I disagree with Dolly Parton, who thinks working from 9 to 5 is a bad thing. Especially when I am crawling out of bed at 5.30. Still, I'm managing to earn some beer tokens for me and my house husband!.

Australian nursing is quite different to home, the only way to summarise it is....Bling Bling!! There is loads of nurses per patient, and a fantastic amount of equipment.I went to find a patient a blanket yesterday, and I found a cupboard with 30 odd, AND a massive box of pillows, I'm sure you nurses back home will understand my astonishment.

There are a few bizarre things though, the main one being that no one wears uniforms, even the nurse wear regular clothes, so I never know who is who. On my first day I mistook a consultant for a ward clerk. After leafing through a phone book and helping me page some one, she revealed her identity. Not only had a consultant spoke to me, but she had helped me do my dirty work!!

The only down side is their abbreviations are nothing like the ones back home. I have spent the first week trying to decipher their code. In my first handover I thought they were reciting the alphabet(!). I feel like a student again, as I have a little note book with all my new words.

But after saying all that some things never change. In my first week I had one patient report me to the doctor and the nurse in charge for stealing her dirty tissues, and in the same shift one of my patients decided to go walk about with his gown open and the front, and showing off all his glory to the stunned relatives and visitors (please note that the second patient was not even confused, but a 40 something Gent stutting his stuff!).

Oh, and for a reasons beyond my understanding, there seems to be an international law of nursing, that all patients are fascinated with my boobs!! What more can I say??