Handy Household Hints No. 2 - 1001 uses for old pantyhose (stockings)

If you are bothered by a draught around the top or side of your front door, here is a novel solution! An old or unwanted pair of pantyhose (stockings) can be employed to work in two directions at once and stretched to fit, with the panty section acting as thicker padding at the corner. This works effectively until a more permanent solution can be put in place, and is both cheap and environmentally friendly!

Condolences for Gough Whitlam - Australian Labor Party

If you are a member of the generation who directly benefited from the educational and other reforms of the Whitlam Government, there is still an opportunity to pass on your condolences and thanks:

Condolences for Gough Whitlam - Australian Labor Party:

For many of us from poorer backgrounds, the advent of free tertiary education provided us with an opportunity to go to university and pursue professional careers. I for one will be always grateful for this.

'via Blog this'

Opposing the Australian Federal Budget proposed $7 GP co-payment

My own view (and that of many others) is that the introduction of this proposed impost would be a public and preventative health disaster and an administrative nightmare for GPs and other direct service providers.

A website has been set up to collect signatures for a petition opposing the co-payment (which still has a chance of being defeated in the Senate) and to share people's stories as to why they disagree with this measure.

Sign and/or share your story at http://www.copaystories.com.au/sign/.

Australian Federal Budget: Medical co-payment belongs on the scrap heap

There is a terrific article on page 20 of "The Age" (Melbourne) today from Professor Brian Owler, President of the AMA which includes many of the reasons I had thought of as to why the medical co-payment proposed in the Federal Budget is a bad idea if we are advocating for our patients.

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/medical-copayment-belongs-on-scrap-heap-20140618-zsbb3.html

Vale Fatso the Warfarin-resistant mouse

Over the past few months it was not unusual whilst sitting at the kitchen table and working to catch a glimpse out of the corner of your eye of a daredevil dark brown shape darting across the floor. This 'Scarlet Pimpernel' of the mouse world could be seen at any hour of the day or night and seemed to have a voracious appetite for Ratsac pellets (which contain a Warfarin equivalent). This little mouse appeared to be plump and prosperous, with a sleek and shiny chestnut coat. As a result he was dubbed 'Fatso' and almost was around for so long that he almost became a household pet!

Some days after a small and considerably skinnier grey mouse succumbed to the pellets, I came downstairs one morning with a migraine and noticed a dark shape stationary on the floor near the pantry. Once fortified by analgesia I returned to the spot to investigate. There sat an unwell-looking plump brown mouse. Alas Fatso had consumed one pellet too many.

I pondered what to do. It was a lovely warm and sunny day, and in the end I decided the most humane thing to do was to scoop Fatso up in a small container and take him outside to enjoy the sunshine before he too finally succumbed. You could tell that the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak and he was unable to put up much of a struggle. I deposited him on top of the rich mulch at the base of a huge Desert Ash tree and left him in peace.

His chestnut coat glistened and looked positively beautiful in the sunlight and his perfectly formed little feet were gorgeous. Even though he qualifies as vermin, it was still a sad moment as I knew that he was not long for this world. I also paused to think how ironic it is that mice and rats have done so much to help humans through medical research whilst simultaneously causing so much havoc and disease, the most famous case of which being the transmission (by rats) of Yersinia pestis ("the Black Plague").

Fatso was certainly a survivor, and perhaps even a genetic mutant - he also had a curiously bent tail. However, it is possible that he acquired this via the thrillseeker run through the refrigerator fan, which was a cause of mortality for at least one of his colleagues.

Vale Fatso - a memorable character!

Veni sancti spiritus!

On Sunday 31 March I was as usual part of the choir at St Francis' Church, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne for the Easter Sunday 11:00 mass and we were standing in the back of the sanctuary behind the altar and the celebrant. While the celebrant was reading the Gospel one of the servers was standing to the left of the lecturn, waving the thurible back and forth, with a steady cloud of incense rising upwards. Something unusual caught my eye as a perfect ring of white smoke also emanated from the thurible. With a thick rim, it quickly became more square than round and then as it passed the celebrant and the right hand side of the lecturn it formed into a perfectly symmetrical dove, complete with wings, head and beak, and then slowly dissipated as it passed towards the front row of pews on the right hand side of the church with two shiny wing edges remaining visible until it was gone.

In Christian faith the dove is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Holy Trinity, and I felt as if I had seen the Holy Spirit that morning. Somewhat prophetically, the following sermon was about keeping your faith, even in times of doubt. With all the trials and tribulations in life set in a rationalistic (and some might even say atheistic) age keeping faith can be a daily struggle when your soul is sorrowful and burdened. I want to believe but I would be lying to say that there are no doubts. However, seeing that white smoky dove in that precise place at that precise moment on Easter Sunday brought some tears to the eyes of a weary soul and it was if for those few seconds the Holy Spirit made it plain that it walks amongst us and that we can dare to keep faith in hope and the message of the resurrection story.

Blackout - Life but not as we know it!

A week ago I had one of those wonderful retrospective experiences that reminds you just how dependent we are on technology.

Following the uplifting experience of singing at the Holy Thursday evening service, I returned homw looking forward to a hot meal and catching up on a few interesting shows on TV that I don't normally get to see on Thursday night due to choir practice.

The first sign that something was wrong was that the security light outside the front door did not go on. Already I was wondering if the power was off. Opening the front door confirmed this. No electricity and the main circuit breaker was still on. However, some of the adjacent properties appeared to have normal lighting and the street lights were on, so what was happening?

Like Boy Scouts, Ski Patrollers always aim to be well prepared, so with the aid of a trusty solar-powered torch candles and matches were rapidly located and lit.

However, things were looking a little grim. With no power, there was no telephone, no kettle, no stove and an overriding imperative to keep the refrigerator shut!

The good old mobile telephone saved the day as a means of contacting the power company, who promised to dispatch a truck.

Waiting was frustrating. It was too dark to read or to do any household tasks, no radio or music to listen to and dinner was definitely on hold.

It was fascinating to reflect that this was how our forebears lived until the advent of electrical power. I guess they didn't know any other way of living, and I suppose that we could adapt to it if we had to, but it certainly underlined how much we take our everyday tech nological aids for granted.

When you visit any outdoor activity and camping store, it is equally amazing just how many devices and pieces of equipment there are to help bring along the luxuries of home. Good old-fashioned simple camping with a gas stove, torch and mosquito net seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur!

Fortunately the repair truck arrived sooner rather than later, and it turned out that just a couple of wires on one of the power poles in the street had shorted out, only affecting a small number of properties. Soon all was back to normal, with power, light and hot food.

It only occurred to me later that it was not only our forebears who lived in a world bereft of power and conveniences - many people in the developing world are still in this situation. It is easy to forget how lucky we are that we happened to be born into a progressive Western society. It is the only life that we know, but we also know that we do not wish to live as they do, and in our hearts we understand why others might aspire to come here and live as we do.

This should persuade us all to be humanitarians, to do unto others as we would have done unto us. We might not be able to solve the problems of the developing world, but we can all do what we can to improve the quality of life for the other people who share the fragile spaceship Planet Earth. It doesn't cost anything to be nice and to "pay it forward".

A Visit to Cairns – Part 2 – An encounter with a four year-old Energiser Bunny!

The young lady of the house (who is nearly five) kept me busy at every available opportunity, including decorating the Christmas tree and building Lego skyscrapers (which was actually rather fun). I don't think the teddy bears who are my regular travelling companions "knew what had hit them" and they were pretty glad each night when the little one had gone to bed! She has more toys, CDs, DVDs and books than I think I saw in my entire childhood.

I ended up spending a lot of time playing with fluffy toys (pretty well representative of a small zoo) and building things (probably my favourite sort of active toy). As well as the Lego castle I built a Magnetix spaceship and a Migoga Marble Run (perhaps faintly reminiscent of the 'Mousetrap' of old), which required a little bit of grey matter input to ensure everything flowed in the right direction.

The youngster dismissed Buzz Lightyear as a "boy's toy" so I tried to explain to her that toys should not be characterised in this way - it was rather that different people liked to play with different sorts of toys. It was very commendable that a Swedish toy store has recently started advertising toys in a gender-neutral way. We were also playing 'birthday party' with Geoffrey the Giraffe, who started demanding that all party attendees should bring him a "good present". So, I tried to explain that we should not demand or expect gifts and that not everyone was in a situation to be a giver or recipient of gifts and that the company of friends was a gift in itself. Whether any of it will stick, who knows, but it was worth a try!

The young one also does beginners' gymnastics, and from watching one class the group of small children were extremely variable in terms of being able to follow the teacher's instructions, particularly in terms of holding a pose, and copying the teacher's actions exactly was more the exception than the rule. Apparently she did not have her normal level of confidence and the next day said that sometimes your confidence goes to sleep for a while! It is somewhat alarming to me to find out that they are shortly holding "assessments" for children so young, and already starting to create expectations that winning or getting medals is more important than doing it for fun (and this goes with unavoidable performance anxiety). I recently heard that funding will be reduced for sports that do not win medals at the Olympics and World Championships, and this seems at odds with the Federal Government's stated position that sport is about participation and not winning and of encouraging involvement in sport at a 'grass-roots' level. This is especially important as a public health measure with the current epidemic of obesity in both adults and children. Only a tiny percentage of people who get involved with sport will win or become an elite performer, and we as a community should not be fostering a "winner takes all" mindset if we want people to have a healthy attitude to participation.

After I had been in Cairns for a week another relative arrived and I joked about her being the "fresh meat" as far as the young girl was concerned. However, as she has seen a lot more of the youngster and she often gives her presents, so it was quickly apparent what the 'pecking order' was! However, when the little one did not want to play with me anymore as she would much rather play with the new visitor, it was a surprisingly emotional experience, which I did not expect. It brought back memories of being bullied and left out at school and people telling me to go away as they did not want to play with me, and the needy people I have encountered in adulthood who latch on to you as the best thing that has come into their life for a long time and almost suck the life out of you with the intensity of their apparent desire to be good friends, and then suddenly someone or something else that can be exploited comes along and they are gone - leaving you wondering what happened and wounded that you took the risk of opening yourself up and making an emotional investment in the relationship. Perhaps the most poignant example of this was during medical school when we were away on rotation and another mature age student who had lost her father to heart disease the previous year monopolised my time and took me away from the people I was fond of in my own study group. During the next 'away' rotation our study group was split up, and tragically the person I was closest to in the group was killed in a car accident on the way back to Melbourne. I felt especially sad that the time I would have spent with him was taken by someone else who it turned out was just using me and quickly moved on to some other sympathetic soul when the rotation was over.

After my visit if I was honest I would have to say that I find the concept of the child who has everything as a result of rampant consumerism quite troubling. There was an excellent article in “The Age” on 18 December 2012 reflecting on the “buy, buy, buy” mentality leading up to Christmas - "Buying useless gifts again? Try giving an experience instead." I really couldn't have said this better myself. I think next year I will go back to my earlier practice of choosing a "gift" for family members from the Royal Flying Doctor Service Christmas Catalogue and sending them a card telling them what I have donated towards in their name. You can contribute towards splendidly useful gifts such as a Heart Start defibrillator, aeroplane nose wheels, dental packages, snake bite kits, neonatal incubators and ambulance stretchers. There are also more traditional Christmas necessities available such as cards, Christmas puddings, diaries and calendars if a more physical gift is required. See www.flyingdoctor.org.au. I am proud to support their work, and if I ever had a dream job as a doctor to aspire to, it would be working with the RFDS! Of course there are many other worthwhile causes (e.g., Oxfam, offering support for people in developing countries) which have a similar donation program at Christmas.

A Visit to Cairns – Part 5 - Reflections on the Frailty of Ageing

Phew! Hot, humid and busy ... After an elderly relative arrived I was conscripted for both child-minding and caring duties. No wonder my host found this difficult when he had to do both for an extended period over winter. After a few more days another relative came up for a few days, so even though I was back home for Christmas it was nice to have the whole family together in one place, which hasn't happened for a few years.

I remember as a young child that my father's single aunt was in a nursing home with advanced dementia and did not even recognise her own family members. This made a vivid impression on me. This was the same great-aunt that I also remember some time earlier saying to me how impressed she was with my achievements and that she was sure that I would "amount to something". It is always much more gut-wrenchingly awful to experience the slide into dementia of a loved one at first hand, and this is what one elderly relative has been going through over the past few years. Once a vibrant, intelligent, witty, capable and resourceful woman (including making beautiful ballet costumes) who raised three children as a single parent, she is now frail and extremely forgetful and has had several serious falls. In some respects she is fortunate still to be alive as she has suffered both a fractured neck of femur and a fractured pelvis due to osteoporotic bones. It is incredibly sad as well as being challenging to care for her and keep her from harm, and when you have friends with parents of a similar age who are still in very good shape mentally and physically you cannot help but think about what she could have been like.

A Visit to Cairns – Part 7 - Tales from the Twilight Zone!

A long time ago one of my relatives made an investment in a timeshare scheme, and as a result is able to stay in holiday apartment complexes for a certain number of days each year, and often shares these with family members. On this occasion, she was staying at a nearby complex as the guest space in the house was exhausted. I had been sleeping on an air mattress in the young girl’s play room, but the main issue with this was the inadequate window coverings, which meant that I was woken early each morning by the bright light and often could not get back to sleep. Several nights I was also woken up in the early hours by a sliver of moonlight crossing my face due to the placement of the blinds. Both the fan and the air-conditioner were loud (seems to be unavoidable in the tropics!) but as there was a bit of a cross-breeze from windows on two sides of the room I did not always need to turn them on. If the breeze got a bit brisk the blinds started flapping against the window, which would wake you up with a start. Thinking laterally, this could be minimised by interposing some soft toys on the window sill to act as a buffer! One amusing thing was that the when weight was applied, the air mattress would tend to attach to the tiled floor like the vacuum effect of suction cups. These would gradually let go with a popping sort of noise. The first time this happened I sat up startled, wondering who or what had got into the room!

As my relative had only been able to get a three-bedroom apartment, I thought I would probably get a better night's sleep there. This turned out to be somewhat of a 'comedy of errors'. The blackout curtains were largely ineffective against the stairwell lights immediately outside the windows and the bright car park below. The air-conditioner sounded like a jet engine, and when I turned it off and opened the windows there was a machinery shed on the other side of the car park that also sounded like a jet engine! As a result I was having trouble falling asleep, and of course in this situation your mind becomes over-active and you start thinking about problems, such as the expensive court case I am engaged in to recoup a lot of money that I am owed and which is a very challenging stressor in my life. This really becomes a form of night terrors which takes a while to resolve. It was also a clinical and uncomforting environment compared to the play room with all the smiling cute fluffy toys. Eventually with the help of an eyeshade and earplugs I did get off to sleep, but these become uncomfortable after a while and I woke up early again with the bright light. It was not difficult to decide that I was better off on the air mattress despite the moon and the early morning light!

Calling all introverts ...

"The Sunday Age" - 30 December 2012

It is nice to see that the term 'introvert' is increasingly being used less as a pejorative term and recognised more as an equally valid part of the spectrum of 'being human'. It was also good to see in this article a recognition that people are allowed to have different and equally valid learning styles rather than the 'one size fits all' extrovert model.

Someone who was close to me at the time once said (intended as a meaningful insult) that I was "the most introverted person" he had "ever met", and there have been plenty of other occasions where a cautious, thoughtful and reflective approach to learning and new people and situations has been regarded as defective and demonstrative of a form of mental deficiency. This is never good for the self-confidence and self-belief of an introvert and demonstrates the difficulty of making a good first impression and winning friends and influencing people in a world where extroversion is prized.

As mentioned in this article, I am familiar with the concept of 'stepping outside yourself' to deliver what the world requires, and equally familiar with the necessity of having 'quiet time' to recharge and rejuvenate. I always find it wryly amusing how some people abhor spending time alone, whereas to me a shot of time 'home alone' can be just blissful, and I do my best thinking when I can quietly focus on the task at hand.

Considering that (according to a 'Psychology Today' article – “Revenge of the Introvert” http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201008/revenge-the-introvert) introverts are the quiet 50% of the population, credible sources such as this that encourage introverts to be proud of who they are rather than being apologetic are to be encouraged!

After the gunfire - only silence ...

There was a very poignant Tandberg cartoon in "The Age" on 18 December 2012 entitled "Class of 2012 - When will they ever learn?" portraying an empty classroom and an American flag. Mere words cannot describe the depth of the tragedy of the slaughter of 26 innocents in Newport, Connecticut early in December 2012. Reading the paper the following day I was shocked to discover that there are at least 300 million guns for 310 million Americans, and that every day 80 people are shot to death in the US. As one politician proclaimed, "we are killing each other". It is beyond comprehension why any average person would need a semi-automatic weapon. It only takes one bullet to kill someone. 

Despite my own political inclinations, I still commend the courageous stance of former conservative Prime Minister John Howard in successfully campaigning for the banning and buy-back of semi-automatic weapons in Australia following the Port Arthur massacre. I also lived very close to the scene of the mass shootings in Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill, and still remember going to the railway station the next morning and seeing blood stains on the platform and trying to comprehend an incomprehensible tragedy. As much as I would love to explore all that America has to offer in terms of culture and scenery, I am way to scared to go there - 300 million guns can't be good - all it takes is to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and you too could be a victim ...

I commend the article which appeared in "The Age" on 18 December entitled "Gun glamour: America's appetite for anarchy". One can only hope that this time politicians from the President down will have the courage and intestinal fortitude to make meaningful and lasting change to the gun culture that has caused over a million Americans to die from gun-related violence since the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King in 1968. I also commend the article by Rob Harris on 20 December, "I just can't let my little boys play with toy guns any more". Many more excellent articles followed on subsequent days.

Diva for a day!

On Sunday 21 October St Francis' Choir sang the "Missa festiva" by Gretchaninov and John Ireland's iconic motet "Greater Love Hath No Man". It has been one of my favourites since I came across it when I was first at university and started my career as a chorister singing with the Canterbury Fellowship and the Trinity College Choir, both based in Trinity College Chapel at the University of Melbourne.

It is a dramatic motet for both choir and organ, and has divided choir parts in places, which those of us who are first sopranos always enjoy singing. The text is drawn from Christian texts: and I remember hearing once that it had great resonance for the time it was written, when many young men were making the ultimate sacrifice for their country and laying down their lives for their friends.

Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can the floods drown it.
Love is strong as death.
Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness.
Ye are wash’d, ye are sanctified,
ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus;
ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
that ye should show forth the praises of him
who hath call'd you out of darkness, out of darkness into his marvellous light.
I beseech you brethren, by the mercies of God,
that ye present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, holy,
acceptable unto to God, which is your reasonable service.

The Choir's performance was recorded and has been posted on the Choir’s Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/St-Francis-Choir/58534273651
and for those without Facebook access, it has also been posted on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/xo2Tfe7C2lw



There are also many recordings (of variable quality) available on YouTube but this one is probably the best (St Paul’s Cathedral Choir, London):
http://youtu.be/rc4RUeKzddg



Further information on John Ireland can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ireland_(composer) and a free version of the musical score is available from http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Greater_love_hath_no_man_(John_Ireland).

In the first part of the motet, there are important short solos for a treble voice and a baritone which 'set the scene' for the remainder of the piece. The treble solo is normally sung beautifully by one of the choir cantors. As she was going to be away for the day, a 'stand-in' had to be arranged. In late April both the cantor and the Choir Director had been absent when we were rehearsing the motet for an earlier performance, and our highly esteemed Assistant Director was taking the rehearsal. As I assessed it to be a "no threat situation" I spontaneously decided to sing the solo part when we got to that point in the rehearsal. The Assistant Director and several other people were quite complimentary about my efforts, which gave me a nice warm inner glow.

When the Director was deciding on an understudy, it did not occur to me that I might be considered, but on the basis of my earlier efforts I was nominated by the Assistant Director and the Director encouragingly suggested "see how you go". Things went OK in the rehearsal run-through, and once again I was relieved to receive positive feedback from a number of people. Thus began several days of anxiety leading up to Sunday's performance.

Although I was able to run over the notes on a keyboard to check my pitch intonation, as always a believer in the Boy Scout motto of "be prepared", when I arrived home from work on Friday I set about checking my CD collection to see if I had a copy of the motet that I could use for practice purposes. When this proved fruitless, I then checked YouTube and the iTunes Store. What I was really looking for was a recording where the two organ cues for the solo phrases were clearly audible. I listened to most of the YouTube recordings, but in the end settled for an absolute bargain on iTunes - a $7.49 album of 40 tracks of English church music recorded by King's College Cambridge - "England, My England". This enabled me to rehearse the solo at my convenience, which I did many times prior to the performance on Sunday. I knew I would be nervous, so I rehearsed the notes enough that they would come automatically (even to the point of boredom at one stage!). A Neonatal Paediatric Fellow once referred to this type of memory as being "brain stem" - so automatic that you did not really have to think about it. I think I alternated between terror, nervous apprehension and trying to be upbeat that this was an exciting opportunity to do a good job. There was an interval of decades since I had last sung this particular solo and this would in fact be my solo debut in my long history with St Francis' Choir!

I did not sleep much on Saturday night and there was plenty of nervous anxiety on Sunday morning. The Assistant Director kindly gave me a 'run through' prior to the rehearsal, and the rehearsal went without incident and there was lots of support and encouragement and kind words from other Choir members, including compliments on my 'pure treble tone'. I did feel a lot calmer when we got into the church and got through most of the service without significant nerves. However, these began to resurface as the appointed time drew near. Somehow I 'held it all together' and sang the solo without noticing any obvious errors on my part, even managing to watch the Director for the entries. I was desperately hoping that it had sounded OK to others, and was relieved to hear that it had, including from both the Director and the Assistant Director. The latter, whose opinion I greatly respect, even suggested that perhaps I could do other solos in the future! It was a great relief when it was all over, but I think it took me a few days to recover from the nervous exertion!

I think my somewhat extreme form of performance anxiety was the reason that I stopped putting myself forward for small solos. It is a physically unpleasant sensation and oh so distracting and all-encompassing. I try to do all the right things to get on top of it, but this is quite challenging.

It has always been a matter of great wonderment to me that people such as myself can be so anxious about solo performances (whether in music or exams or medicine) whilst other people just ooze confidence and don't give it a second thought. I have always wished that I could be like that! There are reasons (which I will not go into here) why my confidence has been eroded over time until I guess it has become a habit to be lacking in confidence, but I long to be different. Perhaps singing this solo will prove to be one small step on the way, and I am very grateful to all the people who believed in me.

The Power of One

Much has happened since I last wrote anything of substance, and I am still struggling to make sense of some of it. Sometimes we do not express what is in our heart as we do not know what to say.

I did travel to Nepal in late October last year with the intent of visiting Everest Base Camp, a lifelong desire, but through collusion of circumstances I was prevented from achieving this, and fell ill with altitude sickness and three simultaneous viral infections, including likely influenza. As a result, I was ill for some time after returning to Australia, and developed post-viral fatigue, which still lingers and hinders my activities some months later. I still do not know when I can expect to make a full recovery but feel that things are gradually heading in that direction. I still try to do as much as I can, but some days pay a heavy price for this.

Prior to travelling to Nepal I attended a series of meditation workshops presented by the Sri Chimoy Centre (www.srichimoycentre.org/au, http://au.srichinmoycentre.org/, http://www.melbournemeditation.org/). These were sensitively and thoughtfully presented, but my participation was cut short due to my trip. There is ample scientific proof of the benefits of meditation, but like all disciplines it requires commitment; something which I have not been able to provide. I find it ‘hard going’ as at present I have too much of a ‘monkey mind’ and too many intrusive thoughts. I wish that I were better at it, but of course that would only come with time and effort!

I have been able to resume my tutoring at Melbourne University Medical School, which is both challenging and enjoyable. I am also looking into various other options for part-time work in a mixture of clinical and educational areas. The legal case against my ex-business partner (for which I have suspended my full-time medical career for two years now) has failed to make any progress over the past twelve months, and indeed I have not even heard from my own lawyers since November last year. I have concerns about both the level and method of representation and their commitment to my cause.

I feel scarred by my experience last year serving as a member of a national ski patrol committee (due to the intensity of commitment and the level of bullying and harassment), and in common with 'aversion therapy', in truth do not know if I will be able to return to ski patrolling. This (in part) led me to withdraw from attendance at the FIPS Congress in France this year as an Australian ski patrol delegate.

Those of you who have seen the movie "Excalibur" or the final instalment of "The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King" will recall quotes about how the age of magic has come to an end and the age of men has overtaken it. This is how it feels - that the time of those who fought for a better way is over and that we have not won. Furthermore, we are redundant and have no place in the future. We are like ghosts in the machine, but I have no desire for haunting.

However, I haven't lost my interest in undertaking some overseas research to benchmark best practice in pre-hospital care in alpine areas, but unsuccessfully applied this year to both the Churchill Fellowship and the Emergency Services Foundation Scholarship fund for a scholarship to conduct research in Scandinavia.

Having relocated from the country to fight the court case, I have been enjoying singing with my church choir on a regular basis, and enjoyed attending the ACCET Conducting Summer School in January (www.choralconductors.org.au). There are many studies to suggest that choral singing is good both for the soul and the immune system! We recently had a gruelling full-day rehearsal in preparation for Easter, but will be singing a lot of wonderful music.

ACCET Melbourne participants - January 2012

'Continuing Professional Development' is an ongoing part of life as a doctor, and out of the courses I have attended so far this year I can highly recommend:

• Paediatric Advanced Life Support (Critical Care Education Services: www.criticalcare.edu.au)
• St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne Annual Department of Anaesthesia Workshop
• Monash Disaster Resilience Initiative Forum - Learning lessons from recent disaster reviews (Monash Injury Research Institute: www.monash.edu.au/miri/research/research-areas/disaster-resilience/monash-disaster-resilience.html)
• The Australia Doctor Mental Health Seminar (http://www.australiandoctor.com.au/events) 

I am still trying to spend some time (with varying success) on improving my Swedish language skills to work towards eventually taking the TISUS test required for work purposes. I suppose it is still a dream to spend some time working as a doctor in Scandinavia (Norway or Sweden), but the pragmatist in me realizes that it is rather a ‘long shot’ to achieve this in practice. However, I will not entirely give up hope just yet!