Baggas’ Blog

Half way through a fairly good day at work. No one in labour today, which is a nice change.

Looking forward to this weekend, which is another four day break from work. It promises to be warm again so lots of swimming, and in general just hanging out with family and friends, and lots of driving around town … mainly because I’m picking up our new car this afternoon after work and am keen to take it for a spin.

On a similar vein, partly with the aim of giving the Prado a good long run in, I’ve booked a mini holiday for three week’s time. We’ll be going down to Denmark in the far south of Western Australia for 3 days. I was looking for a good place to go, something a little different to the usual Busselton/Margaret River triangle, and was inspired by Hamo’s recent trip down there. Might even be some good spots to take the car off road down that way. Initially I was planning for this trip to be just me and the boys, but the accommodation I’ve booked looks fairly nice, so I might see if I can talk Jen in to coming along also, depending on how she’s feeling with the pregnancy. Either way, I’m really looking forward to it

Back at work today after an excellent relaxing five day Christmas break. Yesterday was not entirely work-free - I had to deliver a baby after dinner and had a Caesarean at 1am this morning, but that’s not too bad for a day on-call.

Work today has been very easy going. I think I’ve seen about 80% pregnant mums, 15% kids, and only 5% adult medicine.  If only every day was like this work would be a joy! Oh, and I had another delivery at lunchtime today, maintaining my average of a baby a day for the last two weeks.

Fortunately today’s a bit cooler after yesterday’s record breaking scorcher, but I think it will still be just right for a dip in the pool after work… or maybe a walk down to the beach - the boys got Boogie boards for Christmas so they might want to give them a try out in the surf.

Well we had a great Christmas Day yesterday. Plenty of time just relaxing with family, an excellent church service, and time in the swimming pool. It was a pretty hot 40.7 degrees Celsius (that’s 105.26F) yesterday but today looks like it’s going to be even warmer 41 degrees! Might be a good day to spend inside in the air-conditioning watching the cricket, and maybe jump in the pool or take a run to the beach later in the evening. The only potential problem with that is that I am on-call for obstetrics, and already have at least one patient in labour…

Anyway, here’s a taste of our Christmas Day 2007!

EDIT : just had a newsflash while watching the cricket. Apparently Perth has it’s hottest Boxing Day on record - 44.3 degrees Celsisus (according to the BOM site) - that’s 111.174 degrees Farenheit. In fact it’s the hottest ever December day also. Yesterday was the second hottest ever Christmas day 40.7, but certainly the hottest in my lifetime since the previous was in 1968.

This video is of a stand-up comedian called “Pablo” who performed at the concert we went to in Kampala, Uganda, in October. I think it’s the sort of thing that’s more funny for locals or at the least visitors to Uganda, but take a look and see what you think. In this clip he’s discussing the genesis of various styles of music…

Yesterday I happened across a news story about how one of Hillary Clinton’s aides had been fired for asking indiscreet questions about her rival Barack Obama’s history of drug use as a teenager. Coincindentally, it turns out that the day before I had just started reading the memoir in which he admits to these things. And far from making me think he’s an unfit person to contest high office, after reading this book I am very impressed wth the man. It’s been a little while since I’ve finished a book in three days.

Dreams from my Father is the story of Obama’s life up until the early 90s, when he went to Harvard Law School. It is the story of the child of a white woman from Kansas and a Kenyan man, growing up in Hawaii, Indonesia, and Los Angeles before finally settling down to work as a community organizer in the poor south-side of Chicago and then going back to Kenya to explore his roots. This is a brilliantly written book - easy to read yet profound. In it is revealed a deeply intelligent man who has struggled to define his own identity, especially in the context of the ongoing disadvantage of many black people in America, and also in Africa. In some ways it is also the story of a journey to faith - faith in himself, faith in other people, faith in family, and faith in God (although this is only gently alluded to in this book). Obama’s honesty about his struggles make him seem real - he comes across as someone who will be able to sympathize with the poor and disadvantaged in America and across the world. The drug use he mentions in relatively minor - he never had a “drug problem” as such - it was just something he played around with as a teenager like many other people. I probably wouldn’t have even mentioned it now if I hadn’t heard the story of that Clinton Aide.

Anyway it’s a fascinating book which is incredibly thought provoking on multiple levels - personal identity, American (especially black American) culture, the problems of Africa and a post-colonial world, and how to break the cycles of generational social disadvantage. And if nothing else it’s worth reading to get an idea of the character of a man who may well be the next “leader of the free world” - and in case you haven’t guessed my impressions are overwhelmingly favourable. Could you ever imagine George W writing such a powerful piece of literature as this?? Almost makes me wish I was eligible to vote in the US elections… I look forward to reading Obama’s other book, Audacity of Hope.

Another video I quickly threw together - this one is Owen and Luke playing around in London…

We’re back home now from Owen’s eye surgery. Overall he coped very well with the whole process, although when the operation was delayed by 2 hours he was understandably not too happy about being hungry and thirsty from fasting. He was promised a ham sandwich earlier in the morning by the catering staff and would not let us leave in the afternoon until they had brought it. This was during one of his few lucid periods - even now, 6 hours after the surgery, he remains very sedated. Owen tends to have a prolonged reaction to anaesthetics I think.  It’s not a bad thing though, as it means he’s not suffering or complaining with eye pain. His eye certainly looks very red and sore.

Too early to tell how successful the surgery has been. That will become evident over the coming weeks. He has his first check-up with the surgeon tomorrow morning so we shall see how that goes, and then another check in a week’s time.

People often ask me for advice about choosing the sex of their child. Generally I tell them there’s no reliable method, and even where there is some scientific evidence for a particular method, it’s still only likely to just slightly alter the odds of one sex or the other (ie. it might raise the chance of having a boy from 50% to 52%). Below is an interesting snippet from a medical news email I received this morning, although I wouldn’t suggest using this method if you are after a girl. Also the last sentence, from the Danish study, makes the mind boggle a bit - the death of a spouse around the time of conception makes a girl more likely - how exactly does that work out?!?

The sex of a child may depend on how stressed its mother is. Studies noting the sex of babies conceived in New York during the week of the Sept 11th 2001 attacks found a drop in the ratio of males to females. That is consistent with earlier studies, which revealed a similar shift in women who became pregnant during floods and earthquakes and in time of war.

Moreover, a study carried out eight years ago by researchers at the University of Aarhus, in Denmark, revealed that women who suffered the death of a child or spouse from some catastrophic illness (such as a heart attack) around the time they conceived were much more likely to give birth to girls that to boys.

Well the hot weather has hit town and with it we seem to have an influx of flies. On Sunday at our church AquaCarols (which was otherwise perfect weather and a great event) there was quite a few flies about and yesterday as I went for an evening run down to the beach I was mobbed by flies every time I slowed to a walk - good incentive to keep running I guess. I don’t remember the flies being so bad the last few years.
One good thing about the carols being over is no more twice weekly music practice which takes the pressure off a little. But the next 11 days still promise to be fairly crazy. We have Owen’s eye surgery on this Thursday, then I am on-call for obstetrics this weekend. Next week I already have five overdue patients scheduled for induction, with quite a few others due to deliver any time soon. So the big date I am looking forward to is Saturday the 22nd, which will be the beginning of a five day break from work for me. I am on-call again for obstetrics on Boxing Day but at least it’s five full days away from the surgery and four full days (hopefully) where I can stay away from the hospital too!

Back in July I posted about when Luke wanted to give some of his toys and food to a little child begging with his mother in Kampala.

Here’s some video of that, plus a general view of the traffic in Kampala as seen from our hotel.

I’m gradually working my way through some of my video footage from the last 6 months, so expect to see more of these YouTube clips over the next few weeks. Working with iMovie on my Mac makes it so easy to produce these - it literally took only about 5-10 minutes to put this clip together, whilst watching a DVD with the kids. Otherwise life is way too busy at the moment. Work is getting fairly hectic, lots of other functions on, plus we have Owen’s surgery this week. Tomorrow is our church’s big Aqua Carols event at the local aquatic center -  swimming, eating, and just generally having fun whilst our church music team provides the entertainment. I’m playing and singing in about three different bands - rock, acoustic, and country style! Should be a good day

Haven’t been blogging much lately - life has been crazy and December is looking like it’s going to be busier than ever with work, church, and family stuff. I do have a few YouTube videos made on my Mac that I’ll put up here when I get a moment.

The main news is that Owen is going in for eye surgery next Thursday the 13th. We saw an ophthalmologist last week who suggested that operating to correct his squint may be worthwhile sooner rather than later, and were promptly booked in. We had thought maybe in January but having it sooner is a good thing as it means he should be well and truly recovered by the time school starts next year - and if it goes really well he may even be out of his glasses! I’ll let you know how it goes.