The Pain of Neurobiology Part II

Why does evening before-exam-revision always feel like you're learning from scratch? Does my work throughout the year count for nothing?

The Pain of Neurobiology Part I

Just been to sainsburys and bought 4 cans of caffiene drink and a bag of marshmallows. Says it all really.

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

A lesson in Weed Extrication

Man I love my new hair - makes it about 100 times easier to pull out the bits of Cam-Weed out when it's just over a centimetre long! As you can tell, I have just been canoeing - in the cold and rain. It's May for Christ's sake; and it's still freezing! We played some polo though, which was great fun, we had some fun in the "rapids" below the weir, and did a few strokes. Was good fun, but am glad to be back in the warm of my room!

Finally got May Ball tickets after messing up and forgetting to collect them - and now we have found out that Jen, Lydia and Me are wanted to play a 50min set at the start of the mayball - which will be a little weird, because it'll be right at the start, but, it'll be good fun. However, this means we'll have only 10 days (after exams) to rehearse (and come up with some songs) before the day! AARGH. Still, it'll be an amazing experience.

What else? Humm.. have done some work, have some food for my birthday tomorrow (and parcels. Ooooo!) Can't wait for exams to be over! Here we cooooooommmeee!!

Tom

Clipped

Had my hair cut yesterday - guy in the Barber's near Clare Colony wanted to charge me an extra £8 for having alot of hair to cut off, so I politely walked out. £18 is too much for a haircut, especially when there's a sign outside saying "gentlemen's haircuts, £10". So I went to Mr Polito's, who did a fine job for £12. Note to cambridgians. DO NOT GO TO THE BARBERS BY CLARE COLONY (is that libel? can I be arrested?)

I cooked meatballs on Friday, which was an interesting experience, i just bunged together some mince, herbs and onion in balls, fried them and then added a few veggies and dolmio, and BANG, it worked! Huzzah! My fear that I would think I was eating testicles was unfounded. Muwahah!

In other news, 15 exams is a lot of exams to do, especially when they are horribly fact based. I am not a "taperecorder" as Omega so eloquently put it yesterday, and am not enjoying it, Neurobiology especially. Still, they start in a week so will be over soon, and we'll be free, and, of course, it is my birthday on Tuesday. How exciting! I'm having a subdued meal at mine with friends, because everyone is revising at the mo, and I doubt they (and I know I can't) could devote a whole evening for a formal/club session, though I would love to. (So many commas. I Know that that was an appaulingly disarticulated paragraph (unlike a Badger's jaw (google it)), but I'm lazy so aren't going to change it. It's a stream of consciousness - the best way :)

Right, I have to learn about motor-systems now. It's raining and I don't want to, but I have to. Roll on the 8th of June!

Tom xxx

Look! I've been good! Haven't posted for a couple of days. Have been working hard! Promise! The last week has been tough, and I'm pretty knackered. Every spare minute feels like it should be being used for work, even though there's no way that it is going to be, or could be - bloody exam-term. Having five huge subjects to get through, each with a massive lever arch file of facts gets tiring after a while!

Spent the weekend going through my pathology practical notes, with a short break on Saturday to do some canoeing. Rich took Jenny and me out on the river and let us practice some T-rescues, and even let me have a go at a roll (though I didn't succeed). I managed to capsise and then T-rescue on Rich's boat infront of some tourists - they were very entertained. Hehe.

It was Andrew's birthday on Saturday, but as it is temps-du-examens he just had a little pub-trip on Thursday and drinks, cake and weird games in his room on his birthday. It was good fun, even though everyone had to rush off after an hour or so to do work. It's my birthday in just over a week, and I'm manicly trying to think of something to do that wont take up too much of people's time but will be good fun. Maybe I'll make lunch for everyone in a come-to-my-room-and-eat-little-things-I've-dotted- around-my-room kind of way. That could be fun.

Right I'd better get on - haven't been up long and need to get clean!

Tom.

Uppity

As you can see, the frequency of posts has increased, and that can only mean one thing - it's exam term. Today is Saturday, and I've done some VRB work, and have been into town for lunch. Alex is dying Jen's hair as we speak, and I'm sitting here listening to Marillion. Ahhhhhh. This eve, Jen and me are going to McDonalds for a stodge-fest, which will be satiating(is that a word?). I'm really craving some good stodge - haven't been to buttery all term!

Update: 7/5/06
I fear I may have eaten 1700 calories worth of McDonalds last night... goodbye Aorta!

Tom

Workyworkywork

Yesterday evening was fun. Alex, Vicky and me (I stirred) made vegetarian chili which was tasty. OO, and now I think about it, I have a room for next year - 7 Braeside - it's south facing, has two big windows and is a confortable size. Only problem is that it has no sink, but I'm sure I can get around that. Back to the evening - Alex and I went down to the LCR to watch Green Wing, and then came back to Castle end where we chatted with Jen (and later Dave) until almost 1am... A rareity nowadays, but good fun :)

So much work. So much work that I actually hoovered my room yesterday. So much work that I have photos of me doing work. Still, I think I'm almost all the way through Neuroanatomy now, which is a relief because that is the hardest bit. I think I can remember the path of the Dorsal Columns/Medial Lemniscus system - thank God I'm not doing it next year!

Still, I'll work hard this weekend, and then I can go canoeing on Monday night, and play cricket on Tuesday.

Hope you are all well!
Tom
xxx

Manic Monday

Monday was a strange little day, starting off with plans of no lectures, and little planned whatsoever to a big full crazyday. I got up at a sensible ish time of 9.30 am to get some work done, and Alex came round at 11.30 to revise over here too - Castle End is actually a very nice place in the summer.

After my canoeing larks of the weekend, I had emailed the secretary of CUCC (Cambridge University Canoeing Club) and asked when the 1* classes began. I got an email that afternoon saying that they were on Monday and Thursday nights from 6pm-8pm. I can't make Thursdays as I have a VanVeen supervision in the afternoon, so I plumped for Monday, giving me a few hours to get a couple of cheques together (it's good value for a term of classes - £12.50 for membership and £15 for the classes), cook a big lunch (as I would miss dinner) and pack some things in a bag. Also, a few hours before I went, I got an email from Rachel-the-vet-from-girton (Spikes), who invited us out to the may-day funfair that night. Another thing was planned!

So, at 6pm I arrived at the canoe-sheds, having again manically pumped up my bike (my new inner tube has a slow puncture), and we got down to some canoeing - they taught us the sweepstroke, monkey stroke, and side-stroke (think those are the names). We also did a capsize drill, played a bit of polo and bulldog. It was really really good - well worth it, and if I'm any good then I can do the assessment at the end to try and get a certificate!

I got back at about 8.20 having stopped off in Sainsburys for some coke (apparently staves of Weil's Disease) and some crisps (I was starving), and at 9pm we went to the Midsummer Fair, where I was tempted onto the "Twister" with Jen and Alex, despite my terrified cries "It's just not normal!" and actually really enjoyed it to the point that I went on the "Terminator" - a fast spinny, strobe lighting sideways spinny thing. It was great fun, though I felt a little groggy afterwards (and managed to walk into a lamppost on the way home) - hehe. Great fun.

Delays!

Tonight was the night of Delays Concert II. In celebration of the last Delays gig we went to, on the 17th October 2004 when we'd only been in cambridge a few days, we (Jen, Dave, Alex and me) went along tonight to see their 2nd ever gig in Cambridge.

The support band was "Captain", who were amazing - a little like the New Pornographers, but better. Delays came on bang on-time and played for over an hour, mostly stuff from Faded Seaside Glamour, which is good really, because I don't know the second album as well, or like it as much. But, a good night was had by all and Jen and I got Gardies on the way home. MMMm.

When we got back I beat Alex at blackjack, and won a Mars Bar, but felt guilty cos I'd had Gardies, and she was hungry for Mars, so we played S*ithead, and she beat me (as she always does at that game somehow), so she got her Mars bar.

Tom

Canoeing

Rich invited me canoeing! They had a try-it session and BBQ, so I turned up, had a sausage, and got put in a long thin black boat by Rich. Within 5 minutes I was in the water - every time I moved more water sploshed over the sides, and eventually I just sank when trying to catch a polo ball. But, seeing as now I was wet, I got back in, and lasted a little bit longer (30 mins) before trying to turn too sharply again and crashing in. By this time I was very cold and soggy, so I cycled home (in soaked jeans... why did I wear jeans, just why??), and had a warming shower.

Part II

Finally managed to chose my part II courses (for my 3rd year - the "intercalated year"), and submit them on the internet through CamSIS.

1. Development and Reproduction from the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience. With a research project
2. Pathology with a dissertation.
3. Genetics with a research project.
   

Flapjacks, Football and Flying

1. I got a flapjack, infact, this week, my life has been full of flapjacks. It's been one of those weeks where the oats follow you round - you know what I'm talking about. Bloody oats. Well, not at all; I was followed in a good way. In a stomach-tinglingly good way. Hannah made flapjacks that were juicy, soft and scrumtious, and then Alex sent me a CHOCOLATE flapjack that was full of sweet cocoa goodness. Yay!
2. Football. Worcester Park Wonders won. We actually won. For the first time since 2 years ago we won. 2-2 after full time, and then 4-3 on penalties. Was great fun, but now my legs are melting. MELTING.
3. Flying. Flying... Birds fly. It does begin with F... and I did have a conversation with my dad about the perils of high-altitude flight should you have some sort of respiratory disorder. Seems to fit in with the title.

Booyakka!

Tom

UPDATE: The Land o' Lakes Flapjack Festival


Land o' Lakes Flapjack Festival. Take me there. In a tardis... whatever. Look! Americans dressed as Scotch Pancakes, and probably flapjacks too if their amazing oat-power had not melted the camera lens when the photos were being taken... i assume.

In 1976, community organizations of Land O'Lakes planned an event that all area citizens could partake. It began as a small festival produced by civic, church and business groups. The annual festival, which is themed around flapjacks, has grown each year with more entertainment, rides and activities.

The three-day event, produced by the Central Pasco Chamber of Commerce, begins on Friday afternoon with the tossing of the first flapjack. Free flapjacks were offered for the first time in 1983, and have since become an annual ritual for the Saturday morning breakfast. The Land O'Lakes Butter Company in Minnesota has supplied its namesake butter every year since the first free flapjack breakfast. Throughout the weekend thousands of residents and visitors enjoy free entertainment, parades, shows, carnival rides, and food. On Saturday evening, the Honorary Mayor of Land O'Lakes is "elected" with dollar votes. The "candidate" who raises the most funds wins the honorary mayor position. The fundraiser activity supports the chamber and the continued improvement of Land O'Lakes. Land O' Lakes is named for the many blue lakes in this community north of Tampa Bay. From this website

The things you find on Google.

In celebration of it being nearly a year since I began this text of literary genius (ahem), I have brought together some of the greatest and weirdest blogs of the last year. Just to tickle your fancy.

• May 2005 - The desecration of a beauteous flower, parts 1 and 2 It was a tough time.
• 31st May 2005 - Shoes, Smartness and Llama Sex. A late night rant about the importance of llama sex in the salvation of the lactose intolerant.
• 16th June 2005 - Wetwetwet. The Cam is wet, cold, and not to be entered into lightly
• 25th June 2005 - Clare May Ball 2005. A Ball of the greatest proportions. In May in June. Weird eh! Cambridge.
• 30th August 2005 - Leeds Festival. Some loved bands were seen, some great bands were discovered and much fun was had.
• 2nd September 2005 - My Face, my beautiful face. It brought into question Alex's honour. The rest is history.
• 11th September 2005 - The State of the World Today. The art that can be created during Coronation Street would astound anyone.
• 13th February 2006 - London. Another amazing weekend with Alex.
• 17th November 2005 - Andrew Bates being Born. Ok, not one of the greatest posts, but it entertains me.
• 18th February 2006 - My day, to the minute. It was cold, and the English faculty looks funny.
• 19th February 2006 - Hannah is scared of goblins. Family visit :)

There are others I could have included, lots of bops, and farming stuff, but you can peruse that at your own will. I'm so confident you'll be interested :S... self flattery is important!

Enjoy!

The Kingston Look

Ah, have been back a week now, and am getting used to life in Kingston again. Yesterday I went out to the pub for Nick's birthday, and it was alright. I've had better nights, but then again I've had worse. I just don't find getting drunk for the fun of it in a nightclub fun, so I didn't go; much to the disgust of a few people. Still, I wouldn't have enjoyed it and it would have cost me a fortune.

Anyway, today has been trop productive, I have posted here, finished working through a pharmacology lecture series on the Pharmacology of Inflammation and Immunosuppression, and written an essay on "the modes of action and uses of anti-inflammatory drugs" and got to wax-lyrical about aspirin, paracetamol, and less obvious drugs with fab names like zafirlukast and cyclosporin. Hehe. I have to make it interesting somehow! There's just so much stuff to learn, and so little time. Less than 2 weeks of holiday left!!!!

I have also cleaned out my computer by giving it a complete wipe and re-install, re-done this blog, made my room tidy, made it filthy again, made it tidy, and then filthy again for a 2nd time. It's a crazy cycle. There's a picture of my dad with a package on his head. Just cos its funny. It's entitled "Royal Male". hehe. classic.

Tom
xx

My Little Ovine "Friends"

I am back in the land of the living after quite a few weeks. Lambing was tough - really tough. I was working from around 10-11am until 3am every day for two weeks. Oh, and Sheep haven't heard of weekends. Grr. Still, it was an experience I'm glad I've had - I must have lambed around 100 lambs if not more, and I'm much more confident with the animals themselves. I know that when my muscles are working (i.e. when they havent been battered by 100 hour weeks) I can floor a sheep and pull smaller sheep out from its backside. Hurrah! Such skills a London lad thought he could never dream of learning. But, seriously, I'd not be doing anything else. I love this vet thing.

My general day was as follows:

• *10.30am - get up
• *11.00am - go out to sheep shed, and have a quick walk round, see if anything's lambing, if it is, pull it out, or leave it if it's doing ok on its own. Memorise where sheep are that are lambing. Put any sheep that have lambed overnight and cannot be put in small pens (cos there are none left) in a large pen with no other lambs in to prevent them getting mixed up.

• * anytime between 11.10 and noon, start feeding and watering all the sheep in small pens. Throw out the water the sheep have crapped in and refill buckets with water from a slow hose. Give "nuts" (concentrate feed) to sheep. Repeat, 60 times. Constantly re-check sheep, and disinfect and move sheep into pens as farmer takes sheep from small pens outside.

• * 2-3pm - LUNCH
• * 4pm - go back out, and repeat - lamb sheep, check sheep, feed sheep, including hay this time.
• * 10-11pm - DINNER
• * 11.30pm - midnight - check sheep again, lamb and move anything required.
• * 2.30am - 4am - BED.

I have used the word "move" and "put" with regards to sheep. Moving sheep is much much easier said than done, as anyone who has done this will vouch for. Still, while it was a little soul-destroying at times, and I was counting down the hours by the end, it was fun at others.

On the last Thursday (the day before I came home) I got Ill, which, we came to the conclusion when I was better the next Wednesday must have been E-coli from the sheep. They didn't like me.

I've included some photos for your perusal. They're mobile-phone pics so not of the greatest quality, but you get the general idea that there were sheep! Lots of sheep. The pic at the top is me and Vinnie Jones, the stockiest cheekiest houdini of a lamb you ever did meet. Hehe.

Tom
xx

Lambiferous

Just a little note to wish you all a good 2 weeks, as I am off to deepest darkest Wales to birth some sheep. Have fun everyone!

Tom
xxx

In the mood for blogging again, so here we go.

Today is Sunday, and in 20 mins I have my 2nd supervision of the day. Crap. It's in my room. My room is a tip... be right back.

Ok - that didn't take as long as I had expected - most of my washing up had been done. I've just worked through my PfVP practise paper and it includes some real beauties of questions - Why shouldn't pregnant women work with pregnant ewes? Is it because ewes don't like the smell or pregant women, or perhaps that women don't like the smell of ewes? Perhaps it's because sheep dogs might bite the pregnant women, or maybe it's because some forms of infectious abortion represent a zoonotic risk to pregnant women. Humm... let me think... To be fair, it does ask some real arses of questions too.

Yesterday was quite fun. I managed to do very little work, but in the evening we went out to Sarah and Rachel the vets' party to celebrate the coming end of term. It was quite good fun (I'm not going to go into the details), and included Thaddeus making ridiculous vodka and tomato juice concoctions. "Ah, a bloody Mary!" I hear you saying. No. This had flour in it... I ached, and stuck to my peroni! Alex and I left earlyish to come back to Braeside to feed everyone a cake we had bought earlier on, which was great fun, and then we went to Reece's to watch Corpse Bride. Has it come out yet? Have I just incriminated him? Oops. The film was good fun, and we eventually left at 2am after a great night :)

Mmm Chocolatey

Thanks to Boycie and his friends' quick witted ticket-buying skills, him, rahul, joe, natalie, chris, thabo and me got to go to the chocolate superhall at Churchill. So, we ate our way through white chocolate soup, chocolate chicken and chocolate pots, the taste only made bearable by the convenient quantity of wine available. Unfortunately Rahul got drunk... very drunk - he's an entertaining drunk, but very loud - had we been anywhere other than the extremely laid back Churchill we would have been kicked out for sure. Jen was also there, with her linguini Churchill friend. Huzzam!

Post formal, we all went to the pav which was fun, and had added entertainment value when my friends from Clare turned up too! It was a great night.

Boycie has an amazing room, as the photos probably won't show - but he has a heated windowseat and a very nice en-suite with walk-in-wardrobe. I'm well impressed. Shame Churchill is such a manky college.

Old Tiffinians

Our old Tiffinan dinner was yesterday! The "oxbridge" reunion consisting of many of the current Cambridge and Oxford students from Tiffin and some teachers all went out for a posh meal at St Johns. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Mr C, Mr S and opposite Miss K (sp?) - It was quite a good meal, though Mr S is famedly boring, Mr C hates Cambridge and Miss K teaches music and doesn't know me. Nevermind! For some reason we had a great silver cup in the middle of the table, which Mr C proceeded to present to all the current Oxford students telling them they "were great". Hehe.

The menu was good with the exception of the "smoked" salmon start which had unfortunately been extensively salted instead of smoked. We had Aberdeen Angus steak for main, followed by a sumptuous orange tart to finish, all with wine througout and port to finish. I got a chance to speak to Mr Epstein and Mr King, and to say Hi in passing to the new headmaster - hurrah! Look at me network! Afterwards we all went to the Maypole where I found out that Mr Thompson now writes scripts for the BBC and saw Mr T saunter round drunkenly.

Mostly though, i chatted to Boycie, Geoff, Joe, Chris and Thabo - excellent stuff :)

I've omitted the names of current teachers so as not to excite any violence or suage.