Sulachasnik down under

Substrate in the D.R.

2005-11-30T12:02:00.000-08:00

I wonder what the fascination with self -destruction is?

Why am I tempted to write self - incriminating things on this site? Why do I want strangers to know my feelings towards people that I meet and interact with?

Tomorrow we teach about the abdomen and gluteal region, then an HIV night out in a club and the Rabbi's birthday on Friday night all should be nice.

Apparently only one of the two heads of lateral ptyergoid opens the jaw (and is therefore the only true muscle of mastication that is a jaw opener)

I resist the temptation to self destruct

5 months of sarcasm

2005-11-26T17:35:00.000-08:00

I arrived back on July 1st 2005 to a wonderful family reception.
I have been living at home since that time which is very nice to be able to spend such time with the family (especially Georgie who is now at Nottingham university).

The job situation was pretty dire and I applied for about 75 - 100 jobs.
Of note I very nearly got a wicked A&E job at Cambridge starting in August but didn't and then went to 3 other interviews, all for fairly shit jobs really. One in Cheltenham I thought I did pretty well at the interivew and they told me in the feedback that actually I didn't interview that well.

But there was a grand plan and that was one which suited me very well from this perspective. I was in the right place at the right time and am now working as an anatomy demonstrator at Newcastle university teaching medics, dentists and speech therapists.

More about the job another time.
After that job I move to the big smoke to do some more A&E for 6 months in the old ghetto (Brick Lane) and then I hope to get onto a longer term rotation in either orthopaedics or something else.

Tonight I went out after Shabbos had gone out and in the night club pulsing too loud music that my ear plugs weren't blocking out I watched unattractive people dance badly.

I finished the case for israel which is terrific and hope mum and dad will read it.

Jo Fish is in Singapore, Ed is now working in London, Leon and Laura are about to make Aliyah, Ben is slowly on his way back to London.

...and it`s Goodbye from me

2005-06-27T20:38:00.000-07:00

Nara is an hour away on the very efficient bullet train from Kyoto. It is a beautiful town with some great temples and shrines which one can easily do in a day. The city is full of wild deer which are magnificent creatures. The best bits were being treated a little like minor celebrities by the hoards of Japanese school chidren armed with cameras and delighting in taking photos of us, sometimes with them sometimes on our own.

We walked around many of the temples in Kyoto, some of the Zen gardens are really great, however one can quite easily get temple fatigue.

Saturday night was a night out in Osaka with a friend from camp America who is teaching English here. There is a big community here of English speakers getting paid very well per hour to teach English but with no real prospects to progress.

Japan is so clean and safe, crime is almost unheard of and nobody steals anything. We chatted to a human rights lawyer though who said that people don:t have many rights though and trials here are not fair at all.

Back in Tokyo we went to Niko yestreday which is a 2 hour train journey and is another temple/shrine city. this one is on a mountain side and was lovely and cool. The temples are good and worth visiting.
On the train back we got chatting to 2 15 year old boiys who were practising their English. The lady next to us offered to buy us dinner which Ed gladly accepted.

I am not sure of her intentions; she seemed like a nice, driven lady:
Philippino originally and dressed like a power woman. She had 4 children, aged between 21-27 and wasn:t sure what they were really doing, but she did work very hard and then in her spare time play golf, do rotary club things, and was an English teacher. When she retires she and her husband are building a house in the Philippines with a golf course surrounding it.
English speakers can get taken out for lunch and paid 50 pounds or more for conversation over an hour.

Today Ed has gone to meet his friend Pete at the airport.
He is adoring Japan.
Good Luck Georgie with your final A-levels
I am scheduled to arrive home on Thursday evening and look forward to seeing many people.
and it`s good bye from him

Toilet humour and nuclear fission

2005-06-23T07:15:00.000-07:00

As　my　sun burn peels to make me look like a mega celebrity paedophile with vitiligo, or Michael Jackson I remembered that I didn:t tell you about the best toilet I have found:

In Asia they don:t often have toilet rolls and sometimes don:t have a western toilet - it;s just a pit. In the Sony　centre in Tokyo (like real life tomorrow;s world) they had the toilet for the future.

It had remote controls which altered the power of the jet and type of jet, and then blew air to dry off. Really superb.

In the youth hostel at the moment the baths is a Japanese bath which is like the type I tried to get out of at school. 10 showers around a huge bath. A sign telling you to respect their culture and not wear swimming trunks! One of the men on reception is a Japanese Frank Spencer; only time will tell if Ed is unlucky enough to find him in the bath when he arrives - umm betty!

Today we had a very busy day going to Hiroshima where there is an impressive display about the atomic bomb, unbiased and calling for world peace. It was very nice to see such pride without nationalism. After that we went to Himeji (again on the ultra efficient bullet train) to see the best example of a Japanese castle. Luckily it was some special day and many of the locals were dressed in traditional outfits whcih allowed for some good pictures. We are also becoming more aware of the phenomenon of JLCs:
Japanese loving Caucasians.

Tomorrow we go to Nara to see more great temples and shrines.

snorkelling with the Japs

2005-06-22T02:24:00.000-07:00

The bus journey from the Bangkok　youth hostel was fun as the driver was a lunatic and drove part of the way on the wrong side of the road so as not to wait in traffic; in Bangkok the bigger vehicle has right of way to the extent that mopeds on the road have to almost stop when big cars justpull out!

We have now arrived in Japan. When snorkelling one is privvy to another world - the fish may know you are there but they don;t really interact. Occasionally one does or if you move your hand into their shoal then they swim around you. The same goes in Japan!

In Thailand we were always being offered something and never left alone, here it is the opposite. People trying to get you to go into their restaurant only talk to other Japanese. Yesterday on the tube we watched 2 middle aged men bow 4 times to each other as they parted. Tokyo is full of immaculately dressed business men. There are gaming arcades with loads of business men in too.

Apparently there are 3 types of bow depening on your position in society and whether or not you have made a mistake!
There is English in loads of places and so it;s fairly easy to get around, althogh painfully expensive post Thailand. One night in the cheapest acoomdation here is more than a week in an en-suite, air conditioned room in Bangkok.
Tokyo I think is the cleanest place I have ever been, far cleaner than Singapore (clean for Asia) and cleaner than Australia as well (no litter but this place sparkles!)

Today we arrived on the ruthlessly efficient bullet train in Kyoto in the south and have seen a lovely Zen garden in a temple.

Ed is in his element loving all things Japanese.
Tomorrow we go on day trip to Hiroshima and a couple of other places.

Hi! - Not sure what it means but it props up everywhere in conversation.

Bangkok what what what

2005-06-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

I forgot to say that we saw the kick boxing in Ko Samui which was overpriced.(8 quid)
Incredibly lean people kicking and fighting, sometimes knocking each other out which is when the referee gets involved with some backward techniques like head shaking to really wake them up/ disrupt the neuronal links. The referees look like janitors and there is live music which is very addictived and puts one in a trance - perhaps the tempo the musicians set, sets the speed of the fighters?

We have been accosted by many wonderful scam artists (please read Ed's post) with such unbelievable stories, sometimes we weren't sure what the scam was or how it was even scamming us. We found the best way was to either have a laugh (see Ed's blog) or lie so when they said there was a festival for the Buddhist birthday we would say we knew as we were invited etc..

When people ask us if we want to see a ping pong show we say we're going to do one later ourselves etc.

The temples were ok, the Thai people don't have to pay which we all agreed with, there were really very few funny incidents.

Today was shopping in a market place that was just incredible - so much you just couldn't look at it all in a day and the prices ranging from ridiculously cheap to almost sensible(4-5 pounds for a t -shirt, 7 pounds for second hand designer clothes).

Tonight we ate dinner in the Chabad house restaurant - delicious meat dinner for 1 pound 30, served by lovely Thai people whose second language is now Hebrew.
Off to Japan tomorrow which will mean the end of cheapsville

A week's worth

2005-06-15T02:06:00.000-07:00

The Cameron highlands were delightfully cool and we stayed in what looked like Anderson shelters. Had a tour around tea plantations and also saw loads of the plantlife with an enthusiastic tour guide called Kumar. Perhaps some of what he said didn't stand up to the scrutiny of western science however it was entertaining and we saw pitcher plants and other wonders.

After the Cameron highlands we left to go to Penang - an Island which takes 5 hours to drive around and is west of the northern most point of Malaysia. On Penang the largest city is called Georgetown which lonely planet describes as wonderfully colonial - we thought delapidated and definitely worth missing.

The beaches though were a real surprise and were great. Myself, Ed and Chris went jet skiing which was awesome fun. Chris and Andrew had a large one while myself and Ed read one night and Andrew also stocked up on fakes before flying home. It was a real treat to be able to spend a week with Andrew (first time in about 7 years).

The 3 of us left at 0430 in the morning after having no sleep on a South East Asian bus journey. In fairness it was certainly nowhere near as bad as some of Jo's stories however it was unpleasant as we spent 10 - 12 hours on 3 different buses with suspension varying from none to rally settings and then an idyllic boat journey to Ko Samui.

The islands here are beautiful and put the Whitsundays to shame.
On Ko Samui now we all feel we could stay longer and it is easy to see how people spend months in Thailand. Ed is loving his green curry for breakfast, red for lunch, whole snapper for first dinner and sea bass for second dinner.

Both of us are thoroughly enjoying a book drawing on the work of the late Rebbe - searching for a meaningful life (certainly tricky to find here!)

Of note we met a guy in Malaysia who has been living in Thailand for the past 5 years, he had some amazing stories to tell:

His father was Singalese boxing champion for 7 years
His brother has 3 degrees and is currently studying for his MA, one degree from Leeds, Oxford and somewhere else.
His brother is also chief bouncer at Majestic
His brother was Mr Natural but then thought he was too big and so trains in martial arts and goes climbing - one of his feets was to jump from one mountain to another across 12 ft with only 2 ice picks.

He has been spending 6 months every 2 years learning a form of Kung Fu in China for the past 6 years, he imports car parts back to the UK from Japan. He is currently going out with someone who has won awards for interior design.

We believe he is also training in the form of Chinus Reckonis!
Still a character like that is good for the blog.

Loads of Israelis here and we met up with a very nice one we met in Cairns called Arik.
We leave tomorrow to fly to Bangkok where because of the smog there are no flies.

The sea water here is like a warm bath and despite prices sky rocketing over the past 5-10 years with exponential increases in tourism it remains very cheap and an hour Thai massage which are offered everywhere is 3 pounds, we still haven't indulged.

I have tried a reflexology massage (feet mainly) in Georgetown from a very experienced guy who had callouses on the extensor aspect of his first knuckle on his ring finger. Apart from being disgusted by the callouses I was in a world of pain; fascinating how rubbing certain parts of the feet can be so painful - I felt no physical good came from this massage.

Haggling on principle

2005-06-06T02:45:00.000-07:00

Both of us forgot to record our taxi driver in Melacca:

Ed fondly thought of him as a cross between me and his late Grandfather (grandpa Gilbert):

He forgot where he parked his taxi and this car was worse than Del boy's : not only didn't it have air conditioning it didn't have much of a dashboard. Incredibly he managed to change gear only twice for a 10 minute journey. His speed probably varied between 10 and 30 mph ( the speedo didn't work) and he paid no attention to any road signs (wrong way, stop, give way) didn't feel dangerous though.

KL: not much of their own culture seemingly but cheap and fairly clean.
Met Andrew and his friend Chris at the airport, we managed to persuade locals to hold signs saying their names with rude bits added which we thought funny.

We have seen the parks, the cheap market stalls and the twin towers by night (impressive).

We leave tomorrow to go the hopefully cooler Cameron highlands on a 4 hour bus journey for 2 pound 20.

Gorro on the look out for boxers

2005-06-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

The 4 hour bus journey from Singapore to Melacca was uneventful: The immigration didn't notice my Israel stamp in passport but instead noticed my Newcastle address and wanted to talk about Alan Shearer.

Melacca is historical and compared to Oz almost pre historic. We went to the museum showing curious mutilations of the human form in the name of beauty (for 20p); of note the plates going in lips, binding of the feet, rings around the neck, scarring, head deformation , dental work - quite interesting but 45 mins was enough.

I bought some disgusting pickled mango for 30p
People were selling crappy t-shirts on the road side for 14 p
fillet of fish meal was 1 pound 20
the youth hostel was so clean and friendly and we had the deluxe, en suite, air con room for 7 pounds. (with tv)
people would stop us in the street to say hello to us and welcome us to melacca, both of us continue to be caught off guard and are pretty defensive and western; is it pathological friendliness, a desire to practice English?

KL is smog ridden but exciting
Building everywhere - they seem to be about 30 years behind the UK (but catching up quickly, although not in the underwear department as Ed is finding out - he has 6 pairs of identical black tight underpants - some with a primitive form of air conditioning and is struggling to find a decent pair to buy).

The fake markets are incredible and all DVDs (including star wars) can be bought for about a pound, any requests?
luis vuitton everything and t- shirts etc, all nike fake trainers can be bought for about 12 pounds.

Looking forward to Andrew and his friend arriving on Sunday
Currently we are slumming it in a clean youth hostel with a crap room - no A/C and shared facilities - costs about 2 pounds 50 per night (between 2).

an update

2005-05-28T10:21:00.000-07:00

Dis illusioned with how pathetically unfunny this blog is ( especially compared with Ed's) I tac:

Cairns was crap by day and alive by night as I may have said; Ed's pre birthday bash was a superb success and he had many people wish him happy birthday.

He wore his only present with pride - A VB (not VD) t-shirt

Cape Tribulation is described by the guidebooks as where the reef meets the rainforest, I think very missable is more accurate.

At Cairns airport terminal I accidentally told the lady my poster was a rocket launcher much to Ed's anger/disgust - still all is well that ends well and the cavity search was very informative (for both parties).

The west coast certainly had a different feel - i.e. a feel!
Perth was very pleasant and Freemantle a suburb 20 mins away is very cool with loads of trainer shops to keep Ed happy.

We hired a car with JoJo Nemosa/Smackers/ Captain Birdseye (who it was superb to see at the airport and even better to be greeted with cake that her cousin Alex had made). Unfortunately she had forgotten her snorkel gear at sydney airport, but what's insurance for right?

Drove down to Margaret River area which was superb and probably our favourite destination - felt like I imagine Aspen to feel; we stayed at a great campsite over looking spectacular coastline and had a (kosher) BBQ watching the sun go down over the ocean.

When we were in Sydney me and Jo had sourced out the Lubavitch house and were told about a Shabbaton this weekend which was pretty good fun with a low neb ratio.

Flew out from Perth to Singapore. Singapore airlines superb and Ed was delighted. We were surprised to find we have thoroughly enjoyed it so far and had some great food including an amazing curry last night. The amount of shopping is ridiculous, yesterday was camera shopping and managed to find/haggle a 220 pound camera for between 150 and 220 pounds (but with bits thrown in), so no matzia I didin't think.

It is very very humid here though, and when we visited a Hindu temple the ground in the sun was so hot (we had to take our shoes off) that we looked like we were running on hot coals and had to run into the shade; unfortunately Ed accidentally ran into a shrine not meant for the tourists and had to have part of his body sacrficied to the God with 8 arms, sharp teeth coming out of his moustache.

This morning I went to the shul - community of 600, 14 people at Shacharis (5 Lubavitch, others middle aged men who spoke Hebrew and 2 very old men who looked like little Arabs).
Friendly enough and such wealth - an incredible shul and then great breakfast (with maid).

Our hostel is basic and the 2 shower cubicles (in the kitchen area) have traditional toilets (much to Ed's disgust initially). One has no toilet paper and the other is a whole in the ground. But now he is firmly converted and believes in the digital revolution.

Tomorrow we move on to Malaca and then on to KL.

Jo meanwhile who we left in Perth was going to travel up to a cattle station in ala schwatz (or wop wop as they call it here) to be a cook and have loads of fun.

west coast flavour

2005-05-26T06:53:00.000-07:00

IN Cairns we were joined by Rachel - English girl working in Sydney for 6 months; and moved from a basic youth hostel to Gilligans - an incredibly plush establishment.

I was told that I could pay my speeding fine at the police station and so drove to the police station. At the traffic lights I performed a U turn, and was then waved to park by a police man; very nice I thought to get such personal service. But it turns out that he was going to give me a ticket for doing a U turn where I wasn't allowed.

The fact that there was no traffic around, and no "no U - turn" sign didn't bother him. I tried all the tricks I had and even used the Dr card to little effect. Rachel (lawyer) tried to argue and he was having none of it. He wasn't plussed when I told him rules of for the obedience of idiots and the guidance of wise men and so I drove off to pay both fines where I should have gone in the first place. He did not see the irony of getting a fine when I was going to pay one.

Apparently him and his colleague had been sent out to watch that junction for offences - do they have nothing else to do??

All the time Ed was sitting in the back petrified that we may not be able to drive out and he would be forced to "reverse" this probably far more of an offence (driving without reverse).

I am finally making headway with the Dalai Lama's the many paths to Nirvana, but I think that's more because it has got to an easy bit.

Sunday we drove up to Cape Tribulation - where the reef meets rainforest. My advice is don't bother.

Now we're in Perth and have gone to some great places like Margaret River (where if you go into ANZ you may come across a very inefficient lady with an English accent but has been here for years) and am now in Freemantle.

Ed's blogpage is edgilbert.blogspot.com

Half a gearbox is better than none

2005-05-18T05:30:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all the comments, good to see a photo - thank you Michael.

Whilst leaving Sydney I have been having frequent updates and in particular I would like to thank:
Smackers - can't wait till Perth
The Gillmans - so the cake was takee kosher l'Pesach
Mr B - you are truly excellent

Mission Beach was pleasant, it would have been great if we could go swimming but we were petrified of the various stingers (the beach had vinegar stations all along it); and even though it is mid winter it is bloody shwitzing there.

On Sunday we went white water and accidentally went on the extreme group. Good fun, jumping 4 m off a cliff into water is pretty scarey, the tully river has a huge amount of cannabis plants growing on the banks and some of the guides looked like they had been using a bit.

We stayed in a great youth hostel which was a huge tree house and then drove on to Cairns in the Hof.

I have mentioned the Hof before and now I mention it again. When we got to Mackay ( the day of the speeding fine) I had noticed that the revs were higher than normal and had thought perhaps we had a strong headwind, or were going uphill or ed had put on a bit of weight. That night we pulled into pizza hut and when I came to drive out the car wouldn't engage in reverse.

We told the all knowing youth hostel manager who said it was common and was probably the oil, certainly nothing major, in the morning he checked the oil - it was fine and so referred us to a garage managed by a friendly and expletive Turk. The turk's chief mechanic told us it was above them and referred us to the automatic mechanics (all the time we were being careful not to reverse or get ourselves into a situation that needed reverse). This mechanic asked if we had "lost any other gears" (sounds like faulty towers - how careless, I'm sure they'll turn up) to which i replied no.

It turns out we had lost 2nd and 4th as well - and so were left with 1st and 3rd. It's a common problem with these cars apparently. It wouldhave taken a day and half and 700 dollars to fix, ed and myself put our head together. This knowledgeable mechanic said it would get us the 50km to go sailing but he had no idea whether it would take us the 860km to cairns.

"If you're a gambling man..."

Luckily Ed remembered the module he had done at Cambridge on automatic gearboxes, so we started up the coast with half a gearbox.

There have been a few hairy times, one in particular when it wouldn't engage into 3rd and was howling in 1st; but the funniest has been :"putting it in reverse"
This involves putting it in neutral and ed getting out and pushing from the front - the funniest is always outside restaurants.

Then came to selling it in Cairns, we quickly realised that the knackers yard was the only place and the first one offered us 50 dollars - almost worth our while siphoning off the petrol (20 quid) but the third gave us 250 dollars (ebnough to pay the speeding fine!) and so now we are Hofless

Cairns is dire by day and alive by night.
We're saving the cultural bits for Friday( except Kingdom of God and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, both well worth seeing if you're ever in Cairns)! We have found the famous back packer bars where the alcohol is cheap and the entertainment base/lowest common denominator/ addictive.
Of note Ed came 3rd in Mr Backpacker and was noted for his dancing on the tables - only to be outdone by a "hombo".
Tomorrow we go to the reef
Today we saw some inland forests including a huge tree with impressive roots that are more than half of the tree and a waterfall which was more like USSR nuclear waste desposal site.
We've met a couple of really nice Israeli blokes in our hostel, and a few people who probably wouldn't qualify for care in the community!

Hope you're well
Saul

In answer to questions:

2005-05-12T22:23:00.000-07:00

A dollar is 40p so 250 dollar fine is 100 pounds.

Please see http://www.anayasa.gov.tr/album/baskan01.htm to understand anon's comments

Emetic Whitsundays

2005-05-12T22:11:00.000-07:00

The gateway to the Whitsundays is nicer than the gateway to Fraser but not by much and it is very hot and tropical all of a sudden.

Plenty of incredibly tropical birds flying around though which is great to see.
We stayed in a real dive and when playing pool a threatening Aussie came over and asked to play with us - turns out he was very friendly indeed ad was just wanting to play pool -this does happebn quite a bit - the other day in Pizza Hut toilet I was removing my factor 50 sunblock from my face and a guy again said hello to me (he was very straight). really are a freindly nation.

The sailing trip was ok - only vomitted once on the first day and went scuba divign for the first time which was pretty cool being able to breathe under water and saw some great reef although any fish bigger than about 10cm do still scare me.

Day 2 proved to test the elasticity in my intimal layer of arteries as I spent 5 hours being violently sick over the side of the boat in the worst weather (rain wise - not that choppy) the skipper had seen for 10 years in the Whitsundays; still whateve doesn't kill you makes you stronger hey? (like syphilis - ed)

Day 3 was beautiful and we went snorkelling again around beautiful reef and had a very calm trip back to the mainland.

All the water activities were slightly marred by havcing to wear wet suits covering our enitre bodies as there are stinging jellyfish called Irikikanji or Mamserim in the local Aboriginal dialect.
Treated to a very unusual display one late night in our room which slept 6 very uncomfortably.
To learn more please see Ed's blog. There was also a strange scab on one girl's back - again please see Ed's blog.

Back on dry land we are now in Mission Beach which is pretty sparse and bloody boiling for Shabbos and perhaps Sunday too and then on to Cairns.

Photo's burn't to CD

2005-05-09T03:32:00.000-07:00

After having met my old registrar in Brisbane who is also working out here he gave us some ideas when travelling up the coast.
Sunshine Coast was nothing exciting and Steve Irwin's ego trip (zoo) was pleasant. Saw some strange creatures and the massive 650 kg crocodiles which were rather sluggish due to the relative cold weather.

We set off for Fraser Island which was superb, the largest sand drift in the world and home to many exciting things for Biologists and linguists alike:
the roots of the trees that looked like Medusa's hair or a jellyfish
the epiphytes
the pure silicon white sand which cleaned jewellery, exfoliated or softened hair
the freshwater creeks and perch lakes
wild dingos (cross between greyhounds, foxes and dogs)
a middle aged tour guide who had some pervy stories he shared over the tannoy
However there are no Aboriginal people there anymore in part thanks to Yankee Bob's babboon hunts!

Had a nice crowd, of note Lord Janner's grand daughter was one.
unfortunately crappy weather - it rains 200 days of the year as it has rainforest

We left the gateway to Fraser (Hervey Bay) as soon as possible and off to the treasures of Queensland:

We set off for Bli Bli ( meant to be pronounced Bleye Bleye) to see the faux Norman castle from 1970 made out of breeze blocks and the giant pineappple.

Off to 1770 - a very up and coming town (apparently). Nice enough beach not much else. The large dots on the map here wouldn't even get a mention on our Ordnance Survery ones.
Slept in the car and then a long drive to Mackay which is a large city by their standards, the pizza hut people had never met any English people - this didn't get us a discount.

In Mackay it rained heavily for the first time in 4 years and our hostel had possums on the roof (no dame edna though) and tonight we are in Airlie beach as a prelude to our sailin trip with jellyfish for the next 3 days.

On the drive up I got a speeding ticket for 250 dollars just after talking about speeding. Fair enough but frustrating, I now am keepin to the speed limit which is a very sedentary 60 mph on empty roads.
I have finished Mandela's long walk to freedom which was gripping and inspirational. Now I am on to the essays of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' Haggadah and then on to the the Dalai Lama's latest book.
Myself and Ed seem very well suited to travel together as we have short attention spans and love to read.

You can now all leave comments without registering, thanks for letting me know Puf
The title was a poster in a shop window here showing it's not only greengrocers who have a full grasp of our language.

Sydney to Brisbane

2005-05-03T01:50:00.000-07:00

We are travelling in a 3.8 litre V6 huge estate of a car ( we can sleep in the back easily and or toes don't touch the boot).

Driving up through Nelson's Bay (apparently the dolphin capital of Australia but I advise driving through at night as it's prettier then) then on to Port Macquarie which was a nice sea side resort.
We saw the giant clam in Taree, the giant banana by the road side somewhere and the giant prawn a couple of hours later.

Stayed in Byron for Shabbos and Yom Tov (Friday through to Monday) - full of hippies, surfer types and travellers. We played pool with a couple of Australians we met which was fun:

Joel who is 24 and is almost a Dr (looked 34 with the sun damage) and his brother who was built.
Joel kept calling us sick or sic, and kept insisting that we Brits knew all about liquor, myself and ed tried to prove this wrong.

Joel recruited 2 others to play pool with us - they were John a middle aged Australian who looked like an extra from confessions of a window cleaner; later he made a joke about Anzac day (when Australian soldiers who had fallen are remembered) only for Joel to say that his father died in 'Nam. Joel was really very good about it though.

in the hostel we also met a middle aged couple called Helen and Bob (sadly no Rita too), Bob looked Woogie from ther'es something about Mary and Helen usefully told us we could walk easily to the eastern most point in Australia.

John's partner was Choi ( or jack Nicklaus as we called him - good shot Jack). He didn't speak English and I therefore don't know what John was doing with him in the pub. He wore a yellow jacket and cowboy hat (hencce Jack Nicklaus) and had an unlit cigarette hanging from his mouth!

Left Byron in rainy conditions to go up to Surfer's Paradise - what a hovel (compounded by the rain). Today have seen a very nice national park and then on to Brisbane which has surprised us by being very nice indeed.

Tomorrow off to Bli Bli where we hope to see the giant pineapple before getting on to the gold coast.

The Jewish Element

2005-05-01T23:52:00.000-07:00

I will really miss Bondi and the Sydney Jewish scene, I have met many warm, welcoming people. I'll also miss the abundance of kosher meat.

For Pesach (Passover) both myself and Jo were invited to numerous places which was lovely.
On the first night we went to a very religious South African family, the father wore a white over shirt (?kaftan) and sat on a pillow to allow for reclining. The eldest boy who is 28 kept us in check with our halacha (Jewish laws) so that we all ate 3 sheets of matzah without talking and treid to swallow each sheet's matza in one go.
The wine glasses were greater than 88mls and we tried to drink them in 2 gulps.
The whole service was done in Hebrew and much also said in English.
We discussed and read out various interesting commentaries and finally finished at 2 in the morning - given that I was away from home I felt this was a superb second best.

Second night we again went to a South African couple and had a very nice time indeed. Both of us missed singing the songs and tunes we know and lvoe and so we sang on the way home. Incidentally I had bought the Chief Rabbi's Haggadah and it is supberly fascinating.

I lef to go on my travels with Ed in the middle of Pesach and lived on just the bread of affliction (matza) and little else other than fruit for 5 days - it has been a real pleasure to go back to feeling full again.

The second retrospective post

2005-05-01T23:36:00.000-07:00

The second term was a split between rheumatology and orthopaedics, I really missed the friends I hade made in Emergency as two very good ones went back to the UK.

The rheumatology was literally painful as the team had a serious charisma bypass, orthopaedics was far more fun, interesting and enjoyable. I got to do some very minor operations which was great. My registrar at the time had tremendous pressures and stresses at home and was always very generous with me.

I had been living in Bondi Beach with JoJo Nemosa/ Smackers/ Jo Fishburn all this time and had a great time. We were 5 mins from the Beach and the whole area is really vibrant; (also 5 mins from the kosher shops which was a huge novelty)

This final term finished and so I moved onto holiday mode:

I went on a 4000km road trip with Smackers which took in
Canberra - not much a capital but pleasant, like a much smaller version of Washington dc
then on through deserted roads for 2 days to Adelaide - lovely place to live but no reason to visit. Sir Moses Monterfiore was obviously involved with this city as there were plaques and roads named after him, however nobody we asked knew why or how.
On to Melbourne including the great ocean road which is a superb stretch of road - made for adverts for convertible cars - you drive right next to the ocean.
Melbourne was more European feeling with even more cafes and restaurants, also many more goths.

We stayed with Jo's parents friends in Melbourne who had the craziest dog in the world (a bigger more powerful version of there's something about Mary dog on speed). Also saw a show which has toured the world called puppetry of the ...... very funny and impressive.

Back in Bondi about a week later and having a very sociable time - we finally had a house party which was really good.
Ed Gilbert my travel partner arrived and we shaved his head and then set off.

The first retrospective post

2005-05-01T23:21:00.000-07:00

I had intended to write a group email farely regularly and have failed. I will try and write more frequently to this online journal;

I have worked for about 6 months in Sydney since I wrote the long email detailing what I was up to. For the first 3 months I was working in a busy (by Australian standards) A&E. It was a lot of fun - the best bit was making friends with the other British junior Drs and nurses. There is a real sense of camraderie. I realised that i enjoyed the faster pace and doing procedures.

In the middle of working there I went on a four day trip from Ayer's Rock (Uluru) to Alice Springs. Uluru was fascinating and awesome. Getting off the plane into midday 40 degree celsius birght sunny day was like opening an oven door. The airport has about 4 flights per day and you walk over the run way to get to the terminal. Uluru is obviously rich in culture:

We had an excellent guide who told us about the Aboriginal people. They do not like being called Aboriginees and would prefer Aboriginal people or black fella. They are many different tribes; they have existed for 40,000 years and have no written language and so when many of them were killed their culture has vanished as there were no records kept.

Uluru (the rock) is sacred to them and they would prefer it if nobody climbed it. The Australian government discourages people from climbing it but allows it as they do not want to lose revenue (they tax everyone who sees it by paying a national park entrance fee, a very small portion of which goes to the Aboriginal tribe who still live there).

They have many initiation rites and rituals, one of which sounded particularly painful:
They used sharp stones to make a cut from the tip of the penis down the underside of the shaft to the base, then put a small piece of wood at the base to keep the communication open, then wrapped the wound with leaves. Once it had healed they have in effect a bypass route so that they can have intercourse to procreate or not if they remove the wooden plug.

Alice Springs was a funny place as there was nowhere around for hundreds of km - a very relaxed way of life.