A Super St. Anthony Summer

Last weekend I went on a quick trip to southern Ontario. It was primarily for an Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) course to update and maintain skills and knowledge. However, I also swung by Brockville for a day to secure a place to stay.

I know I'm cutting it quite close -- I start work in less than a month! But the proximity of a particular condo/apartment to the hospital proved to be quite irresistible. As I mentioned in previous posts, a lifetime of commuting and the last 3 years of living across the street from work has turned me into a person who wants to walk to work. In addition, I had heard that the building is almost half empty and so I was fairly confident I would get the apartment. The rent is somewhat steep for my tastes ($1,200/month) but my real estate agent assures me that this is the going rate for apartments of this level of quality in Brockville. The apartment is quite nice and was recently renovated with hardwood flooring and 5 new appliances. Lastly, should I decide to pull the trigger and buy the place a few months from now, the relatively high rent will no longer be an issue.

The ACLS course was spread over 3 days and made for a busy weekend but it was mostly a refresher with lots of hands-on practice. Taking the course also provided a convenient excuse to travel to Toronto and to catch up with family. My niece, in particular, has grown a fair bit since I last saw her -- she's still quite anxious around strangers but will warm up to you given enough time.

Back here in St. Anthony my time is winding down although, strangely, we're experiencing a very good summer season. In July we had about 3 weeks of temperatures close to 20C and a large amount of sunshine. It cooled off a little bit and I thought autumn had started. But, here we are in August with another week of 20C temperatures.

In addition, the region is going through a banner iceberg season which is great considering last year's season was a big flop. The local tour boat operator has commented that this year was an exceptional year. Apparently, he has increased his trips up to 5 per day and he still has to turn away people at the pier! Tourists are indeed flooding the area - so much so that the local hotels are frequently full. We even made the national news on the CBC along with that massive shelf of ice that's just off the coast of Labrador. The locals were talking about how a tourist from Vancouver came all the way over just to see the icebergs when he saw them on the news!

A big iceberg just off Fishing Point in St. Anthony.

One day, I received a tip that St. Carol's was the place to go iceberg watching. So, I hopped into my car around sunset hoping to get some nice pictures. St. Carol's is a small village about 20 minutes north of St. Anthony.

St. Carol's Harbour - Packed with Icebergs

The lighting conditions made for some interesting pictures. St. Carol's, like most villages in Newfoundland, is nestled in a small cove. The sun was setting behind the harbour and the ridge around the harbour cast long shadows onto the 'bergs. The sun was able to illuminate the horizon and some of the bigger 'bergs. Lastly, the sky was an interesting mix of blue and clouds. I'm quite tempted to print out and frame some of the pictures I took.

St. Carol's. I like how the reflected sky in the water contrasts with the almost silhouetted houses. The ice in the water makes the picture even more interesting.

I'll be packing this weekend in preparation for the movers who are arriving in 4 days. My last day at work is now less than 2 weeks away. Not looking forward to leaving and yet I'm getting excited planning my drive back to Ontario. Driving through Atlantic Canada in late summer will be nice (assuming no hurricanes are in the area!).

Plans in Motion

Just put up another Tibet post. I know I'm working at a slow pace and I haven't even started posting any Tibet pictures yet! Don't worry, after this post on Xining I'll finally start writing up my trip into Tibet. As an aside, I finally figured out how to tweak the size of those flight maps to fit the width of the blog.

My plans to move back to Ontario are starting to take shape. I've settled on a moving company and they'll be confirming my move out date soon. Unfortunately, it will be over a week before I'm able to physically leave town myself! Ah well, this is what happens with a long-distance move. I only gave myself 10 days off between jobs. I'll just live out of a suitcase (literally) for those 10 days.

My search for a place to live in Brockville has yielded some progress as well. Although I'm fairly certain I will want to buy a place for myself I know I should rent first to make sure the job goes well and to give myself a chance to see the town. I was referred to a real estate agent and I mentioned my #1 priority -- I wanted to live near the hospital.

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION

During my training I've always been "in house" whenever I was on call. Most hospitals were quite busy and I was working into the wee hours of the morning. In addition, I had to be available to cover any emergencies and so I got used to staying at the hospital for on call. Once I finished and became staff I had to switch over to "home call" where I stayed at home until called in. I still haven't become used to it -- I'm paranoid that when an emergency comes in I'll waste precious minutes trying to get to the hospital. Even though I literally live across the street from the hospital in St. Anthony, the few times where I had to run out the door it felt like the hospital was further away than it actually was.

Brockville has the same arrangement although it is a bigger and somewhat busier hospital. For my peace of mind (let it never be said that Dr. Lee was stuck in traffic while the patient was bleeding to death!) I've decided that I want to live as close to BGH as possible - walking distance ideally.

The real estate agent found a condo in an older 3-story building less than 5 minutes walking distance from the hospital. Perfect! Although my Dad feels that I should be buying a house, I insisted I was not ready for home ownership. Living close to the hospital meant living in older houses and older houses will need constant maintenance. In addition, the cost of utilities will be higher, too. Perhaps in the future once I have a family but for now, an apartment condo is ideal.

The owner of the condo is prepared to rent the unit out to me first and, if I like it, will carry through with the sale. I'm going to check the place out and hopefully sign the lease in late August.

There's a bunch of other little things I'll need to do in a few weeks to get ready for the move including changing my address and incorporation of my medical practice (more on that later).

I'm counting down the days!