Saturday, October 30, 2010
Changes to the NSW Feed-in Tariff (Solar Scheme)
From October 28, there will be changes to the gross feed-in tariff such that it will be 20c per kW generated, as opposed to our 60c. This will be effective for all those systems installed after 27 October 2010. Fortunately the changes don't affect us, but I wonder what this will do for the solar industry in NSW. Perhaps it will continue but at a slow pace? Or maybe it will grind to a halt? Well whatever happens, I'm just glad that we got our system. However, perhaps if I had waited a bit longer I could have gotten a cheaper system.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Travelling with Children
The time is coming up soon for working out what exactly to do as a trip for my sister's wedding. Because I have a conference in Hong Kong afterwards, we've been trying to figure out what to do for travel because of the kids, not wanting them to have an overly long trip.
So far the plan is to fly to Taiwan, then fly to Vegas, then fly back to Taiwan then I go to Hong Kong and then back to Taiwan and then we all go home together from Taiwan.
Hubby thinks it's too hard to take the kids out, so I suggested we leave Julian in Taiwan with his mother. He thought that was a great idea. However, he mentioned in passing that his mother was worried about looking after Julian. I mentioned that to my mother and she thought perhaps subconsciously she doesn't want to look after Julian, and is only doing it because that is what we wanted her to do and she feels like a bad grandparent if she doesn't do it. I mean if you asked, really would she say no? And not to mention hubby's grandmother is quite unwell, how would having Julian around affect that? And if she couldn't cope would she be calling us in Vegas to come back and look after him?
One of the things that was also pointed out was that if hubby's mother really wanted to spend time with the grandchildren, she would have come back to Australia. Even to visit, for a short while. But she hasn't and she has missed the kids birthdays and they won't be small again, so maybe she doesn't want to look after them. She also has her own health issues too, she has a chronic pain problem which flares up every now and then, so would that also impair her ability to care for Julian? Of course I can't bring up these issues with hubby, he would be offended that I think his mother couldn't care for Julian as well as my mother, but it does seem to highlight the fact that she doesn't spend much time coming to see them, though she does see them on Skype every day. Which is the opposite to my mother, she doesn't get to see them on Skype every day.
So far the plan is to fly to Taiwan, then fly to Vegas, then fly back to Taiwan then I go to Hong Kong and then back to Taiwan and then we all go home together from Taiwan.
Hubby thinks it's too hard to take the kids out, so I suggested we leave Julian in Taiwan with his mother. He thought that was a great idea. However, he mentioned in passing that his mother was worried about looking after Julian. I mentioned that to my mother and she thought perhaps subconsciously she doesn't want to look after Julian, and is only doing it because that is what we wanted her to do and she feels like a bad grandparent if she doesn't do it. I mean if you asked, really would she say no? And not to mention hubby's grandmother is quite unwell, how would having Julian around affect that? And if she couldn't cope would she be calling us in Vegas to come back and look after him?
One of the things that was also pointed out was that if hubby's mother really wanted to spend time with the grandchildren, she would have come back to Australia. Even to visit, for a short while. But she hasn't and she has missed the kids birthdays and they won't be small again, so maybe she doesn't want to look after them. She also has her own health issues too, she has a chronic pain problem which flares up every now and then, so would that also impair her ability to care for Julian? Of course I can't bring up these issues with hubby, he would be offended that I think his mother couldn't care for Julian as well as my mother, but it does seem to highlight the fact that she doesn't spend much time coming to see them, though she does see them on Skype every day. Which is the opposite to my mother, she doesn't get to see them on Skype every day.
Twisted ankle
Yesterday I tripped over the driveway at Nanny M's house and rolled my ankle - now I have a twisted ankle and boy is it sore! Yesterday morning it was ok but by the afternoon it was so sore! I RICE'd it yesterday when I got home.
I'm scared to carry Julian and Erika on the stairs now because of my buggy ankle. I don't want to fall!
I'm scared to carry Julian and Erika on the stairs now because of my buggy ankle. I don't want to fall!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
New video card
My video card has been playing up lately. I went out on Sunday and bought a GTX480 but I haven't installed it yet. I should have done it - the longer I wait the price might go down! I wanted to get a Gigabyte one but they only had an Asus one left. I've noticed more crashes lately with the video card... I hope I can last tonight. Maybe I should install it tonight after the kids go to bed. But I don't want to miss raiding tonight.
Julian's walking
Julian has really taken off with his walking! He's been walking everywhere, and doesn't need much assistance at all. Unfortunately Erika likes to push him over when he's walking and we have to tell her off big time!
He fell a few times on Monday and ended up with blood coming out of his mouth - 3 times! Poor thing, he looks like he bit his lip.
He's also down to 1 poo a day, and last night he was awesome - he slept till 545am! And he went to bed quite early too (715pm). He's been pooing around lunchtime. So I guess having no upset tummy has kept him asleep!
He fell a few times on Monday and ended up with blood coming out of his mouth - 3 times! Poor thing, he looks like he bit his lip.
He's also down to 1 poo a day, and last night he was awesome - he slept till 545am! And he went to bed quite early too (715pm). He's been pooing around lunchtime. So I guess having no upset tummy has kept him asleep!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
More medical behaviour I don't agree with!
Geez this blog has turned from being green and kiddy related stuff to work whinge!
I was doing the acute pain round yesterday and there was a man with a supraclavicular block/catheter for his hand - he had a reimplantation of a few fingertips which was a work related injury.
The patient actually wanted the fingers terminalised but the plastic surgeon decided to try to reimplant the fingers. And why do you think that is? Because the patient is workers comp - which means $$$.
So the patient was complaining about his numb arm and I had to tell him that we leave the infusion for about 3 days to help perfusion to those fingertips, and the patient was grouchy because he just wanted to go home. He was also having leech therapy to keep the blood thin in those fingers as well.
I was talking to one of my registrars yesterday who told me that he received a call from the anaesthetic consultant on call in the afternoon saying that he was coming in for a reimplantation of fingers. The registrar was surprised because it wasn't on the Emergency list, and so went to the Duty anaesthetist who also didn't know about the patient. A few minutes later there was a call from the plastics registrar who booked the case.
So the consultant anaesthetist was in, and told the registrar to put an art line in but he didn't care who put it in... and then I suppose he would have sent off some gases as well so you could claim serial ABGs. I asked if they put BIS on and of course they did, and it would be paid because it was a trauma (therefore high risk - though in reality totally NOT high risk because it's not really a trauma).
So is it ethical to put in extra things that you don't need because you will get extra (a lot!) money for it? Like SERIOUSLY. If this was just a non work related injury the patient would not have had all these extra interventions. It annoys me that people put extra things into workers compensation because of the extra money, and it seems like a total rort to me. Would I do those things? I don't think I would put in an arterial line or do gases.
This is such a small whinge, people will wonder why I whinge about it when there is extra money. But to me this is unethical behaviour. For monetary gain. There was a young 15 year old boy who died earlier in the year, who had his arm ripped off in some machinery accident - 2 specialists said terminalise the limb but the plastic surgeon decided to try to reimplant it. The boy died because of a transfusion related lung injury, an idiosyncratic thing which would not have happened because he wouldn't have needed so much blood products if they had just terminalised his limb.
I was doing the acute pain round yesterday and there was a man with a supraclavicular block/catheter for his hand - he had a reimplantation of a few fingertips which was a work related injury.
The patient actually wanted the fingers terminalised but the plastic surgeon decided to try to reimplant the fingers. And why do you think that is? Because the patient is workers comp - which means $$$.
So the patient was complaining about his numb arm and I had to tell him that we leave the infusion for about 3 days to help perfusion to those fingertips, and the patient was grouchy because he just wanted to go home. He was also having leech therapy to keep the blood thin in those fingers as well.
I was talking to one of my registrars yesterday who told me that he received a call from the anaesthetic consultant on call in the afternoon saying that he was coming in for a reimplantation of fingers. The registrar was surprised because it wasn't on the Emergency list, and so went to the Duty anaesthetist who also didn't know about the patient. A few minutes later there was a call from the plastics registrar who booked the case.
So the consultant anaesthetist was in, and told the registrar to put an art line in but he didn't care who put it in... and then I suppose he would have sent off some gases as well so you could claim serial ABGs. I asked if they put BIS on and of course they did, and it would be paid because it was a trauma (therefore high risk - though in reality totally NOT high risk because it's not really a trauma).
So is it ethical to put in extra things that you don't need because you will get extra (a lot!) money for it? Like SERIOUSLY. If this was just a non work related injury the patient would not have had all these extra interventions. It annoys me that people put extra things into workers compensation because of the extra money, and it seems like a total rort to me. Would I do those things? I don't think I would put in an arterial line or do gases.
This is such a small whinge, people will wonder why I whinge about it when there is extra money. But to me this is unethical behaviour. For monetary gain. There was a young 15 year old boy who died earlier in the year, who had his arm ripped off in some machinery accident - 2 specialists said terminalise the limb but the plastic surgeon decided to try to reimplant it. The boy died because of a transfusion related lung injury, an idiosyncratic thing which would not have happened because he wouldn't have needed so much blood products if they had just terminalised his limb.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Julian's first birthday
Had a dinner birthday party for Julian for his first birthday. I even made my simple and boring carrot cake with a bit of icing on top and cut the words out of soft carrot... looks so bodgy! But definitely homemade!
We also had a variety of other foods including oysters, lobster, chicken, roast pork, a mushroom vegetarian dish, and sashimi salmon. I got Julian to sample the lobster, chicken, roast pork and sashimi, and Erika ate them all as well. At least my kids know good food when they eat it.
We did presents afterwards and he got a Wooly Rhinoceros toy from me and Ivan, he got pants from HK and he got a toy piano/xylophone from Nanny M.
He did lots of walking and seems to be a lot more confident in his walking, walking fair distances now and even sometimes walking unconsciously from the table to the window or the chair.
We also had a variety of other foods including oysters, lobster, chicken, roast pork, a mushroom vegetarian dish, and sashimi salmon. I got Julian to sample the lobster, chicken, roast pork and sashimi, and Erika ate them all as well. At least my kids know good food when they eat it.
We did presents afterwards and he got a Wooly Rhinoceros toy from me and Ivan, he got pants from HK and he got a toy piano/xylophone from Nanny M.
He did lots of walking and seems to be a lot more confident in his walking, walking fair distances now and even sometimes walking unconsciously from the table to the window or the chair.
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