Harry Patch (in memory of)

Radiohead have a new song, an epitaph to Harry Patch, the last survivor of WW1 who died on the 25th of July at the age of 111. I find it hard to imagine that we now live in a world which contains no-one with any first hand experience of the war, 'lest we forget'.

The song itself is a simple 5 minute series of rising strings, with Thom Yorke lamenting over the top; clearly Radiohead in the same mindset as they were when they wrote 'Last Flowers'. It's by no means a masterpiece; I find the juxtaposition between the sweeping string orchestra and Thom's arhythmic lyrics quite difficult to handle, but then I should be used to that sort of thing with Radiohead. Probably a grower, certainly a song written about a very important subject - lets hope its presence in millions of iPods will help to keep people reminded of the sacrifice these men made.

You can download the track from http://download.waste.uk.com/Store/did.html for £1, and all the proceeds go to the Royal British Legion.

The Golem - Flyering

The run of Broken Glass Theatre Company's "The Golem" finished on Sunday, and what a run it was. I didn't write about it during the run, because it soon became clear that the main route for people to find our website was through search engines, and with the huge number of online listings for the show (timeout etc.), I didn't want any blog posts to appear in the way to distract people from the broken glass website. The show ran for 4 nights, and you can see a series of blog posts posted during the run by one of the cast members here.

Camden Town is a unique place - it seems to contain people that only exist in Camden; I'm not sure any of the tattooed, mohicaned, ear-lobe-plugged, dressed-in-leathers-with-metal-studding people ever leave Camden, or if they do, they are so quickly diluted by the less eclectic of us that they go relatively unnoticed. In Camden however, they suddenly burst to the top of the demographic pile, so that those of us dressed in jeans and a t-shirt suddenly fade into a minority.

There are also, of course, a large number of tourists in Camden, who waft around in the breeze of Camden-residents rushing from stall to stall picking up random paraphenalia emblazoned with the Union Jack. In trying to discern who to hand a flyer you find yourself trying to calculate people's grasp of the English language from 10 feet - if someone says "merci" on taking one of your flyers you know you've probably wasted it. But then you never know, the Frenchwoman who briefly forgets the English for thank you might be a massive fan of physical theatre regardless of whether or not she can understand the language. Even then she might be multilingual. At the end of the day, you have to hand out your 500 flyers to the first 500 people who show an interest in taking one from your hand. I'd love to know what they flyering success rate is. Perhaps 1%?

More Camden Fringe related posts to come - I'm going to split them up, because there's so much I could talk about!

Florence and the Machine - Lungs

When I first started the CD spinning (or, more accurately, hit play on Spotify) I was hugely disappointed that here was another young female singer, having been brought up on her parents' Kate Bush records, trying to create that 'alternative sound', and instead sounding like all those other singers that think London-sound is cool. The voice is reminiscent of Kate Nash, Laura Marling and, dare I say, Lily Allen, and the first track, Dog Days Are Over doesn't do anything to dispel this.

However, as the album continues. her accent very quickly melts into the background as you get carried away into a jolting, almost tribal wall of music. Every song is like a great book; you really can't put them down until you've found out how they finish. An underlying pattern of verse-chorus is hidden under the evolving drums, guitars, harps that build up and up until you can't help yourself joining in. Drumming Song opens with a pattern of drums that's reminiscent of 'People Party' by the relatively unknown band, "For Stars" and builds into an epic that makes you feel like you're flying through the Amazon rainforest at the speed of sound in the arms of a superhero that you're passionately in love with. Your face is being scratched by the creepers as you fly, and you're missing getting to see the monkeys, but damn you just don't care!

In short, this Florence has a massively powerful voice and can't half write a tune, and is clearly supported by some incredible musicians. I have been surprised, but pleasantly so! Yes it's easy to like, and yes it's going to be hugely popular, but that shouldn't be a reason to ignore something that is both pleasing to the ear and intrigues the mind. I for one am delighted that popular music is going in this direction - people are starting to think about their music again.

Sum

I've just read "Sum" by David Eagleman. I didn't intend to buy it, and I'd never heard of it before this afternoon, but I was drawn to it in Waterstones today, and am incredibly glad I was. It's one of the most unique fiction books I've read in ages. It consists of fourty short (2-4 pages) narratives explaining how the afterlife might be. It expounds beautifully on the huge range of possibilities that our universe presents, and how no-one really knows the answer to any ultimate questions.

A particular favourite quote of mine comes from 'Missing' where it is explained that God is in fact a married couple, and that when you die, you enter a parent-child relationship with them. I love how cleanly it explains the synergism between science and religion

"Every human in the world is a child to them, and they devote a tremendous effort to their parenting skills.
It is heartening to see that they learn from us in the same manner that all parents learn from their children. For example it turns out they didn't know how to express the workings of their universe as equations, so they are greatly impressed with the ideas of their physicist children, who phrase clearly for them for the first time what they wrought"

This is a fantastic book, and I would unreservedly recommend it to anyone. It's well thought out, imaginative, unique, entertaining, humorous and moving, all at once.

Photos!

Today has been an absolute scorcher (as has the whole weekend really), and I took the opportunity to go into the garden and Richmond Park to wave my camera around. I had a £2 off 1hr processing voucher at Snappy Snaps so I bashed the film in there in the afternoon, and here are a selection of pics I got.

From my Mum's sweetcorn plant. This little anemone is, believe it or not, the part of the plant that will grow into the cob.

A ladybird I spotted while patiently waiting for a damselfly to land on the patch of grass by my feet.

Another silly photoshopping escapade


This photo is less focused than I had expected. I used a macro lens at 70mm, 1/1000 sec, f/32. Should have had enough depth of focus (maybe a few cm anyway, which is all I needed!). I'm not sure why it's so blurred!

My lab coat out drying in the sunshine a few days ago.

Diving geese.

Warmth and Rain.

Today has been a beautiful day. It was sunny, warm, and yet just cool enough to be bearable. And it had that sort of rain that comes when it's hot, and the sky still remains blue. You can just stand outside, hold your hands wide and enjoy the cooling drops of water falling on your face, and evaporating within a second; like natural air-conditioning. I didn't enjoy the rain as much as I should unfortunately, as I was trying to get my head around my elective project. As part of the initial research, I'm trying to fathom how farmers might perceive risk... relative? Economic? Not quite sure yet, but hopefully some pubmed scouring will be revealing over the next few days. Unfortunately, the few papers I've wanted to read have been just outside the university library's dates of subscription, so I haven't been able to read them. Grr.

Other than that, Dad and I cleared out the shed today, as we had a few cwt of sand to squeeze inside. It's always a very cathartic experience cleaning it out, removing piles of dust and rearranging everything at right angles, and in an organised fashion. A little bit of an OCD pleasure. I also had a little bash at photoshopping an old photo I took in Norwich a few years ago. I've made the foreground black and white, and changed the colour of the sky. It's not perfect, but let me know what you think.

An Afternoon in Camden

Yesterday I cycled to Camden. I'm feeling it a little this morning, but nowhere near as badly as I expected to. I left Richmond Park at Sheen Gate, then headed up Castlenau to Hammersmith Bridge, then through Kensington, past Hyde Park, then through Regents Park to Camden; It's about a 25 mile round trip.

I found myself sat in the window of a coffee shop slowly imbibing the days coffee and devouring Heller's Catch 22, but my literary meal was regularly interrupted by the sights, sounds and smells of the street.
My nose was assaulted with a strange combination of roasting coffee, exhaust and the sickly aroma of caramelised peanuts from a street seller just a few paces up the street. It's probably the last job you'd want to do with a hangover (besides being a wine taster), particularly if you had a nose as large as this chap did, yet somehow he showed no signs of nausea from the warm toffee aroma surrounding his head.
From the back of the shop, the wailing of a small child was all but drowned out by the sound of the road, but when I moved further into the shop, I realised that the child's mother was engaged in a vociferous argument with someone over the behaviour of her child - "Don't you have children?". Ironically, the kid was so fascinated by this exchange that she was entirely silent while they shouted at each other, only to recommence her wailing when they stopped. Thus the piercing sound of child-scream was replaced by deeper adult-bark, and then back again, oscillating like this for what seemed like an age. Neither adult seemed prepared to step down from the argument, presumably because they both realised it was the only way to keep her quiet.
The street itself was a 3 lane one way high-street which led into a 5 lane junction. The front of the coffee shop was open, and so I was all but sat on the pavement. My first observation was the melting of the paint on the road, which resulted in small tyre prints being left in the red-zone line as cars squeezed too close to the kerb. This was followed by the sight of a man sat on a 1 foot wide ledge, 2 storeys up, in an apartment across the road. He wasn't planning on jumping, just happily sat there reading and enjoying the sunshine. I imagined an elaborate system of hoists within the room helping him to balance so precariously, and yet so nonchalantly, perhaps just to salve my conscience as I did nothing to stop him falling, merely took a photo on my phone.

Tee hee

Bike tinkering complete!

The bike has now been tinkered with, and is new and improved. Here's a list of the adjustments

• New lights added as old bracket had broken
• Brakes adjusted so both rear levers have action, rather than just one (thus removing irritating squeaking)
• Wheels added (as they had to be removed for transport) and tyres pumped
• Gear lever secured (as bolt had been lost)
• Washed and hosed down
• BOX ADDED (very exciting). I've attached some pictures below so you can see. I've used an old recycling box - if my parents need it they can have it back (I'm sure they wont mind that I've drilled a few holes in it) and I'll get a proper box. A really useful box would be good (as they have water-tight lids), but I'm not sure how to make sure the lid doesn't get stolen. I'd need to attach it to the bike with a chain or something. It's attached using an ingenious combination of holes and cable-ties, with another hole drilled to take the light bracket.

I'm back home. The car took a long time to cram, mostly because I decided to bring my bike home. This involved pulling off its wheels (easier said than done, as some of the screws had rusted), and then balancing the frame on the back seat. The chain had to be wrapped up in a plastic bag to stop the seats getting oily, and then wheels were balanced on the middle of the frame. It needs a lot of work doing to it (cleaning, gear lever broken, rust removing, mud guard filing etc), and I'm most likely to do it at home.

The Golem has gone well - we're all rehearsed up now until we begin before the performances in August. I've written out a full score and musical prompt sheet, and must remember to keep practicing this holiday, both so I remember it, and so that I maintain my callouses.

My room in London is now impassable for boxes - it's amazing how much stuff you accumulate over a few years. Today will see a massive unpacking session, and also some bicycle fixing.

In other news, I've put some new pictures up on deviant art

The Golem

The Golem rolls on. It's all slowly coming together. All the scenes have now been rehearsed, and the next few days will see the slotting together of everything into a continuous piece. I'm very excited about the music now, having written myself a short prompt sheet and the whole score (in mandolin tabulature). I'm managing to use the mandolin in a number of diverse ways on top of the usual string plucking or strumming. The body makes a perfect percussive drum, while the strings behind the bridge sound almost like clanging metal when plucked, all of which are proving invaluable in the performance. It's thrilling to hear such a range of sounds coming out of one small instrument, and really is putting it to its maximum use. The last few days have also seen the creation of the publicity flyer, and soon the poster. My recent discovery of photoshop, and the wonders that can be performed with a few mouse clicks have made image design much easier, and the flyer is looking very good. Alex's brother has designed a very classy image, which, with a little digital juggling, has fitted beautifully. Hopefully it'll be online soon.

If you want to see the play, it's being performed from Thursday 13th August to Sunday 16th August at 7.30 pm at the Studio Theatre, Roundhouse, Camden. Click here for more details, or here to buy tickets.

A few weeks ago, I took my Grandad's old Minolta SLR to a repairers in Ilkley (Annings), to fix the shutter (which would open but not close), and to replace the blackouts on the film casing. I took it along to Derbyshire earlier this week, and also waved it around on our trip to Coton last week and really enjoyed playing with it.
I finally took the films to Boots to be processed, and there are some lovely pictures. However, I opted for a boots photo CD only, as I didn't urgently want the prints as I usually store my pictures on my computer, and it was much cheaper to just get the CD. When I got home I excitedly opened the CD, and the pictures looked great. That was, however, until my eyes got attuned to the photos. Within a few seconds the photos appeared incredibly grainy, and extremely poor quality. In fact, the whole CD (24 photos) is only 22mb in size. I've put some up here - they're fine for the internet etc, but they're nowhere near as nice as the originals would be (even if scanned from a print), so I'm going to go have to go back and get some prints made. Will not be using the photo CD service again!

Returned.

I've just returned from the 5th Year Holiday in the Peak District. It was incredibly beautiful, and presented the opportunity for much walking (we must have walked 20 miles in 3 days), and picnics, barbeques, ball games and sitting around drinking beer. The perfect way to celebrate the end of exams. It also gave me chance to wave my camera around and take some snaps, of somewhere completely different. Every corner presented something picturesque, which made it quite difficult to select what to snap. I'll put some pics up over the next few weeks. I've recently made a deviant art page, where I've kept some of my favourite photos for the world to see. If you like, please add a comment or favourite one of the pics! T'would be fab.

Exams

And so it begins. Exams tomorrow. Scared, but hopeful.

Today's discovery (apart from the primordial stew of knowledge swimming around my head) was this 1937 Cold poster. That's my kind of pathology (unfortunately not veterinary, so is of no use to me tomorrow!).

Avez vous?

I am absolutely loving "avez vous deja vu?" - a fantastic series of French cartoon shorts I discovered from Sarah's blog here.

My particular favourite is Avez vous deja vu Poppi qui joue Hamlet au Royal Shakespeare Theatre?
They all end with "Maintainent, oui!" which I assume is - "now you have!"

And so the lectures came to an end. That's it. Fin. Over. They've now didactically taught everything they can and so now comes the steep practical learning curve. Eep! It's a massive relief, and very exciting, but bloody scary at the same time.

A marvelous faux pas.

Me: How old is your brother?
Megan: 15.
Tom: Aw, he's wee! Well, no, actually, he's probably about 6 foot!
Megan: No, he has growth hormone deficiency.
Tom: Ahem....

Meep! Luckily, taken in good spirits!

c u r r e n t l y

Thanks to last.fm radio, and the ever plunderable Spotify, I've discovered Jason Webley - an American music-man who is a little like a more interesting version of Willy Mason who collided with an accordion and a few violins in a tragic (and yet beautiful) pile up, which was then attended by Isaac Brock (of Modest Mouse fame) in a particularly shouty mood. Listen to the song 'Broken Cup' to see what I mean.

I've decided that in future I should avoid looking at photos of musicians on the internet however. They never look like you expect.

The revision continues. I'm finding it increasingly difficult to commit things to any sort of a long term memory. I'm reading about diseases and thinking, yes, that makes sense, but it's so difficult to squeeze hundreds of pathogeneses and clinical signs in one brain AND then link them up with the right disease.
Things which seem to permanently fox me include Salmonella and E.coli - not sure why, I think I just try to make them much more complicated than I need to.

Still, there's still plenty of days to go!

I have hair.

That's quite a sudden outburst I know, like I've just experienced a sudden acute bout of hirsutism, or have only just acquired a new toupee. However, I mean this in a more on-going, my hair is growing kind of a way. Now most people's hair grows, but mine tends to grow out and then in. Thus creating an arcing curve into a bowl the likes of which wedgewood couldn't imagine. However, my last haircut was done by Alex, and somehow she's managed to kill the bowl. My hair is now possibly 3 inches long at the longest part, and even in its untampered state looks half-decent. I'm well chuffed!

Tomorrow is slight trim day, to remove the tufts that are intent on invading my ear-canal like little miners, and the growths that are tumbling down my neck.

Ooo..

Crash Magazine

I have just realised that I have never linked to "Crash Magazine", a new online arts magazine edited by Cambridge Grads, and my personal friends, Vicky and Reece. They say what it's all about much better than me:

"‘Crash’ is an aesthetic quality in opposition to the formulaic, the sterile and the life lived automatically.

Captured by an artistic production, it is the point at which forces converge to produce a moment of clarity which challenges the way we see the world.

Instances of ‘crash’ are not limited to a single artistic movement, but found in great art of all ages and all places. "

It's going to comprise of reviews, reports, snippets of creative writing, drama and visual art, and already includes some interesting material (including one of my photographs). Have a look at www.crashmagazine.co.uk.

Image courtesy of www.crashmagazine.co.uk

I donned my summer clothes today (summer trousers, no coat and sunglasses). This was, however, a bad idea as I tempted the English weather into a comeback that rivalled Elvis Presley's post-humus number one back in 2005.

• It rained, a fair bit
• My sunroof was still open (though luckily somehow the rain stayed out, and my kindly neighbour put a note through the door to warn me)
• An old man threw a packet of salt at me in the coffee shop near the vet school. He just lobbed it over a small partition wall and it landed with a slap in my lap. I think it was probably accidental, but that's one hell of a twitch.

Fail

Have recently been enjoying failblog and have added my own - vote for it if you want to see it on the site!

Angry at TV

I read an article today about an ITV program called vets uncovered, and it has enraged me somewhat. The major factor that has angered me is the fact that they took in undercover people with healthy animals, and gave false histories (e.g. my dog's been being sick), and then complained that at many vets there had been £100 bills run up. On numerous occasions I have seen owners come in, clearly distressed about the fact that their dog has been vomiting, but the dog has shown no obvious clinical signs with normal temperature, hydration status, alertness etc., and never have I seen a dog vomit in the consult room. Are we to be expected to turn these people away on the assumption that the owner must have made up, or imagined the problem? A veterinary consultation is a two-way process - the animals can't give their own history, and so a vet is entirely reliant on the owner's perceived history and then their own clinical exam. If we are to battle with mystery owners making up history, many animals in need of simple but effective treatment will go without.

Rant over.

Pyjamas

And so the MCQ exams have finished (assuming this last one has been passed successfully)! We all rocked down in Pyjamas, looking like a uniformed bunch of upper-middle class students who'd recently been on a group trip to Jack Will's drapers and suitors (and been offered a very good deal on their latest line of baggy-slob fashion), except with more dressing gowns, and the occasional pair of slippers (though I'm sure Mr Will's do a fine line in those too). I remember seeing the 5th year one day last year, and being incredibly confused as to why they'd all, by some seemingly random coincidence (for I knew of no unifying reason why this should be so), decided that their pinkest clothes were due for an airing. It was of course their last MCQ exam, and so it is tradition that the final exam should be seen out in some sort of costume - and we chose pyjamas (by democratic vote).

Now, the examiners were entertained by this more lazy than usual attitude to morning attire that the students had taken, but the proctors were not. Apparently, we were very lucky to have been let in at all, particularly as we may have distracted the other students (who were also wearing pyjamas). Where has the fun gone in life? The turn a blind eye attitude that universities should take towards students engaging in non-violent, non-drunken daytime exam-related fun, does not seem to be forthcoming... though it would have been entertaining to see the entire year disqualified from the exam.

The exam was Clin Path (or Clinical Pathology for those less well versed in the unnecessary abbreviations of veterinary medicine) and was pretty tough, though rather invigoratingly so - it required some logic, rather than just blind regurgitation, which was nice. Helps differentiate us primates from cud-chewing ruminants don'cha'think. Hopefully it should be ok, and I can enjoy having a week where my next exam is not for 2 and a half months! Huzzah!

12 consonants in a row!?

What an amazing word:

tachydysrhythmia

ta-CHY-DYS-RHY-THM-ia

Going Home and finding Cubes of Irritation

I went home last weekend. It was really good to see the family again, and enjoy some home comforts, as well as a fantastic meal out at Frere Jacques in Kingston. I ate snails for the second time, followed by roasted pork with plums and savoy cabbage. It was all delicious, though I'm still not convinced by snails. These ones were much less garliccy than the ones I had in Paris a few years ago, which meant the underlying flavour of land-mollusc came through. It was strangely aniseedy, with a bitter tang. Not unpleasant, but certainly not delicious. I withhold judgement for the moment.

Also, while I was at home, I discovered an old Rubik's cube under my bed. I've not had a go at it for ages so I picked it up and had a few spins. I managed to work out how to get one side and a T shape on 4 other sides, but no more. However, once you've picked one up, they're very difficult to put down, and when I arrived back into Cambridge I found out how to finish it off with the help of a youtuber. Now I can do it every time - my quickest being 2mins 6seconds. If anyone is vaguelly interested, or cares, you can see my geeky video of me doing it in a slightly slower 2mins 30ish seconds. Just got to stop spending so much time working out what to do next, and I'll have it down below 2 mins. If I can be bothered!

I was sent this silly little idea on Facebook, and it's quite fun if it works out.

Instructions:

1. Go to "Wikipedia." Hit “random”
or click: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2. Go to "Random quotations"
or click: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3. Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click: http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4. Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together.

So.. what did I get?
Which I think worked out pretty well all told!

Making Focaccia 4

Here we go. All finished, and well worth it. It has a pleasing salty outer crust (vaguely reminiscent of pretzels), with a fluffy olive-oily centre. Not too oily though. Delicious.


The recipe was from this website, and it worked very well. The only changes I made were not putting yeast in (ahem), but then adding it later, and because I rose it in a slightly warmed oven, I shortened the rising times from 2hrs, 45mins and 45mins to 1hr, 30mins and 30mins respectively. Also, I used dried rosemary from tesco, as we haven't got rosemary in our garden at uni.

A most delightful morning well spent. Now back to the cardiology.

Tom

Making Focaccia 3 (How can you tell I'm supposed to be revising for an exam?)

Now yeasted and happy, focaccia is in the oven and we are very excited - here it is in ready to go state.

Making Focaccia 2

Yes, Alex is right, and for all I'll be teased by my father, I did somehow forget to put the yeast in. Which means I spent 2 hours rising a lump of playdough. BUT, I've now added some extra yeast, with a splash of water and flour to help it dissolve, and the bread is now on its 2nd rise. Soon (though not as soon as originally though) there will be tasty focaccia.

Here's a picture of the dough struggling to rise (with no yeast).

Making Focaccia 1

We're currently having a European morning. Having enjoyed a cup of coffee with croissants, and now I'm baking some focaccia - tasty Italian salted bread with olive oil and rosemary. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. At the moment, it's rising, and in our poorly lit Sunday morning kitchen it looks like this:

So dentistry day wasn't too bad.

So dentistry day wasn't too bad. The worse thing was getting up, the best things were that it was a beautiful day, and it was actually very useful. I pulled an incisor and a 2nd upper premolar, both very successfully! Huzzah!

Saturday? Dentistry? Together?

The intrepid 5th year are spending 7 hours at vet school tomorrow (Saturday) learning all about dentistry. Now, I don't mind dentistry - it's another string to the exciting bow of veterinary practice (what other profession lets you be a GP, surgeon, radiologist, dentist, business adviser and smart-ass all in one (with the possible exception of plumbers)?). I also don't mind Saturdays; in fact, I positively enjoy their usual lie-ins, and the invariable swelling of my fridge that occurs later in the afternoon.

What I don't enjoy however, is when Saturday and Dentistry conspire to coincide. With an almighty bang, like the start of the universe, but in a less exciting all-creating sort of a way. Especially bang-worthy is the fact that we have a Cardiology exam on Monday (which is pretty huge and conceptually difficult), so we're all a little unimpressed.

Still, it gives me something to moan about to anyone who doesn't have a 7 hour practical on Saturday. Bring on the sympathy

Tom.

Ads

Some of the more astute amongst you may have noticed that some ads have appeared on the page (on the right-hand nav bar). Sorry, but if it helps, it's because I realised I don't give any money to charity. If by any chance I do make any money from the ads, it'll all go towards Macmillan Cancer Care.

And so the lists continue

And so the lists continue... Monday is Cardiology, which is a course of 15 lectures, each one as listy as the one before. Just lists of diseases followed by lists of diseases. Incredibly dry, incredibly sapping. All the courses are like this. Jumping through hoops. Leaping, like a lion in the circus.

Copied from my most recent post on the Broken Glass Blog (here)

"And so the first ever Short Fuse came and went, in a flurry of drama (not to mention snow), and was more of a success than we could have imagined.

My own personal involvement in Short Fuse, as web designer, poster-maker and mandolin player for Broken Glass’s own piece, Salon Loitscheck, has seen me follow the progression of the evening, and its philosophy from the initial idea to its conception and the evening itself. Vicky and Alex received a huge number of applications to perform on the evening, and were restricted to choosing around a quarter of these, which I think is testament to just how much something like this was needed.

In designing the posters, I wanted to produce something (like all publicists) that would give away everything the evening was about in as concise an image as possible..." read the whole post

This is the tastiest honey ever. I can usually take or leave honey, but I decided to treat myself the other day in Tesco and splash out £3.99 for a pot of honey. Boy was it worth it!

What I've discovered this week.

I haven't posted for ages again. There's been a flurry of exams (still 2 more to go this term), so I've resisted blogging.

I'm currently holed up in the Clare library. I've got an electric heater next to me, and a nice little cubbyhole in the laptop-room - very snug, unlike our house - which is freezing!

Things I've discovered this week:

1. Discovery from current revision: Dilated Cardiomyopathy is more common in dogs, while Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is more common in cats.
2. I much prefer espresso coffee from coffee shops than their horrible watered down mud. Particularly starbucks coffee which is strong, but in a horrible over-brewed way. Espressos taste good though. However, espressos are by definition, small, and so are not useful for stretching out for 2 hours for a work-fest. Hmm. Fortunately I have justified the caffiene content to myself by discovering that most bought coffee contains 2 shots of coffee, exactly the same amount as a double espresso. Huzzah!
3. People like drama - Short Fuse was a massive success (the room was completely crammed with people!). We had to turn people away at the door, and people were heard to remark that they want to come to the next one. So there probably will be another in Autumn. Huzzah!
   
4. You can hold a bed together with paperclips. I finally got hold of the bed for my room from my landlady, and unfortunately there were a few screw missing for the cross poles. Luckily, after some sword fighting with the loose poles, Reece, Bethmo and I came across some paperclips and twisted them around the poles to hold everything in place. Bodged beautifully.
5. Music made with dropping water is good, but only every now and then. Otherwise too much like water torture. The song I refer to is "Drop" by a Japanese chap, who goes by the name of "Cornelius" - very Japanese.
6. Gilbert and Sullivan can be quite good fun. After my previous trip to the Mikado which I promptly forgot a few days after seeing it, Alex and I went to see Iolanthe at the Cambridge Arts Theatre on Wednesday (our 4th anniversary), and it was very enjoyable. Nice and laid back, with some good tunes and an amazing set. The girl playing Iolanthe was particularly good. Plus the oboeist was, of course, a stand out genius (Mary).
7. While not strictly this week, Jamie Frost has a podcast. It rocks. Go to his website, or get it on iTunes. I'm listening to it while learning about myocardial disease, and it's very soothing when the fatty degeneration gets too much.
   

Tom

Excitements

"Song" is now on youtube. You know you want to watch it! Unfortunately, the 4th video is taking a while to process, but you can watch most of it already.
EDIT: The 4th video is now available!




Part 1 of 4


Part 2 of 4


Part 3 of 4



Part 4 of 4

This napkin drives me mad! "Less napkins"? Which fool came up with that? And which brain-dead monkey in management said "Duuh, yeah, do dat"?

Short Fuse and the cinema

Rehearsals for Short Fuse have now begun. Alex and Vicky are putting on their adaptation of a part of "The Golem" by a Mr Meyrink (I think) for the Short Fuse event on the 6th of Feb at Liberties Bar in Camden. I am playing the new, and very exciting, mandolin (or tiny -guitar as it has now been dubbed) for the performance, as it requires some traditional music at various intervals. Rehearsals went quite well - I'm particularly enjoying my easy part of simply sitting in the corner of the stage tinkling away while people act around me. So that's how minstrels felt!

In other news, I went to the cinema with Alex last Friday to see "The Reader", featuring Kate Winslet's Golden Globe winning role as a concentration camp guard (lots of WW2 holocaust-related films around at the moment) who strikes up an affair with a 15yr old school boy, who later becomes a law student and is present at her trial for war-crimes. It made interesting viewing, and raised some interesting questions into the worth of trials, particularly of those lower down the orders (and the Nuremberg defense, which is only invalid if a moral choice was available to the defendant). Kate Winslet was fantastic, and as always I was amazed by Mr Fiennes' range. What a range... Again, a very different role from that he played in 'In Bruges', which was in turn very different from that in 'the Constant Gardener'.

Talking about ranges, there was an interesting blog about Kate Winslet's range on the Telegraph Online today, talking about the fact that she hides out of the lime-light which enables her to maintain such an impressive range of performances. It argued that because she keeps herself apart from celebrity culture we can forget we are watching 'Kate Winslet', and get fully involved in her role.

The revision continues - even Charlie is getting into it...

NEWS FLASH

17 DEGREES!!!!

What Will it Take to Heat this House?

A little Maximo Park quote there ... a group of guys from the north who are probably loving the cold. It has been very cold in Cambridge, our house is struggling to reach above 14C inside. I recently resorted to nailing old curtains over the back door which has helped the temperature claw up to 16C. And no, the irony that I spent Sunday on my knees insulating someone else's loft has not been lost on me. I'm tempted to offer to do ours to the landlady. AND, everywhere in Cambridge has sold out of fan heaters! Even the disgustingly tacky bright pink Argos heaters had all gone. What will we do? What will it take to heat this house? Currently it's taking alot of gas and some chunky energy bills to... how shall we say... tempt it out of single figures?

On the other hand, it has meant my new dressing gown has been christened in exceptional style - getting hours of wear every day (pretty much from the moment I enter the house to the moment I go to bed). And my flat cap has had a little outing to vet-school. This brought a flurry of comments, possibly each one more sarcastic than the last (or less sarcastic... no... AS sarcastic?). Or not. I shall continue the wearing until everyone is used to the image of Tom as a posh farmer/landed gentry type-fellow. Excellent.

AND, we have an exam on Monday - Urology which is a LIST. LISTY LISTY LIST. A few tasty little concepts to get into, like the "nephrotic syndrome", and the big spider of renal failure, but apart from that, it's listylist. However, it did inspire Alex to give life to the beautiful song, #There's a hole in my glomerulus dear Liza, dear Liza#. Joy!

Tom

I've edited this post to remove my excessive use of the passive tense. Why do I think that writing in the passive makes me sound more capable of writing?

Yesterday - Rotation day! I started the term with Obstetrics, which was a 'self taught' rotation, where we 'learnt' the finer details of calving and fetotomies. I won't go into the gory details, but suffice to say it involved wheelie bins with holes cut in the bottom. Classic.

That afternoon, we ventured to Mary's where she made us kedgeree, a weird Scottish/Indian dish of smoked fish, egg and rice. Only the Scots could think up something like that - with a little friendly Indian input. It was surprisingly nice - an official version of Andrew's very successful smoked fish risotto that he made last year.

I have spent this evening resting my weary legs, and Alex and I have trawled the internet for interesting geographical marvels:

Ship Graveyards of Russia
The tiny city of Diomede on Little Diomede, the US Owned Island in the Bering Strait - photo
Chernobyl, Ukraine
The US Mexico Border in El Paso, complete with moat(?) separating the two

The Tale of the Dusty Loft

I spent much of today hidden away from the sunshine, under a thin layer of slate amidst dust and other people's things.

One of my friends has spent the last few years doing garden work for one of our old supervisors, and his latest (non-garden related) job was to insulate her loft - for it was done in a very slap-dash way by whomever did it before. And so, with a little assistance from me, the loft was insulated. Boards were pulled up, had squishy fibreglass lain beneath them, and then replaced. I was glad of the face-mask provided, for it was black with dust afterwards - nice to know that could have been coating my alveoli, and yet, was not!

So, now I know how to insulate a loft - a useful life skill no?

Tomorrow lectures begin again... once more unto the breach!

Christmas trees were sold, once again, for the 4th year, though this time at a *new* site in Richmond. Under the dappled shade of leaf-less trees, and the new found comfort of a portacabin we sold and talked-up trees until darkness fell and then beyond. Usefully, all of the local chains sold out early, which caused a cascade of customers which kept us busy and distracted from the huge job of raking up bales of muddy straw.

I worked in Northallerton (north Yorkshire) for a few weeks at the start of the Christmas Holiday, and it was cold. Not cold like we get in London. Proper, consistently in the negatives cold. I got snowed in, and spent one morning digging Mercedes drivers out of the snow in a small village with a few police men and women, and all the villagers. It was very rationing-time community spirited, and I for one loved it! Plus the vetting was fun too. I tried my hand at surgery for the first time, and managed to a reasonable job of cat castration and spaying, so hopefully all will be well.

London was also pretty cold, though nothing in comparison. Luckily, I managed to buy some leather (pimp) gloves for driving in after Christmas, which has staved off the frost bite. Luckily, it provided ample opportunity for some more seasonal photography, which included this tasty snap of a crow in Richmond Park a few days after Christmas. I love the colour of the sky.

Another apology for lack of posts - I have been whisked away to places far away (well, Yorkshire) this December, and was, on occasions, probably further from the internet than you are from a rat in London, which I suppose is quite unusual when you think about it.

Tomorrow I set off for Cambridge once more, though first, I shall backdate a few photos.

Tom