Advertisement
Published: November 10th 2015
Edit Blog Post
Here be dragons!
Love these little water dragons. While we were sitting at the pool they slithered over the ledge like hungry little velociraptors (we were in the food area). Anywhere there's water you can find them. They'll eat anything (French fries) but prefer meat. They're like squirrels, with scales. They're also aggressive about their territory- there are 2 outside Jim's office window fighting for the yard. Exciting to watch haha Saturday morning we got up and made all our travel arrangements for the month. Sigh of relief. Sydney next weekend (opera house, harbor bridge, Manly beach) and Cairns/the reef the weekend after that (+/- the rainforest and aboriginal walk). I scoped it out online and found us some decent flights and we found decent hotels (NO Jetstar!!!) Not much is driveable. Size-wise, it's similar to being in the US. We're visiting the equivalent of Atlanta and Chicago from DC (distance, not activities haha)
For the weekend, the Mater hospital (where Jim works on Wednesdays) was having a big conference on the Gold Coast. It mainly targeted general practitioners, and the goal was to teach them more in different topics. Lots of lectures and hands on. Skin was just one of the topics, but that's the one we went to. It was a nice easy 1 hour drive out to the coast from Brisbane. It's funny how Jim, and at least a few others here, scoff at the Gold Coast because it's so touristy. They compare it to Miami. Maybe not wrongly...
We arrived around lunchtime and parked the car for the weekend. The conference was at the Marriott (which
Swimming aquarium
Huge! The pool in the background was also huge! was AH-MAZING). They actually had very nice tables set up with some neat info (and nice freebies haha). The coffee station alone was unbelievable. That's what you get when you pick a GREAT venue in a country that loves its tea and coffee! Just wow. The talks themselves were great. They were all done by either Jim, one of the 2 plastic surgeons there, or Guy Bryant, the radiation oncologist. They actually use a LOT of rad onc here to treat some of the inoperable or extensive skin cancers. We do it back home, but just not that frequently. I swear there is something else going on here besides just sun. Could be the combo of North European skin in Australia plus thin ozone. I wonder if there's also some genetic founder effect or something else environmental. Just the scope of sun-related skin cancers here is staggering (as evidenced by them citing a JAAD paper from New York that said more than 10 skin cancers per year is catastrophic. They ALL laughed)
They showed some very interesting cases and great lectures on management. I think I'm really learning so much more about how to treat skin cancers from my
Forecast
From our hotel room I could see him draw the forecast in the sand (it's a sun with cloud and lightning bolt) short time here. Not gonna lie, my main priority was actually just going to Australia for a month, but it turns out I'm actually learning a ton. I may even change the way I do some things back home (though we face other challenges, namely how we bill for things).
On Saturday we dropped our overnight bags in our room and went to the lecture. Our room was incredible. Nice view of the amazing pool, huge bathroom with awesome separate tub (wish I was there longer!) They even had a travel plug we could use! The hotel itself was more of a resort. While we were waiting to check in, we went to the pool. It's a huge area with a GIANT salt-water pool with sand and a beach and a waterfall. There are fish in it! It's like swimming in an aquarium. Of the many types of fish there were clownfish and those little bright blue dory fish. Of course it's not as nice looking because they don't have the fancy aquarium lights, but hey you can swim with them! There was also a huge waterslide and a cool shortcut through the rocks to get back to the
Lagoons
Check out all the man made lagoons. They anticipated a high demand for water front property, so they made a lot of it! main area. Wow. Since we didn't have much time before the conference started, we just sat in the shade and hung out by the pool until we could check in. While there, we encountered more water dragons. Basically as common (or more common) than squirrels here, but still cool to watch! We also learned, from the cute waiter, that they have teeth and will bite if provoked! (someone caught one and another guy put his finger in its mouth).
The conference on Sat was just a couple hours, then we went to the pool and I swam with the fish for an hour. So glad I brought my goggles! After that we got ready for the dinner/cocktail thing they had. Free booze, free awesome food, all in the hotel. 😊 Happy puppet. Of course, we didn't last long, as usual. By 9 or 10 we were in bed.
The next morning we had a nice breakfast (one free with the room, one horrendously expensive). Quite a spread though! We sat with one of the plastic surgeons who we ran into in the huge line. He's Canadian but trained here and has lived here for 15 years. We learned
Brekky at Hungry Jack's!
We haven't had "brekky" there, but Hungry Jack's is Burger King. Apparently there's a tiny restaurant in Canberra that had already registered the name burger king, so they had to pick something else! a few interesting tidbits. 1 - Service is generally bad all over here because no one tips. We had already figured that out, but it was nice to have someone confirm that. Also, prices are insanely high because the servers all get paid a very high minimum wage. Something we can expect in the US if that proposed bill to raise minimum wage and pay servers the regular minimum wage goes through. 2- Nothing is open in this country after 5 because of the unions. They are very strong here. There's even a commercial on tv with a waitress, a barista, and some other worker with the plea to "save their weekends". They're pressing for a 5 day work-week for the service industry. I'm not sure if that means that each person will only work 5 days, or the businesses will shut down 2 days a week. I wouldn't be surprised if it were the latter. 3- Capitalism really doesn’t exist here. Businesses are just as likely to not sell to you or turn you away as they are to help you. I will say that on the whole everyone we’ve met in this country has been friendly and welcoming.
Really just nice solid people. But man, if you need to buy something it can be a challenge. You practically have to take off work if you need to go shopping.
The conference on Sun was also filled with great lectures. We cut it short in order to make it to the Carrumbin animal sanctuary on the way home (not exactly on the way, but sort of…) They have a koala experience that was supposedly cheaper than the one at Lone Pines, which we had been already planning to go to. However, by the time we got out there it was downpouring, so we just went home. We made it to the parking lot but no further! There has been tons of rain and overcast weather this past week (and upcoming week). On the way out there we stopped at McDonalds for lunch. I always think it’s interesting to see what the differences are in the McDonalds – they usually have something local. I’m not sure if this is local stuff, or just something new McD is doing. They have a “build your own burger” menu where you customize everything starting with the bread. If it’s in the states,
Home Sweet Australian Home
Living room - where we spend most lame nights haha. Rachel's room through the open door with bathroom (master suite). Standing in kitchen taking photo. On left is small kitchen table. Down hallway to left is my bathroom and bedroom. I’m sure some of the toppings won’t be (for example beets. They loooove beets here!) They also have something called a McBeast, that the girl at the counter didn’t know what it was. And an amazing looking ice cream cone in a chocolate waffle cone with this flakey Cadbury chocolate stuff on top. I haven’t had one yet but it looks very yummy. And something else called a McSpider - orange or coke slushy with vanilla ice cream in it. That looks good too!
So with the downpour in full force, we just came home and had an early night in watching a rerun of Limitless before early bed (they’re 2wks behind on “new” shows here. Weird). We’ve finally gotten used to driving on the other side of the road (though we each still get nervous in the passenger seat because it really looks like you’re going to swipe someone). Our little apt has also started feeling a little bit like home. So nice to have 2 separate bedrooms and AC though. It was a great weekend, and despite “working” all week/weekend, it’s been a great first week here! Certainly no one can accuse us of goofing off here
Kitchen
All the basics and a grocery store down the street. Good setup! and not doing any actual dermatology stuff. It’s been very rewarding! Looking forward to the next 3 weeks. 😊 And now we can check the Gold Coast off our list.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.05s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0298s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Mom
non-member comment
Living La Dolce Vita
Glad to hear you're learning a lot there AND having fun. I wonder, did anyone research the number of skin cancers there compared to, say, Miami or Arizona or Sicily or Costa del Sol in Spain, just to name a few other sunny places. Love the saltwater pool with fish at the Marriott. How fun is that! I guess you found Nemo AND Dory. (She's getting own movie soon.) Have fun and keep the blogs coming! Great travelogue and pics. Love you.