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!!!

Yay Concerts

Went to see TCMS (Trinity College Music Society) last night with Mary; they were playing Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony, both of which were amazing. I already knew Rach, but the Tchaikovsky was new to me. Its a beautiful piece, though the last movement has strange parts where it builds up, and builds up, and then stops suddenly, and begins again slowly. Very odd, and I'm not sure I liked it, though overall it was a nice piece. Trinity Chapel is a beautiful building (apparently themed on Clare Chapel - and I can see the similarity), if a little cold - I sat there in gloves and scarf, only taking the gloves off to applaud.

Post concert, I wandered, via Gardies (as I had forgotten to have dinner) to Kings College, where there was an Indie night. I eventually found the way to their cellars and just as I put my hand in my wallet to pay the guy on the door, Vicky emerged from the cellars and shouted "no Tom, It's rubbish, we're going". Apparently there was only one other person dancing in a small room, dressed as the Phantom as the Opera (the man, not the room). So, we went back to Reeces room, where we met up with Alex the Girl and Erika and watched Napoleon Dynamite, an amazing film about an Autistic guy who has to learn skills to impress this girl. Excellent stuff! A great evening.

Lost For Words

Went to see Alex's play today! Well, by Alex's play I mean the play written by Ian Burrows that Alex was in. It's called Lost For Words and is about the life (and head) of a writer, Warren Pale. It's very dark and hard going, and not the best written thing ever, though Alex acted very well, along with her partner Imogen, the brother Melvin (played by a guy called Steve) and Nausea (Katyuli).

Plus, I got to be "front of house" chappy, which meant I had to wrip ticket stubs, and sit by the fire-escape. In return I got free entry! Huzzah!

‘The books he keeps are old now, and too tired to be anything other than domesticated. He runs his fingers down their spines, lavishing each with love…’

Warren Pale is a writer who does not write; either he cannot, or does not, or prefers not to. ‘Lost for Words’ is a symphony of moods and moments captured in Warren’s intense reflection, departing from the methods of the Stanislavskian stage in order to capture and distil instants as they happen. Assailed by the attentions of a paying audience, Warren will be taken apart and studied for significance.

Using the intimate stagespace of the Corpus Playroom, Down in Flames Theatre Company have created a threadbare mesh of worlds, brought to life through the efforts of the actors. ‘Lost for Words’ promises to be a work entirely different to anything else in Cambridge: lit by anglepoise lamps, actors are annihilated and characters let loose in their place.

If you want a show that’s original and trying new things in an exciting and unpretentious way, give this a try. ‘Lost for Words’ will be appearing at the Corpus Playroom 22nd-26th November, 9.30pm. Tickets £5.50, £4 concessions.

This week in pictures.

On Tuesday we had our vetty formal in Clare Small Hall. Nicky couldn't make it as she was ill (again), but all the vets were there, along with Dr Holmes so a good time was had by all. Muchly of the wine was drunk. And by muchly I mean 36 bottles between 30 people.

Photos!

En Plus, somehow I got roped into the Vetty Pantomime. The 2nd years get to film a short 15 minute film to be shown in the interval, and I was blessed with the opportunity to play "medec 1" - a dalex-like medic trying to take over the world. In short, so as not to give too much away, it involved running around the concrete outside of the babbage lecture theatre, and getting quite wet. Great fun, despite getting absolutely frozen!

Dr Holmes II - aka JP with a pillow up his shirt, and some grey hair spray.

On Thursday,post supervisions, we went for dinner at vicky's, and, on the way home, Alex and I popped into Pizza express for pudding and coffee. Mmmm was amazing! Then, upon returning to the warmth of Braeside, we, and Tom Taylor were accosted by 3rd years; Monique had fallen off her bike and cut her chin, and, to cheer her up, Dee decided that we should all dress up in dresses. This happened (I donned a big Jumper-dress over my tshirt and jeans) and we danced around Monique's room to Stevie Wonder - oh the randomness of Cambridge!

Random Buttery Event I - Andrew remembers his birth.

better late than never... no?

Hello my charming chums! How are you all, my apologies for the lack of postage! Last week was jam-packed-full of work related potatoes.

• 3 essays - not fun, especially when not done quite as productively as they could be (as the previous post detailing goat makeage shows...)
• Supervision confusion - supervision changed, cancelled, missed and re-allocated. 3 supervisions in one day - not fun!

But, now that week is over, and all is bonner! Today, Reece and I (with a little unintended help from Iona) discovered how long it takes one microwave and one piece of bread to fill a room with smoke. The answer is 3 minutes. The smoke was brown, and I would be interested to hear from anyone who knows why. My guess, judging by the lung pain it caused was NO2... though we are all still alive, so perhaps not. Post gassing, the charred remains of the Warburton's crust was thrown out of the window, where, as we checked to see if it had gone hard (it had! We were right), we found an "outside privy"; full of spiders and other nasties.

A few random photos from days-gone-by:

Tricksy pennying


Dave's friend was called Humpy. We all laughed.


We went for a walk - it was cold. Such a well wrapped up, and xmas light haloed alex!

Essays, Goats and Excessive photos.

Sooooo many essays. Having had 2 in total so far (up to the start of week 4), I now have 3 to do. "Describe the Cellular Interactions of the Immune System" is done (did it on Saturday), and I managed to get half of "When can the Immune System be Harmful" done yesterday, so now I must finish that, and do "Compare and Contrast the Pharmacology of Cholinergic and Adrinergic neurotransmission" before Thursday.

Interestingly, while faffing yesterday, I made a Goat to be found on the back of Clarification the other week, designed by none-other than Andrew. It was a really impressive flat-pack net like those cubes you used to make at school, except a goat, instead of a cube. Much more exciting. It had a clever fold out, sticky uppy tail and an arsehole and everything!

Goatrew Bates


Goatbum... Interesting.

In other news, we had 5 lectures today... so many infact, that in a 1 hour gap we had to stay in the theatre cos there was no point leaving, as the chemistry department is in the middle of nowhere. I do like to occasionally point out that we do do some work, so here is Alex making Pathology notes pretty! (how can you tell that I'm very excited about having a camera phone again?)

Path. The bane of our existances.

Fireworks

Saturday was the day of the fireworks, thanks to good old Fawkes. Grand Arcade sponsored it you know - I only just found out, if they hadn't have announced it every 2 minutes, I might not have known!

Fireworks were BON, the fairground was also BON. We dogemmed, and wasted a few 10ps in them stoopid machines, and ate LOTS of sweets. We went to Gardies, where we had a late night (well, 9... it was dark!) picnic outside using fi's beautiful picnic rug. The best way to enjoy a good chip buttie. Also, thanks to Jen's phone, which I have bought of her for un petit prix, I was able to take photos and they are here... for your pleasure:

Is it a linguni wearing my hat, is it a peanut? I just can't tell!


Jen's horse never came in.


Yay Gardies picnic!!

Radioactive Man

Today we got to play with radiation. Not in a particularly exciting way - just a bit of tritium, but there were radiation labels everywhere. The first time I've ever been able to blow my nose and put the tissue in an "Achtung - Radiation" bin :) -very proud of my radioactive mucus I am.

In other news, Davy is leaving :'( - not the happiest chap at the moment, and so he has decided to degrade for the year and return next year. Our corridor won't be the same without him. We'll miss ya!

Didn't go to a supervision

Yes, we have just bunked a pathology supervision, all thanks to an ENORMOUS rain-cloud that has descended over Cambridge. There's a nice little Red dot (meaning very heavy) over Cambridge on this satellite pic (courtesy of the met office).

Our anatomy supervision finished at 5, and by the time we were at the colony, (half way to our path supervision) we were soaked to the skin - literally. Even my underwear is wet. I'm having to dry my work by my heater because it got soaked through my rucksak. This is the 3rd time in 4 Wednesdays that we have been soaked on the way to lectures - as you can see from previous posts.

Oh Thesporah! Why hast thou forsaken us???

Ponana's

After much debate last night, Alex and I finally decided to go to PoNaNa's to enjoy Kat Kennedy's Indie night. Vicky, Jen, Reece etc were having a Po Soc meeting (Hopefully soon to become Posymsoc after the merger of the Poetry Society and the Arts Symposium), Andrew was in the library (most likely), and Englings/Ella/Medics were not around, so we went alone, and had a good time. Despite the fact that we were two of only EIGHT people in the whole place... 12 if you include the people who worked there and Kat Kennedy. The music was amazing, but its amazing how surreal a club is when there's noone in there. I hardly think it was worth PoNaNa's even opening itself up that night...

To clarify, next time Kat plays (if there is a next time, there better bloody had be - she finished on Manic Street Preachers - Australia... amazing) YOU, yes YOU, must come to fill it out a bit.

On the plus side, twas a great evening, and we got free badges :D

Tom
xx

I am Vanilla!!

I am Vanilla Flavoured. I am one of the most popular flavours in the world. Subtle and smooth, I go reasonably with anyone, and rarely do anything to offend. I can be expected to be blending in in society. What Flavour Are You?

Halloween

Yay Halloween bop. Was quite a good night, everyone seemed to have a good time. I had a bloody-mary, which was surprisingly nice (seeing as I don't like tomato juice), even if the tabasco in it did give me hiccoughs. Somehow I had been convinced to go in drag, living up the love of last year's theme, and ignoring this years one. I had beautiful pink tights, a little denim skirt and holterneck... mmm... nice. Danced around to strange Uncle Will the Vet's DJing and then afterwards went to The Van of Life for a burger. Wasn't quite Gardies, but saved us queuing for quite as long as we would have had to.

Erica and Andreana(?) - he bough the dress himself you know (though that was before it had polkadots).


SISTERS... etc.


Real women!


Men together today.


Sorry Alex!

Making Posters

I have just created a most-beautiful poster depicting the innate immune system. The words are in lovely bubbly cloud things though and it is confusing, but beautiful.

I have also just had a funky cycling mission into town (to find out if there is any way of raising my handlebars - no, there's not) and then to the library in Mem Court. I took out 2 massive books (Molecular Biology of the Cell - a classic, and Principles of Neuroscience) - probably won't use them... but it gave me a chance to try to tie my bag to my handlebars. Didn't work, so carried them back on my shoulder. Ouch.

Tom
xxxx

p.s. what a dull post! My apologies!

p.p.s. Alex is still Ill, and came out with the beautiful phrase "I'm sorry I ruined my birthday for you by being ill". Dear oh dear.

A Soggy Day

Today I got wet. Very wet. Bloody rain. This dog knows how we felt - though he looks warmer.

So, Alex and I were cycling to supervisions (as you do), and, on the very first corner, Alex's bicycle decided that it no-longer wished to obey its gyroscopic tendencies and flonked onto the road, very nearling allowing Alex's legs to get squished by an oncoming car. As you can probably tell by the slightly jistful tone with which I write, Alex did infact NOT get squished by a car. I would certainly not be posting here if she had have done. On the minus side, she did get grazed hands and a big bruised knee, and, the Cambridge weather, remembering that fateful day in Octember when we ridiculed Thesporah the high god for his puny hail-stones, opened up and soaked us to the bone - even though alex DID buy a bike basket.

So, when we finally got to our supervision 20 minutes late and soaked, Holmesy was very understanding (concerned about the shock I may have experienced - oh Johnny, you Misogynist you) - and it stopped raining. Until we had to go to our Path supervision. When we arrived, it stopped raining - by the time we left, it was pissing it down again.

We were wet. We were cold. But we ate risotto... mmm

And then Vicky gave us bribery cookies.

Hooray!

Sweatshop Yoghurt?

Sorry for not posting for a while.



For one reason or another, I always get an attack of conscience when buying economy sainsbury's foods from their budget range. For example, the other day I bought a pack of 4 yoghurts for 29p. Surprisingly they tasted very nice, and I am still here to tell the tale, but, I did feel guilty as I saw it roll through the checkout, probably for a number of reasons

• I was disgusted at what I was doing to myself
• What state would the cows that produce the milk be in? Though, assuming the milk is British (shipping in cheap milk is surely economically stupid), then the cows would be of an "acceptable" (on British scale) standard, and milk from different farms is mixed up anyway.
• Was the fruit abused? Were the peaches that went into my peach melba made to work inhuman hours? Perhaps... it is not a human afterall.

I also bought economy muesli yesterday (59p for 1kg) - the same question can be said of the oats and the nuts.

In conclusion, I do not know, but, my bank-balance will force me to selectively buy economy foods - but only those that I can see few ethical qualms with.

Tom xxx

Vetty Party

Vet party was ok, certainly had better in my time, but had a good chat with a few vets, which is always cool. Only photo of note that I took was one of Thad and James in Drag, or as they preferred to be know, Tina and Jemima.

Man, I feel like a woman

Post-party, we wandered to Churchill for the Pav (which was skool uniform too), and had a bit of a dance... in a corridor... by some stairs. Well weird, well dangerous, but also well good. Saw Boycie and also Baby Grover too! Huzzah! Had a kebab from a Chompers Van on the way home. God know's how I'm still alive, didn't get food poisoning or beaten by Alex for stinking of onion. Miraculous

Biscuitty Fun

Dressed as a school-boy, I sauntered into Braeside to collect Alex and Andrew. As so oft happens in Braeside, I heard familiar voices in the large downstairs kitchen and so wandered in to say hello. What did I find there, but Reece, Iona, Ella, Erika and Nuala (Sorry if i missed anyone out), making a dinosaur out of digestive biscuit and honey.

They then proceeded to video it, singing "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells... oh what fun it is to be a biscuit dinosaur" while sprinkling dessicated coconut from above it...

I'm so proud :) I really am.

Reece models, Ella sprinkles. The hierarchy of power has been forged.

The Cambridge Return

Oh Cambridge, how I have missed thee. It's great to be back. My new room is hooooooge, and has two enormous single glazed windows, which together with the teensy little fire, make it very very cold, but, I can randomly skip around when I get bored as I have the floor space.

Sister Hannah poses in my new room.

College meal went pretty well (excepting me managing to pour red wine down my jumper... ahem) - both kiddies are very nice. Such a proud father! The freshers' bop was great, if packed with unknown faces, which was a little weird.My elephant costume worked superbly, though it did make speaking to people a little difficult (especially drunken freshers who didn't recognise that it was an elephant). As usual, the bop became a chance for people to vent issues, but nothing exploded like it has before, so relief was felt.

Andrew and Me


I really couldn't comment


Bop beauties


Mmm... secretary


Such a proud father I am :)


Dancing!!

.... to be continued...