A Second Farewell

Today was the last day of regular work at my pharmacy, which made it slightly sad. I've been working at Apollo doing the afternoon till evening shifts on Thursdays and Fridays for most of this past year, as well as covering for people when needed. That has seen me work a few Saturday and Sunday afternoons as well.

I guess the farewell wasn't as sad as there was a sense of deja vu, since I had farewelled everyone at the end of my internship last year. They also might call me back to do some work when some of the pharmacists go on holiday in the coming months...that's if I haven't found another job before then!

I will miss working there regularly though. Working three days initially then two days a week worked out OK for me. I admit that working Friday nights meant I'd come late to youth group, but I had gotten used to it and adjusted to it. I actually enjoyed working Thursday and Friday nights with Moses, the intern as you get a bit more freedom and can also test yourself since you have to rely on yourself when you're the only pharmacist in charge there.

I'll miss everyone!

As everyone was leaving around 6pm, they were all saying their goodbyes to me and joking that the next time they see me I'll hopefully have muscles! My manager who has been pushing me to get my full license all year, then reminded me that I still hadn't gotten my full license yet! Oops! Well next time they see me, hopefully I'll have a license and muscles! My manager reckons the license may be easier for me to get than the muscles!

Once I finish my postgraduate study in a months' time, I'm not too sure what I'm going to do with myself till my next job comes about! I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the next chapter has in store for me. I have to admit I'm a little apprehensive, seeing as whatever job it may be, it will be the first job I wouldn't hve done my internship at, so it will be a little different. It will be a good challenge for me though, and I guess it will help me grow further as a pharmacist.

Thanks for everything though, Pharmacy@Apollo! I won't forget you guys!

Gotcha!

I was asked to work again at the pharmacy today till late, which meant I would be working sole charge for the last two hours of the evening before closing up. Fortunately I was with one of the technicians, so I had a bit of back-up just in case!

I had one interesting customer. She had prescriptions for her daughter. We got her medicine ready, and I brought them out to her. I was explaining the medicines to her, when she told me that she knew all about them as she was a dentist.

As I was scanning all the items she wanted, she asked me,

"Oh, and do you sell snake skin oil?"

My first thought was hmmmmm...that sounds a bit weird. Maybe it's just some natural product. I turned to the shop girl and asked if we sold it, and as she was about to type it into the computer to look it up, the dentist mother shouted out

"GOTCHA!"

And couldn't stop herself from laughing! She said I had made her day, and couldn't wait to tell her doctor friends! She kept laughing as she walked out with her daughter!

I'm getting better work stories everyday!

Ongoing Work

I received my ENHANCE pack today in the mail. Usually I get excited about receiving mail. This time was no different. However, for those of you who don't know what ENHANCE is, it is the continuing education programme for pharmacists. It means we have to continue upskilling to ensure we are on top of our game! For us, it means study, study, study! I suppose it's not such a bad thing, as it keeps me fresh.

I have to fill in this really big booklet by the end of March, describing my workplace and the skills I use at that workplace. There is one big problem though...I don't have a job right now! I emailed the programme co-ordinator just to check what I should do (even though it is still early), and initially she said I would be switched over to the non-practising register, but later emailed me again after she had clarified with someone else. It looks like I've got till next year to find a job!

I better get moving!

Leaving my Mark

I spotted this photo on the wall in the tea room at work today. With only a few weeks left before I leave, at least they'll have something to remember me by!

Held Back at Work

We had to wait behind at work for over half an hour after we were meant to close tonight for one patient. I was getting a little agitated because I got a text from Aonghas saying our youth group was having a combined evening. Initially I thought he meant it was with the city church's youth group! I soon realised he meant it was with the adults! That's not too bad then.

It was quite an eerrr night tonight, with me having to deal with a phone call from an irate lady complaining that she was told she didn't have to pay for her medicines since she got the subsidy card. I ended up having to explain to her the difference between fully-subsidised and partially-subsidised medicines. I put her on hold for a few minutes to check her transaction and how much she paid, and when I returned to her, she seemed to have calmed down!

I then had to deal with another phone call from a lady who claimed she only received 11 capsules instead of 21! Uh oh...Fortunately she was cool about it!

Anyway, I was glad to get out of work...eventually! By the time I got to church the combined evening was almost over. Everyone was listening to some pastor talking about missionary service.

I just casually joined in at supper time..

Now Open on Saturdays!

Our pharmacy is going to trial opening on Saturdays now! One of my workmates will work on Saturday along with my preceptor, so he will get a weekday off work. That means I'll have to work slightly later on that day so I can help close up.

Fortunately I don't have to work on Saturday though, as I've got music teaching to do!

Calamari for Calum!

Today the pharmacist at my work gave me a birthday present - Calamari!

That's her nickname for me, and because I told her I had never tried it before, she had bought a box of it for me! When I got to work, she grabbed it out of the freezer to show me!

Thanks so much Aula!

An Unexpected Follower

I was serving the last customer before closing the shop today, when the customer's friend exclaimed that she had read my blog! I was blown away!

I was trying to recognise her, just in case she was someone I knew from a long time ago, but I just couldn't put a name to the face and I was too ashamed to ask!

I didn't think anyone read this besides the few that I know of, and those spambots, so I guess that's kinda cool!

If you're reading this, random customer from today, HI!

A Good Day

Today turned out to be a pretty good day at the office, for the following reasons:

- My boss not only asked me to once again buy her some miso soup, but she shouted me one too!
- I got told I get tomorrow off work!
- I got to spend the day blister-packing!

- Oh and I ate macaroni out of a jar for lunch...

To finish off this wonderful day, Jenny and I had dinner at Tim and Gabrielle's house to discuss the church camp concert as our youth group is in charge or organising it!

(Brief) Moment of Fame

I had a brief moment of fame today during my lunch break!

I was sitting outside in the Quad at uni today eating my lunch when this American guy walked by, saw me and asked if I worked at the chemist downstairs. When I told him that I did, he told me he recognised me as the guy who sold him his medicines!

That's the first time anyone has recognised me outside of the pharmacy! I have to say I was quite chuffed about that!

Anyway he sat down next to me and we had a bit of a chat getting to know one another.

Finally my job is helping me get to know people!

Farewelling a Workmate

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, one of my workmates is leaving after over eight years working at the pharmacy I work at and today was her last day at work. While today was pretty much work as usual, we decided to farewell her over dinner last night at this small little Italian restaurant down Fort Street in the city.

I have to admit it was the first time I had done anything with my workmates outside of work, so it would be a little different and...weird? It was pretty good though, not having to worry about always being 'onto' it!

We all decided to order a couple of slices of pizza along with some pasta. The theme of the restaurant was Al Capone, so the items on the menu all had gangster names. I think the pizza I ordered was called Benny "Bullet"!

We talked for a while and ate some garlic bread that had been given to us. They ended up giving my preceptor the wrong pizza which had meat on it (my preceptor couldn't eat it), so I switched pizzas with my preceptor. It tasted good nonetheless! The restaurant gave us some slices of pizza on the house for the mix-up, which was nice of them! Since I was the only guy there, they expected me to eat the rest of the food that no one else wanted!

The pasta came a little later. The food along with plenty of glasses of water and a glass of pineapple juice made me full by the end of the night! One of the ladies couldn't finish her plate so she gave her leftovers to me!

It was approaching 8pm and so we decided to make our way home. It was a good night and I'll miss my workmate. Thanks for being so kind and supportive throughout this year!

Today as she left for the last time, she left me with these words

"Make sure you pass!"

I definitely will try to!

Someone's Leaving

One of the ladies at work is leaving this week. She's been working at the pharmacy for many years now, so for all my workmates it'll be pretty sad. It'll be pretty sad for me too as she's really nice and friendly and I've gotten to know her these past few months I've been working.

Today she brought a really nice cake and some other food to share with all of us!

I was hoping the change of ownership earlier this year would be the only major change in personnel during my internship but it looks like there will be more change to come...

Snapshots of Work

Campus's Lovely Girls???

My Life Story

It's morning tea time and all I feel like doing is slumping on the couch...

Self-Medication

A lot of the time I make recommendations to customers on which medicines they should take for minor conditions based on what I've studied or been told by others. I very rarely use OTC medicines unless I've been prescribed them by a doctor.

Well this weekend I started developing a sore throat! I didn't think much of it until Sunday when it started getting worse. I decided I'd finally try some sore throat lozenges and maybe some of those multi-vitamins that are supposed to boost your immune system and reduce recovery time!

I ended up going with Difflam (since that's the one I recommend the most) and Immunofort. Apparently Difflam can make your mouth numb (it has an ingredient which causes the numbing effect to reduce the pain). I was sucking on a Difflam lozenge at home last night and I could start to feel my tongue go numb! The raspberry flavour also started to wear off!

As for the Immunofort, I took my first tablet today. We'll see if that has any effect...but that may be hard to tell!

The Hello Count (Updated)

I have grown to absolutely hate the song 'Hello' by Martin Solveig & Dragonette, especially since they seem to play it constantly on the radio! It's driving me so insane I'm ready to self-medicate myself!

At work we're tuned to The Edge, and I thought I'd start a tally of just how many times it's played this week, and will keep this post updated!

Monday: 3
Tuesday: 2

For those of you who don't know which song I'm talking about, here it is. Knock yourself out...

Now the Real Work Starts

Today was the first day of uni, which meant work was going to get a whole lot busier! For some reason though it didn't feel much busier than last week! We had two extra staff working today though, so maybe that helped a bit.

What was quite different though was during my lunch breaks. Usually I would either sit outside in the Quad or sit in the study area of Level 0 of the IC to eat lunch, but today there were students everywhere! There was nowhere to go!

People had to line up at the ground floor to get their MAXX stickers (to get 40% off public transport) and the line stretched all the way across the bottom floor of IC, went out the door and then went in a semi-circle! I think I might have to stay in the tea room during my breaks in the future!

My First Day at Work

I finally have my Annual Practising Certificate to practise as an intern pharmacist!

Today was my first day at work, which meant I had to wake up at 6.30am to get ready. I caught the bus into the city but I got there so early I managed to spend an hour on the uni computers (I can still log in, yay!!).

On the first day of work I got to meet all the staff and they're all quite friendly. I mainly spent my time in the dispensary helping enter prescriptions into the computer, dispensing and handing out medicines to customers/patients though. 

It was quite quiet at work too! I get two breaks throughout the day, a half hour lunch break around midday. I just went upstairs and sat outside in the Quad to eat my lunch, as it was good being outside after being stuck in the pharmacy all day!

I got a nice surprise when one of my friends Eliza came into the pharmacy just to drop off a little first day of week present for me - a really nice cupcake! Thanks so much Eliza, that made my day!

I finally finished work by 5.30, and I was going to join the gym but I didn't know which membership I could qualify for so I had to email the manager. No New Years resolutions fulfilled today!

I then met up with another one of my friends Scholastica who was going to shout me dinner at the Sky City Fortuna Restaurant sorta as a birthday and first day of week treat! 

As soon as we got seated we went straight to the food! Last time we went to a buffet we ate and got full too fast, so this time we paced ourselves! 

 

There was quite a lot to eat, and it was really nice, especially the dessert! Scholastica and I chatted throughout dinner about all sorts of stuff and also made a toast to a successful year ahead!

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1PlvwSoJTU)