More work

The scale of the devastation and loss from the bushfires is incomprehensible. Whole families dying, and many people still missing. A Paediatrican here is still waiting on news of her husband who was at Kinglake at the weekend; a dietitian who worked here part time several years ago has died with her husband and daughter. A friend of Maddy’s lost her home near Castlemaine, but is alive. Everyone is touched in some way. Many stories of true heroism and amazing luck as well as enormous grief. I wonder if many people who stayed to protect their homes really had the resources to do so. The speed of the fires seems to be the basis for the huge loss at Kinglake (35 dead) I’m not sure how I would cope faced with a wall of flames, and roaring wind.

This enduring image is to be developed as a poster and sold for the CFA

Work has been busy (what’s new!) but with lots of good resolution of problems as well as lots of non-eaters. They seem to come out of the woodwork!!
I am planning to do a consultation clinic to Tweddle Mother & Baby Unit for a short-term residential program for poor feeders. They said “Toddlers over 2 are the main group aren’t they?” I didn’t like to tell them that it’s the under 12 months that I want them to address, but I guess starting with the ‘easy’ ones is a start. I have drawn up a model of the clinic and will meet with them on Friday.
Still working on the changes to my Thesis of which the main argument is that the examiner thinks it’s a pre test/ post-test study!!! There is no Pre-test anything!!! But because I have statistics it is a ‘quantitative study’ not the ethnographic phenomenological or mixed method one I think. The questionnaires were to describe the group not to assess them. So I have some reasonable changes to make and then the argument!!
Had word from Vietnam re my Home stay student Tat Thang, he arrives next Thursday 19th. He should be OK to be a bit independent, as I have things on Sat (MTC) & Sunday evenings (WLT) as well as “Wicked” on Sunday week lunchtime for Kate’s birthday.

The aftermath...ongoing

We were grateful for the cool change that came through at 530 as predicted, but the change of wind turned on to Kinglake, where several people have died and many homes destroyed
At Wandong a resident and former CFA firefighter, Brian Harper, said he watched the fire crest a hill and travel 1½ kilometres in just five minutes. "There were 60 to 70-foot flames, taking the tops of trees. We were praying for Elvis (the firefighting helicopter) to come, and thankfully it arrived in time." Late last night, Wandong remained cut off, with more than 50 cars parked at roadblocks as anxious locals tried to find out if they had lost their homes.

And this is only one town. Kilmore is on fire and residents and tourists are stranded in Yarra Glen, north-east of Melbourne, after fires cut roads going in and out of town.

What is incomprehensible is that some fires are thought to have been deliberately lit. This one on the foreshore at Back Rock among them.
I was out briefly in cool clothes Imagine how HOT these guys must have been!!

The work of the CFA volunteers is enormous. They are real heroes!

Hottest day on Record

TO escape the heat today, was 32 at 8.30am , I planned to spend the day at the National gallery. They obviously don't want you to linger too long as it ended up too cold to stay!! But it did get me through a few hours. Wind gusts of up to 82kmh have been reported at the Airport, where it was a sweltering 46.8 degrees at 3. pm. I presume they cancelled the Sailing event Top of The Bay!! Currently 46.4.

I took my book (The Time We Have Taken) to read between looking at the different exhibits. One was about the Bugatti Family, who I know is associated with cars. However, the Bugatti family encompasses three generations and four individuals: Carlo Bugatti, his sons Ettore and Rembrandt, and Ettore's son Gianoberto (Jean). This exhibition showed the furniture, sculpture and cars of this family. Drawn from private collections, the Art Gallery of South Australia and the furniture now in the collection of the NGV, including the last chair from Carlo Bugatti's 'Snail Room' exhibited in Turin, 1902 (and a centrepiece of the show) the exhibition includes Carlo's furniture, animal sculptures by Rembrandt, a Type 37 racing car from Ettore's workshops raced at Phillip Island, and owned by Tom Roberts (the Painter's great nephew) The furniture was fascinating and an Art deco style. The piece of beauty was this car, an Atalante, looks like this but is red not green (forgot to take my camera!) Now I always wanted to by a classic car!! On searching the web for a picture I found a reference to find in a garage in NSW when a family was sorting the grandfathers huge collection of things!! A bit different from Maddy's paper and glad wrap!!

Tonight we are off to Ethnic Elaine at Via Venuto in North Melbourne The change is due about 5pm so hope it hits before we have to go out!!

6 Interesting Things

Although you have said 6 I have only seen people put 5!

Here goes.

1. I can remember the plot of almost every book I have read

2. I am not so good at hearing song lyrics correctly.

3. I can sail a yacht and shoot a bow and arrow.

4. I am a good fast cook

5. I can speak Japanese

and 6. I can see why you run out Let me think............

I have worked in Outback Australia with the Australain Inland Mission

Frustrating Day

The day was quiet and orderly in most ways except for an underlying issue that had me muttering dire retribution.

I have a lot of patients who are being fed by nasogastric tubes and they are on what is called the HEN program (Home Enteral Nutrition) funded by the Government to the Hospital that inserts the tube. A family of 4 mth old twins who are both on tube feeding (ex prems and vomiting etc as neonates) have come to my attention from local Maternal & Child Health Nurse, as one was coming in to RCH for an Op. The tubes were put in by the Maternity Neonatal Hospital, so they are the HEN provider. However they discharged the babies to another hospital (That has a Children's ward) nearer their home and they say they are not able to provide tubes tape etc (true) but expect the family to travel back to the Maternity Hosp who say they do not treat babies after neonatal period (12 weeks). Talk about Bureaucracy gone amok! Well after this admission the father saw that we used pumps for the feeding. Great little things the size of a school lunchbox that can jut be put in the cot, under the pram, etc. no need to hang the bottle for gravity, so make life and mobility much easier.

Family had never seen these. So while they were at RCH (not really coming back so not our patients) we had our nutrition Department liaise with the otter Hospital to be sure they were on the HEN program there.We were assured they were and they went home to get the pumps organised.

I had a call at 4pm to say that the nurse had been on the phone for hours to the Mat Hosp and the other one and they denied they were on their HEN program (both of them) and they can't get pumps! If we put them on ours we use up our allocation quicker, so it should be spread around.

What riles me is that the second twin has not been admitted or seen anywhere since discharge until seen by a paediatrician yesterday, so technically she's no-ones patient! How can the system treat people like this!! Shades of the US health system!! The family had a rough time during the pregnancy with yes/no about a fetal diagnosis, further yes she has/no she hasn't cardiac afterwards etc. They are young and struggling; dad has had to us all his leave to help mum, who needless to say has PND!!!

I did have a Feel-good call though, from a hospital Paediatrician who rang me a few weeks ago about coming back to work, for some locum shifts, but her 7mth old refuses to take a bottle. She rang to say that after slowly following my advice the baby will now drink the required amount from a sipper cup. It's a Tommee Tippee one that they are now going to take off the market!! So she bought two!

Also love this Ad for spray oil! "If chef's knew about this they would use it too."

Hard to see but it's a doll on the back ledge of the stove.

No-one appreciates the conditions mothers work under !!

Girding up for the weather tomorrow the most 'dangerous day for bush fire risk in Victoria for years, even more than Ash Wednesday though The Met says a cool change is expected to blow in with a south-easterly wind about 6.30pm.

The other end

Celia was right about the industrial look to my walk to work. When I do a shorter trip I park near the trees, but for the longer walk I park opposite a used car yard, & a fish wholesale freezer centre, and the entrance to Western Transport Truck Depot. Today there were about 20 cars parked (usually 3) and so I ended up at the end, (or the beginning, i.e further to walk), so maybe more have got the walking and free parking idea???
I walk under 3 railway bridges of decreasing height, the area is famous for trucks stuck who do the first one and don’t realise the low warning refers to the third one out of sight in pic.!
I then walk past an electric sub station that on a sunny morning, causes a weird flashing light as the sun comes through the vertical bars in a strobe effect. At the corner I turn and face the railway crossing but have a pedestrian gate to use, then I am at the trees again.
Last week as I was driving home near the crossing, it is single lane over the tracks, but cars often charge up in the two lanes and merge abruptly. A flashy purple car did just that, but had to stop suddenly as another car had done the same. I saw them stop again (we had all been stationary) but the car behind had a gap so was moving faster and I could see it coming up on me and sure enough Bang. Not very loud or forceful but I swore mildly and pulled over, waited in the car and then a woman got out and came up as I got out. She was apologetic (and quite pregnant) saying she misjudged teh speed, and we inspected our cars and there was not a mark! Her bumper and mine were same height and we just pushed together! My brakes etc were fine so I said it’s fine As I was getting back to the car, there was a wheel cover in the way, so I went to move it and saw it was a Toyota one. She came out of the door again and said is it OK, but I said it’s not mine but is my type and ….it fits!! So now I have a 3rd cover, one more to go; hopefully not with a tail ender!!

Rabbitt-O!

It doesn’t take long for one’s environment to change. The lovely peppercorn trees lining Arden street oval were under the chain saw today!! Not sure what they are building.
The heat has gone but we are having some humidity the last few days; so muggy but bearable at 29-31. But the heat has brought about changes as well. I’m sure it is not early autumn leaf fall but rather conservation of heat stressed trees; less leaves less water needed. My car has leaves all over it in the morning from the Pittosporum (not usually a shedder) and the park this morning was a sea of yellow and green leaves.
Spotted a black swan on the Moonee Ponds Creek. Japanese for Swan is translated as “white bird” (shirotori) so rather hard to describe a black white bird! The Overpass follows the track of the train line and the creek so is a very mixed sort of view.
This group of men attracted my interest, as one guy seemed to be selling from his van. Guess what? The Rabbit-Oh! He had boxes of Western Farmland Rabbit all commercially boxed; obviously a big business as the van was full. Never seen him before.

Had book club tonight and we discussed The Zookeeper’s War by Steven Conte (Oz author who won the Prime Ministers' Award) Set in Germany an Australian woman married before the war to a German. It was interesting view of the deteriorating confidence in the German government and the stress of those in Berlin with endless bombing runs. Of interest also as I saw Valkyrie at the weekend.
The other book was Small Secrets by Maree Egglestone, a novel, based on her days as a student nurse at Prince Henry’s in 1974. Lots of memories and similar episodes came to my mind. She did her Paediatrics at Prince Henry’s on the ward where I was Charge nurse for a year in 1978/79 but many nurses went to the Children’s. She said, “Comparing 10 West with the Royal Children's Hospital was like comparing Porepunkah State School to Melbourne University” Not sure what we are reading next I think Steven Carroll The Time we have taken, Then The White Tiger