75 dollar health care

I got the chance to attend some training for work last week in Brisbane, which I was pretty happy about. Brisbane is the largest city, and the capital, of the State of Queensland. It’s about an hour drive north of where we used to live in the Gold Coast, so while we were in town, we got to pop in and visit a bunch of friends we left behind, which was super fun. Plus we got to stay in a flash hotel in downtown Brisbane, with an awesome view of the city.

I’ve learned that I am definitely a city person, despite my constant need for solitary time. Mackay is a nice small quiet city, but lacks the cultural diversity and cultural activities of a real city, which I constantly crave.

The only setback was my health. I discovered at the beginning of the week that I had a bladder or urinary infection of some kind. I’ve had one before, but not this severe. I thought I could handle it, but suffered extreme abdominal pain Monday night that made me give in and see a doctor for the first time since I’ve lived in Australia. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but walking through the process with Theo a few months back eased my apprehension.

We were running an errand at a shopping center near our hotel and stumbled upon a doctors clinic, which is not that uncommon to see in random places here. We walked in - it was nearly empty – and enquired at the counter about the appointment openings and prices. We were told $65 for a short visit, and the doctor was available immediately! Nice. Waited about 10 minutes, saw a doctor, peed in a cup, and I was gone in 20 minutes with a prescription in hand. Walked to the pharmacy next door and paid $9.90 for the full course of antibiotics. All this without excessive paperwork – I only filled out a name/address sort of flyer not even a full page long. I didn’t present any medical insurance card, and they didn’t even really care if I had insurance or not.

I do happen to have insurance, so all I will do is mail my receipts off for reimbursement. I’m not sure yet what to expect in that department, but I’ll let you know. At this point I don’t even really care, because I’m so grateful I only spent $75 for super quick, awesome health care in a time of need. This is exactly how it should be – no hassles, no worries, and no paying an arm and a leg.

Ride with Me

As promised, I grabbed my photographer today and we headed out to take photos of my bike route to work. Here they are:

I pass this every morning and it makes me smile to see something with Louisiana on it! I don't think it ever moves... much like many of the cars actually in Louisiana! Ha!



This is also on our block. Seems pretty random on a residential block. We often wonder what kind of store it used to be back in the day...

There are many many dogs who live on our street. This is one of the typical Aussie breeds. This guy's one of the more mature ones on our block.

This is probably the biggest house on our block. There are all kinds of styles, from the traditional Queenlander really high up off the ground, to the "cottage" type that we have, up off the ground just a little, then there are some random brick ones too.
This is our neighborhood fish and chip shop. They sell local fish like barramundi and our favorite is the reef fish called red throat. They see us there at least weekly.

This is what a typical school looks like. It's also in the Queensland style, up off the ground. Very cute. This is the local Catholic primary school.
The big banana! When we give directions to our house, it's "take a left at the big banana!" I'm not sure why it's there... that's a fishing gear shop on the corner...


Then I cross the first little bridge over barnes creek.











There have been 2 hundred-year floods in our neighborhood pretty recently. So I hope I don't see the next one... I won't be able to get to work!



Then right after that is the bigger bridge, which they're currently upgrading, spanning the Pioneer River.



Right on the other side of the bridge is the downtown area where I work. They just installed a new art piece right on the Bluewater Quay, as it's called. Of course, they must have made one of the thingees red just for me!


































Quite a few of the older downtown buildings are very Mediterranean/Spanish looking architecture, which I find odd, but nice. Not so much this one, but this is an example of what some of them look like...