Esplanade Day and Wellington

Finally, we have recovered from the hike.  It took us about two days to get over it which, frankly, I think is pretty incredible given our state of fitness or lack thereof and our preference for sitting.  We are slowly changing our preferences - Adrian is walking to work more and finds walking our golf course easier with each go.  This place is really made for walking/biking/hiking.  The weather is mild and even though we have had lots of rain it usually does not last long here.  There have been reports of some really intense weather north of us but we have not seen that.  We have had some really strong wind - I was walking to pick up children and really had to lean in to get there.  It is exciting weather and the forecasters have quite a time keeping up so we pay them little mind.  When it is sunny I do laundry and walk and when it rains we drive.  Quite simple really...

We attended a free event at the Esplanade - a park here - you may remember the rose photos from early on that were taken there.  We rode the little train around the park and saw a lady dressed in a balloon dress - yes, a dress made of balloons - quite a lot of work I would think.  We played carnival games and watched belly dancers - Adrian quite enjoyed that!

Adrian had his first weekend on call.  The referring physicians (surgeons,  ER doctors, general practitioners) call him directly and request the study to be done.  There is discussion about the necessity of the scan (mostly CT requests) and then usually an ok is given by the radiologist.  An X-ray tech works full time in the ER but any other study requires a tech to be called in.  There was a registrar on call with Adrian so he did the leg work of calling in the tech and getting the patients scanned.  Adrian then went to the hospital to report out the exam.  It was not very busy until Sunday evening when several exams were ordered as a trauma had arrived.  He did not get called in the middle of the night (Friday, Saturday or Sunday) so it was a relatively easy first.  He might argue that but getting sleep is always good.

We are planning a couple of trips during school holidays.  In April we will go to the south island for two weeks.  We will ride the ferry over and then travel around the perimeter of the island staying in cabins.  There are campsites that have a variety of types of accommodation ranging from motel to tent sites.  We will opt for the cabin and see how that goes.  Abigail and her carsickness is an issue but we are on the hunt for dramamine!  We keep ginger cookies in the car now as someone recommended that and we have not really had any incidents to speak of lately.

Check out the sites where we will be staying - this will be the first one after the ferry ride.

 The other trip will be to a Radiology Continuing Education conference in Spain.  We will stay over for a bit and visit France.  We are all very excited about this trip - we will be going in September so the weather will still be nice.  We are trying to learn a bit of Spanish and French so that we can at least ask for the bathroom!  I can speak a little Spanish and Adrian speaks a bit of French so we should be ok.  I do not think that my Spanish for "take a deep breath and hold it" will come in handy though.  Adrian gets an allowance for CME and the time away is not considered vacation so this will really be a great opportunity for all of us!  Yet another trip of a lifetime.  I do have to pinch myself to make sure this is not a dream.

We are off to Wellington this next weekend so will update with pics, etc. then.  Have a great week!