Catching you up!

Hi all!

I know it’s been a few days without me posting, and I do apologize. Monday was a stat holiday here, and we had a very exciting, long day, then yesterday I wanted to upload my nice pictures from Monday, and lo and behold the Internet at home was being crooked as sin again. I took them on my real camera, just so that they would be extra nice for you, and I haven’t even been able to show you!

 

Monday was Taste of the Huon, down in Huonville, which is an annual festival which showcases as Eddie described it “The gourmet bread basket of Tasmania”. In other words, the area of the island all kinds of gourmet foods and wines come from. It was wicked! There was over 100 booths, with everything from fresh apple juice (my new favourite market treat), to seafood sausages, mead, and even wallaby and possum.

Yes you read that correctly. Wallaby!

Since the atmosphere was truly one of culinary adventure, we dove right in and tried a wallaby cacciatore, which looked lovely, and was supposed to be served on a bun like a sloppy joe. Given that it was before 10am, we shared an order without the bun, just in case our tummies we not a fan. It was alright… Very much like rabbit in texture, but with a taste all its own. I think moose would have been better with that sauce, cause the sauce was nice. Will not be going out of my way to eat it again, but it’s all a new experience!

Our next stop was Festival Tempura Mushrooms, which are a staple apparently. Exactly what it sounds like, these are just breaded, deep fried local mushrooms! Honey gold and white button ones to be specific. How could you possibly go wrong? These were a great little snack, even though I could only eat a couple. It was still really early in the day!

On our next lap to finally decide what our main meal was going to be, I sampled some honey mead. Very strange experience. I still don’t really know much about their product. Anyways, do not recommend. It was like drinking Buckleys. I cannot imagine sitting down with a glass of Buckleys!

I was really stuck between having a fruit and nut paella, which looked like a warm bowl of milk-oatmeal-fruity comfort, and chilli mussels. I had the best intentions of having a fruit pie with cream for dessert, so I had the mussels. They were an excellent choice! Basically just fresh local mussels cooked in a simple spicy tomato sauce. I felt like it was a way to truly respect the flavour of the mussels, which were supposed to be the star of the show.

Afterwards, I was unfortunately too full for pie, but we still carried on to Willie Smith’s Cider Shed, where we had a sample paddle of 4 different ciders! One was an Original, the second was a Farmhouse Perry, then a Bone Dry, and then a Pear Cherry. I really liked the original one, it was more of what actual apple cider tastes like, than the usual beer-type cider-thing I’ve not really been a fan of in the past. The Farmhouse Perry was also great, and I’ll definitely be looking for it at the bottleshop!

They also had water taps set up, and the most beautiful pavlovas!

In terms of pharm-related things, I have been on the geriatric rehab ward for yesterday and today. I of course, loved every second of it! I got to do bedside rounds yesterday, and we went around and had a grand yarn with each patient as a team, and it was really lovely. My preceptor integrates herself well into the team, and as a result she is frequently consulted. Additionally, I got to do an independent chart review today, which is something I feel comfortable doing, I just haven’t had much of an opportunity to do so on this rotation. I felt useful for the first time in days to be able to just take my time, and review each condition and drug for this patient and follow-up with the lab work and nursing notes. Thats one of the best things about a ward like that, is that since no one is acutely unwell, you get to take the time to read into everything. Loved it.

Thats it for hospital pharmacy in Hobart! Tomorrow and Friday are project days to present a little slideshow about ourselves, and finalize our acute hypertension management research project. Saturday we are off to Nubeena!