Helpful Pharmacy

I went to the pharmacy today (to get some shampoo and toothpaste). Nothing that exciting. However as I was searching for toothpaste the pharmacist decided to walk off to somewhere in the back of the shop. Suddenly a tv screen in the shop (don't really know why a pharmacy needs a tv hanging from the ceiling) turned on and started playing some sort of advert. At least I think it was an advert. It consisted of a soft woman's voice saying over and over again 'feeling down? Feel like you need help? We can help you!' I don't know whether this was put on for my benefit since the tv had only come on shortly after i'd entered the shop. Maybe they thought I looked upset or in urgent need of help in some way. Maybe I look like a complete wreck. Maybe it was just some sort of strange coincidence that an advert happened to start playing, and then replaying.........a number of times just after i'd come in. Whatever the reason when I was waiting at the counter with my shampoo and toothpaste in hand the tv was off again and the pharmacist came back out from wherever he was hiding. I didn't ask him for help. I hope he wasn't too disappointed.

Long time no blog........part 2

Well that was a successful 'revitalisation' of my blog. Not much has really been happening. Just the usual lectures. I'm currently not feeling 100% and have been trying to start revision over the last couple of weeks. I would say this has been successful but I can't remember the stuff I just learnt. And everyone is either already finished for the year or will have finished their exams by the end of this week so that leaves me the only resident of my house for 3 weeks.....joy. I say that with sarcasm but a part of me thinks it will be quite useful as I may get so bored i'll be forced to revise. Or i'll get so depressed i'll become a hermit in the basement, avoiding sunlight and fresh air. To be fair, minus the depression part, that has kind of been an adequate description of me this year.

Oh well, at the end of exams I've booked a trip to Stockholm for a few days to see a friend (thanks to a ryanair sale) so thats something I'm really looking forward to. Just have to get these exams out of the way first!

Long time no blog

Well, as the title says, its been a long time since my last blog post. So I thought its about time I revitalise my blog. Only problem is I don't really have anything interesting to revitalise it with. So to say i'm revitalising it would be a lie.

A lot has happened since my last post, a lot meaning its too much to write about on here. So i'm just going to write about not writing about it. What a succesful blog post this is turning out to be.............................

Well we started our time on the wards on Friday. Unfortunately it was cancelled for my group due to the ward being relocated. So instead we start next Friday. This provided my group with a morning off which I then proceeded to waste by attempting to have a lie in which didn't quite work out. Oh well.

I also applied to be part of a scheme they have at my uni called the WAMS mentoring scheme (WAMS standing for widening access to medicine). Its basically a scheme to help encourage people who wouldn't normally consider medicine to do so, providing them with a current medical student to answer questions, help them with their UCAS stuff, give them advice and info on the interviews etc. But when we had the meeting my mentee didn't turn up. I later found out that, along with some other mentees, he had decided not to take part in the scheme after all. So i'm currently menteeless. Oh well.

I passed my handwashing exam which, as you can imagine, was very challenging. So challenging in fact one person failed because they forgot to use soap. Hmmmmm.

People keep coming to look at our house (as we've decided to live somewhere else next year). This has proved quite annoying, especially when you're in a toilet which doesn't have a lock and a group of random people try to open the door thinking its a bedroom and not bothering to knock first. Luckily I stopped them opening the door before they saw me. But they still found the situation hilarious. I didn't, especially since on coming out of the toilet I was greeted by the words, 'when you have to go you have to go!' to the sounds of laughter. I was just like, 'er, yeah' whilst wondering what the point of that statement was. Thankfully it seems someone must have signed for the house as the 'visits' seem to have stopped.

Blood

I just went along with my flatmate to try and donate blood (a bit of a spur of the moment thing but i've wanted to do it for a while, I just never got round to it). I filled in the form and answered their questions. But I wasn't able to give blood yet because they have slight issues with my damaged kidney acquired when I was a baby due to a urinary tract infection. So now I have to wait for them to contact my G.P. to make sure donating my blood won't affect my fully functioning kidney. Its weird because the fact I have only one fully functioning kidney has never affected my life in any way before. But I know they're required to check 'for my own safety'. So i'll just have to wait and see if i'm able to give blood. At least I now know i'm not anaemic. And as a result of the prick test to confirm this fact I have acquired a ridiculously big plaster to cover the tiny prick on my finger tip, making it look like i've got a much more serious injury to my finger.

I also made use of the trip to town for the blood test to get some things for my latest costume. On Saturday I will dress up as a Finnish person. This basically involves lots of blue and white. It was going to involve a blond wig but I decided after buying the blue and white face paint and hair spray that i'm too cheap. So unfortunately there will be no wig. I was atually going to be a shark (my costume is supposed to link in with a underground station so i've chosen Finsbury Park) but there was no way I was going to have time to make a shark costume (I have 2 exams, a presentation and an essay all in for next week). So I decided to be Finnish (which my finnish flatmate is anticipating the result of). We shall see how it turns out...............

First Aid

Mondays for the last 4 weeks have been non-stop 9-5 first aid days. I can't say those have been 4 rivetting mondays but they were useful and we had a really good instructor. So anyway as of Monday this week I am a qualified first aider as I passed the exam (to be honest it would be a bit worrying if I didn't being a medical student and all). So thats one exam out of the way. Only 3 more, a presentation and an essay to do before the end of term. Woohoo.

Duke Of Edinburgh

I was home for one day on Wednesday two weeks ago (it took me a while to get round to finishing this blog entry) to finally collect my Duke Of Edinburgh award.

I was kind of shattered from going out a bit too much earlier in the week and was hoping for a bit of a lie in when I got home. But it turned out my presentation was at 11am so there wasn't much chance of that. In fact we had to be at the palace at 10 something or other to give them time to get us all ready for the presentation at 11. So at 9 my sister and I left the house to make our way to St. James' Palace. We managed to get there before the set time and got in the red London queue (there were different queues depending on which part of the country you were from). As we made our way into the palace it was all quite weird. I'm not very comfortable when things are really formal and it was obviously very formal in the palace. It was strange seeing what seemed to be palace servants around the place, something I find very alien, especially in this day and age. And we were told to go from room to room, pointed the way by various staff members stationed at doorways. It all seemed a bit of a maze. The palace was grand with all sorts of castle like decorations (ie. lots of gold and old paintings). We ended up in the throne room (thats where the London group presentation was). The London group was also the first group to be presented to. We had to wait quite a while with those getting the awards on one side and our guests on the other. I spent that time talking to the people sitting next to me who were friendly (one of whom was expressing his desire to become an escort).

Eventually the Duke of Edinburgh arrived and we had to stand in a semi circle shaped group. He came and asked us questions about what we did to get our awards before asking questions to our guests. He came across as quite friendly and fun (which surprised me as I was expecting him to be a bit of an old fuddy duddy type) and he didn't make any politically incorrect comments as he seems to be known for.

After he'd left for the next room we were presented with our awards by the author Anthony Horowitz. When I was younger and actually finished the books I started reading I loved Anthony Horowitz books and considered him my favourite author so it was pretty cool to meet him. He asked a couple of questions such as what and where I studied and whether I was enjoying it.

After that we were free to go, though it took quite a while to get out as we had to wait for the other rooms to finish their presentations before we could walk through them to get to the exit.

Once we'd left we went to Misato to eat which was nice, even if there was a large queue and the 'waitresses' told us to get our own water when we asked for some. How I miss Chinatown. I stocked up on pork and chicken buns (which unfortunately I have now run out of). Then we went back home, tired but satisfied.

Mucha

I've been doing a bit of drawing around christmas and since i've been back. Its mainly been me copying Mucha paintings/posters. So I thought i'd put a couple on here:

Wha da ya want!?

It seems my French flatmates have just discovered the joys of a Yorkshire accent or should that be I have just discovered the joys of their attempts at a Yorkshire accent. While I was cooking some noodles in our kitchen they were sitting together eating their meal and conversing. The conversation seemed to have more than its fair share of the phrases 'ma love' and my personal favourite 'Wha da ya want!?' I was informed by these flatmates that this is how Yorkshire folk speak. I have come to the conclusion that my french flatmates are brilliant.