Simon's trip to the Texas Heart Institute

Hello, The blog starts again.

Travelled to very very hot and humid Houston in Texas to visit the Texas Heart Institute for a month. Mum came with me for the first two weeks. Below is a picture of the Medical Center and you can see three huge hospitals (left to right: Texas Heart Institute, St Lukes Episcopal, and then Texas Childrens Hospital). On the site there are countless other hospitals... still have to count them. Also below is a picture of the enormous fountain at the heart of the Texas Medical Center (or TMC) as it is known around here.

We are staying in the TMC accommodation for doctors, etc called the Favrot Tower Apartments. The rooms are a bit basic but clean, with a massive fridge freezer, a microwave, a little cooker, and a walk-in dressing room. Most importantly they are air-conned as everything is over here to sub zero temperatures.



Finally at the weekend we hired a car and travelled to Galveston (about 50 miles South of Houston) and saw the sea, had some fantastic seafood in the restaurants, had a paddle and relaxed for the weekend. Below are some pictures. Note the lazy crane in the bottom picture who has found an easier way to get fish for food than hunting....

Currently back at TMC to go to work on Monday for 06.30 am ward round!

Stockholm - New Year 2006

A fair bit of time since we last went away and posted something to the blog.

For New Year this year we went to Stockholm for a few days, and their was snow everywhere. At times it was quite cold (minus three to five) although I think the UK was colder. We stayed at a really cool (in a Swedish trendy way) hotel - The Nordic Light. You can change the colour of the room with the mood lighting, there is a lighting director in the hotel, and the best breakfast buffet's we have seen.
What did we do? Well a trip to the VasaMuseem (an old boat that sunk in the harbour that is near perfectly preserved), the museum of modern art, lots of interior designy shops (it seems that this is big in Sweden, but a little like high quality and expensive IKEA), and a walk around Gamla Stan.
New Year's eve was spent at a lovely fish restaurant near Stureplan, and then a walk up to the park to listen to Tennison's Ring Ring (a Stockholm tradition) at midnight followed by fireworks all over Stockholm. Once again the rest of Europe put us to shame as everyone cracked open the champagne at midnight but there was no drunkenness!
We had a fantastic time and came back relaxed - unfortunately have to go back to school/hospital on Tuesday.

Simon and Alison

xxx