NBN is a greener alternative!

According to http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/362617/aiia_nbn_crucial_making_australia_greener/ the nbn will make a significant environmental impact!

Apparently there are some aging data centres around which take up prime realestate as well as drawing power from the energy grid.  These centres would likely be consolidated into newer more energy efficient centres.

Not to mention you could have much better teleconferencing, saving on travel... reduce paper wastage by sending large documents electronically...

I wonder if in 10 years time we'll look back and think who were the idiots opposing the NBN?

Julian's new timetable

Well it was nice having people around, but now I'm on my lonesome again.  I am worried about putting the kids to bed tomorrow, Julian will likely sleep in the car and then I'll never be able to get him to sleep.  He has had a bit of diarrhoea today, with 3 poopie nappies and 2 poos in the toilet.

By the time hubby gets home, the kids will have settled into their new routines and new rooms, so it should be good.

Here's Julian's new timetable

0500-0530 - wake up
0600 - breakfast
0900 - milk 240mL
0915 - poo
1000 - lunch
1030 - nap
1230-1300 - wake up
1300 - milk
1500 - shower/bath
1600 - dinner
1700 - milk
1715 - poo
1830 - bedtime

As opposed to Erika's timetable

0600 - wake up
0630- breakfast
0800 - juice
1030 - lunch
1200-1300 - nap (optional)
1300 - milo
1400-1430 - fruit
1500 - shower/bath
1700 - dinner
1830 - dvd/tv
1930 - bedtime
1600 -

Composting and why I haven't done it yet

For all my enthusiasm for ecosustainability and reduction of rubbish, my major failing continues to be composting.  Composting always seems like such hard work with all that turning and digging and I honestly just can't bring myself to be digging around in smelly waste.  Hubby was against it too because he says it attracts rodents and roaches.

Looking at one of the many types of compost bins on the market, I thought that the Earthmaker looked like a good choice.  It looks like I don't have to spin the damn thing and then dig compost out, basically I just add stuff to the top and then shake it through after a while and it comes out the bottom!  And if I get do it right and get the kids used to it then maybe I can teach them how to use the composter too.

So you add stuff in the top, then shake it a bit and it goes to the middle and then stir it some more and it goes to the bottom.  One thing I'm not sure about is how worms and other stuff gets in there.

Exciting case at work which turned out not!

Having recently become the Director of Obstetric Anaesthesia at my hospital there was an interesting case on which had a lot of workup and preparation in the event of a disaster which fortunately turned out not to be a disaster!

We had a primiparous woman who had fertility issues having successfully conceived her first child with IVF, had an anterior Grade IV placenta praevia, who also happened to be a Jehovah's Witness.  ARGH!

(Translation: Woman who had difficulty falling pregnant but finally got conceived with IVF, turned out to have the placenta covering the cervix so the baby can't be born without bleeding to death, as well as being at the front of the uterus making it difficult to get to the baby out via caesarean because there is the risk of cutting the placenta as you go in to get the baby... complicated by the fact that she was a Jehovah's Witness who by their religion refuse blood transfusions or they go to hell)

So there was a lot of discussion about this lady and teams involved.  The patient agreed to cryoprecipitate, as well as the cell saver, and the Interventional Radiologists were involved and they put balloon catheters in place in her common iliac arteries so that in the event she did bleed, we could inflate them and stop the blood flow to the uterus so we wouldn't lose that much blood.  Everything was set up, teams were ready, and we were all prepared for an emergency.  Fortunately though she didn't end up bleeding much and we didn't need all our special fancy equipment but you can bet your bottom dollar that if we didn't have all that stuff set up she would have bled like buggery and probably died.

It's a bit strange I think, my colleague's attitudes to Jehovah's Witnesses.  Anaesthetists say that in the event that the patient was going to die that they would give a blood transfusion even though the patient specifically requested not to.  They say because they want to "Do no harm".  However, I am not sure that I would do the same, I don't see why they find it so difficult to accept that despite their best efforts the patient died because of blood loss.  I guess they feel that it was because it was a preventable death, that they could have done something to save the patient.  But if you give blood to these patients, they become unclean, and they basically think they'll not go to heaven.  Is it really up to us to disrupt someone's religious beliefs and life because we don't want to feel the guilt of someone dying under our care?  I know if someone died because of bleeding when I'd done their anaesthetic I'd feel terrible about it, but I at least take comfort in the fact that I didn't do anything to their religious beliefs or faith.  I wonder if that makes me a worse doctor?  I don't think so, I think that if I had some special wish that I would like people to respect it.  It bothers me when people say "oh these stupid people and their religions, wrecking our lives making us stressed because of their stupid beliefs".  I just keep quiet but inside I'm thinking "How would you like it if someone told you that you had to do something against your beliefs because they thought it was stupid?"

RIP my poor borrowed HTC Touch Pro 2

My phone played up big time yesterday so I decided to use that new LG Optimus phone I got for free and you know what?  This android platform is not bad at all!  In fact this phone is really easy to use!

I managed to sync my outlook calendar with gmail, I just need to sync my contacts now.  I even found that you can do ewallet on android so that's really cool!  Well just to view anyway.

However I would still like an HTC.  Having huge problems trying to download the sync suite, because at the moment the laptop won't recognise that the phone is a USB storage device so it won't let me sync my ewallets.  At this stage I can still view my ewallets so that's good.

Kids who will not go to bed - Nightmare parenting moments #1

Last night I was by myself at home and hubby was out for a work dinner and I was bringing the kids back from Nanny M's and thought well, once I get the kids to bed I can do whatever I like!  Maybe play some WoW!

Little did I know...

I put Julian to bed after his milk at about 7pm and then tried to put Erika to bed at 730pm but Julian started crying (probably hit his head on the rail as he turned over) and then it was ping-ponging between the two, but as soon as I left one child the other would start crying... so I couldn't get either of them down.  Julian cried so much when I was struggling to put Erika to bed that he vomitted... twice.  All over me.  And himself, and his sleeping bag.  Fortunately not onto the floor or his bed so didn't have to clean that up.  I tried to clean his head and face but he still smelled of vomit, even after I changed his shirt.  I sms'd hubby at about 915pm to tell him that everything at home was terrible, and I sat downstairs with both of them watching Ratatouille and they seemed quite content for a while, Julian was very active and Erika was sitting quietly mostly.  By about 10pm I figured it was enough and took them upstairs, where they both started wailing.  I sat in Erika's room holding the two crying babies, and just sighed with resignation.

Erika was wailing at me to put Julian away, so I got up a few times and everytime I left she would cry loudly.  So I finally said to her that I can't put Julian away because Erika keeps crying!  So I left the room and she whimpered quietly while I tried to put Jul down.  He fell asleep when I held him horizontally but as soon as I put him in the cot he would cry.  I was on the final pickup and I heard Erika coming down the corridor saying "Mama?  Mama?" and I managed to put Julian on the floor, asleep.  She was peering around the door of Julian's room by that stage and I told her I'd finished putting Julian away, and I walked back to her room with her.  And we lay down, and I heard the garage door opening and told her that Baba was home and she'd better be good before Baba comes!  And before hubby came into the room, she was ok for me to leave her lying there on the bed by herself.

The one good thing was that they didn't wake up all night after that.  But 1030pm bedtime is just pure idiocy.

Both of them got up this morning in reasonably good spirits.  My only explanation was that perhaps they're coming down with a slight cold or something, making them clingy, because normally my kids aren't so awful!

Problem with car already! Lucky it's fixed now though...

I drove my car away on Tuesday and found that the damn clock keeps resetting to midday!  And so does the trip meter.  Sounded like some kind of battery/connection problem but today I took the car back and it was fixed up quick smart.  Fuse problem they said, which was easily rectified.

Erika loves the moonroof, she asks for it to be open all the time.  And she knows that mama's new car is black (she says it with a south african accent, so it sounds like she's saying Bleck).

At least the after sales service is good.  I will mention it when I do my customer satisfaction survey.

Oh, one thing I did notice was that servicing the car is NOT cheap.  And I thought VW service was bad, this is just as bad, maybe a tiny bit cheaper.

Oh today when I went back to the dealership the salesperson I dealt with was just handing over the keys to another Dualis +2!  A red one!  I went outside to tell the couple that they had made a nice choice, and the man asked me if I liked my car and I said I loved it.  Except for the clock of course.  Now a moot point :)

New car is here!!!!

I got a call today from Nissan saying that my car was ready for pickup!  Now that was a nice surprise, and especially on a Tuesday where I actually can have time to pick up the car if I try!  So I went to the bank after my Acute Pain Round, got my bank cheque and off I went to the car dealers.

After signing all my paperwork and stuff and having the car "tour" I finally got my car!  But there was one bad thing - the clock keeps resetting every time I turn the car off.  In fact, all the trip stuff seems to reset after I turn the car off.  I notified the dealers and they told me to let the service guys look at the car when I bring it around on Thursday.

Here's what it looks like on the inside (pictures from web, not my actual car)

Driving an automatic makes me feel lazy.  Taking off from the lights feels sluggish compared to driving a manual - is that due to it being automatic or is that just my engine being underpowered?  Tried it with the "manual" gear switch and it wasn't much different.

The display is distracting.  Probably because it's a new car, and I keep looking at the km on it and the fuel consumption.  I think i'll have to turn it off and not look at it.

The Bluetooth is actually really good.  I called people from my phone and they said it was good quality sound.  Simple to connect too.  I have to program some numbers into the car now to make it more useful.

Sound suppression is impressive, it was raining moderately to heavily and I could still talk on the phone.  I haven't driven the M5 to Campbelltown yet but I will tomorrow so I will get to see what it's like in terms of noise in the cabin.

I put the baby seats in, and they slip around a lot on the moulded leather seats, which is irritating.  So I put some padding under them to see if that helped, but I can sit between the seats, which is kind of cool!  There is a little more leg room in the back than my old car.

I haven't quite got my head around the car positioning, and how close I am to things.  I think I'm erring on the side of caution, and I'm worried I'll run over stuff at the back but when I put the car in the garage I was WAAAAY too far from the wall.  Will need to put it a bit closer when I park it again tomorrow coming home.

I like my glass roof.  I had it open most of the way home.  I bet Erika and Julian will like it too.

Keyless entry is cool!  It also has a key option for flat keyless battery thing which is awesome.  Not sure how that works if I can't actually OPEN the car... there must be a slot somewhere for it in the door.  I'll look for it later.

All in all I love my new car.  Oh but you know what was really cool when I first saw the car?  It was the number plates!  BSL97W... perfect for someone married to an endocrinologist!!!  Won't be forgetting that in a hurry.

I banish twit! Totally awesome.

DIY Phone repairs...

Hubby, HK and I took my phone apart yesterday and when we put it back together I found the LCD was busted!  So after that, HK took it apart again and put the replacement LCD in and it was working.  And after all that I forgot to mention, it was the touch screen which was broken initially, NOT the LCD!!!!

I should have realised that.  if the LCD was broken I'd have a rainbow swirly screen.  /smacks head

Anyway, there were some good instructional videos on the HTC website which showed us how to take the phone apart.  It was very useful.  I'll link them here in case I ever have to do them again.

Disassembly


Reassembly

iPhones taking over the world....

I have been very resistant to having an iphone... perhaps because it's an iphone!  Apple likes everyone to use their product with no crossover... effectively squeezing out the competition.  I suppose that's how you make money but you have to be sure your product is good - and the Apple product is good, or so the millions of people using iphones will tell you anyway!

And I did think that the iPad was a silly thing, people were saying it's a computer replacement and I was poopooing that idea... but after playing with one... it does do the one thing that I thought was good and that was read things, like books, the newspaper etc, at least it's big enough to read compared to reading it on my phone like I normally do.  But then one of my mates showed me his comics on it, and wow they look great!  I have digital comics too and they look cool on the computer but I'm sure they would look just as awesome on the iPad - much that I hate to admit it!

So do I give in and get one?  Obviously I only want one because... well because it's cool!  I don't really NEED one (really what do we really NEED other than water, food, clothes on our backs... internet, WoW, mobile phones, the latest fancy digital SLR... hahahaha!)... maybe I can just wait till version 2 comes out.  I wonder if I'll be able to read my books on it, since they're all saved on funny formats.

Comments that make you roll your eyes...

Operating today with my orthopaedic surgeon, and his assistant (another orthopod) was trashing the NBN, saying that it will cost lots of money and it's a waste of money.  And that the speeds of sites downloading is dependent on the US servers and not Australian internal networks...

... I immediately said that it's about connecting rural Australia to high speed internet.  And that rural Australia needs the connections for internal things - such as video conferencing, virtual classrooms - geez it's not all about ebay, amazon, apple i-store and youtube!

So he said as well, well don't live in rural Australia, why would anyone want to live there?  I said someone has to grow food for the populace.  He said buy it from overseas, it's cheaper...

No wonder people think doctors are idiots.  I wonder if there anybody out there thinks like me, that food produced in Australia will support our local economy, and that with a strong local economy that DOESN'T rely heavily on mining, logging and whatever unrenewable resources there are around as primary industry will build a stronger country for us all.  I think patriotism is something that people don't believe in these days.  I have taught Erika the Australian national anthem and I will make sure my daughter understands the importance of showing support for your country, local business and jobs.  Geez even now I think orthopods are idiots (though you really shouldn't be biting the hand that feeds you if you know what I mean).

Also when I was at Liverpool I have people going on and on at me about voting Greens/Labor.  "They'll take all your money", "They want to support all the dole bludgers", "We'll have an emissions trading scheme coming in and that's bad!"

Why shouldn't we have some environmental conscience?  Why shouldn't you pay more tax if you earn more money?  Perhaps it's unfair for the lower income people to be slugged with the high energy bills, but perhaps if you invest more money in green and renewable energy or subsidise it then perhaps we can have better electricity for everybody.  I am still struggling to come up with a concept that would make electricity more affordable to lower income populations, sometimes I think I'd like to put solar panels on my investment properties so that the electricity bills there would be smaller and have a smaller carbon footprint.  But I don't know, I can't go around saving the world, I'm just one person, with grand ideas and no possible way to carry them out!

NBN rollout

I've taken a fascination with the NBN since it was a clear winner for the government.  Reading a lot about it on whirlpool forums and in the paper, and since Internode support it's obviously the real-deal good thing and not some funny fancy promise that they used to win votes...

So I decided to look at the rollout maps

There was an inciteful headline in the paper stating that city dwellers will have to bear the costs of the NBN for rural communities - basically saying they will start the infrastructure rollout in the regional areas first.  Which of course I think is the right thing to do - why should they start it in the cities when we already have high speed internet?  And the poor country folk have dialup and crappy ADSL?  I think it will be great for communication as well as education for kids in the country areas - information will be available at fingertips for homes far from access from the services we take for granted - libraries, bookstores, community services.  Most of the comments after the article said the same thing - they don't mind if they do the regional areas first.  After all, we already have nice broadband here in the city.  What would people want with more speed?

And Labor is in by a nose!

I sat down today at 3pm to watch the press conference that the 2 independents Windsor and Oakeshott held, which after listening to them talking for about half an hour finally let us know they had chosen to side with Labor, and a Gillard government.

Lots of people have lots of things to say I bet.  Here are my interpretations of it.

One thing that I did notice was that Oakeshott made it clear that though he was not mandating either party and that he could swing either way.  He also took a long time justifying his decision and he mentioned that he had to go home and discuss something with his family which to me suggested that he was offered a cabinet position or something.  And he did come out with that at the press conference, and made no effort to hide it.

Windsor was (relatively) quick to say he would support a Gillard government.  I was happy that he said that NBN was the major factor in it, and I think that he made the right choice - now only to hope that the fibre starts getting laid in the next few years.

Oakeshott was ... dramatic to say the least.  Though as soon as Windsor said he would support Gillard I knew that Oakeshott would support Labor also, as they said stability was important.

Interestingly they think that Liberals would want to go to the polls relatively soon.  I can't remember why I felt like they thought that, but somehow that seemed to filter through.  I wonder if the Libs went to the polls quickly they would focus on those seats to take them away from the independents.

I am sure that many in Australia are bemoaning the fact we have Labor/Greens working together, and whinging about climate change, mining taxes and NBN.  To be honest I couldn't give a poop about boat people coming in ... selfish perhaps but those boat people can't take my jobs or my houses.  Though they may take my tax money... a price on carbon is something I think Australia should look at for our responsible future and I wish that there was more money invested in renewable energy, and I hope the Greens can give that kind of future that I want for my children.

Dualis it is!

Today took the plunge and bought the Dualis+2.  Getting it in black.  There were no Ti models there for hubby to look at, but he got a look at the ST model +2 as well as the non +2 model.

Trading in my car got me 10k off the RRP.  I'm excited now, can't wait till I get my new car!

Interestingly I keep asking Erika what colour car to get and she has consistently said Red.  I have tried wording it differently or giving her different options and yet she still says red.  I hate to disappoint her, but I've never had a black car before!

Here's a picture of my new baby... which will probably be here around mid October.

What do I think of the election and the eventual outcome?

Politicians these days are not inspiring.  The election held a couple of weekends ago just goes to show how uninspiring the whole thing can be.

I will make no secret of the fact that I voted Greens this last election.  Now with the Greens receiving a 3.7% national swing during the last election as well as winning a Lower House seat, and picking up extra senate seats giving them the balance of power in the Senate (they will have a senator in each state), they are getting a lot of attention (The Coalition only got a 1.9% national swing).

The media story stating that people voted Greens as a protest against voting Labor or Liberal is true in my respect.  I am one of the tertiary educated, high-income earners who should be voting Liberal, but usually votes Labor, but now sick of them both is now voting Greens.

But did you look at their policies?  People ask me.  Yes I did.  I went to their website, and looked at the things that they believe and want to introduce.  Now being a party not in power, those policies would probably be picked to pieces, but they have been glossed over mostly.  However there are a lot of Labor type similarities.  Things which interest me mostly are health, education and climate.

There is a very socialist approach to their health policies.  Abolish the private health insurance rebate, boost up the public health system.  Salaried GPs, more incentives for specialists and GPs to bulk bill so all Australians have access to healthcare.

Climate and the environment - obviously being the Greens they are for carbon tax, stopping coal mining and our dependency on non renewable energy sources, ecosustainable fishing blah blah.  Perhaps a bit unfair on my part, but I am pro-Carbon tax.  After all, I can afford it, and I did put in solar panels to try to reduce my bills a bit as well as my carbon footprint.  I wish that all Australians could have solar panels or afford them. And they support feed-in tariffs - I hope it's gross tariffs for everyone!  If that was the case I'd love to buy property and put solar panels on them everywhere.

Education - more public schools funding, HECS free Tertiary education... it all sounds very socialist doesn't it?  So where does all this money come from?

At heart, maybe I am a socialist.  I don't try to minimize my tax excessively, I think if I can afford it I should pay for it.  Is that such a bad thing?  My colleagues all think so.  They say why do you want all your hard earned money to go to tax?  But was my money that hard to earn?  Do I have back breaking labour?  I think I have quite a good life, I love my job and all prospects of it, and I don't work that hard really.  I do most of my work in the public system, and my private fees are not excessive (though I don't no gap and I really should if I was as socialist as they say).

A friend of mine donkey voted, saying that it was his protest against the 2 governments, because he thinks they're all idiots.  And that's his right, he has a right NOT to vote (since it is compulsory to vote but he just doesn't want to).  Another friend of mine voted Nationals.  People who don't make a vote in my opinion should not complain about who leads the country because they had their opportunity to say something but they chose not to.  Look at me, I exercise my vote and look what happened - my safe Labor seat has now turned marginal.  And for someone like me it doesn't really matter who gets into power, it won't affect me that much.  I will still send my kids to school, I will still work and get paid and pay my tax, and I will still take out private health care even though it costs me heaps.