littlebluefiresprites

On Saturday morning I finished writing up my two practicals that I did last term. I have to hand in my book on the 18th of January, so they’ve been hanging over me, just like my essay, so it’s great to have got them done. I got some statistically significant results from them both, so I’m pleased. Dad introduced me to a new statistics programme called “prism”. It’s not as powerful as SPSS, but at about a millionth of the price, and a much smaller file, I don’t mind. Not that size matters to me now I have my 80GB WD drive!

Having done all the statistical analysis and written them up, I headed over to Worcester Park for an “old Westy” – a classic sleepover. It was great fun, and involved four grown men (including Westy’s dad) watching a kettle boiling… twice. But then if you saw an illumina kettle you’d probably do the same. It’s got a “stainless steel exterior” that magically turns clear when you turn it on thanks to the sexy blue light inside it, and as the water boils it looks like tiny little flames are bouncing up from the base of the kettle. We even got a cup of tea into the bargain. Great fun! Westy had also bought himself a Wii console just before Christmas, and we had great fun messing around with the incredible remote control powered games. We played bowling (I won once with a sassy score of 198 – Sean couldn’t beat it! Westy managed 237, but then he had played about 20 times before), tennis, baseball, and all the magnificent sports games. It’s so tempting to buy one as they provide such a greater “involved” experience for all the family. Even my Mum would love it!

Happy? Feet

I went to the cinema with Sean, Westy and Dan to see Happy Feet (possible spoiler warning) – that where-on-earth-did-this- obsession-with-penguins- come-from film starring Mumbo the penguin and his crazy dancing feet. We wanted to go to a 2.30 showing, but somehow it got fully booked, so we bought tickets for the 5.15 one. That resulted in us sitting in a pub nursing a single pint each for two hours chatting and wandering round HMV. Great fun! The film was actually fairly good – the first 30 minutes took a while getting over, but then a very vague story line began to emerge – Mumbo (with an immensely annoying accent – Robin Williams apparently. Jeez!) decided he had to find the “aliens”. Blah blah, queue exciting adventure, cool Mexican penguins, love interest lost and found. However, towards the end, it became incredibly dark – he swam and swam, and eventually ended up washed up on a beach somewhere, got put in a zoo. Queue manipulative anthropomorphisation on an unimaginable scale – was quite tear jerking. Go see it – just for the weird experience, and to see if my staccatoed review is correct.

Camera

Dad bought himself a new digital camera this morning, so, he has graciously allowed me to steal his old one! Huzzah! Finally I'll be able to take some half decent photos (though the old camera doesn't really like being turned on) Oh well!

I finished my essay! It’s been hanging over my head for ages while I’ve been working and during Christmas, and so it’s fantastic to have finally got it done. It’s 1935 words of surprisingly readable biology – if ever you’ve wondered what the environmental factors affecting neural tube closure are, then I am the man to ask. Unless you are a Cambridge student writing the same essay, in which case I am saying nothing – until I have my result anyway!
YAAAAY

Christmas time doobidoobidoo.

Happy Christmas everybody! Hope you all had a fantastic day! I’m actually writing this on the 1st of January as I’ve been lazy over Xmas and hadn’t updated the blog - but, here we are now!

For the first time in living memory my sister had to be woken up on Christmas morning. I was also woken up as I had most definitely not spent the last hour reading as I was too excited to sleep. Oh no.
We were very civilised and had a fried breakfast before the crazy present opening began. I got some really cool presents including a Pierre Cardin shirt from my aunt, the new killer bunnies expansion pack from my Nan, a WD passport external hard drive from my parents (finally my computer will move faster than the athlete full of lead that it has been lately… so much potential!), a webcam (eek!), a really cool stubby Storm pen from Uncle Mike, some piggy cuff links from my sister and a tin car pencil case (complete with car-shaped chocolates inside) from my parents. I love Christmas – people always get me such cool (and useful) stuff!

In the afternoon we went down the pub to see our family friends in the local area. Frank and Greg were there, and I nattered to them for a bit (and was bought a pint by Frank who had to wait about 20 minutes to get served after the last-orders bell. If only you could have seen the panic on his face. Hehe), as well as seeing Dad’s friend Brian who probably hasn’t seen me since I was 14. He got a shock!

We ate at about 5.30pm; Chicken, Chipollatas, AMAZING cranberry and chestnut stuffing, peas, roasties and gravy. Mmmmmmmmmm. Pudding was of course Christmas pudding* - my favourite – especially swimming in cream. Mmm. How do you think I keep such a trim figure!? Cream!

*not just Christmas pudding, M&S Christmas pudding.

Dublin eh?

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions. You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

What European City Do You Belong In?

Les Arbres, gay Paris, and Escargots.

It's been far too long since I last posted, but I've not really stopped since I got home from uni. I arrived back at home a Saturday that now feels far in the past, greeted by a slight nausea (from getting slightly lost in Staines) that was soon saved by a cup of tea and (surprisingly) a malteaser cake loving crafted by my sister. The following day, I started selling Xmas Trees, in my new post as assistant manager. A typical busy weekend, that had already been organised, so I just pitched in and did my bit! There are so many people, you just have to get people into a routine and it all goes well; I just ran round filling in all the gaps that started appearing! On Monday Alex arrived (in the evening, post-practical-purge), and the following day we donned to Eurostar and sped our way to Gard de Nord, Paris.

Excited vetscis (me saying everything in my typically awful franglais - I really couldn't help it!) met an excited Jen, and we jumped on a (shallow) metro train to her house, which was mini beyond all imagination! She'd warned us it was mini, but I wasn't expecting it to be as small as it was! Still, it's a good enough little home-from-home for her, even if she does get attacked by beans when she cooks, melts chopping boards that should be drying, and has to do a worm-dance to get out of bed - every little nook has been filled... some with a little bit of bad design! But, we bought a metro carnet each, and toddled off seeing all the things that people should see; Notre Dame, Crepe stall, The Seine, Crepes, Moufetard (hehe) The Eiffel Tower, The pompidou (PAMPLEMOUSE!) centre, the arc de triomphe, crepes, the Montmartre, Jen's Workplace, more crepes. All in all, a good couple of days were had, despite the fact that Alex was poisoned by an evil spaghetti bolognese of DEATH. Grr. And the fact that we nearly got blown to smithereens just standing by the Eiffel tower - it was so windy we didn't risk going up it. I got to try snails (mm. Taste like garlic), and a green Pistacio macaroon (amazing!) AND many crepes and croissants for breakfast, which I ordered myself! Huzzah!

En plus, we got home on Thursday night, and Alex went back Leedsward on Friday afternoon. On Saturday I began work selling trees again, and worked on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. It is now Tuesday, my second day off! YAARGH! It's been hard work (did 53 hours last week), but enjoyable most of the time; it's much more interesting when you're vaguelly thinking about stock, staff etc. rather than just mindlessly selling. And the increase in pay is BON!

So, that's where I am. I'm going to scan in some paris photos soon and put them up, once I've done my Christmas shopping (which is my plan for today). First of all though, bacon must be eaten.

Much love,

Tom

Splurghts

selling trees merry xmas to you all sleepy will post properly after xmas maybe on day off.

Panto #2

Went to see the panto again last night! It was the late show (10pm), so Tom and me arrived really early (before 9.30) to get in the front of the queue so we'd get better seats. However, Alex forgot her guitar (vital for Imogen's Woody-Allen-as-Gabriel Impression), so we powerwalked back to the colony, with Beethoven from Louisa's I-pod pushing us on, and were back in less than 15 mins. How impressive is that! We then queued for an hour to get in - there was no piano, or pianists - both had been stolen by the choir. Needless to say, Tom and my endeavours earned us our place in the queue and we got to sit right in the middle. Huzzah.

Cambridge Christmas

Cambridge Christmas!

Secret Santa came to visit us yesterday and gave me the DVDs of Ghostbusters I and II. I was always terrified by those films as a child, so am slightly worried about watching them again. Maybe it'll cure me, or maybe it'll reveal to everyone what a wuss I am. We shall see. Post Secret Santa, fajita Xmas Dinner and a little Cava (Taste the Difference no less. Save £4), we headed down to the cellars to see the Clare Panto, which, despite the fact that I was sitting behind the bass drum and couldn't see very much, was amazing. Really well written, acted and sung. It was hilarious.

Welcome to Hell. No singing, no dancing, no fun, no cycles, dogs, radios or picnics.

The Panto was "Paradise Lost" - which translated very well to panto form... though I would wager that the links were more then tenuous. Bethmo as a female, northern God was a sight to behold, and Alex's playing of Jesus as a troubled, mischeivous 12 year old teenager was hilarious.

Peeps!

Today I met -

• Chris Morris - As I was going into Sainsbury's
• Boycie - As I was coming out of Sainsbury's - He was trying to squeeze his bike next to mine so I moved mine along without looking to see who it was until he said "Tom!"
• Rahul - In Cindies! Were both a little over-excited. He bought me a drink. I gave him about 13 pennies, and in Cambridge, 13 pennies are worth at least as much as a drink in Cinidies.
  
• Sheldon! -As I was coming home from cindies - he was crossing over bridge street carrying some books to take to the library (he's at Magdalene). I babbled at him for a bit, poor lad.
  

Making Babies Crew hits Peterhouse

Peterhouse formal. I've been to Peterhouse three times this term, having never set foot in the place before, and the third time was certainly less weird than the 1st two. Their pool teams are weird, while going to formal with one of the rare Petorian girls who got our "Making Babies Crew*" tickets was good fun.
Peterhouse formal is very intense - all the wood (tables, wall-panelling etc.) is deep brown - mahogany coloured, if not darker, and it is lit only by candles. This results in an almost depressing experience. However, after having been pennied by a fellow before the starter had been served, it was all good. There's no wine limit... I missed the first lecture of the day... BUT was fine by 10am, and went to our presentation journal club session, looking better than many!

Quote of the Night

Katie: "So, what course are you doing Tom?"
Tom: "..."
Katie: "Oh god..."


*So named as we all do the embryology module - no sexier reason than that. This is Cambridge after all!

Went to the physiology library this afternoon, read 4 papers and wrote 1000 words of an essay!Yaargh. Unfortunately, they don't heat it at weekends, so I was typing with my gloves on. Is easier than you'd expect, but still feels mighty weird.
Also emailed my supervisor re. dissertation. Think I vaguelly have more idea where I want to go now, which is great. Though actually I don't officially know I'm doing it yet. Hmmm...
In other news, Alex and me got caught up in an uberstorm today on the way to the UL (via FML for Futurama*) which turned my new gigantic umbrella inside out. MAHUSIVELY. Was a job to get it back again.

*Yesterday I had a 5 episode futuramafest with Alex, Tom and Iona. Now we have 5 more. Eeeexcellent.

bananas

Banana smoothie. A few things to say:
1) Louisa has a smoothie maker. This is a work of genius, and allows me to pulverise my fruit. This enables me to eat an apple, two satsumas and a banana in the time it would take me to eat half the apple. This is good
2) Tom today bought 14 fairtrade bananas and 8 pints of milk.
3) This resulted in much smoothie.
4) My stomach can talk. I quote:

"There reaches a point where one just has to say - surely it is impossible for such quantities of banana to infiltrate one's sphincters in such a short timespan, but alas, I was mistaken in my beliefs. There is nothing left for me in this warm abdominal cavity that I call my home. I thought my irate response to haggis would have been enough to discourage you from further assaults to my absorptive capacities, but no. Again, I was mistaken. And so, it is with great sadness, that I extracate myself from your abdomen, with none of the glorious portentiousness of parturition, to make my way in the cold streets of Cambridge. 'Big Issue? Get it before the acid melts it'. Goodbye."

Monkey

The house of the orange monkey pure genius. In a monkeyshaped pot. Mmm.

"With internal organs of beans and kapok, a monkey like me is almost totally invulnerable to injury".

Late night ramble

I'm sure that each of the terms at Cambridge has had a single buzzword, and the word for this term so far is "tea". We've all been very civilised and drunk a lot of tea. I'm feeling so de-oxidised that... Tom tries vainly to think of a witticism that relates to anti-oxidants... I'll get back to you.

Only a week and a half left of term to go! Can ye believe it? Well, I can't, though looking back on the first day of term when Tom, Vicky and me went t't pub for dinner, it seems like aaages ago. The usual "I've been here for ages, but how has it gone so quickly" thing.

Work has been... interesting. I go through phases with embryology. It's fascinating, but it's also possible to look into something into so much detail that it loses all meaning... to an extent, I feel that's what's happening. Every gene is named... but as such, all these names are so arbitrary that there seems to be no point to them.. but then I guess all words are. Anyway - enough of the genetic biologist bashing. Some of it has been very interesting, for me the stuff on a larger scale (somite formation, mesoderm patterning, limb bud specification, that sort of stuff) is what grabs me. Fetal and placental is good at times, but gets so (necessarily) hormonal that the papers I'm reading are just a list of unconnected facts. IGFII does this, and is up regulated here, here and here, but down regulated here. here it does one thing, there it does another, unless it's Wednesday, in which case it goes shopping with Cortisol...

Humm... it's very early, and I should be in bed...

Was nearly late for my lecture this morning... went to get my bike, and realised it wasn't there - I'd left it outside old court when we went to see Tom's recital in chapel (very good it was too!), so, I had to powerwalk. Made it just in time. Missed her 1st few words, but no more. Hahah!

Tom played Brahms on Monday in chapel. A little thingie for piano and viola - started off quite simple, and really built on that in the 2nd and 3rd movements. He played really well, though I think the piano was a little too loud.. perhaps next time they should move the piano back a bit, and/or him forwards a bit?

I've submitted my dissertation applications! Stay posted for more details.

Sleeeeeep

I'm writing an essay - I've been trying to do it for 5 weeks on and off (mostly off) now - such is the problem when you have no deadlines. It's just impossible to do! Never thought I'd be complaining about the lack of essays, but they're actually really useful.

My apologies for the obsessive use of italics in this post.

Nightnight!

Random Geeky Blog

By the way - if anyone likes the new font rendering in IE7, to get it in the far superior Firefox, right click on your desktop, go to properties, then appearance, then effects, and in the second menu choose ClearType. Bargain!

c u r r e n t l y l i s t e n i n g t o

I've been listening to Andrew's Itunes (ponytime) this evening, and have discovered some suprisingly good music. I'd never listened to Pearl Jam before, and the few songs that I've heard have been really good (like a cross between Nirvana (the guy's voice sounds a bit like Mr Cobain), and Porcupine Tree). Also, Kula Shaker, a phrase I use quite often, but a band I'd never dared to cross - really good! Nice indianny influences. In other music news, Battle (who supported TCTC at the Junction are amazing, a cross between Bloc Party and The Cure.

"Cats... licking our spoons." Iona.

just thought this should never be forgotten to the depths of time.

Yesterday was productive.

1. Got up at 7.30, left at 8.40
2. Met up with another project supervisor at 9 to discuss a project. Not one I particularly want to do, but you do have to have contingency plans!
3. Found Alex in paperchase - bought more yellow paper (for Journal notes)
4. Sat in Starbucks for an hour and half nursing a grande coffee - read through two papers, one on angiogenesis (apparently there is a simple and secure 2 stage plan to ensure that segmental arteries and veins form in the same number, and alternatively AVAV etc.), and one on Kidney Tubulogenesis. GDNF and RET are the most important proteins in this, though you must not overlook the importance of the inhibitors BMP4 and Fox.
5. Went to the library, and printed off a paper for next week's journal club (one we have to give a paper on), and printed a Dissertation reading list that I made yesterday.
6. Lecture on the initiation of Parturition
7. Lunch - in Buttery. mmm.. cold couscous.
8. Went to the UL. Found two useful dissertation books, read in the West Room for a bit, and had tea in the tea-room.
9. Went to the physiology department (to photocopy some of said books), and popped in to the UCS on the way to ask about Alex's questionnaire hosting.
10. Came home in the pouring rain, read another paper, had dinner, showered, slept.

LOTS of work for one day. Was out the house 9 till 5.30... hardcore!

No Lectures = Marzipan

10 am lecture cancelled - so I had a lie in. Muwahahaha. Soon I shall go out for coffee and (possible) marzipan rings, before a quick 12 o'clock lecture. Then lunch at Braeside followed by an afternoon of libraryage to get my reading back up to scratch.

____

Update - there was no fitz billies, but we did go to the M&S cafe, which kindly gave us a cup of tea and a cup of coffee with2 biscuits for £2.60 - sounds expensive (which it is), but nowhere near as much so as starbucks.

Argh, it's been a while again. I've been working hard!

I've been up for about 50 mins, and my room is a tip. Mostly because I did washing yesterday so there's a huge washing line contraption stretched over my floor like the dark lair of some enormous arachnid. Still, it dries in about 24 hours there, so I'll be able to put it away when I stop typing.

In work news, I've chosen an assessed essay to do for my "portfolio" to coin an artsy phrase. It's based around neural tube closure and the environmental factors affecting this. Should be interesting, and I've found lots of stuff. I'm also currently going through the rigmarole of choosing a project - one of the theory projects looks really interesting, but isn't related to development at all... maybe it'll be good for me to do something different! I've applied and the supervisor thinks it'll be ok - so fingers crossed!

Tom

JenBiscuit

Jen visited! Yaargh! She came down on Wednesday and went back on Saturday, so we got to see her for a few days - ate out, went shopping (she came from Paris to Cambridge to do this ;) ), danced in Fez, drank an aftershock at 5.55 in the afternoon (hehe), ate Nandos with Omega, ate Fish and Chips, and generally did entertaining things. It was good to see her... it's been almost 5 months since me and alex blabbered at her loudly and drunkenly at the end of term last year.

I'm trying to write an essay and the smell of Curry is drifting through my window from one of the two minging kitchens. I put up a notice in one of them asking them to please use the extractor fan, but unfortunately this just moves the smell into my room from another direction. I don't use the kitchen myself as stepping across the warped floorboard and into it's misty and mouldy ether makes me want to vomit.

Ccccold

Cambridge Has gone really cold - Freezing no less. The sky has been clear for about 6 days now, and as such all the warmth that was ever in this town, either residue from the Summer, geothermal energy from the deep crust, or warmth from the collective brain that is the PDN department has left...

Brrrr...

A Summary: Essays, Textbooks, Trees, Pool and Formal

Sorry - it's been a while again. Tis much harder to keep this up when you know there's work to be done! I wrote my first essay last week, on Fetal Kidneys, so hopefully it'll be ok. Was hard having to reference everything, though it made it seem much more professional and scientific!
Making a Vertebrate is still very tough, mostly due to the poor quality of the lectures. We've been thrown in, and some vitally important factors have just been skipped over in the lectures. I'd assumed lectures would be for covering the basic general stuff, and that we would read around for some more information. Not the way it works! I read my amazing text-book (Principles of Development by L.Wolpert) yesterday, and it explained mesoderm induction so well. Helped by the vitally important 4-signal theory that was mentioned in passing in the lecture. Seems that the textbook is going to be my friend this year.
In other news, I am going to be selling Xmas Trees again this winter, which is fantastic. The money (and probably exercise) will be very welcome! I have also been appointed Clare College Pool Captain, which was a little unexpected, but welcomed - will be a challenge, but good fun!
Last night was a vetty formal at Fitz. It was really good to see alot of them again, but certain people disgraced themselves by starting a boat race and ploughing under the tables while the fellows were still in the hall. They were escorted out, and all was a little awkward. Hopefully the college will be ok about it.

ps - happy birthday alex!

My Apologies

Finding time to post is surprisingly tough. Most of my time has been taken up with doing chores, eating, working or having fun with friends - whenever I come back to my room there is work pressing and so I've not posted yet. Maybe that is a little excessive - this is supposedly the "doss" third year after all.

So far, PDN has been a varied bunch. The first few lectures in "Fetal and Placental Physiology" (here after known as FPP) were amazing (if a little speedy), and the papers I've been reading have been really interesting. Making a Vertebrate (MAV), that I thought would be really good fun turned out to be a bit of a haul, as the first few lectures we've had have been a little poor to say the least, and I spent alot of yesterday translating them. I've spent alot of time in libraries so far, rooting through hard-bound copies of age-old scientific journals. I even ventured into the UL (And as everyone has to, found many books with crazy titles. "The Correspondence of Rubens, Tomes I-VI" entertained me most, though "Mammals of the Soviet Union, Vols I and II" was pretty shocking). Almost makes me feel like an arts student, but not quite.

Alex has dived headlong into a world of Biological Anthropology, and is just about picking through the mounds of species and behaviours she has to get her head round. She keeps piping out interesting facts like "female chimpanzees have pink bums", and "infanticide is selected for sexually". It's all very interesting really.

Tom Taylor is now an Engling, and as such is to be found in the Braeside reading Pope, Wordsworth or whatever else takes his fancy, occasionally piping up with some fascinating, but incomprehensible quote. He's really enjoying it though, which is fantastic.

Well, that's a quick summary - perhaps I should maybe go back an backdate some stuff... How much more convenient it is to keep this going regularly.

Tom
xxx

p.s. Today is my Dad's birthday, so if he's reading, HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Very quick message, as time is limited. a few things:

1. Sorry I havent posted for ages. Am back at uni, and only recently got internet access. Lots of reading to do - and people in the library are using ALL the journals I need. Why can't they just read one-at-a-time!?
2. Clare formal is going up in the world!
3. Out of time. Will post properly soon

Formal

Ah, it's been so long - and it's so much better than we remember. This could be a result of our extended summer holiday, but the presentation of a "filo pastry swan" with pastry wings and neck, a chocolate coated beak, and a creamy body makes me think otherwise. This could be due to two things:
1) They're trying to impress the freshers to get them addicted to formal
2) They have a new chef (Hooray!)
3) They have a new chef and have concurrently raised the price without telling us (there's no way to tell when you book tickets).

Post formal, we went to Fez to dance the night away to Fat Poppadaddies. We were gonna go to Soul Tree, but we heard reports that it was rubbish, reports that we later found out to be well-founded.
The night went well, until Reece was ejected for unknown reasons. He was neither drunk, nor naked, nor gay, nor violent, nor anything... maybe the bouncer didn't like his face??? Anyway, we followed him out, went to Soul Tree, realised it was EMPTY, and so came home. Crayzee night, but good fun.

p.s. it's Hannah's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH

Dogs and Views.

The holiday is nearly over; it's only one day until I go back to Cambridge, and I'm surprised. My second summer holiday has essentially flown by and now I'm starting my graduation year (yeah I have 3 more after that, but it still feels a little significant). My bedroom is a pit, owing to the first attempts at packing I tried yesterday. It's surprisingly hard to take only select stuff; when I pack to come home from Cambridge it's much easier as EVERYTHING needs packing! I have finally thrown away my filthy sauce pan (ruined in Castle End by some unidentifiable tomato burnage, and non-stick scrapage, perpetrator technically unknown), and have bought some shiny new ones from Ikea.

I arrived back from Leeds on Wednesday; I only went up for a few days to say hello (and to keep Alex and her brother entertained while their parents were away enjoying the sun, sea and sand of the Devon coast. We visited Mary, which was great fun - she showed us many photos of her amazing trip to Kenya - Giraffes, zebras, lions, tigers, leopards, buffallo, antelope, impala... everything you'd expect! We also walked the dogs to the top of the hill and took stock of the amazing view. Just one of many discoverable in the foothills of the pennines. Both Alex (Yorks) and Mary (Lancs) have views everywhere - within a few steps of their front-doors, something that I miss in the Kingston Basin, and in the Cambridge pancake. They seemed confused at my almost constant "Wow! Another view!" as we walked round. I also discovered that I like walking dogs. Thus two things for me to attain when I grow up are dogs, and views. You can see the amazingness of the landscape, Alex and Mary and the Dogs in the three photos I have uploaded for your viewing pleasure.

We also had a bonfire with a load of paper shreddings. There's something about fire that just fascinates me, and if I think correctly, every other human being on this planet. Maybe it's hardwired into our brains so that we can actually cook our food (and thus enable us to have lazy digestive systems(?)). We toasted marshmallows in the papery flames, and were merry.

• Films watched: 2. Some like it hot (v.good), and This Boy's Life (a bit dull and drawn out, but it finished well).
• Books read: 1. The Blind Watchmaker. Read it on the trains, and well worth reading. Just ignore the chapter about taxonomy because it's dull.
• Miles Travelled: ~500 including Alex's first venture onto a motorway behind the wheel (and very well she did too).
• Packed: 60%
• Kisses from drunk 30something's on tube trains: 1. My hand I hasten to add.

Darwin, Dawkins, God and Me. All in 417 Words

This is not a radical post – it is my opinion.

If, all those million years ago, the tiny life-like particles had come together and “discovered” a DNA-like way of copying themselves, but, one that was perfect, I mean 100% perfect, letter for letter, chemical for chemical, then we’d still be sitting in a primordial soup. The sheer fact that we cannot copy ourselves perfectly has enabled us to become what we are today, and isn’t that incredible? – Me, 2006

Evolution by natural selection is an amazing thing, and in my opinion, explains everything there is to know about the origins of us, and every other living thing on the planet. Richard Dawkins also believes this, and I am currently reading his book “The Blind Watchmaker”, and it is fantastic. Full of beautiful metaphors and well explained theories (though his analogy of DNA to the ROM of a computer was extremely confusing), it is well worth reading. However, I think if he is going to more widely spread the amazing news that is neo-Darwinism he is going to have to divorce it from his arrogant atheism.

Now, I’m not religious, and I don’t really believe that there is a God – perhaps I’m hedging my bets – an agnostic. As I’ve said, my beliefs about the origin of life are the same as Dawkins’s, but that’s not the point. That does not immediately disprove the existence of a God. God and evolution (even evolution by natural selection) are not mutually exclusive, it just simply gives a different role for a deity. All the species we have on this earth today are descended from an original (or a few original) ancestors, and that’s great, but so what? Maybe once all religious experts realise that evolution did happen, and that natural selection is the perfect, most logically perfect way to explain this, and people like Dawkins realise that while it may disprove the book of Genesis as a literal fact, it does not prove organised-religion to be a breeding ground for unintelligent, uninformed, brainwashed fools perhaps we can all get on. Religion in general makes a lot of people happy, and I believe has helped us set up a large majority of the moral codes we hold today. I have no problem with peaceful religiousness; it’s just not for me.

Aside from these religious misgivings, the book is well worth reading and shines a glorious light on all that is natural. Completely natural, and beautiful.

Anyone else’s opinion would be welcomed!

Tom

Snooker 4

Dammit! I lost. 13-11 he beat me. Grr.
But, the game we played after the end of the summer series I won 74-14 - that's what happens when the stress is off! Though I fear Rahul did not have *all* of his heart in it.

Whizzzzzz

Went into Kingston with Geoff and Rasselhoff yesterday. The exciting adventures kicked off straight away. Rahul's attempted to get a Hip-Flask engraved with £52s worth of text, as clearly three initials is nowhere near enough - he required 200 letters (he decided against it in the end), and we tested "Shakeaway", a weird new milkshake "restaurant". You basically go in, and chose some form of confectionary for them to whizz with milk and ice-cream. I got a bounty shake, and it was actually really really tasty!

After all that walking, we decided that a cinema trip was in order, and Black Dahlia was the film of the day (chosen after much indecisive deliberation). It was ok, but the fact that it was Orange Wednesdays may have helped me like it even more than I actually did *mm...money*. Nothing special, and it became a little unnecessarily convuluted towards the end.

After the film, Geoff went home to cook for his family (bless), and me and Rahul went to Tolworth for a snooker showdown. We were awful, and two hours and only 4 frames later, we were still tied at 10-10. It's best of 25 so the decider is coming up! Snooker was followed by an amazing chinese meal over a bottle of wine. So civilised, and really good fun!

Snooker 3

Was 8-8, today's result 2-2 before mid session interval (i.e. night-time). Current score, 10-10. Final session to come....

Gapless Playback

Thank-you Itunes. Finally you have come to your senses! I can listen to classical music without there being a little second of silence between each track! Huzzah! When you first install Itunes 7 it searches all your music, and, using some magic algorithm, makes everything right again! Not only that, but it now automatically updates your album artwork too which is fab, cos those were the only two features that wmp had on itunes.

Just tested it.. Works amazingly! Misplaced Childhood has never sounded so good.

Played golf with Dad today. 22 over par for a 9 hole course. Sounds poo doesn't it. Well, no. It wasn't. Golf is hard, and I did actually get two pars on the way. I also went out of bounds 6 times... but that's cos I can't always hit straight. And my excuse for that is that I haven't played for ages. Look at me, I'm defending myself on my own blog. How odd! AAnyway. It was great fun, and I definitely want to do it a little more often. Must remember to pick it up again at the START of holidays, as opposed to under two weeks before I go back. Oops!

Magic and vocab.

Have just finished Dr Bainbridge's Pregnancy tour-de-force. It was only a simple skimming over the science of pregnancy, but was actually extremely interesting, and should make re-revising my repro notes from last year much easier. As I was reading it it reminded me just why I am studying Development and Reproduction next year - just because it's as close to magic as you can get in science.

I've now started to second book in the Gormenghast trilogy - the first few pages required me to have a dictionary at my side. I realised how I read books and simply ignore any words that I've not heard of before. "With her arms akimbo" for example... would have glossed over it, but now I know that it means to have your hands on your hips and your elbows sticking out sideways. I've been writing the really complicated ones down in my old french "Lexique" book from GCSE year, so maybe they'll stick!

Oh God, He's pumping a Porshe

Sequence of events:

1. Small child outside stables in car park carrying a bicycle pump.
2. Small child sees Porsche parked in car-park.
   
3. Child decides that Porsche is looking a little flat (it's pretty low-to-the-road), and decides that it would be kind to give it a little air.
4. Child inserts pump through rear grill and starts, well, pumping.
5. Mother of small child turns round and exclaims "Oh God, he's pumping a Porsche".
6. Small child is removed from vicinity of Porsche.
7. Tom appears wheeling a barrow full of horse-shit.
8. Mother: "Oh god, it's not your Porsche is it?"
9. Tom. "No. I wish". <-- how witty.
   

Do I look like I own a Porsche? Would that be a compliment or not? Ideas on a postcard (or in the comments box).

Had riding lesson number 2 this afternoon. It was much better than last time, as I have more idea of what I'm doing. I got to do a rising trot, which is much less painful than a sitting trot which is, as you can imagine, bouncy and painful (particularly if you are male). You have to sit up and down with the gait of the horse. I'm still being led as am not good enough to be trusted on my own with the horse, and I succeeded in knackering out bill by trotting up and down the arena. Hehehehe.

The horses are still being a little naughty. I came to the conclusion yesterday that it was the heat that was making them cranky, but today they had no excuse. Though today it was mostly Tessie that was a pain. Maybe she's just decided she doesn't like me.

tomthevet.blogspot.com NEW and IMPROVED

I'm now using blogger beta, so there've been a few changes. Each post now has some labels associated with it, and you can use these to help you navigate to the posts you want to see. When I'm at uni, and if exciting stuff happens there, then that's the label I use. Any posts with photos are labelled and so are all the posts related to vetty or farming related things. You get the idea. Find them all at the bottom of the sidebar.

I hope you like the new layout! Remember to keep on commenting, whoever you are - it's great hearing that people do actually read this. Infact, if you fancy, just say hi on this post :p

Linkies!

Just added some new links - mostly people's blogs.

• ecuadorianrose: Lydia's new blog relating her adventures in Ecuador. Sounds like she's having an incredible time already!
• jenauparis: Jen has resurrected the jenbiscuit blog to tell us all about her year in Paris. We await her first post.
• ponytime: The long awaited Andrew-Bates centre of the internet. Wanna see his belly? Click here. And God bewithyou.
• Play Scrabble Online: Make Simon Spiro Proud
  

Naughty Horses!

Just got back from the gym - my 5th time so far, and the 4th since last week. Definitely think it's worth both the money and effort - hopefully there'll be calves lifted and bails of hay thrown before you know it.
Been to the Stables again this morning, and the horses were a little less co-operative than they were at the end of last week. This could either be because they didn't remember me from last week, or (involving slightly more congnitive capability than I think a horse has - though I'm sure some horseypeople will tell me otherwise) they have realised that I am no longer new, and so are not required to be on their 'best behaviour' anymore. Either way - Smartie, Tessie and Molly, who are usually charming horses (Tessie can occasionally be a pain) were gnawwy, reluctant to have their hooves picked, angry about being groomed and generally awkward. Oh well, it's all experience I guess!
Had quite a nice weekend. Spent Sunday wandering round Kingston with Hannah vainly trying to find some coloured clothes for her. Unfortunately neither Topshop nor River Island, H&M nor M&S, Gap nor FCUK, had anything suitable. Everything was either weirdly shaped or itchy. Nevermind! Bumped randomly into Rahul while I was in town. I was queueing up for a bottle of water in WHSmith when my sister whispered "Don't you know that guy behind you?" "Which one?" I replied. "Er, Rahul?". I turned round, and she was right. The girl who had never met him recognised him when I just strolled past. I'm such a man. Anyway, stopped for a quick chat and he introduced me to one of his friends from Selwyn (a Tiffin Girl), who had worked briefly at the same Stables as me. T'is a small world!
Today is also Mary's birthday. If you're reading this Mary, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Tom

b o o k s

Currently Reading: A Visitor Within (The Science of Pregnancy) by David Bainbridge. Written by one of my lecturers no-less, the infamous Dr Bainbridge. While this is going to be a relatively basic coverage of the science of pregnancy, seeing as I'm doing development and reproduction next year it can do no harm. It'll also be fascinating to read one of his books!

Just Finished Titus Groan. It was fantastic. A surprisingly simple story of the first few years of Titus's life, interspursed with the foreground of Steerpike's rise to fame within the Castle ranks. Well written, and thoroughly enjoyable. 10/10. I'm going to read the other two books in the series after Dr Bainbridge's. I'll feel better about reading some fiction when I've read a book relavent to my course!'

I'm really enjoying this stable work that I'm doing at the moment. It's really nice to actually get some one-on-one contact with an animal, rather than generally dealing with them "in bulk" as you do on farms. I'm less daunted by the horses, and so they're less scared by me, and generally things are getting easier. I can now tack-up by myself, and have generally got more confident around the animals as a result of mucking out, leading around the stables (finally managed to decipher head collars!), grooming, and the riding lesson I was given. I also led Sherry out with two other horses on a riding for the disabled hack around the local estate.

Yesterday after work, I wandered into Kingston to meet up with Geoff and Boycie. We had lunch in Wagamama's, caught up and did a little bit of shopping, though I didn't buy anything apart from someone's birthday present. Was really nice to see them - the last time was back in Cambridge, must have been sometime in July!

Mahler's Resurrection

Just been to the Royal Albert Hall with Dad to see Mahler's Resurrection Symphony (Symphony No.2). It's an amazing piece, and, I'm no musical journalist, but I know what I like, and the power and awe-inspiring greatness of this piece amazed me. It was as much a show of how an orchestra can be used as much as it was a fantastic piece of music, and the RAH was perfect to show it off. There were two brass bands up in the galleries, giving their parts a distant, separated feel that you can never experience on a CD, along with two huge chorusses (The BBC and London Symphony Choruses), and a huge orchestra (including 7 percussionists). It's unbelievable, if you ever get the chance to see it, go!

image from here

Gee-up

Just had my first day of Horse-keeping. I mucked out, got stood on (my poor bloodied toe), led horses around, groomed, wormed and drank tea. All before noon. Fantastic! Don't know if the smell of anti-fly cream will ever leave my fingers though!

Met up with Sean in the afternoon for a bit of Gymmage - was good to see him again - has been a while. He's just been to the Edinburgh festival, and was raving over "rolling mystery-machine film pickups" across the streets of Edinburgh, amongst other stories. hehe

UCASBacon

Got up late today, and was greeted by the smell of bacon and a still hot grill - there were no two ways about it, bacon it was for me. Today has also been the day of personal statementising. I can still remember the pain I went through trying to get mine right, and now it's my sister's turn. We had a good bash though, and I think Hannah and Mum got there. I've also baked, and mowed the lawn. Such a productive day, that I even blogged!

I'm reminded of a beautiful advert layout I saw in one of Alex's magazines a few months ago. The left page was an article about slimming, and the right page was that danish bacon advert - the one with the REALLY BIG picture of a bacon rasher. Hehe. It wasn't the same as the pic here, but you get the idea - it was very similar. Fried egg instead of sandwich.

Muse Live

Saw Muse live at the Leeds Festival last Sunday, and was suitable impressed. All through the day there had been some weird spirally plastic things, like giant tumble-drier outlet pipes behind the curtain at the back of the stage. "Bet they're for Muse," Alex said - and sure enough, they were, along with ten amazing colour screen things - 5 of which levitated (on strings - even Muse can't defy gravity). Their new album sounds incredible live - they closed on "Take a Bow", which, despite seeming simply written, is always going to be a crowd* pleaser. Especially when they end with a huge spark of flames!

Also saw the Futureheads, who were a bit rubbish really. When you can stop looking forward to the crowd-splitting "uh-oh-oh", song, cos you've already heard 6 exactly the same, they have no interest for me. Dirty pretty things were alright, Feeder were, well, Feeder - you know what they're like. I have a t-shirt, but I must admit that I find them a little boring - and the lead singer's close resemblance to Adam-the-Mathmo does nothing for me.

*thanks to Dad for spotting the spelling mistake. Sure it was a cloud pleaser too.

m a n i c s

Currently Listening to: Am going through one of my annual Manic Street Preachers fortnights. Can't get enough of them at the moment, as can be seen from my last.fm profile! Also listening to alot of Led Zeppelin.

g o r m e n g h a s t

Currently Reading: Titus Groan by Mervin Peake (1st Book in the Gormenghast Trilogy). I randomly picked up the entire trilogy in Victoria Coach station on the way to Alex's, and it cost me £15 so I hope it's good. I read the first 90 pages on the coach, and must admit that although nothing happened, it was great fun to read. Mervin Peake's writing style is vividly descriptive, and simply in describing the daily lives of a number of characters within Gormenghast he kept me hooked. Hopefully this bodes well!

Childhood Dream #1 -- Fulfilled

This particular activity was so incredible, that it deserves it's own post. While on the pig farm, I fulfilled a childhood dream... I DROVE THE JCB. Yes, I was a digger driver for a day. I had to reverse it out of the farmyard, through a gate, over a hill and then lower some milk-churns full of water over an electric fence (I may have accidentally electrocuted the farmer, but it was my first time!) and then drive back. More fun than I could ever have imagined. Luckily it had an automatic clutch, which was handy as I wouldn't have fancied clunking the gears on a 2 tonne soil-shifter.

5 Reasons why pigs are smart.

Pigs. Pigs pigs pigs. They are smart little things. Many reasons:

1. The little buggers can learn how to open gate-bolts. And once they learn, they never forget. Oh, and they can lift gates off their hinges. Yes.




2. Once the boar smells his ladies, no amount of coaxing will get him to go in the opposite direction. And he has big teeth - and unlike a cow and it's immense strength, he knows how to use them*
3. Piglets are powerful, and they know how to flail.
4. They can somehow root around in their own filth all day without getting noticably ill, or throwing up.
5. They will only defecate in particular areas, and will keep their bedding areas clean, if given space to do so. This does actually make them, in my opinion, the cleanest of all the domestic animals I've worked with (excepting cats).

Overall, it was a really good week. The farmer had pigs (breeding, rearing and finishing - was great to see the whole process, though sadly I missed any farrowings - the two sows that were due while I was there had aborted a month or so before - clearly they knew I was coming!), cattle and sheep, and as a result I got to do a huge variety of things, including de-maggotting two fly struck sheep, jabbing a lively little piglet with some antibiotics, going to 2 farmers' markets, and 3 different abatoirs. He also had his own butchery so I got to try my hand at a spot of mincing - plus the bacon at breakfast was insurpassable!.

*I never actually got skewered by a boar, don't worry - he wasn't very good at standing up - looked like he was trying to walk on stilettos.

Just got back from the gym. It's the first time I've been since my initiation on Tuesday, and I quite enjoyed it. I went along with Sean and Don (who are both surprisingly strong!), and did my whole workout twice as the guy said. I'm glowing now I'm home, and hopefully as I did the stretches again I won't be too tough.

All of Hannah's friends are round at the moment having a BBQ, so I'm staying out of their way :)

Scrabble

Have played alot of Scrabble over the last few days. Played Sean three times today, he was beaten, and despite the harsh verbal stabbings we both received we enjoyed it. Apart from the last game, which stretched into 26 rounds of pain. Such awful letters. Truly awful. Though we did discover the word "suq", which is quite useful.

Aches and Pains

I ache. I booked into a gym yesterday cos I decided that I need to be able to lift calves. The guy in the gym thought this was a strange goal, but clearly he'd never been given a brief like it, and took it to heart. He gave me a few weights and explained how they would help me to throw sheep, and others to lift stuff. Think he quite enjoyed it.

But now I ache - not as much as I expected to, thanks to some smart stretches I was taught, but I do ache. Particularly my backside. Bloody ergs. Luckily today is a day of waiting for the gas man, so I don't have to do anything. Will probably go again on Thursday with Sean and his Bro. Coolio.

photo courtesy of this website.

Two More Species to Add to my Repertoire

In just over a month's time I will have completed 4 weeks of EMS. I'm working for 2 weeks with little northern piggies as of next Monday, and my September will be begun in the stables of some lovely horses from down my road. That will leave me needing only 2 weeks to finish off my 12, having already done 4 weeks of lambing and 2 weeks of dairy work.
picture taken from this website

Cotwolds

Not long been back from the Cotswolds where we went on holiday for a few days. We drove up via Oxford and had a quick wander round the town before we got to the hotel. Admittedly, it is a very nice town, but, in my highly biased opinion, it's not quite Cambridge. It's much more open, which in some ways is nice, but in other ways loses the close-knit feeling of Cambridge. It was also nowhere near as clean, and the buildings are built of an extremely crumbly stone (they look like Wensleydale cheese). That was very critical, and there's no reason why Oxford should be compared to Cambridge, but.. well. It was nice, but not NICE.

The hotel was amazing - amazing rooms, each with their own front door on to a little courtyard, and the food was incredible. Small portions, but they tasted amazing. Plus breakfast with Terry Wogan, an experience in itself.

The next day we drove to Bourton on the Water, a cute little village, but the journey to it turned out to be the most eventful thing to happen. We drove about 50miles to make to 25 mile journey.. I enclose a map of our journey - including phantom section. The bit of road we never went down.(NB: on the map it says "to bourton on the water" - the actuall village is further along the A40... if you care! Just didn't want the Bourton village council onto me for deformation of location :))

It was a very quaint village with a model village (including a model of the model village in the model village), loads of tea shops and gift shops, the cute little Windrush river. We spent ages just wandering around looking at stuff.

Unfortunately my Dad managed to break a tooth (he'd been to the dentist before we went away but he'd failed to spot it), and so we had to leave early the following day to get him to the dentist. He came home a little less wise than he did before!
map taken from www.streetmap.co.uk, edited by me

Scorchio!

Sorry! It's been a while - I blame the heat. It's been well over 30 degrees during the day (and 30 degrees in my room at night) every day since Monday. PAINY!

Today
Not done much today. Planned circuitboard diagrams (see below). Am off out to Ikea later on today to try again to get my chair.

Yesterday
Met up with the famous Jamie Frost yesterday in Kingston. We went to see Superman, and it was a pretty good film. I won't give it a mark (as Jamie will be doing that... see his site), but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The first half was pretty much devoted to Superman flying round doing cool stuff (which, to be fair, is what everyone will be going to see this film for), while the main plot development was in the second half, centred around Lex Luther's evil money-making scheme: "But millions of people will die!", "BILLIONS!". Excellent Stuff

The Last Week
In general I've been pretty lazy all round. I ordered some components for a little electrical project I've set myself... I shall have to wait and see if it'll all come off. It might turn out to be a shambles! The fact that the chip I wanted to use is now obselete is a bit of a pain, but I think I've found a pin-for-pin replacement.

b l a c k h o l e s a n d r e v e l a t i o n s

Currently Listening t0 - Muse - Black Holes and Revelations. It's actually pretty good - after hearing their single Supermassive Black Hole, which is a bit like jamiroquai I was worried, but it fits in pretty well with the album, even though the other tracks are much more muse like. Seems pretty angry though #you'll burn, yeah you'll burn for you sins, yeah you'll burn# ahem.

Cycling in the heatwave

I’ve taken to going for a cycle in the mornings. Only two days so far, and today’s was an afternoon cycle (despite it being 31.5 degrees), but it’s good fun. Yesterday morning I cycled past one of the ponds that was full of a load of red-deer cooling off. A great photo opportunity – if only I’d taken a camera. I did today, and tried vainly to photograph some jays I saw, but they were too quick for me. There were a few deer again, but none in the pond sadly!

Snooker 2

Rahul beat me 5-3 this time. Nearly got the 8^th frame, but he pipped me to the post with an amazing pink. Oh well, 8-8 is is. Think it’s gonna turn out to be a best of 25 three session marathon. Hehe.

Rollercoaster...

This week has been an emotional rollercoaster. We have a wonderful internet system for applying for Part II (3^rd Year) subjects if you wish to go for natsci tripos subjects (Vets at Cambridge do an intercalated year so we can do whatever we want in our 3^rd year. I considered Geography, but thought that the jump to a slightly more artsy subject would probably break my brain). I applied to the PDN department (Physiology, Development and Neuroscience) to do 4 modules in “Development and Reproduction”, mostly as our Veterinary Reproductive Module we did this year was so fascinating! My second choice was pathology and my third choice genetics.

So, it was all going along nicely, and I was getting suitably excited about PDN, assuming I’d get it as I got a good 2.1 last year, but was rejected. The 2^nd choice allocations were 5 days later so I had to wait and see what I got (I swapped path and genetics though, as revising path was painful). So, I came to terms with the fact that I’d be doing genetics next year, and was quite looking forward to it. Then, on the day of 2^nd choice allocations I was told by the internet site that I had been allocated a place on PDN. I was understandably over-excited, and relieved to have got my place. However, the following day I checked my emails I was told that I had been given a substitute place on the, which had really bad modules; so I was back to genetics. Then, a few days later I was told they’d messed up my application and I infact should have had my 1^st choice. So, I am now doing PDN – so far so good :S.

God it's been a while. Haven't even posted news on the may ball. So, once again, in true Wardy style, BACKDATING!

• May Ball
• Post-May Ball
• SveedishConstruction
• Snooker
  

Snooker

Beat Rahul 5-3 from 1-3 down at first. Most of the games were pretty tight though

SveedishConstructio

IKEA. Went to IKEA. IKEA is actually quite alot of fun. Even if they didn't have my chair :( - We did get some SKANKA pans though. Hehe.

Results yr 2

Wow! I got another high 2:1 :) Plus a first in Pharmacology - can't imagine how. AMAZING!

Spent the morning packing – got most of my stuff away in boxes and bags (so sad to have to take down all the stuff off my notice-boards), before wandering round Clare handing in forms and generally sorting stuff out. Then got home and packed some more.

tbc...

Poor Askman

Got up early-ish and met Alex, Vicky and Erika (despite Tom’s squeals of joy he couldn’t make it for he is leaving tomorrow :o) for a trip to Sainsburys. We got a load of picnic-like stuff and went to see the Lashings vs CUCC cricket match at Fenners. It said on the flyer that it started at noon, so we arrived at 11.20 to try to get in on time, and the match didn’t start till 2.30pm – much to our despair. Still, the picnic was great fun. Sachin Tendulkar got 155 before being caught, and Chris Cairnes got a century. Geoff and his mate turned up at about 4pm the day after their may-ball, though I left at about 6.30 with them cos it was getting strangely cold, and CUCC were batting badly (or alternatively being bowled at amazingly).

That evening, Jen and me went out to get Ask take-away pizza, but it was not forthcoming – we were met by a knackered, pissed off waiter who politely informed us he would not be doing take-away for half an hour before poking his head out the door and screaming some order numbers down the road. Hehe – drunken students were running him ragged. We settled on Fish and Chips (well, sausage and chips) to fill our bellies.

Firey!

Post-exam joy. The May Ball has already been spoken of (see post ****). I got back from the May Ball at about 6.30am after the survivor’s photo – it was amazing seeing the trains of knackered students working their way through the streets of Cambridge with their posh togs on, with only the odd confused business man and their equally tired friends for company. Slept till 2, and had a lazy afternoon before going to Nandos (again) for the evening for Omega’s birthday. It’s a sight to behold seeing Omega devour a chicken with lashings (see tomorrow) of Extra-Hot peri-peri sauce without flinching; for comparison I had a “hot” half chicken (and 6 drinks) and nearly died

May Ball

Finally I've got round to making a post about this most herculean(!) of nights. I've taken photos, but they were pretty poor - I really could do with a new camera, tho am disinclined to spend much on one; maybe I'll wait, maybe I'll steal someone else's photos (Erika if you're reading this - pleeeeeeeease, You have such amazing photos!)

Jen, Lyd and me got in a little early at 8.45 to get chance to set up (and have a sneaky peek round (and the first smoothie off the table) before the doors opened at 9). We had a nice little marquee thing in the Master's garden and even got our names in the program (I'll attach a picture of that later). The set went strangely at first, no-one watched until the very end, and instead we had to "blast"out our sound to the garden without any amplification. Suffice to say, from what we heard afterwards, it went ok in the end :). It was good fun anyway, and we got special yellow arm bands for being "awesome", as I imagine Lydia would say.

The rest of the night was superb. We danced to The Rumble Strips, who were pretty good (the headline act, The Young Knives weren't great), Lydia's band "Second Hand Kisses" and to some surprisingly enjoyable Electro - think I must just have been in the perfect mood for it - it was really good fun taking up the whole of the cellars thrashing round. There were boat swings, a coconut shy, a noodle bar, a bouncy castle, huge (and I mean HUGE) numbers of innocent smoothies, which kept our blood pure to make up for the champagne, bucks fizz, bullinis (sp?), beer and whatever else there was that I missed. We poked our heads into the casino, and, though it was packed, managed to get a peek at some of Reece's artwork, which was cool.

I love the way the Clare Ball is big enough for you to wander off and see everything, but small enough that you know you are going to bump into your friends pretty soon anyway. Dunno where I'll go next year - perhaps to Clare and a Snow Ball (Selwyn perhaps?), for it will be my "last" (i.e. 4th from last) year.

Tom

(backdated from 30/06/06)

?

Rain!? For the May Ball!? They're kidding right?

Update: 5.16pm - Went punting with Geoff, Boycie, Rahul, Joe, James and Ally (who was visiting) - that didn't tempt the rain out - they still reakon there'll be rain this evening. Bugger. Still, punting was good - even if it did take us 20 mins to get out of the punting place - Rahul needs lessons!

t h e e r a s e r#

Currently Listening to - Thom Yorke -The Eraser. Apparently it's not out yet, but when it does, I'll definitely be buying it - it sounds amazing. I was told it came out a week ago, and got annoyed that no shops were selling it, so downloaded it. Oops! Anyway, it's Classic Thom Yorke, electro, with those really stirring repetitive refrains he does so well... #it_gets_you_down#, #this_is_f***_up#. Reminiscent of #the Raindrops {x47#} of "Sit Down.Stand Up". Also listening to Keane - Under the Iron Sea. I thought it was going to be horribly dull and sameysamey; somehow it's not. It's still Keane, but it's different. I'm so glad they havent gone the same dull dull desperately dull way of Embrace.

I don't want Thom to go skint, so I would like to reiterate that I am going to buy the album when it comes out. Preorder it from HMV.

Garden Parties and May Ball Prep - So Close Now!

Went down to the CUVZS garden party yesterday afternoon. It was a relatively laid back affair which was quite pleasant really. They had a parrot display, so we got a chance to get some of the birds up on our shoulders and pratt around with the "I'm a pirate" thing that is completely obligatory if you're going to go anywhere near a parrot. They also had a bouncy castle which is guaranteed to bring out the child in ANYONE. Amazing fun :)

Today I have "twitchy eye"; a severe medical condition where your eyelid decides that blinking every few seconds is not enough action for it, and spends almost every intermediate second twiching uncontrollably - not visible, but really bloody annoying, especially when you're trying to play guitar. We had a big rehersal today, and sorted out a setlist - some songs still need brushing up, and it's getting late, but at least Eva Cassidy went great :) Finally got it.

Jen's going to Scotland on Friday, and as her Dad could only come to get her stuff today, she has a completely bare room (she's sleeping in a sleeping-bag) until Friday when she leaves. It's creepy - hopefully she'll be able to keep wandering Myroomwards to keep her sane.

Facebook Status - Thomas is violently bashing Eva Cassidy, which is tough, all things considered.

The Colony is Packed

Not sure why - but the colony is absolutely jammed full of cars. They're everywhere - it's turned into a car-park. Charlie the porter is wandering around madly. Maybe everyone's parents are up cos its the weekend before May Week. This is unbecredibly boring, but here's the view out of my window. Look! Packed!

Family!

The family came down to visit yesterday, and stayed over night. It's the first time they've done that ever, so it was really nice to be able to do stuff at a more relaxed pace than usual. We went punting for an hour and a half, stopping off for a small picnic inbetween - I punted us from the Mill Pond up to Jesus Green and back again - it was nackering, but good fun, and I only lost the pole once this time ;) Unfortunately the Clare punt was out, so we had to hire one from Scudamore's (£12 an hour! Rip-off! The poor tourists have to pay £16 at weekends - they really do pay through the teeth).

Mum was unfortunately a bit ill in the evening, so didn't really enjoy dinner or get to walk with us up to the vet-school and back, but luckily was much better the next morning, so we hopped in the car and drove the few miles to Granchester. It's a lovely little village consisting of many thatched cottages, about 3 pubs, two tea places, and (weirdly) a Hyundai show-room. We stopped off in the orchard for a drink after a wander down by the river via a field of cows. We had to leave reasonably early for them to be able to get home before the Friday night traffic started around London, and still it took them 3 hours to get back. grr M25.

Hannah made cake, I ate cake, twas good. They might send me some photos (hint hint ;) ) that I can put up.

Lots to Catch up On

Now exams have finished, I've been slack about the blog again. Grr. I think overall I worked harder for all my exams this year, but have not a clue how well I've done. So far I know I've passed VRB, NAB, MODA and CVB, but no more than that. Oh well, passing is what needs to be done!

Leedssssss

Went to Leeds for the weekend. Lots of stuff happened.

• Got lots of trains. Four in total

1. Uneventful
2. Got moaned at snidely an old man as we asked an old lady to move out of our reserved seats. Her seat was empty anyway - but she moved with bad grace. Damn this reverse ageism
3. Train broke down... Got stuck in reverse. Had to stop for ages at some random station while they moved the back train to the front. GNER let us down. Got home 3 hours late.
4. Uneventful - just later than expected.

• Fixed Alex's dad's computer. Took us a couple of hours, but we defeated it.
• Went to Ilkley and bought sequins... Well, if I will come on a dress-making trip, I should expect this stuff ;) More excitingly, I saw Alex's dad's practice. Was very posh!
  
• Played lots of frisbee, distracting her brother from AS level revision in the process - it's necessary - he would have melted from the Latin pain if it weren't for us.
• Played lots of guitar - need to practise for the May Ball! So many songs, so little time!
• Went to church... St Wilfrids is a very good looking building.
• Ate Alex's Mum's amazing food of joy. MMmm

Tom
xxx

What a garbled post that was. Sorry - it's 8am, and I still havent managed to repay the sleep debt I owe to the Exam Fairies...

Overoverdoobiedoo

Exams are over! Wednesday afternoon was the pathology practical that was always going to be horrible, but luckily it was on the OK side of horrible rather than the "Oh my goodness what on earth is going on with this pink blob" side of horrible. Went to formal on Wednesday evening - it was very nice to enjoy a formal without the nagging feeling of work in the background. Then, thursday morning was the viva, during which I had to explain about cardiac auscultation and also about the ear. Went ok, was over in 7 minutes and then I was free! Yay. That afternoon I spent sat around playing my guitar, and generally enjoying freedom. Twas amazing! In the evening I went down to the mill pond to see the vets, and had Dojo's take out in the sun - amazing noodles! Later on Alex and me went to see X-men III at the cinema - was actually pretty good - some awful dialogue and flawed stories, but a good fun romp :)

So far we've only got one exemption result - VRB, which all the vets passed! YAY!

Sunny!

It'ssunnyandamazingbutIhavepathandit'sawfulandhistologicalandaaargh

Essays Over

Hooray! Today I finished my last essay exam, still have 3 practicals and a viva to go, but no more essays. For a vetsci, 13 essays in 5 days is craaazy, and it has not been fun. MODA today was alot better that I expected - very pleased they changed the format of it from the impossible paper of last year. Haven't been writing down what essays I wrote, might back-date some at some point if I feel like it, but can't be bothered to type them up, and have an exam tomorrow and the day after (days 5 and 6 of the week of pain - the 7th day shall be a rest day!).

Just had delicious food with Jen, Jenny and Dave - bangers, mash, beans and mushrooms - twas amazing! Have realised that haven't seen many friends for a proper get-together since my birthday - It's so depressing - noone tells you quite how excessive the Cambridge work thing is before you get here. You know it's gonna be tough, but you'd never expect this... Still, a week to go, and only 5 hours and 10 minutes of exams left! Yay!

Tom

The Pain of Neurobiology Part II

Why does evening before-exam-revision always feel like you're learning from scratch? Does my work throughout the year count for nothing?

The Pain of Neurobiology Part I

Just been to sainsburys and bought 4 cans of caffiene drink and a bag of marshmallows. Says it all really.

Hello my little blog-weeds. I say that in a loving way, like weed from Bill and Ben, not in a "stop hanging around stealing all my soil nutrients" way. Stay and have fun!

Yesterday (Saturday) was my first exam - Biology of Disease (Pathology if you're not a pretentious Cambridge type). We did papers I and III, an hour of MCQs (275 True/false in an hour. phew!) and two hours of essays. As per last year, I'm gonna list the essays I did just so I can look back on it next year and think "what was I thinking of!", or possibly, "how clever I was to write a whole essay on atherosclerosis - now I'm a vet and don't need to know about because it doesn't affect animals I can't remember anything!".

1. What are oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes? How can changes in genes or their expression result in cancer?
2. Briefly review the cellular mechanisms involved in the development of an athersclerotic plaque. What other pathological processes can result from this?
3. Outline host defences to bacterial pathogens and discuss, with examples, how bacterial pathogens overcome them.
   

Tomorrow is CVB (Comparative Vertebrate Biology), which is pleasantly vetty, but involves me remembering lots about how frogs breathe... ooer!

In other news, it was my 20th irthday a few days ago (23rd) - didn't do too much, took that day almost all off and went into town with Alex for lunch and a spot of shopping. She got a lovely dress and I got myself some new trousers. I had loads of people round to my room for food and cake on the evening of the 24th which was fabtastic - Dave bought me a table-air-hockey thingie, which proved very popular!

See ya,
Tom
x

A lesson in Weed Extrication

Man I love my new hair - makes it about 100 times easier to pull out the bits of Cam-Weed out when it's just over a centimetre long! As you can tell, I have just been canoeing - in the cold and rain. It's May for Christ's sake; and it's still freezing! We played some polo though, which was great fun, we had some fun in the "rapids" below the weir, and did a few strokes. Was good fun, but am glad to be back in the warm of my room!

Finally got May Ball tickets after messing up and forgetting to collect them - and now we have found out that Jen, Lydia and Me are wanted to play a 50min set at the start of the mayball - which will be a little weird, because it'll be right at the start, but, it'll be good fun. However, this means we'll have only 10 days (after exams) to rehearse (and come up with some songs) before the day! AARGH. Still, it'll be an amazing experience.

What else? Humm.. have done some work, have some food for my birthday tomorrow (and parcels. Ooooo!) Can't wait for exams to be over! Here we cooooooommmeee!!

Tom

Clipped

Had my hair cut yesterday - guy in the Barber's near Clare Colony wanted to charge me an extra £8 for having alot of hair to cut off, so I politely walked out. £18 is too much for a haircut, especially when there's a sign outside saying "gentlemen's haircuts, £10". So I went to Mr Polito's, who did a fine job for £12. Note to cambridgians. DO NOT GO TO THE BARBERS BY CLARE COLONY (is that libel? can I be arrested?)

I cooked meatballs on Friday, which was an interesting experience, i just bunged together some mince, herbs and onion in balls, fried them and then added a few veggies and dolmio, and BANG, it worked! Huzzah! My fear that I would think I was eating testicles was unfounded. Muwahah!

In other news, 15 exams is a lot of exams to do, especially when they are horribly fact based. I am not a "taperecorder" as Omega so eloquently put it yesterday, and am not enjoying it, Neurobiology especially. Still, they start in a week so will be over soon, and we'll be free, and, of course, it is my birthday on Tuesday. How exciting! I'm having a subdued meal at mine with friends, because everyone is revising at the mo, and I doubt they (and I know I can't) could devote a whole evening for a formal/club session, though I would love to. (So many commas. I Know that that was an appaulingly disarticulated paragraph (unlike a Badger's jaw (google it)), but I'm lazy so aren't going to change it. It's a stream of consciousness - the best way :)

Right, I have to learn about motor-systems now. It's raining and I don't want to, but I have to. Roll on the 8th of June!

Tom xxx

Look! I've been good! Haven't posted for a couple of days. Have been working hard! Promise! The last week has been tough, and I'm pretty knackered. Every spare minute feels like it should be being used for work, even though there's no way that it is going to be, or could be - bloody exam-term. Having five huge subjects to get through, each with a massive lever arch file of facts gets tiring after a while!

Spent the weekend going through my pathology practical notes, with a short break on Saturday to do some canoeing. Rich took Jenny and me out on the river and let us practice some T-rescues, and even let me have a go at a roll (though I didn't succeed). I managed to capsise and then T-rescue on Rich's boat infront of some tourists - they were very entertained. Hehe.

It was Andrew's birthday on Saturday, but as it is temps-du-examens he just had a little pub-trip on Thursday and drinks, cake and weird games in his room on his birthday. It was good fun, even though everyone had to rush off after an hour or so to do work. It's my birthday in just over a week, and I'm manicly trying to think of something to do that wont take up too much of people's time but will be good fun. Maybe I'll make lunch for everyone in a come-to-my-room-and-eat-little-things-I've-dotted- around-my-room kind of way. That could be fun.

Right I'd better get on - haven't been up long and need to get clean!

Tom.

Uppity

As you can see, the frequency of posts has increased, and that can only mean one thing - it's exam term. Today is Saturday, and I've done some VRB work, and have been into town for lunch. Alex is dying Jen's hair as we speak, and I'm sitting here listening to Marillion. Ahhhhhh. This eve, Jen and me are going to McDonalds for a stodge-fest, which will be satiating(is that a word?). I'm really craving some good stodge - haven't been to buttery all term!

Update: 7/5/06
I fear I may have eaten 1700 calories worth of McDonalds last night... goodbye Aorta!

Tom

Workyworkywork

Yesterday evening was fun. Alex, Vicky and me (I stirred) made vegetarian chili which was tasty. OO, and now I think about it, I have a room for next year - 7 Braeside - it's south facing, has two big windows and is a confortable size. Only problem is that it has no sink, but I'm sure I can get around that. Back to the evening - Alex and I went down to the LCR to watch Green Wing, and then came back to Castle end where we chatted with Jen (and later Dave) until almost 1am... A rareity nowadays, but good fun :)

So much work. So much work that I actually hoovered my room yesterday. So much work that I have photos of me doing work. Still, I think I'm almost all the way through Neuroanatomy now, which is a relief because that is the hardest bit. I think I can remember the path of the Dorsal Columns/Medial Lemniscus system - thank God I'm not doing it next year!

Still, I'll work hard this weekend, and then I can go canoeing on Monday night, and play cricket on Tuesday.

Hope you are all well!
Tom
xxx

Manic Monday

Monday was a strange little day, starting off with plans of no lectures, and little planned whatsoever to a big full crazyday. I got up at a sensible ish time of 9.30 am to get some work done, and Alex came round at 11.30 to revise over here too - Castle End is actually a very nice place in the summer.

After my canoeing larks of the weekend, I had emailed the secretary of CUCC (Cambridge University Canoeing Club) and asked when the 1* classes began. I got an email that afternoon saying that they were on Monday and Thursday nights from 6pm-8pm. I can't make Thursdays as I have a VanVeen supervision in the afternoon, so I plumped for Monday, giving me a few hours to get a couple of cheques together (it's good value for a term of classes - £12.50 for membership and £15 for the classes), cook a big lunch (as I would miss dinner) and pack some things in a bag. Also, a few hours before I went, I got an email from Rachel-the-vet-from-girton (Spikes), who invited us out to the may-day funfair that night. Another thing was planned!

So, at 6pm I arrived at the canoe-sheds, having again manically pumped up my bike (my new inner tube has a slow puncture), and we got down to some canoeing - they taught us the sweepstroke, monkey stroke, and side-stroke (think those are the names). We also did a capsize drill, played a bit of polo and bulldog. It was really really good - well worth it, and if I'm any good then I can do the assessment at the end to try and get a certificate!

I got back at about 8.20 having stopped off in Sainsburys for some coke (apparently staves of Weil's Disease) and some crisps (I was starving), and at 9pm we went to the Midsummer Fair, where I was tempted onto the "Twister" with Jen and Alex, despite my terrified cries "It's just not normal!" and actually really enjoyed it to the point that I went on the "Terminator" - a fast spinny, strobe lighting sideways spinny thing. It was great fun, though I felt a little groggy afterwards (and managed to walk into a lamppost on the way home) - hehe. Great fun.

Delays!

Tonight was the night of Delays Concert II. In celebration of the last Delays gig we went to, on the 17th October 2004 when we'd only been in cambridge a few days, we (Jen, Dave, Alex and me) went along tonight to see their 2nd ever gig in Cambridge.

The support band was "Captain", who were amazing - a little like the New Pornographers, but better. Delays came on bang on-time and played for over an hour, mostly stuff from Faded Seaside Glamour, which is good really, because I don't know the second album as well, or like it as much. But, a good night was had by all and Jen and I got Gardies on the way home. MMMm.

When we got back I beat Alex at blackjack, and won a Mars Bar, but felt guilty cos I'd had Gardies, and she was hungry for Mars, so we played S*ithead, and she beat me (as she always does at that game somehow), so she got her Mars bar.

Tom

Canoeing

Rich invited me canoeing! They had a try-it session and BBQ, so I turned up, had a sausage, and got put in a long thin black boat by Rich. Within 5 minutes I was in the water - every time I moved more water sploshed over the sides, and eventually I just sank when trying to catch a polo ball. But, seeing as now I was wet, I got back in, and lasted a little bit longer (30 mins) before trying to turn too sharply again and crashing in. By this time I was very cold and soggy, so I cycled home (in soaked jeans... why did I wear jeans, just why??), and had a warming shower.

Part II

Finally managed to chose my part II courses (for my 3rd year - the "intercalated year"), and submit them on the internet through CamSIS.

1. Development and Reproduction from the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience. With a research project
2. Pathology with a dissertation.
3. Genetics with a research project.
   

Flapjacks, Football and Flying

1. I got a flapjack, infact, this week, my life has been full of flapjacks. It's been one of those weeks where the oats follow you round - you know what I'm talking about. Bloody oats. Well, not at all; I was followed in a good way. In a stomach-tinglingly good way. Hannah made flapjacks that were juicy, soft and scrumtious, and then Alex sent me a CHOCOLATE flapjack that was full of sweet cocoa goodness. Yay!
2. Football. Worcester Park Wonders won. We actually won. For the first time since 2 years ago we won. 2-2 after full time, and then 4-3 on penalties. Was great fun, but now my legs are melting. MELTING.
3. Flying. Flying... Birds fly. It does begin with F... and I did have a conversation with my dad about the perils of high-altitude flight should you have some sort of respiratory disorder. Seems to fit in with the title.

Booyakka!

Tom

UPDATE: The Land o' Lakes Flapjack Festival


Land o' Lakes Flapjack Festival. Take me there. In a tardis... whatever. Look! Americans dressed as Scotch Pancakes, and probably flapjacks too if their amazing oat-power had not melted the camera lens when the photos were being taken... i assume.

In 1976, community organizations of Land O'Lakes planned an event that all area citizens could partake. It began as a small festival produced by civic, church and business groups. The annual festival, which is themed around flapjacks, has grown each year with more entertainment, rides and activities.

The three-day event, produced by the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce, begins on Friday afternoon with the tossing of the first flapjack. Free flapjacks were offered for the first time in 1983, and have since become an annual ritual for the Saturday morning breakfast. The Land O'Lakes Butter Company in Minnesota has supplied its namesake butter every year since the first free flapjack breakfast. Throughout the weekend thousands of residents and visitors enjoy free entertainment, parades, shows, carnival rides, and food. On Saturday evening, the Honorary Mayor of Land O'Lakes is "elected" with dollar votes. The "candidate" who raises the most funds wins the honorary mayor position. The fundraiser activity supports the chamber and the continued improvement of Land O'Lakes. Land O' Lakes is named for the many blue lakes in this community north of Tampa Bay. From this website

The things you find on Google.

In celebration of it being nearly a year since I began this text of literary genius (ahem), I have brought together some of the greatest and weirdest blogs of the last year. Just to tickle your fancy.

• May 2005 - The desecration of a beauteous flower, parts 1 and 2 It was a tough time.
• 31st May 2005 - Shoes, Smartness and Llama Sex. A late night rant about the importance of llama sex in the salvation of the lactose intolerant.
• 16th June 2005 - Wetwetwet. The Cam is wet, cold, and not to be entered into lightly
• 25th June 2005 - Clare May Ball 2005. A Ball of the greatest proportions. In May in June. Weird eh! Cambridge.
• 30th August 2005 - Leeds Festival. Some loved bands were seen, some great bands were discovered and much fun was had.
• 2nd September 2005 - My Face, my beautiful face. It brought into question Alex's honour. The rest is history.
• 11th September 2005 - The State of the World Today. The art that can be created during Coronation Street would astound anyone.
• 13th February 2006 - London. Another amazing weekend with Alex.
• 17th November 2005 - Andrew Bates being Born. Ok, not one of the greatest posts, but it entertains me.
• 18th February 2006 - My day, to the minute. It was cold, and the English faculty looks funny.
• 19th February 2006 - Hannah is scared of goblins. Family visit :)

There are others I could have included, lots of bops, and farming stuff, but you can peruse that at your own will. I'm so confident you'll be interested :S... self flattery is important!

Enjoy!