The last 5 months...!

I'm keeping up with my regular tradition of updating Jentertainment once a blue moon. Last post was in October? Well, well, how much has happened since then.

I believe October was in the midst of HM and I'd been planning on going to various things. From what I can remember, I saw Pirates of Penzance at the Opera House, the Tempest with the Sydney Theatre Company, Evermore at the Forum and a chamber music performance at the Conservatorium during that term. An attempt to appear cultured, sure, but it was enjoyable at the time =). HM itself wasn't too bad (apart from the incessant library trips to study). For the first time, most of med started to make sense, and I got my first ever uni credit!! 73!! WOOO!!! A mark that would have reduced me to bitter tears in high school, but is cause for celebration in a different context.

After HM our group headed down to Berrara to spend a week at Pat's holiday house. That was wonderful! Beautiful beach, relaxing time with friends, lots of drinking (I set a PB for myself - 12 drinks in a night!). Couple of dramas, but whaddya know... I spose if you stick a whole group of people in close proximity together for a week, SOMETHING is bound to happen.

On the way back to Sydney, I received a message from Micky saying something to the extent of "GO KEVIN RUDD!! WOOO!!!!"... Being in the same car as Chris Mulligan naturally meant that the first thing we did was turn on 702 and hear the wondrous news that Rudd and Gillard were challenging Beazley. This excited me greatly because I am NOT a Rudd bandwagon fan. I have nurtured a liking for him since 2003 - ie, since pre-Latham times. I love his Christian social democrat stance on issues such as welfare, health and education, and I love his intellectual and very well-thought out foreign affairs policies on China and the US. Anyway. The point is, I like Kevin a LOT.

I then got my green Ps on December the 4th (moments after hearing Rudd had won leadership and Gillard had been elected unopposed as deputy), which put me in an excellent mood for the rest of the day.

The rest of December was a bit of a blur - lots of lunches to catch up with people, lots of Christmas parties/birthday parties/catch up parties, etc. It was nice to be in Sydney for Christmas for a change, as opposed to Malaysia, Tasmania, New Zealand or Jervis Bay (to list a few off the top of my head).

New Years came and went while we had a nice picnic in a family park, sharing one bottle of champagne and another of disgusting bourbon between around 15-20 people. So much for a fun party where we get smashed. Nobody was even close!

A few parties carried over into January, such as Pat's birthday party and Lachlan's cocktail party. The latter was memorable for various reasons which I would prefer not to dwell upon... I'll just say that SOME things in life would be great if prefaced with some sort of warning *mutters darkly*. Shankari and Jess know perfectly well what was going on, though, what with the minute-by-minute commentary they were getting via sms. One regret, though: I wish I hadn't touched any alcohol at all. There are some occasions in life where one wishes to have one's wits about them, and that definitely counted. Meh... What's done is done.

Anyway, we were off to Opera Bar a week later to catch up with school people, where we got amazingly, amazingly drunk... I don't remember being so off my face in a very long time. Hehehe. I don't think Celia has been, either. It was funny - up until that point, I'd only ever been drunkenly debauched around uni people. I'd never even been close to inebriated amongst my schoolmates, but I suppose they got a whole year's worth of entertainment in a night.

The rest of January was characterised with a lot of work. Working for my parents because the real receptionists had taken off to Phuket or the South Coast, working for Medcamp/Umbilical, or working for Kid's Mission. I did the 2nd level advanced driving course, which was quite exciting. The drive wasn't as nerve wracking as I found it a year ago (funny how experience does it) despite the conditions being the worst I have EVER driven in. Other exciting things about January: CLAIRE AND JACKIE CAME BACK FROM OVERSEAS!!!!!!! It was soooo good to see them again and chat to them!!!!! Ahhh I'd missed them both so much.

Australia Day came and went, and I suppose saying that it's something of a landmark day would be fairly close to the point. And I don't really mean that in the cheesy Australia was settled! sort of way. Something a bit more personal than that. There's a line in "Both Sides, Now" that expresses it better than I can, but if I type it out I'll feel like a sad case. I'll let you guess.

February began, and that was just a mad rush to finish Umbilical and organise as much of Medcamp as we could, as well as starting (and finishing) the Crime, Sexuality and Gender course. Medsoc exec cruelly made us cut 20 odd people from our team =( so that entailed a bit of drama for Minty and me.

The Crime/Sex/Gender course wasn't quite as gripping as it seemed to be... I mean, a lecture entitled "Men who have sex with men" was turned into a snore-worthy drone on statistics. Sigh. And I'm currently avoiding the assignments, keeping up with the grand tradition that Jentertainment gets entries when I do NOT want to touch work.

Got involved with a group called Transfusion, an outpost of Christians in Medicine and Dentistry Fellowship (CMDF), which is actually pretty exciting. It's a ministry that I really do believe in and want to invest a lot more in this year. So that's good news =D.

Anyway - that really does bring us up to now - the end of the summer holidays. Expect to hear from me when I'm avoiding my A&E assignments!!!

Love you all,

Jen