Tuesday 15 December 2009

Northern Polyclinic Christmas Gathering @ El Nido's





I've started the tradition of having the annual staff gathering at Chinese New year which brings us clear of the silly season and lands us somewhere in February.

But despite my humbug-like Chinese efforts at pretending Christmas does not exist, it does, and so does Chris Cringle, whoever he is. I'd better count myself lucky I even got an invite to this one!

Here are the photos of the Northern Polyclinic gathering.

Friday 11 December 2009

Southern Polyclinic xmas Gathering - Tongara


ah the Tongara........ having changed many hands over the past 18 months, we all decided to patronise this restaurant with a checkered past of owners. It's latest manifestation is as a seafood restaurant which makes me think of fat sea cows and spirally tailed sea horses floating amongst the green pastures at the foot of Macquarie pass. Star fish or urchin row did not feature on the menu, so we made do with our own exotic company served with chips and salad.

A salty Dr Botham rolled in late with windswept wife and two tired children in tow. He had just come from Hyam's beach, the latest seaside paradise that he's discovered during his first 6 months here.

The end of 2009 marks a year that positively bulged with doctors around the middle then tapered off to a drip seeing Philip leave the practice for another medical centre after 9 years with us. The Southern battled with rumors that we were closing down, which we are NOT.

However the main reason we are sticking is our attachment to the practice and the community we serve. Dad built the surgery from nothing and spent weeks sitting around waiting for patients to walk in the door and simply "being there" whether there are patients or not, because that's what you do when you provide a service for the community. A shop owner can't leave the shop whenever there aren't any customers, you just need to wait and serve whomever comes in the door.