Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Five

[UKCruiseJeff]

I'm back on my stool. Thank you for the fresh dusting and new peanut shells, Mysty! What a most fabulous trip you have planned! I'm so glad you're taking us all along virtually!

Jeffy's trunk lid brought back memories of my beloved Honda CRX, Ruby. Her hatch wouldn't stay up anymore without an expensive fix. John found me a telescoping pole that would do the trick. Colapsed to about 15 inches and when extended was tall enough to keep the lid up nicely. Did have to be a little careful, but when wedged, worked like a charm. Anything to keep our precious babies operational!!

Working on the shoe thing as well, Spins!

Over the hump day! Have a good one, all.

 

I found a bit of wood exactly the right length .... when I remember to use it!

[Daveywavey70]

Morning all,

Jeff - wouldn’t it be safer to pack the boot before the barber comes? Just thinking about that extra padding you’ll lose. You could wear a crash helmet though. :)

Counting the days M, really excited for you both.

[mysty]

Enjoy the rocket launch Spins and Mudhen! Hope it is a smooth lift off!

 

Looking for a little input from Cooler folks please. There are a number of wineries on Waiheke Island (near Auckland) and I'm hoping to get suggestions on which ones might be good options to visit. Mudbrick gets good reviews for meals and other tasty options would be appreciated. Thank You!

 

And thank you DW! :)

[jpalbny]

Hm Mysty. No experience with the wineries on that particular island. The one time we visited Auckland (2008), we met up with people we'd met on a previous cruise, and they took us around to a few wineries. But not on any islands.

 

So, only two weeks to go for us. I am holding on, but barely. Work has been really annoying this week...

 

There are four of us in my department and I knew that two of them were scheduled to be off this week. I didn't know that the third guy suddenly decided to take a vacation this week too! So when I went in to work on Monday, I was running a solo operation. Covering the ICU, and Pulmonary consults, on-call every night this week, and screening all consult requests. Every job in the department, which usually takes at least two people to do. And I had to go in at midnight on Monday, which was a great start to the week.

 

It's led to some ridiculously busy days. And one annoyed JP... And to make matters worse, I can't even yell at the guy who left me solo at the last minute, because he's my *@*_!! supervisor! :mad:He's supposed to take over for me in ICU on Friday night, so he better show up!

 

Anyway, Chris had LASIK surgery on Friday and is recuperating very well. She got "monovision" where they corrected her dominant eye fully for distance, and undercorrected the other eye so she can still read close up with it. Since she spends a lot of time doing close-up work on the computer, it would have defeated the purpose if she'd fully corrected both eyes because she would have needed reading glasses for her job.

 

So far it has been a great success. She's 20/20 in both eyes (one at distance, one at reading distances) and she got her letter to give the DMV so she can get the corrective lenses restriction lifted from her license. We spent the weekend hanging out at home recuperating, which wasn't all that bad - for me. I've been giving her enough eyedrops to extinguish a medium-sized fire, but after her checkup yesterday we were able to reduce the frequency to just 4x per day. She's been a trooper.

 

All in all it was a pretty slick procedure (I got to watch) and she's glad that she finally did it. Although she is really annoyed that she can't wear eyeliner for a full week. But now we won't have to carry multiple pairs of glasses around for our upcoming trip! Just a pair of sunglasses for each of us. :cool::cool:

 

M, very excited about your upcoming trip! I think I need a few months off.

[mysty]

Yes JP...I'd say you need more than a few months off! The co-ordination of staff seems to be rather haphazard and not at all realistic. What would happen if you were impaired by some unexpected situation. Not smart management!

 

When I had my cataract surgery a few years ago I opted for monovision. I love it! No reading glasses and no driving license restrictions (although I don't drive because I am inept). I'm sure Chris will love it!

 

Thanks for your enthusiastic support for our grand adventure JP! It's getting more real now that final payment and travel insurance are in place.

[Daveywavey70]

I wouldn’t let inept be an obstacle M, most of my regulars are. I Very often hear much tooting and swearing as one of my regulars swings into the drive just after the bend on a 60 mph road with a late or no signal at all.

Life is an adventure!

[mysty]

True that DW! :) However, I do have concerns for the other poor blokes on the road with me. I no longer feel confident to navigate the busy roads and with all the other idiots driving I just feel that I need to keep myself out of that mix!

[Daveywavey70]

One of our regulars was pulled over at 99 and the police suggested he thought about retiring from driving. He was still coming to us at 106 but his “companion” gave up driving too then.

[mysty]

The downside of aging DW! However, the alternative does not particularly appeal. :) We do the best we can until we can't. I have no expectation of reaching anywhere near 99 or 106. Family genes seem to give out much earlier than that. Plan is to go for it as long as this sack of skin and bones I walk around it holds up. :)

[UKCruiseJeff]

Good morning all ... a speedy trip had us down at Seaside within two hours ... just! Helga tells memthe average for the trip was 68mph. Not bad for the A303.

 

A large voddy on ice :)

 

JP, that sounds very demanding - your holidays are pretty essential with that stress and pressure. Send Chris our bestest.

 

Dave for a moment I thought you were talking driving speeds ... then I realised it was age!

 

M .. your trip,hasncaught everyone’s excitement. :)

 

Back to the unwinding over a voddy.

[jillyf]

Mysty, how exciting for you and I’ll be following along via your blog.

 

I stayed on Waiheke Island 10 years ago and although we visited vineyards I think they will have increased and improved since then.

Your ship will dock very close to the ferry across to the island and the day we caught the ferry there were quite a few people being met by buses to take winery tours.

Our hotel was to pick us up but when we arrived there was no one to meet us. When we rang them, they had just worked out that they had picked up someone with the same name as ours who was meant to be on a winery bus tour! They thought it odd that he had no luggage!

 

JP, you will enjoy your holiday after such a busy time. I look forward to following along. Did you ever get time to write up your Australian trip?

 

We leave for Paris in just under 3 weeks. I’ve been obsessed with the weather there and for our month in Venice. We end our trip with a wine and food tour in Bologna at the beginning of November.

Now time to start deciding what to pack. Decisions, decisions.

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

J...so glad you made it safely to Seaside. Relax and enjoy! Yes, it seems that people are interested in the grand adventure. :)

 

Jill...thanks for the Waiheke memories! I looked at some of the wine tours and found them a wee bit pricey. There appears to be a Hop On Hop Off bus that tours the island now. Price includes the ferry and if you just stay on the bus it is a 1.5 tour of the island with stops close to almost all the wineries. I think we will do that instead of a tour. Have a wonderful time on your adventure! Fingers crossed the weather gods smile on you!

 

Today's funny.....school here starts next Tuesday.....

 

 

 

Have a great day all!

[Lois R]

Good morning coolers, JP, really sorry about all the stuff at work:(……...sounds like some folks are not very considerate I and can understand the stress it brings...…….that whole scenario sounds totally funky. I know you and Chris are ready to get away!

[jpalbny]

Good one, M! I think they left out the alcohol, though!

 

As someone working in a teaching hospital, I can relate. July and August can be a trying time, with all of the new "baby doctors" just starting up. I try to remember that I was one once.

 

Chris appreciates all of the well wishes.

 

JillyF, I did write it up (so I wouldn't forget) but I still haven't posted it. My brother the web guru has been busy with selling his house and moving, so I haven't had the heart to bug him about setting up a blogging website for me. Soon, I hope. In the meantime, have to get ready to blog here about our upcoming trip!

 

Enjoy seaside, Jeff. Off to work for me...just a few more days of (hopefully controlled) chaos.

[Lois R]

Hey JP, we were posting at the same time;) Have a good day.....I am off to work in about 5 minutes but mine is not nearly as important as yours...…….

[Tothesunset]

 

As someone working in a teaching hospital, I can relate. July and August can be a trying time, with all of the new "baby doctors" just starting up. I try to remember that I was one once.

How are you finding the new Docs? I qualified in the late 70s and I'm sure I had more ''hands-on'' behind me but was less intellectually rigourous compared with the more recent graduates.. In my specialty one requires both a medical and dental degree (in whichever order) and I always found the ones that had done the dentistry second seemed a bit more confident to get stuck into things. I think that has a lot to do with the reduced patient contact in medical training to accommodate the greater amount of academic work. Or maybe it's because I did it Med then Dent makes me an unreliable judge!

[Daveywavey70]

Morning all.

J, glad your installed at seaside. Have Waitrose been yet?

I don’t think any of our regulars drive at 99 mph, most of them drive the 8 miles up the valley at 29 when it’s a 60 limit.

The times I’ve been stuck behind an Avensis being driven by a pork pie hat I couldn’t tell you.

[frantic36]

Hi Mysty, I just saw your question re Waiheke Island. We visited on a port stop at Auckland in January, 2016. I organised a private tour for myself and seven others. We had a fun day. I checked my photos for the wineries, all of which are small...

 

Rangihoua Estate - more traditional has both olive oil for tasting and wine. I liked the wine but loved the various olive oils and we all bought some as this was fairly early on a lengthy cruise. They did let us use at our table in the MDR for our bread. This was on Seabourn.

 

Batch Winery - more modern using steel vats but the wine was very good. They also had the most amazing valley views looking out to the sea from their outside deck area. They served nibbles with the wine tasting of cold meats, cheese and an oyster each. Two in the group are allergic to shellfish so the rest of us squabbled over the leftovers.:D

 

Peacock Sky - Has won lots of awards and rightly so. I especially liked their dessert wines. They did a small food wine pairing. The winery is run by a husband and wife team, she is Canadian and he is from the UK.

 

Mudbrick - We had a lovely lunch and wine tasting with them. The lunch platters were huge with lots of fresh seafood and cold meats etc. The setting was in a lovely garden. They were more about red wines which were very hearty Syrrahs.....not to my palate. But to the the wine gurus in our group they were the favourite.

 

I hope you have lots of fun planning your trip, it does sound wonderful.

 

Julie

[mysty]

Julie...thank you so very much! This info is perfect! It will be a wonderful help in choosing the HOHO stops to explore. Myster is a huge red fan so Mudbrick sounds like a must see and sip! :) I really appreciate that you took the time to provide such great detail!

[frantic36]

My pleasure Mysty :).

Waiheke was a lovely island and the eight of us agreed that if we were boarding a ship in Auckland we would like to spend a few days on the island. No true hotels there but some lovely little boutique places and upmarket B&B's. My group was comprised of Canadians, Americans, English and Australian....so a broad spectrum of well travelled people.

 

Night-night All.

 

Julie

[UKCruiseJeff]

Good evening all .....

 

Thanks Dave ... everything arrived including some more Bredon Champers .... :)

 

Tonight’s supper@seaside .....

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[mysty]

Oh...that looks delicious J! Enjoy!

[jpalbny]

Jeff, yum! I have some veal cutlets thawing for dinner but we have to go to the library first.

 

Lois, thanks. I survived today so far but it was painful, and I'm on call again tonight. Hopefully the person on call tomorrow night remembers that he is on call and actually shows up...

 

***

 

TTS, I do find that the new kids are book smart. They seriously lack any hands-on skills though. They cannot take a coherent history, and their physical exam skills are lacking. Despite their impressive intelligence they practice "Merck Manual" Medicine, whereby they hone in on a symptom and test for every possible thing that it could be, instead of thinking about what is most likely. They have to exclude everything else before they're happy.

 

Unfortunately the trend towards having "Hospitalists" in every hospital has accelerated this practice pattern. Residents learn from Hospitalist attending physicians who are only a year or two out of residency, and they don't have enough experience to stop the residents from ordering every test and consult under the sun. So this accelerates, in a positive feedback loop.

 

The kids look at me like I have two heads when I actually talk to a patient and show them how to do an exam properly, to figure out what is likely wrong. Instead, they would be happier just ordering a bunch of tests. I feel like a dinosaur at 50.

 

It is also a constant source of frustration for Chris because every patient with some vague symptom or another needs a CT scan of every body part possible - usually before the residents have actually examined the patient! They don't know what they are actually looking for, or whether CT scanning is actually the correct test, and have no differential diagnosis. Nor can they figure out what to actually do with the CT scan results, once they have them!

 

Anyway, such is the future of medicine I am afraid. I am actually horrified to think of what will happen when I eventually get old and sick. I don't think I can trust any physicians who trained much later than I did, and my Primary Care doctor is probably going to retire soon. Ugh. Not a fun topic to think about! I think I need to find a nurse practitioner who actually has some hands-on experience.

 

***

 

Well, at least in two weeks' time we will be in London, enjoying our suite at the Renaissance Hotel St Pancras! And we'll be getting ready to take the Eurostar on Friday. :D

Edited August 23, 2018 by jpalbny

[Tothesunset]

You know, JP, it is my firm belief that a great deal of medicine lies outside the textbooks and in the mind of the patients in that a good bedside manner could well be the most important medication for some people. Sadly, particularly in General Practice (family doctor) in the UK it is almost impossible to give patients the time they need to get to know them as people as well as patients - I think that's counterproductive. I know we shouldn't admit this but I think, for a proportion of patients, the Dr visit represents a social as well as a medical event and we should be proud to offer that instead of being irritated by it!

[Daveywavey70]

Apologies, posted to wrong thread.

Edited August 24, 2018 by Daveywavey70
Posted to wrong thread