Long Weekend

For the first time in a long time I wasn't working for the entire Easter weekend. Four days off! Of course it flew by.

On two of the four days, I attended an Indian wedding. There is nothing more colourful!

On the Saturday was the Graha Shanti Yajna, Geet and Garba, which amounts to the pre-wedding ceremony and celebrations.

On the Sunday was the wedding proper. Ladies were decked out in the most stunning colours which were topped with the shiniest sequins and decorated with the most exquisite gold. At an Indian wedding, more IS more.

Today I was watched Sex and the City. I know it's all about shoes and sex, but sometimes it's also a reality check for me. After going to a wedding where the couple looked so very good together and seemed relaxed and happy, it's easy to start to believe that fairytales do come true. Sex and the City reminds me that many women reach their late 30s and beyond, and they're still alone, looking for love.

Honestly, dying alone scares me.

In one of the episodes in season 2, Miranda buys an apartment and besides all the questioning about her marital status which this invokes, her new neighbour also tells her that the previous owner died in the apartment alone, and it took a week before anyone found the body, by which time the cat had eaten half her face. Miranda has a little panic attack.

I can completely relate. None of us wants to die alone, but how much control do we actually have over this?

Finding someone you love, and who feels the same way about you, at the same time that you do, is a miracle.

In love!

I'm not sure if it's the sleep deprivation, from being on call last night, but this morning found me just so in love with Durban. I got me a bike from the Virgin Active Classic gym at Moses Mabhida stadium, and set off along the promenade heading for Ushaka Marine World.

The sky was a perfect blue and the sea matched, almost. It took me a few hundred metres to figure out how to brake with the pedals and handle the "old school" style handle bars.

And then I could take in the view:

• 3 policemen on horses, clippity clop (no horse dung in sight, thank goodness)
• a boy in bright yellow takkies with wheels attached at the back (attached by himself or a member of his family)
• an old man hobbling along with the help of a carved walking stick
• a skinny boy with just the front of his t-shirt tucked in, so we could all see his white belt and big shiny buckle

And the sea, the blue blue sea. On the ride back, Moses Mabhida stadium on the horizon.

I think I'm in love with Durban!

Keeping up Appearances

Everyday we do it, everybody does it. We have to seem to be coping, to be happy, to be successful, to be in love, to be better than. It's so tedious and tiring, I decided a while ago to try not to.

The thing is, that no matter how much you may try to keep up appearances, people will try to find a crack, a flaw, something to talk about, something to point fingers at.

So why bother? Let's all make our bank statements public, let's publish our credit card bills and let everyone see that, as they suspected all along, we can't actually afford the car we drive, the watch we're wearing or the holidays we go on.

Or maybe... we can actually afford all those things. AND in fact, what we spend our money on is entirely our own business! And people who have time to talk about what others spend their money on, obviously don't have enough money of their own to keep themselves occupied!

But I digress; distracted, obviously, by idle gossipers. What I really wanted to comment on is the keeping up of appearances in the health department. KZN in particular, SA in general. It seems, unfortunately, that in this democracy we want to run in fancy shoes before we have learned to crawl on our hands and knees. What we seem to forget is that we can't be good at Calculus if we don't understand simple arithmetic.

This week Prince Mshiyeni Hospital in Umlazi, acquired a fancy new machine for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. This, of course, makes me very happy. TB is a real and devastating problem in SA and a huge burden on the health system.

The Minister of Health was at the hospital yesterday to visit and probably take some pictures... with the new machine.

What I'd like to ask though, is this: How come we have money for a fancy machine to diagnose TB, which probably cost millions (I'm guessing here, I welcome correction) but we sometimes run out of drugs to treat the TB? And, why can we not employ more people to provide proper treatment for TB?

We tell mothers that they have the choice not to breastfeed if they're HIV positive and will be provided with formula for 6months, but then the clinic runs out of formula and the mother can't afford to buy it herself.

We buy expensive ventilators for hospitals, but there is no cartridge for the blood gas machine, so it's impossible to ventilate anyone who needs it, because we can't monitor them appropriately.

We buy expensive CT scan machines, but we don't have money to employ someone who knows how to use it and interpret the pictures it takes.

Why is it that when elections are approaching, we strategically have pictures in the news showing expensive new TB diagnostic machinery at a busy hospital in a huge township with a huge voting population? And what happens when gloves run out at the hospital? And what about the child who dies from bed sores because the nurses are overworked and unable to provide proper care, because posts are frozen due to lack of funds?

But don't worry about that child, I'm sure his family couldn't afford him anyway. Rather take a picture for the newspaper: two big shots shaking hands in front of a shiny new machine, keeping up appearances.

Meeting New People

I must admit, at the age of 28, I still find meeting new people daunting. I don't have the most shining social skills, I feel awkward, so then I tend to be very quiet and aloof and people usually think I'm not very friendly or fun and have no inclination to get to know me better.

Well, okay, the truth is that I'm not very friendly, I don't like people and I detest people who are overfamiliar. The only people I don't really get nervous about meeting is fellow doctors. Most of them are awkward too and I feel like I can see straight through them.

It is a fact that I meet new people every single day at work, but those are patients and it's not on equal footing: I usually have their file in front of me with all of their personal info in it, I start the conversation, I can ask any question I feel is necessary and I can usually end it when I feel.

This week I met something of a South African celebrity; no one on a global scale, but he'd definitely be recognizable walking down almost any street in SA. I'm by no means a screaming fan, and I was not looking to take pictures with said celebrity or anything like that. But I was really ticked off, because when he found out I was a doctor, he called me Miranda Bailey from Grey's Anatomy!

Now, if a fellow colleague had likened me to Miranda, I would've taken it as a compliment and maybe even blushed. As a doctor she's competent, dedicated, an overachiever. I would let her treat me anyday and I'd be honoured to have her as a teacher.

But to non doctors she's scary, short and fat! That's not how I see myself. In the moment I gave a half sarcastic chuckle, like: "You're not serious..."

But I went away wondering if that's the kind of first impression I give: DON'T MESS WITH ME!! Even when I'm not trying.

Anyway, my excuse was that besides being generally awkward, I was going on 40 hours without any real sleep. That excuse always holds up!!

And today I'm in Cape Town, I think it's 33 degrees, no wind, dry. It's easy to understand how fires start on days like this! I'm off to a wedding in a little bit. The only people I know at the wedding are the bride and groom and the bride's family a little... Maybe I can start conversations using my moves on the dance floor??? ...Not very likely!

The Blogosphere

Blogging seems to be the latest fashion, everyone's doing it, there are blog awards and blog parties. But there is so little that I see out there which I can identify with, that might be why I follow so many.

Questioning my motives for blogging... wanting to be heard I suppose...

There are a few blogs I really like:

Orangette

Lost is a place too

The Sourcerer

And of then there's Dagarna med O

But it could be that I'm biased on the last one, because Ofelia is the cutest little baby and also my friend's niece.

I think what I really like about them is that they only say something when they have something good to say. Most of the other blogs I read are just distractions, with occasional points which spark my interest or sometimes I may stumble upon another blog I really like.

Almost perfect 28

I turned 28, it was almost perfect... I was woken up at midnight and presented with the box below and a mini bottle of bubbly and sung to. I went back to sleep soon after though, I had a busy day ahead and didn't want to have bags under my eyes.

When you get to my age, you have to worry about these sorts of things you know!!

I was awake early enough and my first port of call was the gym, in anticipation of the sweet things I had to consume during the rest of the day.

My best friend arrived before I'd finished breakfast, we hung out for the rest of the morning and then we were off to Royale, my favourite place in CT for burgers and milkshake. Absolutely perfect for a birthday lunch.

After lunch, I went off to the Wildlife Photographers' Exhibition, no pictures allowed in there of course.

In the evening a free ride up Table Mountain in the cable car. All South Africans can get a free ride on their birthday, did you know that? Moet & Chandon to accompany the sunset and buffer us from the cold wind.

A hint of worry as we drove up the windy road to the cable car station: A friend in a coma after an accident.

The word coma doesn't mean much to a doctor, friend known to have been in previous car accident not too long ago, coma and friend dismissed with little further thought.

On to dinner at Woodlands Eatery in Vredehoek feeling light and bubbly. Lots of friends and gifts. I'd recommend the lamb pizza, or any pizza. My phone kept ringing.

Then, back home to polish off the remainder of the brownies from the study. Fell asleep on the couch, full stomach and full heart.

Woken up the next morning, crying on the telephone: friend in coma - dead.

Turns out he hadn't been in a car accident. He was beaten up by some guys. Who knows why.

His mother's only child. She's left alone.

A Study in Brownies

As previously mentioned, I found what I thought was the most amazing brownie at Olympia Cafe Bakery on Sunday. When I mentioned this to a knowledgeable friend though, he scolded me: "No! That's not where you go for brownies! Jardine Bakery is where you have to go for the best brownie in Cape Town."

So I decided to do a study, unfortunately I only had time and space to try 3 brownies. It seems my entire time in Cape Town was a sweet fest. (More about that later.)

So the 3 brownies I tried:

1) Olympia Cafe Bakery: dark brown, pecan nuts, icing sugar dusting

2) Cookshop in Hatfield: a light brown with a gooey centre and crispier crust

3) Jardine Bakery: dark brown, gooey, with bits of white chocolate melting all over

I have to say that the Olympia Cafe brownie was my favourite. All of them were really good. But I kept wanting more of the Olympia Cafe one. The one from Cookshop was pleasant and comfortable, the one from Jardine was absolute decadence and I couldn't eat more than a few bites from it.

I suppose it all depends on what you're looking for...

P.S. Despite only one mug and one cake fork visible in the picture above, I didn't conduct this study alone!