Coming out of Hibernation

Hey everybody! I know I've been ignoring this blog for the last 6 months so I'll try to post a very brief update of everything that has happened along with some good news.

• In September I celebrated my sister's wedding at the Kortright Centre just northwest of Toronto.
  
  
• In October/November I did a few locums in SE Newfoundland and returned to Toronto for a Pediatrics Conference and for an ATLS course.
  
  
• Came back to Toronto again in December for the holidays and the annual high school reunion.
  
  
• I'm ashamed to say that on a dark, slushy-starting-to-freeze night in late December and only 30 km away from home I was caught in a 4 wheel skid and despite studded snow tires, all wheel drive, high tech electronic stability control, and corrective steering I still went off the side of the road into a 10 foot ditch and rolled 270 degrees. The good news was that I was only going around 80-90 km/h at the time (uhh, probably too fast for conditions), I was wearing my seatbelt, the passenger side took the brunt of the hit, and the roof held up pretty well. Oh yeah, the fact that ditch was empty (no trees or large rocks) was a plus. So, I walked away from the accident after climbing out the passenger side door. Sadly, my insurance company wrote the car off although the salvage company that bought it is fixing it up for resale.
  
  
• After going a month without a car I finally managed to get a replacement. Not only did I not buy a Japanese car (gasp!), I also bought one that was somewhat sporty...and, being a FWD car, one that didn't perform that well in winter. (No, I did not concuss myself in that accident, I swear!). I'm now the proud owner of a black 2010 Volkswagen Golf GTI. I almost bought the more practical Golf TDI (diesel) but those were even harder to find. Sigh...as much as I liked that Suzuki SX4 I decided I wanted a more refined, powerful, and fun to drive car. I'll throw up a post explaining my decision later.
  
  
• In February, came back to Toronto for Chinese New Years. I also had my first chance to see my new niece who's birth I missed in early January.
  

And here we are in March. St. Anthony was not immune from the weird winter the rest of Canada was having. We had a few brief stretches of bitter cold but by and large it was quite warm and conditions were awful for snowmobiling and skiing. It was like a Toronto winter. Of course, as I'm typing this, there's a blizzard outside right now that's going to dump 30+cm of snow by the time it finishes tonight.

Finally, here's the piece of good news -- the labour mobility provisions of the Agreement on Internal Trade came into effect late last year. For those who don't know, the AIT was basically an inter-provincial agreement signed some years ago to break down trading barriers. The labour mobility provisions are designed to ensure that any professional in any province would have their credentials recognized and accepted in any other province. Doctors included. I just couriered my application to the CPSO earlier this week. It'll take a few months but assuming they issue my license I could be back in Ontario much earlier than expected. I want to give my colleagues 6 months notice so I might be back in early 2011. Unfortunately, I hear the anesthesia job market in Southern Ontario is pretty bad right now. But, it might not affect me since I'm more likely to be looking for work in a rural, northern area. I'll keep everyone posted!