Christmas holidays

I have been fortunate enough during this internship rotation to be able to choose when I could have my designated leave. Since my last long leave was in mid-September, I decided to keep my leave for the end of my current rotation, around Christmas time. It was also very fortunate my leave coincided with my brother's return to Hong Kong, so I would be able to spend some time with him. It has been almost three years since I last saw my younger brother Jeremy and he has not changed one bit. He's still the slacker I remember him as.

It's great to have my brother back home. At least my mum can bother him now instead of what she normal does and bothers me whenever I'm home. Jeremy has also bought me some presents from old Blighty - Cadbury Roses & Quality Street chocolate, DVDs of British TV series and an nice Arsenal mug.

Currently I'm in the second day of my leave and haven't been doing much. On my last leave I went to Kuala Lumpur and I decided to spend this leave at home, since I didn't want to organise another holiday and I need to start saving money (thanks to those wanker bankers in America). Most of the day is spent surfing the Internet, watch downloads on my laptop or DVDs on the plasma screen TV plus playing darts. My dad bought a dart board not so long ago and I've been chucking those spears since. It's more difficult than it looks but hopefully I'll be good enough to be playing in pubs soon.

Hectic calls and designated leave

Not much happening in my life now. Still very sexually frustrated. I had the most hectic call on Sunday. Usually we admit about six children each day at PYNEH. On Sunday it was about sixteen children. On Monday all our wards were full - the first time it has happened in my three months here. It has calmed down a bit over the past two days. I'm sure children will continue to be admitted to our wards, it being the season of rotavirus gastroenteritis, asthma exacerbations and parental anxiety about the cold. I'm sure anybody reading this who works at Queen Elizabeth Hospital think that is their usual day, to admit sixteen kids per day but I hope for their sake it isn't.

Thankfully I'm not on call ever again on the weekends, at least not until my next rotation. I'm on call on Boxing Day but apart from that, it is just weekday night calls. I'm looking forward to the next few days. I've got my first ever full free weekend - from Friday night till Monday morning. That is a rarity in my profession. Next week is my designated leave, so I'm looking forward to some rest, relaxation and internet pornography. What I actually need is a full body massage but I need to go somewhere relatively inexpensive and not very seedy (i.e. not Shenzhen).

I'm nearing the end of my time at PYNEH paediatrics. I have learnt a lot but the most important thing I have picked up from my time here is that I won't be doing paediatrics. These three months has just reaffirmed I don't like kids that much to be subjected to their crying and whinging for the rest of my life. I have the utmost respect for my current paediatric medical officers who can go through all that but not me. I don't know if I could go through another three months of paediatrics, which I have to do if I decide to pick family medicine as my specialty.