Do you have to be retarded to be a doctor?

People bang on about how you have to get TOP MARKS to get into medical school and all that.  So why are doctors always so freaken stupid?  Do they do something to leech their brains out at medical school?  Is it the copious drinking?

Instead of having to have mastered trigonometry, I'd much rather have a doctor that came tops in these skills:

• Time management - if my appointment is for 11.00, I want to see a doctor at 11.00 not some time around 12.30.  Surely that's not too much to ask. 
• Resource management - I had to sit in the doctor's office today while he painstakingly entered my personal details in the computer.  Meanwhile the two receptionists sat around gossiping.  I'm pretty sure that doctors get paid a lot more than receptionists so wouldn't it make sense for them to do their job.  I'm also pretty sure I get paid more than a receptionist and I don't want to (and can't afford to) watch some doctor do data entry.  Btw he got a bit stroppy when I pointed this out to him but people should learn to take constructive suggestions better than that.
• Interpersonal skills, and (see above) the ability to listen to constructive suggestions.
• Respect for other people's time (and money and lives).

Also, doctors go on about wanting people to be pro-active about their health but really they hate that shit.  They want you to proactively do what they say and believe that they are god-like for their doctoring but seriously, this is the 21st century and we have google and all kinds of stuff and, if we could write our own scripts, doctors would be pretty much obselete.

*note - when I say doctors, I mean GPs, not real doctors.

Happy, happy

First up, I love songlines quiz in the paper on Tuesdays but day, were they even trying?  Seriously, if you live in Australia and you can't name the song this line is from, you need to deport yourself.  "... there aint nothing like the kisses of a jaded Chinese princess, gonna hit some Hong Kong mattress all night long..."  Isn't that even on the citizenship exam?

So, we have a government now.  Awesome except the Australian dollar has got weaker.  I really should not have access to exchange rates updated in real time.  Once a day is enough for my obsession. 

Luckily I paid my tutition fees yesterday (at a much better rate).  They got the money today.  That's like international money transferring magic.  It takes longer than that to transfer money from my bank to my credit union - and they are just across the road from each other.

So now my very important CoE papers are being carried to me from Japan.  Luckily Japan Post is guarded over by this man:

That makes me feel safe. 

I also got an email today that my new passport has been processed.  That was less than a week - way to go, Julia. 

And the cherry on top of today's goodness - only 18 working days left.  Ha, they have to give me 30 days notice to get rid of me so technically, I don't have to do anything for the next 18 days!  Yippee!

Today - the good bits!

I forgot to mention the good bits about today -

• I went to the dentist to get my shattered tooth fixed (it wasn't a real tooth and I've had root canal on it so it can only cause me finanical pain).  Since my old dentist wouldn't see me for weeks (bastard), I found a new dentist.  I had a huge fear the new dentist would do that making me come back a heap of times and charge me a fortune thing - and I was totally expecting it to be $500+ - heavy on the + at that.  The bill came to $300.  Nice.
• I paid my tutition fees for Japan and got a much better exchange rate than I expected.  Although the guy handling my transaction - I won't write his name here because he might google himself, but it sounded like the name of a dodgy character from The Simpson.  Not reassuring at all.
• The awesome jacket I ordered on Etsy turned up after I'd abandoned all hope.  I'm going to wear it when I finally get off my butt and go to the Tim Burton exhibition.  I love it and, since I bought it before I started saving (yep, it was that long ago), I have no guilt whatsoever.

How to Stress More and Drive Yourself Insane

I don't know if you've realised this, but I have a massive talent for creating huge mountains of stress.  I'm pretty well obsessed and a wee bit neurotic.  So, I figure if anyone can tell you how to stress more, I'm your expert.

So here it is, the beginner's guide to STRESS!

1. Worry about things you can't control.  I'm awesome at this.  For example, exchange rates - I can't actually change them with the power of my mind as much as I try.  I can't make my passport renewal any faster.  I can't make time run backwards.  Damn it, I have no superpowers.
2. Imagine the worst possible outcome, then try to find ways it could become even worse.  It's good to prepare for the worst, but when you start worrying about things outside the possible, it gets a bit over the top.  I mean, spontaneous combustion does happen but it's not that likely, is it?  Ummm....
3. Work on an insanely tight timeline.  Just to allow for all the possible factors that can go wrong.  Build in extra padding so you are constantly running behind. 
4. Take responsibility for everything, especially things that should be dealt with by other people.  Because if you aren't hovering over them, they won't do it.  And hovering - it's not annoying at all.  Not one little bit.
5. Read internet forums - and other places full of doom-mongers. Forget that happy people, the ones who's lives are running smoothly don't have time to sit around posting to forums all day.

I think that's the basics.  I actually sat down and made a list of things I need to do before I leave today.  I've got 7 things on it.  SEVEN.  Now I'm stressed that it's not enough.  LOL.  And really most of those things will take me an hour or two to do.  That's like 14 hours tops in the next 4 weeks. 

And probably half those things, they aren't that essential.  Like, if I don't make it to the hairdressers, I'll pretty much survive.  Maybe I can turn the panic down a notch.

Slowly getting organised...

I had so many plans and lists of things to get done this weekend but woke up with a killer migraine today so ended up doing NOTHING.  Well, I did book my flight and organise my going away party so I guess I got something done.  Oh and advertised on gumtree for a housemate.

Yesterday I sorted through my clothes.  I thought I'd done a massive clean out but I looked around and I definitely have more than 20kgs of clothes left.  Oops.  I did find a company called Cube It who does a flat rate ($190 for a 45cm square box) shipping to Japan. 

I'm not sure if that's a good rate but they pick up from your address in Melbourne and deliver it to your door in Japan as well as providing boxes and packing tape.  That compares well with the Auspost flat shipping price and, with Auspost, I'd have to lug the box to the post office.  With Jetstar it's around $230 for an extra 20 kgs of luggage and I'd have to schlep it the whole way to Japan with me.  So, based on that, this company seems good value.

If you know of a better deal, let me know.  I'm planning to take necessities but all the bulky winter clothes - coats etc, get shipped over later when I need them.

I had planned to take photos of the things I want to sell and have a huge clearance but that can wait until next weekend.  I'm not going to push myself because the end of the migraine is still lingering around. 

I also wanted to book temporary accommodation.  I had a place picked out that does hotel rooms by the week and by the month but, when I emailed them about it, they said they wanted all these extras like a 10,000 yen cleaning fee if you booked a month.  Excuse me but how does staying for a month make more cleaning than an overnight stay?  I don't understand.  You'd think having someone in a room for a month would mean less cleaning than having all different people staying and needing to constantly service the room.  Rip off. 

Also they want a 50,000 yen deposit that "may be refunded".  Balls to that.  So I am searching more.  I don't mind paying a deposit on a place if I've seen it in person and know I'll be staying there long term but I refuse to pay a deposit on somewhere short term particularly if there is no guarantee I won't get it back.

The other thing I'm stressing about is having to send my tutition fees for my course to Japan.  I can do it via net banking with my regular bank account but everyone is telling me not to because it will cost more.  The only problem is with other places that wire money, you don't know the exchange rate until you sign up and get a quote from them.  That is bollocks because it's a lot of dicking around. 

Anyone know any good places to use to wire money?

Ah, I feel better now.  I thought I'd done nothing this weekend but now I've written it down, I've really achieved a lot.  Still got a lot more shoe pruning to do though.

Locked Out

My sister doesn't go out much but last night she met up with our other sister to go to the football.  I had dinner with them in the city then came home.  Halfway home, I searched through my bag for my ipod then thought -- hold on, are my keys in there?

I pulled the entire contents of my bag out and stacked it up on the bus (my bag is huge) and searched through all the annoying nooks where things get hidden.  NO KEYS.

Luckily, I could get to the porch at the back of the house and have some shelter, especially when it started bucketing down with rain.  Still 4 hours locked out the house is damn annoying. 

Here are some of the things I did to amuse myself:

• Gave Gemma-dog new and exciting hair styles.  Unfortunately she’s a beagle and doesn’t have much to work with but I did try a faux-hawk.
• Read the Avon catalogue
• Tried to read a Japanese magazine.
• Cleaned up the back porch.
• Thought seriously about napping on Gemma-dog’s doona but the thought of hidden bones really put me off.
• Got very envious of Gemma-dog’s ability to pee in the garden.
• Put on a concert for Gemma-dog with my extremely awesome singing in Japanese + dancing.  It kept me warm but it’s hard dealing with an audience that keeps wandering off to sniff stuff or eat socks.
• Learnt why dogs are so excited and jumpy when you get home from work.

I am never leaving the house without keys again.  Normally I double check before I go anyway but I have been insanely tired this week and had so much crap buzzing around my head that I can only really hold one thought in my brain at a time.  Maybe some downtime with no distractions was just what I needed.

Freakout #2

I can't take ALL my shoes to Japan. 

Well I could, but it would cost a fortune. 

That means I have to cull shoes, or maybe put some in foster care.  Even if I don't wear them, I love them very much.