The Pathology Room

2007-11-04T11:11:00.000Z

Saturday we went to Alexander Palace fireworks and here are the results. The video i'm uploading is being all ploppy but I will get it up here eventually so bear with me. Also admire the pumpkin carving skill of me.

Man Cold

2007-10-17T17:55:00.000+01:00

Pure genius AND medically acurate.. enjoy:

So much happening, so little time!

2007-10-17T15:28:00.000+01:00

Well would you believe it, our guy from monday was taken up to ITU and there he remains battling on. It seems like he may have had a PE so he's on treatment for that, and appart from hypotension his numbers all look ok! I mean he's breathing for himself and is in sinus. He aint out of the woods yet and he is 92 but it doesnt look quite as dark as monday. Went to mama mia for a first aid duty yesterday, proper cheese but really good...as we got our own armchairs. Tonight im off to st john again and also have learnt how to scrub in today which was great. OK off to do work now.

I have returned!

2007-10-15T18:06:00.000+01:00

Howdy people I do still exist. Its been a while but I thought i'd give you an update from The Pathology Room. I have started 3rd year/4th year/1st year clinics (its all the same). Its shit scary and so stressful. I'm on my surgery placement in a largeish hospital, my consultant is a general surgeon with a speciality in colo-rectal, so I see lots of bums! :) Untill now the worst part for me was taking blood from patients who ask "you've done this lots of times havn't you?"........sure.........(gulp). But we also have to follow our consultant, go to theatre (colons again) present and examine, and of course fit a load of lectures in as well. But today i'm on critical care week (which actually is only 2 days). This meant I learn how to canulate people today, a bit fiddly and complicated but ok, so we go down to A+E to look for some real (as apposed to fake) ~~victims~~ patients to cannulate. Then this guy comes in having arrested just outside and pretty much kicks the bucket right there. It was terrible, we stood in the cubicle feeling like a plop, everyone was (obviously) ignoring us, the doctors were saying things like "we'll give some adrenaline but he won't survive" and the relatives were right outside panicking. No nurses wanted to talk to the relative so one of us had to sit with her. Sitting in lectures and even disection just doesnt prepare you for watching someone's life fade away. I definately don't know if i'm cut out for A+E. But then we saw a guy who had (I think) sinus tachycardia, his heart rate was 155 ish and they gave him Atropine which stoped the heart and started it again and the tachycardia was much reduced, heart rate after was 105 ish. Tomorrow i'm in ITU and suturing, hopefully a better day than today. oh and I also got my SSC its in Pathological Sciences: Pathology in Practice (no suprises there!).

Deutschland

2007-06-30T13:59:00.000+01:00

Firstly I have got my degree in Experimental Pathology so now this website name is fully justified. Also I have moved out of halls and now residing in the vv posh land of Fitzrovia (possibly located near Hogwarts....actually located near UCL). But the most MOST important thing is that I have returned from a fab trip to Berlin. Ok the week went as follows:

Day 1:

Arrived stanstead vv early in the morning. Checked in and so forth and caught the airport train to get to the terminal. Arrived at the gate and panicked as we couldnt find any info as to where we were supposed to go!. Got on the plane and it was gorge, the seats were in pairs on one side of the isle and in 3 on the other. They were made of leather and it was all gorge and clean. We were seats 17e and f and so didnt have to dash for the plane like mum told me I would. We also got free food and drink on the way over which was yum and unexpected. Got to Tegel airpot and took a Taxi to our hotel which cost 17 euros...not to bad really. Twas shattered!

Day 2:

Shattered from travelling so didnt leave the hotel till 11 am. Went to the U-bahn(Heidelbergerplatz) and got a week travel card which cost €25,40. Then went to Potsdamer Platz to look at the Sony Centre. We saw the remnants of the wall, then like mature adults we went to Lego land!! It was good fun we built a house, went on a scary dragon ride and saw lots of cool models like Hogwarts and Berlin made from lego! Then we went to the shop and I got a Cat-Woman-Lego-Person-Keyrin. Then we walked tons more and found a good lil supermarket near the hotel and stocked up for tea.

Day 3:

We went to Alexanderplatz which is like Kings Cross or Liverpool Street as all U and S bahn lines seem to go through it. Then walked past the big ball on a pole (It has a name but I can't be bothered to find it at the moment) which is like the BT tower. Wallked down Karl-Liebernechts Strasse and looked at the Museums and pretty buildings there....we wanted to go and look IN them but they seemed to all charge which is most unfair, we don't have to pay for the British museum (hrump-kathy was annoyed). Then we wandered a bit more, by now we were Unter dem Linden. We found ourselves in an old fogey market, but then I saw a dude selling Cyanotypes on raggy bits of cloth, not even bothering to frame it for like €50 a pop! I am so gonna start them up again. We then walked to the end of Unter dem Linden and after seeing some drag queens posing for a photocall we decided to look for an U! We went to Stadmitte and then took U7 one stop then changed onto U2 and went to Zoologische Gartens. There we found shops!!! Also a diddle may MAY have taken me hostage, forced me to buy it and then come home with me! But its gorgeous I think you'll agree if you see it that is.

Day 4:

Was absolutely scolding hot. Again we went to Alexanderplatz and had a Bretzel and a strange but yum german pastry thing. We went to German sea life centre and it was sooo cool. There was a thing called and Aqua Dom which was a life which was surrounded by a huge tank of fish, so we got into the lift and went up through the shoals of fish...it was excellent. Then we walked 3km to the Brandenburg Gate and wandered by accident into the room of silence. There was a towel thing on the wall and we were sat waiting for something to pop out from behind it, but nope it was just a room to sit in. Went to Reichstag and sat on the lawn infront of it, man that was a hot day, I drunk so much german water.

Day 5:

We had a look round Wittenbergplatze, I would show you gorgeous pics of the cathedral but thsi stupid bloody blog cant handle it. Stupid any hooo im gonna post this before it deletes any more.

Day 6:

Yay it was Zoo time! The pictures really show how fab it was, they had Pandas and tigers and best of all we got to see Knut the EisBaar! He's soooo adorable. I now have my very own (didy) Steiff Knut! This was the most fun day, we got to see the seals being fed and they could do handstands and flips and the guy feeing them got right under the water with them....cold fishy water (yuk).

Day 7:

Had a mega day of shopping then flew home the next day, on the way home I was next to the most annoying drama queen of a German, man if that had been a long flight I would have yelled at her. But thats all for now folks tara!

The Judgment Day

2007-06-09T11:38:00.000+01:00

Howdy, its the day before, the day before judgment day (monday). At approx 10:30 am I will be presenting my project then at approx 4:30 I will be grilled in a viva! Not a fun day. Well im just tittle tatting my slides (one has animation ooooo) not panicked just a bit apprehensive. I have 9 tomato plants which will be being split up sometime! My sea monkeys are doing fine. Grandad monkey died, so I hoovered him with the hoover. This was so that the other monkeys were not traumatised by his corpse. Also happy news! Margery sea monkey is pregnant. My examiner is from Leeds (or Leicester) so im off to practice my best norther accent (to bond with him) ta ra!

Exams and QI

2007-05-22T22:07:00.000+01:00

Well its immuno exam tomorrow, so I thought i'd write a wee blog as this poor lil web page hasn't really seen much action. I think I might redo it again, cos i'm getting a bit bored of the stethoscope, its just that it involves a lot of effort and brain usage which I don't posess at this moment in time. Ive started moving all the stuff outta my room, and I am shocked (:O) to see that I have so much more stuff than I started with. I think its mainly to do with the various road signs I have "aquired". There is no way it would all fit into one car like it did on the way down here.

Im off to hoover the place tomorrow, cos I hate grubbyness (the bathroom has already been sanitised with a few gallons of bleach). Then the next stage is internet, with the help of the mother.

Off to see the legend that is QI on Friday....a welcome break for sitting with my nose in a book for days. I aim to possible kidnapp Alan Davies and definately kidnapp Stevie Fry!

Oh and also I have the cake for the house warming shin dig (which has yet to be arranged) and the cake is bed-wettingly brilliant.

Erm thats quite gross actually.

Ok remeber ...the answer is always Cytokines!

"IT" is finaly written!

2007-05-02T21:10:00.000+01:00

OK after acting similar to a hermit I have finished my dissertation writing, and behold its loveliness.

May I draw your attention to the A4 ness of this object and the fact that it has graphs and photos and tables.....also not shown is writing! :P

Notice the sheek black embossing on the spine, and notice the thickness....It is called Harry Potter and the cellular composition of the Human Subventricular Zone. Which I think we can all agree is going to far out sell the amateur deathly hallow one any day!. Umm yeah OK so exams now. Life is generally plop at the mo but once exams are over I can.....go back to Great Ormond street to do more of the same work (unpaid), so then I'm gonna be poor and stressed. Yippee!

A range of topics

2007-04-02T21:17:00.000+01:00

Ok people, here are some sexy pictures taken when bored in the Lab, i'll let u try and work out what they are, if I tell you then they are much less pretty so I think its best to appreciate them as they are!

OK and the other this is, I have the funniest sketch from Dead Ringers so i'll hopefully put it on here and you can listen to it and chuckle.

Red Nose Day!

2007-03-16T17:03:00.000Z

Comic Relief!!!

Pete and his friends have done a lil video and Pete has managed to raise 30 quid just for this. So come check it out and let him know what you think :)

TFL- What the hell????

2007-03-07T19:23:00.000Z

TFL officially hates me. The feeling is mutual. I was charged 8 pounds for 3 pounds worth of journeys. They are just the most nasty rude people iv'e ever met. The story begins the day after my montly travel card expired (this is 60 quid per month btw). So i'm back onto pre-pay. I go from Barbican to Russel Square but the Oyster card reader was broken so I couldnt touch out. I go to the Russel Square ticket office and the woman says "if your coming back through then it will sort itself out". So I go to the lab. After a few hours I go back to Russel Square and the machines are still not working. So I reason that what she meant was when I touch out at my final destination it will just charge me for one journey "effectively Barbican to Newbury Park". But when I get there its charged me 8 quid because according to the big fat (and horrible man) there "It doesnt take 3 hours to get from barbican". Well when I tried to explain the lack of Oyster readers at Russel Square he shruggs and says there's nothing he can do. Despite the boards at RS saying talk to the ticket office at your destination to adjust your card!

In conclusion TFL are mean (made me cry) and only out to take your money. Why Ken Livingston employs horrible people like this AND increases prices of public transport I really don't know?

Do you?

I was bored ok!

2007-02-20T18:49:00.000Z

You know how it is. You in the lab taking about 23,994 photos of cells (and your not entirely sure they are the right cells) when you reach a point. You either die right there and fall into the microscope or you try and take photos of objects you can reach with out moving from your chair. Obviously to save the microscope I HAD to choose the second option.

So I tried my fingers, but light doesnt shine throught them very well. I tried paper clips, pens even some blue tak. But then I found the joy of paper. Here is one of the photos and a picture of the brain to make this seem like an educational post. Its the prettiest brain pic I took as the others are of a different place and more blobby. Well I can't tell you what it is or even the stain as its top secret research (oo) but some of you boffins will know.....shhhh.

Kung Hey Fat Choi

2007-02-19T19:46:00.000Z

Well this weekend me and Owen went into Chinatown for the New Year celebration. This was the largest party outside China so you can get an idea of how huge it was. We wandered to Leicester Square but due to severe bad timing we arrived just at the end of one of the shows and as we were starving (1:00pm) we headed for the main street full of Chinese yummmyness. But I stupidly decided to pick the most busy street in the entire world. We were all squashed together for about 20 mins before we even got near the restaurants. The we realised that actually there were lots of chinese dragons dancing around and kinda blessing each house as they went allong. Here was the first one:

After he went past we managed to get onto the main pedestrian area and picked a chinese place with a shortish queue. We only had to wait a minute or two before getting a table which was really good as some people had been waiting for ages. We had barbeque spare ribs, sweet n sour pork, pork chow mein and egg fried rice! MMMMMM all yum!

Then we decided to head on further down the street, as the way we came looked chocca! Suddenly we found ourselves right at the front of a big (and gorgeous) dancing draogn and a little red one just behind. They were accompanied by a huge load of percussionsists and I dont think one of them was enjoying it so much (see below)

So once again Kung Hey Fat Choi and have a good year (its the year of the Golden Pig, which only happens once every 60 years)

SNOW!

2007-02-08T18:20:00.001Z

IT SNOWED IN CENTRAL LONDON.

Oh and here's my Lab.

Happy Birthday

2006-12-31T11:49:00.000Z

Well pete is 14, so like the caring sister I am..here are lots of embarasing photos of him! :)

Well whats been happening? I shall tell you:

2006-12-29T22:08:00.000Z

Whew, ok this could develop into a marathon of a post!

Well we had a lil Christmas meal at Dawson which involved myself and Naomi cooking food and Beka, Owen, Vlad and Adrian all coming around to scoff it all. Then I went and saw Owen’s familys Christmas play, which was great, if slightly bizarre. See their theatre has a tradition of every year finishing by lobbing raw Yorkshire pudds at the audience! Honestly its nearly as odd as riding around a small village with a basket on your head ( It’s a good festival!!!).

Then I headed home on the Panini train! Which tilts it was 6:00 am as well so I dazed in a morning kinda haze and the tilting turned into a sort of rollercoaster, as I would imagine it would be if I were drunk. Then its back to Sossy, who is getting old and fat and lazy but she’s still my ickle baby, and still likes to play with anything fluffy.

Hmm ok well I went to the KCC concert which was excellent, had a good old sing song! Immer wieder denk ish dran, wan fur uns das gluck begannnnn! Zoren was hillarious, honestly ive not lauged like that for ages and phil looked like she was dying. Then back to Miss Elliss' house for a good knees up. Man that was brilliant, we chatted all about the old days, when Krish dangled Rebecca’s bra out the window in London. When we found the foreign person in Amy Forests bed and sooo many other tales. I forgot how much I miss those day! Germany was my fave, hehe rember the midnight swims with the Germans and the bloody conductor showing off!

Ive been shopping and erm done a bit of work. Xmas day was pretty uneventful. I got some nice things, and some random things (the medical hot water bottle comes to mind). Umm I really cant be bothered to list the presents but:

Thanx to Owen- Green Wing, and posh glass heart in a glass! :)
Adrian- Lovely necklace really pretty
Naomi- Picture frame and album and interstingly abstract pottery mat
Melissa- IT’S A DIDDL!
Phil- ooo well I cant thank you, as your hiding my present somewhere!

Oh ta to the parents as well for the dvd!

Then its blood donation tomorrow argh! Tis scary. Then im off dawn saff for New Years, which will be BRILL!

Its also pete’s birthday on the 31st, he’s gonna be 14. I agree with philippa: peter is like 8!

Ummm I really can't think any further ahead, but looming is the prospect of a night of Magic drinking with cards and my 21st!

My Dream!

2006-12-28T18:22:00.000Z

I had a dream last night! It was one of my crackers. I dreamt that I had been diagnosed with Ebola. But this was a special type called Ebola Type 3, or Mycobacterial Ebola. The reason I knew I had been diagnosed was due to a label in my pj trousers. The label was also a paper bag of bread rolls.

Yep thats my dream (or the bits I can remeber).

Don't worry i'll do an update tomorrow with pics n stuff!

Pinecones.....or is it Pine Cones?

2006-12-15T01:27:00.000Z

Hello there! My next post (tomorrow) will be a round up of the term with piccys n stuff. But tonight, well it was THE MOST HILLARIOUS (ok caps off now) evening in the universe.

Well it started off ok we were due to go to St Pauls for a good ole sing song, however we didnt realise that the whole population of London was also gonna turn up.

So after that we headed back to halls and I watched tons of Randle and Hopkirk, the new one mind with vic n bob (who are complete geniuses, geni, you get the idea).

Then at around 7 we heads out for an evening stroll, past some signs, they then fell off and to our shock got lodged into our bag. I was attacked my a demolition sign and Naomi had an ear protection one lobbed at her.

Then as we were gettin strange looks we headed home. Then it happened to be 12:30 am so we decided to stretch our leggs and a digging sign which got run over and bent started crying. The evil builders were going to throw him out so I adopted him, as a selfless act.

Man its to late

I'm so ill that my tonsils have morphed into pine cones, and not little ones, big open bastard pinecones with needles. I have Quinsy, except maybe not properly. It hurts I have migraine, without aura, im pyretic and I really feel terrible.

See we have worked out whats been happening, see when I get stressed my steroid homones get fucked, leaving me immunocomprmised, so as soon as I relax I catch the nearest virus. Its nasty which is why I don't wanna go to sleep. But ok im going now.

See you tomorrow

Well whats been a happening?

2006-12-06T15:47:00.000Z

OOO quite a bit really! Ok after the bowling (where I won!!) we put up the xmas decorations on the 1st, I have the fab snowman advent callendar, but it has the wrong colour chocolate in it.

Hmm ok after that me and Owen went to see The Nightmare Before Xmas 3D! we got glasses and everything popped out of the screen. 9 quid (quite dear) but well worth it.

I have my xmas ball on friday....wearing glam dress and slightly more comfy shoes than last year.....I still have the scars! Pictures to follow!

I have my AED and Med gasses exam tonight! EDIT: I PASSED YAY TO ALL!!

I have my presentation tomorrow AND monday!

I'm going to a panto on Saturday! (oh no she isn't)

(I'm going to collapse)

Ex Path xmas dinner is on monday

Oooo we are also going for a drink in the morgue (shh its just cos we aint allowed in the lab- we can drink round dead people apparently)

Friday is the Kathy/Naomi Dawson hall xmas meal

I liked that Surgeon

2006-11-24T18:22:00.000Z

I was sittting in the Histopath office doing the most dull (yet vital job) I had to fill out sheets for the childrens organs we have retained but not yet got consent for. Filling the forms out for each kid was supprisingly sad. There were odd patients who were born on the same day as someone I knew or had the same surname as friends. The worst are the ones with NAI written on.....means they got hurt on purpose.

But anyways I was filling these forms in when a surgeon popped in to look at some Liver biopsys from an eleven year old. They wernt deep enough but the sections didnt show malignancy. The surgeon looked like he was the one waiting for the result, he visibly relaxed when he heard the news. Then as he was leaving he said.....I'm so glad I was really worried about that guy, I can have a good weekend now!

Its great to know that not all surgeons are arses! They get the "arrogant steriotype" and its near impossible to shake but if they are like that guy then there is hope!

I will have piccys of the lovely Hugh Jackman (who I met!) the Xfactor people (yawn) me getting hugged by some beer and some giant mice! Ahhh that was a great evening!

OOOO and I found me dream xmas present! No actually me and Naomi were gonna have a fight over it (I would have won) but then we saw 2 of them! But no one is gonna get it me (sob) so I will just have to resign myself to living without him in my life. Him is a didddy little reindeer! So bloody cute. Ahhh!

Sub Ventricula Progress!

2006-11-22T16:39:00.000Z

I found my wrist hair, he's called Ernie! He's special because he is really dark, I think the Ernie follicle got lost during development because he really looks like an eyebrow hair. Still that got me thinking and I rembered Mr ("pervy Dave") Alsopp with his ape arms. Mine are not that bad! I'd put a piccy up but I cant be bothered. Im off to the Flushed Away premier tomorrow, I am aiming for Ian Mckellen and Nick Park autographs.

Today whats been a happening, well: I found the data sheets for the 7 cell markers I am going to be studying, they are:

Sox 2- Bad ass reputation
CD133 -evil evil EVIL
Bcl-2
Beta 1
GFAP
D240
Nestin-Also an arse

So then I am also writing to around 100 families asking if I can use the brain blocks we have of their babies. Because after the coroners ruling in June last year, all retained tissue needs to have consent. Grrr so much work. I also found the reason for the SPLODGES! They have become legend in the CBL. But alas it WAS my fault, but I can stop them by chopping them in a different manner. Oh joy more things to cram into my already full brain. I'm going to buy tinsel next week I need something to cheer me up. Ooo and me and Owen are going xmas shopping on Sunday. My life is sehr hecktish. Off to LINKS in a bit, secondary survey....just what I need strangers groping me multiple times.

Fire Alarm

2006-11-22T05:15:00.000Z

Yup its 4:30 am and someone stupid sets the fire alarm off! I jumped out of bed with the sound of it, when you don't quite know whats happening an alarm actually terrifies you. We went outside and the Fire engine turned up....there was some wolf-whistling ;-) and 1/2 an hour later we were back inside. It was annoying because I was having the best sleep ever! Ahh Well.

Room 101 and stuff!

2006-11-16T11:40:00.000Z

Well went to see Room 101 with the legend that is Paul Merton. The guest was Markus Bridgstock (I think thats his name). So very good but finished way to quickly. They choose 6 items and try and convince Paul to put it into Room 101. Here are some pictures:

Lectures got cancelled today so I had 11 hours of well needed sleep. I vaguely remeber crazy dreams but I think thats due to my ear acheyness

I am gonna be doing my Ambulance driving theory soon I think which is v cool. I am going to cook noodles and just before I go I shall enlighten you on the wee little world that is Dawson Hall 4th floor!

Ok I'm at the end of the row, Rufus (Real name Raymond) is next to me. He switched Uni's like me. But his uni was in Australia!! He's cool. Next is Naomi....she's Ex Path too, we watch Harry Potter and Friends DVD's. Next to her is Bonking guy, the name is pretty self explantory he does it against her wall and the walls are vvvv thin (not nice). Then there is our steward who is lovely.

Now we get onto the evil and skankyness. Normally that would be it, 5 of us share the kitchen bathroom etc. BUT OH NO!! We have a fucking One-eyed guy who looks like a pervert and probably is one. He lives somewhere else and comes into our kitchen with his Law guy buddy and other wierdo (all look like perverts) and cook the most messy and gross stuff you have ever seen. They leave the kitchen like a shit hole and once the one-eyed guy was using the Microwave turny round bit as a plate, then didnt even wash it properly! He wanders the coridoor at night and its really scary when you go and have a pee to find him standing outside your door!

Ok we are going to talk to our steward to try and sort it out cos its not really fair!

Toodles

CD133 and baloon cells

2006-11-14T08:04:00.000Z

I am i'll. I feel all sneezy and headachey and its horrid. I'm seriously sleep deprived which isnt helping. I had a dream about getting attacked by a Greek woman (am I going mad??) and I had a moment of excitement just bacause I found an interesting looking Medical Journal article.

Ok I have 30 mins to get ready, my room looks like there has been a minor explosion, mainly involving laundry and my tea has gone cold (i'm still going to drink it though).

Saw room 101 yesterday with a guest I cant rember the name of. But Paul Merton was v cool, also got chatting to some random people in the queue which was errr nice!

OOO and on the way this tramp yelled "no chance of a shag", cos round waterloo there is like a tramp hang out. We were gonna reply to him (with something witty and cutting) if he said it on the way back, but he obviously thought we looked a bit rough after sitting in a TV studio for 2 hours.

I managed to fall over twice last night, but Naomi only saw one of them so she doesnt think I'm too clumsy! Ok I'm gonna sleep for 15 minutes then get ready to leave in 5! that makes sense to me.

Eeek!

2006-11-08T21:16:00.000Z

This may seem like excessive posting but I needed a good moan and where else?

Here goes: I'm poor! Its just depressing, I was bracing myself while the Bank account was loading but was "pleasantly" supprised to find im only a few hundred pounds into my overdraft (We'll ignore the fact that im already 15,000 pounds in debt).

Why is Tony Blair doing this to us? I am trying to learn something useful not some daft abstract course the content of which i'll forget as soon as I get into a job. It just makes me feel crap, I wanna go out with my friends, but doing that I always think....I need to save money, then the guilt sets in.

I know I should just sod it and go enjoy myself but its hard when a huge bill is looming over you. Its even worse being in London, I honestly don't know how i'm gonna survive next year. I hate being a sponge too, its beyond shitty. You know how stubbon I am I just wanna do it on my own but thanks to them up there I can't.

Bastards!

Ok not very constructive but it makes me so annoyed, its even worse cos the guys in my year are getting NHS bursarys (not huge- but waaay more than I have). Sinking into a well of depression and doesnt help that I have coming up:

Xmas, Pete's Bday, My Bday (gonna have to take people places), Owens bday, Toms bday, Naomi's Bday. All of which are before the end of January!

I'm so screwed.

Ok this is how bad it is at the mo (dad u may wanna cut this out when u send it to them in Norfolk!) I considered eating a pizza with mould on. Ive nothing in my fridge except frozen bananas which are also black, 2 pears, some yucky fanta and some oranges and ive been eating various noodle dishes....noodle & cheese, noodle & soy sauce, noodle & vinegar, noodle & salt.

Ive run out of noodles!

I am also planning to live of 5 pounds for the rest of the week. Tesco sell single rolls for 16p so I have 2 of them for Lunch.

Don't even think bout sending me things, I DON'T NEED HELP (well it would be nice if Tony B gave me a hand- but he doesnt care)

Hey don't judge me I'm a student!

2006-11-07T18:21:00.000Z

Ok here are some things which I think are lovely!

The cleaning sign sat unloved for ages on our corridor despite there being no wet floor in sight!
The NHS sign was off a building site and Naomi's has bird poo on-which shows how a fab sign like this was being abused!
Dangly skeleton remnants of our Halloween celebration, man that was fun!
Unloved in a hospital, well I'll care for it!
Sexy lab coat, clean and with SIDE poppers!! Behold Kathy the Chef!
Not my boobie, but on the left side (approximately boobie level) is Pathology then the hospital name! seriously cool!

Yup no point to this what so ever, just really cool!

Royal Free and stuff

2006-10-25T17:00:00.000+01:00

Royal Free is going to be doing the first full face transplant lookee here but they are better than the normal yuppees trying it because they considered the "psychological aspects" now UCL is huuuge on its touchy feely psychology which i'm sure deserves respect.

Maybe its just because I don't really get psychology....through most of my lectures I was thinking either "this is common sense" or "why have they made this all so complicated and abstract"?

Ok you get diagnosed, who cares about the "stages" patients go through (denial, anger acceptance , etc...)? Also why does each patient supposedly act in the same way? I highly doubt this is true in the real world. But also is it not better to just let them get on with it, talk to them if they need it. But not to sit there and analyse every eye movement they make just to categorise them!

Completely strayed off the point. Well I would love to be there to witness the procedure but as im technically not at that hospital now it would be a bit cheeky. Plus about 10000057 top brass consultant peeps will probably be watching.

Today was Wed, which is when they do the Forensic cases. One 6 week old baby had rib fractures which were made between 5-7 weeks before...i.e. it was beaten pretty much as soon as it was born. It had the hugest sub arachnoid haematoma i've ever seen in my life. Blood was everywhere, apparently that meant it had been kept alive on a ventilator for some time. Also "apparently" its 2 year old sister picked it up by the neck and threw if 2 feet across the room. Now i'd be impressed if I could manage that.

Next was an 8 year old boy who hanged himself! How completely sad must he have been to do that to himeself. I'm not sure I even knew how to hang myself when I was eight.

We did one further one but its quite well known, v sad all in all.

My project is using SIDS cases so the brain is "normal". Found 3 so far. Pain in the bum to try and find cases which are suitable and we have consent for. OOO I could ramble ona bit more about consent, i'll save it for later I have to go to St John meeting now!

Oh im all befuddled!

2006-10-23T17:08:00.000+01:00

OK as most (if not all) people were aware that I did seem to be veering towards a Pathology based career.

Well that was untill I saw HEMS taking off from the roof of The London. All the leaves fell off the trees and pretty much everyone couldn't help themselves and have a glance skwards. I shamelessly oogled untill the Helicopter had gone (while managing to walk at the same time-how did I miss all the trees and bus stops?).

But see my thought then was sod pathology, surgery, GP-dome etc... I wanna do St John-ness AND get paid for it!

Then today I had THE BEST lab sesh in the world. I met Andy???? ooo im rubbish with names. Anyways he's a cardiopathologist and he showed me two hearts one from a 12 year old boy and one from a 14 year old boy. Don't get all depressed these were the ones taken out of the patients and replaced by a transplanted heart!

You know I never really thought much about the defective heart and where it went to after transplant, but it gets handed to a department who remove the valves to be used on other patents (soo clever) then the remaining heart gets given to the Cardiopathologist to have a look at.

Patient 1 had cardiomyopathy, although he was 12 his heart was adult sized with a thickening of the left and right ventricles. Twas v smelly but to be honest I though it looked normal. Then the Doc was like "hmmm very abnormal here, here and here" I was nodding while thinking I really don't have a clue :-) but its all great experience.

Patient 2 had been through the mill a bit. He had at least 2 ops trying to sort his lil (actually flipping huge) ticker out. He also had a pacing wire in so the poor guy had been through it. His heart had a congential defect (at birth) but wasnt sure what it was because the surgeons had whipped all the important stuff out of there.

He was a cool guy and he had a little (bigish) mutter about the surgeons: "they always put the specimines in tiny pots with not enough formalin, whenever I try and get one out it's like giving birth!"

Then I planned tomorrow with sue. We are doing immunohistochemistry, and I did some H&E slides for her.

See this confuses me because from today I could see myself settling for a life doing research, its easy, not to physically strenous and we get to drink lots of tea and make sarky comments about dumb people in the news.

OK off to think about my future while playing sonic the hedgehog! (don't ever say that I'm not mature).

Lift

2006-10-19T21:25:00.000+01:00

I shared my lift with a cadaver and two lovely undertakers. V bizzare for me being squashed up against a dead body, it felt slightly like disection again (appart from the chopping and the smell).

Wednesday-emotionally exhausting!

2006-10-19T08:29:00.000+01:00

Well, I went to the umm brain sectioning of a newborn, but unlike those previous ones who died of SIDS this was a Forensic Case. A 17 year old girl had given birth in her room and then the baby had "somehow" sustained a fractured skull, various scratches, a subarachnoid and subdural heamorhage. It seemed as if baby had been flung against a wall. The brain was in bad condition as as its a criminal case they took 26 blocks of tissue, as opposed to the usual 6. Heart breaking stuff.

Then I went onto the Kevin Spacey thing, absolute gold and so what I needed as a change from all the stuff in the lab. We were front row just infront of his arm chair. We could have grabbed him (but we didnt- we got a program instead)

Oh I really love being young!

2006-10-16T16:43:00.000+01:00

Time for a bit of culture daaaaarling, well actually Beka says "are we going to see a play on Wed?". So we are! Its the one at the Old Vic which had amazing reviews, remeber I went to see Cloaca last year, well this is gonna be better (mainly cos the cute Lawyer who dies IS NOT IN THIS ONE!) and it has Kevin Spacey in it. How can this get any better? Well we got cheap tickets cos we are young wee people who they wanna try and hook for life-yep i'm suckered in AND we are on the front row.

FRONT ROW!! I could spit on Kevin Spacey (not that id want to- but I could act like a crazy person and dive at him if he gets to close)

OK ran away from the Lab cos sooooo couldnt be arsed to do work, yep I know i'm gonna be working for the rest of my life so I should get used to it. But if I can run then I will do! Plus I have a ton of lecture notes to file (in my paddington bear folder) so its not like im not doing ANYTHING. Hmm going to watch Allo Allo while I work, I need a giggle!

P.S. I cant be bothered to queue up for garth marenghi, so gonna order off the old internet.

Wow........every day I amaze myself.

2006-10-16T09:46:00.000+01:00

OK not wishing to be all (I am the greatest-tehehe) BUT I have just finished my essay.....I go up at 6:10 then showered, due to sticky chocolate everywhere :-) Then sat down at 7:00am and wrote an essay and finished it by 9:40! 2 and a bit hours! come on thats pretty darn good. Obviously am kicking myself that I didnt start it earlier as it would have meant a SERIOUS lie-in. But now I have untill 10 to relax. I need a brew now. I bet u are wondering if the completed essay is infact utter bollocks-well actually it is, but so was the last one and he though that was ok.

Meh cant be doing with this week, im doing a presentation on Shock! to some trainee johnnys and I don't actually know anything about it! OOO and im going to meet Garth Marenghi tonight and get his DVD'S oooo hes bloody fab he is!

Tara im gonna watch michael palin-so a cool dude!

Never eat dodgy chicken

2006-10-14T09:45:00.000+01:00

Oh dear, I may be part of the most excting and groundbreaking reseach posse i've ever been in, but jeez! I feel rough. I cooked chicken on Thur. It was samonella (or similar) ridden. I was up all of the night. Then I worked at Gt Ormond St from 9-6pm feeling pretty ill. I threw up once during the day but though it must be the excitiment of descovery (ok i was in denial-medical people don't get sick).

I got home and was chatting on MSN when the most extreme pain in the world began in my Left Quadrant, thinking I may have the begingings of appendicitis (ok so T10 isnt in the left quadrant but it could be) I start to hyperventilate thinking that im going to die on the floor in my room. Then, probably in my head I think the pain is now on the right side........."this is it" I though "im goinging to die". But then I didnt, I went to sleep and although feel like a hamster who's been run over I'm much better.

So the rule of the story is: always check where the pain is or you could panic!

Oh and don't eat dodgy chicken.

Research is going good! Im a genius with the choppy thing (who's name ive forgotten). I am about to do some immunocytochemistry next week (c434 and d240) then I have 4 paediatric brains with consent so I shall start my proper project. I am mapping an area of the brain who's structure has never been documented before in humans. So that is just the most exctiting thing-i'm finding stuff out that NO-ONE knows about!!!

Calm down. Ok got ot go write an essay on stem cell markers!

Things (good bad and medical)

2006-10-10T18:40:00.000+01:00

Things have gone all polar this week, either fantastic or completely shattering.

Den died, I still can't believe it. He was so much fun to be arround. He's been in my life for like 12 years and the last time I saw him he didnt even know he was sick.

Now my phone has broken (sounds completely trivial in comparison) and I really don't have the energy to deal with it, I just want a phone that works, clearly thats too much to ask for. Also my ID card is faulty, ahh not a problem.........well yeah actually cos its Great Ormond Street i.e. sick kids and people get suspicious if your standing there trying to get into somewhere and it wont let you!

My essay written on sunday night/monday morning (due in at 8:30 monday) was well recieved! Actually he was really complimentry. I must be one of those rare genious types who can spew out long words- like "subventricular zone" and "rostocaudal gradient of proliferative activity" while semi conscious at a computer screen. (hehe that should get some confused scientists who googled them words!)

I spent the whole of today licking pathology arses! (an exhausting activity) It feels like I am actually gonna pass out. I spent 10 am till 5 pm following various lab people round. I wanna try and sneak into a forensic autopsy before I go, cos apparently soco and loaaads of coppers are there too, and plus it would be facinating.

At about 3pm I finally gets me paws on some tissue. Its foetal PM's so ones which have died before birth or been misscarried. Its really strange seeing a femur which is about 4 cm long, having done disection for 2 years I cant get over how diddy they are. Also trying to work out which blob is the live which is the lungs, thymus, adrenals etc is soo much harder that with adults. We get tiny little bits and because they havnt developped they are so tricky to classify.

Then I observed H&E staining and Pick?? anyhoo the one for iron deposits in the lungs. Then I mounted some cover slips and tomorrow I will be putting the PM bits into wax blocks for sectioning and then cutting some sections.

Some time I am going to have to squeez in my new essay on stem cell makers in the brain eg: nestin-that the only one I know right now because it reminds me of birds nests! I have to read up this and last weeks notes and do shopping.

Aww nuts and try and get my phone fixed!!

Classic French and Saunders

2006-10-07T19:48:00.000+01:00

Hehe, UCL clinical skills lab! THIS IS WHAT WE DO!!!!!!! Ahh we are going to make fab doctors, I even have a really tiny torch on my desk right now.

[doHTML][/doHTML]

The 3rd

2006-10-03T15:29:00.000+01:00

Today has been very productive:

Found the cashiers office and paid my first terms rent (close to 1500 quid!!!), then went home and guess what?! The first train at Stephney Green was one to Hammersmith via kings cross!! Do you know how rare they are? Well very rare, usually I have to change at Algate East and EVERY TIME a pissed person seems to wanna talk to me.

Came back and watched Edward Scissorhands, no one prepared me for how sad it was............ended up crying for most of the time I had dinner.

Then decided to tackle the tv, OK so now we have E4, UKTV history and one other one. But The Full monty is on Film 4 tonight.....and as a (semi) Sheffield person I have to get Film 4 working... i'm close but not quite there yet.

Yup and the rest of the day shall involve very little.

I'm meeting Tom on Thur to talk about stem cells. I'm of to a Medicins Sans Frontiers meeting on friday........aww aint I good? Oh and LINKS meeting tomorrow, hope I wont have to do anything complicated. Need to wash my trousers as I spilt tuna all down them. I will do that before Thursday evening meditation, good plan.

Oh and look at the latest little dude at the bottom of the page! Its a kick-ass dragon. Waay cooler than my toaster one. Final question.....is the sidebar thing with my profile and archives and stuff, at the top or bottom of the webpage? Ta Ducks.

Oh my days.....It finally happened

2006-10-02T19:15:00.000+01:00

I was completely take off guard today. I was at Great Ormond Street, oooh I do like saying that. I was at Great Ormond Street-where I am doing research! Hehe ok anyway I have to get a thing called an Honoury Contract. Which is because i'm involved in research using human tissue, most people find it a bit distasteful but the end, I feel, especially in this case, is worth the means. We are looking at stem cells in the brain, involving damage repair mechaninsm....it doesnt take much of a brain to see the potential implications for this. Especially if the stem-cells can be "controlled" brain damage may be limitable or even curable. Which is just huge.

Completely deviated (I would fail on "Just a minute") but I was waiting for some documents when this secretary comes up and says "Hello Dr West, would you like to come though now?" Oh may days......well obvioulsly I could'nt have her thinking I was a Doctor (but the though did cross my mind) so I say "oh its just Kathryn (have to use the full name or they get confused)". But afterwards I though.....Just!The "just" was not necessary.

Freshers and beyond

2006-09-28T22:42:00.000+01:00

Today was the first freshers day, we ran out of leaflets in 2 hours. I was shattered. Then I ran around UCL for a good while till 4 pm. Then I came back home and left at 5pm for the meditation sesh in Camden.

It was really bad, cos I only got 4 hours sleep the previous night. Me n debs were waiting for everyone and I was sure i'd be falling asleep and dropping off the chair. But it was ok, most people's Mantra's were ohm or ummm or in-2-3-out-2-3, mine was "wonder what I should buy abi, did I get all the food/leaflets I need, what should I do with LINKY baloons. So you see there was no chance of letting me fall asleep. About 1/2 the way through...I began to trancend (ooo get me) but then I got stuck thinking about Mrs Draper (my year 1 teacher).

After I had HAD to charge mi phone up so went back to debs funky bedsit. There we almost killed ourselves laughing about incidences of Vommiting, She's thrown up in abu-dabi (I think u had to be there at the time-but honestly it was side splitting). Then she helped me admit some stuff that I was in complete denial about, its a good thing, but denial is so much easier to cope with, the problem is we think to much. We discussed everything, from blokes to politics and all the way onto discussing Hungary and Africa not to mention the obligatory medical chat-she feels the same bout medicine as me were all a clicking there!

It was great we are going to abi's party on Sat in Soho which will be good. I'm off to stick Johnny labels.Night.

Things

2006-09-27T16:42:00.000+01:00

Things I like about Barts and the London:

The Halls:

Soo big and almost hotel-like
Deadly quiet so I basically get a kitchen and bog to myself
Lift talk-everyone chats in them, even if you have never met the bloke before they seem to wanna know what course your on and where your from.
Post actually reaches me
The beepy cards (more later)
The fact it looks slightly like a castle
Poirot lived here-so it must be good and there are 3 rolls royces outside the gates (all belong to me of course)

The Uni:

OOOO big helicopter lands on the roof and say morning to them off "Trauma" v exciting
Pathology place has swoooosh barriers but hard to explain-come visit
We have labs with floating rooms called "cell" "cloud" and "spikey"
The union is lovely
The people are even more lovely
There are only 19 people on our course and all seem friendly, higher boy:girl ratio than ucl
I found the doctors pub-where they all go to get drunk.
My ID card is fab (although picture is bad) it opens doors to everywhere and has chips and barcodes and swipe-ness and I have 4 different ID numbers

Comparing the ID card with the UCL paper one makes UCL seem a bit of a joke really, but never mind, I think UCL is inproving them

OK things I hate about Barts and the London:

The Halls

I couldnt get into the TV room and signal of TV here is a bit (well very) rubbish
The internet is kinda jerky
It freaks me out that I have a cleaner clean my room every few weeks
I get scared doing the laundry
One of the guys on our floor looks like a pervert, another one looks like a monkey
The security guards are the most unenthusiastic people I have ever met
Everyone is a bit posh (I know its not their fault-its London generally)

The Uni

On 2 campuses, Mile end campus IS NOT near Mile end tube....I found that out today
They don't give you maps-apparently you must instinctively know where your heading
Whitechapel is vvvvv rough, pissed people will come upto you and as the sign says : Muggings happen here! Beware of suspicious behaviour
There arnt nice food places-Nandos, Pizza Hut, Mc D etc..so stuff you wouldnt eat on a daily basis. No M+S no Tesco, Sainsburys. I'm gonna have to make packed lunch
We arnt allowed in to the Pathology builiding
But we can go into a Lab which we don't really need
People in my course are 5th years and already set on qualifying whereas it hasnt entered my mind yet-can be tricky to understand where they are coming from
Its not UCL (sob) I miss everyone! But im doing the ole meditation again so I will see some of the people on Thur and LINKS is Wed so it will be ok

What a hecktic few days

2006-09-26T16:16:00.000+01:00

Well I'm mid way through the most hellish couple of weeks in the history of the world, not in terms of personal suffering or anything that terrible. But quite simply to much to do in such a small amount of time.

I have registered for mi courses which sound sooooo very up themselves:

Neuropathology (ok not to posh sounding)
Cardiovascular Pathophysiology (WHAAAAAT??? they are deliberatley trying to sound superior, and it kinda works)

I have 4 days of freshers fairs to organise....that means arranging people, ambulances, free stuff, food for people, sign ups, posters, leaflets aaaaarrrrggghh the list goes on.

I have lectures begining on Friday which I will have to miss, I have my great ormond street thing on monday which im gonna have to try and fit in.

The st John stuff is somewhere near brighton and the first fair is on Thurs

The comittee tshirts are at York street...so not with the comittee

I also have to sort my library applications out, I need to find a student card I ordered and I have an oyster card floating around london somewhere!!

Just to top things off, my phone is broken and my student loan hasnt come through, so I cant call people easily and cant pay my rent.

meh (Part II)

2006-09-21T11:04:00.000+01:00

Well it was one of those evenings yesterday, mum phoned to tell me the results of the blood donation, i'm O +.

How rubbish is that? Bog standard commonest one, off the top of mi head its approximately 35-40% of population have it. Still I don't appreciate being common. Oh one good thing is that I think Debs has the same group, so if either of us needed a transfusion we could swap (I think that happened in LOST in series 1 but I aint seen if for aaaages). But the cool thing is that my blood has been stuck into some sick dude which is so amazing (a lil weird tho).

Anyways i've gone off the topic. Mum phoned and it made me think of home, and not having to do work, me and debs were chatting yesterday and both of us agreed that medicine is a bit...yeh you know. Just the constant repetitive slog of essays and clinical skills and "Hi my name's Kathy i'm a 3rd year medical student, is it ok if I ask you some questions?" Grrr.

It didn't help that I decided to watch Sleepless in Seattle and part of Eternal sunshine. The first made me cry like .....something that crys alot, then the second just messed with my head!

Debs and farha are coming over for the guided tour tomorrow at 11 am!!! will have to get up early to tidy.

I found the post room today, and I had some post. Now im gonna finish up here and go do laundry.

meh

2006-09-20T11:56:00.000+01:00

Fire alarm. Stupidly early int morning, still in jim-jams and not quite sure whats happening. Then got told we don't get out quick enough and are all gonna die!!!!
Enough said really.

Whew!!

2006-09-19T12:19:00.000+01:00

OK serious crazyness down here: its tuesday (i think) and Queen Marys are about as far from UCL in terms of organisation as something very very far away!! Ok so i've worked it out, i'm grouped with the freshers meaning I had to collect room keys at a stupidly early time, however I don't enroll for another week and as u need ur student card to : get access to the house, the internet, the university etc... i'm pretty much locked out of everything.

Ahaa but she must be able to get on the internet if she's written this (I hear u say!!), well I actually sneaked into UCL using my now out of date ID card and managed to log onto one of their computers!

Meeting John doo daa at the volunteering unit tomorrow morning the catching up with farha n Debs after their exam! As for today, well im gonna read the bbc website as I missed news for 3 days!! Then serious shoppin (for washing powder n shampoo) then home.

OOO and guess what ? The cleaners hoover your room for u every 2 weeks! how cool is that?

Packing makes me sad.

2006-09-13T13:35:00.000+01:00

Don't you agree?

I keep finding tons of stuff I completely forgot about...e.g. prefects tie and all the "little pots" philippa is gagging for (I really should have brought them over, nevermind can always be a crimbo prezzie ;-P).

Also Smoosti's post has made me think back to Chapel High!

Rember Phil how Jade punched you in the face cos we reported her for being late (I was obviously too tough to mess with :-) )? Also when you and Kim were going through you "bad ass" stage and used to put banana skins and loaaads of other rubbish down the heaters in M6!

Rebmber Kim's facination with the middle one out of Hason, and you with ur "greasy" Howie! OOO and rember how we all used to hang out with Slats and all the other year 11 people like that "Religious Chris" who joined choir? actually maybe that was just me an Hannah, I wonder where she is? Probably still in Dove.---ooo and I saw her mum in Aldi but I hid behind the oat cakes, what would I say to her?

Ok back to the present...I have just ordered tickets for Have I got News for you. I don't know if I got em yet. So i'll let you know! At least this time the system didnt crash, but they sneakily put them up at 5 to 12 and as they get all allocated in about 10 minutes 1/2 could have gone before anyone thinks of trying.

Off to Stockport for some "essential" uni stuff.......havnt worked out exactly what I need, but the bus journey is long enough so I'll work it out then.

Tara ducks!

The Comedy Store!

2006-09-11T13:41:00.000+01:00

Well i'm gonna be the first to give my critique of the evening:

It was much better than the usual pre-uni meal (may be due to the lack of nun's present :-P ). The trains wer'nt working very well when we got on, cos instead of going Stockport-Manc Piccadily-Manc Oxford Road. It went Stockport-Manc Victoria-then stopped!! Which it don't usually do, cos victoria is a million miles from where anything vaguely interesting is....although a prince Charlie Photoshoot, where we got accused of being Paps was there. But as the ticket was only 3 quid it was fine.

Yada yada etc...we eventually arrived at the comedy store with 10 mins or so to spare. Also I will just add now...people seem to never trust that I know where I'm going! Did we ever get lost? I think not.

We (I-due to stingy mates) got the drinks...and the lovely bar man, who had a brain like a sieve managed to give me a Double shot of JD in a teeny tiny glass with about 1 drop of coke!! So obvioulsy it tasted nasty and v strong....but I drank it cos why waste it?

The show was good actually it was better than good cos it was free and funny, which is a good combination. I liked all the exacts except the bald one with the teeth, and to a lesser extent the little ginger guy....although he had cool shoes and picked on us which was great, philippa went all shy.

Philippa and melissa thought the compare was the best, but the first guy on was sooo much better, come on The Ikea catalogue joke was genius!

The journey home reminded me that i'm sooo far away from london. The show finished around 11:00pm or a bit after. We went to Oxford Rd-No trains to anywhere except Manc Piccadily and Chester. So we got on one to Manc Piccadily. Get off there and look for trains to Buxton, Chinley, Glossop ANYWHERE!!! But nada there was the last bus to Stockport which we JUST caught, OK getting closer to home. But then there were no busses or trains to home...grrrr it was only around 12:00 completely early to some people!

So the (totally fab) mother had to come get us. As we were waiting....cos stockport is like 45 mins away from home, the coppers turned up to shoo a pissed person (called Graham) from the station. So he staggers up to us and decides to talk to me...come on there were 3 of us WHY ME??? Then the police turn up and encourage him to move on. They check we are ok, which we are. Then go and sit in their police car, not sure if they are making sure we are ok or just watching Graham?

Get home at 1:00 absoultely shattered but twas good. I think we are gonna go again, just when we know we can get home ok!

Tomorrow!

2006-09-09T16:47:00.000+01:00

Phil I shall be ariving on ur door step at approx 3/4 ish! Say now if that ain't a good time. I will bring with me something I think (well know) u wanna look at...Debborah Moggarch hint hint!! Hopefully you havnt seen it yet?!

I am in so much pain right now. I'm doing my upmost not to start crying! :-( I will show you my war wounds (they aint icky or anything) tomorrow and you can make sympathetic ooo-ing noises!

Oh and ideally we need to get the 6:40 from Whaley if we want to get to the show in time!

Beaver in an egg!

2006-09-08T13:37:00.000+01:00

Well I woke this lovely morn after having a bad (ish) dream involving an egg which hattched into some sort of Beaver animal. I then tried to feed it cucumber which it didn't seem to like! But it was that or sausages, because thats all that was in the fridge. Stupidly I though in this dream "beavers eat trees so they must like cucumber" but after discussion at breakfast we agreed they actually eat fish, so maybe it really wanted the sausages!

Any hooo the dream got stranger and stranger and i'm not gonna carry on explaining it! I got enough grief after the buiscuit tins and rat in a car dreams!

But mingled in with this dream was another where I got to my Halls and I found it was actually a dorm...so I had to share with 17 other people! Understandably I dont want to share a room..especiallly with 17 people! So while I watched "This Morning" I decided it would be a good idea to actually read the tenancy agreement I signed about a month ago!

And (I know grammatically undeseriable!) guess what?! Apparently all of the rooms come with their own Fridge!! Now how cool-and admittedly completely usless is that? Why of all the appliances do they decide to stick a fridge in there? I'm not complaining though.

Its sounds sooo much better that first year halls which were just poop really! See we were in Langton Close which was average/scrubby but next door was Frances which was vvvposh/height of luxury! So of course we used to get evacuated for various resaons every few weeks...and them at frances would just stand at their windows and watch as we froze ourselves outside!!

Oh incidently I have a single room (whew!!) and there is only 205 people there! So its a diddy little hall...even better!

The blood has gone!

2006-09-06T20:04:00.000+01:00

Well I did it! I have never been more scaredy-cat-like in my entire life! We sat down and filed in forms, then I had a blood test...this was where they spike ur middle finger and put a drop into a pot of copper suplhate! Its supposed to sink down (me and mother worked out that iron sulphate should be formed which is an insoluable preciptate)! Mine sank.......then rose back up again! But then it sank so all was ok.

I got called over to the bed, then my worst fears were confirmed when I heard these words uttered "I'm a trainee can I put your needle in?" AAAARGHHH I was so tempted to run for the hills.....but instead I said "sure everyone needs to learn" (why oh why did she have to learn on me?) To give her credit she did a pretty good job, and the blood was sucked out. They completely take more that 1 pint tho, they fill up lots of little blottles too so they can test it!

The sucking out was supprisingly fine, chatted to the delivery guy who was v friendly and also found out I was lying next to a Johnny....she was a Buxton one and is FAW (mwahahaha I out rank). Then after the blood sucking the wierd lightheaded ness begins....maybe its just cos they plonked my big bag of blood right next to me *shudder* but after a couple of mins the feeling goes away.......I can only liken it to the standing up at a choir concert where the venous pump stops and your at the point of knowing blood aint getting up there. Philippa, obviously wont know what i'm on about here as she "apparently" never felt faint (yer right).

But after the drink and biccys we went to TSB (who are arses) then to Partners (wooo student discout) then home.

I actually feel terrible now! but I think I was getting a cold anyways and even if it is from the blood donating, I am gonna be doing it again, cos whats a little discomfort when you're saving peoples lives. Plus next time I get a key ring and if I do it 10 times I get a badge!!!

Tissue Necrosis and Haemorrhagic Fever

2006-09-05T12:19:00.000+01:00

Ok prepare ur self for some super duper posting!

First (and most importantly) Phil, hehe well we have been friends since the start of the Universe (which was a while ago) so it is my complete and utter duty to fully embarass!

I shall do this with a brill photo:

See this was us all snoozy on the second tour of Germany! Now I think I look pretty nomal when i'm asleep, no strange expressions or anything.......but dear me what does phil look like?! The mushroom haircut (so many memories) and do I spot a bit of dribble there :-P

Katie took this, I think, and I found it allong with a ton of the fab letters you used to write, I also noticed you wrote "mood"as "maud" when you were talking about Jo, hehe spelling was never great! I was actually going to put another Germany picture of Phil up (in sexy evening wear) but decided that too much of a good thing is never good, plus I can save that for laters!

I also have to show you a picture of my bed!!

A fair few people know my bed (ok that must NEVER be taken out of contex) as being all high up, and rember my inability to cope with making it down the ladder (I remeber the bruises)!

Well I have solved that problem by making it all low down, I havnt worked out how to take the bars off the side yet, so it does look slightly like a safety bed for 2 year olds!

But the thing you should appreciate phil.....is the extreme tidyness of the general area, and the fact the high-ness has gone. Same as urs just a bit slower to achieve it! (I miss ur metal bed they were fab, it was like an assault course just to get in them!

So now I shall turn to the shocking recent "appearance" of me on the Khumars........Yes people we now have some screen shots!!!

Contain you excitement PLEASE!!

OK...well its not all good news, unfortunately you never see my lovely (ok maybe not) face, just the back of my head. Can it get worse that that? .......Oh yes it can.

See I thought this type of thing was an appropriate time to wear "semi-slutty" top as the studio would get warm....and stuff! So thinking it looks nice (as not fully slutty) I am filmed in it!

But now, I actually found out (while finding screen shots) thats the top has malfunctionned and Kathy's boobie strap is visible on National TV!! Ok not as bad as if it was Kathy's actuall boobies on TV but still, makes me seem common scally type, which I (and all sane people) want to avoid!

Still I have put a picture of where I was below:

1=Debs!
2=Boobie Strap (aaahhhhh)
3=Dhim (who actually isnt on this one-sorry!) but he's next to me so it cut him of this piccy!

Blood Donation

2006-09-03T14:06:00.000+01:00

Well today I had a lovely breakfast of spinach and orange juice!! That was it, all I had. I shall explain why, in two ticks, but for those of a medical inclination (and those who read the title) it should be pretty obvious.

I and the mother will be Blood donating in Buxton on Tue of Wed next week (can't remeber days anymore). See I have already donated all of my organs so I though the next bit was a bit of the old bone marrow and blood.I think i'm on the bone marrow register, cos I signed something in the drunken stupor that was freshers month a year or two back. So that leaves Blood!!

Well I have this fear.....OK it aint of needles and it aint of blood. So whats the problem with the blood giving then? Well I have (like many other people I suspect) a complete and utter phobia of PAIN!! I can't stand the stuff.

It donesnt help that my last experience in giving blood could only be describled as horrific! I shall explain:

I was going to Chapel surgery to get some routine tests done for my Uni course (HIV and Hepititis B immunity) so I sit down and wait for professional doctor type to come sort me! Now guess who turn up......the bloody district nurse! I love nurses (in a healthy way tho, not is some sort of perverted way!) but this particular one I knew quite well. Its one of the probs with living in a teeny tiny place.

So nurse attaches the tornique and a nice juicy vein pops up. Then she sticks in the needle...which wasnt that bad and puts on the vacume pot (im sure they have a proper name) and the sucking of the blood begins, except it doesnt. It comes out in spurts....I'm panicking by then thinking she has a artery (brachial) but she thinks that the needle is in the wrong place, which it was cos it was half in the vein half out. So what does she decide is the course of action....SHE FLIPPIN WIGGLES THE NEEDLE IN MY ARM!!

Now I'm not sure how to convey the total and absoulte pain at this point! Anyway the pot is about half full by now which she seems to think is enough. The she acts supprised when I feel a bit ill, and then to top of the worse blood test ever, she sits me in the incorrect first aid position for feeling faint!! I mean come on! Also it didnt help that through the whole blood taking my mother was sat next to me going "ooo theres a bit more" and "its spurting quite well now"! grr!

(woo tests came back negative...cept for the immuntiy one which was positive YAY!)

But despite this I feel I should give blood, here are my reasons:

I will soon be sticking needles in people and so should experience it for myself! Its like having a virgin who's a sex therapist.....they really can't be expert if they havn't the experience!
I wanna know my blood type...If im AB Ive been adopted (which could have happened) and I want to fill that section in on the front of my organiser!
I recon its a good way to face my fear!
There are free buiscuits
I want the pin badge when you donate 50 pints (just 49 more to go)
I want to look hard!!

Oh incidentaly the point of the breakfast was to increase my iron levels, vitamin C helps aid the absorbtion of iron which is particuarly necessary in women!! Farha told me that, it was one of the few questions I got right in First year!!

Remeber only 1 out of every 100 people who can donate blood actually do! So if I can do it then you can!!

Anyone want?

2006-08-31T22:15:00.000+01:00

Some "Biological Science mags? The are a dumbed down science journal designed for swotty Alevel peeps (or for frantic reading before med school interviews)

Or Real Crime mags? actually I may keep these cos they have tons of grusome forensics in which I what I absolutely love....I know i'm odd, we did that aready!

About a gazillion Mensa mags.....hehe really entertaining and not just for thos brainy peeps! I found one from 2002 phsycologically analysing why everyone seemed to love David Beckham....Oh how things change!
But seriously I have topics ranging from "Rain Man" to "Predicting Race winners"....also just found one about how Lefties are actually brilliant (or something along those lines).

But shhh to the Mensa thing seriously....doesnt do mi street cred (i'm sure I have some somewhere) and good.

Phil i'm texting u in a bit!

Oo New Hair!!

2006-08-30T16:15:00.000+01:00

Well the title is pretty selfexplanatory! I went to the new Toni n Guy's in Buxton (world centre for trendyness). The question you will be asking now is "what does it look like now?" and some of you may even be asking "what did it look like before?" But as for the new look, is it punk? or do I have dreadlocks? maybe I shaved it all off like Debs (that was vv brave)? It could be pink green blue orange....or even a combination of all four! Well you'll just have to keep guessing wont you!

After the cutting and styling and having gloop put on my hair and washed off again.....oo and the odd back massage! I went shopping. Actually I went to Argos for an airbed (reduced to 14 quid!!) and then to Boots for some girly bits n bobs! By this time its nearly 3 and I realise that i'm a bit hungry since I havnt eated since tea yesterday! Then I realise the 199 has just zipped passed so I do the ole run and look like an arse.....but at least I caught it! Then im off home, still hungry but with lovely hair! OOO its strokable! (i'll shut up now)

100th Post!

2006-08-27T17:39:00.000+01:00

Well I'm super proud of myself! I can't believe I have wittered on for 100 posts!! Thats an average of once every 3 days! Woo to all the celebrations and importance which goes with entering triple figures!

More importantly though, look at what sausage (Sonja) caught me:
for those not in the know this is a mole (and some grass too!). Now they are little buggers so its a good thing she catches them as they did holes and sheep (and Kathy's) can fall into them. They also bite and it hurts!
This one was very dead-full rigor was present leading the Pathologist to estimate a time of death of between 2 and 36 hours, narrowing this more: It was caught in the early hours as she didnt go out last night and it wasnt there yesterday. I discovered this at 12:30 pm and she went out at 6am. So the time of death was around 6-10:30! I know...your welcome!

I'm officially in the tribe - I have mi bongos!

2006-08-24T11:20:00.000+01:00

Well we were taught about how to enter the "tribe of the medical society", disection was the initation ceremony (I know flippin psychologists), I recieved my information about my Pathology course so its offical im working my way towards the centre of the tribe! (k shutting up about that now)

I do love the slightly homemade feel of Barts and the London NHS! UCL send us pack after pack of papers we need. Barts just send a piece of paper inviting me to a intercalated degree party! It was the same at the degree fair, UCL had structured lectures about each degree on offer. Barts....had a buffet with carrot sticks and homemade cakes!

OOO and little men in woolly jumpers running up on stage at various intervals to tell us about how to finance our degree! I love the shambles but it does make you kinda nervous. But I do like the woolly jumpers, you can't beat a good woolly jumper.

Hehe well im gonna mend some clothes now, cos stupidly I bought a groovy Szczecin tshirt but it turned out to be a giant man shirt so im gonna be doing a spot of resizing! Then i'm gonna be doing a spot of painting love the ole painting!

Mould!

2006-08-23T16:08:00.000+01:00

I scraped it off the Sugar-snap peas i'm eating! They taste fine, especially if you dont look at them while you pick them up. The mould forming was of a purple appearance with what appeared to be a slime capsule...leading me to the dubious conclusion is may not in fact be mould but some form of Bacterium. This is quite worrying because levels of Bubonic Plague have been rising in corrolation with the coresponding rise of global temperatures. So if I die of the Black Death in the next few days......BLAME THE PEAS!

Ok people update time (Edited version)

2006-08-22T14:23:00.000+01:00

I now have mi ID number.

Things to arrive in the post in the next week (supposedly):

Accomodation info,
Ex Path info,
Enrolment info

So a fair amount of info really!

Am sorting out my project...dissertation thingy and its soooooo exciting; its about helping kids with epilepsy and brain damage by using stem cells (there has been so much about it ont news you must have heard about it). So potentially helping to "cure" brain damage....how amazing is that!

Freshers fair is going ok at the moment, I have ordered all the freebies to give out to people, I have booked the ambulance and we are gonna be at potentially 5 freshers fairs!! i'm gonna be shattered, and my uniform is gonna be yucky by the end of September (Iwill try and wash it sometime)!

I have been a fixing the boat today, most of the woodwork is sanded down ready for staining and varnish, but the fibreglass is shot to pieces so we are going to have to get one of those kits. Oh and it is being renamed cos the name is frankly embarassing ...it is not called Kingfisher so nice and simple.

Well im cooking at the moment Kathy stylee....which is hillarious the Recipee is "Grilled Haddoc with white wine sauce"

The only bit which is the same as the recipee is the type of fish!

Haddock fillets-we have them!
Diced Shallots- well onions are practically shallots
White Wine-It was either Red wine, Vodka or Beer, and I didnt think Beer goes well with garlic and vodka would have caused much legglessness!
cloves of roasted garlic-I technically have garlic except it has gone brown and mouldy, so I scraped the mould off so now its just brown! It'll be fine when its cooked

The other even more exciting news is I will soon be allocated a Derbysire St John Unit...which means I can get a promotion...which I really would like, I can also go to Derby County FC woo!

I honestly feel like crying

2006-08-21T12:57:00.000+01:00

Why do I do this to myself? Could have taken the bloody easy option and done Intercalated BSc for people who want to sleep for a year...but no! I decide to flippin switch Universities! I am going to have a nervous breakdown. UCL for all its faults was always organised but QMUL are so laid back they are practically dead. I have recieved absolutely nothing from them and phoning them is like an exam in itself; is my inquiry about addmisions, undergraduate education, accomodation? errrr how the hell do I know? But on the plus side, if I phone tomorrow they will tell me my ID number! so life is just FAB....may not have a place on my course but I have a number! Yay may just go and panic in a corner for a few hours. Why didnt I just go and do the job I actually wanted to do and not bother with dumb uni! hmmm I think its cos im stubborn.

Thanks for the lil rant.

Well come on Wadda y'all think?

2006-08-21T00:25:00.000+01:00

Come on peeps, I need feedback this has taken aaages cos im crap (tut tut) with HTML its 12:30AM thats the night time you know! And I have struggled with this for and hour and a half. I know it aint perfect my main problems I couldnt fix were:

The leftness of it all (but as the world should be left-handed may be it aint so bad.
The fact my witty quote is now unreadable
The strange assortment of pink and darker pink which my links take on in apparent randomness
My profile blurb is arraged strangely with "old" comically appearing under my picture!
Finally-the template asked me to type a paragraph for the side bar which it then decides not to include...that took me 5 mins on its own, goodness knows where it is now!

But if you ignoor these as I have now been forced to do it is acutally quite a pretty thing dont you think?

well at least the blobby things have gone so phil can now manage to read all the words...its sad when the eyesight starts to go in old age eh!!

All coments and help on the above point greatfully appreciated!

K well I may have repetitve strain injury!

2006-08-19T15:03:00.000+01:00

Well I was in a quite "get things done" kinda mood this morning, sooo I decided to set up pete's German Poetry while he was away at scout camp. Pete is a proper genius at the ole German and even more of a genius cos he gets on with Dubiac! So to further his brill language learning I got him magnetic poetry-in German. I set it all up but as its designed for big fridges there are THOUSANDS of words so it took me about 1/2 and hour to squeeze them onto his didy electric heater. This is the finished result: As you can see I helpfully started the little guy off by putting such meaningful sentences as: Ja Das ist toll! and other slightly more suspect ones! Then I had to have a pasport stylee picture taken for some "NHS card thing" think its to tell people that I dont have any diseases when I go in hospitals to help people! So anyway I decide to take a picture of my man shorts which I was wearing as I have run out of clothes...they r mostly washed but still wet as we have no way of drying them, I was so suprised as I last wore the man shorts in Year 10 when they were man trousers! They have dug cow poo out of the barn, they also have been to Alton towers...ahhh the stories they could tell. ummm ok I know my life is quite dull at the min but shut up, bet urs isnt that exciting either! Oh and look what Sausage caught: isnt she clever.

I know no-one cares, but what the heck!

2006-08-13T21:30:00.000+01:00

Well im doing a spot of the old Black n White devloping, and I have forgotten how much fun it is. I put a bit of music on and happily splash around. I will now go on and explain (in detail) what I do, so if I were you i'd stop reading about now!

OOOO Harry might be going to America!!! but Nikki loves him, and there have been 2 bodies already and the police officer is soooo gonna try and do summat dodgy its very exciting. But seriously Harry can't leave he IS Silent Witness.

Right, First I mix the 3 chemicals : Developer 1+9, Stop 1+14 (but reusable) and Fix 1+3 (also reusable).
The Developer goes in the white tray so I can see the picture easiest, the stop is in the mucky brown one cos it looks like a place for stop! and Fix is in the red bath cos red should be at the end.

Then the lights go out, I put on the red light (roaaaxanne hehe). The negative is put in the enlarger and I usually use a 4 or 5 filter cos I like a contrasty print and I use variable contrast paper.

Then I use f2.5 (i think) to focus the image. Then 3 clicks dimmer (the f numbers have worn off but i think its f8) .

Then I do a test strip in 1 second steps for ~15 secs and find my exposure time.

Voila!! I then print ant print untill the job is done, for each neg I have to re focus and position it right but its brill. I think everyone should try it.

Oh I forgot the washing is hard work. Thats why pete does it for me...he likes using the squeegee, it'd be cruel to stop him hehe!

Hmm don't know if anyone is still reading this so .......bum and boobies hehehe!

Byee

A Pictorial Feast

2006-08-11T20:13:00.000+01:00

Now I could tell you all what these picures are, but I really dont have the energy. As you can clearly see, some of the pictures are quite ancient, but I don't care enjoy the spectacular "rubbish phone camera" photography. Also found some Kentmere AD photo paper(which is unbelievably exciting) its over £50 quid but its like gold dust so im vvv pleased.

Haa ha!

2006-08-03T20:03:00.000+01:00

I did it! I beat phil and I don't care if you say I didnt phil cos I did!

Sigh!!

2006-08-01T19:50:00.000+01:00

Right now you have no idea how much I miss London right now, the weather is skanky, I have had to go to MMU (nancy university-basket weaving and cooking are the predominant subjects) and sit through meetings about Burnt milk and Staph.A. I then don't get to sort my silly phone out and instead end up buying benjys and legging it for a train. I have to go back tomorrow. On the plus side a gang tried to sell me illegal DVD's as I waited by a traffic light....I was proper scared.

So all in all life is a bit poo at the mo. There are things to look forward to: namely interfering with resucci annies and going back to Uni in a few weeks.

Oh and the worse thing is I now have a stupid disease where I switch accents dependin on the level of education of the listener. For dumb ass people and people I feel comfortable with i'm fully Derbyshire dialect, but as soon as I meet a Porfessor, Doctor or even a PhD student I flip and start talking posh....It's terrible!!

Someone cure me.

P.S. Debs when you are back from arabic land.....Farha has been READING!!!! in the bloody summer holidays she's completely mad, no wonder she got distinction.

Ok its a diddl update!

2006-07-31T19:13:00.000+01:00

OK in a previous post in Dec, I discussed my slight interest in all things diddl, now I thought I would show all you lovely people the tiny insignificant group of them I have got (most of them I was forcefully given....honest!!). well I know it seems as if there are quite a few but i'm not obsessed or anything. I have just been to Germany and Europe alot!

You have no idea how dull life is at the mo, tomorrow I am going to Mank to help translate Biological terms for my parents company............THATS HOW BORED I AM.But it's ok i'm off to Sheringham for a well earned break soon which will be nice, except I know that I will have to get prezzies for everyone, don't expect owt good though!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM for tomorow (and happy birthday to my egg at the bottom).

Ok people!!!

2006-07-27T01:27:00.000+01:00

What is wrong with the world!!!!!!!

I mean (Not wanting to get political here but) what is going on with the bombing and the war's? Can't people just get allong?

Ok I think from that you can probably tell I'd be crap at negotiation but really, do you not think that some people just need to look at the bigger picture?!

Well to completely change the subject...Me and McPhil and McPhil's Sis went to Mancestaa today. We wathced Pirates of the Caribean (mmmm Johnny Depp-ness) and The Break Up (Which is all that bloody happens IN THE WHOLE FILM). Then we went to NANDOS (thats NANDOS phil!) and it was yummy.

OOOO off to London soon on a wirlwind trip, promises to be an excellent day.

Nighty woo!

P.s. good prog tomorrow on Progeria for those who are medically inclined!

Woo...theft

2006-07-24T22:30:00.000+01:00

I am a Dove!! ........And Phil is a raven.

I am pure and fab and don't fly away after large floods, I return with a branch. My dancing and music are also superior. Infact appart from a bigger set of feathers which the raven has, I am the best!!!

I rest my case.

I'm on a mission

2006-07-02T21:06:00.000+01:00

OK well I was a bit cross (wild underestimation) last week. You see I was reading my MENSA magazine when lo and behold this silly little man (i'm sure he's ok really) got Liecenship of the Royal Photographic society with some 'average' digital pictures.

Now I already have LRPS but that isnt the point. The fact that he got it for some shitty piccys completely pissed me off. So i'm now applying for Associate of the RPS. This meant going to Chatsworth yesterday in the blistering heat (I now have blisters) and doing some good 'ole B+W piccys.

I have developed 2 of the6 films and it looks promising. There is a picture of Chatsworth earlier and i'm doing the same process. The chemicals I mixed to make the pictures are illegal in Denmark cos they are so toxic and I stupidly managed to pour some into an open wound....it hurt...................alot!

The end result should be ~5 A3 sized Bromoils which has not really been done by too many people do to the trickey-ness of them.

I was actually thinking of developing my own process and having a shot at Fellow of the RPS, but I have an idea and a lab full of chemicals so maybe it isnt impossible. I'll let you know.

Meet the bad-ass sheep from Hillside Farm

2006-06-27T14:29:00.000+01:00

I WAS RIGHT I BLOODY KNEW IT

2006-06-19T19:33:00.000+01:00

OK I have had to put up with the ridicule for months, I was convinced and still am that Prof. Snape is a lovely dude and completely misunderstood. People were like 'ooo he killed dumbledore' CEPT HE DIDNT!!!!!!! and THIS proves it (sorry if this is old news). In page 2 it categorically proves that snape was acually helping dumbledore and therefore is lovely and a good person. I will argue violently with those who dissagree. Ok im done now.

woohoo

2006-06-18T16:02:00.000+01:00

Look at all the cool and groovy music I get to see for free!: here

It just gets better

2006-06-15T17:19:00.000+01:00

Wow! I just had the bestest most exhausting day EVER! Here is the synopsis:

I arrived at St Pauls Cathedral for the Queen's 80th Bday service at 10:00 giving me half an hour to get through security, get lost and generally find St John peeps. All of that done I get assigned to the AED team, meaning when someone colapses we leg it to them with the defib (charging at 360 CLEAR!!) So we wait and guess who comes over for a chat? Sir Cliff Richards!!!! He chats to us for a few mins then wanders off in his purple suit. Then the big procession happens right next to us! I saw the queen, philip, harry, william, charles, anne, the other random ones and daughter of fergie, the archbishop of canterbury (I wanted his big shiny gold hat). We settle down for the ceremony and it was lovely, not an ill person in sight. Oh appart from a rich snobby woman who decided to feel faint.

Then we popped outside and hopped into the Crusader (Ambulance) and wizzed to Mansion House. You know the tv chef prog : Great British Menu well that was what was being held at mansion house! There were just 2 of us and it was fab! Ok I spoke to Dame Vera Lyn, I met Shirley Bassey, Tony Blair, Cherie Blair, The queen an hubby (again), Sir Ian Blair, Jenny Bond, Meneze Campbel. OO and want to know who's completely lovely? George Alagiah. We were also looked after by the chief soldier and although it was naughty he gave us a glass of the same wine that the Queen was drinking (I think it cost a lot-it was lovely). We also chatted to the soldiers in charge of Ken livingston..... OOO THATS THE OTHER EXCITING THING....I peed in the loo just after Ken Linvingston. Now thats a good claim to fame!

I pinched the Menu it is soooo posh and has tassels and everything. I also got 2 different programs from St Pauls. All in all a fab day.

The recipe of success

2006-06-13T19:57:00.000+01:00

Prepare youself for the true secret of greatness...how I survived exam hell!

Ok in the year leading upto the final exams I had absorbed as much information as possible by among other things; reading the entire works of Tess Geritsen in lectures, completing 3out of 5 games on my mobile phone (both of the bunny rabbit ones) and learning about London's current affairs through the Metro and Evening Standard (lite). So come revision time some serious work was due. This caused the implimentation of project sponge.

Morning-get up at 6 or what ever time you body decides it wants to (usually 5:30 ish), have shower and check emails even though no one ever seems to email during the night. Take thought drugs: 1xcod liver oil tablet, 1xmultivitamin, 1x loratadine, stick some sodium cromoglycate in just for good measure! Leave the house at 8:11 and power walk to Bloomsbury just in time for the library opening at 8:30.

Incidentally the Science library is the one which opens earliest but can be hard to find a seat. I recoment the Anthropology section as it is small and hidden, near the loo's.

Now we stay in the library untill you get thrown out or you go blind with reading (which ever comes first) so leaving around 10pm. If you keep at it you can read a leaver arch folder in a day. I only went blind on 2 days after that my eyes seemed to be getting better....I think they were reluctant to work!

A bit hungry after all the reading the tea is either noodles, an orange and a rivita or tuna steak and ketchup. (altenate between them-i bought 8 tuna steaks: they do freeze quite well).

Go to bed after the meal at ~11:30-12 this allows a minimum of 6 hours sleep so functioning brain will be ready ish for the next day.

That my friends is how to pass medicine: I read 7 lever arch folders and did all the past papers (about 30 I think?) in 3 weeks! not bad eh.

I love St. John

2006-06-12T21:44:00.000+01:00

I really do you know. Its wonderfully scary and exhillerating all at the same time. Only in St John could you be zooming down the cordened off bit of Horse Guards Parade one minute then walking next to the Queen's Husband avoiding being shot at by snipers the next minute!

Honestly every duty is a complete adventure. This particular one was the 62nd aniversary of the Normandy Landings, of which, thanks to choir I have a pretty good insight into. These veterans all 80+ stood in the 30+ degree heat for nearly 1 hour and although they were swaying all over the place like...erm something wobbly most of them hung on and didn't faint. I suppose they have been through worse than a bit of hot weather but still I was a wreck by the end and I was able to wear a short sleeved shirt (number 5 dress +hat). Then they all marched to a memorial and back again to the army place. The grenedier guards buzzby people) were playing and the sweat was litterally spraying off them...I could be a trumpet buzzyby woman (I recon). Oh I also walked beside the suprimo mucho guy who is apparently the "god" of the military...twas vvv tall with a big sword and seemed chatty and nice, but what do I know?

Next its "Beating the Retreat" yay I'll let you know what happens there.

Woo Its OFFICIAL

2006-06-09T23:22:00.000+01:00

Not wishing to gloat, oh well ok I am, but I think I have a right to!

"I am pleased to tell you that the exam board has recommended that you pass this summer's examinations .

This is subject to us receiving satisfactory marks for your SSM(s). We do not yet have all marks for SSMs; if there are any problems with your SSM marks, you will be contacted separately.

Congratulations, enjoy your summer vacation, and good luck with the next year of your studies."

From the legend that is Dr. Bender hehehe so I am now officially a Pathologist in training the name says it all! I never thought disease would get me so excited! I'm really looking forward to study oozing things and obviously do some HEMS spotting. OO and I got halls too.

Szczecin-The Diary

2006-06-06T23:34:00.000+01:00

Wow!! It was just totally fab, bear in mind we went for 5 days, flights hotel presents food etc all cost less than 130 quid!!! OK chronologically:

Day 1-Monday
VVV early int morning I meet Debs in camden, we intend to take the 24 to Victoria then get on the Terravision bus to Stansted. But of course it went wrong...no bloody 24 turned up! Now i'm not sure you understand how rare this is. In London you never usually wait more than 3-5 minutes between 24's, so in a panic we decide to take the Northern Line to Euston then Vicoria to...well....Victoria. Ok so we are there with about 15 minutes till the bus goes and we wait and no bus turns up, the panic levels were rising so we phoned the bus company and found we were at the WRONG bus stop. So we ran to the right one and lo and behold the bus had gone! Now we were seriously het up by now, there was talk of cabbing it to the airport costing us thousands (an approximate) of pounds. Well after negotiations with 2 bus opperators and some serious acting...we are poor lost confused girl travelers...please help us. We got on a bus and arrived with 1.5 hours before departure. All the checking was good and we both had a wee in the airport loos. I bought some flip flops. Then we got on the plane and flew to Szczecin. As we were landing I was looking around for the town....no where to be seen. It turns out the airport called Geleou is like a million miles away from the city and is populated by the polish army. Got a bus from the airport to the centre of Szczecin for 10zt (about 2 quid) then got a public bus to our hotel that only cost us 40p for 20 mins traveling. Then we collapsed in our new houseee thing. We did have to share a double bed!! The guy's english wasn't great and apparently "twin" is the same a "double" AND debs stole the duvet EVERY NIGHT!

Day2-Tuesday
Wow it was a bit of a mission but so much fun! we walked round szczecin and did tons of stuff. We went to get our bus tickets and it only cost 9 zt. While near the lake I got a hot dog.....but like no other! It had layer upon layer of salad and pickled things and strange sauces ontop so it was more of an interesting salad sandwich with a bit of sausage in. Yummy. We also saw the Da vinci code or the Kod Da Vinci, at the Galaxy centre which was great, did you know that 'steady' is uspookajac in polish. So I learnt stuff too!

Day3-Wednesday
We posted post cards which up to recently STILL havn't arrived. We also went to the market where we bought some sweeties called 'Lobster tails' which despite the name were yummy and have no real connection to any form of crustacian! we also found an old man and took pictures of him, drunk coffee in a dingy place which looked suspiciously like a down market brothel. OO we also saw the oldest cinema in the world...supprisingly boring looking and on the way home found a huuuuuuge statue thing.

Day4-Thursday
Now this was my fave day of all, Me Debs Kristopher and Gregor all went for a jolly across the border to Berlin, now world cup fever was gripping the country and we happened to drop in on some sort of celeb event, there were fat german referees, Angela Merkel, David Beckham, a big football with a slide!! everything you would want for an eventful day out. We saw the Reichstag and the Brandeburg Gate and I bought my 18th (tut tut) diddl-it was a world cup one so it doesnt really count!!!

Day5-Friday
Ahh the day home, gregor and Kristopher decided to give us a lift to the bus except they forgot summat so one minute we were going into szczecin the next we were zooming back up the hill, I could see the panic level of debs rising it was sooo funny specially as she told me before of how she usually seems to plan out the worst possible sceniario...but we made it and everything twas fine.

Back home now, but I still have 200 zt so OH DEAR I will have to go back sometime! hehee. I'm learning polish gramar at the moment....all acusitive and locative and 'hail ceaser'!

Its Grandad!

2006-05-27T22:13:00.000+01:00

Wooo, not wishing to divulge my entire life on this thing I think you should all see..

My grandad got some certificates!

Now he is a bit of a pro though...he got OBE or MBE, for being Coxwain of his BIIIG lifeboat and saving people. He is in the top picture. I have found Haribo...mmm

Bodies and Kumars

2006-05-27T20:27:00.000+01:00

Part 1
Well you guys SO have to watch the Kumars (at number 42) WEE WERE ON THE STUDIO FLOOR!!!! we were within groping distance of the people and we got picked on and had to answer quetions and stuff it was brill.....and we are definately on TV cos they made us make sure no crap was on our chairs when the camera was on us. So we saw the whole family AND richard wilson (I dont believe it!!!) and Max Beasley (soo very cute).

Part2 (which happened before part 1)
The bodies exhibiton. Well 2 years of Medical education has severely taken it toll. I am completely de-sensitised to cadavers. To be honest I hate it! should anyone ever get used to seeing a dead person? But there we were walking round looking at bodies pretending to run, throwing darts, being sliced into see thru bits. All we ended up discussing was which body part would look best in the middle of the dining room table. I initally chose a bit of Jejunum, but was severly told off that, despite it looking fairly pretty I would be a gross conversation point (actually deb's said 'yep a bit of intestine-shit came out of that once'). So I switched to a the bronchioloes instead. Then right at the end dhim found a person sliced horizontaly into many pieces and he decide that it would make great coasters and dinner mats to put plates on. So in all, people it costs £17.50 (we went for free) so unless you have a hankering for some slightly twisted use of the deceased I would bother. Although I had a wee squidge of bits of them and they are kinda interestin, in the DR ours are preserved but feel cold and firm yet squishy. These were much warmer and more rigid. Usefull info people.

Ok Poland monday must go pack and parents have just emailed me hmmm I think I am in trouble never mind. OOO and med gases when I return. Byeeeee

Edited...melissa here is your jejunum:

Now I know its bloody fab and if anyone requires any more "Kathy Art" just let me know.

Looking forward

2006-05-21T00:41:00.000+01:00

Ok ignoring the frightful week I have just endured I am looking towards the future. I am off to Poland soon, I have my zloties (540 of them). Errrm and yep shopping off down Oxford Street tomorrow. OOO been watching tons of tv-mostly comedies like the Brittas Empire and Blackadder. Now seriousness......I have had some smirnoff at Debs house and we went to Sainsburys and bought pretzels and twiglets and stuff. Then we watched Eurovision where the good ones (german cowboys and the 'we are winners of eurovision' people) didnt win.

Exams Are OVERRRRRRRRRRR

2006-05-19T19:34:00.000+01:00

Whew!

Ok they went rubbish (grammatically incorrect I know) but they r over

I'm off to see the Khumars (at number 42)
I am also off to see this FOR FREE!
I am off to purccchaaase alcohol
I have scary St John Comittee meeting where I think I may have to give some sort of speech about freshers fair!!
I am getting an Ear Piece
I have Keratoconus which I didnt realise

Help me...you wonderful people!

2006-05-17T21:30:00.000+01:00

OK i'm not blogging....well alright I am.

I am having a slight crisis, I am ~ half way thru medical exams and I am franically revising for tommorw....which will be pretty close to hell (I imagine). It is the OSPE (practical exam) and Spotter (erm spotting exam-cadaver spotting that is!). I am sat staring at high powered LS section of a feline ovary and feeling seriously bogged down (not in the feline ovary!). You see the list of stuff I have to do tonight is a bit terryfying:

Embryology-essential
Histology-feline ovary and lovely firm prostates (among other things!)
Genetics-but I cant find the site...do you know?
OSPE Q'S-hmmm kinda useful
Patient practice-Sphigmomanometer and peak flow
Pharmacology
ANATOMY-----aaaargh I havn't even read dean and pegginton yet!

So you can see I am gonna be pooped at the end of all this, and this list is just the stuff I HAVE to do, there is more if I want a half decent mark!

Inspire me....even if u think its too late, I still have exams for ages yet.

FAW

2006-05-09T09:13:00.000+01:00

Wooo FAW qulafied too! FREE PARACETAMOL FOR ALL!!! also it means I can now go to Buckingham Palace Garden Parties.....I'm gonna meet the queen, (and stick her legs up in the air if she faints or is in shock...hey it could happen). Next i'm gonna be let loose on Defibrilators...then Ambulance Level 1 !!!!!!!

Patricia Hewitt stays at health

2006-05-05T17:58:00.000+01:00

Why oh why?...he's moved everyone else around, why not give someone else (a mentally deficent slug perhaps?) a chance? I'm sure they wont balls it up as much. But NO mus not get political. Exams now ....blog not.......see you on the other side.

I am Radio 1 qualified

2006-05-03T22:33:00.000+01:00

As part of this highly technical qualification we had to learn the NATO phonetic alphabet...Alpha Bravo Charlie etc... Pete offers this contribution:

"While working as a television news cameraman, I arrived at an accident scene, and a cameraman from another station pulled up behind me. As I parked the news cruiser, I heard a policeman on the scanner using the radio phonetic alphabet to alert other officers. "Be aware that the Mike Echo Delta India Alpha has arrived," he said. I approached the officer, looked him in the eye and said, "You might be surprised to know that some of us in the Mike Echo Delta India Alpha can Sierra Papa Echo Lima Lima." "

Not sure where it came from... so cant link it but vvv good!

Toodle pips I'm off to Pigeon Street (or Hattie Town).

I Love London

2006-04-28T08:20:00.000+01:00

It was the best show yet. Now a short but highly interesting review of the evening; we arrived with 1.5 hours before the doors open and were in the first like 80 people there. If you phone ahead and say you are coming from afar you get to go right up to the front...so i'll be doing that next time.

It was quite warm and we had chips to eat as we waited anyway so it was fine. The lady came and asked whether we had our tickets and we did. Then a security guy checked our bags. Then we meandered past lots of bronze hand prints which was interesting Davina mccall has big hands, ant and dec have girly hands.....I could continue (this is the kinda info everyone wants) but I wont!.

We got in there at 7:15 ish and at 7:30 it all began. Basically after the warm up the guys are just left to talk and make jokes. It was quite even but I would say Paul was funnier with his mad randomness. (He wins the game you know!) The presenter was the guy from 8 out of 10 cats so that was quite cool. It was mostle about the Labour government this week and obviously the can make sooo many jokes about all that. All in all it took 3 hours to film it!! but that was fine cos its like an institution and I had a really good view of them. Now pictures: 1.Hand prints 2.The empty studio 3. ok (1)=Ian Hislop (2)=that liberty woman (3)= the presenter (4)=Paul Merton, his guest was hiding behind him.

You all should come to some of these...i'm going to see QI, The Kumars, and Dead ringers. Should be fun!

The Marathon

2006-04-26T22:36:00.000+01:00

Well prepared to be wowed (or not) by my tales of the happenings at this years LM. First the basics; the LINKS station I was assigned to was at the 24th mile mark, so by the time they reached us the runners were looking pretty rough. It was also the wettest day in the history of the world. Us girlies wear this kinda hat, and I had to empty the brim constantly cos of the drips. Lovely Paul, myself and two girls from essex were in our foot patrol and it was brill fun.

OK although I was being profesional at all times I did meet some celebs. Highlights were: Gordon Ramsey-I helpfully yelled 'keep going', Stephen Redgrave-He was walking and so didn't deserve cheering, All the elite runners-too quick to shout at, Rebbecca Loo's-who I gave some vaseline to, which she smeared under her arm-pits (now there IS a claim to fame).

Now before I go on I must explain, running is sooo not glamourours and 'certain things rub' Vaseline is smeared on armpits, legs, nipples, and yes even in that area! Things were going great, you stand with a rubber glove on and a big gluey clump of vaseline on the end, the runners then grab a bit and smear accordingly. Then a man stopped and asked for some, I helpfully heald the tub out but he then said "can you apply it", so I had to......IN BETWEEN HIS LEGS-ewww. Although I have to say he had v big thigh muscles.

Ahh the next part of our job was to help those in need......of a leg massage. Basically they got cramp in their legs and it was our job to apply baby oil and rub their legs rigoursly to loosen the muscles. Not a bad job...most of the legs were lovely.

Policemen.....what can I say, they are just so much nicer to you when you are in uniform. They treat you like one of them. I even got a tea.

The last point was vomit. I saved vomiting Robin batman just kept running! After sitting mrs Robin down and giving her a bit of water she got right up and chased after batman...another person hapiliy treated.

It was an 11 hour duty and I was soooooooooooo tired, but I treated loads and got some cool freebies.

HIGNFY tomorrow...........YAY

Teaser

2006-04-25T21:14:00.000+01:00

Well my next post will involve the following:

Celebrities
Clebrities Armpits
Vaseline and mens groins
Baby oil and vigourous rubbing
Mens Legs
Policemen
Vomitt

Intrigued?......be patient hehehehe!

Ooo so much to tell you...

2006-04-25T20:21:00.002+01:00

Well first lets clear something up.........I AM STILL A PATHOLOGIST! they accepted my offer (even tho it was lateish)

Sausage (dumpling, squidgy-kins, sonja) is ill, she has been mauled by something (maybe a car, or fox or cat orr shot gun.) She may have broken bones and everything.

Ok nohyjubgthbgtrvtrvbhtbvgvfethbrgvgbyrnbthgv unh h tnb jnrfh nbj nuby hth v (by dhim)

byeeee

I am BUGGERED

2006-04-21T19:18:00.000+01:00

guess what, my pathology acceptance has got lost by FUCKIN royal mail and we only realised today when the deadline has already gone. I am so screwed I feel like crying. To make matters worse I just rejected my immunology place at UCL so I now have to go and do clinics for a year. I hate life its just bollocks really.

No title

2006-04-18T18:11:00.000+01:00

Not wishing to make you think i'm even wierder that before, I had ANOTHER dream last night. I think its not wanting to go back to London. This one I was sitting an exam, and there were a big stack of collpsable tall chairs now to make this story possible I will now show a pretty picture of the chairs:

Ok chair one is the normal chair which everyone else had and chair 2 was the one this other person got when they came in late after me. The third one I got when I came in, and you know when you don't want to move incase it breaks, well thats what it was like. Thinking about it now, I was actually sitting on two chair legs (i'm not sure how that works in real life but it did in the dream. I also had my red monkey bag with me.

I have mended my london shoes (see philippas blog) they are ready to go, but my hand did get stuck to the superglue bottle. Off to run around before tea. See you.

Tis most perplexing

2006-04-17T17:41:00.000+01:00

I shall tell you my dream I had last night. Ok Me and Phil had just been shopping, I had bought the Mail on Sunday which came with free ties (but these ones had poppers on) I was really excited about the one with a satelite on. Then we went to the canteen for dinner. While I was paying for my food a tall guy in a red puffer jacket came and stole 2quid off me. He went and sat down with some people from St John. I was distraught and started crying (even though he was right there across the room), phil and my other friends asked the staff at the canteen if they had CCTV footage of the 'incident' (the actuall words!). They said no. I decided I needed to be alone and went outside the canteen into the supermarket I went to the section selling blood sucking birds and took some feathers from them, then I went into the potted plant section but decided at the last minute that I didn't need a plant because I had feathers. I then found that at the end of each isle was a room from the University halls of residence and wanting to leave I walked out of the halls of residence. In order to leave (down some steps) I had to answer a question form this random guy, he asked my "what is my (as in his) favourite type of chineese food?" I answered "sweet and sour" and that was wrong. I then told him that I was just visiting a friend and that I didn't live in the halls. He then said I could leave so I climbed under the electric cable and walked down some steps, where I found my brown belt. I then walked through a gap in a fence then I don't remeber much else.

Now say I am sane!!

Incedently I only remember this because pete woke me up and I told him this while still half asleep. He then re-jigged mi memory to it!.

I am just before Victoria Embankment for the Marathon so look out for me!K im off to see Arsenal vs Villareal on Wed.

Chocolate---ahhh I missed you so!

2006-04-16T18:38:00.000+01:00

WOOOOO Easter! Jesus rose from the dead, and I had chocolate AND chicken (not at the same time). I was naughty and bought Peter an AMAZING Easter prezzie: ITS A CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN. It was dead cheap so I bought it and it was FAB (although pete is still eating all that choccie!)

its official i AM a pathologist

2006-04-08T12:48:00.000+01:00

YES my ardent fans, it is true. Recieved in the post this wintery morning was my offer to be a Pathologist at Queen Mary's next year! They are the cantre for Bird flu. So if your nice to me it'll be Tamiflu for all (although my parents want the first batch)!
Also I am at station 4.8 in the London marathon with the ULU posse!! So it is gonna be brill (Look out for me i'm wearing a hat! Wooooo life is exciting! Yummy chineesssseee yesterday even if we were hideously ignoored! Text me phil/melissa/edgar (I know he loves me the most!).
Look at the snow. Its just gone mad right now. When I was driving home last night it was like this mad electrical storm, then this morning its like this.

WOOOO HIGNFY

2006-04-07T09:13:00.000+01:00

I got 4 HIGNFY tickets! its very exciting. They sold out in like 1 hour. Well not really sold out cos they were free!!!. I still have an injured foot which I will show you all later (I know your gagging to see it!) and I have been submitted for the FAW course at St John! Meaning that hopefully soon I will be able to supervise all the dumb-ass ECS people. BUT NO BLOODY WORD FROM THE EXPERIMENTAL PATHOLOGY WOMAN-bitch!

Don't mention the 'M' word!

2006-04-04T21:02:00.000+01:00

Hehe I have sucessfully driven my dad slightly nutty recently over this highly important topic, but here is the proof it is actually feasible:

Already have ~500
Will get ~1000 by a slightly dodgy (but not illegal) means
That leaves ~3500 to get, which is more likely to be round £3000
Which I will get over Summer.

Job done.

Oh the M word is mini, by the way; like this pretty one here (which is only 1,000 on a well known internet auction site!:

That was so worth the skanky weather.

2006-04-03T16:06:00.000+01:00

Well here you are Deb-a-doodle bug, I have a piccy of peter and of Tony Robinson. He was such a funny if slightly over excited little man. What was almost AS funny as him were all his little grupees (and by little I mean elephant sized women-Dr Bender would have a nutritional field day there) who laughed at EVERYTHING. But we even got his Autograph (twice) and this slightly blurred picture of him with peter. (I think we may be turning into grupees ourselves).

Also I AM GOING TO ARSENAL FOR THE CL SEMI FINALS!!. So you have to look out for me on TV. QM are taking the piss though. They still hav'nt replied!

The Liver Pancreas and Spleen

2006-03-31T22:43:00.000+01:00

Ok yes I know its not charlie any more....blame my dad! ok I may change it back I'm just toooooooo tired.
I have been for several drives and ovetaken 2 milk tankers, loaaaads of granny cars and a crane. I have also revised it is just soooo fun.
Phil its up to you!!! think of fun things (oo the pressure!), I am going shopping for you tomorrow so prepare to be impressed...or not.
Our next (ish) door neighbours grandson, well grand nephew really, decided to drive his car into our field just to fix a stone wall!! Honestly lazy arse, and he was really mean to me at Chapel. But I feel better now, cos he has a crap car, no job and he is ginger and thick.
I found my birthday cake in the freezer. I cant eat it cos it lent so I just prodded it instead. Do you know we STILL have crabs and Lobsters in our freezer from like 244 years ago. Anyway HAPPY BITHDAY FOR TOMORROW!
I am now off to change into my chineese pjamas, as my purple ones got cat all down them this morning (my life is so glam)...ooo and the cuteish one of Eastenders just shot his nutter brother. But the terrible thing is Phil and Grant ARE STILL (pot-bellied and) ALIVE. This life is just not fair.

Ok maybe life aint THAT bad

2006-03-30T19:39:00.000+01:00

Found the random text was off Chris, so apparently the unit phone has 2 identities. He called me and we sorted the problem out. I managed to book tickets but I dunno whether I got em! I'm on reserve for the Arsenal Champions League Semi-Finals.I'm off to the O2 Wireless festival and I get in FREEEEEE. I'm gonna sign up for Twickenham ASAP and my UCL email is not working. But life has improved by approximately 12.482 (to 3.d.p).

I hate telephones and the internet....just technology in general really.

2006-03-30T12:14:00.000+01:00

Don't you just hate having to phone people? Well here is the scenario, I get a random text off somebody important (I can tell by the number), but I don't know who. This text informs me to call a certain guy...who is slightly annoying and slightly intimidating. As the text came late yesterday I ignoored it till this morning and when I try and call the certain guy I get his bloody answerphone!! I hate the calling of people and when you have geeed yourself up and are ready to face them, they shove their stupid answerphone in you face! as if saying "My social life is so hecktic I dont have time to ANSWER MY MOBILE". As you can see I am slightly agitated.

OK now the stupid internet. I get an email of Hat Trick telling me that 'Have I Got News For You (HIGNFU)' tickets are comming on at 12 today. I decide to have a preliminary glance over the site at 10 today and it says 11am!!!! So the dumb ass woman (MD-her initals) was trying to diddle me out of tickets. So feeling smug I get online for 10:55 read. It is 10:58 when the whole site crashes and only people with super fast broadband can get tickets, so I have to wait and refresh for 56 minutes untill I can get on the site. Any way I am waiting for an email telling me whether I get tickets, but dont hold ya breath (you will become Hypoxic!) cos last time they had all gone by 11:30.

The weather is nasty too, I have too much work, I have lost my bluetooth dongle, oh and I appear to now be allergic to Sonja.

Life is just FAB!

Hello happy little scrumpkins!

2006-03-22T17:11:00.000Z

I have been accepted onto my second choice (Immunology and Cell Pathology), still waiting on my first choice (Pathology @ Queen Mary's). But as you can probably guess I am VVVVVVVVVVVVVV happy, excited etc.....

Now onto more important things. Its a LINKS "Meet the new comittee night" in Lloyds bar down Charring Cross Road. As a comittee member it is my job to make members feel comfortable and to set an example of how St John should be. I intend to perform this task with alcohol. Enough said I think.

See you soon

Pictures-if u want to know then just ask me!

2006-03-19T23:17:00.000Z