Tuesday 13 April 2010

Blisters, Rowing and Finance

I keep forgetting to say I actually met Mitch Benn when I went to see, him, which was awesome and I got totally star struck :) We were hanging around in the room so they guys I was with could finish their drinks and he wandered back in to get his stuff. One of the guys (rather drunk) turns to him and said “Oooo, it’s you! She loves you! She’s the reason we’re all here!” *Bean blushes and wishes the ground would swallow her – she isn’t drunk. Never mind, it was awesome and I shook his hand :D


In other, more Doctor-y related bean news, I’ve been putting my application for student finance at last, now I know I’ll definitely need it. I’ve been doing it online because they’ve still got all my details from last time so it’s easier that way. Just before you click ‘send’ they show you a summary screen of what you’re likely to get (with a rough estimate of the means-tested bit) and I was very surprised to see them offering me a fee loan after a comment I got after mentioning it last time about someone else not being able to have it. I shall have to wait and see if they cotton on and retract that bit, though I did say that yes I had already done a degree. Maybe it’s because it’s a five year course? I don’t know. I should get the max means tested bits (excluding the London extra) and a bursary from the uni themselves, so… shock horror, don’t panic people, this might actually be fundable by myself! (However, all this will take my student debt up to around £55,000, and I dread to think the interest on that. It’s all fake money, isn’t it, I can’t possibly owe that much and only have a bit of paper and some letters [Dr Bean MBBS BSc Hons :p] to show for it). I’ve been trying to put my Dad’s figures in to the support a student’s application bit, but the clever, clever people have decided now, in the middle of application season, would be a good time to take the system down to upgrade it, so it’s not working and won’t let me link Dad to me. Bean is not amused.

The rest of this week brought a busy week at work with system failures a-plenty (aircon down leading to a flood in the main off-site server room – useful!), a surprise birthday outing to a pub quiz for someone on my team (what English word that describes an occupation contains three sets of consecutive double letters? Answers in the comments, solution next week people), successful haggling of my phone network to give me the shiny new phone I wanted and a great package for not much monies at all (leading to a jealous mr because he wants the shiny new phone and good contract) which is being delivered today, a lovely congratulations card signed by everyone at work waiting for me on my desk Friday morning and I’ve been asked to put together and captain a team from work to enter the Bell boat race as part of the local Business Games. All in all, a pretty good week, as long as I don’t have to hold anything… I went rowing again Sunday in the beautiful sunshine. Our four combined with a novice four to go out in an 8, which is a bit like trying to manoeuvre a lorry when it’s full of a novice crew. We were using their novice blades, which have cheese-grated my hands – 11 blisters in 3 hours including two sets of blisters on blisters, or rather in them, once they burst - luuurvly :p. It’s a toss-up see, I need calluses to be a rower, but soft hands to touch patients as a Dr. On the plus side, coach is happy with me and the novices said I was the best stroke they’ve ever had (sshhh, I know they haven’t had much experience, just let me bask in the compliment for a while, ok?) and I got a nice tan (which is secretly the whole reason I row). So now my hands can mostly be found covered in as many moisturisers as I can find to try and heal them before my next outing next weekend. So I shall leave you scratching your heads over that double letters conundrum and wave you a shiny, manky-handed goodbye for now. Hope you can get the opportunity to take some time off to enjoy the lovely weather.

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