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Caves Beach

Everyone else is still at the beach house for M’s birthday. I came back for work in the morning. I was sleepy and it wasn’t busy and they would have been fine without me. On top of that MJ decided that I was too “quiet” today for her liking. Maybe SHE can try sorting invoices on a day when she should be at the beach.

Customers are funny. After the cholesterol & henna lady, there was one who came in today asking for something that sounded like “cheniten oral”. I thought it sounded a little bit like “Canesten” so I asked her if that was what she meant. She said no, so I asked her to repeat what she wanted and she did so about five times and I still had no idea what she was saying.

She then took out a little electronic dictionary and typed what she wanted to buy in her language then translated it into English and held it out for me to read.

It said “genitals”.

I tried really hard to arrange my face into a neutral expression. I asked her whether it’s thrush, and she pointed her finger at her vagina and nodded. Then I asked her what symptoms she had, and the word didn’t register. She held out her dictionary and I typed in “symptoms” and then “translate”.

With a look of dawning understanding she nodded at me. I pointed to the dictionary and said, “what symptoms?” and she said “yes”.

While I tried to think of new ways of communicating my question it suddenly clicked for her. She scratched the back of her hand fervently while looking at me meaningfully. “Itchy?” I asked her, and she nodded.

I was pretty sure “discharge” wasn’t in her vocabulary so I simply asked if there was anything else. She typed something into her dictionary. “Leakage”. I took that as “discharge”.

Because there are so many treatment regimens for thrush I asked her which dosage form she wanted. She lifted her fingers into the air, pinched an invisible pessary, and inserted it into her wazoo. “Pessary”, I confirmed. She looked confused, so I said “a vaginal tablet”. Upon hearing “tablet” she shook her head frustratedly thinking I meant oral and it took some time and some help from her friend before we came to an understanding.

It took a lot of effort. I don’t think, however, that this will be a story of triumph over communication barriers at my next interview.

Spring Cycle

R, J, A and I cycled 40 km today from North Sydney to Olympic Park for Spring Cycle.

The last time I cycled was five years ago so I was shitting my pants a bit. We arrived at North Sydney at about 8:30. I remember when C and I used to walk to Ryo for ramen from Greenwood Plaza and how we’d complain about the uphill road. Well we had to CYCLE up that road today and I was breathing like I had pulmonary oedema wondering why we were headed in the exact opposite direction to Olympic Park when we reached the top of the hill where people were lining up to START.

On the bright side it meant a long downhill ride. In fact until we passed Milson’s Point it was mostly downhill and awesome fun, except it was extremely windy and sometimes I felt like I was either about to be blown over sideways or backwards.

We took a lot of winding roads and back streets. There were several slopes we had to cycle up and they were increasingly difficult. We stopped to rest a few times but I don’t think they helped too much because once we lost momentum it felt more tiring to get back on the road.

During the last 10 km my bum was in constant agony. I know that while I had the girl bike J and A took the boy ones (due to the idiot at Anaconda who screwed up our order) which unlike mine weren’t cushioned and were probably even less comfortable but I seemed to be the only one who actually had trouble walking afterward. I think maybe my ass bones are more prominent. If I had taken the boy bike I would have surely just tipped over and died.

The part from Rhodes to Olympic Park was fun because it was on bike paths, and you know how the narrower the road the faster you feel like you’re going. We weren’t actually too tired when we passed the finishing line but I did feel like my arse had permanently assumed the shape of a bicycle seat.

Apart from a couple really REALLY long steep uphill slopes it was so fun. And for anyone who doubted whether they’d be able to last, if someone (i.e. me) who hasn’t been to the gym in MONTHS and last rode a bike in year 11 can do it, so can you.

And now I’m playing Cyclomaniacs. Lols.

Mraz – Geek In The Pink Cover

Anyone who likes Jason Mraz must see this. It’s possibly the best cover of ANYTHING I’ve ever seen.

Hypolipidaemia

A woman just said to me, “can I please have some Cholesterol & Henna?”

Children

I have an interview with Children’s Hospital at Westmead tomorrow. I feel like I should be preparing for it but I have no idea how, and I wonder if it’s better to just wing it instead since for all of my previous successful interviews I just showed up completely unprepared and said whatever came first to mind.

Then I had a thought about how I would answer one of the obvious questions I’ll be asked which is “why would you like to work in a children’s hospital?” and I have the hospital part covered completely but why children? Do I even LIKE children?

I think I do, but I’m not sure. Babies are always grinning at me which is great and I like them too. Little girls like me because I’m girly and we’re also probably on the same level of cognitive development. But I get really easily annoyed with kids that ask a lot of questions (like my cousin who went through a “why” stage that made me pull out a lot of hair) not for the sake of learning or curiosity but just because it’s amusing. I also dislike children with a predisposition to touching dirty things and then touching other people, e.g. me. So I don’t know, I like them most of the time.

I think I’ll just wing it. Thinking hurts my head.

Chicken in Soup

C: What did I do?
Me: You made me wet, in the worst way possible.
C: The worst way possible would be if I pushed you, fully-clothed, into a pool.
Me: No actually the worst way possible would be if you peed on me.
C: I’d do it again.

(I was going to C’s place after work. It was pouring so I called and asked him to pick me up from the station with an umbrella and he refused to leave in the middle of DOTA. So I was really annoyed and thought well then I’m going to walk through the pouring rain and end up soaking wet and THAT WILL SHOW HIM so I did except the joke, as expected, was very much on me.)