Birthday

I haven't posted for a while - my apologies!

Last week was my birthday, and I proudly entered my 23rd year (22nd birthday) with a stylish MCR formal followed by cellar-time (i.e. Bar) with friends. 15 people came to formal in the end, including Linguists, House people, school friends and some vets, and we all had a great time (for a low-low price!). Rahul came up from London, which was exciting; it was good to see him. The linguists were in the midst of their exams, so I think they enjoyed the brief ability to escape the pains of exams.

Photos:

Radio Shmadio

Last night I decided to take my minidisc player for a little outing (it has been neglected recently) across London to be used during my journey to Rahul's birthday thingie in London. Unfortunately, having exhausted my minidisc on the journey home, I found myself listening to London LBC Radio, for my old minidisc has an FM function. This LBC is a station of moaning. If you've had a particularly tough day, have read the paper (most likely the Express, or Mail) and despaired for the "way the country is going" a couple of times, then this is the station for you. I base this on 1 brief 15 minute listening on the bus on the way home at gone midnight, but it basically involved people ringing up moaning, and, more annoyingly, the DJ agreeing with everything they say, no matter how ridiculous and unfounded their ramblings. Particularly one fellow's argument , "I can't believe they're not giving out killer's names if they're under 18 to protect them. When I was under 18 I was in the army, and was trained to kill", annoyed me. I'm not entirely sure how he managed to link the two statements anyway, but the point I wish to raise is just what a good example of the "guilty until proven innocent" attitude such as that brought up by A Passage to India or Vernon God Little this is. The names of these "killers" are not given, because it is possible that they are, in fact, not killers, and if they are, we have a law system much better placed to deal with them than some vengeful member of the public who will be benefited by a name. In fact, I am often unsure of why the accused are named at all, regardless of age, unless, of course, they are on the run and may pose a risk to the public. I'm sure there will be someone reading this who will have a better idea of what I'm rambling on about - please leave a comment if you do!

In other news, Rahul's birthday was good fun. The food was pretty tasty (though I couldn't finish my main course - I blame the Tetleys Ally bought me) and the place was nice, if a little cramped and over-hot! A little shout out to Mr Todd, who has revealed his frequenting of this site to me. Keep on reading my man, and if you fancy it, leave me a comment to say hi! I hope you've recovered well from last night's shenanigans.

The AMAZING Sheep

It is done! The photo of the finished sheep is on flickr.

21!!

I am now 21. My brain cells are 21. My essence is 21. How old! And so, I am now a MAN. I have to be MANLY and OLD and MATURE. Apparently. According to these "age-based stereotypes". Well, hear this peeps, I'm probably gonna stay the same. For a few years more anyway :).

I had a good day. It is exam term, but I managed to avoid work for pretty much the whole day. We all went for a picnic in the sun at lunchtime to mark the day, and will certainly have an uber party after the exams have finished. Unfortunately the Englings had their 1st exam the following day, so there were stressy-exam vibes, but that's the way it is. It was good to have everyone there in the sunshine. Plus there are more cakes in Braeside kitchen now than any human could eat.

You may have noticed the massive 3D "21" in the right corner of this post. Alex gave me my presents in sculpture form - Suffice to say I was somewhat impressed, though it didn't last too long - I got many exciting things (including an Aston Martin!!). Vicky and Erika gave me cool presents too, including a "Magic Sheep" and a "Growing Pet Hatch 'Em", both of which involve growing and will feature on this blog in the coming days. Oh, and socks... I ALWAYS need socks.

Happy Birthday Blog

Five days ago, it was this blog's 2nd birthday! I guess this exciting redesign can be a part of the birthday celebrations.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMTHEVET.BLOGSPOT.COM

How to avoid lions, bears and catch up vaguelly on what I've been doing.

It's been a while again. I was being so post-worthy last month, and this month it has just died.

"Could you rinse a lion if it charged at you?" Apparently this is the best tactic should a lion be attempting to take-down your LIFE in a big field, try and rinse it. The best way to do this is to SHOUT and RUN and WAVE YOUR ARMS. Freak it out, just like you would a small cat in the road that has just stolen your chicken fillets. Just so you know. Don't try this at home (lions don't really go in suburban London), OR with bears. They get "scratchy".

So now you know.

In other news, I had a formal with Tiffin friends and Uni friends, which was really good fun. Rahul and me beat the buttery staff at pool, and Chris told us all about facebook. ALL about facebook. He really is the king of that place, though merely through total-man-hours-spent. Natalie is going to London to be a REAL LIFE DOCTOR, Andrew is cool, and Joe is the May Ball President! Hardcore!

Also, we went to see Tom perform at West Road with his quartet. He played Schubert, though not after we'd watched a concert pianist playing many a piece, each interspursed with violent, AROBTTH inducing bows. He was good, just bowed. ALOT.

Tonight is my "daughter's" birthday, so we're going to TeriAki (mmm noodley goodness - in other news a Wagamama is opening in Cambridge. Finally!), which should be really good fun. There's then an indie/alt Dj in the cellars, so no doubt we shall toddle down there.

Sorry for it being so long, hope you enjoy the album spinny chart below:

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

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

Sunday - A day of rest

Alex's parents were down for the weekend (they saw her play on Saturday), and took us out for lunch to their hotel. I had a beef roast, and it was AMAZING, if you could ignore the two old ladies on the table across the room from us: "This gravy tastes like Oxo with water, still that's english food for you..." amongst many other gems. Twas good to see them though, Alex's family are really nice - shame Andrew couldn't come down though.

In the evening I toddled off to Jesus for Chris's Birthday Formal. It was an unusual affair, Boycie was concussed, which was entertaining, if a little disturbing. I sat next to Joe, which was cool, but was also surrounded by weird Jesuit (not what their called, but it'll do) SPSers and Compscis - twas very disturbing! Went back to the bar where Geoff and I promptly thrased Boycie and Compsci at table football, 2-1. Wooha!

Wandered back from Jesus to the Braeside kitchen where I received my secret Santa name ... oooh! Wouldn't you like to know who it was!!?? Ha. We then played a ridiculous number of games of Articulate, which Alex was amazing at - somehow I never got to go on her team though. I came out with some unfortunate clues, including mixing up "fatwahs" and "tea towels", and giving "Muslims wear them on their heads" for Turban (actually Durban, but it was the best way I could think of clueing it). We then played the limerick game until the early hours, followed by word association. Good old xmas - all the classic games come out to play.

What IS Partially Inverted Syrup? Happy Birthday Lydia!

This morning was Lydia's birthday, and so, for the early-morning-loving Linguiunes I set my alarm for 8.15, and promptly fell asleep after it went off. 15 minutes later I was woken by Lydia's wake up serenade, consisting mainly of raucus singing and an accordion. In a panic I jumped up, pulled on a tshirt, jeans and my dressing gown, and bounced out of my door just in time to sing a beautiful harmony to the last "to you" of Happy Birthday! Superb.

After that we set about making Pancakes - lots of pancakes. Probably about 40 in the end, and, considering that I have never done it before, I thought I did quite a good job of both the not-burning and of the flippage. Lydia opened presents, I sang a song about partially inverted syrup, and much fun was had!

Post party I spent the morning rearranging one of my noticeboards as it was unpleasantly orthodox and regimented in its arrangement. Now it is an amazing concoction of pictures, photos, post cards and sheets on Avian Flu. I'm so proud I took a photo and wrote about it on here! Should probably do some work now, but am going over to see Alex - she's just got up! Hehe - poor sleepy Vetsci -she's been doing her play all week; I'm impressed she stayed up so late last night, and hasn't collapsed of exhaustion all week!

Photos to follow!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!

19 years old. Holy cheese monkeys!

Went to see Star Wars Episode III last night, and was a little unimpressed. I didn't connect with it - the acting was poor (wooden as Alex put it) - Ewan McGregor is better than that, there was an unhealthy obsession with limb chopping and it was generally drawn out. There were some cool bits though to be fair.

Have had a muchly exciting birthday morning. Lydia bought me a "Twin Turbo Bubble Blower" with which I wet my room and covered Scot, Davy, Vicky and Alex with bubbles. Hehe - muchly fun.

Jen is annoyed because her present still hasn't arrived from eBay - evil man who should have sent it to her hasn't. Grr. My sister got me an amazing nodding cow that entertains me no end as I work at my desk. Hehe. Alex got me the British Sea Power album, which I am listening to at the moment - seems pretty good! She also got some fancy twisty crayon things... hehe... lots of childish presents! I love it!!!! She got me soap too to make me smell nice :)

Now, to work!

Andrew's, Alice's and My Birthday Celebration

Today was a good day, went out to do some histology revision in the morning then went shopping with Alex. I got a nice new shirt, and she got some damned funky earrings. Did a bit of work in the afternoon, before going off to formal. We managed to fill 1 and a half tables between us out of 2 available for undergrads which was quite impressive. Lots of lovely people came and a good time was had by all (except certain englings who were a bit unwell). A run home to get changed, during which we witnessed Andrew Bates throwing Jen's Handbag... dear oh dear. Then back to the bar, followed by Cindies till late. Alex the boy got lost at about 2ish in London, but he seemed to have turned up this morning.

Erika, Iona and Vicky looking lovely.


Dave!


Clare Hall. A little blurry but you get the idea.


Jen, Jenny and an out of control Bethmo who looks like he's eaten an invisible lemon.


Jen, Jenny, Mike and guess who's hands.


He pennied me - What else could I do. Isn't it great how un-posed this photo looks ;)


Dave, Greg and Laura


This photo gives a good feel of the animation in everyone during formal. Beautiful


Conversation piece.


And so I climed to the top of the bean-stalk and what did I find? A GIANT Dave with huge bottles of wine. I confused the giant with my mind games until he was very dizzy, and what with all the alcohol, he fell down all the way to the bottom of the beanstalk and I was able to drink the wine. Muwahaha


Um... I'm really really scared.


Can't remember what I was saying here, but it was some animated point I made by going horribly round the houses.


Jen and Alex, My Bonnie Lasses.


Dave and I had a photo battle!!!!! I lost :(


Bethmo.


Jen and Bethmo


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