7 Weeks In Perth

We arrived on a Friday & every Friday marks another week in Perth. I survived my 1st week in my job or should I say, I survived the driving trips to & from work? I've been absent the entire week as I have to wake up at 5 am everyday & hence have been sleeping early. I was told good things about Aussie drivers but I think they seem good to Singaporeans only becoz drivers in Singapore are way worse. Sure, they give way when you signal but apart from that... I've been told not to speed as the fines are heavy & you get demerit points. I keep strictly to the speed limit or just under not only for fear of getting caught but also I know I won't be safe. This led to daily doses of tailgating. Almost everyone speeds. When they come too close to me, I feel very pressured. It's really hard to ignore them as I've been advised. Travelling at 90 km/hr & all I can see are the headlights in my rear & side mirrors, sometimes, just the bonnet. It totally goes against the 2 second rule I've been taught in driving school. I'm so scared that in the event I had to brake hard, they'll hit me.

I'm starting to familiarise with the outbound route. The inbound route, however, is another story. Traffic is heavy on the way home everyday. I feel less stressed coz nobody can speed even if they want to. But I'm always making turns too early or unable to filter out, missing the exit totally. I'm terrible at gauging distances. There was once the GPS said to keep 2nd lane from the left in preparation for an exit & the road has only 2 lanes. I was in the right lane when at 80 m to go, the road spilts into 4 lanes & I ended up being on the 2nd lane from the right. Needless to say, I missed my exit. It doesn't help that the GPS is churning out different routes for me to go home by everyday. It finally occurred to me that it was becoz my settings were on giving me the fastest travelling time. I switched my settings to the shortest distance so it'll just stick to the same route everyday. Everyday during my evening gongyo, I thank Gohonzon that I made it safely to work & back home. I kid you not. I'm that stressed about driving.

I had my orientation on Tuesday & officially "started" on Wednesday. My Clinical Nurse Manager (CNM) wanted me to learn circulating 1st. On Thursday, she already left me alone for long periods of time, coming in on & off to check on me. She feels I'm that good. But honestly, I know I won't be happy with my performance as a circulator until I can reach the stage where I can multitask & yet not miss a thing. I'll also need to remember where things are kept. I haven't scrub yet & I believe that's where the challenge lies. While the rational behind the surgical techniques & the machines they use are the same, they have different instruments from the ones I'm used to & they stand on different sides depending on which eye is being operated on (in SG we stand on patient's right regardless of the side). The scrub nurse also scrubs for the entire list whereas I'm used to alternate scrub. Nevertheless, I'll try to perform to the best of my ability. They gave me a chance when nobody did. All the more I have to prove that they didn't make the wrong decision to hire me. More importantly, I get a sense of pleasure & satisfaction knowing I'm efficient & doing a good job.