One bucket of welly sanitiser, £5
One digital thermometer, £3
Stethoscope, £60

Fondling a ram's testicles* at 10am in the morning, priceless.

*strictly for veterinary examination purposes.

Relax

Dear Blog (blog)

A moment of peace has descended on the house. No-one is cooking, doing washing, running around or being loud. I am sat on the sofa blogging (obviously), and trying vainly to install some drivers for my soundcard. In a lame ass computer geek fashion I have installed linux on my computer (groan). This is mostly because windows hates my USB ports. Linux loves them - but hates my soundcard.

When I have done this I will begin working. But currently I am relaxed.

Alex is sat next to me turning up the hems of her jeans, a job she loves apparently - it's relaxing. "I'm doing major surgery," she says. "On my clothes". Being a vet, I suppose you can never be too sure when she'll be performing a laparotomy on the living room table...

Ah. All is well.

I'm in trouble.

Mary asked me to ice a cake while she was out... I fear this may be the last time I am honoured with such a request...

I had to cut the top off one to make it flat so it'd fit on the bottom... but it seemed like such a waste of good cake... so we have the cake of directorly crowning glory...

Sunday

Sunday. Moved some chairs, moved a bath, shifted a trolley back, sat on the floor, got blinded by lights, played a bath, played a table, ate a pasty, ignored free hug man, wandered home, faffed a bit, did some work, found a bedstead, rang a bell, convinced a man to give me said bedstead, brought it home with Tom, drank some tea, did some work, ate some eggs, did some work (on and off), went to bed.

York

York is a beautiful town of ancient walls, cathedrals and cute little streets paved with flags and filled with quaint little shops. It has buses that bend in the middle, a ferris wheel and an Ask pizza house in the stunning assembly hall. Conversely, York University is made out of concrete. Some of the buildings are quite impressive (central hall for example), while some are just plain mad (hedgehog buildings for example), and others just ugly. However, in its favour it does have a huge lake (filled with ducks, and, I am reliably informed, Trevors*) and Heslington Hall, a lovely Elizabethan mansion house which stands opposite a slightly creepy topiaried Yew garden (Alice in Wonderland springs to mind).

As you can probably tell, I visited my sister at York this weekend. We had Friday off (shock horror, thanks to some smart lecture shuffling) so I went up in the early afternoon having gone down to the Corpus Playrooms in the morning to teach some actors the ChaChaCha. I don't really know the ChaChaCha, but mine and Alex's rudimentary knowledge of the basic, new york and turn steps proved useful in forging a bond between actor and actress. Anyway, I digress. Went up to York on the train (which only took 2 and a half hours!), and Hannah met me at the station. Pretty soon toad in the hole was being devoured at a local pub (the Cross Keys if anyone knows it), and Hannah was working through a steak (much to her boyfriend's gall later on!). We then toddled back to campus (on a bendy bus, oh joy of joys!), and sat in her (pretty nice) kitchen for a few hours chatting to her friends. Thinking about it, they are probably reading this, as Hannah often subjects them to this torturous site, so I suppose I'd better say something nice. Teddy Bears.

And so, we went to McQ's (it's a bar, not an exam**... I know, I was confused and slightly worried) and had a few drinks before coming back home. Hannah's house is... functional. Long corridors, no plaster (painted breeze blocks) and mildew, but it's homely now it's lived in and everyone looks settled.

The following day, Hannah took me on a tour of the campus (see above), and then she, George and me walked into town. We got some lunch (Ask - see above), and then came home again, because, like a great big retard, I forgot my camera. Arses. Really, though I convinced anyone it was because I was stupid, this was infact because I figured that was better than admitting that all I wanted to do was ride on a bendy bus again! So unnecessarily fun.

So, much fun was had. I ended up waiting ages for a bus back in Cambridge (as I didn't check the timetable until I'd been waiting for 30mins - I was too engrossed in "To Kill a Mockingbird"), but was greeted when I finally arrived by requests for chinese takeaway... so we did! Huzzah!

*Trevor is the name given to a black Swan that attacks Hannah's kitchen window every day. Due to their rudimentary undergraduate swan differentiation skills however, this results in every black swan being named Trevor despite the fact that many are infact named Charlotte.
**MCQ = Multiple Choice Question.

Lambing

We've just had a small ruminants practical on abortion in sheep and goats which would have been really useful, had I read through the notes - if only there was more time, and I wasn't revising BIDDS whenever a moment for work is found! All I really want at the moment is sleep!

All 4th year students are required to help lamb the uni sheep this term, and we received our timetable yesterday. The sheep are watched 24hours (infact, 24.5 hours*) every day so everyone will at somepoint have to spend a long night in the sheep-shed. Mine are scheduled for the 3rd and the 27th Feb. Here we go again - I've only done a month of lambing!

Have just been to my second consultation skills seminar, which this time involved taking a fake consultation with an actor lady (sometimes known as an actress) and a toy cat, infront of a video camera. Pretty scary you think? Well, actually, you'd be right. We each took a small part of the consultation, so were only required to talk for around 3 mins max - I unfortunately had the wonderful job of telling the lady what we'd 'found' on clinical exam and list the possible options that we could take from there. I got a little verbal diarrhoea and spouted at her, so didn't do a fantastic job, but you live and learn - was well worth doing. The actress was very good, though she didn't have a massively tough role to play, just stand there and seem concerned about her cat, though she did have to reveal information to us bit by bit, and obviously had quite a meticulously planned case history hidden away. I think next time we get "angry clients", which will be... interesting!

Has been a busy morning already! Alex and Andrew have gone off to rotations (Post-Mortem and Small Animal Studies respectively), and Mary and me have been left to our own devices, which in my case has involved making phone calls and writing this blog, whilst Mary is hunting for screws for her new pannier.

Phone call wise, I have phoned our letting agent as my room has started smelling of sewage every time Andrew flushes his toilet, which is a little worrying to say the least! "I'm upset you thought I could make a smell of raw sewage!" he said. Sorry Andrew! Hopefully they'll send out a plumber today to take a look at what's going on.
I have also rung an abattoir in Halifax, and have arranged to go there for a week in August. I now have 9 weeks of EMS organised (10 if the BSAVA congress is allowed to count), and can hopefully book another 2 weeks small animal in summer to get myself up to 11!

I also have new shoes (shock-shock-horror!) to replace the infamous "Davy Shoes" given to me by Davy in 1st year. Unfortunately they have walked a fair few 100 miles in their time, and are giving up the ghost so I got a replacement pair of loafers from M&S with my Xmas voucher. However, as they are slip on, insoles were required, and what better way to use the cut off insole bits than giving them to Alex with a pair of scissors. Meet 'Shoe Shrimp' who has taken up lodging on my clock.

Quote of the weekend:

Alex: "I've drunk 3 and a half pints of water!"
Mary: "Why?"
Alex: "I thought I'd completely replace my body water content."
Mary: "Why?"
Alex: "..Felt like a change."

swift!

We wish to point out that Alex by no means thinks that her total body water content is 3.5pts, the statement was made for comic, rather than physiologically accurate effect. We wish to apologise for any englings, physicists or possibly even vets that have been misled.

Pics from Cambridge Christmas

I've just unearthed some Cambridge Xmas pics:

Pathogenland

Which sector of society is represented by which pathogen?

So far we have decided that students are herpes, because they do alot of sleeping, and occasionally come out for a HUGE party.

Any more ideas anyone?

Excitements!

Exciting news! I am going to be stewarding at this years BSAVA (British Small Animal Veterinary Association) Congress in April. My Dad rang me up with exciting letter-related news, and it said I'd been accepted (I applied back in November)! I get accomodation in Birmingham, for 6 days and a small wage, plus the chance to hob-nob with all sorts of distinguished vetty types. Am quite excited, though a little daunted!

3-1 to me. Oh yeah, you never doubted it did you.

psyching myself up...

Am just about to go play squash. I shall report soon about my tremendous landslide victory over Mr Bates. You will all be proud

Baking for Students

I am making my first loaf of the term. I took to making my own bread last term (even splashed out on a 2lb tin and a book of recipes), I suppose my genetic memory is full of it owing to my Grandfather (who was a baker) and my Dad (who has inherited, and passed on) much baking knowledge. I have even advanced to including such insane ingredients as honey, milk and wheat bran. It's really good fun, and very cathartic (a wonderful word) beating the hell out of a lump of dough, and having a tasty, stodgy, sweet smelling, warm and crisp loaf at the end of it all. The best thing about it is that baking is essentially designed for students. It takes 10-15mins to prepare everything, then you have half an hour of work time while it rises, followed by a few seconds to get it in the oven, followed by another half hour of work before it's ready. Before you know it, in less than an hour and a half you've done an hour of work and you have a tasty home-made loaf. Amazing!
Note to self: less work is done if you blog about how amazing it is that you have time for work.

Another day of lectures today - we had more small ruminants (goats and sheep knowledges were passed) and an animal breeding lecture (including photos of vibrating and thrusting dummy mares for stallion semen collection), and an introduction to nutrition (which is a particularly topical subject owing to the infamous rise to fame of "raw meaty bones"). 4 hours, 4 lectures, and much more stuff to try to learn!

Tom

Full of Toffee

I am currently gummed up with toffee. I forgot to mention that I received a huge amount of sticky nut and raising toffee for Xmas from Hannah (sorry). The toffee is amazing, but there's no way you could eat more than 3 squared cm of it without dying a diabetic death. It's terrifying, but fantastic. I don't know what my dentist will say...

Dracula

Ventured out to the Arts Picture House yesterday with Alex, Vicky and Tom to see the 1958 version of Dracula starring Christopher Lee. It was pretty good, though I must admit to being very bored in the 1st half an hour, it quickly picked up and made for a fantastic film. And at only 83mins, I didn't feel like huge amounts of time were wasted. The film equivalent of the 39 Steps. Much of the action was left "implied" which means the film didn't spend ages romping through all the unnecessary action - e.g. setting up a blood transfusion apparatus etc. Very good film, though surprisingly bright and sunny (when compared with horror films of today).

Back in cambridge

Back in Cambridge. The 1st day involved shopping (bought some door hooks which promptly fell off in the middle of the night waking me up as my coat went crashing to the floor, toothpaste and other such essentials), chinese takeaway, and the major event of the day, website creation for Vicky and Alex's plays, unified under the title "Broken Glass" - click here (brokenglassplay.co.uk) for a look, and if you're in the Cambridge area make sure you come along!

End the Neglect.

I'm currently going through my "Never Listened To" Playlist - as I realised I had about 500 tracks that I'd never listened to. Some of them I have, just not on Itunes etc, but it still upsets me to think that some of my music has been neglected. I like to think that I like all of my music (with the exception of odd tracks on albums). How many unlistened-to tracks do you have? Stop the neglect -listen to them.

There are so many diseases! How can there be!?

Happy New Year Everyone. Welcome to 2008 (he says as if he is the guardian of the lockers to which people are welcomed at the start of a new year), welcome.

I spent New Year at Rahul's - We'd been to Asda a few days previously so he could buy "some" food, and managed to fill a whole trolley (which at Asda is a feat I can tell you - no plastic cutlery (!) and no plastic champagne flutes (!) what is the world coming to ;) ). Then, having driven them home we got all this shopping up 5 flights of stairs (in one trip may I add) and he was stocked up for party. However, when the big day arrived it became clear that buying unprepared food (peppers, mushrooms, lamb) etc. was maybe a bad idea as it required much oven space which was seriously lacking, and time, which was also lacking, particularly as it stole time away from vital celebration and drinking time (in the intervening days he'd bought a huge amount of drink, which I found chilling on his balcony).

Anyway, much fun was had (and we did have some kebabs, which were fabtastic) and Rahul, Duncan, me and many of Rahul's uni friends welcomed in the new year with a fantastic panoramic firework display from his 5th floor window - at least 40 displays going on simulataneously (with one almost exploding right outside the window). Great :)

Resolutions

Resolutons:

1. To blog more during term - now I am a clinical vet student it becomes much more imperative that I blog! Surely my vettings are the only interesting thing that gets put on here anyway!
2. To stay fit. Seemingly walking 4 miles a day is not enough to stave off uber-uni-belly (which I lost in a week of Xmas tree selling). Situps?