The weekend was great. Sarah Al came down with her flatmate to see me, and because she knew I was down to my last tenner, paid for everything. Big Hugs doing to ya and Mark, babe!
Yesterday was interesting. I had a gentleman caller, who shall remain known as Hot Rob, over to my place, and a hot sweaty session was had.
But now? NOW?? I've been laid up in bed ALL DAY as a horrible virus has invaded my system (and that of my flatmate's as well. I wonder which one of us brought it into the house?)
Lemsips, Lockets, hacking coughs and sniffles are what I have to put up with now.
BAH!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Hooray!
I got the results of two clinical assessments back today (one of them being the controlled-drug exam I blogged about before), and I aced them both!
There will be other assessments before the end of the year is out, but these were quite substantial, and now that I've done well in them, a decent end-of-year mark is within the realm of possibility.
Whew...
There will be other assessments before the end of the year is out, but these were quite substantial, and now that I've done well in them, a decent end-of-year mark is within the realm of possibility.
Whew...
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The weekend
It's been mental.
After the placement finished on Friday, I went into town to meet my parents, who had flown over for Dan's wedding, and the weekend kicked off from there.
After a night of making g&ts for MizzFlee (and myself!) I fell home at about 5am saturday morning. I rose at lunchtime, beautified myself and hotfooted it into town. From there, my parents and I went to the wedding service in Hove.
Shitty weather notwithstanding, the service was very nice. One of the readers of the gospel enunciated everything with great stridency and drama, and as a result made it sound a bit more interesting, there were little children singing and playing wind instruments (a tuba or french horn? I'm not sure) and the organist played only an accompaniment, leaving it to us to actually sing. This last exercise was performed with various degrees of success with different people: I hadn't a clue, so completely ballsed it up, but everyone else seemed to know what they were doing.
After the parents and I had gone off to get something to eat after, we returned to the reception. There we found the groom, and for once the bride, nicely trolleyed. After a while, I had caught up to them. Meeting the others from the stag night was also a good laugh.
At the end of the night, a small group of us headed on the long walk home. I eventually got a taxi (I think) and got home at the not too outrageous hour of 3:30am.
Sunday saw me get up and meet the parents again, get something to eat and then go home. Monday saw me run into college in a panic to finish an assignment that was due in at 5pm that day (A+! Yay!), and then meet my parents for food again. Can you see the pattern that is emerging? I was certainly well-fed while they were here. I then dragged them to the Dragon to meet one or two of the beeyatches of BN2. Once they had gone home, I went to the Bulldog. And stayed there until 2.
Today, I saw Ma and Pa off on the train to the airport, and then headed over to college to do another clinical assessment.
Now it's back to normality and poverty and studying. And Kung Fu, which I haven't been at for about 3 weeks. It's on in 10 minutes. Wish me luck...
After the placement finished on Friday, I went into town to meet my parents, who had flown over for Dan's wedding, and the weekend kicked off from there.
After a night of making g&ts for MizzFlee (and myself!) I fell home at about 5am saturday morning. I rose at lunchtime, beautified myself and hotfooted it into town. From there, my parents and I went to the wedding service in Hove.
Shitty weather notwithstanding, the service was very nice. One of the readers of the gospel enunciated everything with great stridency and drama, and as a result made it sound a bit more interesting, there were little children singing and playing wind instruments (a tuba or french horn? I'm not sure) and the organist played only an accompaniment, leaving it to us to actually sing. This last exercise was performed with various degrees of success with different people: I hadn't a clue, so completely ballsed it up, but everyone else seemed to know what they were doing.
After the parents and I had gone off to get something to eat after, we returned to the reception. There we found the groom, and for once the bride, nicely trolleyed. After a while, I had caught up to them. Meeting the others from the stag night was also a good laugh.
At the end of the night, a small group of us headed on the long walk home. I eventually got a taxi (I think) and got home at the not too outrageous hour of 3:30am.
Sunday saw me get up and meet the parents again, get something to eat and then go home. Monday saw me run into college in a panic to finish an assignment that was due in at 5pm that day (A+! Yay!), and then meet my parents for food again. Can you see the pattern that is emerging? I was certainly well-fed while they were here. I then dragged them to the Dragon to meet one or two of the beeyatches of BN2. Once they had gone home, I went to the Bulldog. And stayed there until 2.
Today, I saw Ma and Pa off on the train to the airport, and then headed over to college to do another clinical assessment.
Now it's back to normality and poverty and studying. And Kung Fu, which I haven't been at for about 3 weeks. It's on in 10 minutes. Wish me luck...
Friday, February 09, 2007
Thank Crunchie it's friday.
The placement was more shit than shinola.
The commute to the hospital was 2 hours each way, with two stop changes along the way. The hospital was uninspiring, being out in the middle of nowhere, and consisting of wards that were, in the main, occupied by the elderly. And the pharmacist I was assigned to was more than a little indifferent to the work I had to do while I was there (and then had the cheek to tell me at the end of the week that while the university might chase after me to get work done, it wasn't how things were done there!).
On Thursday, I left the house for the railway station at the required time of 7am, to find everywhere carpeted with snow. Naturally, the public transport system, which seemed not to have a contingency plan in place for this kind of thing, was disrupted. On that day, I got about halfway towards my destination, and then it was matter-of-factly announced over the intercom that we would be staying put until further notice, as there was a fire after breaking out in the tunnel ahead. The train was crammed full of pre-teen brats on their way to school, and they erupted in cheers.
If ever the makers of Levonelle or Dianette wanted footage for a marketing campaign, they couldn't do much better than film what it was like to share a morning train with these little shits for the entire week.
We were herded off the train, onto a bus provided at short notice, and then back onto the train again once it was discovered that everything had been sorted out. This put me in the best of form for the rest of the day.
I had to copy down five prescriptions from the pharmacy files. I did this, often in front of the pharmacist I was with, but at the end of the week, she wouldn't stamp them to verify I had done it at the hospital. She said she would have to verify them on the computer, as I 'could have got them from anywhere'. She wouldn't support me with the taking of a drug history (a bit of a necessity in this case, as most of the patients were old or confused). And finally, when I did a presentation on a patient at the end of the week to a group of pharmacists - most of the information collected with the bare minimum of help from her - she focused only on its bad points, leaving it to the other pharmacists to point out that I had at least laid out the presentation well, and was comprehensive in my coverage.
I would have haggled with her over certain things, but by the end of the week, all I wanted to do was get away from that hospital and her, so I just left. I was quite cold towards her at the end, but I couldn't help myself, and she won't be getting a positive review from me when I hand in my placement feedback form next week.
So that's it. My placement over for the year. If she gives a report of 'unsatisfactory' back to the university, I'll go back out there and divest her of her head.
All of this is unfortunate, as I had planned on doing at least one year of clinical work after I leave college, but now I'm wondering if I'd be better off just making tracks for a drug company instead, and making my money there. I'll see. Time will tell how things pan out.
Dan and Junes' wedding tomorrow. Woo hoo!
The commute to the hospital was 2 hours each way, with two stop changes along the way. The hospital was uninspiring, being out in the middle of nowhere, and consisting of wards that were, in the main, occupied by the elderly. And the pharmacist I was assigned to was more than a little indifferent to the work I had to do while I was there (and then had the cheek to tell me at the end of the week that while the university might chase after me to get work done, it wasn't how things were done there!).
On Thursday, I left the house for the railway station at the required time of 7am, to find everywhere carpeted with snow. Naturally, the public transport system, which seemed not to have a contingency plan in place for this kind of thing, was disrupted. On that day, I got about halfway towards my destination, and then it was matter-of-factly announced over the intercom that we would be staying put until further notice, as there was a fire after breaking out in the tunnel ahead. The train was crammed full of pre-teen brats on their way to school, and they erupted in cheers.
If ever the makers of Levonelle or Dianette wanted footage for a marketing campaign, they couldn't do much better than film what it was like to share a morning train with these little shits for the entire week.
We were herded off the train, onto a bus provided at short notice, and then back onto the train again once it was discovered that everything had been sorted out. This put me in the best of form for the rest of the day.
I had to copy down five prescriptions from the pharmacy files. I did this, often in front of the pharmacist I was with, but at the end of the week, she wouldn't stamp them to verify I had done it at the hospital. She said she would have to verify them on the computer, as I 'could have got them from anywhere'. She wouldn't support me with the taking of a drug history (a bit of a necessity in this case, as most of the patients were old or confused). And finally, when I did a presentation on a patient at the end of the week to a group of pharmacists - most of the information collected with the bare minimum of help from her - she focused only on its bad points, leaving it to the other pharmacists to point out that I had at least laid out the presentation well, and was comprehensive in my coverage.
I would have haggled with her over certain things, but by the end of the week, all I wanted to do was get away from that hospital and her, so I just left. I was quite cold towards her at the end, but I couldn't help myself, and she won't be getting a positive review from me when I hand in my placement feedback form next week.
So that's it. My placement over for the year. If she gives a report of 'unsatisfactory' back to the university, I'll go back out there and divest her of her head.
All of this is unfortunate, as I had planned on doing at least one year of clinical work after I leave college, but now I'm wondering if I'd be better off just making tracks for a drug company instead, and making my money there. I'll see. Time will tell how things pan out.
Dan and Junes' wedding tomorrow. Woo hoo!
Sunday, February 04, 2007
The Weekend
It's been a bit mental, but great. Last night saw me at Dan's stag night, which saw us first in a bowling alley, then in a all-you-can-eat chinese buffet, and finally back at the organiser's flat. One of the guys there had a vinyl collection that went back to the Velvet Underground and the decks were spun all night. It was a great way to end the night (clubbing was wisely ruled out early on) and some of the songs took me right down memory lane. Then there were others (Bauhaus, Gang of Four) that I had never got around to listening to before.
I finally forced myself to leave in the small hours, getting home at 7am this morning. For all I know, they could still be at it now. Getting up at 12 for work was a barrel of laughs, of course, and now I'm sitting here with a microbiology report to do that must be finished by 8pm this evening, if I'm to get it handed in on time tomorrow (and of course the one day that I need it to be quiet in here, a domineering woman keeps monopolising my time and making me show her how to print out documents in the most awkward way possible).
I have my hospital placement all of this coming week, which I expect will be more than a little challenging. Please God it goes well.
My parent are coming over for Dan's wedding on Friday coming (the occasion itself is on Saturday) so that should be interesting.
Roll on the end of the week, that's all I'll say...
I finally forced myself to leave in the small hours, getting home at 7am this morning. For all I know, they could still be at it now. Getting up at 12 for work was a barrel of laughs, of course, and now I'm sitting here with a microbiology report to do that must be finished by 8pm this evening, if I'm to get it handed in on time tomorrow (and of course the one day that I need it to be quiet in here, a domineering woman keeps monopolising my time and making me show her how to print out documents in the most awkward way possible).
I have my hospital placement all of this coming week, which I expect will be more than a little challenging. Please God it goes well.
My parent are coming over for Dan's wedding on Friday coming (the occasion itself is on Saturday) so that should be interesting.
Roll on the end of the week, that's all I'll say...
Thursday, February 01, 2007
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