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

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!

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.

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

Autumn

We're having an absolutely beautiful autumn at the moment. It's appeared all of a sudden, but all of the trees look absolutely beautiful. I'm taking my camera out with me whenever I leave the house to take some snaps before they all drop!

¬0ӎ

I went out yesterday to take advantage of the autumn sunlight in our garden and took some snaps. Some artsy (I especially like the one of the garden glove in the plant pot - it was like that when we arrived at the house, and none of us have moved it), some gruesomely green (our pond looks like the Amazon... crocodiles anyone?), and others just general garden snaps - you can see how gorgeous it is. All photos are on my flickr account, recognisetheview.

Freecycle

I have recently discovered the wonders of "freecycle". The basic premise is that people have loads of stuff that isn't saleable, but would probably be useful to someone somewhere, so why throw it away? There are loads of local groups, based on yahoo, and all you have to do is post a message offering something, and it gets sent out to the list. The Cambridge one has over 14000 members, and yesterday I picked up a new mattress for my room, to replace the TINY bed I had before. I drove out to a little place called Whaddon, and, using some new £4 bungee cord and Alex's help, rolled it up into a tube, and squeezed it onto the back seat. And so now, I have a double mattress that can be put on the bed-frame that I am assured is somewhere in the vicinity of the house - just to find it!

Plus, since I got a new bike last term, my old bike has been sitting around gathering dust (and rust). It's not really worth anything, so I popped it on freecycle last night, and I've had 10 replies already! Crazy! I'll have to choose someone by apparent-deservedness. Blimey!

French Cars, and Holocaust Films

On Friday, I ventured out to the cinema for some large-screen entertainment. "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" was not, for some reason, showing on either of the central Cambridge cinemas, so being the spoilt towneys that we are, we could go to a third cinema, a little further away. In previous years we would have spent 45 mins hiking there on foot, but this year, I have my little (well, actually quite big) peugeot, so off we drove.

Unfortunately, the car, having an annoyingly French mind of its own, decided that "zeze multi-story-carparkes are not for me moisieur! You wish for me to sit around wiz zese other Engleesh and German cars!? PAH!", and refused to MOVE. Fortunately, with a little coercion, and lots of revving, I managed to squeeze it into a space, much to the chagrin of the people behind me who must have been quite irritated at the retarded boy in the old car stalling it about 50 times (I repeat, car's fault!).

The film was amazing. It was touching, moving, and had an amazing spin towards the end, that I didn't suspect until it was all too late, and then the whole audience was pulled down with it. It was a holocaust film on a much more personal level than most, and managed to be harrowing without being exploitative. As it finished, I didn't know what emotions to feel, I just stared at the credits for a minute, my mind spinning. In short, go and see this film. Even if you just see it once.

Tom

More blogs.

Just squeezing a blog or two in before the end of April. I'm sorry I've been awol for a month or so, I've been galavanting around during the Easter holidays doing various vet-related things, and haven't though to blog. You'd think it'd be in the blood by now. Sorry!

In recent Cambridge news, the Broken Glass website has been revamped using some cunning css and html japery that Andrew and a wesbite have taught me - it makes designing about a trillion times easier to do, and has enabled me to do it simply with the use of a text editor. Huzzah! Take a look and be delighted :)

Also, Vicky, Alex and me went to see I am Kloot last week at the Junction, and my what a gig it was. Kloot really are amazing, even their new album (which I feel is quite poorly produced) sounded good live, which thankfully helped me realise that it's not the band that have gone awry, just the production. They're still good songs. They were supported by a random American called Ferraby Lionheart, which really is a good name, even if it did take me about 100 failed attempts at remembering his name before I got it. He was quite good - fairly standard guitarry-singy stuff, the sort of thing you could imagine drifting down the tunnel to the museums at South Kensington tube station. I got a poster at the end (it's got cartoony pictures of the band from a gig they did in 2006 on my birthday so I had to get it really), and just as I bought it, John, the lead singer turned up with a big black pen. So I asked him if he'd mind if I "waved a poster under his nose", he didn't mind and signed it up. Huzzah!

House!

We have a house! After months of searching, we've finally found and managed to stake our claim on a lovely little three bedroom house in a great location. Woop!

New Bike

I have a new bike! I decided that it was finally time to lay my mountain bike of 10 loyal years down. It was too small for me, and was becoming an unnecessary effort to cycle. So, I toddled out to a cycle shop on King's Street (same road as the Bun Shop for those of you that Cambridge), and a helpful chappie sold me a hybrid road bike for £60. It's large enough, easy to cycle, has new brakes, a pannier, and can go much faster, with less effort than my old one. Huzzah! Plus it was a bargain. Am well chuffed.

In other vaguelly bike related news, I cycled up to the lambing shed with Alex tonight (she's doing a crazy midnight 'till 8am shift, yes, they work us vet students hard), and found out that my caeserean section sheep is doing well, as is it's little lamb. Huzzah!

We went dancing last night

For the first time in a while...

It was good fun, though Fat Popadaddies was not up to his usual form, we didn't hear any bloc party, and had to endure a hundred middle class white Cambridge students chanting "f*** you I won't do what you tell me" to Rage Against the Machine. Of course, they're all heavily institutionalised (like all us students are), so it seems a little hypocritical. Hehe - we had a good laugh. Couldn't help feeling a tad older than the emo moshers of my sister's generation around me.How mature we are. Pretty soon we'll be sipping Chateaux de Chasoulet and remembering the good-old-days. Pffk.