I bought the coolest and saddest things today! I went to Tesco’s and saw that some slate placemats I’d been admiring for some time were reduced from £6.95 for two to £3.48 for two. I dithered and pondered, and contemplated that I, as a penniless student really shouldn’t be spending £10 on 6 placemats I won’t need for several years, but also pondering that where else was I going to see 6 placemats for a tenner. In the end I decided to buy them (obviously – this story would have little point if I didn’t). And joy of joys at the checkout they were actually priced £1.74 for two! Which means I got 6 real slate placemats for £5.22!

Pretty, no? They aren’t gradiented or anything – that is the reflection of the material. They are about 0.5cm thick with a polished edge and slight sparkle. And little flower designs.
So domesticated.

Gah. Evil sibling spread her germs. Luckily all I have is agonising stomach pains and nausea and an inability to eat anything other than potato and water but hey! Could have been worse!

I’s getting a dog! This summer – finally, after about 15 years of wanting a dog. V. exciting

Ok, I will post a sensible post. Sorry, I’ll re-phrase that – I will post a post with words in it. No guarantee will be made for the level of sense found therein.

My father has altered the creak pattern of the stairs. My room is on the mezzanine floor, two steps under the top floor where the bathroom is. In my quest for said bathroom this evening at 2am New Time I began my long accustomed Dance Of The Creak Avoidance out of my room and up those two stairs. This involves avoiding a hidden area of creak by my door, standing on the brass strip across the doorway, missing the mezzanine step completely, and stepping onto the first step edge before stepping onto the landing. The mezzanine step creaks like the doors of Hell** and so is best avoided even during daylight. The later steps are somewhat creaky, but using the edges of them previously minimised any noise.

And so, this evening I begin my ritual, only to find that my father has repaired the mezzanine stair, a fact that half registered in my mind and so disrupted the routine and caused me to distractedly step on the middle of the first step and then trip onto the landing. So rattled was I by this failure, I was thrown on the return trip also, and stepped on the mezzanine stair (now silent) but forgot the entrance of my room hid another secret creak.

You wouldn’t think home improvement could be so emotionally devastating. *twitches*

**I apologise for questioning without fair basis the quality of care the maintenance people of Hell carry out on the doors therein.

O.O

And so, last night was our end of rotations meal. With 14 girls going out to terrorise a local eatery, we decided to borrow the college’s minibus for the evening. Luckily one of our number had given up alcohol for lent, and so was the self-appointed designated driver. We gave ourselves 45 minutes to pick up three sets of people and travel to the restaurant that was about 15 minutes away.

And so we set off, with 5 in the bus and the wheels going round and round. We dropped 1 off to fetch 4 others from their house when we get a call that a previously unsure member had decided to come. So abandoning the 1+4 we drove back to pick up the unsure 1, before doubling back again to get the waiting 5. 1 was ill so we only took 4. Then, with 9 in the bus we drove to the High Street to get another 2. However, the one route into the High Street was blocked with a broken down bus in the middle of the traffic lights. Whilst queuing, gear 1 disappeared and we had to being doing hill starts in gear 2. We eventually (after about 15 minutes) bullied our way through (being for once bigger than most other vehicles) and got to pick up the 2. We then tried to pull out onto the busy High Street and promptly stalled, sideways on blocking both lanes. Tried to start it, no joy. The only choice was to let the bus roll backwards and try starting gently (whilst trying not to flood it) from the turning we were coming out of. Eventually it started, and we pulled off in gear 2 again to start the next leg – to pick up the last 2. On driving into the drive of the last 2′s farm and trying to turn around the bus found itself facing uphill on the drive with 13 girls in it and all 4 gears disappeared in protest. De-girling the bus worked for some reason and gear 2 was found again. We trundled off and all 13 made it to the eatery in a snappy hour and a quarter!

The meal itself was good although the service was appalling. Well, the service was ok, food was hot and fast, but the woman serving wouldn’t know a smile or common courtesy if it slapped her in the face. We felt most unwelcome and I shan’t be going there again. I’m borderline thinking of writing to them to inform them of the effect that rudeness can have – 13 people were irritated and bad news travels much further than good. However, the company was brilliant as we like each other a lot, and the relatively uneventful drive home in a bus of 12 tipsy and 1 sober girls singing “The wheels on the bus go round and round” loudly was good fun

I have a good rotation group We rock

After getting 150 spam comments to moderate in one day I decided to invest in some “Protection”. *mean spam bouncers shuffle up and grunt*

If you (my innocent reader) gets troubled by one of the boys, do let me know

Someone’s happy

Today I had my Finals Part 2 – a practical exam, and it was huge amounts of fun! I think I am viewed as slightly odd in that not only did I find it fun, but I was rather looking forward to it as well. Only a couple of mistakes that I’m aware of, which included babbling in a communications station and then adding “Know what I mean?” What a laugh though, like the Crystal Maze with a medical era…

As for the weather, it’s SUNNY! The sun came out just as I left the house and is setting now as I returned. Walking around campus with a gillet on wasn’t too cold. I went to visit my case from last week after my exam, the library didn’t charge me for my overdue book and in my exam I started on station 7 – lucky number! It’s all good

*pootles off, happily*

EDIT *chortle* I forgot to tell you my way of revising this morning. I used Henry my bear to be in turns, a dog, a horse, a cow and a sheep. Some species he did better than others. He had a fine needle aspirate, xrays (using placemats to represent xray plates), I draped him (using newspaper for drapes and pegs for clips), I catheterised him using screwed up bits of paper and tape, and he had a full orthopaedic exam. I then did an invisible blood smear and tested my microscopy skills on an invisible microscope. A productive morning’s worth of revision!

I had my last shift tonight. My end of rotations is a tad extended as not only did I work this evening for a couple of hours but I volunteered to go in Monday and help the freshers get to know the Neuro cases. And so we (me and the girl who also volunteered) have stolen unceremoniously the accolade of being the last of our year on rotation from the girl doing the 8pm-8am shift. Mwahaha..ha..he…eh?

Yeah, I know, Clinician’s Pet.

I was very down yesterday after going to the End of Rotations piss up. Don’t wanna go do lectures again, gonna miss my rotations group

I feel a bit adrift at the moment…

Tomorrow is the last day of my rotations. This week has been Neurology, and contrary to the dark words of other people, we’ve had an absolute whale of a time. The clinicians are nice, we’ve bonded with our cases and we’re really throwing ourselves into it – probably because it’s the last week. The end is most definately in sight. I have one shift on the weekend but being 2 hours or so long that doesn’t count. It’s utterly bizarre that it’s over – thinking back to what I called then “The Last Day Of Freedom” it really doesn’t feel like a whole year. And although the lure of being able to lie in is strong, it doesn’t really feel like freedom either. I’m happiest when I’m working hard, working long hours, not getting enough to eat. I’m at my most depressed when left to my own devices – getting up late, sleeping too much, not working, pratting about all day. I suppose I’ll have more time to do nothing.

Applications opened yesterday. Scary time. More scary than practical exams next week.

And there is a new object of my affections. He made the fatal mistake of taking his labcoat off to reveal a rather buff physique. Combine that with a lovely accent and a very silly sense of humour and you perhaps can see why.