Ka- POW

Bec, as promised, here are some photos of my Mum's pet chooks. The fluffy one on the left is Sydney (a Silky) and the other one is Star (a Silver Spangled Hamburg).


No I didn't make up the name of the latter breed. It really does exist. :-)

And below shows their fighter nature. Not surprisingly, they both ended up being roosters and had to go back to my Uncle's farm, unfortunately. I hear they are both quite happy there though. :-)

Babies

In the last few weeks four baby girls have entered the world.

Congratulations to my workmate Grant and his wife Eldene on the birth of their daughter Adyson, born on the 24th January.

And a BIG congratulations to my workmates Macky and Aleks on the birth of their triplets - Klaudia, Amelia and Charlotte, born yesterday.

We wish them all the best. :-)

They made me do it

We have moved over to the new blogger system. Fingers crossed everything will be where it should be!!

Dentistry is fun

Woohoo.
I survived my first week back. We start a lot earlier than the rest of the uni people(with the exception of the med students) and this week has been pretty full on. We have at least 35 hours of contact time a week and a lot of it is repetitive with 2 whole days a week on anatomy involving 6 hours of lectures and 10 hours of prac. We are working with a cadaver at the moment and are removing his scalp to get access to the face a bit further down. A bit gross for most people but some people I am sure will know what I am talking about. No one has been really queasy in the anatomy pracs with the exception of one girl who faints all the time. She fainted in the intro prac when they were telling us about the rules and there was no gory stuff around. She also fainted way back in O-week last year at an info session. She is very slight and only 17 or so and everyone thinks it is probably lack of food before classes that causes the fainting.
This week I have had my first go at the drills, learning the different sized burs and different speed handpieces for different things. The water/air squirter is pretty cool. Lots of technology in dentistry which is another cool thing for me.
To those out there reading this do not be too amused at what I am writing next. We are paying good HECS or PELS or whatever they call it to spend time assembling model cars in one subject. The only catch is we are using dental wax instead of glue to stick it all together. Some of the skills seem a bit distant to those of a dentist, but you can see they are developing our manual skills as we go. I was putting the engine together and it was so fiddly when the pieces are about a 10th the size of my fingernail. I wonder if my ample sized hands will be a disadvantage. The demonstrators warned a lot of people that their marks will drop from the sevens they are used to to maybe 3s or 4s . They said some people cry. The whole academic thing needs to be matched with the manual skills and that sometimes seems a bit scary.
We had a 2 hour lecture today on the anatomy of teeth. I'm sure some people would say why, but I was amazed how much detail we are supposed to know. We had a prac trying to identify different teeth, and for some it was easy such as your incisor but the difficulty comes when you work out whether it is upper or lower or left or right. We have to know the number of cusps, roots, grooves etc and it is hard to know straight away what is going on. It is all a bit much the first week back. Normally you would expect a bludge the first week but not this time.
They keep asking us to fork out money for kits, textbooks and the cycle seems neverending. $400 for an operative kit with a couple of things in it,$200 for teeth models, etc, etc- silly stupid heads. And we have to pay hecs on top of all these miscellaneous fees. Worst thing is I'd just finished paying hecs from my first degree.
Only one week down and 4 years to go.

If anyone reading this has any form of a color atlas of anatomy (I know I spelt color wrong- silly American spelling) with the big pictures of dissected things that you would be willing to loan or sell to me please let us know.
Hope everyone else is having as much fun as me.
We are getting up at 4.30am to go kayaking tomorrow and have a 30th birthday party to go to tomorrow night so I will forget about uni for a couple of days and take it easy.
I would love to say that I'm studying now, but alas I am watching Tv and having a beer.
Geoff

:-)

WICOE

(Women In Charge Of Everything)

is proud to announce the opening of its

EVENING CLASSES FOR MEN!

OPEN TO MEN ONLY

ALL MALE FORM WELCOME

Note: due to the complexity and level of difficulty, each course will accept a maximum of eight participants. The course covers two days, and topics covered in this course include:

DAY ONE HOW TO FILL ICE CUBE TRAYS

Step by step guide with slide presentation

TOILET ROLLS- DO THEY GROW ON THE HOLDERS?

Roundtable discussion

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LAUNDRY BASKET & FLOOR

Practicing with hamper (Pictures and graphics)

DISHES & SILVERWARE; DO THEY LEVITATE/FLY TO KITCHEN SINK OR DISHWASHER BY THEMSELVES?

Debate among a panel of experts

REMOTE CONTROL

Losing the remote control - Help line and support groups

LEARNING HOW TO FIND THINGS

Starting with looking in the right place instead of turning the house upside down while screaming - Open forum

DAY TWO

EMPTY MILK CARTONS; DO THEY BELONG IN THE FRIDGE OR THE BIN?

Group discussion and role play

HEALTH WATCH; BRINGING HER FLOWERS IS NOT HARMFUL TO YOUR HEALTH PowerPoint presentation

REAL MEN ASK FOR DIRECTIONS WHEN LOST

Real life testimonial from the one man who did

IS IT GENETICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO SIT QUIETLY AS SHE PARALLEL PARKS?

Driving simulation

LIVING WITH ADULTS; BASIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN YOUR MOTHER AND YOUR PARTNER

Online class and role playing

HOW TO BE THE IDEAL SHOPPING COMPANION

Relaxation exercises, meditation and breathing techniques

REMEMBERING IMPORTANT DATES & CALLING WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE

Bring your calendar or PDA to class

GETTING OVER IT; LEARNING HOW TO LIVE WITH BEING WRONG ALL THE TIME
Individual counsellors available

Kayaking 101

What a great idea it seemed at the time, buying a kayak. When you read the guidebooks they say it is just a short paddle and is full of enjoyment. They dont tell you that when you are paddling into the wind and against the tide you need to multiply the distances by about a 1000.










A couple of hundred metres in a kayak seems to equal the same intenstity as if you had walked several kilometres. At least at this stage of becoming one with the kayak.



Today we got up at 5am to go for a paddle in Currumbin Creek. It is weird seeing all these super buff oldies doing tough laps up and down the creek, lapping us several times while we haul our sorry arses along. They must have engines hidden somewhere in their various wave skis, racing kayaks and various other watercraft to propel them at speeds that seem close to the speed of sound. I like to think of our kayak as a big old limo. We aren't the fastest, but we do it with style.
It really is a good thing though, there is nothing more enjoyable than paddling early in the morning looking at the peaceful waters and trying to have a fish from the kayak. I am still a bit wobbly when I try to fish and kayak at the same time but I have worked out that I can fish a lot better if I take it easy and let El do the paddling while I drop my line in. Today we did a 10km return trip up the creek and are feeling the effects now. Most muscles are sore, even the ones that you didn't know you had. I am trying to get El stronger so I can have a snooze in the back while she paddles. It is good fun, but you do get really sore. I even saw all those whiting I have tried to catch in the past swimming by, taunting me with their beady little faces.
I am back to uni on monday. Only 4 more years! Back to being old man Connolly.Mr "mature age". I learn to drill this year so are there any volunteers for me to practice on? I've got a pretty good cordless drill here at home and with a few medicinal rums I'm sure noone would be able to tell the difference.