moonglow, lamp low

2012-01-11T23:50:00.001Z

This is just getting a bit painful! I want finals to be done now now.

2012-01-02T23:16:00.001Z

IM watching cinderella the ballet on BBC Iplayer. It's making me miss ballet very much!

what are you doing new year's eve?

2011-12-30T10:15:00.000Z

2011-12-30T02:00:00.001Z

Christmas 2011

2011-12-30T01:58:00.003Z

I'm back in Oxford now and it's that time between Christmas and new year. I've never been in England at this time of year before. It's pretty boring being in Oxford and now Christmas is over :( I had a great time at Steve's grandparents' for Christmas though - they made this amazing Christmas dinner (been doing it for 44 years!!) that involved the best turkey I've ever had and lots of Christmas pudding. Also completed a 500 piece jigsaw of a snow scene - far too much white and blue. Went for a walk along the coast near where they live. It was so peaceful and pretty, I loved it. I always enjoy my time over there cos everyone's so friendly and makes me feel really welcome. Steve's gone on elective and I'm highly envious and wish I could be somewhere nice and warm by the sea too. I love beach holidays and can't wait till i'm next on one..................not long till elective.

Enough daydreaming for now, time to sleep......

Gugentag!

2011-12-30T01:53:00.001Z

2011-12-22T14:29:00.001Z

it's nearly christmas!

2011-12-22T14:28:00.001Z

hello. sorry family and whichever friends still read this, i am really bad at updating these days. im writing this from birmingham airport. waiting for plane to belfast to go see steve for christmas. im sitting in pret drinking miso soup (so typically asian), and there's frosty the snowman playing in the background. i love christmas. i wish we didnt have finals to contend with so that i could enjoy it fully but at least we'll be stress free after january (hopefully anyway). i think this is the 3rd christmas ive spent in the UK. it does feel more christmassy here than back home cos of the weather and the appropriateness of hot chocolate and mulled wine (dont really like hot drinks at home.. and had never heard of mince pies till i came here (and thought they would be filled with actual mince meat, imagine the raisin surprise).

but then christmas also doesnt feel like christmas without family and friends.. im lucky that at least i have a family to spend it with! and good friends here. had some good pre christmas times in reading (at miriams house, we watched love actually and had mince pies mulled wine and cookies) and also back in oxford, lots of christmas ukulele playing. im missing home a lot though. ok i guess i better get moving, it might be time to board......

merry christmas :)

xoxo

Turning 24

2011-11-16T00:31:00.001Z

Amazing ukulele cake from ex housemates
Had dinner with Steve & them at the trout - it was a surprise :)
24!

Tingewick tonight - miss being involved in painting etc. miss the team. Miss the firm! Though I have a great group in Reading :) the lovely pink roses are from Tesh and Tanya, and the other flowers from family.

I feel v blessed.

Xoxo goodnight

Hello from Reading

2011-11-13T22:47:00.001Z

I'm on reading for DGH these days. I like it so far. Have a great group here with me so it's actually quite fun. We played who's the bag and complex charades the other day, it was loads of fun.

Id better go... Teaching at 8 tomorrow! can't believe this is the last rotation before finals.

Xoxo

2011-10-01T19:43:00.001+01:00

blue steel

2011-09-30T00:30:00.003+01:00

yay

good days

2011-08-31T18:58:00.000+01:00

ive had a series of fun weekends and even weekdays

went to the isle of wight
ben drove us up there in his awesome land rover that has a farm vehicle licence
it felt like a proper road trip
except the girls had to sit at the back cos we were smaller but also at the back with us was everyones stuff so .. it was.. cosy
no pukey though which is gd for everybody

view from the ferry - cowes week

we slept in samir's living room, his parents were so kind and cooked loads of food for us.

we went to 'mahiki'

in this pic you may be able to see in the very far distance 3 peaks. they are The Needles. we were too lazy/cheapskate to pay to see them properly but this picture is just evidence that we were there.

we also went to the beach. it was freezing. i really dont know how they swam

fireworks!

also went to manchester to see ah khim and the boys which was super enjoyable

and last weekend went to edinburgh to see ah con and saw a show at the festival! An acappella group called Fork from Finland. they were very entertaining. The best bit was definitely their rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody that they did at the end. it's second only to our own version at kbox.

i have to go now

i am going home soon YAY!! never before have i packed so far in advance!

a geeky post

2011-07-29T18:56:00.001+01:00

i must write this down or i will forget it - mother you will probably be interested anyway.

i saw a man in his 30s? with double outlet right ventricle, where the aorta and pulmonary artery are both connected to the right ventricle, and a hole between the right and left allows flow from left ventricle to right ventricle.

he also had pulmonary stenosis, which produced a really loud pansystolic murmur that was loudest in the ULSE (pulmonary area).

he had some kind of shunt put in (maybe Sano shunt) to connect the right ventricle straight to the pulmonary artery.. bypassing the stenosis?

amazing.

final weekend at 14 div rd

2011-07-17T03:15:00.000+01:00

had a hectic week.

have started packing to move out of the house

tonight was really nice. had house farewell dinner minus CJ as her friend came to stay

we went for a cocktail at House as it was happy hour.. i had some almond and apricot sour which was really quite nice. then we cycled to cafe sojo (the last time i was there was on my bday last yr!) and had loads of chinese food and i taught arif how to use chopsticks haha and kudos to him he persisted through the whole meal (even eating rice off a plate). then we parked our bikes and went for a wander and it really was a wander. we wandered upon the castle and some photo exhibition was going on there 'britain from the sky' or something and it was loads of satellite/birds eye views of different places in britain. then we chanced upon some random theatre production in the amphitheatre near the mound. arif tried to sit down amongst the audience but got chucked out. we decided to go to G+D for ice cream but along the way stumbled upon

a) some extremely loud gig that was going on in this hippie arty alternative cafe that is too cool for me

b) the modern art museum -- we took a detour and went inside but weren't very impressed with the modern art, especially the photos of a drying rack in different configurations. very reminiscent of the one we have in our house actually, it's broken and does funny things when you try and stand it up properly

c) the basement of the modern art museum -- we proceeded to try and make an arty video (it was very improv) with the many pillars in this basement -- very strange

d) along the way to G+D we saw this window display that none of us had ever noticed before with all sorts of random strange things in it like 'giant dental floss' and 'invisibility cloak repair kit' etc and a sign saying these items belong to the fictitious community of oxford and may open its doors to normal people in 2014 (???) super random

finally made it to G+D to have ice cream and then.... we went to see harry potter! the final one..

the film was.. well.. pretty entertaining haha because we kept making jokes and their acting is truly awful and the lines i thought were also dire but the effects were good though we all felt they could have utilised the 3D effects more! as nick pointed out the best use of the 3D thing was probably when voldemort's skin went all flaky and disintegrated.. v disturbing. also didnt help that chris watkin recently shaved his head and someone said he looked like voldemort so everytime i saw voldemort i just thought of you know who. it made the whole thing much less scary/magical but im glad that i went to see it anyway. to be honest it could get the worst reviews ever but anyone who was a vague HP fan would see it anyway!

ok i really need to sleep!

2011-07-12T22:38:00.000+01:00

it is what it is, it was what it was

another day

2011-07-12T20:38:00.000+01:00

another long day at the hospital. i have no hope of doing anything productive (work or otherwise) when i get home. i probably enjoy vegging out in the lounge or just watching some senseless tv to let the mind unwind.

there are quite a few interesting cases on the ward at the moment though.

i missed zumba tonight :( the beach party one in fact. sooo disappointed. but had a tut.

this is quite a boring and pointless post. i think im going to go downstairs and veg with the housemates.

Miriam's 23rd.

2011-07-10T21:27:00.000+01:00

The wonderful tapas spread.

birthday girl

harry potter

2011-07-10T21:19:00.000+01:00

it's out this friday but haven't booked tickets. end of an era........

Painting + Lion King

2011-07-10T11:37:00.000+01:00

so this is what i painted in the end....

looks like a 5 year old's masterpiece, right? haha but i enjoyed painting it. must also say it looks different in real life :b i used the canvas and paints that jc gave me for secret santa last christmas.

the housemates and i watched the lion king at night. great show. great effects. had a brief daydream about being an animation artist. probably don't have the talent for it but i think it would be a super fun job!

2011-07-09T15:11:00.000+01:00

dont know why the pics and captions don't align properly. oh well! 2 weeks into 6th year, it's manic already! had a nice lie in this morning which was much needed. was on take last night. saw someone with transient global amnesia. pretty interesting.

thinking of taking up salsa. we shall see.

it's semi-sunny today, im not sure what to do. mim's having a birthday tapas party tomorrow, i think i'll go to town to get her a little something. might do a bit of painting. maybe i'll paint her something! of menorca! mmm.

was house hunting online this morning. still haven't been able to find anywhere. saw a house that arif and i thought had potential but swin and jc didnt like that much. it's tough to find somewhere that will satisfy everyone's needs. especially as we're pressed for time. i just really enjoy coming home to a proper house, with people hanging out in the lounge etc.. it's different living in college, not having a living room. last night when i got back late from take, arif and swin were in the living room playing playstation so we chilled out and chatted. it was very enjoyable and quite relaxing. compare that to the alternative of returning to an empty room..... :( im crossing my fingers and still looking, one of our estate agents is looking at a house on monday that will hopefully hopefully hopefully be suitable.

xoxox

2011-07-09T15:02:00.000+01:00

ciutadella, the city where the saint joan festival took place

monkey friends

day before the festival

beautiful harbour of ciutadella

we had seafood

we hired a car and drove to the south coast

pretty beach

bev driving, sarah directing

attempted BBQ. the meat was definitely dodgy. <10% actual meat i'd say. we left them out overnight and even the dogs only had 2 sausages and left the rest.

beloved villa. what a cute gate!

the jellyfish in the sea that saved bev & i from having to cliff jump the first time.

mim and the little bay

in the town centre

swaying our hands to 'westlive' aka 'fake that'

when we cliff jumped anyway. it wasn't actually that high

sunset on the rocks.

2011-06-27T00:18:00.000+01:00

starting sixth year tomorrow really stinks

had a 1 week 'summer holiday'

went to menorca with jc, miriam, bev and sarah

had a great time. we managed to find a great last minute deal and booked a villa for the 5 of us.

here are some pics

more pics to follow at a later date

goodnight

2010-12-31T12:13:00.001Z

The earth's encrusted in ice crystals,
As families feast and fables unfold,
Let's find the man who makes time,
And ask the Alchemist to turn it to gold.

-3works

2010-12-10T17:18:00.000Z

did my first operation yesterday. hello. thought i better mark it here cos it's a huge thing to me! excision of an eyelid papilloma. i still cant believe he let me do everything
it was a great day. in the evening we went to cafe sojo for what i thought was a mini belated birthday celebration with my housemates, but when i walked in there was a whole table of people there who shouted SURPRISE!!!! i had nooo idea, but it was soooo nice of arif to plan it all. jo had bought all these decorations and printed all these photos out and decorated the place too. steve was there too! i thought he was having christmas dinner with his flatmates.
soooo nice, i was really touched and felt very blessed.
nick baked a cake! ginger cake with icing which was really yummy..

yesterday was an amazing day.

2010-11-03T23:37:00.000Z

ive started neurology... so far so good.definitely more up my alley than psych and a&e.
should be interesting. ophthalmology is also appealing. ENT not so much, i find the ear quite gross.

meonemo

2010-10-29T13:29:00.000+01:00

NO MORE PSYCH!!!!!

a post about croatia

2010-10-25T19:38:00.001+01:00

so awhile ago some time in august i went to croatia

and it was beautiful, the sea was SO blue!

the guy who busked in hvar every night

i was really quite hopeless at steering

the faithful little boat

view from the top near the castle

the castle

look at the size of this tuna

dying to go back there... buried in psych instead.

castlerock

2010-10-24T12:12:00.001+01:00

2010-10-24T12:07:00.000+01:00

photo post!!

2010-09-17T21:03:00.000+01:00

wow its been almost 2 months since the last post sorry i am so rubbish at updating this year
im now on psych and the patients are interesting but i find it all quite tragic, it's not for me i dont think....
very busy with tingewick things these days, tingeaid is tomorrow (the performance that TW firm puts up to raise money for the panto in december)
we've been having rehearsals and this week's been a general design week. i think everythings coming together though which is satisfying to watch and our full dress rehearsal last night wasnt too bad. we finished at 0245 h though! crazy times.

i gotta go.
xxxx

2010-07-27T21:17:00.000+01:00

fifth year has started, i am on a&e. sorry for radio silence. moved into new house, it's great. living with friends is nice, there's always people around to chill with. no more lonely nights :)
i better go, MINGKAI AND PAT are here!! slice of HOME!

xoxo

2010-06-28T05:07:00.001+01:00

I'm in vancouver! I can see the mountains from most places in the city. And the water before the mountains.yummy yummy yummy.

2010-06-19T17:48:00.000+01:00

zz i am waiting for tim to get to london so that we can have coffee. i havent seen him in a looooong time. im so bored now but i have no medicine to read ha ha ha

from cauis, part 1

2010-06-17T12:50:00.000+01:00

dal, grant, fi, steve and i. sal was taking the picture

the amazing gingerbread cauis. very impressive.

autumn tent

after the ball

2010-06-16T23:27:00.000+01:00

had an amazing time at cauis may ball last night. never been before, and now i understand why everyone raves about it! the theme was the seasons, which i thought at first was a weak theme but actually it suited the 4 courts of the college really well. it's apretty college, and they did a great job with the decorations i thought. there were wheelbarrows full of floewrs in the spring quad, there was bunting (i love bunting!), autumn was a lovely orange and the pumpkin and ginger soup there was just what i needed to warm up :)
ski lodge had cheese fondue and dark and stormy (rum + ginger beer), which is prob my fav drink now.
the cocktail bars were very good, and there was lots of gd quality non-alcoholic drink like vitamin water and proper juices. they also had amazing cakes in the shape of cauis and gingerbread houses and gingerbread cauis college. now that was impressive.....

there was just loads and loads of food (we missd the kangaroo and ostrich burgers though, sad times) and for the first time, i didnt even get more than 1 scoop of ice cream just cos there was so much variety of food! there was champagne, mojitos, elderflower cocktails...
in terms of acts, the 2 main acts were toploader (dancing in the moonlight!) and hot chip, who were slightly disappointing but it's okay because i thought some of the other sets were good. the silent disco was really fun i thought, but not as packed as the one at tit hall june event last yr... that was epic, the queue for that was just ridiculous. hal and his band also played some good tunes, it was pretty impressive. there were other silly games to play.. i didnt feel bored at any point, there was always something to do or somewhere to chill. suddenly it was 6 and time for survivors photo!

so that may have been the last may ball i ever go to. im not sure. but it was definitely worth going to. before that also managed to have a proper catch up with big G, and today steve n i walked to grantchester which was lovely. the weather was 100% perfect. whenever i go back to cambridge i am recaptivated by its beauty.....

im back in oxford now and less impressed because my room is messy and i have to study tomorrow. but soon i 'll be off to vancouver so i'm looking forward to that loads..... also dr b's summer party on friday should be fun though i'm really sad that mark wont be there :(

2010-06-05T13:00:00.000+01:00

im sitting in the garden in holywell ford cos the weather is perfect. osce in 4 days, i just want to get it over with already. the weekend after that should be a lot of fun.
the orange book mystery prevails. i miss home, and cant wait for summer to come. wont be going home, but at least will see family again. last night went to the big bang for kate orf's birthday dinner, which was nice. they just have loads of different flavoured sausages and mash on their menu - i had a pheasant and pear and a wild boar and pigeon one. yeah sounds weird but it all tastes like generic meat anyway. im not that big a fan of sausage. the mish mash of meat freaks me out. having said that i have no qualms about eating minced meat, or fishballs (do fishballs even have real fish in them??) so i am clearly inconsistent

bah, work beckons!

the epic photo post

2010-05-14T22:52:00.000+01:00

i am too tired for words

bank holiday weekend

2010-05-05T22:02:00.000+01:00

last weekend encompassed may day so we all took monday off. it was a bank holiday so i think we deserved the break. gotta rest your feet when you can, right? it says so in the cheese and onion anyway.

what did i get up to.. bullet points here cos im busy

- rossy's birthday house party with many tit hallers. 'pirates of the clareabbean'
- lunch with mark in chinatown, we had duck, and bought hello panda
- cheese & wine evening at mark and em's
- gelato mio + portobello road with steve on monday, went to this tiny cafe hidden away netx to an old church
- firm BBQ at greg's, where we roasted marshmallows which i've been dying to do for ages!

this makes it seem like my life is very exciting but it's really not, it's just the weekends that are fun now and then.

i miss home!

rah is coming next weekend, i cannot wait, i really cannot wait!

getting old

2010-04-24T08:26:00.000+01:00

i'm not sure if i'm looking forward to being a real grown up or not.
being a doctor seems pretty stressful. the number of times i've heard a doctor say "well, i got home last night and i started worrying about X and that we missed something so i think today we should do x investigation" is scary. scary for the patients, and scary that you never quite leave your job even after you've left the hospital. especially if you live in Headington and your bleep is still within range. haha

but the rewards are still great ( i think). i like the people, patients are mostly very nice to chat to, and seeing people get better is encouraging. but then there are the sad times when you see someone deteriorate in hospital and can't help thinking that maybe you could have done more.

lots of elderly people in the hospital are confused. Alzheimer's is cruel, not really on the patient because they lose insight and don't realise what's wrong with them, but for their families it's pretty devastating. I've seen 2 husbands cry while watching their wives with Alzheimer's being anxious/vacant. It must be terrible, having someone there, but them not being them at all

it's far too early in the morning to be thinking about this stuff and i'm not even sure why i'm out of bed, i think the room is too warm.

not sure what i did last weekend - nothing very exciting. oh i remember now, thanks to volcanic ash i couldnt go to northern ireland. but in the end it was okay, had a picnic in magdalen with some peeps, and relished the sunshine. sunday attempted elderflower picking, except we got to the alleged bush and clare realised that what she had thought were elderflowers were really just some kind of cherry blossom thing.

i'm bored and restless, but i think i should try and do some work today.

THe weekend of sunshine

2010-04-10T12:26:00.001+01:00

Debs and Charlotte are coming to visit today and the weather is perfect.perfect! :)

back for good

2010-03-29T00:26:00.000+01:00

back in oxford for the next 12 weeks. for good even. goodbye northampton. i'll miss being in EAU doing night shifts and clerking in patients but not much else. the town was a bit of a hole. i'll also miss being able to roll out of bed into the wards and not having to cycle. but i wont miss not leaving the hospital during the week. pros and cons, pros and cons.

mighty deerstalker 2 weekends ago was the mighty deerstalker - which was awesome and i will blog about it in better detail tomorrow or something.

this weekend went to hastings with some of the singaporeans and msians frm cambridge days. it was great fun and i didnt want to leave but obviously had to because medicine in oxford starts tomorrow!

i think i'll just continue this post tomorrow, i really have to sleep now, goodnight!

weekend

2010-02-27T11:18:00.000Z

another weekend has come.
last night went down to london for charlottes birthday dinner at belgo centraal. this belgian restaurant in covent garden. most of us had mussel pots. it was goooood. also had some passionfruit beer. yums
today... is possibly work day... but im not feeling it.... parents please come on to skype soon so i can justify my procrastination haha
i've missed oxford.

would quite like a getaway

2010-02-27T11:15:00.000Z

Medsoc dinner

2010-02-21T13:34:00.001Z

i had a great weekend in Cambridge. saw Tim on Thursday - we went to gbk and had burgers, then bbar for drinks. had a nice catch up, and laughed a lot. brunch in wolfson the next day, saw lizhan as well. Then went to town, had coffee with jasmine and kevin, met big G. We were gonna watch where the wild things are, but ended up chatting on the wall with mark and Charlotte. I'd almost forgotten how stunning the view of the Cam is from the backs / the wall..Oxford doesn't compare in that respect. Also the college community was just much more tightly knit in camb.maybe it was the cosiness of tit hall,or maybe it was just the undergrad experience.dunno,but whatever it was it was special.

Medsoc dinner was awsome, TH medics past and present. Everyone but Emma and Hend from our year made it back, thought it was a pretty gd turnout! Dr Bradley made a hilarious speech as usual, and Dr wilkinson very generously offered to reimburse Joseph for the placemats if we decided to steal them (they have the crest on them). Ifelt like there wasn't enough time to talk to everyone I wanted to talk to..before I knew it it was half eleven and the bar was closed.I'm looking forward to the next time we all gather as medics - at dr Bradleys summer party. I love how they really encourage ex medics to come back, he actually took a poll to see if we'd rather it be on a Thursday or at the weekend.

Went back to sarahs, stopped by Clems where we used to live. had a long chat pre bedtime chat w sarah debs Laurence and Charlotte..then brunch with mark n Sarah this morn. now I'm on the x5. devastating.

Northampton

2010-02-18T00:00:00.001Z

Hello frm northampton. There has been terribly little blogging recently. So four weeks of clinical hypno and2 weeks of threads teaching hav been concluded and now I'm doing my 6 week rotation in Northampton general hospital. Firm mates are katy, arif, sach, andy, harish, joe and Jo. Joes my clinical partner and we hang around the hospital hoping for a kind soul to take us under his/her wing. It's alright here, except we have no intenet access in our rms.thank goodness for my phone!

Arif andy katy and I left the hospital grounds for the first time since gettig here. Went to the town centre tonight, it was pretty deserted :/ I don't think I ever want to live in Northampton, apparently it's one of the top five most
Boring cities in Britain. Wow.

Last weekend was gd fun - Steve came to Oxford on friday and brought Chinese floating lanterns with him. We set those off into the sky and they looked really pretty! Saturdy walked to the trout which is this lovely pub across port meadow which I def wantto visit again in the summer. At night had dinner at debra's it was steamboat with many other singaporeans..Lijings brother is lizhan who used to be in air pistol whose girlfriend is a Singaporean cambridge medics' sister .all v complex singapore is so small. On Sunday Steve made lunch which was steak & potato skin on a bed of rocket n it was yum. we also made apple crumble and watched old oc
Eps haha

Had dinner at red star noodle bar with the medics and then arif and I headed to northampton..

This weekend is medsoc dinner In Cambridge which I'm really looking fwd to.ok I need to sleep goodnight

one slice of rainbow please, to go

2010-02-02T01:44:00.001Z

2010-01-31T20:47:00.000Z

another weekend here.
poster day and presentation on hypnosis + phobia last week went okay. SSM is over. maybe i didnt learn as much as i wanted to (or maybe there isnt that much to clinical hypnosis at all...), but at least i had lots of free time.
have to brave threads lectures for the next 2 weeks. ethics & law (which we alr did in cambridge! can't really believe we have to endure it again) and communication skills. i could learn some things. but i want to get back to the medicine already.

bah

this weekend -

culinary attempt
out of the blue
top chef + definitely maybe
m&s ridiculously worthwhile meal deal
people watching
pitt rivers museum
snow patrol

overdue pics from edinburgh. all credit to jo with her new camera + newfound expert photog skillzssz

blackness castle with jo

hahah

p.s. im so happy, debra is back in oxf!

C.D.W.M.

2010-01-25T02:12:00.000Z

come dine with me
house party
borough market
avatar
chinatown
burns supper

Up in the Air + J M

2010-01-18T15:03:00.003Z

saturday afternoon - got to paddington, met up with mark charlotte and ian. went to this moroccan tea room near covent garden and had tea. mark + ian got 'hot milk vanilla' which was basically hot milk with some vanilla essence i'm guessing. hilarious. like 2 big babies. there was a belly dancer who came over to our table for awhile and it was pretty awkward for ian because her umbilicus was right by his face. belly buttons are such weird things.

walked around for a bit and then decided to go to brick lane for dinner (curry).. we got quite a lot of food for 10 quid each after some haggling and it was decent curry. wayy better than anything we'd get at the mahal in cambridge ha ha (but that's not saying much i suppose). the mahal is the sort of establishment where you'd get told off for using a fresh plate for each round of a buffet (i know, i tried). debs joined us for dinner ( a break from studying for her mock exam) and it was great to have a little tit hall reunion on brick lane.

after that mark and i headed back to get some wine and then to rossy's housewarming. her flat is really nice, i loved the decor. there's a big mirror in the hallway with a very ornate frame that the previous tenants left behind. lots of hanging pictures and quirky stuff on the wall and an immense fireplace (that unfortunately doesn't work). i'm glad she's settled into her new job + home. there were quite a few tit hallers there- crispin, zoe, dave, mark, colin, camilla, rhods.... i'm so pleased that we all still stay in touch. being able to get to london relatively conveniently and cheaply (compared with cambridge!) is a huge blessing. i really miss the cambridge people a lot and there isn't that same sort of close community in magdalen. i think that's both a function of magd being a bigger college and being in the MCR (by the way, apparently magdalen JCR have renamed themselves 'Gryffindor'). people are more focussed on their work (which is completely understandable) and the nature of friendships are different. also people dont stay around for 3 yrs.

Sunday was also great - had lunch with marcus and bobo at hare and tortoise, the prawn mee is yum. then went for coffee with them + ken + suwan joined, josh came to get his tickets and sat down to chat, and then debs came along as well. it was fun. went with debs to church, and then met steve at camden to watch Up in the Air. i thought it was a really gd film. 'what would you put in your backpack?' i'm not sure how i feel about it. on the one hand i think it's true that your possessions and relationships can weigh you down. thinking about the sermon at church that evening about how faith has to be footloose and how our roots should be in the God's plan for the future (ie. new creation) rather than in the present. on the other hand i cant really imagine living a life free of stuff or people. especially people. i think i rely on my relationships with people a great deal to life me up. but also to keep me grounded. if that makes any sense.

tonight im going to watch JOHN MAYER. i cannot wait.there are a few songs that i really want him to play. im less keen on his new album, partly because i dont attach any memories to his new songs. but the old ones always take me back someplace.

okay better go prepare for my hypnosis sessions now ha ha

narnia

2010-01-06T17:32:00.000Z

the snow is gorgeous. college looks like narnia.
walking back to my rm last night through the pristine, freshly fallen snow was magical. the usually PITCHBLACK addison's walk was bathed in this ethereal moonlight thanks to the white white white snow
unfortunately clinical hypnosis wasn't cancelled this morning, i wouldve loved to have spent a whole day just frolicking in the snow.
instead we were in this little room... listening to this little man...
thank God for the window. i just watched the snow fall outside the whole time and daydreamed

xoxo

oh i also cleverly left my keys in the staircase and shut the door behind me and since you also need a key to get out of college i was stuck between my warm toasty room and where i was supposed to be....... so i had to climb. 2 walls. but it was great falling into the powdery snow :]

i want to make more sock monkeys but dont have clean socks

the word is not enough for what it is

2010-01-03T23:25:00.000Z

“A hug can turn your day around, it’s like an emotional Heimlich. Someone puts their arms around you, and they give you a squeeze and all your fear and anxiety comes shooting out of your mouth, and you can breathe again.”

— Pushing Daisies

sock monkeys

2010-01-03T23:23:00.001Z

memento

2010-01-03T18:28:00.000Z

just watched memento for the second time
it's brilliant but soo confusing! im going to read some explanations online cos it's frustrating
pretty sad at some points. he has anterograde amnesia so the death of his wife is fresh to him every morning
'how am i supposed to heal if i can't feel time' is what he says
memory is needed for grief but also for the resolution of grief
im still not sure who killed his wife

2010-01-03T00:40:00.001Z

the sixth day of christmas

2010-01-03T00:23:00.000Z

we went to get steve from the airport! and then went back to the flat. jeffer was very nice and studied in the flat to wait for jo's delivery because we were going to head out. we went to arthur's seat and wanted to climb it but then the snow got heavier so we didnt. but the snow was amazing !! when i looked up i felt like i was in a winter wonderland.. jo was being pro with her camera am curious to see how all the pics turn out : )

after arthurs seat we were all brr chilly so we went to grab some soup and warm stuff at chocolate soup i think was what it's called.. anyway it was gd hearty soup :) after 'lunch' we headed to the dean gallery which is the modern art museum and outside was:

sounds pretty depressing at first but i decided it could also be seen in a positive light

anyway in the museum was a BP national portrait competition.. there were a few amazing ones but obviously cannot take photo i liked this one of an old man who had just undergone open heart surgery (and his wife had just passed away or something). he just looked sooo vulnerable and broken. beautiful raw emotion

we had salmon and attempted ratatouille (except we were missing most of the key ingredients such as onion haha) but it was all very yummy.. then watched some top gear and went to hogmanay! we wore SO many layers of clothes and so werent that cold. also there were many people. it seemed less crowded this year than the last time, or maybe that was just because we got a good spot in front of one of the stages and avoided the moving crowds

had a great fireworks spot and the display was very pretty. it was awesome being in edinburgh, having jo and steve there when 2010 came, and steve's friends chris + claire. i just looove holiday season, everyone's together and happy and relaxed.......... i dont want it to end. im back oxford now and already missing time in edin :[

nevermind, apparently we are going to do the mighty deerstalker race that jing brought up over chilli crab and chicken rice last night. running uphill is probably one of my least favourite things in this world, so i'm not sure why i said yes, well i guess i know why - it's cos i think despite the pain it will be lots of fun because we are all going to do it together. though i might review this 10 minutes into the race : ) stupid herd mentality : )

have survived the epic train ride..... i dont have very gd luck with trains : /
sleep time

zz

xx

the fifth day of christmas

2009-12-30T13:36:00.000Z

yesterday doreen jo and i went to blackness castle. it was freeeeeeezing but really pretty by the coast.

cant believe people used to live there

castle! woooo

after the castle viewing we went around the forth bridge area and had coffee soup and cake, i loved the cafe it had such a nice view! and felt cosy and warm mmm

then we went to charis' flat and played about 5 hrs of rock guitar ahaha.... oh dear, its very addictive.

this holiday has been amazing so far for many reasons, including 7 consecutive no alarm mornings :)

miss people at home though!

2009-12-29T12:32:00.001Z

these are cute

2009-12-29T12:30:00.001Z

but we didn't make them

2009-12-29T12:23:00.000Z

the completed gingerbread house

no one on facebook believes that i had any part in it. this makes me sad haha

dunno why there's a post about aula dinner right below this, that was ages ago. maybe just never sent it out of my phone.

watched avatar in 3d yesterday and i want to go and live on this pandora island, only problem is it doesn't exist. but it was so prettyin the forest!

we're going to blackness (?) castle today....... which should be fun. i think i've had the best consecutive 5 night sleeps in a looong time. feels good.

i'm so glad that jo's camera arrived! :D

project #4

2009-12-28T12:06:00.001Z

now that the epic christmas dinner, sledging and gingerbread house are complete.. ............

aula club dinner

2009-12-28T12:02:00.001Z

Just had an amazing meal at the army and navy club in London, hosted by the tit hall aula club. It was great to see everyone gain,I think we are doing so well with meeting up and keeping in touch as a year group. :) mark Emma Dave having house party this saturday which I'm sooo tempted to go to but probably shouldn't since exams are coming.. :(

Anyway we had lots of goodfood and wine and I gave mark my potatoes (standard) and we had to toast several people including the queen,the Royal family,the old house (stil not sure what that is) etc etc

On the train back to oxford now, back to the medicine :/ I'm sooo looking forward to Christmas.also kind of homesick but I'm sure it'll pass,I think it's just the thought of not going home for who knows how long! :/

2009-12-26T14:36:00.000Z

christmas eve dinner at doreen's house was a success! in fact we had so much leftover food it was used for christian fellowship lunch the next day, and now we still have tooooo many brussel sprouts in the fridge !! and a few shreds of turkey. it was really nice after the food we sat round playing christmas quiz games etc and then sang christmas carols near midnight.

yesterday we woke up at noon, present exchanged, went to PCCF lunch and further honed our domestic skills, and then went sledding on arthur's seat with these random pieces of cardboard that we'd found outside do's house the night before! so fun. so much snow and wet bums. watched aladdin and started gingerbread house construction. super christmas by all standards!!

put the roof on the house this morning and so far it looks like...

the icing takes a while to set, so we watched another film while holding it together. it looks goood

under construction

christmas eve

2009-12-24T18:45:00.000Z

cant believe it's christmas eve already! where did the run up to christmas go? i have lots of christmas left in me. we spent the whole day today preparing for the dinner party that doreen is throwing tonight. cooking for 25 people in a tiny little kitchen is a christmas challenge indeed haha there were a few mishaps along the way but itlooks like it's going to be okay.. : )

mmm

mmm
m
m
m
m
m

merry christmas!

2009-12-23T09:55:00.000Z

2009-12-23T02:27:00.001Z

freeeeeedom!
edinburgh tomorrow! :D

4 days

2009-12-21T17:27:00.000Z

to christmas !!!

finding it hard to motivate myself to work here..... keep thinking about edinburgh :)
and tomorrow's post exam festivities should be fun ... dan's house, maison blanc, random christmas shopping, dinner at green with the medics thanks to sheila's supreme organisation skills.. and then bop at po na na.

mmmmmmm

post exam ramble

2009-12-20T21:05:00.000Z

exams start tomorrow! but to be honest, it hasn't been that painful. nothing like the usual SIX WEEK BUILDUP there usually is. not sure if that's a good or bad thing. already tired though. so maybe good. also wednesday couldnt come any sooner - edinburgh !!!

had pancakes at new with the future housemates this morning. looking forward to our house next year, i think it'll be gd fun.

Foy + pre Christmas christmas

2009-12-18T20:41:00.001Z

had a really good day yesterday. got up at 10 ish which is always a good time.. went to check my pigeon hole and got post from ren and debra. spent about half an hour in the library smiling to myself and thinking about home and good old times etc.. much needed
in fact it's been an excellent month pigeon hole - wise

did some work.. had lunch in the MCR with anna + olivia.. who left for munich today (it's soo quiet now i dont have anna across the corridor to chat to whenever)

more work... then met steve at the station and we went to jericho tavern to see the MUCH anticipated foy vance gig and he was incredible! what a voice. and what great songwriting. it was pretty special for steve cos foy's N Irish too and in many ways i think his music and manner spoke volumes about their culture and attitudes towards.. well, life, and people

after the gig we had mini christmas. it was SO COLD LAST NIGHT and still VERY COLD TODAY but no snow here :[ i feel like a snowman in that i have about a zillion layers on and look like one but am still made of snow cold snow

i cant waiiiit for exams to be over and then i go up to edinburgh !! woooo

2009-12-16T21:25:00.001Z

i.am.so.sick.of.work.

zzzzzz

2009-12-14T19:11:00.000Z

what's new?

so after much deliberation about whether to apply for Tingewick firm 2010 or not... i decided to just go for it. and yay, i got it. i take this as a sign that someone has faith that i can do it, cos i'm not 100% sure myself, but DESIGN TEAM ! which means we do the set design and costumes. should be fun. reminds me of doing june event decor. to be honest i think they only picked me because i attached a photo of the massive volcano that we made for june event in second year. it's very impressive but much credit should go to the engineers and people who helped paper machier that whole thing.... those were good times though

anyw the firm (of 28 people) looks good, lots of lovely + fun people, should be a good year. :)

nothing much happened this week aside from going down to london on thursday evening for Aula club(tit hall) dinner, which was really posh and as always it was great to see old friends. just so familiar and effortless, but im sure it'll reach that stage here. some things in life just require time - growing, and healing

we've found a house for next year! i'm living with aswin, arif, clare, nick, jo cooke. it's in cowley and is pretty nice.... looking forward to moving out of college accommodation! i like living here in holywell but it's verryyy quiet sometimes (esp now that most people have gone home cos normal uni term is over)

this week is just studying for exaaams
thankfully since i'm on the tingewick firm i've had my rotations in 5th year decided for me, so dont have to do this silly ballot thing

thursday is foy vance gig and advanced christmas. very eggcited

2009-12-07T14:14:00.000Z

what to do now that tingewick is over?

the swine flu trio

jamaican arif
jo cooke n i
Zanna, the blackberry

great weekend - jo came to visit. : ) first time seeing her in... 8 months ?! tooo long! very glad that i m going up to edinburgh for christmas
jo + steve came to watch TW which meant a lot.

when eve came to visit a few weeks back - we had breakfast in magdalen hall

when rui came to visit - her fisheye camera! in christchurch meadow

ps i miss home

2009-12-03T23:57:00.000Z

sorry for long absence, been crazy busy with tingewick !
which is this pantomime that the med school put up every year (since 1940!!). it raises loads of money which all goes to charity. i think it's a pretty good cause, and we have lots of fun preparing and rehearsing for it.there's acting singing and dancing. its been great fun so far - we're 2 nights in, 2 nights left.

birthday was nice. went to lectures, then ballet class (been inspired by the dance in tingewick and decided to take it up again) and then dinner with medics + some magdalen folk. steve showed up as a surprise which was very nice of him, except it could have gone horribly wrong had i not picked up my phone. birthdays make me miss home a lot - i guess it's when you hear from people you havent heard from in awhile, and that always makes me reminisce. jo is coming tomorrow at midnight, which i am MASSSSIIIVEEELLYYY Excited about, i havent seen her since.... EASTER!!!!!!!! i can't believe it myself.
: ) : ) : ) :)

goodnight.

2009-11-21T23:49:00.000Z

not very good at posting this year :(
been busy with tingewick rehearsals.... went to see bell x1 2 nights ago.
great gig!

2009-11-13T19:41:00.000Z

im not even sure what week it is

2009-11-13T18:53:00.000Z

another week gone by -

cambridge weekend was great. it felt amazing to be back. right at home. sat on the wall. glanced at my old pigeon hole everytime i walked through the lodge. second nature. saw loads of people. we went to dojo's, played ring of fire, went to viva, tried to sleep outside the seminar rooms on the cushy bits where charlotte n i had a power nap during June event, got chucked out by the porters, 4 of us squeezed on big g's floor.. it was amazing. went to giraffe for brunch the next day and then headed back.. this time the x5 was less painful cos clare jeffs was on it too thank goodness!
this week's been a bit less hectic socially but the work is def piling up. and have bene having lots of tingewick rehearsals.
monday was dancing, which i find alot easier than the singing.. problem is i can't sight sing/tap the rhythm of the song, and they just kinda go 'sing!'which i really cant, i need to hear the song and figure out the part!! im sure it'll be lots of fun but right now i'm like eerrr which bar are we looking at

wed had dinner at jen's, she made fajitas and anisha made banoffee pie, yumyum

just got back from KEEN, which is this kids playgroup thing that i've been volunteering at.. it's pretty cool, the kids are fun, the games are fun and i get to be a kid again for a little while every week. each friday we do a play from shakespeare and games for the kids and crafts..

today was funny, i was so out of it this morning cos i havent been sleeping well (experiencing insomnia, like gar) , i spent the first half of the lecture looking at the wrong notes (until emily kindly pointed this out to me), and then later on during lunch jo pointed out that i had my top on inside out. hahaha (not like that hasnt happened before though)

got singing social in about an hour......

dear clouds please stop raining, youve been at it all week!

On my way

2009-11-07T12:09:00.001Z

I'm on the x5 on my way to Cambridge..this is a soul destroying journey that I always regret taking about halfway thru the journey but oh well.zzz I shall try n get some sleep

2009-11-07T02:02:00.000Z

just got a call from jase+ mark (?drunken), i miss tit hall terribly

2009-11-07T01:00:00.000Z

sorry for the silence - been very busy!
path course is in full swing. pretty interesting but loads to learn feel like stuff goes in and stuff leaks out
what non-medic stuff have i been doing since the last update...
friday night was arif's first attempt at proper cooking, he made mushroom risotto which was pretty decent for a first try! the only thing he's ever cooked is pasta, and that was only when he got to oxf- before that he'd heated up beans and toasted bread or something. really funny. nick made an awesome pumpkin pie in the spirit of halloween...
then we all headed over to osler house for the halloween bop. most of us went as generic zombie with loads of white face paint. this is arif (the joker) and i (sadako)

saturday was halloqueen bop ie. cross dressing which was hilarious, i have a pretty traumatising photo album

that's anna , who lives across the corridor from me, she's lovely. we tried to be lumberjacks and got our checked shirts from primark men's section. ahha i used to hate checks but i think they're growing on me.

john and simon, loving it a little bit too much

steve, looking pretty in a wholesome sunday school teacher sort of way rather than brett dave and andy:

haha it was good fun. we had a pizza party in the stairwell before which was jokes cos the boys got their make up done. i lent my skirt to simon and he put it on and exclaimed 'this just isn't short enough!' i'm glad boys aren't normally allowed to wear skirts.

MCR brunch, formal hall (of which i have no pictures.. when we all looked nice n normal)

tuesday eve came to oxford in the evening which was awesome !!!!!! : ] i was so excited to see her hahaha and we went to the castle for dinner at la tasca where the tapas portions are huge, and had sangria and just chatted.. then went back and watched how to lose a guy in 10 days which is always funny even for the fourth time. and then chatted till quite late oops
woke up next morning faar too early but we managed to make it for breakfast in hall so that she could have the 'oxford dining experience' hahaha... took some touristy photos in dining hall and of addisons walk, showed her the deer etc, but then i had to leave for my lectures :( she went up to bristol to meet up with nicholas and nigel and her mommy.

wed night was green formal with the medics which was really nice and pretty last minute, but all good because it forced me to churn out 1700 words of my GP report in record time!! im pretty sure now that i work best under pressure, which is myexcuse for doing things at the last minute haha jokes. before the formal were drinks in the observatory (yes, can you believe it), this massive dome shaped structure smack in the middle of the college. really nice. the food was great (Far better than magdalen) and we just chilled n chatted after.

last night was first singing rehearsal for tingewick, which is this pantomime that the clinical school puts up annually to raise funds for charity. it's a pretty big production that's put up in the first week of december, and lots of the consultants/junior docs + med students + friends come to see it. man the singing was pretty tough esp since i cant read notes or at least definitely can't sight sing, but it was lots of fun anyw. got dancing on monday.

today just had some alone/ rest time in the afternoon n then went to anna's room across the corridor for a glass of wine + nice chat and then to mcr for 'liquid lounge' which is every friday night... oh man.. im tired im going to bed now.
tomorrow i am going to cambridge because loads of us are going back for viva !!!!!! I MISSSS TITT HHAALLLL , it's not quite the same here, everyone just kinda does their own thing i guess the mcr is more focused on work than the jcr since you're no longer sub 20 but ayyeee
OKKKKKKKKKK i need to go

2009-10-29T23:57:00.000Z

cant sleep. very annoying.

love this book

but i think it's far bigger in america than here.

2009-10-29T23:07:00.000Z

held a little gathering last night in my rm cos it's finally big enough to have people round. had dessert and G+T, which was great fun. dan, dee, bev and the new medics came and simon who lives downstairs joined in. we played a couple of rounds of mafia and then decided to go to bhangra night at thirst lodge cos aparently aswin is an amazing bhangra dancer. but it was too expensive to get in so we went to st anne's bop instead which was still fun.... except i had to have quite a lot of coffee today!

we had complementary therapy day yesterday afternoon - i did clinical hypnosis and massage. it was such a relaxing day.

PS im also really happy cos im going to watch john mayer 18 jan : ) gray also got tickets, except we didnt order together so we prb cant go together which is a shame. but meng did, so that's cool

2009-10-28T09:22:00.000Z

JOHN MAYER TICKETS !!!! whoopwhooooop. i'm finaaaallly going to get to see him play. amazing. i sat at my computer refreshing the screen like a dedicated fan and am missing my first lecture because of it. but it's also some lecture on complementary therapy.... today is complementary therapy day... we get to do taiji, yoga, massage, acupuncture dunno what else. a bit of a doss and i feel like my day might be better spent in the library buttt at the same time sounds quite fun right?

high table dinner last night was really interesting - it involved walking down a secret passage on the roof from the senior common room smoking room (where the fellows hang out) that smells strongly of coffee, as if theyre trying to mask some other smell, to Hall, and the meal was very nice. we drank water out of silver goblets that used to be for beer in 1888 before water was potable. and the main was VENISON. and dessert was raspberry 'souffle' but really tasted more like mousse. during the meal i sat next to a research fellow (computational chemist) who told me he creates false universes (like in the matrix). it was faar too deep for my understanding but very interesting nonetheless.. and he told some stories about schrodinger who was a fellow at magdalen in the 1930s. and about some chemist who bled himself everyday and extracted the iron from his blood to fashion a ring + put a diamond to propose to his lover. siao

after dinner back to the SCR, where we had more port, sherry, moscat, fruit, chocolate.... there was this contraption near the fireplace that i think is called a port train which is basically a pulley system on an incline that allows you to transport the bottles/decanters across the room it's quite ingenious really but like ?!?! during dessert i sat next to one of the medical fellows from Iran who teaches the undergrads and had an in depth conversation with him about food and the ledbury (he lived in notting hill for a bit). we both gushed about the food etc and then he complained about the lack of good food in oxford. i complained about the crapness of british food and he shared my dislike for potato. very good

after they brought the fruit and chocolate round one of the fellows came round with a wooden box with 2 compartments and offered scented/unscented snuff. so i took a pinch and put it in my anatomical snuff box which we learnt about in first year anatomy and i've always wanted to use (how geeky am i ) and then took a great big whiff and nearly sneezed it all out. my nose felt funny and i can't say it had any effect on me that the wine hadn't already. watching this room full of fellows in gowns sniffing stuff was quite a sight though. set up those lines, get out those credit cards...

ok i better go

2009-10-26T08:34:00.000Z

today we begin our very many weeks till christmas of pathology course. no more patients, but more learning about diseases and how to treat them. i'm looking fwd to learning some substance but not to the 9-5 lectures. but nevermind. focus time!

2009-10-25T04:01:00.001Z

haaapppyyy hallooowweeeny soonish

2009-10-25T03:45:00.001Z

sometimes a cup of tea is all you need

i miss tit hall

2009-10-24T23:15:00.000+01:00

this week i was at GP attachment - it was good
was attached to the health visitor (baby clinic), the midwife (palpated lots of pregnant tummies), district nurses (home visits), sat in with the GPs in consultation and did lots of blood taking. good week compared to lectures. also it was nice being on my bike and cycling around to find the various places and exploring oxf a little bit.

im not as good with updating as i used to be, and havent uploaded photos in awhile
last sunday night - formal - the choir sang grace before the meal. that was really nice. but i didnt think the food was terribly great
cant remember what i did monday and tuesday.... that's slightly scary haa
wed evening went to the castle with catherine, anna and olivia. we went to carluccio's and had a nice civilised 'girly' dinner, which was great. the castle is awesome and there's a gd dining atmosphere except recently it's been wet, otherwise it's nice to sit outside.
thursday was sach's 22nd at 4500 miles from dehli, at which we all overate but it was gd to see the medics again.
friday had a half day at the GP's, did some life admin in the afternoon. went to try out this volunteering thing at zigzag with under 18s with special needs. it was gd fun. there was crafts drama and games and i just felt like a bit of a kid again. :) i've got 2 kids assigned to me and they're lovely. very sweet kids. their dad was there as well so got to chat to him a bit. also met some pretty nice people. hopefully will go back next week if it doesnt clash with tingewick rehearsals, which should be starting soon! then went to john kiely's birthday dinner, and then we went to the bridge after cos there was some medic deal going on. spent most of today wandering round oxf with steve -went to manos in jericho (west oxf) which was recommended by the district nurse that i was attached to - really good value and good food! greek food... i want to go to santorini (dunno when). shame that it was a pretty rainy miserable day otherwise we were going to walk to the trout which is somewhere up north near the river but might save that for a sunny day. wandered round town to get fi's birthday card.. aft steve got the bus back i went back to staircase to help to cook dinner for the staircase meal tonight taht's just over. had a really gd time, i looove these dinner parties where everyone chips in to cook/clean/bring drinks/dessert. we had sweet and savoury crepes and anna made a gd sticky toffee pudding (quintessentially english?). and some red wine. combined with staircase II, cos unfortunately the two guys who live upstairs dont really come out much : ( it's cool that alex (who lives downstairs) joined us tonight. anyw we ended up somehow listening to country music cos lucas and anna both love it and lucas is frm virginia and was just crrrooooning away it was hilarious. hahaha and miley cyrus and taylor swift ?! very surreal moment right there. i'm supposed to be at lucy's housewarming right now but im tired, i might cop out and not go, it's cold and possibly wet outside and im warm in here and could get into bed and go to sleep right now. the clocks turn back tomorrow (can't believe it's that time of year already!!) so we get an extra hour in bed :] blissss...
hmmm this is last weekend before the path course starts proper so im really trying to enjoy it.
tmr is mcr brunch but tim is also in town so i think we're going for dimsum lunch :]

2009-10-19T08:56:00.000+01:00

thought i'd be a good friend and help meng promote his music:

www.youtube.com/mrkuok
www.myspace.com/mrkuok

go support!
i personally like 'you'll never know'

2009-10-18T11:58:00.001+01:00

Good week, especially Friday - lectures in the morning, lunch with Lijing and calvin, we went to walk in christchurch meadows whch was cool, then went to catch up with clare Jeffreys at new and Jo fed me raspberry brownies.. And then met Rui for another walk in Christchurch meadows. Sun was shining n it was perfect weather... Then had dinner with fresher grad singaporeans at gourmet burger kitchen n had a massive burger!! After that was liquid lounge in the mcr in magdalen... that went on til pretty late. On our way home randomly popped into someones room thru the window n they were having some pyjama party... Haha really odd. Had lunch with debs yesterday at the mission, and then showed her my room which I cleaned a little beforehand, but forgot to make the bed. Ah well she's seen it in a worse state. Then trained to london,had dinner with Steve n then we went to marcus + ken + sootets house party! Saw tim n loads of others which was gd fun :) lunchtime

2009-10-17T11:47:00.000+01:00

Firm love

Dee!

Jo + Clare

Dee, Dan, Arif

Aswin, Jo and Lucy

Bev & Abeer the birthday girls!

2009-10-11T11:38:00.000+01:00

weekend is here again... i'm in london. saw debs friday night which was great. past week's been pretty busy but we've been let off from hospital work pretty early. magdalen freshers week - tuesday had staircase dinner with anna, simon, steven (in my staircase) and some other people from staircase II. its weird mixing with older people. they mostly come with phDs and a host of life experiences that i just don't have. wednesday was a crappy day - it was rainy, i was grumpy, but had a good tutorial. went for a MCR freshers curry at Jamal which is pretty much the oxford version of the Mahal - a pretty substandard curry house where people just go because you can bring ur own booze and throw naan at each other. however our meal was surprisingly civilised, im guessing because most people there were above the age of 25 which is quite a far cry from when we were JCR freshers and sub 20. i feel old, and i cant pretend that i don't miss throwing naan around.
thursday was great - bev and abeer's birthday party at the living room, whcih is this nice bar/restaurant with live music. the guy playing was really good! and there were loads of medics there n it was great to eat and chill out and catch up. then some of us headed to the girls' house party on divinity road where there was more catch up but also catheter bags in the kitchen with wine in them and the tidbits were all in bedpans. medic party medic humour. friday we had a late start at one pm so i had the biggest lie in ive had since i started here - got out of bed at half eleven and it felt soooo good.

yesterday went to Sketch for tea . really cool place, i def recommend it
the toilets freaked me out though

2009-10-01T16:58:00.000+01:00

take last night was good. matt and i clerked a patient. but i didnt leave till 9.30! went to jo's to eat ice cream and drown our sorrows. consultant (hero) asked me if i thought my patient was nuts or ill.

there are manyyy things i want to say but cant cos of confidentiality. very frustrating. anyway, firm dinner tonight !!! since last night's attempt failed thanks to night take.

today was post take ward rounds till lunchtime, and then quite a long lunch break,and then i went to A+E to look for someone to clerk. found the good teacher again, and he looked happy to see me, though sometimes i think i must just get in the way. i dont know how else to practice though.

okay... im going to borders now

more on the irony of fate

2009-09-30T13:54:00.000+01:00

Alfred Nobel and Angina

Osler and Bronchiectasis

Semmelweiss and sepsis

at home right now, got let off early today. was supposed to have firm dinner tonight but were just told today that we're on take tonight. new registrar grills us quite a bit. reminds me of wilko but not as mean. also reminds me of mr howe a bit. lots of general knowledge. eg. 'when was aspirin discovered?' how would i know??
why is rapamycin called rapamycin? because it was first discovered as a product of the bacterium Streptomyces hygroscopicus in a soil sample from Easter Island — an island also known as "Rapa Nui"

how do you even know this stuff? did you know that statins naturally occur in oyster mushrooms?

2009-09-30T08:32:00.001+01:00

dont feel like going in today :[

2009-09-29T17:52:00.000+01:00

last friday was good - went to A&E and clerked a patient. found a very good teacher.
weekend was also very enjoyable in London.
Dave's 21/22 birthday celeb was really nice - at the royal automobile club in pall mall. SO good to see tit hallers again.
im going back to cambridge this weekend for varsity and hopefully will see some people. i miss the place but i'm glad i'm here now.

today consultant said something completely non-medical in passing to the registrar as they were talking about running up some hill (i assume it's the one on the way up to the JR that is a nightmare):
if you want to get better at running up the hill, just run more. if you want to get faster, run with someone faster.
very obvious, but very true, and i think i forget it sometimes

also did my nursing shift today

apparently there's some MCR welcome dinner tonight - my new staircase mate was kind enough to tell me about this. but ive already eaten cos i was so hungry when i got home! :|

jibberish

2009-09-26T11:52:00.001+01:00

Hudfbcfykgfhdsykvfj

Tingewick

2009-09-25T18:22:00.001+01:00

We had tingewick auditions today. Dancing was disastrous. Singingwas slightly scary cos u had to do it alone in a room with four judges. Felt like i wa on American idol or somethig (not in a gd way). Acting was funny and when they asked for an Indian accent I just did mrs rani computer science teacher in secondary 2 haha

Weekend !!!!!

2009-09-25T18:16:00.001+01:00

I'm on my way to London right now. Had a good day at the hospital today . Got to tht stage where I felt like I wasn't making good use of time in the hospital and thought I'd really regret that once we start lectures on pathology and can't see patients anymore. So took some blood and then after lunch decided to find patients in A&E, which worked out well. Found a great doc who was keen on teaching (turns out he had trained our meded tutors) and he gave me a patient to take a history from, do a cardiovascular examination on and present my findings. Then had to take his blood too and look at his x ray. The patient was very pleasant and didn't wince when I took his blood. Some patients are veryyyy afraid of needles and that makes it tough, especially if they move their arm! That scares me haha.. Then we had this ECG teaching session which was very ridiculously complicated and too much for my now very slow brain :(

I m so glad the weekend is here, except we are on take tomorrow afternoon and on Sunday night . But since I did my shift last Monday night I think I can skip tmr and go in on Sunday night ...

Dave's birthday celebration tmr, looking forward tobtl

2009-09-23T18:37:00.000+01:00

we had manual handling training this morning to learn how to move morbidly obese people (very tactfully termed 'bariatric patients'), and it was possibly the dullest thing that we've had to attend since starting here. took a very lengthy history this afternoon and did a cranial nerves examination. would have liked to do more but then the patient was tired so we stopped. fair enough, if i were ill i probably wouldn't want this bunch of inexperienced med students prodding me. there's this blue logbook that we're meant to be filling in everyday with at least one thing that we've learnt for the day......

so far i think what's struck me most is the amazing privilege that we have. people just open up and tell you things that some of their family probably don't even know.. and although as a med student i feel completely useless and sometimes even a hindrance, i think there are some things that patients tell you and not even the doctors.

also, i've decided that i like being in the hospital late at night and wouldn't mind staying overnight one day when we're on take. it's oddly peaceful when it gets past six and the medical assessment unit gives me gd vibes. i told my firm mates this and they thought i was madly keen.. the thing is, i like hearing the stories, i like spotting the signs and then trying to piece it all together. also, if i stay a whole night i'll probably take the next day off and i really wouldn't mind a full day of sleep... : )

supposed to have dinner at zizzi's tonight but i'm knackered and have some variety of the sniffles (very technical), so i think i'll have a sleepy night in... oh one thing funny we did learn today is P.I.P. that stands for Pyjama Induced Paralysis hahha i think i frequently have this ( i am in my PJs right now)

did my laundry yesterday which was exciting because there's quite a complex card system here, but at least everything smells good, so i think the machines actually work (unlike the ones tit hall had)

tingewick (annual clinical sch pantomime) auditions are tomorrow evening, we each have to sing, dance and act. we have to sing solo and pick our own song but i haven't given it proper thought yet. depending on my mood i think i might sing hakuna matata from lion king or bad day by fuel..

im listening to the soundtrack of 500 days of summer. i really like it. steve says he doesnt like the smiths but i quite like the 2 songs of theirs that were on the film. but that may just be because i liked it the film.

:)

2009-09-22T23:26:00.001+01:00

500 days of summer

2009-09-22T23:20:00.000+01:00

i really liked this film though i thought some parts were really depressing. i watched it twice!