would have made sure it focused on the spot where the girl in the centre of the image is. If she weren't out of focus, this would be one of my favourite photos I've taken so far. I have no idea who the people on the ride are.

This weekend was home to the annual Wangaratta Show. Farmers and carnies alike made their pilgrimage to the showgrounds for competitions, rides, and agricultural displays.

The show had a wide variety of games and rides, as every show is wont to do. As it turns out, my suggestion to "meet at the dodgem cars" wasn't such a bright idea... as there were two sets of them.

My inner ear cannot tolerate rides such as these, which is why I was happy to take photos of Dan and Sarah as they whizzed around on it instead.

Being an agricultural show, there were plenty of animals who came along to be judged.

On both Friday and Saturday, there was a motorbike stunt show. After jumping through this burning placard, the rider jumped over the helicopter in the background, while the rotors were turning.

slog to sale 2009

2009-10-03T10:55:00.008+10:00

This weekend we had the annual Slog to Sale, raising money for the 4C's food bank in Pakenham. Three friends from Wang, Dave, Ali and Dan came along this time, and together we made up a four-strong Wangaratta crew. I say "strong" rather facetiously, as I didn't actually make it past Traralgon. The other three, however, battled 35km/h headwinds (and 48km/h gusts), and pushed on for the entire 160km.

From Traralgon onwards, I joined the renowned Media Crew. While I wish I could have ridden further, with my level of training (10-minute rides to and from the hospital each day), and the weather conditions, trudging into Traralgon was an achievement in itself. And I spent the rest of the day taking photos!

happy birthday dan

2009-10-01T15:48:00.005+10:00

Dan was delighted to be presented with this amazing four-tiered cake for his birthday today.

Nat was the creative force behind the cake, though the inspiration behind the impressive colour theme is a mystery.

the happy helmet camera mount

2009-10-01T11:52:00.007+10:00

I found this via the photojojo website. I'm not much in to point-and-click photography these days, but with the slog to sale coming up I would love to have one. It's a pity I didn't discover it just a week earlier (in time for delivery). Then again, at a price of US$25+ for what would probably have turned out to be a once-off gimmick, I've probably just saved myself some cash!

impromptu dinner party

2009-09-26T20:54:00.000+10:00

This weekend, Tim and Katie went down to Tynong North to watch the grand final with dad. Matt and I came along also, as did Nanny.

Katie also came down to visit, so we decided that seeing as we already had a small crowd, we should send out some invitations to see if anyone else wanted to come for dinner.

We managed to muster 20 people in all, which presented quite a challenge for catering! With mum out visiting Em, Woz and Nate (in Libya), we had to fend for ourselves. We banded together, and managed to provide a perfectly cooked roast, plus dessert.

After dinner, we reclined and played some games.

Balderdash was the favourite - although as we got progressively more tired, less and less clever responses continued to seem more and more funny.

Liz, struggling to maintain composure as she reads out the entries during her round. One of the funniest parts was when Matt kept writing movie plots, regardless of the category (a word, an acronym, a date, etc).

Afterwards, Nanny commented to me that she thought that it was great that we could have a night where young people could get together to have "good, clean fun".

Rilka later said "I don't think I've laughed so much in my life!"

chuck another shrimp on the barbie

2009-09-24T19:19:00.001+10:00

This evening we all banded together to share a barbeque dinner. Corey and Gus watched over the barbie, while several others pitched in with salads, desserts and home brewed beer. A few of the junior doctors at the hospital were able to join us for the evening, although some, of course, had to work.

Dave and Ali, friends of mine from church, also came along (on my invitation... they didn't just rock up, although that would have also been fun). That's Dave and Ali on the right. Jane, on the left, is one of the semester 8 students.

brother tim

2009-09-23T13:20:00.004+10:00

My brother Tim is on school holidays at the moment (in case you were wondering, he's a teacher), so he decided to take a day out to drive up to Wang and visit me for a few hours. His wife, Katie, is currently working in Wallan, so he decided to drop her off, meet me for lunch, then drive back in time to pick her up from work.

Made for a pretty good lunch break, if you ask me!

vespa

2009-09-20T12:29:00.005+10:00

My brother, Tim (above right), recently bought a new Vespa, and dropped by Pakenham this afternoon to visit, seeing as Stephen is still in town. Nanny thought that she'd test it out, although she stopped short of actually turning the throttle!

Claire (left) was happy to appreciate it from a distance, while Matty (below) actually took it for a test drive.

Me? I just took pictures.

stephen and claire's engagement party

2009-09-19T21:31:00.006+10:00

This evening we celebrated Stephen and Claire's engagement. Stephen is currently working overseas, but will be returning to marry Claire early next year.

Sharon, Stephen's older sister, and Michael, a friend from church organised all of the catering. As is always the case when these two cater for a party, the food was a big hit.

Bonnie was one of the many volunteers who waited on us. I say "waited" rather facetiously, as the quality of the food meant that it was always in very high demand. Stand any more than 5 metres from where the girls refilled the trays, and you would be the ones doing the waiting most of the time.

If you'd like to see more photos from the night, they can be viewed here. You may download them in their original size (5616 x 3744), or scaled down (multiple options). Some rights reserved.

lunch at the villa

2009-09-13T19:57:00.002+10:00

This afternoon, after church, a small group of us went to The Villa for lunch. Mel, Claire and Wendy live there, and for those who know Scott and Sharon, it's the house that they are renting out.

I've written this account over a fortnight later (backdated to the correct date), so I can remember few details, but I'll share with you a few of the photos. Here Bonnie is enjoying her tea.

Claire strikes a pose in what was, from memory, a self portrait. In the very least I can't take credit for the photo.

Sarah and Liz. We played a few games after lunch, as Mel is very good at supplying games! It was not too long, though, before I had to "rush off" back to Wangaratta with the goal to get there before midnight. I could never be a truck driver, as I tend to take my time when travelling!

splash!

2009-09-12T23:15:00.001+10:00

Emma, at Mill Valley Ranch.

poser

2009-09-12T22:44:00.000+10:00

Mel and Finn at Mill Valley Ranch

truck stop

2009-09-12T22:36:00.000+10:00

digital SLR party

2009-09-12T20:01:00.004+10:00

This weekend, Matt, Mel, Tegan, Rilka and I gathered for the first of what will hopefully be many camera parties. We are all strictly Canon people, owning models ranging from 400D to 5DmkII, and several lenses between us. Being a pilot daytrip, I didn't have too much idea of where we would go or what we would photograph. Matt had plenty of good ideas, however. Between his suggestions, and the locations on the farm and at the Ranch, we had plenty of good subjects. The following photos (above) are a sample of some of my favourites.

inspired

2009-09-10T21:29:00.004+10:00

Toronto Lightning Storm from Sam Javanrouh on Vimeo.

This is a composite of 347 frames, shot on a Canon 5DmkII with a Sigma 12-24mm lens, using 15 second exposures at f8, in 17 second intervals.

All I need now is a storm of my own.

flickr

2009-09-09T20:21:00.003+10:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Over the next few weeks I'll be uploading all of my photos to flickr, both for the convenience of having online access to my photos, but mostly as an offsite backup. You can view my public photo galleries at http://www.flickr.com/photos/benweatherhead/.

If you'd like to browse all of my photos, email me, and once I've figured it out myself I'll let you know how to gain access. My email address is my name at gmail.com

rock on

2009-09-06T16:27:00.002+10:00

brother matt

2009-09-06T16:11:00.000+10:00

twitter

2009-09-05T14:41:00.001+10:00