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13th April 2007

Coffee and Medicine

Like many members of the medical profession, I have an almost physiological dependence on coffee. For some it starts during med school, poor students drinking gallons of cheap coffee to enable them to churn through the enourmous textbooks they needed to study. For others it develops during internship and residency - consuming large doses of coffee to keep awake and alert through the horrendous 80+ hour weeks of hospital work. In our hospital the cafeteria had the cheapest most horrible coffee imaginable (something akin to International Roast) served through this dispensing machine. You twist a knob to give a shot of coffee powder to which you then add hot water and milk. I graduated from one shot of this “coffee” into my styrofoam cup when I first started there in the third year of med school to having four or more shots at a time by the time I was a second year resident. I don’t know how my addiction would have finished up had I continued my specialist training in surgery. A neurosurgical registrar working 100 hour weeks, much of which in theatre, would have an inordinate caffeine requirement. I think I escaped just in time from ending up like the guy in this cartoon…

But I still need my coffee and although I’ve progressed to quality espresso ground from the best Five Senses beans at home, the coffee we have at work is still sadly lacking. The company that bought out our surgery have not seen fit to provide us with an espresso machine (or even a filter) and so we are stuck with instant coffee and a kettle that keeps breaking down. So it’s with great delight that I greet the coffee van that stops outside our surgery a couple of times a week. It’s not as good as what I have at home and at church, but it’s a far sight better than Nescafe. This is one of the best franchise ideas I’ve seen in a long time - a little van with a big espresso machine in the back, bringing reasonable coffee to the workers. Although I’ve learnt the lesson not to ask for cappuccino which is not great - strictly flat white, double shot and you won’t go too far wrong.

Anyway now that I’ve had my caffeine hit I’d better go see if there’s any more patients waiting. Can you tell things are a bit slow for me today? ;)



Categories : Medicine, Personal | 3 Comments

13th April 2007

What’s in a name?

It’s scary that a massive, computerised organisation like QANTAS can get two people completely mixed up, purely because they have the same name - check out Mark’s amusing story of his recent dealings with QANTAS.



Categories : Humour, Travel | 0 Comments

13th April 2007

Fender VG Stratocaster

Looks like it’s a week now since I’ve posted any kind of YouTube Video on this blog (and some of you are probably saying that’s a good thing), but I’ll make up for it now. It’s not a video of the kids or scenery this time but rather a demonstration of the latest product from Fender. Now for me, as both a guitarist and a techo-gadget-geek, this new VG Stratocaster seems to be the ultimate toy - a fully fledged American strat with the discrete addition of a small Roland pickup and two small control knobs which allow you to instantly change the tone and tuning of your guitar. No additional effects or special midi cables or anything required. Check out the demo :

I’ve already been wanting to get hold of a strat for quite a while now but this new product looks awesome! Time to start saving hard and praying that the exchange rate holds up and maybe, just maybe, I can check one of these babies when I hit Nashville in a couple of months. Sweet.

Take a look at Matt Van Stone’s in depth review, also this review and the Fender site for more information.

Also here’s another good demo video from the NAMM 2007 convention. The guy demonstrates how you can play all the parts to Stairway to Heaven just by flicking a switch on your guitar :-)



Categories : Gadgets, Guitar, Personal, Travel, Video, music | 23 Comments

13th April 2007

Aussie dollar hits 17-year high

Aussie dollar hits 17-year high. 13/04/2007. ABC News Online

Well this is not necessarily good news for everybody, but for those of us who like to shop online it’s not bad. Hope it stays like this (or higher) through into July and August as it will make our trip to the USA that much more affordable (plus it’s my birthday while we’re away and I’ve got my heart set on one of these…)



Categories : Guitar, News, Personal, Travel | 0 Comments