Getting Off The Mark

Saturday 27 September 2025

The time is 19h36, and I have just finished streaming the Springboks’ runaway victory against Argentina at Kings Park. Following an extremely dominant second half performance, the match ended 67 points to 30.

I had intended to spend several hours today studying general surgery, which I am currently rotating through, but as it stands, I have failed to even spend several minutes studying anything at all. Nevertheless, it has been a pretty good day. The early wake-up call to hike the Kasteelspoort trail up to the ‘Diving Board’ was well worth it for the stunning vistas of Cape Town in the Spring, and of course the entertaining conversation which flowed from an erudite discussion of McEwan novels and grassroots cricket to the usual tittle-tattle that the cool kids are now referring to by a certain ‘Y’- word. After a dip in the frigid and tannin rich waters of the reservoir at the top, we made our way down and had a brunch of bagels at Kleinsky’s Delicatessen in Sea Point before heading our separate ways. After a shower, more food, some high-quality vegetation and the rugby there was little time left for any work and now I sit composing this weekly account.

I was on vascular surgery this week which demanded very little from the medical students apart from doing some difficult arterial blood gas draws. The clinic on Tuesday was the only real clinical experience, and the most interesting part was probably examining a patient with an extra-anatomical femoro-tibial bypass. The great saphenous vein which runs on the inner aspect of the leg from the thigh to the ankle is harvested and connected to the femoral artery (in the groin) and then tunnelled subcutaneously on the outer aspect of the thigh and anastomosed to the anterior tibial artery just distal to the knee. The result is a large pulsating vessel visible just under the skin of the outer aspect of the thigh – the king of thing which would make walking through barbed wire especially dangerous.

I suppose the other highlight of the week was Heritage Day on Wednesday. Having no hospital duties on a public holiday is not a privilege to be taken lightly. Together with a few friends I took the opportunity to visit the Zeits-Mocaa Museum which I hadn’t yet been to. On Heritage Day, they had free entrance to the public (which is how think museums and art galleries should be anyway) so it really was the time to go. I am not such a big fan of modern art, but I liked a couple of the exhibitions, and especially some of the short films on display. I didn’t get enough time to properly take in the one on the life of anti-apartheid Justice Albie Sachs, so I’ll have to go back at some point for that one – perhaps next year. I listened to a podcast about him whistling the tune to Dvorak’s New World Symphony whilst in prison and finding solace and hope in in someone whistling back from the depths of the prison. It was quite a nice touch then that some speakers were broadcasting the sound of someone whistling this tune in the car park beneath the museum as I was leaving.

Anyway, I had better start winding down and preparing for bed because the plan is to run 20km early tomorrow morning with my brother, get breakfast somewhere and then do lots of academic work ;).