RIP medlawn.. and other Sydney gripes

So I've been back in Sydney for two months now, and it's been hard to adjust. Possibly because I started on a month of nights - thanks RPA! But it seems to be a ritual that I go through every hospital I start in.. at least I managed to get through it ok having been with two really good senior registrars. I'm getting used to the place, sort of, and my group of 7 registrars seems like a pretty good bunch!

The rain and the cold has been getting to me though - I miss the sunny Darwin days and there just don't seem to be as many sunny days in Sydney. Today was nice so I ended up sitting in the park off Albion St for most of the afternoon soaking up the sun. A few weeks ago Christine organised a picnic at Strickland House, which was such a beautiful spot to appreciate Sydney (sitting on a grassy slope, atop a beach, with the harbour in full view), and that was a beautiful day to enjoy the sun. But there have been so many soggy days, and nights..

I also haven't been able to get to the pool, which has been disappointing given that I really wanted to do that once I was back in Sydney. I promise myself that I'll go swimming once I move to city quarter, but it's hard to motivate oneself when it's so cold.

On the other hand I've enjoyed eating in Sydney so much. I can't rave about the taro ball place enough, I seem to end up eating there at least once every time I'm off. I've also made it back to Mamak and Chat Thai, my two staple old favourites. Today we went to Reuben Hills, a hip new joint in Surry Hills serving icecream sandwiches (vanilla icecream wedged in chocolate cake served with salted caramel), ocean trout ceviche and Honduras-style breakfast tortilla (with black beans, eggs and soft cheese) - so Sydney! Another time we went to Bangbang cafe, which sounds rather sick, but actually refers to music (giant headphones drawn on the wall) where we ate the most divine brioche with ricotta and berry compote. I could keep raving about the eating.. oh the dark chocolate gelato at Gelato messina..

But I'll stop. This post is all about medlawn. I went back to UNSW the other day, got a coffee from the coffee cart on library lawn, and went to medlawn to sunbake. Except, wait, medlawn doesn't exist anymore. The last time I was there they had already built the hideous extension impinging on medlawn, such that one sees bile green building instead of the sky while lying on medlawn. If that wasn't bad enough, they are now building an extension to Wallace Wurth which has eaten up the other half of medlawn. Over 75% of the grass is gone, and the remainder has been partially paved and benched.. what little grass left is over-trodden and limp looking. Somehow sitting on a bench just didn't cut it. But it did make me feel like I was at university a very long time ago.. so that I could say back in my day, I would lie on medlawn and....

Surprisingly, I sort of miss Prince of Wales. I don't think I really enjoyed working there when I was there 2 years ago, I just felt like a misfit with no direction in life (obviously, nothing has changed) and other than Sim I didn't really make any friends there. But somehow I got a bit nostalgic walking through POW, and wondered if maybe one day I'd like to return.

Very last gripe - the 2nd hand bookshop at the Spot in Randwick has closed down, which makes me sad. One of the bookshops in Newtown is closing down too. Maybe no-one reads books anymore.. they all have tablets instead of books.

Dream: The one where Dr Majoni runs for US president

In this dream I am deployed to work in a developing country. When I arrive at the hospital it looks rather large, and not much like a shack at all. I go up the stairs and arrive on a ward consisting of one huge room and lots of patients lined up both sides of the room. Each patient has a number over their bed but the numbers are completely random (8 next to 42 next to 137).

Just as I am wondering how one finds the patients amongst this mess, I am distracted by the sound of a TV. I see that the US presidential election is on TV and there seem to be two main candidates - a Caucasian man and an African man. I look around and realise I am in Africa since most of the patients are African.

Suddenly I see Dr Majoni enter the room except he has a full head of springy curls a la Dave Stanton. I am so startled to see him with this hairstyle that I am somewhat speechless. Then I go up to him and say "Dr Majoni, what are you doing here?"

"My wife doesn't like my new hairstyle so I've had to move here by myself". He says and grins toothily as usual.

I look away briefly and when I look back, he has a new hairstyle with long, straight, shoulder-length hair and a slanted fringe falling into one eye, much like some fashion model. Just as I start to think how terrible this hairstyle is, I realise he is the man on TV running for US president!

Then I wake up