Category: work

Camp Doctors’ Visit

One of the highlights of coming out to the Falkland Islands for my elective was always going to be accompanying the doctor(s) on a visit out to camp (i.e. outside of Stanley). Camp visits take place each Tuesday with a different group of settlements being visited each week on a 6 week rotation. I had hoped to go out to Fox Bay a couple weeks ago, but there was no room for me on the plane, and last week’s visits didn’t take place so I was excited to get an email last Friday asking me if I wanted to go out on this week’s visit which would include Hill Cove (which is on West Falkland) and Carcass Island. As I set off for Bleaker Island soon afterward replying to the email there wasn’t time to think further about the visit, but as I was lying in bed on Sunday night I couldn’t help but think it was a shame to go out and not spend any time at Carcass, so when I had a break after the ward round on Monday morning I called up FIGAS (the air service) and asked if it would be possible for me to stay overnight and return a day later than planned. They hadn’t yet scheduled the flights so I had half an hour to call up the settlement and see if I could arrange accommodation before confirming my plans. Unfortunately for me Carcass were fully booked for the night as they’d had some guests who needed to return from one of the outlying islands a night earlier than planned due to the strong winds forecast, but when I asked if I could bring a tent and camp out they kindly agreed, even though they don’t usually allow camping, and said I could have full use of their facilities and that they’d feed me as well.

It ended up being an early start as I wanted to send some emails before we left the hospital for the airport at 7.40am. We took off at around 8.30am and had a stop at Saunders Island before making the short hop over to Hill Cove where we were picked up and driven to one of the settlement houses to see our patients. The plane waited for us whilst we had our consultations and the pilot was dropped off to feed some very cute lambs whilst he was waiting!

As is the custom here we all divested ourselves of our shoes before entering the house and so I had one of the most unusual consultations I’ve yet experienced – two doctors, a medical student and a patient, gathered in a bedroom, all of us in our stocking feet. Of course, this suited me perfectly, with my love of walking around everywhere in my socks! The owners of the house were also the guardians of the settlement’s ‘camp chest’, a cardboard box containing a supply of medications such as antibiotics, steroids and strong analgesics in case anyone is acutely unwell. In this case, having spoken to the patient over the phone the doctor will call the camp chest holder and ask them to issue the appropriate medications to the patient.

Having completed our mini surgery at Hill Cove we returned to the plane and set off again to Carcass Island. This was to be a ‘strip visit’, meaning that our patients would come out to the airstrip to see the doctors. The consultation doesn’t quite take place on the airstrip itself, but rather in the land rovers that are there to meet the plane. I had the interesting experience of trying to measure someone’s blood pressure whilst the plane was taking off again and another land rover was idling next to us! I also had to keep guard of the doctors’ bag to make sure that nothing blew away, and more importantly, that the caracaras (also known as Johnny Rooks) didn’t steal anything from it. They’re very inquisitive birds and real hooligans.

2018 03 20 002

2018 03 20 003

Whilst we were busy seeing our patients the plane made a short visit to Westpoint Island to drop off another passenger before returning to pick up the two doctors and take them back to Stanley. It was about 11.30am by then and I was delighted in my decision to stay on the island, especially as I had most of the day yet ahead of me. Having had pouring rain overnight and flown through quite a bit of rain and cloud on the way to Carcass, the weather had now improved and it was a lovely sunny afternoon, just perfect for hiking and bird watching.

Vienna

Last Friday, on our way back from Munich, my colleague Auke asked me if I could accompany him today to Vienna, to give the same presentation as we have been giving in Munich and The Hague. After 8 years in the office this is the first chance I’ve had to visit Vienna, a small office with approximately 120 people, in a great location, next to the Schonbrunn Palace.

We were scheduled to give the presentation twice – once in the morning, and once in the afternoon. Once we were finished we had an hour or so to spare, so we headed into the city centre to take a look around. Despite the weather forecast, which had been for heavy rain, we were treated to glorious blue skies, and the same heatwave that we have been enduring in The Netherlands.

We walked along the Ring to the opera house, stopping to pose on a traffic island (and in my case, getting surprised by a tram that snuck up behind me) and then on to St Stefansdom, before taking the S-Bahn back to the airport. All in all a long day, leaving home at 6am, and returning at 11pm, after an hour’s delay. Next stop Berlin?

Munich

Just back from a two day visit to Munich with a couple of colleagues. The purpose of the trip was twofold – to inform other departments about my new project, and also to close the last project I worked on.

Unfortunately, we had to leave the unusually good Dutch weather behind, and replace it with rain. The barbecue that a Munich colleague had offered was unfortunately a no-go, and instead we visited a very nice Italian restaurant near our hotel. Despite the weather, I was determined not to get behind with my training, and managed a 4km lunchtime run around the Wiesen (where the Oktoberfest is held) with Klaas, the aforementioned BBQ offering colleague.

Choral Festival 2009

A long day today, as I traveled to Arnhem for the annual choral festival organized by the RSCM in North West Europe. There was a good turnout, with about 60 singers from choirs in The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, led by Gordon Appleton of the RSCM, who flew over for the event.

As ever, it was nice to meet up with all my ECS friends, especially as those of us who took the RSCM Voice for Life exams last week had the chance to congratulate each other in person!

The choral festival is always fun, but hard work, and this year was no exception. A particular challenge were Moore’s Preces and Responses, which took quite some studying. The day culminated with a service of Choral Evensong, during which those of us who took the Voice for Life exams last week were presented with our medals.

Thanks go to Karine, Graham, Martin and Alan for not only organizing the exams, putting up with our nerves, accompanying and examining us, but also for managing to return the results within a day, and have the medals (well, all but one) and the certificates signed by the director of the RSCM and ready within a week!

Music List:

  • Introit: The Lord will come and not be slow Christopher Tye
  • Preces and responses: Philip Moore
  • Psalm 27
  • Canticles: Wood in E flat (no 1)
  • Anthem: Kindle a light to lighten the darkness Richard Lloyd
  • Extroit: A Clare Benediction John Rutter

BHV Herhaling

After a week of writing presentations and reviewing code, I had a nice break today, with my annual refresher course for the BHV. For those not in the know, this stands for bedrijfshulpverlening, and involves basic first aid and firefighting, with the idea that volunteers within the office could provide on the spot help, before the emergency services arrive.

I travelled to RICAS in Zoetemeer for the course – a nice 13 km bike ride through the fields, and had perfect weather for it. The course itself was pepped up by the presence of two volunteers from Lotus, an organization which provides fake victims for training courses. During the morning we had to deal with a heart attack and a knife wound to the arm, courtesy of the volunteers, who played their parts admirably.

In the afternoon we played firefighter, using carbon dioxide and foam fire extinguishers, and then had the opportunity to split into small groups to put together our own scenario for another group of BHVers to test their skills. My group was given the task of rescuing someone from a building with a small fire, complete of course with handling the panicking victims!

All in all an instructive day, which also gave a good opportunity to meet some colleagues from other departments.

(photo from RICAS)

Het Geldersch Landschap

Living in Zuid Holland doesn’t do much to dispel the traditional image of The Netherlands – flat polder lands, crossed with drainage ditches, wildmills and bulb fields. Vising Gelderland, however, has been a great opportunity to remind myself of the country’s other faces. After a day behind the laptop in the training room, I hired a bicycle from the hotel reception and set off for a 2 1/2 hour ride through the woods.

Whilst in England we would hesitate to call this landscape hilly, there is no denying that the land does undulate somewhat (the highest elavation of the Veluwe is apparently 100m), giving the opportunity to experience the rush of wind when freewheeling downhill. The area is littered with well marked cycle paths, but apart from a small section through town on the main roadways, I saw virtually no-one.

The woods may have been empty of human life, however, with the continual accompanient of bird song it was never silent. I caught sight of a quite a number of birds, including blue tits, coal tits, magpies and some unidentified smaller and larger “brown jobbies” near the path. The undisputed highlight, though, was the sighting near the end of the ride of an adult wild boar with three young, chasing each other through the woods, and across the path ahead of me – a magical moment.

Speeding up Java Applications (1)

Yet again I’m out of the office on a training course, this time not in easily accessible Amsterdam, but in the middle of the woods, some 15 kilometres out of Apeldoorn, in the east of The Netherlands. The full day’s work and 3 hour journey were immediately forgotten, however, when I found that my accomodation for the next two nights would be not the anonymous hotel room I had expected, but a little cottage. Hard to remember, at this point, that I was here for work, not a holiday.

The course is “Speeding up Java applications”, given by Jeroen Borgers of Xebia, and focuses on both tooling and best practices for developing performant Java applications.

Voyage en Antarctique

Part of the French course I’m following at work involves giving a presentation to the rest of the class (in French, of course!). Today was my turn, so I was to be found before work this morning, frantically putting together the finishing touches on the slides, and preparing my transcript.

Over the last couple years at work, I’ve given quite a few presentations, and I must confess that I still suffer from nerves every time. Giving a presentation in French however, causes stress of a new level of magnitude. Normally, I concentrate my preparation on the slides, and I don’t put together an exact text which I plan to present. Since my French isn’t fluent enough to allow me to speak off the cuff, I prepared a transcript for this presentation, which had the advantage of making sure I knew what to say, but the disadvantage of breaking up the flow of speech, and causing a higher level of stuttering than normal!

The presentation was titled “Voyage en Antarctique”, and gave some general information related to the Antarctic and some more specific information relating to the trip I will take at the end of the year.