brisbane - part one

My 10 week stint in the royal brisbane hospital's emergency department has come to an end, crowned by a night out with the other doctors on my team and the mysterious appearance of engine grease smeared all over my best pair of pants (the dry cleaner is posting them out to me in the countryside). work-wise, it was a good 10 weeks, and though i learnt a great deal, perhaps the end has come not a minute too soon - this last week i have been feeling decidedly unexcited to be at work, quite apart from the usual love-hate relationship i have with medicine. It's time for a change, and tomorrow morning i fly out to country QLD to start a 5 weeks stint providing relief for local docs, and then another 2 weeks in a different location before a final 4-week sprint of cardiology in brisbane towards a finishing line masquerading as an international airport check-in queue.

brisbane grows on me daily - the city itself is beautiful, and i'm hooked on evening walks through the gorgeous parks along the river. the place where i live couldn't be better, and as the weather gets warmer, the brisbanites are recovering from the seasonal affective disorder that afflicted them through their version of a winter, and are becoming noticeably more social, sexual, and engaged. (i think it's because it's always warm here so for the one or two months a year when you have to put a jumper on in the evening, the locals just can't make sense of what's going on and go into shut down).

it's a sleepy sort of town for a people who love a relaxed sort of lifestyle. so i've signed my end-of-lease papers and am selling my effects - paring my life down to what i can fit into a backpack. if i owned a place here the story might be different, but it doesn't make sense for me to use brisbane as a base next year, though i still plan to work in QLD.

non-work-wise, it's been excellent. have visited some national parks in the area, danced away at some pokey clubs, met some wonderful people, ran through some parks naked during storms with them, and even flew to rockhampton for a dirty weekend with someone i met on the internet (an unusually successful caper - highly recommended).

my suitcase is lying open, half-packed on my bed. i look around my house and my life and i'm reminded of a line in a book i just finished reading. one character asks "can you stay for dinner?", and the other responds "of course - i have no plans for the rest of my life".

and that puts a smile on my face :)