Medicine "oop North"

[M Clayton]

Finally, both the Community Placement and Learning Portfolio have been put to bed. I am free again (for a time) and I'm so very happy.

It really has been a very tough fortnight folks and, if I were the navel gazing reflective type, I would analyse ad nauseum to look at what I can learn from it...

... but that's not me at all. If all you do is reflect back on stuff, you'll never move forward!

Here's to tomorrow!

Currently I am:
Listening to: Fountains of Wayne, Stacy's Mom
Eating: Haribo
Drinking: tea (400 tea bags in 7 weeks...)

[M Clayton]

I've been debating whether or not to provide you all with a rundown of what I've actually been up to over the past few weeks or not.

I could bore you all with excruciating details of two weeks of neuroanatomy and physiology.

But I won't.

I could recount the saga of the Community Placement report.

But I won't.

I could even spend some time talking about how I dyed my hair for a number of insane Saturday nights out.

But you don't want to hear that... :P

Instead, you want to hear about how I found a cat (yes a cat) in my room at around 11 o'clock last night.

I was happily in bed typing away on this thing (aren't long cables ace!?) when I heard a soft thud from over by the window. I looked up to see a ginger cat sitting on my floor cleaning itself!

I was as surprised as anyone would be to see a previously absent cat doing what cats do next to their shoes and rucksack but, being a kindly soul, decided not to shout at the animal and instead gently, but unceremoniously, dump it outside through my window.

The thing about the whole incident is this; the cat won't leave me alone! It now follows me whenever I go outside! I have to shout at it to make it go away!!!!!

I could be vulgar and say something along the lines of "I'm a kitten magnet" but won't

[M Clayton]

So it's the last day of term at last.

Hooray!!!!!

However, it has not begun well

I am currently firmly sited in a computer room having arrived for my last lecture of term a whole hour early! :evil:

I am never early

I am never late

I am always perfectly on time.

Although, at least I have colleagues to sit out the anguish with - Adam (S), Becki, I am truly sorry for having gotten you up so early as to be here now....

Currently I am:
Cursing my stupidity!

[M Clayton]

Yay, the time has come to go home.

Next time I post I should be in my own room again!

[M Clayton]

Good god it's Thursday! :shock:

Well, I didn't lie.

I am at home now although it took me a little longer than I anticipated to be in a position to post again.

Gather round the camp fire and get comfy kids, for I am in the mood to recount The Saga of the Dodgy Network (subtitled "this is what happens when you don't do things properly the first few times"). If you need to go to the loo or to get a drink or whatever, go now. I don't want anyone walking around during my story

I arrived home at around 8 o'clock on Friday evening having left uni just minutes after posting my last blog entry of the term. The observant amongst you will note that it took 4 hours to travel the 100 or so miles from Stockton to Hessle (near Hull - we have a big bridge, that is all). This is very wrong. It normally takes around an hour and a half but it seemed that the entire world wanted me to get home late. Car crashes, ten mile tailbacks, overturned lorries on the A1 (which should have no bearing on my journey since I use the A19!), diversions and slow tractors from hell all conspired to turn my brief jaunt into an odeous saga from the jaws of hell.

tbc

[M Clayton]

Bugger me it's Monday already! I'm getting worse and worse at writing entries for this thing and there's not really an excuse for it - all I can say in my defence is that we've had some nice weather and I've wanted to take advanctage. Sorry ops:

So, when I last left this, I was about to embark on the tale of my shoddy network, having prattled on for too long on the subject of my journey home. :roll:

Long story short, I didn't have access to the internet since my dodgy wiring of our home network finally gave up the ghost. It's done this once before but my masterful bodging had saved it, not once, but twice!

This time I couldn't do a thing and decided to put right my initial laziness by ripping out the original installation and fitting a nice, shiny, new one.

4 days of making a mess (by knocking holes in walls), crawling around in the filth of our attic and making enough noise to wake the dead later and the network was beautifully complete. It is an absolute picture of neatness - cable runs to die for and a fully patchable system of connections.

Hmmm, I sound like a bit of a geek don't I? meh, it made me happy!

The cabling was complete but I couldn't get the computers to talk to the server in the loft - it got to the stage where I was about ready to drop it through the ceiling of my sister's room but realised I'd probably get into trouble...

In the end, I virtually replaced every component of the server only to find that the shop bought patch cable that connects the server to the hub was faulty! So it wasn't my fault after all...

Ah well, thus endeth the saga of the network. It works now and that's all that matters, right?

The rest of my holiday so far has been remarkably non descript - work, bumming around the house, that sort of thing.

Currently I am:
Listening to: Norah Jones, Turn Me On

[M Clayton]

You know it's bad when you get junk mail from New Zealand. We're not talking about junk e-mail here folks, I'm referring to proper, physical junk post.

From New Zealand. :shock:

Well, it amazed me. Last time I tell you anything exciting... mumble mumble groan groan.



Yesterday was a fairly good day during which I participated in the final Medicine Masterclass of this academic year. This entailed travelling the 100 miles or so back to Queen's Campus and, given my poor record on travelling up there by car, decided to travel by train.

Big mistake!

First off, it cost me £23, yes 23 quid, return and that was with my Young Person's railcard. Grrr, all that bloody expense. Trains are slow, stupidly uncomfortable and, to cap it all, there are people that snore in the quiet coach! Snoring is noise too! These people need a slapping. I'll come back to this garbage later when I've discussed the masterclass.

Tommorow...

[M Clayton]

Busy life.

Annoying people.

The less said the better.

I've started the SSC and it really is as dull as ditchwater.

Why, oh why did I pick such a boring topic?!

[M Clayton]

I'm still here but sooo busy.

[M Clayton]

Where do the holidays go these days?

I dunno, in my day 5 weeks lasted forever. Now it seems that there's no time at all to get these bloody assignments done and I've got a host of other garbage that requires my urgent attention as well. Grrrr, why am I so easily distracted?!?! Like now, I could be working, but no, I'm writing this!

Help? :?

So, what have I actually been up to to waste all my time in such a nondescript fashion?

- I've helped my dad to lay a huuuuge patio and path thing in our back garden. It looks good, if I do say so myself. If medicine goes bad for me, I feel safe in the knowledge that I could become a professional (or cowboy, I care not) builder. I even have a mug with cement on it and a grubby t-shirt. 8)

- I've been out on duty at various events with St. John over the past few weeks. I've been either the Incident Officer or member of the Incident Team. In these pivotal roles (Incident Team/Officer is the role tasked to attend all major casualties and incidents that occur during the duty - that means you get the resus kit etc) I have treated precisely 1 casualty. One. And I had to steal that one from one of the First Aid Teams! Sigh, I want to be on a First Aid Team again, although the radio callsign India 2 is quite nice....

- I've done a little bit of work on the Patient Study and abandoned the SSC as a lost cause. Hopefully I'll be able to do something with it in the week that's left. :?

Oh well, I will chill out. Life has a way of working out in the end!

(Oft Copied but the original and best) Currently I am:
Listening to: Jamie Cullum - High and Dry
Watching: Jonathan Ross
Reading: Pete McCarthy - The Road to McCarthy