Transitions

Day -1 is over. I gave the staff some cakes for them to enjoy during their breaks. I did all the work that needed to be done. I put the coffee plunger, my mug and the coffee tin into a shopping bag along with a couple of other things from the office, turned off the computer, said some goodbyes, walked down the stairs, out the door, to the carpark, got in the car, and drove away.

Went to the edge of Lake Pupuke, where I saw three juvenile black swans swimming along. I was able to get two into the one frame, and thought it makes a good metaphor. No longer the fluffy grey of the cygnets, but not the black of the adults. One has the adult red iris, and the other has the juvenile's black eye. These two are in transition also.

After ten months in the inpatient unit, the locum has finished. A young British trained psychiatrist has moved from Edinburgh to Auckland, and he starts on Wednesday. I am having four weeks without working, after which I am returning to work in Liaison Psychiatry, again at North Shore Hospital. In the next two weeks I need to think about a request to take on a position as the Medical Director in Psychiatry for another one of the Auckland DHBs. Easier than the inpatient unit in some ways; harder in others. 

The extra was taken from the roadside end of the beachhouse just after the sun fell below the hills.