Swap Mania

The past two weeks of work has been very eventful. Not only for me, but for other trainees in Pulse Pharmacy who decided to do a swap with each other to have a feel for a different store and see how they operate. I decided on going to Lily's store at Southland, Cheltenham which was the closest for me. Lily shall then go to the other store at Riversdale Rd in Camberwell. Wooi Lynn, who's the intern there, shall come to Mornington. Amongst the three of us, this plan went well. It went very well for Wooi Lynn and I because she was going to drive down to Frankston and live in my little home for the two weeks whilst she travels to Mornington. My experience began in Southland as somewhat awkward, and to me, the staff generally weren't that friendly. But the standout for me being there was the boss. He was a young Malaysian, and overall, he appeared as a typical Malaysian, with all his funny antics. But my time at Southland came to an end for just a week when I was told that Lily was wanted back at her store because he was away and he needed a familiar face to show the locum around. Which then left me two options:

1. I could decide to be at Riversdale Rd, which means the hassle of travelling around from Frankston to Richmond, and then another train to Camberwell. And I'll be doing this for five days, and means coming home late and having dinner late and by the time I get to bed.. well there isn't much time.
   
2. Wooi Lynn and I would just cancel the whole swap program amongst ourselves and go back to our respective stores. Which means all the careful planning of what to eat and where to go and the Pfizer talk which I had organised to have us both attend in Mornington would be all a waste.

Either choice, it was a little upsetting. However after thinking it through, it would be nothing but a plus point for me, having to experience different stores. I now have experience from two stores, not just one as planned. What even motivated me to go there was the podiatrist who works in Wooi Lynn's store. I have been meaning to see one, considering I have bad feet (which after having a consultation with Peter, the podiatrist, he says I have a fairly good walk!) and my leg's been killing me recently. So I've decided to go with option number 1. And I've not regretted that decision now. The staff, even though it's just that few, it's been great to talk to them, and in contrast to the other store, they're much more friendly. What's good is that over the past two weeks I get to see other types of people and personalities not only staff, but also the community as well (after getting yelled at by old hags over the phone and a man in the store for being dodgy *rolls eyes*). But what I liked about the two weeks is that I managed to do other things which I normally don't in Mornington - sorting claim, ordering (which has been helpful to me) and closing the store in Riversdale Rd which I have never done before. The best bit about it was my last day in Camberwell on Friday as I entered, Georgia (Wooi Lynn's preceptor) said that I was required elsewhere. It gave me a shock as I thought if I might be needed back in Mornington and I had to travel another two hours back! Turns out that I had to go to Burke Rd for a few hours as there were not enough staff in the dispensary. It sounded like a great opportunity to have a feel of what the dispensary is like as it has always been hyped up as "busy". Turns out, it really was busy! I had the liberty of meeting the pharmacist, Jo who seemed to be so, so nice. And really, I was there like a dispensing tech. I had dispensed all the time without much contact with customers as Jo had to do more of the PR stuff with her regulars. The dispensary is a plus point however, being really a small dispensary and it's below the medical centre which is upstairs, it carries a lot of stock and I suppose there is no reason for shortage. But the people kept coming God knows where from, and I was kept busy for the next two to three hours. To sum up my experience over the past two weeks, it gave me perspective. Not only perspective, it gave me some inspiration to be able to be a good pharmacist. Added on was a good discussion with Wooi Lynn over the future prospects and hers (which I shall write more later) and about Pulse Pharmacy in general.

Wooi Lynn had enjoyed her time in Frankston. Frankston being supposedly notorious for the used-to-be druggies roaming about seemed like the past. It is different, and that gave her perspective. Not only that, but her time in Mornington seemed relaxing, compared to the amount of work she had to do when she was in Riversdale Rd. The people, she described, were kinder and more willing to take the time and listen compared to the usual people where English is not their first language or people who just want to be in the chemist and out as soon as possible. Her funny and hilarious stories about working there was really what I hoped for. The dispensary has been too serious recently, and there isn't much fun to it. Having her there stirred them a little with her "tailan-ness" and hopefully brought some life into their daily mundane job. But she also realised that reality doesn't run away from a store that far away from the metropolitan area. She also enjoyed the food that we have been having over the past two weeks, which was a pleasant thing. Over the weekend, we got Hen Yick to come down and just to travel around if possible since Wooi Lynn had a car. Those road trips were as crazy as it could be, and it has been a little damper with the lousy weather. Yet we managed to cram in as much as we can with little daylight time and just dawdling about :) We got to Phillip Island after my Sunday shift at work with little time left to spend, as most of the spots were closing. This happens to be a chocolate factory which I was unaware of...

Guess the pictures described it all. Then later on we went to the Nobbies, which was once again a nice sightseeing lookout which I didn't get to see the last time I went to Phillip Island back in 2005.

NB: Hen Yick tried to be a superhero by wearing so little, only to freeze here as seen in picture

That was the gist of the weekend. We tried Arthurs Seat the day before, only to be drenched by rain and it was bad weather overall. Even as we were perched on the cliff, we could see the rain coming... and a bigger storm coming nearby =P

Could see the rain from the ocean coming over to land...

!!!!!

Overall it has been a great time. We thought we could do more with the trip, but we're just lazy and exhausted from work to be able to wake up earlier to do more things. But it was enjoyable. Hopefully I'll be able to give the same hospitality to others next time when they come. That's all for now!