Friday the 1st of August.
My mother and I went to the airport at about 4pm, having been well-wished by Assoc. Prof. Louise Nicholson, who had very kindly organized liaisons with the researchers at Auckland University on my behalf. I felt reasonably well prepared.
The flight was Emirates, and it was far superior to every other airline I have flown before, including Air New Zealand and Qantas. The food was nice and there was lots of it. Their expensive-looking touch-screen entertainment gadget captured my attention, so I discarded all thoughts of neuroscience (for a few hours, anyway) and listened to The Pirates of Penzance. We arrived in Brisbane at about 8pm Brisbane time and collapsed.
Saturday the 2nd of August.
To my mother’s delight, we had the day off to recover from jet-lag and have a wander around the city. We went to the local mall, which was called Indooroopilly (isn’t that a great name?!?). She bought clothes and I carried them. We passed the majority of the day in this way.
Sunday the 3rd of August.
And now, the real thing! We met Assoc. Prof. Linda Richards and her long-suffering organizer-in-chief, Rhonda Lyons. After a couple of speeches, it was straight into the spoken Q&A round. It was thoroughly nerve-racking. After 20 questions, Yasmin (from WA) and Jayson (from NSW) were tied with full marks. Kieran (from Dunedin) was third, scoring 19. Then came myself in fourth place with 18. Suddenly I did not feel well prepared at all. It didn’t seem likely that I would make the final three, and even less likely that anyone could shake Yasmin and Jayson from their perches.
For some light relief, we spent a few hours listening to guest speakers, playing with liquid nitrogen, and looking at a scanning electron microscope.
In the afternoon we did the anatomy practical exam, but we were not notified of the results until the following day. The plastinated specimens were quite tasteful (even attractive), I thought. After that I had my first real chance to get to know the other finalists. They were all very friendly and sociable and every bit as crazy as me. We spent the afternoon on the City Cat (a ferry that goes up and down the Brisbane River), terrorising the local populace. We ate at the Dell’Ugo Ristorante Italiano and discussed cerebellar hernias. We still wonder what the waitresses must have thought of us.
Monday the 4th of August.
We had the patient diagnosis section first, which was very entertaining. Diagnosis has got to be the most fun component of the whole competition. There is something delightful about being able to identify the signs of neurological disorders and to have the countermeasures ready at the tip of your tongue. At the end of this section, following morning tea, we were shown the final scoreboard – and things had certainly changed! First was Jayson, with a total of 99 out of 100. Then myself, with 95. Then Casey Linton (from QLD), with about 92. Next were Yasmin and Kieran, tied on 89.
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