Blogtime with Spencer

Monumental Week

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 17:06:00 +0000

Although this blog has been a ghost town for sometime now I had to post tonight just for the historical record. This week has been monumental for two main reasons:

I received conformation that I passed my Viva Voce oral exam which means I am now officially a pharmacist
I received conformation from the PEBC that I will be able to sit the Evaluation Exam for foreign trained pharmacists.

All big news. Things are falling into place. I am very pleased at the moment.

THREE years in Perth

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:50:00 +0000

I realized today that I've been in Perth exactly THREE years today. July 17th is the day I landed. crazy. I also can't believe I've been out of school for a whole year. wow.

Drive

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Tue, 25 May 2010 10:06:00 +0000

Random Cars I Photographed this Week

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 07:49:00 +0000

Look at the hail damage on this Toyota. There are lots of cars driving around like this after the huge storm this past Monday.
Old BMW. Ancient in fact. I have no idea what model it is. Pretty sweet daily driver.

S5. Enough said.

More Random Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:57:00 +0000

There is lots of art and stuff around the hospital. This one is a little creepy. There is also a black one. Random.

AC/DC

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:01:00 +0000

We live next to the Subiaco Oval which largest capacity sports stadium in Western Australia. Tonight there is a AC/DC concert there. They are practicing at the moment and it's insanely loud - we can hear everything. It's going to be loud tonight.

More Than Just A Door

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:38:00 +0000

Look closely.

Random Pictures from my Cell phone

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:33:00 +0000

The smoke stack at PMH. I don't know if it's operational.

Audi R8 in my neighborhood. V8 model. The car looks very small in person.
Poached egg I made for breakfast.

It's Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 04:37:00 +0000

Danielle and I both have Saturday off and today we have three things to accomplish:

Get some figs from the local market.
Go for coffee somewhere
See friends from University for a Burgers Round Two get together

That is all.

Random Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:56:00 +0000

I snapped this the other day at work. That's a couple grand worth of amikacin, an antibiotic. Sadly, that entire quantity is only a one month supply from a CF patient.
Danielle took this one of me buying our fridge.
This is my pager from work. Pretty funny to be using such old technology but cell phones get terrible reception in the hospital so analogue is the way to go.

Facebook AKA Failbook

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 05:52:00 +0000

Facebook and it's army of loyal users are REALLY annoying - all of them. Most of them can't go an hour without checking for updates or whatever BS they do on that site. This past week we had a pharmacy student doing a rotation in our department. On his second day on the job at 9AM he sat down at the computer next to me and our conversation went something like this:

Him - Do you think I'd get in trouble if I checked my facebook on this computer?
Me - (rolls eyes) probably not the best idea
Him - You're right, I'll check it on my cell phone.
Me - (facepalm whilst rolling eyes)

Facebook users are out of control.

To all the facebook users out there I've got only one question for you - "how many of your facebook friends would help you move house?" That's what I though.

I'm not a member and I don't seem myself joining in the future.

kebab's

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:46:00 +0000

It's what's for dinner. We made these tonight. Danielle found some marinade recipe online and so they were a bit tangy. The first picture if before they hit the BBQ. They were delicious.

Before diner we made Danielle's Birthday cake. It's called no-bake-cheesecake.
I found this beast running across our room after dinner and I quickly trapped it with this cup because I wasn't about to crush it with my barefoot.

2009 was an EPIC year

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:30:00 +0000

Yesterday I was thinking about how amazing 2009 was and so here is a list of a few reasons why 2009 was so great:

Danielle and I got married
Danielle and I got engaged
I graduated from pharmacy (7 years in the making)
I won the award for "Excellence in Pharmacy Practice"
Danielle won a pharmaceutics award
I got the internship position at PMH

Those are the big things but apart from that 2009 was just a solid year and I won't forget it.

Week One at PMH

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:02:00 +0000

My first week at PMH went really well. It was a pretty slow week because the clinics are currently closed for the holidays and lots of staff are on vacation. I picked a good week to start because it was a super short three day week. Tomorrow will be the first time that I've ever had a paid day off and I'm really looking forward to it.

The department seems really nice. There are 52 staff so it's pretty big for a pharmacy department I think. The intern from last year has been hired on so right now he's my mentor. I'm in the main dispensary at the moment so I get to see some of everything. They're using some terrible software on the dispensing computers so it's been slow going this week. Apparently the department is getting new software in a couple months so as soon as I get the hang of this one I'll have to learn a whole new system.

This week I did a lot of compounding which was nice. One of the compounds was a diazoxide suspension took forever to make because it involved opening 200 indivudial capsules to get enough drug.

Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:45:00 +0000

I'm going to try to post more frequently starting today. Lots of exciting things have happened in the past couple months and I just haven't had time to post. The wedding was amazing and the honeymoon was even better.

I'm scheduled to start at PMH this Tuesday. I'm sure that'll give me some blog worthy content.

I just updated the "blogs I Endorse" section.

Danielle and I are going on a picnic later today. It's been super hot in Perth the last couple days - 34*C today.

Happy Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:37:00 +0000

UofA sent out this holiday greeting. I think it's a great photo.

Now what?

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:26:00 +0000

Well, the last three weeks have been pretty exciting with the awards dinner, graduation, and yesterday my birthday. It was a great three weeks that's for sure.

Yesterday, for my birthday, Danielle took me out for dinner after work. I was pretty tired after a ten hour shift at the pharmacy but I got a second wind once we got out of the house. The original plan was to have burgers at Bilby's but they already had the chairs up by the time we got there. The next best food option was Flipside but again - closed! Finally we ended up in Fremantle where we ate fish and chips at Cicerello's. They've got an amazing salt water tank in the restaurant so I'm always check that out. We actually ate dinner on Danielle's 25th birthday at Cicerello's too - probably because they are the only place open past 6:00PM. After dinner we went to see "District 9" at the theater. Strange movie but interesting no doubt.

Now I'm focusing on wedding plans since Danielle is really busy with school I'm trying to do as much as possible. All of the essential parts are sorted out except for the rings.

Graduation Night

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 04:22:00 +0000

With the dean

With my research partner

I had front row seats for the ceremony

The massive pipe organ

Graduation & Awards Night

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:02:00 +0000

Tomorrow I'll be walking across the stage Winthrop Hall. I"m working until 4:00 and then collecting my academic dress.

Last week Danielle and I went to the annual pharmacy awards dinner. Much to my surprise I won an award. The award was for excellence in pharmacy practice throughout the entire two years. Amazing! The best thing is that it wasn't awarded based on marks but rather the professors chose me as the top student. Sure feels good to be recognized.

Point of Resolution August 1st 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:47:00 +0000

I woke up on the first of August 2009 knowing it was going to be a great day. In fact, I woke up slowly and as I was lying in bed pretending to sleep was I actually thinking about how the day might unfold. As it turns out things didn’t actually turn out as planned but in hindsight I wouldn’t change a thing.

Danielle and I enjoy going for coffee and in Perth going for coffee is pretty much the only activity to do so we find ourselves at coffee shops often. There is a new one in our neighborhood which is a French themed coffee shop/bakery and this is where, on August 1st, Danielle and I started off our day with a cup of coffee and a croissant. I knew we had to make it to Point of Resolution soon because I wanted to ask her there but I wasn’t exactly sure how I’d get here there. So, after coffee we started to walk home but I took us a different route which actually turned into a thirty something minute walk all the way to Point of Resolution. It was a long walk - there is no doubt about that. But the weather was strangely warm for a winter day in Perth and the conversation was great so time passed quickly.

Anyway, once we arrived at the park we sat on a bench overlooking the water. It was beautiful. The sailboats were passing by, the sun was shining, and I had the ring in my pocket as I sat there preparing to “pop the question”. However, there were a few interruptions including, people setting up lawn chairs ten feet away from us, family picnic’s among other things. These events prompted us to move to a different bench. Seriously we sat there on that bench forever while waited for the right moment. When the time was right and I was ready I got down on my knee and asked Danielle to marry me. Of course she said yes. The feeling I felt just before I asked her was indescribable and I will never forget it. Good times.

It was a great day and like I said I wouldn’t change a thing. We’re both really excited. We don’t have any plans yet but we’d both like to get married soon.

PMH Called

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 05:30:00 +0000

I had applied for a job at the local childrens hospital (PMH) a few months ago. I didn't hear back from them so I assumed that they weren't interested in hiring me. No big deal. Well randomly last week they called me in for an interview. The interview was fine and I was able to answer all of the clinical questions they had for me so that's always good. Anyway, they called me back this week to offer me the job! I was literally speechless. It's a great opportunity and I'm really excited to start working there. Unfortuanly, the position doesn't start until December so I'm going to have to stick it out at SDIP until then.

When I told my boss at SDIP he was very understanding and he is happy to have me work for him until the hosptial job starts. On top of that, later on that day, he gave me a nice raise as well so all in all it was a pretty great day.

After two weeks at SDIP I'm enjoying it a bit more now that I understand their systems. I've noticed that people really like to bring in their old/used/disgusting/dirty medicine bottles/tubes when requesting a product. This really annoys me! They hand it to me and say "I want THIS". How about you write down the name of the product on a peice of paper and bring that in for me. I really don't want to touch your used tube of haemorrhoid cream thank you very much.

At SDIP they don't compound many drugs because they are really not set up for compounding. Last week I did get to make an interesting cocaine and adrenaline cream used for packing a nose post-op. After I made the compound Chris managed to spill the stock bottle of cocaine all over the dispensary while he was walking it back to the safe. Luckly the stuff is cheaper than you might think.

Working at SDIP

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 10:07:00 +0000

This week I started at the new pharmacy (SDIP) for my 2000 hours. So far, it's been alright. Not great but alright. It's a community pharmacy but we fill all of the scripts for a few private hospitals in Perth. This means the pharmacy is run a bit differently than a standard community pharmacy. Sadly, SDIP has terrible systems in place and it all seems VERY unorganized. As a new trainee I find this to be extremely frustrating. I'll get the hang of it at some point.

One of the private hospitals we service is a short stay mental health facility. I ended up delivering some medications there this past week and the place was not what I had expected. It looked like a five star hotel! Apparently a one night stay will cost upwards of $800. Anyway, I hope I don't ever have to go back as I don't plan on doing deliveries. It seems they expect me to be doing deliveries but I've been riding my bike to work so the whole deliveries thing might become an issue.

Nothingness

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:58:00 +0000

Since classes ended I haven't been posting even though I've had lots of time on my hands. Actually, there really hasn't been much worth posting. I've been taking it easy. We can't start our internship (2000 hours) until our passing grades are released. This should be by next Monday, the 6th of July so I'll be starting the internship then. I'm doing the internship at a community pharmacy up the road. Other than that i've just been working my standard weekend shift at the pharmacy. I'll be doing three more weekend shifts there and then I will be permenantly at the new pharmacy.

Yesterday was Canada day and so we had our Canadian friends, Scott and Ericia, over for some food and games. We made them pizza which was pretty tasty. I've become an expert at making pizza sauce. The key is starting with tomato paste because it's packed with tomato goodness (and also lycopeine ). We tried to play the "LOST" board game with them but it was super complicated and it turned out to be a bust. We still had a good time though.

Last Exam

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:15:00 +0000

I just had my last exam – Current Developments in nutrition, health, and biotechnology. It was pretty straightforward. Stephen and I went for a burger after at this burger place called bilby’s. I have to say it was one of the best burgers I’ve ever tasted. Yum.

Danielle is studying tonight. I’ve got the whole ‘prisoner just released from jail thing going on’ as I don’t really know what to do with myself. We’ve got no internet so that isn’t helping either.

Feels good to be done. Some of my friends that I spoke to today are redoing at least one of the two oral exams. I'm glad I made it through without issue.

Tomorrow I'll be at school all day working on my presentation for Monday.

Pharmacy Practice III P & P

noreply@blogger.com (Spencer) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:26:00 +0000

The results are in from my two oral exams this week... I PASSED both of them! Marks are up as just pass (P) or not (F) - I got two P's. I'm extremely happy right now because it's all down hill from here. Tomorrow I've got a final exam which should be pretty easy (although I just started studying for it). Then the research presentation next week. I feel like I'm done and it feels awesome.

I'm going to be up pretty much all night getting ready for this last final but I'm okay with that. There is coke in the fridge and snacks to eat; I've done this many times before. Same old - Same old.

Well, I guess I better get back to it then.