Scarlet Letter.
We have noticed square stickers on cars with either a green or red “P” on them. Jay finally remembered to ask what they mean. I red P identifies someone who is just learning to drive. I equate this to having a learner’s permit in the US, only it is visible for all to see. You graduate up to having a green permit, and eventually you are allowed to drive without the “scarlet letter”. Driving record and age are taken into consideration, maybe other things as well, not an expert on this. One interesting point is if you get an OWI here, you are never allowed to drive without the letter.
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Doctor.
Lily turned 4 months old on the “11th of the 11th” as they say here. Dates are written as DD/MM/YY instead of the MM/DD/YY that I am used to so I constantly have to think about what day and month it is. I digress…. With Lily’s 4 month birthday comes the dreaded vaccinations. Thankfully before we left the US we had Lily’s pediatrician give me a printout of the vaccination schedule, and it is basically the same here in Australia. Let me try to describe the doctor experience for you.

The clinic has a decent reception area, pretty clean, uncomfortable chairs, lots of paperwork, and very friendly receptionists, similar to the US. I am not normally a germophobe, but I despise the kids’ toy box in a doctors’ office, and this one did not disappoint. Disgusting as it was, it kept Ty occupied while we waited for the General Practitioner to arrive. If you recall from an earlier blog, pediatricians are only seen in extreme cases. Routine work is done by a GP.

We get called in to see the doctor by the doctor himself, no nurse. Benefit of this is that the wait time is less than the US and we only had to talk to one person. The strange part is that we went into his office. It had a cot, not the tall exam tables that I am used to, covered in a brown sheet that was too big for the cot, and no disposable paper on top. We answered a few general questions about the kids, discussed the vaccine schedule, and then were taken to another room called the Examination Room.

This room had a nurse, 2 cots in a skinny L-shaped room and curtains on rollers, if privacy was needed. The layout was not ideal for mom, dad, dr, nurse, Ty, Lily, and the occasional receptionist who had to get to the storage area in the back of the L-shaped exam room. Doc took Lily’s height on a roll-up measuring chart that he laid on the bed. He put the scale on the bed to weigh her and just rounded a bit down to adjust for her nappy and shirt. Then as an after thought he had me set her on the other bed to check her joints and her head. The nurse had me hold Lily for the shots. Lily did great for the first one, but cried for the 2nd. Ty just got weight and height measurements and is in the system for future visits. We don’t book her 6 month appointment until they send a letter because it is “way too early” (no worries mate). Each child was $65, so unless we are in an extreme situation we will be doing that when the kids are sick instead of the $150 Medcall.

All in all, it was a different experience, things are as expected…much more relaxed. Not terrible, just different. Let’s just all pray for healthy kiddos so we don’t have to go back too often.

T