First few days of work ... for some at least

This week Em and Iz have been off at their respective hospitals and getting stuck into the world of work once more. Em is in Gosford at the hospital where we were taken on our first day in Australia and Iz is over in Wyong, about 20 miles north of us in Terrigal. So far we have not yet bought a car so Em is getting a lift in with Rhys in the mornings and returning by bus later that night. She is on 12 hour shifts (8-8) and is loving every minute of it. I have heard many stories of Central lines being put in, Art lines and all sorts of funky procedures which sound pretty daunting, but she is jumping into them as only Em does. Iz is having a slightly harder time of things as she's been dropped into Emergency Department work and not knowing the system in Oz, or the equipment which by all accounts is pretty different, she's having to learn on her feet and pretty fast too! I'm sure she'll get by soon enough.

I've signed us up for broadband now and am just waiting for them to switch us on which should hopefully be in the not too distant future. This will allow me to spend a bit more time composing the blog and adding photos for you all to see.

Over the last few days I've been doing a lot of shopping, cooking and housework as well as going out and spending time soaking up the sun and watching the surfing and sailing. I've now purchased some suncream, so hopefully the days of bad sunburn are now behind me!!

The weather has been pretty good, although Queensland (a few hundred miles north) is undergoing some of the worst flooding on record. They had 600mm fall in a matter of hours the other day, but the pictures on TV of the surfers at one of the big surf competitions look awesome. Big swells and loads of tubes for them to ride. As I write this, I can see a pretty decent swell throwing the laser yachts around out in Terrigal, so I'll have to go and look at the surfers when I've finished here. They should be putting on a good show today hopefully.

I've been checking out gyms and they are pretty expensive here. $26 per week, which works out around £50 per month - quite a lot more than I'd expect to pay for a comparable gym in the uk - £25 per month would be more like it. So I'm now looking at buying a bitof equipment and working out in the comfort of our place. We've got Air con, so I could switch that on whilst working out, plus there won't be much excuse for not doing it! I'm really missing the work outs actually, seeing as I've spent the last year with Sascha 3 times a week, something seems wrong when I'm not doing anything!! Will have to see what Sash reckons I need to get ... more emails to write!!

Well I'll try and write something else in the next few days.

Tootle pip,

Rich