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