It’s time to start booking travels again for this year. I have already booked and paid for trips to Thailand this week and Argentina in April. But because of the operation I am missing the trip to Thailand with all my family and the trip to Buenos Aires (pic) has to be changed to later in the year. And since Buenos Aires has the same weather pattern as Melbourne, it needs to wait until at least September when it warms up over there. So here’s what I’m thinking.
The options are: Melbourne – Buenos Aires (BA) – New York – BA – Melbourne
Melbourne – BA – Rio De Janeiro – BA – Melbourne
Melbourne – BA – Mexico City – BA – Melbourne
As you can see I’m looking for a side trip from Buenos Aires. Another option is Bogota or Caracas. I would go for a couple of weeks and spend one week in Buenos Aires and one week elsewhere. Prior to that I am thinking of making another trip across to San Francisco. I still haven’t tried the clam chowder at Fisherman’s Wharf yet. So San Francisco possibly in August/September and Buenos Aires in September/October. Sounds okay?
Ouch!
I’m not sure which hurt the most this past week… my hip or my hip pocket. I’ve been paying the high level of health insurance possible for the past 23 years and last week I had my first trip to a hospital. With all the fees (and the bills still seem to be arriving) the following is who paid what of the $5833.99 bill.
Medicare (Govt) $1040.65
Health Fund $1096.80
Phillip $3696.54
I could have had it done for free in a public hospital but I would had to have waited a much longer time (like years). I was really surprised by the breakdown of the costs. I always thought that my health fund would pay for everything. I pay around $2600 a year for my health fund and usually make around $300 worth of claims each year. It really makes you wonder whether it is worth having.
The photo above is the entrance to the Mercy Private Hospital in Grey Street, East Melbourne.
Another City Flood
We had another fantastic storm in the city yesterday. But this time a massive amount of ice fell. But by the time I took this video the river of ice had melted. he falling ice made an incredible noise! This video was taken from the front window of the loft to show the trapped people on the tram out the front.
Not the Best of Weeks
Things can only get better from here.
Yesterday I checked into the Mercy Hospital in East Melbourne. Have you ever noticed that TV hospital shows always talk about the other hospital in the area being the Mercy Hospital. Both Grey’s Anatomy and ER do this. So I checked in for a “Hip Scope”. Sounds like fun right…. mmm… well the only fun was the mixture of temazapan and zanax I was given before being wheeled to the theatre. I must have almost shaken the operating table to pieces before the anesthetic took over. I woke up back in the ward bed 5 hours later. It was all done and I was feeling like I had just left a Mardi Gras party after the last song at 10am.
Today I was fairly sick as I headed home… actually jumping out of the cab to hurl before I got to my place. About an hour later I was fine. I still have a few affects of the drugs left now. I really hate the druggy feeling. I still have to take pain killers for the next few days as my hip heals. I had to have my leg dislocated and some rough bone removed from within my hip joint. So I guess I won’t be doing those squats at the gym anytime soon. I now have a week to recover before I have to start working again. My little brother told me tonite that I needed to update the site so this update and photo is for him. Photo taken by Jake at the Mercy earlier today.
Dreading the Week Ahead
I’m not looking forward to this week at all. I have known it has been coming for the past 6 months. This week I will be checking in to the Mercy Hospital here in Melbourne to fix an old injury in my hip. Some damage to my hip has caused a bone spur to grow over time and eventually limiting my leg movement. Late last year it started to become very painful. So this week I will be undergoing something called Hip Arthroscopy with one of the best orthopedic surgeons in town. It’s only a short stay in the hospital and will be on crutches for a little while afterwards. I just hope I do’t have to see the torture devices (above) before I go under. This machine will be used to dislocate my leg. That’s right… REMOVE MY LEG!
I’m really not looking forward to it at all. I have been having lots of sleepless nights. I can’t wait till this time next week when it’s all over.
Travels for 2010
With everything happening in the post above I’m trying to think about happier things… like when am I going to travel again. It’s seems that since taking 7 weeks off work last year I have finally ran low on vacation time. I’m actually thinking about possibly buying more time off from work. I only get 5 weeks off a year at the moment. I’d like to have 7 or 9 weeks off. That would allow me to travel more often.
For this year I have already bought a return flight to Buenos Aires. I just have to work out when I can take it. It was meant to travel in April but I am delaying it because of the surgery. And May is the beginning of their winter, so it will most likely happen around October now. So that means I should fit in a trip before that… and why not visit my old favourite… San Francisco! I’m thinking about an end of summer thing there would be nice. Perhaps another trip to the Folsom Street Fair again? The above shot was taking in SFO in Mel’s Diner last year just moment’s before I met Armistead Maupin eating there.
New Loftmate
I’ve been very busy lately. I’ve had a lot on my mind. It’s has been a pretty nice month with my friend Chris moving back from London. He has moved into Jake’s old room at the front of the building. It took a while to move all of the junk that had made it’s way in there. It’s been fun having someone here again. I don’t have to talk to myself anymore.
I love these photos that people submitted to the newspaper yesterday showing the flash flood that occurred in the Melbourne CBD on Thursday. I actually left work a little earlier than usual because I could see the huge storm rolling in and I didn’t want to be stuck in the middle of it. I had not idea it was this severe! These photos are taken in the blocks around the Loft. The water disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. I’m assuming that most of it ran off in to the Yarra River which is right behind the train station above.
I am Loving the Shore!
I love MTV’s “Jersey Shore”! I was put onto it after reading about it on the TouristToTownie blog. It’s about a bunch of beautiful Jersey boys and girls put into a house for a summer long of partying, hooking up and fighting. It’s fantastic! The guys claim to spend more time on making themselves beautiful than the girls. And the girls are all about hooking up with hot guys. It’s all very funny. And I love the fist pumping.
New Loft Mate
The front room of the loft takes up 25 per cent of the entire apartment space. It’s been 2 years since Jake moved out and next week I will be getting a new loft mate. It will be so nice sharing the place again. And for those die hard Jake fans…. no he is not moving back in. I’m busy now giving the place a major clean up. It’s amazing how slack I have become since I started living alone.