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!