Can "for the rest" only refer to one thing?

Question

"For the rest"
used when you have already mentioned the important parts of something and you now want to mention the other less important parts.
_{Source: Cambridge Dictionaries Online, English definition of “for the rest”}

Example: The film was fast, with great performances, but for the rest it was boring.

What I want to ask is if "For the rest" can be used to introduce a new sentence and have the meaning of "as for the rest of my news", like in the following example:

I just came back from the doctor and he said that everything is fine. For the rest, I'm preparing myself for the final exams and at the same time I'm making plans for my new life in England.

Answer 1

You can do that, however, in order for that to work, you need to specify what "the rest" refers to:

I just came back from the doctor and he said that everything is fine. As for the rest of what's going on in my life, I'm preparing myself for the final exams and at the same time I'm making plans for my new life in England.

Answer 2

This sounds incorrect to me, though I'm afraid I'm afraid I don't know the exact grammatical reason why. It's not because it's only one thing, though. It's more that "For the rest" in your example makes me think you'll be talking some more about the doctor's visit. For instance, this is something that would sound better to me:

I just came back from the doctor and he said that my blood test results came back fine. For the rest, I'll have to talk to a specialist.

Here, the "rest" is understood to be the remaining test results (maybe there was something off with my heartbeat, for instance).

As for your example, I would substitute "For the rest" with "In other news", "Apart from that" or - as you suggested - "As for the rest of my news", though that last one is slightly long-winded and thus feels just a tad awkward.