Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Parties, Maps and the Flu

We went to Brisbane on the weekend to attend Jemma and Nick's engagement party. We took the X-90 down for the drive, the first time I've taken the little Suziki for such a long trip. It handled really well, although the seats stop being comfortable after about three or four hours.

The party was great! We caught up with a lot of Cilla's family and got to meet some of Nick's relatives which was really good. Nick's clan seems like a top bunch. We're looking forward to catching up with most of Cilla's family again at Xmas. Nick show me his new iPhone 3G S which is a very tidy bit of gear. iPhone is a bit smaller than I thought it would be. I really really really want one...

We had a few days free to do whatever and we were trying to think of who we know near there to drop in and visit. The Gilberts are pretty much just across the NSW border, and Mick and Anna aren't far away in Dalby, but the choice was made for us when Cilla woke up with a cough and the sniffles. I'm sure no-one want's a visit from someone with the flu (especially with a house full of kids) so we headed home.

We did drop in to Maryborough to stretch our legs and give our arses a rest, where we caught up with Reid and met his Grandmother Beryl. She didn't like my long hair at all and didn't hesitate to tell me so. She's a funny old dear. She cooked us up a little pizza and sent us on our way.

It was nice to crash in our own bed after a long trip but we were both sick as dogs. Of course there was that little voice at the back of our heads saying "...it could be swine influenza..." so on Monday we gave Queensland Health a call and let them know we had the flu. They interviewed me over the phone and asked me lots of question along the lines of "are you dying?" and "are you dead yet?" and finally said it was likely just normal people flu and I should just go see a doctor.

Our regular doctor was booked out so we booked in at another medical center. And what a wanker we ended up with! He quizzed us about smoking and then blamed that on why we were sick and then told Cilla, who works at a cafe at an airport that she'd be ready for work in two days. Knowing the risk of taking the flu into a cafe at an airport, she asked to have until Friday, but the doctor refused saying she can go back to work on Wednesday. So without a medical certificate from the doctor, Cilla has been forced to go to work before she's recovered.

And get this! The antibiotic that this doctor prescribed came with a "Consumer Medicine Information" sheet which says:
"Doxyhexal is an antibiotic and belongs to a group of medicines called tetracyclines... Tetracyclines will not work agains viral infections such as colds or flu."
So what the fuck is up with this doctor? To the untrained eye, it looks like he has no idea of what he's doing. To the conspiracy minded it looks like he's trying to spread the flu as far and wide as possible. Perhaps he's just an anti-smoking campaigner posing to be a medical practitioner. Whatever his problem is, he does nothing to promote trust in his industry.

Other news. Google have added Real Estate search to Google Maps. Try it out like this.
  1. Visit maps.google.com.au
  2. Type "real estate" into the search box
  3. Click the "Search Maps" button
  4. Click "Real estate on Google Maps" link in the left sidebar of the webpage - it has a little blue house icon beside it.
Now you should have lots of little red dots all over the map. These are properties for sale or rent. You can narrow the search field using the options in the side bar and you'll see dot's disappear as you do. This is a very neat tool and an extremely practical use of Google Maps.

Gotta love Google!

1 comment:

JonDgar said...

Cilla ended up coming home sick on Wednesday and had to take the rest of the week off anyway. Some of the doctors I've been to recently are bloody hopeless!