Hello people :) It’s Friday and it’s sunny!!! Can you tell I’m happier today? :p Firstly: it’s Friday, which is pretty much as good as a working week gets, bar the odd dress down day or bank holiday Monday. Next, an update on the Hep B antigen fiasco: Dr rang PMS, Dr rang lab, lab said they’d do the right test. Intriguingly, I got the results as a screen dump printed from my records the next morning, which hints slightly of ‘well, we’ll just fill the screen in as though she had it to keep the med school happy’, if I was being a cynical person. Especially because they said before it would take three weeks to get the results back, and I know I’m not that much of an important person to get a rush job done. Ah well, stop complaining bean. I sent the screen print off yesterday and so I am all sorted and should soon be a fully confirmed Peninsula Medical Student. How exciting!
Things aren’t entirely all going my way however as I’m under a mountain of work – to the extent that everything’s out of target and it’ll only be moved up the pile if I’m chased for it, which is not how I like to work, but needs must. Mr’s present STILL hasn’t arrived, and it was his birthday Wednesday, and I found out this week that my cousin in law’s cancer has come back, which is pants because she’s only been in remission 2 years. Fingers crossed for her. Aww, and my cat’s got an irritation of some sort with her eye so she keeps blinking it shut and looking at me mournfully, however it does make her look a little like a pirate which is hilarious. She is not amused with me keep laughing at her though. I’m getting grumpy faces from my pirate puss.
However all of that is out of my mind, a) because it’s Friday, b) I’m seeing mr tomorrow (eee! – but panic - where do I get a decent birthday present from?) and c) Hey, Soul Sister by Train. How can you not smile when you hear this song? They were on CSI the other day and I found the album and the first 4 songs on it have been on repeat for the last two days :) Enjoy the sunshine guys.
Friday, 21 May 2010
Monday, 17 May 2010
Pickled Bean
Well today finds me in a bit of a pickle, but overall happy. When I had my first offer for Southampton, they asked that I start my Hep B vaccination straight away. I never finished the course because I didn’t get in. One of the conditions of my Peninsula place is having a clear Occupational Health test, which involves having a clear Hep B surface antigen test. After the fun of having my blood taken (see last post), I rang up the next day to double check the right test had been asked for, which it had. When I went to collect the results on Friday, the receptionist happily told me I was Hep B immune. Now, this shouldn’t be possible to tell from an antigen test. Here comes the science: Antigens are little bits of the pathogen cut up and displayed on the outside of cells, ready for the antibodies to come along and try and recognise, which they would be able to do if you’ve seen something before. If they do, they replicate and mount the appropriate specialised response which helps you beat it quickly and efficiently, if not, you have to tough the buggy out with your normal non-specialised, less effective approach. So in short, an antigen test would say whether or not I had the thing, an antibody test would say I had seen it before or was immune to it. So you can see I was a little perplexed. The test that had been asked for was indeed an antigen test, but the lab had decided an antibody test would be more appropriate. Grr. Now logic says if I’m immune to it, I can’t have it, so I bundled all my paperwork together and sent it all off to PCMD. I called them this morning to check that given the results, the antibody test would be fine, but they were adamant they wanted an antigen test. *Sigh* I called my Dr’s and explained, and then got a very shouty call back from my Dr about time wasting and money wasting, and he doesn’t seem to want to listen to me saying that I know this and I’m sorry and I’ve told them but they won’t budge. Eeep! And my Dr’s always been so nice to me 0_0 He wanted PCMD’s number to yell at them himself, so I’m waiting for the fallout from that. Oh dear… How can I be in PCMD’s bad books when I haven’t even started yet :(
Other than that, it was a good weekend. I finished the jumper, and apart from being a little tight across the, er, chest area (making me look massive, lol) it’s lovely. I’m hoping it’ll be better with a shirt under it, squishing me in, and not the horizontally stripy thing I was trying it on over. I had a club day at the rowing club learning about safety and welfare and proper warm ups and I super-duperly passed a hamstring flexibility test :) Flexible bean.
I also went sale shopping and am very nearly all sorted for uni now. PCMD has two balls a year – a summer and winter. I bought a load of dresses off ebay before I went to Southampton, but then I lost a load of weight whilst away, so my old size 12 wardrobe doesn’t fit me now I’m a size 8. I’ve been slowly replacing things over time as required – like jeans and jumpers and work stuff, and now I also have a summer coat, and some dresses, including a beautiful floor length dress perfect for mr’s commissioning dinner. I had to get a cardi as well, because the army has some silly rule about dresses not being allowed to show the ankles or the shoulders (because the sight of bare ankles and shoulders drive men wild don’t ya know?!), and it’s nearly impossible to find one that does both and doesn’t make me look about 50. I’m so excited, I can’t wait for an excuse to wear them now, they’re so pretty! I wouldn’t say I’m terribly girly, I normally can’t stand giggling silly-ily dressed girls (what’s wrong with jumpers and coats?), but I do like a nice swishy dress :) Don’t worry, you’ll still never catch me in pink or anything flowery. All that’s left to get now is another pair of work trousers, chocolate brown ones I think, some stationary bits and a couple more textbooks. And then I’ll be an all sorted bean, exciting stuffs!
Mr’s birthday present hasn’t arrived yet, and it’s his birthday this week, eep! I’m seeing him at the weekend, so hopefully it’ll arrive before then, and I’ll only be a couple of days late with it. Aww, and in other rubbish bean news, I lost my seat in the boat because I had to miss that one outing because of the silly nurse. Boo! I’ve been demoted from stroke to 2. Altogether now: thiiiiiiiiings, can only get betterrrrrr, can only get…… :D Have a good week guys.
Other than that, it was a good weekend. I finished the jumper, and apart from being a little tight across the, er, chest area (making me look massive, lol) it’s lovely. I’m hoping it’ll be better with a shirt under it, squishing me in, and not the horizontally stripy thing I was trying it on over. I had a club day at the rowing club learning about safety and welfare and proper warm ups and I super-duperly passed a hamstring flexibility test :) Flexible bean.
I also went sale shopping and am very nearly all sorted for uni now. PCMD has two balls a year – a summer and winter. I bought a load of dresses off ebay before I went to Southampton, but then I lost a load of weight whilst away, so my old size 12 wardrobe doesn’t fit me now I’m a size 8. I’ve been slowly replacing things over time as required – like jeans and jumpers and work stuff, and now I also have a summer coat, and some dresses, including a beautiful floor length dress perfect for mr’s commissioning dinner. I had to get a cardi as well, because the army has some silly rule about dresses not being allowed to show the ankles or the shoulders (because the sight of bare ankles and shoulders drive men wild don’t ya know?!), and it’s nearly impossible to find one that does both and doesn’t make me look about 50. I’m so excited, I can’t wait for an excuse to wear them now, they’re so pretty! I wouldn’t say I’m terribly girly, I normally can’t stand giggling silly-ily dressed girls (what’s wrong with jumpers and coats?), but I do like a nice swishy dress :) Don’t worry, you’ll still never catch me in pink or anything flowery. All that’s left to get now is another pair of work trousers, chocolate brown ones I think, some stationary bits and a couple more textbooks. And then I’ll be an all sorted bean, exciting stuffs!
Mr’s birthday present hasn’t arrived yet, and it’s his birthday this week, eep! I’m seeing him at the weekend, so hopefully it’ll arrive before then, and I’ll only be a couple of days late with it. Aww, and in other rubbish bean news, I lost my seat in the boat because I had to miss that one outing because of the silly nurse. Boo! I’ve been demoted from stroke to 2. Altogether now: thiiiiiiiiings, can only get betterrrrrr, can only get…… :D Have a good week guys.
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
What a Difference A Day Makes
After my grumpy post last time I did indeed go home and curl up on the sofa with knitting and hot chocolate. I have nearly finished my jumper now, just have the neck band to put on, although I have to do a bit of repair work on it because in my eagerness to see what it would be like I managed to undo the stitch holder and a whole load of live stitches slipped off it. It has been gingerly put down until I can take a crotchet hook to it to pull the stitches back up, else the whole thing is going to unravel :-s I did buy some Sirdar Crofters self fair-isling wool to make some tank tops for when this silly jumper finished.
Oh, and the final verdict is that I love the jumper, it’s very me: nice and long in the sleeve and short on the body, so now I just hope I can rescue it! I also used a bit of retail therapy over the weekend too, and bought some super comfy new black heels for work, and a backpack with laptop compartment for uni. Also quite excited because I noticed some more things have gone off my Amazon wishlist.
When my alarm went off Monday I was super happy for some reason. I opened the curtain, saw the beautiful, blazing sunshine and was wide awake with the first alarm, whereas I’m normally still groggily trying to sneak a few more minutes of sleep by my third alarm, 20 minutes later. I would like to think that when I’m doing a job I actually want to do and enjoy, getting up won’t be such a struggle as it is now. Hopefully. I was early to work, and even though I was on my own all day because the rest of my bank of desks was on holiday, I was smiley and happy all day.
Today was completely different. I opened the curtains and it was grey and miserable. No wide awake bean raring to get up and start the day here. I wasn’t too late for work, only about 10 minutes, and as long as you do 7 hours a day and are here between the core 10-3 hours, they don’t mind. I did my morning reports and then an Internet Explorer window opened and started loading. Three seconds later and another one opened. And another, and another. As fast as I was shutting them, they were opening more. I got 65 windows in the end, which I thought was quite impressive. Ever get the feeling today isn’t going to work?
I had my blood test scheduled for thismorning, so off I poddled, straight in to the nurses room, on goes the tourniquet and the nurse asks if I have any problems having my blood taken. I explain not really, but I do have quite a low pain threshold. She says she's the same, so she’ll be gentle. She started tapping an odd vein I thought, not the normal one I get my bloods taken from, but the cephalic, further over. I looked away for the scratch and when I looked back because it seemed to be taking a long time, there’s no blood going into the tube and she’s wiggling the needle and digging it deeper and deeper into my arm. I can see the vein is going diagonally across my cubital fossa just under the skin, but she seems to be putting the needle vertically up my arm. She eventually gets a little dribble by waving the needle and sometimes it orientates in the same direction as the vein, quarter fills the tube, and grabs another tube to fill. I asked what the second tube was for because I was there for a Hep B surface antigen test. She says one is for a full blood count and one is for ferratin levels. I corrected her and I guess that threw her a bit because when she went to take the needle out she yanked it straight up out of my arm, rather than drawing the needle out of the same path it went in by. Suffice to say, it’s quite painful now, and I’ve had to drop out of rowing tonight because I can’t really bend my arm without it being painful. Rather than having a nice neat little dot, I have two large dots, a centimetre apart and a line joining them, like a cat scratch. She smiled at me as I was leaving and said she hopes I recover and isn’t it funny how it’s always the people with the low pain threshold who it’s hard to get blood from. I’ve never had a problem before…. o_0 I will be very surprised if I get the right test done after all that, though I did tell her a few times. I really hope she was having an off day and not like that all the time. Ah well, I guess bad experiences will only make me a better Dr, since I’ll know what it feels like. I went to Sainsbury’s on the way back to work and got a pain au chocolat for being a brave bean at the Dr’s :) The afternoon is so far bringing lots of computer crashes, email server’s down and it’s raining. Today def should have been a duvet day. Although, I have found this interesting website, which looks promising. I have to admit the idea of MTAS scares me a little, since it doesn’t seem to have had the best track record. The week can only get better, right?
When my alarm went off Monday I was super happy for some reason. I opened the curtain, saw the beautiful, blazing sunshine and was wide awake with the first alarm, whereas I’m normally still groggily trying to sneak a few more minutes of sleep by my third alarm, 20 minutes later. I would like to think that when I’m doing a job I actually want to do and enjoy, getting up won’t be such a struggle as it is now. Hopefully. I was early to work, and even though I was on my own all day because the rest of my bank of desks was on holiday, I was smiley and happy all day.
Today was completely different. I opened the curtains and it was grey and miserable. No wide awake bean raring to get up and start the day here. I wasn’t too late for work, only about 10 minutes, and as long as you do 7 hours a day and are here between the core 10-3 hours, they don’t mind. I did my morning reports and then an Internet Explorer window opened and started loading. Three seconds later and another one opened. And another, and another. As fast as I was shutting them, they were opening more. I got 65 windows in the end, which I thought was quite impressive. Ever get the feeling today isn’t going to work?
I had my blood test scheduled for thismorning, so off I poddled, straight in to the nurses room, on goes the tourniquet and the nurse asks if I have any problems having my blood taken. I explain not really, but I do have quite a low pain threshold. She says she's the same, so she’ll be gentle. She started tapping an odd vein I thought, not the normal one I get my bloods taken from, but the cephalic, further over. I looked away for the scratch and when I looked back because it seemed to be taking a long time, there’s no blood going into the tube and she’s wiggling the needle and digging it deeper and deeper into my arm. I can see the vein is going diagonally across my cubital fossa just under the skin, but she seems to be putting the needle vertically up my arm. She eventually gets a little dribble by waving the needle and sometimes it orientates in the same direction as the vein, quarter fills the tube, and grabs another tube to fill. I asked what the second tube was for because I was there for a Hep B surface antigen test. She says one is for a full blood count and one is for ferratin levels. I corrected her and I guess that threw her a bit because when she went to take the needle out she yanked it straight up out of my arm, rather than drawing the needle out of the same path it went in by. Suffice to say, it’s quite painful now, and I’ve had to drop out of rowing tonight because I can’t really bend my arm without it being painful. Rather than having a nice neat little dot, I have two large dots, a centimetre apart and a line joining them, like a cat scratch. She smiled at me as I was leaving and said she hopes I recover and isn’t it funny how it’s always the people with the low pain threshold who it’s hard to get blood from. I’ve never had a problem before…. o_0 I will be very surprised if I get the right test done after all that, though I did tell her a few times. I really hope she was having an off day and not like that all the time. Ah well, I guess bad experiences will only make me a better Dr, since I’ll know what it feels like. I went to Sainsbury’s on the way back to work and got a pain au chocolat for being a brave bean at the Dr’s :) The afternoon is so far bringing lots of computer crashes, email server’s down and it’s raining. Today def should have been a duvet day. Although, I have found this interesting website, which looks promising. I have to admit the idea of MTAS scares me a little, since it doesn’t seem to have had the best track record. The week can only get better, right?
Friday, 7 May 2010
Apathy
So the rest of this week has seen a somewhat deflated bean. Not for any particular reason, rather a collection of small ones. I seem to get like this every now and then, you may have noticed it in some of my other posts. I have been completely and utterly bored at work. I am doing the same thing day after day after day. When I first got promoted, I was really excited about being on a more technical team and all the spreadsheet playing I’d get to do. While it is true that I am working with spreadsheets every day, for the last month, and probably the next one coming as well I have actually been doing the same thing every single day. Argh! I get a slight respite when someone comes to my desk and asks for some help with something, but 9 times out of 10 they want something that I’ve already written up how to do in the instructions I was asked to write for them, which they could find by scrolling to the document and reading a single paragraph detailing very clearly how to do it. I made the template for the document they are trying to use, and I included a helpful instruction sheet on basic troubleshooting with what could go wrong. Do they read it? No. Even their boss, the person that asked me to make the template and include the instruction sheet, he doesn’t even read it! I get chirpy little emails from him asking if I could help so-and-so because the contents page just isn’t working, no matter what he tries (read: nothing)! Grr. Now my work is building up because I’m getting back the items I’ve sent for checking, but can’t complete them yet because I’m waiting on data I requested from another department back in March.
At home we have two types of workmen at the moment. There are gas men replacing the pipes and builders building a new set of flats. They’ve coned off loads of areas so there’s nowhere to park and every morning they are blocking me in so I’m late for work. Combine that with the bin men trying to squeeze through and I was about an hour late for work this morning. I had to squeeze myself through a tiny gap this morning, and missed hitting my neighbours car (parked next to the cones because he couldn’t find anywhere else) by 0.5 cm. Spatial awareness win. This has been going on for 2 weeks so far, and there aren’t even half way done yet.
We also had a visit from my aunt last night, who’s been told that the cause of her severe back pain is vertebral discs disintegrating. The only treatment options she was offered were pain killers and physio or spinal surgery to insert rods to immobilise the two vertebrae and keep them apart, but then she would lose all mobility in them and the problem would move to the two above. I’m sure I’ve heard of disc replacement surgery, so I’m a bit confused as to why that wasn’t an option. Suffice to say, she’s in a lot of pain, and it’ll only get worse. I’m doesn't help that mr has gone back home and I think it’ll be ages before I can see him again. He's brilliant at cheering me up. Continuing the moan, since I'm on a roll I turned up in all my kit for an outing last night, only to find half my crew hadn’t shown up, and the other girl was busy taking out a single, and didn’t even offer to go in a double with me. Rude, and nice of the rest of them to let me know it was off. Our Sky plus box broke at the weekend, so the engineer came and took the box away and replaced it with a shiny new one. It turns out the problem was actually the dish, which they fixed the next day, but they won’t give us the box back, so I have lost the episodes of Lost and Heroes I was saving up to watch in my own time because Mum doesn’t watch them. I was only sticking with Lost because this was the last series! Grrrrr.
I shall put the ranting bean back in her box now and medicate her with knitting, biscuits, hot chocolate, maybe some shouty music and a sofa to curl up on.
My boredom has lead me to discovering a couple of new blogs which were good, but possibly doesn’t help lift the mood any, rather puts me deeper in it, because I want to be doing what they’re doing. I had an email from the accommodation people at Exeter uni and so have now applied for my accommodation. Applications aren’t dealt with on a first-come-first-serve basis, but those with an unconditional firm status before August are dealt with first, so that kick started me into trying to get my application to have that status. I was quite surprised to see that I could only apply for the Rowancroft halls, I was certain I’d seen somewhere you could live anywhere, but those were kept for medics primarily. My offer is conditional on CRB and OH checks. I’m not sure how to fulfil these any more than I already have, as I took the completed forms with me to my interview. I have arranged for a Hep B surface antigen test next week, I’ve signed the rest of the forms that came with my offer and I just need to print off 4/5 passport photos and send them off with the forms, blood test results and vaccination history which my Dr has already kindly printed off for me. Hopefully I’ll be able to send the whole lot off some time next week.
In other exciting news, I have found an amazing new app for my phone that I’m somewhat addicted to: Speed Anatomy, and what’s more, it’s free! It displays the name of a part and you have to tap it on the diagram of a dissected body before the time runs out, with bonus multiplier points for accuracy. There are different levels, so you start with easy stuff first like skin and heart but then it gets harder (well, I haven’t looked over those bits in my flashcards yet, so they’re hard to me). I can get to level 9 at the moment, which is about the different vertebra, and level 8 nearly caught me out because I couldn’t work out my left and right when identifying blood vessels. Level 6 proved tricky for a while; it’s about muscles. Why is the gastrocnemius in the leg? I keep thinking it’s abdominal. There are 28 levels in total so I’ve got a while to go. Have a good weekend, hope the weather clears up (maybe I have SAD?).
At home we have two types of workmen at the moment. There are gas men replacing the pipes and builders building a new set of flats. They’ve coned off loads of areas so there’s nowhere to park and every morning they are blocking me in so I’m late for work. Combine that with the bin men trying to squeeze through and I was about an hour late for work this morning. I had to squeeze myself through a tiny gap this morning, and missed hitting my neighbours car (parked next to the cones because he couldn’t find anywhere else) by 0.5 cm. Spatial awareness win. This has been going on for 2 weeks so far, and there aren’t even half way done yet.
We also had a visit from my aunt last night, who’s been told that the cause of her severe back pain is vertebral discs disintegrating. The only treatment options she was offered were pain killers and physio or spinal surgery to insert rods to immobilise the two vertebrae and keep them apart, but then she would lose all mobility in them and the problem would move to the two above. I’m sure I’ve heard of disc replacement surgery, so I’m a bit confused as to why that wasn’t an option. Suffice to say, she’s in a lot of pain, and it’ll only get worse. I’m doesn't help that mr has gone back home and I think it’ll be ages before I can see him again. He's brilliant at cheering me up. Continuing the moan, since I'm on a roll I turned up in all my kit for an outing last night, only to find half my crew hadn’t shown up, and the other girl was busy taking out a single, and didn’t even offer to go in a double with me. Rude, and nice of the rest of them to let me know it was off. Our Sky plus box broke at the weekend, so the engineer came and took the box away and replaced it with a shiny new one. It turns out the problem was actually the dish, which they fixed the next day, but they won’t give us the box back, so I have lost the episodes of Lost and Heroes I was saving up to watch in my own time because Mum doesn’t watch them. I was only sticking with Lost because this was the last series! Grrrrr.
I shall put the ranting bean back in her box now and medicate her with knitting, biscuits, hot chocolate, maybe some shouty music and a sofa to curl up on.
My boredom has lead me to discovering a couple of new blogs which were good, but possibly doesn’t help lift the mood any, rather puts me deeper in it, because I want to be doing what they’re doing. I had an email from the accommodation people at Exeter uni and so have now applied for my accommodation. Applications aren’t dealt with on a first-come-first-serve basis, but those with an unconditional firm status before August are dealt with first, so that kick started me into trying to get my application to have that status. I was quite surprised to see that I could only apply for the Rowancroft halls, I was certain I’d seen somewhere you could live anywhere, but those were kept for medics primarily. My offer is conditional on CRB and OH checks. I’m not sure how to fulfil these any more than I already have, as I took the completed forms with me to my interview. I have arranged for a Hep B surface antigen test next week, I’ve signed the rest of the forms that came with my offer and I just need to print off 4/5 passport photos and send them off with the forms, blood test results and vaccination history which my Dr has already kindly printed off for me. Hopefully I’ll be able to send the whole lot off some time next week.
In other exciting news, I have found an amazing new app for my phone that I’m somewhat addicted to: Speed Anatomy, and what’s more, it’s free! It displays the name of a part and you have to tap it on the diagram of a dissected body before the time runs out, with bonus multiplier points for accuracy. There are different levels, so you start with easy stuff first like skin and heart but then it gets harder (well, I haven’t looked over those bits in my flashcards yet, so they’re hard to me). I can get to level 9 at the moment, which is about the different vertebra, and level 8 nearly caught me out because I couldn’t work out my left and right when identifying blood vessels. Level 6 proved tricky for a while; it’s about muscles. Why is the gastrocnemius in the leg? I keep thinking it’s abdominal. There are 28 levels in total so I’ve got a while to go. Have a good weekend, hope the weather clears up (maybe I have SAD?).
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
London, Anatomy and the Best Mussels in the World
I had a big exciting week because mr came to visit and all the plans we had so carefully made fell into place beautifully. It was so nice to come home from work to find him there to greet me, but it’ll be a long time before it’s like that again. He came down Wednesday and we went out that night clutching an Orange Wednesdays voucher for 2-4-1 pizza at Pizza Express and cinema tickets to see Kickass. The film was really good - a little more violent that I was expecting, but awesome nonetheless, and I can now be mostly found singing under my breath ‘Don’t give a damn ‘bout my bad reputation, na na na na na na naaaa’. Thursday saw rowing, with mr coxing (he’s an amazing cox :-D) and a lovely meal in On the Waterfront. Friday we went to a comedy night which wasn’t as good as Mitch Benn last time, but was still pretty funny and a good night out.
Saturday we were up super early (for beans, I don’t really like being up before about 8.30-9) to go to London! Being from a little city (city only by default because of the cathedral) London’s quite scary for me because it’s so big and busy. I get quite excited about going, and I’m always really proud of myself at being able to navigate the tube and not have anything stolen (I might have a slightly naive view of London!). I say always, it’s only the second time I’ve properly been to London, other than school trips to plays. The first time was when mr surprised me with a trip for New Years to watch the fireworks. This time he was surprising me with tickets to watch Avenue Q – I love musicals. This one was good, not my favourite - I feel a little bit wrong having watched puppets have sex, but it was very funny and cleverly done, with some amazing singers. We walked through Kensington Palace gardens, Hyde Park, stumbled across Harley Street, which was very exciting, (mr asked if I wanted to wander down and pick out my office :p) went to Camden Lock and went to the V and A but quickly left for the Natural History museum, science geeks that we are :) We had saved up our Tesco vouchers to have a meal in Loch Fyne where I had the nicest, most creamy, melt in the mouth, biggest pot of mussels in the world! The pot was as big as my head, I was in heaven getting very messy in the middle of the posh restaurant, can’t take me anywhere! :p I had started to eat them with a fork and spoon, but they put a finger bowl on the table so I tucked in :) Another thing about me – I love my shellfish (apart from oysters. I read a book where the murderer killed by hypnotising people to swallow their tongues like oysters, can’t have them now). Mr’s smoked roasted salmon was pretty awesome too. I think we’ll be going back there. There was much sleeping and more rowing on Monday, and in the evening mr kicked my ass at Mario Kart for Wii. I will beat him at something!!!!
Back to the medic-ing. I had the best time on the train journeys up and back :) We took the flash cards and blitzed bones of the body - front and back, parts of the ribs and most of the major arteries of the body. On the way up we were sat opposite a lady whose daughter’s a second year at UEA med school. She was telling me that only UEA and PMS do PBL (wrong? V v wrong…) and she was going up to drop off a fancy cardio stethoscope she had bought for her daughter because her daughter was too poor to buy one and had been borrowing one o_0. She did tell me of a web site to try and get some funding. I’ll check it out, but given her other medical knowledge, I don’t hold out much hope. It was fundfinder.org. On the way back, we were sat opposite a PMS third year who had been based at Exeter for his first two years who was really nice. Apparently, I’m a medic-related magnet (there was a microbiology Dr on the last train journey I took before this back from Derby). He was telling me all about the course and the PMS ethic that they don’t like revision or cramming, nothing in the first term counts at all and the pass mark for the first exam is 3%. He was really nice, and gave me his email in case I had any more questions. This encounter only made more excited to go - there is renewed bouncing. Also, when mr came he was bearing a present from his parents – Grey’s Anatomy for Students (spoilt bean again!) So I shall be genning up on some surface anatomy before I go I think - the third year said that would be useful, and trying not to forget the bones and vessels I learnt on the train :) I’ll bounce off now, have a great week, and good luck in your exams IB people!
Saturday we were up super early (for beans, I don’t really like being up before about 8.30-9) to go to London! Being from a little city (city only by default because of the cathedral) London’s quite scary for me because it’s so big and busy. I get quite excited about going, and I’m always really proud of myself at being able to navigate the tube and not have anything stolen (I might have a slightly naive view of London!). I say always, it’s only the second time I’ve properly been to London, other than school trips to plays. The first time was when mr surprised me with a trip for New Years to watch the fireworks. This time he was surprising me with tickets to watch Avenue Q – I love musicals. This one was good, not my favourite - I feel a little bit wrong having watched puppets have sex, but it was very funny and cleverly done, with some amazing singers. We walked through Kensington Palace gardens, Hyde Park, stumbled across Harley Street, which was very exciting, (mr asked if I wanted to wander down and pick out my office :p) went to Camden Lock and went to the V and A but quickly left for the Natural History museum, science geeks that we are :) We had saved up our Tesco vouchers to have a meal in Loch Fyne where I had the nicest, most creamy, melt in the mouth, biggest pot of mussels in the world! The pot was as big as my head, I was in heaven getting very messy in the middle of the posh restaurant, can’t take me anywhere! :p I had started to eat them with a fork and spoon, but they put a finger bowl on the table so I tucked in :) Another thing about me – I love my shellfish (apart from oysters. I read a book where the murderer killed by hypnotising people to swallow their tongues like oysters, can’t have them now). Mr’s smoked roasted salmon was pretty awesome too. I think we’ll be going back there. There was much sleeping and more rowing on Monday, and in the evening mr kicked my ass at Mario Kart for Wii. I will beat him at something!!!!
Back to the medic-ing. I had the best time on the train journeys up and back :) We took the flash cards and blitzed bones of the body - front and back, parts of the ribs and most of the major arteries of the body. On the way up we were sat opposite a lady whose daughter’s a second year at UEA med school. She was telling me that only UEA and PMS do PBL (wrong? V v wrong…) and she was going up to drop off a fancy cardio stethoscope she had bought for her daughter because her daughter was too poor to buy one and had been borrowing one o_0. She did tell me of a web site to try and get some funding. I’ll check it out, but given her other medical knowledge, I don’t hold out much hope. It was fundfinder.org. On the way back, we were sat opposite a PMS third year who had been based at Exeter for his first two years who was really nice. Apparently, I’m a medic-related magnet (there was a microbiology Dr on the last train journey I took before this back from Derby). He was telling me all about the course and the PMS ethic that they don’t like revision or cramming, nothing in the first term counts at all and the pass mark for the first exam is 3%. He was really nice, and gave me his email in case I had any more questions. This encounter only made more excited to go - there is renewed bouncing. Also, when mr came he was bearing a present from his parents – Grey’s Anatomy for Students (spoilt bean again!) So I shall be genning up on some surface anatomy before I go I think - the third year said that would be useful, and trying not to forget the bones and vessels I learnt on the train :) I’ll bounce off now, have a great week, and good luck in your exams IB people!
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Thick Letters
On Friday I got the very thick letter from Peninsula I’d been waiting for, and I was very surprised at how quickly it came, given that I had only firmed them Tuesday evening. I’ve been placed at Exeter. This means I’ll be in Exeter for the first two years and I will be a University of Exeter student for my five years of uni. I’m happy about this, I guess weighing up the pros and cons of Plymouth and Exeter, Exeter would def come out on top. Plymouth has a better nightlife, which would be good for my first year when I’ll actually have time to go out. Although, they do have a field hospital on Union Street where all the clubs are for all the drunk injured clubbers, which is a bit scary given I’m not really a loud party animal type. I do like going out for a dance, but I’m just as happy not drinking, I don’t really like the feeling of being drunk that much. I can have just as good a time sober, it’s much cheaper, and I know what I’m doing at all times, win-win, surely? One of the students on my interview day said Plymouth had better teaching for third year. Exeter has much nicer halls, living with medics, sports scientists and PGCE people, although I think I’ll miss not being on the main campus, especially since it’s one of the prettiest in the country. Apparently the St Luke’s and Streatham people don’t mix much, ah well, medics are cliquey; I just hope I can fit in. I’m going to have to be a bit more outgoing and less sit-back-and-observe-slightly-scared I guess. And here’s where I have to admit to a small snobbish side of me – another reason I’m happy I’m at Exeter is because it’s a top 10 uni at number 9 in the country, and I found out that Plymouth used to be a polytechnic. I know, I know, there are no such things as polys anymore but I just can’t get over it I’m afraid. There was a poly in Southampton - Solent Uni, and it offered such wonderful degrees as Football Studies and Stage Makeup. Now, I’m all for people going to uni, it’s a fantastic life experience and I’m happy they can find something they want to study to a higher level, but really, these things should not be a degree. A BA in History should not be held in the same esteem as a BA in Stage Makeup. Similarly, a BSc in Football Studies? I discovered something brand new and proved 10 years of study by proper academics wrong to earn my degree, what on earth can they do that’s similar in football studies? Sorry, rant over *bean hangs head in shame*. I’m a nice bean really!
My thick letter came with my student agreement that I won’t abuse patient’s trust and interestingly, I thought, I won’t cover my face when dealing with patients or in lectures unless it’s for sterile reasons. There was a very short kit list – stethoscope (got a pretty purple one picked out :) ), shorts and t-shirt for clinical skills practice on each other, a scientific calculator and no white coat. :( It’s a shame. When I was little, I didn’t really know what I would do when I grew up, but I was certain I would be wearing a white coat and doing something science-y. Now I’ve finally gotten here, they took the white coats away!
To make up for the very short kit list, there is a monster of a book list (around 4 sides A4), of which I’ve gotten 2 already from biomed - Pharmacology by Rang, Dale and Ritter and Albert's The Cell. There’s a couple I already had on my wishlist, and I’ll look at reviews of the rest and maybe add some more. I know I won’t need all of them, and that they will be in the library, but I do like having books and being able to look at them whenever I like, without having to break my back carrying them back from the library, plus they’re well under half the price of my biomed text books, which is nice.
I was also told to email the accommodation office at Exeter uni to get my student number to start applying for halls, but they said they haven’t had the details over from PCMD yet and to try again in a week. There isn’t really much choice in the accommodation tbh: ensuite in Rowancroft (built in 09), or standard or enhanced at Rowancroft Court or Rowancroft Mews. Ensuite for me I think :) I had an ensuite in halls last time and it was good. I’m a bit of a lush addict, so I have a lot of stuff to put in a bathroom and I like to keep it nice and tidy. When we shared a bathroom in the house we moved into for years 2 and 3 I swear they had radios and would time it perfectly so they would all go in the bathroom one after the other when I was waiting. Surely that will only be worse if we’ve all got the same timetable.
It’s mr’s birthday soon and I have no idea what to get him. Apparently I’ve got the reputation in his lines of being a thoughtful, awesome girlfriend because they previous gifts I got him were so good, and now I have to live up to that and I have no clue! He’s so hard to buy for. He likes things that beep (being an electronic engineer), but I can’t afford them, and I don’t really know much about army life so I don’t know what would be useful. Any ideas people? I’ve asked him three times now and he’s helpfully avoiding giving me an answer. He’s coming to visit Wednesday-Monday and we have lots of exciting things planned, so maybe I can press him a little more then. I’m very excited, it’s been about 2 months since I saw him properly, not including Street watching him swim. I’d best leave it there, this has become a bit of an essay! Have a great week people :)
My thick letter came with my student agreement that I won’t abuse patient’s trust and interestingly, I thought, I won’t cover my face when dealing with patients or in lectures unless it’s for sterile reasons. There was a very short kit list – stethoscope (got a pretty purple one picked out :) ), shorts and t-shirt for clinical skills practice on each other, a scientific calculator and no white coat. :( It’s a shame. When I was little, I didn’t really know what I would do when I grew up, but I was certain I would be wearing a white coat and doing something science-y. Now I’ve finally gotten here, they took the white coats away!
To make up for the very short kit list, there is a monster of a book list (around 4 sides A4), of which I’ve gotten 2 already from biomed - Pharmacology by Rang, Dale and Ritter and Albert's The Cell. There’s a couple I already had on my wishlist, and I’ll look at reviews of the rest and maybe add some more. I know I won’t need all of them, and that they will be in the library, but I do like having books and being able to look at them whenever I like, without having to break my back carrying them back from the library, plus they’re well under half the price of my biomed text books, which is nice.
I was also told to email the accommodation office at Exeter uni to get my student number to start applying for halls, but they said they haven’t had the details over from PCMD yet and to try again in a week. There isn’t really much choice in the accommodation tbh: ensuite in Rowancroft (built in 09), or standard or enhanced at Rowancroft Court or Rowancroft Mews. Ensuite for me I think :) I had an ensuite in halls last time and it was good. I’m a bit of a lush addict, so I have a lot of stuff to put in a bathroom and I like to keep it nice and tidy. When we shared a bathroom in the house we moved into for years 2 and 3 I swear they had radios and would time it perfectly so they would all go in the bathroom one after the other when I was waiting. Surely that will only be worse if we’ve all got the same timetable.
It’s mr’s birthday soon and I have no idea what to get him. Apparently I’ve got the reputation in his lines of being a thoughtful, awesome girlfriend because they previous gifts I got him were so good, and now I have to live up to that and I have no clue! He’s so hard to buy for. He likes things that beep (being an electronic engineer), but I can’t afford them, and I don’t really know much about army life so I don’t know what would be useful. Any ideas people? I’ve asked him three times now and he’s helpfully avoiding giving me an answer. He’s coming to visit Wednesday-Monday and we have lots of exciting things planned, so maybe I can press him a little more then. I’m very excited, it’s been about 2 months since I saw him properly, not including Street watching him swim. I’d best leave it there, this has become a bit of an essay! Have a great week people :)
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
A New Chapter
Following a bit in the theme of last time because I seem to be in a bit of a reflective mood for some reason – bye bye Track. No more obsessive checking. No more mashing the F5 key in the frantic but slim hope I logged in a second too soon. No more getting frustrated with your extra pages keeping me from finding my fate. No more will you make my heart catch in my throat and my stomach turn as you load the page sooo slowly, only to find the decision column is blank, still, again, like I knew it would be, and then I feel silly for thinking it may have changed. I have moved on, I have no need for you anymore. Your bookmark is deleted.
Nottingham put out their results last night and I had an email telling me I was on the waiting list. Now Notts aren’t as nice as St George’s in that a waiting list place isn’t a ticket to an automatic place next year if you aren’t called for this year, it’s really just a holding status. ‘We don’t like you enough to offer you a place, but we do like you enough not to reject you’. You may be offered a place if enough of those who were offered in the first place turn down their offers, or if people don’t get their grades come results day and the uni has places to fill. This means you could be given as little as a few days notice to pack up your things and come to uni. When I saw the email, I have to admit I was a little disappointed. I’d thought the interview had gone really well, so to only be on the waiting list? I kept trying to rationalise it that maybe it was because I still had some documents to send to them, or because my GAMSAT wasn’t that high, or because they’d seen me on the different forums talking about wanting to go to PCMD, but I guess in the end it doesn’t really matter. At least it was better than an outright rejection, and it’s not like I wanted the place anyway. So I logged onto Track for the last time ever, withdrew from Nottingham and firmed Peninsula. There we have it then, my path is decided. After three applications, five years of stressing, one degree, 3 entrance exams spanning a total of 7 hours, 5 interviews, countless amounts of money spent on preparation books, entrance exams, train tickets and a degree, and so many tears and sleepless nights, I am finally in to the place I wanted to be in from the very beginning. And to think that I didn’t want to try again this year, I was ready to give up. My family had to coax me into it (according to Dad, I’m a bean, and bean’s don’t give up [for bean, insert surname]). Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry class of 2015. Hopefully I will hear from them soon with a campus allocation and all the other paperwork I need to fill in. I am now Bean the medical student :)
Nottingham put out their results last night and I had an email telling me I was on the waiting list. Now Notts aren’t as nice as St George’s in that a waiting list place isn’t a ticket to an automatic place next year if you aren’t called for this year, it’s really just a holding status. ‘We don’t like you enough to offer you a place, but we do like you enough not to reject you’. You may be offered a place if enough of those who were offered in the first place turn down their offers, or if people don’t get their grades come results day and the uni has places to fill. This means you could be given as little as a few days notice to pack up your things and come to uni. When I saw the email, I have to admit I was a little disappointed. I’d thought the interview had gone really well, so to only be on the waiting list? I kept trying to rationalise it that maybe it was because I still had some documents to send to them, or because my GAMSAT wasn’t that high, or because they’d seen me on the different forums talking about wanting to go to PCMD, but I guess in the end it doesn’t really matter. At least it was better than an outright rejection, and it’s not like I wanted the place anyway. So I logged onto Track for the last time ever, withdrew from Nottingham and firmed Peninsula. There we have it then, my path is decided. After three applications, five years of stressing, one degree, 3 entrance exams spanning a total of 7 hours, 5 interviews, countless amounts of money spent on preparation books, entrance exams, train tickets and a degree, and so many tears and sleepless nights, I am finally in to the place I wanted to be in from the very beginning. And to think that I didn’t want to try again this year, I was ready to give up. My family had to coax me into it (according to Dad, I’m a bean, and bean’s don’t give up [for bean, insert surname]). Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry class of 2015. Hopefully I will hear from them soon with a campus allocation and all the other paperwork I need to fill in. I am now Bean the medical student :)
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
In Which Bean Gets a Bit Touchy-Feely
This week saw more failed attempts to complete student finance. They took the whole system down on Sunday, so I was hoping they were going to fix it then, but whatever they did, it didn’t work. They have put a caveat on that you can fill in a paper form, but I really don’t want to have to do that. They already have most of my details on the system, and for the whole of my last year at uni they sent all my letters to a made up mash up address of my home address and term time address. That was a gem, they made it up, and no matter how many times they changed over the phone when I told them it was wrong, the system still sent my letters to it. So all in all, I don’t have a lot of faith in them and trying to merge paper with computer applications is just asking for trouble I’m sure.
I got a lovely congratulations card from mr’s parents filled with some really pretty beads that his mum had picked out, which was lovely of her. I am now trying to decide what to do with them. OOooo, and the first book is gone off my amazon wishlist! Super excited bean :D
In other book related news, I gave away my UKCAT book to a guy at work who’s son wants to go to med school. That was quite an odd feeling. It was nice to know that I wouldn’t need again, but it’s still quite weird thinking that next year I won’t have to apply again, because for the last 5 years or so my life has been about applying to med school and now that I don’t have to anymore, well it’s odd. Obviously I’m really happy that I don’t have to apply, and I got to where I wanted to be, for the moment anyway. The next step will be passing exams, and passing the course. I suppose it’s just been force of habit – “What are you doing? I’m applying to med school.” It’s been long enough since I found out, it really should have sunk in by now. Lol, I guess it’s just my impatience again – I want to start now, and I won’t quite believe it until I do. It’s still a long way off yet, a whole 22 weeks, even though 22 doesn’t sound like much. 101 work days left, according to my clever formula. And I expect when I get there, I’ll be craving a break again, the grass is always greener isn’t it ? :)
Well your all very boring people not playing the conundrum I set in last weeks post. The answer was bookkeeper in case you wondered silently. Round up of the rest of my life: the rowing is going better, and since it looks like I’m sticking at stroke, I guess I’m going to have to start going back to the gym to get my fitness back up. You can’t slack at stroke and I can’t let the rest of my crew down cos I’m lazy :p My blisters are nearly completely healed thanks to the newly discovered miracle lotion that is Palmers Cocoa Butter Formula. I have great tan lines from rowing on Sunday morning, a proper farmers tan, and awesome plans are slowly falling into place for when mr comes down in a couple of weeks.
I had my first washing disaster last week, and ironically, I did it at home. I felted my favourite tank top, oops. I can’t find a replacement for it either, so I think I may have to knit one. To do that though, I have to finish the jumper I have on the go, which I am procrastinating because the next bit is hard, and I’m not sure I like the colour anymore, and making pretty jewellery gives instant gratification. Lol, I am such a fickle scatty girl sometimes, which is funny, because I’m sure none of the people who know me would say that about me, it’s just how I seem to be coming across here. Ah well, that’s it for me for now. Let’s see if our ‘upgraded’ systems are working at work yet (read: put in place before testing and now failing horribly, a bit like Windows Vista). Nottingham decisions out this week, good luck people!
I got a lovely congratulations card from mr’s parents filled with some really pretty beads that his mum had picked out, which was lovely of her. I am now trying to decide what to do with them. OOooo, and the first book is gone off my amazon wishlist! Super excited bean :D
In other book related news, I gave away my UKCAT book to a guy at work who’s son wants to go to med school. That was quite an odd feeling. It was nice to know that I wouldn’t need again, but it’s still quite weird thinking that next year I won’t have to apply again, because for the last 5 years or so my life has been about applying to med school and now that I don’t have to anymore, well it’s odd. Obviously I’m really happy that I don’t have to apply, and I got to where I wanted to be, for the moment anyway. The next step will be passing exams, and passing the course. I suppose it’s just been force of habit – “What are you doing? I’m applying to med school.” It’s been long enough since I found out, it really should have sunk in by now. Lol, I guess it’s just my impatience again – I want to start now, and I won’t quite believe it until I do. It’s still a long way off yet, a whole 22 weeks, even though 22 doesn’t sound like much. 101 work days left, according to my clever formula. And I expect when I get there, I’ll be craving a break again, the grass is always greener isn’t it ? :)
Well your all very boring people not playing the conundrum I set in last weeks post. The answer was bookkeeper in case you wondered silently. Round up of the rest of my life: the rowing is going better, and since it looks like I’m sticking at stroke, I guess I’m going to have to start going back to the gym to get my fitness back up. You can’t slack at stroke and I can’t let the rest of my crew down cos I’m lazy :p My blisters are nearly completely healed thanks to the newly discovered miracle lotion that is Palmers Cocoa Butter Formula. I have great tan lines from rowing on Sunday morning, a proper farmers tan, and awesome plans are slowly falling into place for when mr comes down in a couple of weeks.
I had my first washing disaster last week, and ironically, I did it at home. I felted my favourite tank top, oops. I can’t find a replacement for it either, so I think I may have to knit one. To do that though, I have to finish the jumper I have on the go, which I am procrastinating because the next bit is hard, and I’m not sure I like the colour anymore, and making pretty jewellery gives instant gratification. Lol, I am such a fickle scatty girl sometimes, which is funny, because I’m sure none of the people who know me would say that about me, it’s just how I seem to be coming across here. Ah well, that’s it for me for now. Let’s see if our ‘upgraded’ systems are working at work yet (read: put in place before testing and now failing horribly, a bit like Windows Vista). Nottingham decisions out this week, good luck people!
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.
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.
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Bean: Queen of Cupcakes
It was so good to have the Easter break. It is one thing I like about having a regular 9-5 job and not being a student –weekends and bank holidays mean so much more. I’ll miss that. I was about ready for a break too, so it was lovely to have the Friday and Monday off. Short weeks are brilliant. A pretty unremarkable week before that: nice and quiet at work, although I’m not sure why because I have a lot of work to do. It’s possibly because I know I have an end date now. On my work flow spreadsheet I put some formulae in to count number of working days left :) I’m such a geek sometimes.
I didn’t get a lie in Friday because I went rowing for the first time in months. The weather was atrocious, so we did an erg first. Blergh, I hate ergs and I haven’t done one of those in even longer. They are just hell, pain and errm, hell. But, I did it and we had an outing after that when the weather cleared up. It was so nice to be back on the water. It’s like my calm place, being on the water – whether it’s rowing, sailing or kayaking, it’s lovely to just get away from it all and think of nothing bar what you are doing on the water. I did have a little more to think about unfortunately, since I was stroking. This means (for you non-rowers) that I was at the head of the boat setting the rhythm – no-one can move before I do and everyone must move at the same time as me. This is quite hard in itself, as you have to be perfect – you have no-one to follow, but being a little rusty, and being shorter than the rest of the girls, I wasn’t setting a very good pace, and they have to move faster to keep up with me. Never mind, I’m rowing again tonight, I’ll do better this time.
The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent in the kitchen baking cakes and muffins. Mum volunteered me to make some to take to see the family for Easter, and I had wanted to make some to take to work to celebrate my good news. This mainly involves me throwing flour and icing sugar everywhere, and even getting some in the mixing bowl, but mostly over me and the kitchen. I could totally be five :) The cakes I make are very good, but I’m also extremely good at making a mess. I broke out my new Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and made 2 batches of Red Velvet, and 1 batch each of Marshmallow cakes, Black Bottom cakes and Banana and Cinnamon muffins, oh, and some soup for work, and some earrings for me. It was a properly creative weekend, and the cakes are lovely :) I normally bake when I have exams and essays to have a break (and a reward for when they’re finished).
Oo, in other exciting news, mr got into the regiment he wanted, so his interviews did go well and he is a happy, but tired boy. He is happy two-fold because Cambridge won the boat race and he briefly went there for a year before switching to Southampton so we have a slight allegiance (even though the Oxford blue is prettier than the Cambridge one, he pokes me when I say that). What an awesome race it was! He is also happy three-fold, because it is his Easter break coming up (the army do things odd) and we are plotting a trip to London to see Avenue Q, which makes me a very happy and excitable bean, because it’s one I’ve wanted to see for ages. Might also see if we can fit in a trip to the hospital museum which was shut when we went to London for New Years. All I have left to do is book the train tickets, which I very nearly did last night, but had to stop when I realised I was booking them for the wrong month – oops! Don’t panic about me being a Dr, I’m not normally this scatty, honest! :) Have an awesome short week people.
I didn’t get a lie in Friday because I went rowing for the first time in months. The weather was atrocious, so we did an erg first. Blergh, I hate ergs and I haven’t done one of those in even longer. They are just hell, pain and errm, hell. But, I did it and we had an outing after that when the weather cleared up. It was so nice to be back on the water. It’s like my calm place, being on the water – whether it’s rowing, sailing or kayaking, it’s lovely to just get away from it all and think of nothing bar what you are doing on the water. I did have a little more to think about unfortunately, since I was stroking. This means (for you non-rowers) that I was at the head of the boat setting the rhythm – no-one can move before I do and everyone must move at the same time as me. This is quite hard in itself, as you have to be perfect – you have no-one to follow, but being a little rusty, and being shorter than the rest of the girls, I wasn’t setting a very good pace, and they have to move faster to keep up with me. Never mind, I’m rowing again tonight, I’ll do better this time.
The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent in the kitchen baking cakes and muffins. Mum volunteered me to make some to take to see the family for Easter, and I had wanted to make some to take to work to celebrate my good news. This mainly involves me throwing flour and icing sugar everywhere, and even getting some in the mixing bowl, but mostly over me and the kitchen. I could totally be five :) The cakes I make are very good, but I’m also extremely good at making a mess. I broke out my new Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and made 2 batches of Red Velvet, and 1 batch each of Marshmallow cakes, Black Bottom cakes and Banana and Cinnamon muffins, oh, and some soup for work, and some earrings for me. It was a properly creative weekend, and the cakes are lovely :) I normally bake when I have exams and essays to have a break (and a reward for when they’re finished).
Oo, in other exciting news, mr got into the regiment he wanted, so his interviews did go well and he is a happy, but tired boy. He is happy two-fold because Cambridge won the boat race and he briefly went there for a year before switching to Southampton so we have a slight allegiance (even though the Oxford blue is prettier than the Cambridge one, he pokes me when I say that). What an awesome race it was! He is also happy three-fold, because it is his Easter break coming up (the army do things odd) and we are plotting a trip to London to see Avenue Q, which makes me a very happy and excitable bean, because it’s one I’ve wanted to see for ages. Might also see if we can fit in a trip to the hospital museum which was shut when we went to London for New Years. All I have left to do is book the train tickets, which I very nearly did last night, but had to stop when I realised I was booking them for the wrong month – oops! Don’t panic about me being a Dr, I’m not normally this scatty, honest! :) Have an awesome short week people.
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Still smiling
So not much has changed since I posted last, other than my smiling muscles getting a through work out. They did get a bit of a rest last night when I got back from work and saw my book and flashcard pack had arrived. How on earth does anyone remember that much stuff? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book with that much tiny writing crammed into it. Do I really have to learn it all? The flashcards weren’t much better either to be honest. Even just the first one had bits I’d never heard of before, like an acromion, or a cubital fossa. And I thought the first card of the pack would be easy. Hmm, I was planning on learning a couple a day on my lunch breaks at work to give myself a bit of a head start and I guess it’s just been a while since I had to learn anything by rote. Never mind, it will happen and it will be worth it (and hopefully it will make more sense once I get to doing a bit more about it).
The rest of last week was spent by me wandering round in a fuzzy, grinning daze, getting congratulated by people and thinking I should probably be a bit more productive at work. I still can’t quite believe it’s true. I keep waiting for Peninsula to send me a letter apologising for getting it wrong, they didn’t mean to offer me a place at all. I want to firm it, but I can’t until all my offers come in. I could withdraw from Notts, but after such an awesome interview, I really want the confirmation from them that I did well at it too, and for them to give me an offer. Each time I’ve applied I’ve only ever gotten one offer, and I really feel this cycle went much better and I’m much better prepared mentally for it. Part of me feels bad that I might be taking an offer from someone else, but they do over-offer for those that decline and I believe they have a waiting list for those that don’t quite make it.
The weekend brought congratulatory surprise flowers from mr (spoilt bean :) I was really excited when the door bell went because I thought it might have been my textbooks, but they were just as good), a shopping trip to buy Easter eggs (how did it get to be Easter already), a new pencil skirt in the Next half price sale (bargin and I have to be a smart [Dr] bean from now on) and an awesome pair of purple tights (no reason why smart tights can’t be slightly interesting in lieu of the stripy socks I would be wearing if I wasn’t wearing tights). I had gone to have a look in Waterstones at textbooks, but all the interesting ones like Tortora, Moore and Daley and Kumar and Clarke were cellophane wrapped, which wasn’t useful. Although I did find a new one to add to the want list – a book of mnemonics, which I will find really useful. So glad I have a birthday between now and the start of term.
On Sunday I drove to Street to see mr compete in the Royal Navy Masters Swimming Competition. He used to swim a lot when he was little, but gave it up and hasn’t trained properly since. It was great to see him, and it was so lovely and warm sat in the stands by the pool. It was funny to see all the other clubs bright, peppy and raring to race, and Sandhurst lying around sleeping, taking the opportunity wherever they can. He didn’t win any medals, but he did come close with a couple of fourths, and only being a second or so out. He enjoyed himself and had a good result with the Sandhurst 8 competing at Head of the River in London the day before, beating the RAF and coming second to Army, but pulling up massively from 235 place to 163 (out of about 350-400). He’s got his regiment selection boards this week, so I have my fingers crossed for him. He hasn’t done as many interviews as me, so I have no idea what his technique is like but I’m sure he’ll do fine.
Thanks for your lovely congrats messages on NMM, TSR and this blog, it’s lovely of you, and I really am so happy. More from me later, back to work now…
The rest of last week was spent by me wandering round in a fuzzy, grinning daze, getting congratulated by people and thinking I should probably be a bit more productive at work. I still can’t quite believe it’s true. I keep waiting for Peninsula to send me a letter apologising for getting it wrong, they didn’t mean to offer me a place at all. I want to firm it, but I can’t until all my offers come in. I could withdraw from Notts, but after such an awesome interview, I really want the confirmation from them that I did well at it too, and for them to give me an offer. Each time I’ve applied I’ve only ever gotten one offer, and I really feel this cycle went much better and I’m much better prepared mentally for it. Part of me feels bad that I might be taking an offer from someone else, but they do over-offer for those that decline and I believe they have a waiting list for those that don’t quite make it.
The weekend brought congratulatory surprise flowers from mr (spoilt bean :) I was really excited when the door bell went because I thought it might have been my textbooks, but they were just as good), a shopping trip to buy Easter eggs (how did it get to be Easter already), a new pencil skirt in the Next half price sale (bargin and I have to be a smart [Dr] bean from now on) and an awesome pair of purple tights (no reason why smart tights can’t be slightly interesting in lieu of the stripy socks I would be wearing if I wasn’t wearing tights). I had gone to have a look in Waterstones at textbooks, but all the interesting ones like Tortora, Moore and Daley and Kumar and Clarke were cellophane wrapped, which wasn’t useful. Although I did find a new one to add to the want list – a book of mnemonics, which I will find really useful. So glad I have a birthday between now and the start of term.
On Sunday I drove to Street to see mr compete in the Royal Navy Masters Swimming Competition. He used to swim a lot when he was little, but gave it up and hasn’t trained properly since. It was great to see him, and it was so lovely and warm sat in the stands by the pool. It was funny to see all the other clubs bright, peppy and raring to race, and Sandhurst lying around sleeping, taking the opportunity wherever they can. He didn’t win any medals, but he did come close with a couple of fourths, and only being a second or so out. He enjoyed himself and had a good result with the Sandhurst 8 competing at Head of the River in London the day before, beating the RAF and coming second to Army, but pulling up massively from 235 place to 163 (out of about 350-400). He’s got his regiment selection boards this week, so I have my fingers crossed for him. He hasn’t done as many interviews as me, so I have no idea what his technique is like but I’m sure he’ll do fine.
Thanks for your lovely congrats messages on NMM, TSR and this blog, it’s lovely of you, and I really am so happy. More from me later, back to work now…
Thursday, 25 March 2010
Can This Week Get Any Better?
I had my Nottingham interview Tuesday. I thought it went really well. It seemed to be much better organised than the St George’s one, the interviewers were all really nice and there was only really one question that flummoxed me but I managed to cobble together a response eventually. It was also nice to see three of the people that had been at the Peninsula interview again. Dare I say it, but that interview was actually fun? I have never had 6 minutes go by so quickly. The main question came with several follow up questions, so it really felt like a proper mini interview and let me really show my strengths, opinions, think on my feet and have a proper probing conversation with them. All in all, apart from Derby being so grey and miserable after such a sunny day for the PMS interview, I had a really good time.
So a group of us took a taxi back to the station and we bid each other farewell and good luck, I sat waiting for the train and rang mum to let her know how I got on. While I was on the phone she checked Track – nothing. Never mind, I thought, maybe tomorrow. I got on the train and after about 15 minutes I had a call from Mum. She said “Hello Dr Bean”. I was quite confused, I knew Track was blank, and I just thought she was being a bit presumptive about Notts. I was wrong. Peninsula offered me a place!!! EEEEeeeeeee!!!! Since I was on a train I knew I couldn’t really scream, but then totally out of my control my eyes started leaking and I was crying all over the place. I don’t normally cry, especially not with happiness, so I felt a bit of a ninny crying on a train and was getting some very odd looks. Apparently Mum had checked again just before she logged off the computer (can you see Track obsession runs in the family?) and had seen the golden words Peninsula – Conditional. I was loon grinning for the whole ride home, and actually have been since I found out, and expect I will be for quite some time. After ringing round friends and family and sharing the good news, I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. What with all the unspent adrenaline from my interview and now this good news, what I really wanted to do was jump up and down, but that’s a bit hard to do on a train. The girl opposite me offered me a celebratory cookie, which was nice, but not quite the same somehow. Of course, the person I really wanted to tell was Mr, but I can’t because he is still in France, but he’s going to be so excited.
So yesterday at work I got to tell lots of people and re-live it all again – suffice to say I didn’t get a lot of work done, I was simply too excited. Mum sent me a link to a stethoscope I want – it’s purple!! And I bought my first textbooks after scoping the threads to see what would be useful – Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine and Grey’s Anatomy Flashcards so I can start learning bits before I go.
We had a meeting with the head of Employee Benefits, the division of JLT Group I work for, who told us about our financial position at the end of the last year and improvements we need to make moving forwards. Imagine my surprise when our Consultant Client Manager told the EB heads that one of the changes we’ve made to improve systems is by having the retirement tracker. Hi, that’s me. *Shock* You shouldn’t say things like that in front of such important people, what I do can’t possibly be that important, right? This is just a holiday job for me. 0_0
Anyway, it also bonus work at time which has traditionally been a time where everyone gets individual short meetings with their manager and told that they haven’t got a bonus this year, and from the murmurings I’d heard about people who’ve already had theirs, this year wasn’t any different. In the big boss’ eyes, he pays us to work hard so he shouldn’t have to reward us for doing our jobs. When my manager called me in, I was expecting the same, so I was very, very surprised when he told me I was getting a pay rise and £250 bonus this month for working hard. That will certainly pay for some textbooks :) I actually didn’t think this week could get any better but, when I got back to my desk there was an email saying we’re having a dress down day this Friday, and a reminder that I’m going to see Mitch Benn on Friday evening. I don’t know what I did to deserve a week like this, but I am so happy, it’s amazing. Please don’t let something happen to bring me back to earth with a bump for a while.
So a group of us took a taxi back to the station and we bid each other farewell and good luck, I sat waiting for the train and rang mum to let her know how I got on. While I was on the phone she checked Track – nothing. Never mind, I thought, maybe tomorrow. I got on the train and after about 15 minutes I had a call from Mum. She said “Hello Dr Bean”. I was quite confused, I knew Track was blank, and I just thought she was being a bit presumptive about Notts. I was wrong. Peninsula offered me a place!!! EEEEeeeeeee!!!! Since I was on a train I knew I couldn’t really scream, but then totally out of my control my eyes started leaking and I was crying all over the place. I don’t normally cry, especially not with happiness, so I felt a bit of a ninny crying on a train and was getting some very odd looks. Apparently Mum had checked again just before she logged off the computer (can you see Track obsession runs in the family?) and had seen the golden words Peninsula – Conditional. I was loon grinning for the whole ride home, and actually have been since I found out, and expect I will be for quite some time. After ringing round friends and family and sharing the good news, I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. What with all the unspent adrenaline from my interview and now this good news, what I really wanted to do was jump up and down, but that’s a bit hard to do on a train. The girl opposite me offered me a celebratory cookie, which was nice, but not quite the same somehow. Of course, the person I really wanted to tell was Mr, but I can’t because he is still in France, but he’s going to be so excited.
So yesterday at work I got to tell lots of people and re-live it all again – suffice to say I didn’t get a lot of work done, I was simply too excited. Mum sent me a link to a stethoscope I want – it’s purple!! And I bought my first textbooks after scoping the threads to see what would be useful – Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine and Grey’s Anatomy Flashcards so I can start learning bits before I go.
We had a meeting with the head of Employee Benefits, the division of JLT Group I work for, who told us about our financial position at the end of the last year and improvements we need to make moving forwards. Imagine my surprise when our Consultant Client Manager told the EB heads that one of the changes we’ve made to improve systems is by having the retirement tracker. Hi, that’s me. *Shock* You shouldn’t say things like that in front of such important people, what I do can’t possibly be that important, right? This is just a holiday job for me. 0_0
Anyway, it also bonus work at time which has traditionally been a time where everyone gets individual short meetings with their manager and told that they haven’t got a bonus this year, and from the murmurings I’d heard about people who’ve already had theirs, this year wasn’t any different. In the big boss’ eyes, he pays us to work hard so he shouldn’t have to reward us for doing our jobs. When my manager called me in, I was expecting the same, so I was very, very surprised when he told me I was getting a pay rise and £250 bonus this month for working hard. That will certainly pay for some textbooks :) I actually didn’t think this week could get any better but, when I got back to my desk there was an email saying we’re having a dress down day this Friday, and a reminder that I’m going to see Mitch Benn on Friday evening. I don’t know what I did to deserve a week like this, but I am so happy, it’s amazing. Please don’t let something happen to bring me back to earth with a bump for a while.
Monday, 22 March 2010
Fret Fret Fret
So, another week of fretting, surprise, surprise. I am soo tired this morning. Last night was the worst night’s sleep I’ve had in ages. I seem to have gone back to thinking that I’m not good enough to be a Dr, why did I want to do it again and maybe I should just stick with what I know as a Project Officer. I was also a little dismayed to see that I had forgotten a whole week of March. I thought this week would be the last week, so the PMS decisions would be given out by Friday, but there’s still most of next week in March as well. Rubbish. It doesn’t help that mr is going to France for this week and so won’t be around to help calm the fretting bean. Also, what with his leave weekends and the train strikes, it’s looking like we won’t be able to see each other for another 5 weeks. There’s no one on my bank of desks this week, I’m sure no one will notice if I just curl up under the desk and go to sleep for a while.
I’ve been having really strange dreams this week. I normally start sleep walking when I’m nervous, so it doesn’t surprise me. One night I dreamt my boss had died suddenly at work the day before. I woke up crying and I was so upset, I really thought it had happened. He comes in later than me, so I was trying to work out how I could tell if it had actually happened or if it was only a dream, as obviously no one was going to be talking about it. The next night I was trying to work out how to send loaf cakes, cupcakes and flapjack to mr at Sandhurst. Then last night I had a letter from Peninsula saying I had scored 35 points at my interview and they were offering me a place. The extra points that had decided it had come from the rifle shooting round of the interview, but could I please not bring my rifle with me to Uni. I haven’t done any rifle shooting for a very very long time, so I’m not sure where that one came from. Silly bean.
Last week went very quickly indeed. We had a dress down day and bacon baps on Wednesday for St Patrick’s day fundraising for charity. Mufti days are actually just as exciting as they were when you were in school, it’s silly. Although for me it’s more that I get to wear jeans and a hoody and be warm and comfy at work for once. Everyone’s much happier at work when it’s dress down and there’s a proper Friday feeling in the office. Which therefore makes it very confusing it not being a Friday 0_o
When it actually came to Friday I totally did not have the Friday feeling (although we did have popcorn Friday on my team, which helped a bit as the guy that does it makes the best popcorn in the world, salty and sweet, mmmmm). I got asked to do a rush job fixing and updating a report to make it fancier. This took all day and meant I didn’t get anything done that I was expecting, although the geek in me does enjoy playing with formulae and spreadsheets on projects like this. The admin manager I did the report for was so pleased he asked me to email it to the other admin managers to show them how clever ‘he’ is in sorting out this report, so I am fully expecting emails saying that’s good, can you do it for my team too please. When I came in today though, I was pleasantly surprised to find he had copied me in on an email to my boss telling him what a good job I had done. Bean mutters a humble apology for thinking bad thoughts about said admin manager.
The weekend was spent organising bits for Notts, shopping and playing tennis and baseball on the Wii. I am determined to beat mr next time he’s down. I’m nearly a pro at tennis with 702 points. Bean on a mission.
That’s all from me for now. Tomorrow Bean’s going up North! (I am from Devon, there is no Midlands, it is merely a myth. The North starts above Bristol – Geography according to bean.) Have a good week and good luck to all the other Notts GEMers.
I’ve been having really strange dreams this week. I normally start sleep walking when I’m nervous, so it doesn’t surprise me. One night I dreamt my boss had died suddenly at work the day before. I woke up crying and I was so upset, I really thought it had happened. He comes in later than me, so I was trying to work out how I could tell if it had actually happened or if it was only a dream, as obviously no one was going to be talking about it. The next night I was trying to work out how to send loaf cakes, cupcakes and flapjack to mr at Sandhurst. Then last night I had a letter from Peninsula saying I had scored 35 points at my interview and they were offering me a place. The extra points that had decided it had come from the rifle shooting round of the interview, but could I please not bring my rifle with me to Uni. I haven’t done any rifle shooting for a very very long time, so I’m not sure where that one came from. Silly bean.
Last week went very quickly indeed. We had a dress down day and bacon baps on Wednesday for St Patrick’s day fundraising for charity. Mufti days are actually just as exciting as they were when you were in school, it’s silly. Although for me it’s more that I get to wear jeans and a hoody and be warm and comfy at work for once. Everyone’s much happier at work when it’s dress down and there’s a proper Friday feeling in the office. Which therefore makes it very confusing it not being a Friday 0_o
When it actually came to Friday I totally did not have the Friday feeling (although we did have popcorn Friday on my team, which helped a bit as the guy that does it makes the best popcorn in the world, salty and sweet, mmmmm). I got asked to do a rush job fixing and updating a report to make it fancier. This took all day and meant I didn’t get anything done that I was expecting, although the geek in me does enjoy playing with formulae and spreadsheets on projects like this. The admin manager I did the report for was so pleased he asked me to email it to the other admin managers to show them how clever ‘he’ is in sorting out this report, so I am fully expecting emails saying that’s good, can you do it for my team too please. When I came in today though, I was pleasantly surprised to find he had copied me in on an email to my boss telling him what a good job I had done. Bean mutters a humble apology for thinking bad thoughts about said admin manager.
The weekend was spent organising bits for Notts, shopping and playing tennis and baseball on the Wii. I am determined to beat mr next time he’s down. I’m nearly a pro at tennis with 702 points. Bean on a mission.
That’s all from me for now. Tomorrow Bean’s going up North! (I am from Devon, there is no Midlands, it is merely a myth. The North starts above Bristol – Geography according to bean.) Have a good week and good luck to all the other Notts GEMers.
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
Calm Before the Storm?
Last week I noticed a deep sense of calm in me. I was smiley happy all week from a combination of small things: the fact my shoes click when I walk in the office (when I was little I couldn’t wait to be grown up and wear shoes with heels that clicked like Mummy’s shoes, and now I do :) ), I bought a new cardigan from Topshop the weekend before and it has a waterfall front which swishes nicely when I walk and I had a quiet week where I got to solve a lot of people’s small IT issues as it’s like a little win for me each time. They normally aren’t very difficult problems, but I like helping and they have such a big smile when I’ve fixed them.
I found myself switching between thinking ‘Of course I’ll get in, why wouldn’t I get in, my interview went well’, to ‘Well, what will be will be, I can’t change it now, I probably haven’t gotten in because I should have said this and this, but that’s alright because I probably wouldn’t be any good at being a Dr anyway.’ I noticed on New Media Medicine that someone interviewed the day after me had an offer, but she was an undergrad, so it didn’t stress me that much.
It was also an odd week because mr (my bf) was off on exercise all week from Monday to Monday evening and incommunicado. It made me feel like I was kind of on hold all week, wondering what he was up to, hoping he wasn’t too tired and watching the phone in case I had a call to say he’d been pulled off injured. I find it quite strange going from functioning fine on your own to suddenly realising that you care this much for another person that isn’t family and it seems to have snuck up on you without warning.
The weekend went quietly, just like the week really. I got my car insurance sorted and saved £100 by adding Mum as a secondary driver. Score 1 for me :) We went for a nice pub lunch for Mother’s Day, she loved the chocolates I got her for her present and I got some nice lentil and pasta soup made for lunches. Buying lentils is actually quite difficult, believe it or not. Having never tried them before, I thought I’d be brave, but this led to me spending a good 10 minutes with a packet of green lentils in one hand and a packet of lentilles vertes in the other and trying to work out what the difference was between them and wondering if I was just being silly or if the world had conspired on a big joke without telling me. I was actually looking for brown lentils, which are not green lentils or even foreign green lentils. I found out after Sainsbury’s in their wisdom store the brown lentils in the world food section, not with the pulses and other lentils…obviously o_0 But I still don’t know the difference between green lentils and lentilles vertes. I did have a slight geeky moment when describing the only discernable difference between the two to a girl I give a lift to work was that green lentils are smooth and lentilles vertes are like Mendel’s wrinkled peas. *Hangs head in shame, spot the Biologist?*
The start of this week couldn’t be more different. I feel calm, but I think my body is just fretting at a really deep level. I keep waking up every two hours when I’m asleep, all the traffic in the world is on the roads when I’m trying to get to work, so the 15 minute trip is taking me 45 minutes, people at work keep stopping me to ask if I’ve heard anything, my Notts interview is next week, I’m very light on work which leaves me sitting doing nothing while people prepare stuff for me (I hate not being busy) and mr keeps falling asleep on the phone when I’m talking to him (makes me feel mean, like I’m keeping him up) – all in all, this makes for a stressed bean. Peninsula decisions soon perhaps? I really really hope so. I read Internal Optimists blog and I wanna do that!!! There’s a little bean in my head jumping up and down and pouting and stamping her feet because she wants to know now and wants to be reading textbooks and journals and learning interesting things and poking people, now. Arrgh! Patience is so overrated. Pretty please Peninsula?
I found myself switching between thinking ‘Of course I’ll get in, why wouldn’t I get in, my interview went well’, to ‘Well, what will be will be, I can’t change it now, I probably haven’t gotten in because I should have said this and this, but that’s alright because I probably wouldn’t be any good at being a Dr anyway.’ I noticed on New Media Medicine that someone interviewed the day after me had an offer, but she was an undergrad, so it didn’t stress me that much.
It was also an odd week because mr (my bf) was off on exercise all week from Monday to Monday evening and incommunicado. It made me feel like I was kind of on hold all week, wondering what he was up to, hoping he wasn’t too tired and watching the phone in case I had a call to say he’d been pulled off injured. I find it quite strange going from functioning fine on your own to suddenly realising that you care this much for another person that isn’t family and it seems to have snuck up on you without warning.
The weekend went quietly, just like the week really. I got my car insurance sorted and saved £100 by adding Mum as a secondary driver. Score 1 for me :) We went for a nice pub lunch for Mother’s Day, she loved the chocolates I got her for her present and I got some nice lentil and pasta soup made for lunches. Buying lentils is actually quite difficult, believe it or not. Having never tried them before, I thought I’d be brave, but this led to me spending a good 10 minutes with a packet of green lentils in one hand and a packet of lentilles vertes in the other and trying to work out what the difference was between them and wondering if I was just being silly or if the world had conspired on a big joke without telling me. I was actually looking for brown lentils, which are not green lentils or even foreign green lentils. I found out after Sainsbury’s in their wisdom store the brown lentils in the world food section, not with the pulses and other lentils…obviously o_0 But I still don’t know the difference between green lentils and lentilles vertes. I did have a slight geeky moment when describing the only discernable difference between the two to a girl I give a lift to work was that green lentils are smooth and lentilles vertes are like Mendel’s wrinkled peas. *Hangs head in shame, spot the Biologist?*
The start of this week couldn’t be more different. I feel calm, but I think my body is just fretting at a really deep level. I keep waking up every two hours when I’m asleep, all the traffic in the world is on the roads when I’m trying to get to work, so the 15 minute trip is taking me 45 minutes, people at work keep stopping me to ask if I’ve heard anything, my Notts interview is next week, I’m very light on work which leaves me sitting doing nothing while people prepare stuff for me (I hate not being busy) and mr keeps falling asleep on the phone when I’m talking to him (makes me feel mean, like I’m keeping him up) – all in all, this makes for a stressed bean. Peninsula decisions soon perhaps? I really really hope so. I read Internal Optimists blog and I wanna do that!!! There’s a little bean in my head jumping up and down and pouting and stamping her feet because she wants to know now and wants to be reading textbooks and journals and learning interesting things and poking people, now. Arrgh! Patience is so overrated. Pretty please Peninsula?
Monday, 8 March 2010
Interview
Last week at work went really quickly. Partly because I was looking forward to my interview (perhaps looking forward to is the wrong word, more anticipating the interview) and my boyfriend coming down for the weekend and partly because of a photo frame on my desk.. For Valentine’s Day my boyfriend gave me a digital photo frame and filled it with photos of us, him and my Facebook photos. It was lovely of him, because I really like photos - my screensaver usually cycles through all my photos on my laptop at home, but also because the photos change every 30 seconds, time seems to go by very quickly.
Before I knew it, it was Thursday and interview time. I had to get there for 8.15 for an interview that wasn’t until 10.30 so they could register me and go through my documents. The girl sat next to me whilst being registered hadn’t got the form signed by her GP and hadn’t bought all the ID forms she was asked for. It really amazes me sometimes, how this is possible. We’ve had these documents for months, plenty of time to assemble what was required. If you can’t follow simple instructions with plenty of time to complete them, it doesn’t reflect well on you, surely, and it wastes the Medical School’s time, the very people you are trying to impress. I know that it probably won’t make any difference, but when it’s this competitive, I really wish it did sometimes. Sorry, rant over.
Everyone was registered by about 8.30, so we had plenty of time to sit and chat. The other candidates all seemed really nice and friendly, though most were older than me A presentation at 9 told us that lots of people had dropped out, so the two days of grad interviews had been cut to just this one and some people had had their interview times bumped up. There were 42 of us interviewed throughout the day. I don’t know how many grad places there are – they said a proportionate amount to those who applied – and I don’t know if anyone was interviewed at Plymouth. I was first up after that, and taken to a room to choose my ethical scenario of a choice of three and answer the questionnaire. After 30 minutes I was taken to the interview room where a panel of four made up of clinical people and professional laypeople asked 9 questions based on the ethical scenario, and then standard questions on situations I’ve been in and how it makes me feel. I don’t want to put too much information about the interview because this is the internet, but get in touch if you’d like more info. I did have a bit of a eureka moment when they asked me a question I’d had when I did the PMCD interview in my first round of applications and I finally understood it this time. We went on the tour, most of which I’ve seen before as it was part of a work experience course I did run at the Postgrad research side of Peninsula, but it was nice to see the accommodation and chat to some students and other candidates. It was a beautiful sunny day and nice to be out of the office for a change. All in all, I think it went quite well, she says, tentatively. Then again, I always think it went quite well, and it doesn’t normally get me anywhere. But no, this time, I didn’t stumble on any questions, I had a big smile, I gave honest answers, demonstrating what they are looking for, I made them laugh, that has to be a good sign, right? Ah well, we’ll see. They said a panel is getting together mid March and all decisions given out by the end of March. Finger crossed!!
I had a lovely afternoon off after that, watched some Lost and did some tidying ready for my boyfriend to come in the evening. He stayed until Sunday afternoon, and apart from being a bit bored when I went to work (he did ask again if he could come in with me Friday morning!) we had a really nice time. We did some shopping for Mother’s Day presents, had the best steak in the world (according to bean!) at Harry’s Grill, I beat him at Wii canoeing and Wii fit and he beat me at Wii tennis, he rubbed my back and fixed my silly back ache (5 layers at work from now on) and we went to see Alice in Wonderland at the cinema. It was a lovely, relaxing, fun weekend, and I loved seeing him before and having him to come back to after work. He’s on exercise now so I won’t be able to speak to him for a whole week, which is rubbish. Saturday morning post bought the interview pack from Nottingham, so the next set of stressing can begin.
One thing I did find from the interview that was interesting is that we were told to apply for a student fees loan anyway, even though the Student Loan Company says it doesn’t give them for second degrees, because they actually don’t mind giving them to grads on a degree leading to a professional career, I guess because they are guaranteed to get their money back fairly soon. This means that a 5 year course will def be possible to fund, even if it means the amount of debt I come out with might actually make me cry, it’s do-able. Plus one for Peninsula. I’ll leave it there for now, since this is quite long with all the interview stuffs. Hope you have a good week, please feel free to comment, and very excited to have my first follower! :)
Before I knew it, it was Thursday and interview time. I had to get there for 8.15 for an interview that wasn’t until 10.30 so they could register me and go through my documents. The girl sat next to me whilst being registered hadn’t got the form signed by her GP and hadn’t bought all the ID forms she was asked for. It really amazes me sometimes, how this is possible. We’ve had these documents for months, plenty of time to assemble what was required. If you can’t follow simple instructions with plenty of time to complete them, it doesn’t reflect well on you, surely, and it wastes the Medical School’s time, the very people you are trying to impress. I know that it probably won’t make any difference, but when it’s this competitive, I really wish it did sometimes. Sorry, rant over.
Everyone was registered by about 8.30, so we had plenty of time to sit and chat. The other candidates all seemed really nice and friendly, though most were older than me A presentation at 9 told us that lots of people had dropped out, so the two days of grad interviews had been cut to just this one and some people had had their interview times bumped up. There were 42 of us interviewed throughout the day. I don’t know how many grad places there are – they said a proportionate amount to those who applied – and I don’t know if anyone was interviewed at Plymouth. I was first up after that, and taken to a room to choose my ethical scenario of a choice of three and answer the questionnaire. After 30 minutes I was taken to the interview room where a panel of four made up of clinical people and professional laypeople asked 9 questions based on the ethical scenario, and then standard questions on situations I’ve been in and how it makes me feel. I don’t want to put too much information about the interview because this is the internet, but get in touch if you’d like more info. I did have a bit of a eureka moment when they asked me a question I’d had when I did the PMCD interview in my first round of applications and I finally understood it this time. We went on the tour, most of which I’ve seen before as it was part of a work experience course I did run at the Postgrad research side of Peninsula, but it was nice to see the accommodation and chat to some students and other candidates. It was a beautiful sunny day and nice to be out of the office for a change. All in all, I think it went quite well, she says, tentatively. Then again, I always think it went quite well, and it doesn’t normally get me anywhere. But no, this time, I didn’t stumble on any questions, I had a big smile, I gave honest answers, demonstrating what they are looking for, I made them laugh, that has to be a good sign, right? Ah well, we’ll see. They said a panel is getting together mid March and all decisions given out by the end of March. Finger crossed!!
I had a lovely afternoon off after that, watched some Lost and did some tidying ready for my boyfriend to come in the evening. He stayed until Sunday afternoon, and apart from being a bit bored when I went to work (he did ask again if he could come in with me Friday morning!) we had a really nice time. We did some shopping for Mother’s Day presents, had the best steak in the world (according to bean!) at Harry’s Grill, I beat him at Wii canoeing and Wii fit and he beat me at Wii tennis, he rubbed my back and fixed my silly back ache (5 layers at work from now on) and we went to see Alice in Wonderland at the cinema. It was a lovely, relaxing, fun weekend, and I loved seeing him before and having him to come back to after work. He’s on exercise now so I won’t be able to speak to him for a whole week, which is rubbish. Saturday morning post bought the interview pack from Nottingham, so the next set of stressing can begin.
One thing I did find from the interview that was interesting is that we were told to apply for a student fees loan anyway, even though the Student Loan Company says it doesn’t give them for second degrees, because they actually don’t mind giving them to grads on a degree leading to a professional career, I guess because they are guaranteed to get their money back fairly soon. This means that a 5 year course will def be possible to fund, even if it means the amount of debt I come out with might actually make me cry, it’s do-able. Plus one for Peninsula. I’ll leave it there for now, since this is quite long with all the interview stuffs. Hope you have a good week, please feel free to comment, and very excited to have my first follower! :)
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
A quiet week with an exciting end
So last week was a nice and quiet one at work, which was good. Oh, and I won our weekly Thursday lunchtime game of cards, which was awesome :) It got crazily busy December/January time as I was trying to get around 80 data analysis reports done to an external deadline, whilst trying to find people to confirm I should do them and then check them once I’d done them. Since then, I don’t take the quiet weeks for granted anymore! I work for a pension’s administration company. It wouldn’t be my first choice, but with the job market as it is, I shouldn’t complain.
I started here in the summer between college and uni as a temp sorting and filing paperwork. Luckily they liked me and have taken me back every Christmas, Easter and Summer since then, and every time I come back I do harder things. When I told them I would have a whole year free, they extended my contract, promoted me and moved me from the Direct client facing team to the Business Support Team. Here I do a lot more technical bits like calculations, constructing spreadsheets to perform certain tasks, training people in Excel and Word, reporting, data analysis general computer troubleshooting and formatting things. It’s a lot of problem solving, which I love and although I’m part of a team I’m left to my own devices to get on with my work flow most of the time, which I also like. I guess I do really like my job, especially now I’m not bottom rung and filing all the time! :p It’s a nice office with really nice people, the majority of which are grads who fell into the job because there was nothing else at the time. This means there’s quite a high turnover of people but everyone is really friendly. On my team especially we do have a laugh. They are quite a competitive bunch and there’s normally some sort of a quiz going on: What happened on this day in… kinda thing. It has shown me that I don’t want to work in an office forever and I do really miss biology. Another thing about this place is that it is always so cold! I know I’m a cold person normally, but I have to be wearing four layers at all times to be warm here, it’s ridiculous. In fact, it was so cold in here last week the muscles in my back tensed up and were really painful. They are still a bit tight now but they are getting better.
Like I mentioned before, my boyfriend is in the army and is going through Sandhurst at the moment. He had a hard week last week with a big test so we met in Salisbury last weekend to give him something to look forward to. Salisbury is almost half way between us, a little closer to him than me and it’s the second time we’ve done this now. I drove up on the Saturday, we went out for a lovely meal in the evening at Charter 1227 which I cannot recommend highly enough – the chef there is a genius and I have honestly never tasted food as good. Actually that place is the reason I chose Salisbury to go back to instead of somewhere closer to me. The waitress lady remembered us from last time, just over a month ago, which was amazing. We stayed the night in the Grasmere Hotel which overlooks the river Avon and is so pretty. When we came back from our meal we bought a business card to give the hotel manager as he's never heard of the place before. He was so pleased, he gave us a free glass of wine each and invited us to sit and chat with him and his friends who were out celebrating their son's birthday. It was really nice, particularly since I'm quite shy, so wouldn't normally have said yes to sitting with a bunch of strangers for an hour, but actually, we had a really good time. I am trying to come out of my shell a bit more. I can do it when I have to, like when I'm instructoring, so I know Doctoring won't be a problem, I'm just trying to make it more me all the time. The next day we went to Wilton Shopping Village Sunday and then to the Victoria and Albert Pub for Sunday lunch before driving home. Well the pub was lovely, a really nice, proper country pub, but Wilton Shopping village…. Lol, well, perhaps if we were about 50 in our tweed and wool and comfy shoes with a lovely big country house it would be alright, but it wasn’t really for us!
He’s actually coming down to see me this weekend as he has a long weekend of leave before a big exercise the week after. We spent so much time together at uni, I really miss him when he's not here and I know what with the army and me hopefully going back to uni it's going to be ages until we can be back together like that again. Hopefully if we can last that sort of time apart, we should be able to get through anything, but we'll see. He should be getting here Thursday after my interview which will be nice and staying until Sunday afternoon. I’m still trying to work out things to do with him, especially while I’m at work Friday. I think he thinks he’ll be able to come in and sit with me, he doesn’t really get office life! At least he’ll be able to give my back another rub and sort these silly muscles out! Thanks so much for your comments, they’re really useful, and it’s nice to know people are actually reading. Back to the ethics revision, bye!!
I started here in the summer between college and uni as a temp sorting and filing paperwork. Luckily they liked me and have taken me back every Christmas, Easter and Summer since then, and every time I come back I do harder things. When I told them I would have a whole year free, they extended my contract, promoted me and moved me from the Direct client facing team to the Business Support Team. Here I do a lot more technical bits like calculations, constructing spreadsheets to perform certain tasks, training people in Excel and Word, reporting, data analysis general computer troubleshooting and formatting things. It’s a lot of problem solving, which I love and although I’m part of a team I’m left to my own devices to get on with my work flow most of the time, which I also like. I guess I do really like my job, especially now I’m not bottom rung and filing all the time! :p It’s a nice office with really nice people, the majority of which are grads who fell into the job because there was nothing else at the time. This means there’s quite a high turnover of people but everyone is really friendly. On my team especially we do have a laugh. They are quite a competitive bunch and there’s normally some sort of a quiz going on: What happened on this day in… kinda thing. It has shown me that I don’t want to work in an office forever and I do really miss biology. Another thing about this place is that it is always so cold! I know I’m a cold person normally, but I have to be wearing four layers at all times to be warm here, it’s ridiculous. In fact, it was so cold in here last week the muscles in my back tensed up and were really painful. They are still a bit tight now but they are getting better.
Like I mentioned before, my boyfriend is in the army and is going through Sandhurst at the moment. He had a hard week last week with a big test so we met in Salisbury last weekend to give him something to look forward to. Salisbury is almost half way between us, a little closer to him than me and it’s the second time we’ve done this now. I drove up on the Saturday, we went out for a lovely meal in the evening at Charter 1227 which I cannot recommend highly enough – the chef there is a genius and I have honestly never tasted food as good. Actually that place is the reason I chose Salisbury to go back to instead of somewhere closer to me. The waitress lady remembered us from last time, just over a month ago, which was amazing. We stayed the night in the Grasmere Hotel which overlooks the river Avon and is so pretty. When we came back from our meal we bought a business card to give the hotel manager as he's never heard of the place before. He was so pleased, he gave us a free glass of wine each and invited us to sit and chat with him and his friends who were out celebrating their son's birthday. It was really nice, particularly since I'm quite shy, so wouldn't normally have said yes to sitting with a bunch of strangers for an hour, but actually, we had a really good time. I am trying to come out of my shell a bit more. I can do it when I have to, like when I'm instructoring, so I know Doctoring won't be a problem, I'm just trying to make it more me all the time. The next day we went to Wilton Shopping Village Sunday and then to the Victoria and Albert Pub for Sunday lunch before driving home. Well the pub was lovely, a really nice, proper country pub, but Wilton Shopping village…. Lol, well, perhaps if we were about 50 in our tweed and wool and comfy shoes with a lovely big country house it would be alright, but it wasn’t really for us!
He’s actually coming down to see me this weekend as he has a long weekend of leave before a big exercise the week after. We spent so much time together at uni, I really miss him when he's not here and I know what with the army and me hopefully going back to uni it's going to be ages until we can be back together like that again. Hopefully if we can last that sort of time apart, we should be able to get through anything, but we'll see. He should be getting here Thursday after my interview which will be nice and staying until Sunday afternoon. I’m still trying to work out things to do with him, especially while I’m at work Friday. I think he thinks he’ll be able to come in and sit with me, he doesn’t really get office life! At least he’ll be able to give my back another rub and sort these silly muscles out! Thanks so much for your comments, they’re really useful, and it’s nice to know people are actually reading. Back to the ethics revision, bye!!
Monday, 1 March 2010
UCAS History
I did the International Baccalaureate instead of A levels, so when I was offered a place at University of Southampton for Med with 36 points and 666 at higher, my 32 with 644 at higher (4 ½ A’s at A level equivalent) didn’t get me very far. It did however, get me into a Biomedical Science Degree at Southampton Uni, which I absolutely loved (apart from neuroscience – very interesting but I appear to be rubbish at it, plants and molecular which are just dull and complicated and filled with three letter abbreviations for everything!) Here I learnt I could cook, I learnt to row, I made some great friends and I met my boyfriend. All was going well until the start of my final year, when I developed asthma so had to stop rowing and then anaemia, so my body tried to stop me doing everything – moving, concentrating and remembering, which is not conducive to revising for finals, or indeed sitting them. I had to take time out of my dissertation research but carried on battling to lectures. The uni had told me that they would apply a sickness policy to me, unfortunately, due to their anonymity policy, this didn’t help me in the slightest. Once again, I missed my offer of a place at the University of Leicester, but this time by a measly 3%.
So now here we are at round three. I revised and took the GAMSAT, and amazingly passed which was surprising considering I don’t really do well in exams and I have no background in Physics at all (I dropped it in year 9). This got me three interviews at St George’s 4yr, Nottingham 4yr and Peninsula 5yr. I found out last week I didn’t pass the interview for St George’s which is a shame because that was my first choice, but there we go, two left. I have the other two interviews coming up this month, and I honestly cannot pick between the two. Peninsula is close to home, a nicer program, has better facilities and I’d get to watch my god daughter grow up and see my family more often. On the other hand, it’s more expensive as I wouldn’t get a fee loan and I’d have to move every two years. Nottingham is a grad entry program, so a shorter course, I get a fee loan, it’s a nice friendly place but I’d be far from home and based at Derby away from the main uni and student-y goings on. I’m hoping actually going to the two places for interview will help me decide, and then again there is the distinct possibility that I will only get the one offer (if any) and so my decision will be made for me. I guess really, I’m going to enjoy wherever I end up going as it’s the course that I want to do and if the area’s really *that* bad I can just throw myself into my studies. Oooo, I just hate the waiting though! I submitted my application in October, which was ages ago. I went through all the stressiness of waiting to find out if my GAMSAT was good enough, then waiting to see if I’d get any interviews, then waiting to hear the results of my St George’s interview and the waiting’s getting kinda old now nice admissions people, yeah? Unconditional offers please! I’m a nice person, I’d work hard for you, do I really need to be interviewed? Aww, I wish, sadly, it’s not to be. Peninsula interview this is Thursday so I’m boning up on my ethical arguments and terminology. Fingers crossed for me!
So now here we are at round three. I revised and took the GAMSAT, and amazingly passed which was surprising considering I don’t really do well in exams and I have no background in Physics at all (I dropped it in year 9). This got me three interviews at St George’s 4yr, Nottingham 4yr and Peninsula 5yr. I found out last week I didn’t pass the interview for St George’s which is a shame because that was my first choice, but there we go, two left. I have the other two interviews coming up this month, and I honestly cannot pick between the two. Peninsula is close to home, a nicer program, has better facilities and I’d get to watch my god daughter grow up and see my family more often. On the other hand, it’s more expensive as I wouldn’t get a fee loan and I’d have to move every two years. Nottingham is a grad entry program, so a shorter course, I get a fee loan, it’s a nice friendly place but I’d be far from home and based at Derby away from the main uni and student-y goings on. I’m hoping actually going to the two places for interview will help me decide, and then again there is the distinct possibility that I will only get the one offer (if any) and so my decision will be made for me. I guess really, I’m going to enjoy wherever I end up going as it’s the course that I want to do and if the area’s really *that* bad I can just throw myself into my studies. Oooo, I just hate the waiting though! I submitted my application in October, which was ages ago. I went through all the stressiness of waiting to find out if my GAMSAT was good enough, then waiting to see if I’d get any interviews, then waiting to hear the results of my St George’s interview and the waiting’s getting kinda old now nice admissions people, yeah? Unconditional offers please! I’m a nice person, I’d work hard for you, do I really need to be interviewed? Aww, I wish, sadly, it’s not to be. Peninsula interview this is Thursday so I’m boning up on my ethical arguments and terminology. Fingers crossed for me!
Introductions
Hi. Over the last couple of months I’ve been reading some blogs and it’s kinda given me the blogging bug. I’ve always been one of those people who start a diary as a New Year’s resolution and then get bored and stop by about February. Hopefully this one will last a little longer!
The reason I’ve been looking for blogs is to get an insider’s view on medical school. See, I’m one of those crazy people who has decided to put themselves through the hell that is UCAS apply to med schools: the stressing, the obsessively checking track, the over analysing every sentence of my personal statement and answers to interview questions and terrorising the postman for thick letters only please, no thin ones. It turns nice, normal, ordinary people into crazy, twitching, paranoid, ones – not fun. To make matters worse, this is the third time I’m putting myself through it. You might very well think that I should have learnt my lesson by now, but no, I’m a glutton for punishment. All it has taught me is that yes, medicine is what I want to do and that hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.
I’m back living at home with my parents and my cat for the time being, working in an office for a pension’s administration company. I’m a Project Officer, so I make spreadsheets, analyse data for problems and make reports. It’s not terribly exciting, but it is nice to have a wage. The people I work with are great, and I’ve been here for three years now working in my holidays from Uni. It also satisfies the geek in me that likes playing with spreadsheets and problem solving.
I have a Laser Radial which I don’t sail nearly as often as I’d like to/should. I am also a sailing instructor for Juniors, which is great fun. At uni I was looking for a challenge and to learn a new skill so I started rowing as I am hopeless at all land sports (can’t run, can’t throw, can’t catch). That was awesome and I loved it so much I joined my local rowing club and we are currently the novice women’s 4 WEARA champions, which means I have shiny stuff with my name on it :) Considering I’ve always been rubbish at sports, this is a big deal to me. My goal is to lose my novice status by the end of the year, which means I need to win two more races.
I knit in the evenings in front of the telly curled up on the sofa. It started because I needed to do something creative for my IB, and so I got my Mum to teach me and I made a patchwork blanket with her and my aunts to take to uni with me. I made a few scarves, a load of baby jumpers for my cousins’ kids and some stripy socks for Christmas presents this year. I am a firm believer that you should never wear boring pants and socks. If I’m having a rubbish day I only need to take my shoes off and see my brightly coloured stripy socks and I smile, as does everyone else who sees me padding round the place in my socks. Try it someday; I defy you not to smile :)
I’m not the best writer, but I’d like to think I have good sense of humour, which I hope comes through in my writing. If there’s any comments you have to help me improve, or if you’d just like to drop me a message to say hi I’d love to hear from you. By the way, bean is a nickname my boyfriend gave me that seemed to stick.
The reason I’ve been looking for blogs is to get an insider’s view on medical school. See, I’m one of those crazy people who has decided to put themselves through the hell that is UCAS apply to med schools: the stressing, the obsessively checking track, the over analysing every sentence of my personal statement and answers to interview questions and terrorising the postman for thick letters only please, no thin ones. It turns nice, normal, ordinary people into crazy, twitching, paranoid, ones – not fun. To make matters worse, this is the third time I’m putting myself through it. You might very well think that I should have learnt my lesson by now, but no, I’m a glutton for punishment. All it has taught me is that yes, medicine is what I want to do and that hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.
I’m back living at home with my parents and my cat for the time being, working in an office for a pension’s administration company. I’m a Project Officer, so I make spreadsheets, analyse data for problems and make reports. It’s not terribly exciting, but it is nice to have a wage. The people I work with are great, and I’ve been here for three years now working in my holidays from Uni. It also satisfies the geek in me that likes playing with spreadsheets and problem solving.
I have a Laser Radial which I don’t sail nearly as often as I’d like to/should. I am also a sailing instructor for Juniors, which is great fun. At uni I was looking for a challenge and to learn a new skill so I started rowing as I am hopeless at all land sports (can’t run, can’t throw, can’t catch). That was awesome and I loved it so much I joined my local rowing club and we are currently the novice women’s 4 WEARA champions, which means I have shiny stuff with my name on it :) Considering I’ve always been rubbish at sports, this is a big deal to me. My goal is to lose my novice status by the end of the year, which means I need to win two more races.
I knit in the evenings in front of the telly curled up on the sofa. It started because I needed to do something creative for my IB, and so I got my Mum to teach me and I made a patchwork blanket with her and my aunts to take to uni with me. I made a few scarves, a load of baby jumpers for my cousins’ kids and some stripy socks for Christmas presents this year. I am a firm believer that you should never wear boring pants and socks. If I’m having a rubbish day I only need to take my shoes off and see my brightly coloured stripy socks and I smile, as does everyone else who sees me padding round the place in my socks. Try it someday; I defy you not to smile :)
I’m not the best writer, but I’d like to think I have good sense of humour, which I hope comes through in my writing. If there’s any comments you have to help me improve, or if you’d just like to drop me a message to say hi I’d love to hear from you. By the way, bean is a nickname my boyfriend gave me that seemed to stick.
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