To a rainy Friday morning I awake - again a call from a nurse brings the new day to my attention, someone needs me more than my bed does, and so my day begins. Problem sorted, or at least navigated, and I'm on my way to the beach, a group of swimmers on the beach in the rain staring at the surf. I love swimming in the rain - there's something about the silence of it all, the closeness with the elements (and the lack of crowds) that makes it special. Coachless today we make our way through some serious swimming - and some serious fun. I'm not the dedicated triathlete like these guys are, and sometimes it feels odd to be out there training with them. But it makes me faster, and it gives them target practice of sorts. Today I feel fast as we race from the surf, bodysurfing the waves to the shore and running to an impromptu finish line on the beach. I pant and laugh at once and contemplate doing it all day. Instead I prepare to go back to work, as the others prepare to go for an 80minute run. Maybe one day I'll join them - but not today.
I meet with patients in all manner of life circumstances, all of them dying, but in completely different ways, and it feels good to be able to give them some hope and control in what is happening in their day to day deteriorations. Each one of them moves me in different ways, and it feels good to be alive. It's nice to be able to laugh and joke with them all, and I see in them a sense of security when I leave, which make me feel I've done my job.
I head to gym after work and do an interrupted run - all up 40 minutes or so - and I'm wet, it's like I'm raining now. The gym is increasingly busy, and I can't get to all the things I want to use, but manage most of what I want to do today. Starving we head out for Thai with friends we've not seen all year. It's nice to catch up, and the food is great (or was I just really hungry?) .
Home and I catch up with Lynnette from Tasmania online (who has posted some awesome photos of her recent trip) and a friend we're dining with Saturday, then check on some blogs I've not seen in a while, watch an episode of the last season of The West Wing and contemplate what to write about in this post, but don't really come up with anything. I do decide to add the following photo (as requested unofficially by Vancouver Geoff) both to appease him and further perpetuate unobtainable aesthetic ideals to which we all aspire - if momentarily. Because that's what I do. This time with facial hair.
And then I go to bed.
Sometimes you'll wonder about where you might go for brunch, or what is missing in your wardrobe this season. Maybe you'll stress about where to go out Saturday night, and if anyone cute will be there... And sometimes you will realise how seriously lucky you are to have such choices available to you in the first place. 
Two of my friends, Terry (right) and Sam (left) have just started up blogs from Sri Lanka and Sudan where they are residing for 12 and 6 months respectively. They don't know eachother and their blogs will be entirely different, with Terry's very focussed on Human Rights and Sam's on his experiences with the UN in Sudan. Both countries have serious human rights abuses taking place as we speak. They are both very good writers (and cute to boot) and their blogs are well worth a visit for a greater insight into what's happening both there and farther internationally (they're also linked from my 'blogs to watch' list). The world is not always a beautiful place, but we can help to make it so by changing the people in it and making our voices heard. Getting the inside story is a good start. Sharing it with others, better still. Moving and shaking the world about it, ideal.
