Slightly morose.

Things have been getting me down this week, a bit. Partially due to the lack of wheels (which will have to wait til I get paid again), partially due to the crap public transport down here, partially due to missing things and stuff and a bit of fluff at home. But, perhaps most of all due to living with people who have no life outside of World of Warcraft.

Thing is, it looked a very promising house at first, a hundred yards from work, fifty yards from the chip shop, two hundred yards from the Liquor Store. All bills, and interweb, included in the rent as well. No mention was made of World of Warcraft at all. To be honest though, I'm just too damn lazy to look for somewhere else, dismantle my bed, and move everything again. So I'll probably stick it out, and it will probably get better.

The other thing is that working with all women, while it has its advantages (which I can't recall right now) can make for a rather bitchy atmosphere, which pisses me off no end. Also, I know I'm not as good at my job as I should be, which is worrying. A weekend of revision awaits I think. Well, apart from the Super 14 semis. And while we're at it, just what is the purpose of the ELVs?

In other news, I bought Madden 06 for the PC yesterday, and promptly made Green Bay lose to the Sea Devils. I played Madden obsessively for six months on the Wii, and it's a lot harder with a "proper" control pad.

In other, more serious news, hospitals over here seem much better than hospitals over there (admittedly based on a sample size of n=1 for both countries). Here, there is a lot more space per patient bed, there's six nurses covering thirty beds (as opposed to three covering thirty back home), everything is a lot less stressed. And cleaner. There just seems to be adequate staffing full stop down here, which is not always something I could say about back home.

Further Proof That Boots Are The Republican Party Of Pharmacy.

http://www.allianceboots.com/main.asp?nid=108&pid=1607

Boots buy centre for "alternative medicine". Boots uses influence to decide that alternative medicine is a good thing. The Centre for the Study of Woo decides that Woo treatments are good. Because people are idiots, and Woo is natural (like dogshit), sales of Woo go up.

Pharmacists hit the bottle, former presidents of the RPSGB who are too thick to understand how science works will be delighted.

Falling in love.

The bass player from JJ72. Perfection.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=30gCHfzlxfc&feature=related

Caffeine in pain management?

Anyone know anything about this? All I could find, during a brief search today was mention of it's use to counteract the effect of opioids. Anyone got any experience with it?

Words fail me*

http://www.chemistanddruggist.co.uk/c/portal/layout?p_l_id=259751&CMPI_SHARED_articleId=653367&CMPI_SHARED_ImageArticleId=653367&CMPI_SHARED_articleIdRelated=653367&CMPI_SHARED_ToolsArticleId=653367&CMPI_SHARED_CommentArticleId=653367

*Of no interest to anyone not in the tablet-counting business.

Beers of New Zealand

1) Speight's Distinction. Darkish, quite bitter, really nice. Bit nutty. In my limited experience of New Zealand pubs, you can't seem to get a "normal" pint of bitter, they've all got a bit of fizz to him. It's different, but it's pretty good.

2) Speight's. Sipping beer, good for an all-dayer, like Grand Slam Day 2009. Well, maybe. Bonus sports related trivia questions under the bottle cap!

3) Tui. Exactly the same as Speight's, except the bonus sports related trivia questions are harder to read. Good stuff.

4) Steinlager. Drunk this on the plane, not impressed.

240,000,000) Waikato. Described by the guy who put my bed up as a drink for Bogans, and I tend to agree. Horrible, shitty, bog-standard Carlingesque crap.

That's pretty much all the beer I've tried here. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

TheWelshPharmacist-pining for a pint of SA Gold since 25/04/2008

Two nations, four languages

What the hell is toast bread, and how is it different from normal bread that gets toasted?

You have a paddock, I have a field.

Chips are crisps, unless they're chips, in which case they're hot chips.

You have gumboots, I have wellies.

You do vacuuming, I do hoovering.

You have good quality beer, we poison our natives with Carling.

Quack Quack Quack!

The Quack never bothered to get round to any of the emails I sent her asking her what the justification for her selling overpriced lactose pills was.

The Quack was also a former President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.

Do we get the leaders we deserve? Is this why no-one take pharmacists seriously?

If anyone has any reason why I should not label Christine Glover a Quack, I'd like to hear them.

Go here for a whole lot of shite http://www.glovers-health.co.uk/

Why I Escaped Retail

This American chap (I assume) has written one of the best pieces of literature I have ever seen. Anyone who has worked in retail will be familiar. The reason I escaped was because I was fed up of being treated like shit by a bunch of thick arseholes.

Read this now: http://www.theangrypharmacist.com/archives/2008/05/friday_start_of_the_month_very.html#comments

My Secret Obession

Yet another Brett Favre update, courtesy of The Onion this time

GREEN BAY, WI—The Green Bay Packers addressed questions concerning the current status, future plans, and whereabouts of recently retired quarterback Brett Favre by announcing Monday that they had sent him to the country to live on a beautiful farm with a very nice family.


"We know you loved Brett Favre, but he wasn't happy here. He couldn't stay here," Packers general manager Ted Thompson told hundreds of quiet but tear-streaked Packer fans assembled at the televised Lambeau Field press conference. "And he loved you, too—he loved you very much indeed—but he needed to go someplace where he could run and jump and throw his favorite football around. And he couldn't do that here anymore."

More here: http://www.theonion.com/content/news/packers_tell_fans_they_gave_favre

Winter Is Coming*

People of New Zealand. If the temperature outside is 20C, the sun is shining and everyone is walking around in shorts, then it is NOT FUCKING WINTER!

Thank you.

*Bonus points if anyone gets the nerdy reference.

FA Cup Final!

Still the most important football match of the year, whatever Sky may tell you. Well, unless it's between Manure and Chelski, in which case, fuck 'em.

HOWEVER, this year's cup final has two teams who, collectively, have not been to a cup final for 240,000,000 years. So, it should be a bit more exciting. And there's the chance to tweak the nose of the English again. Here's a proper crap traditional cup final song http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lApivPlPhkg.

Could have done without the reference to that shitbag Ridsdale though.

Where's my bloody Journal got to?

£395 for a weekly comic, and it hasn't turned up yet. Although I would expect nothing less from a "governing body" that allows homeopathy to exist, unchallenged.

Pharmacy in the colonies.

Based on a whole five days experience, a lot of which was taken up with explaining where the toilets are, and where I hang my coat, I can safely say that pharmacy in Aotearoa is 240,000,000 times better than it is in the shitpit that is the Rhondda.

Down here, as I understand it, there is this strange and mysterious beast known as the PHARMAC committee that evaluate each drug on the basis of price and usefulness, and then decides if it is "allowed" to be prescribed. So, for example, the only ACE inhibitors here are cilazapril or quinalapril, neither of which are used to any great degree at home, where there are several hundred ACE inhibitors. Also, there's none of this " I WANT LOSEC!!1111I'M ALLERGIC TO OMEPRAZOLE111!!!1" shit here, you get what's subsidised by the government, and lump it. So far, I think it's a good system.

Every pharmacist I've met has said to me
"So you worked in retail did you?"
Me: "Aye, two years"(not wishing to say anything controversial, on account of being a new chap)
"It's shit, isn't it"
Me: "FUCK AYE, it's like scrubbing my scrotum with sandpaper."

So that's good. So far, so good. It's very quiet though, dispensary wise, so a lot of afternoons are spent warding, scratching, gossiping, or compiling a list of TOP 5 WOMEN/MEN YOU WOULD HAVE IF YOU WERE GAY. Sweet.