Life in borderlines...

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:47:14 GMT

So up and down today. Got everything sorted out in the morning, then had to wait an hour for the doctors to turn up to the haematology clinic. The clinic was really good, then I left earlier than I had to because I didn't know what time I had to be at genetics. Genetics was okay, but I was really tired. Etc.

The genetics guy really pissed me off. He was saying that the reason they don't do proper teaching is that they focus on students who do electives on just genetics. Asshole. If they're not going to teach us, why offer the option?

On the plus side, I wangled myself a few extra sessions - cancer clinic tomorrow morning and single gene disorders Thursday morning. Also, I made a step towards sorting out an a&e/acute med SSC at SGH. That should be really good if I can get it sorted out properly. Otherwise I might do it at the Royal. Also considering doing an SSC in Manchester.

It was raining when I left the hospital, but it really annoyed me! It was light, warm rain, straight down, you could protect yourself with an umbrella, ffs! That's not proper Glasgow rain. And then it stopped! Rubbish.

It threw it down after that though.

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 23:14:03 GMT

Since I last posted (I know, I'm crap) I've spent a week in Egypt with my family (hot, lovely), drunk a great deal with my friends back home (fun, but leads to hangovers), come back to Glasgow (hooray), seen George (also hooray, although she's off to Europe now), cleaned my flat (thank fuck, although bedroom still to be done, oh dear), spent a couple of days in Elie with Robert and some of his family (lovely, although Ethan is going through something of a tantrum phase - every time he hears the word 'no' he hurls himself at the floor and cries), been to Edinburgh with Robert to celebrate his 22nd birthday, played my piano some more (fantastic), been somewhat up and down in the mood department (bleh), and generally arsed about a bit.

I finished the essay which was being something of a bane of my life, on liver disease in the neonate. On Monday I'm starting placement at Yorkhill Sick Kids Hospital. It's a little scary but should be really interesting. I'm doing genetics, general paeds, neurology and then A&E, so it should be a great elective. After that I'm up at Crosshouse, then Dumfries, which I'm not terribly impressed with but it is what it is. Apparently the teaching in Dumfries is great, and I know it is in Crosshouse, so that's a plus at least.

Hopefully will be posting a little bit more, just cross your fingers!

Quiz pinched from lots of people :)

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:48:22 GMT

Makeup

-What foundation do you use?
NYC mineral powder stuff. Cheap and doesn't smother my skin.

-What powder do you use?
I don't.

-What eyebrow pencil do you use?
I don't. I pluck obsessively though.

-What eyeliner do you use?
A Rimmel kohl thing. I lose eyeliner a lot so cheap is best.

-What is your favorite eyeshadow?
Mostly random colours bought from Superdrug.

-What mascara do you use?
Don't know.

What are your favourite lip bams/glosses/sticks?
Vaseline lip balm all the way.

Hair

-Do you colour your hair?
Yep. Black or purple or blue.

-At home?
Always.

-At the salon?
Once, years ago.

-What is your stylists name?
I don't have a regular one.

-What salon do you go to?
Kennedy & Co, Dumbarton Rd.

-What is your natural hair color?
Darkish brown I think.

-What is your hair color now?
Goffick black.

-Do you have straight or curly hair?
Straight.

-Do you use a curling iron?
No.

-A straightener?
Sometimes. Only ever with serum, though. Usually when I'm going out.

-What kinds?
Vidal Sassoon.

-Do you use a blowdryer?
Sometimes. It's an eco one and has ions in it so my hair goes all smooth.

-Do you use gel/mousse/serum/hairspray and if so, what kinds?
Boots serum for straightening.

-What shampoo do you use?
Herbal essences or Alberto Balsam.

-What conditioner do you use?
Ditto :)

-Do you use leave in conditioner?
Occasionally, usually post-dye.

Scents

-What deodorant do you use?
The most scentless one I can find. Sure are okay.

-What body wash/soap do you use?
Simple frangrance free stuff. My skin hates scents.

-Do you use a loofah, washcloth or soap to wash?
Nope. Hands only.

-What perfumes do you use or like?
Body Shop Cassis Rose.

Jewellery

-Are diamonds really a girl's best friend?
I suspect not.

-What is your jewellery essential?
My watch. I usually also wear three rings, a pendant of some sort, a varying number of earrings and maybe some bracelets.

-What jewellery do you wear most?
Is that not the same question?

-What jewellery do you crave most?
I don't know.

Purses and Shoes

-How many purses do you own?
Loads.

-Which is your favourite?
Varies. Right now a Quicksilver multi coloured one.

-How many shoes do you own?
Far too many.

-Which pair is your favourite?
Probably my Rocket Dog baseball boots.

-Who is your favourite handbag designer?
Don't care.

-Who is your favourite shoe designer?
Rocket Dogs, or Vans/Converse probably. Or Doc Marten.

Shopping

-What are your favourite stores to clothes shop?
High street stuff.

-What is your personal style mantra?
Dress for the shape you have not the shape you want, wear what looks good regardless of trends.

-How would you describe your personal style?
I'm a jeans girl. I like to be comfortable but quirky and I have nice cleavage so I don't mind showing that off a bit.

-What is your favourite shirt?
I have too many that I'm attached to!

What is your favourite jeans?
They're all good :)

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:30:00 GMT

So I'm back home in Stafford, which I'm not really best pleased about, it's quite dull. But I did manage to catch up with Rachel, Holly and Maral and Sarah H, which was nice, I went to meet them in the pub after watching Public Enemy with my family. Shite film, although I fell in love with Johnny Depp a bit. Always do when I watch his films, he is so beautiful and has such an attractive manner, if that makes sense? Ah, just something about him... Didn't make it a good film though. Depp and Bale were both very good, as was the girl in it whose name I forget, but the script and direction were awful. Poor pacing, lighting, colouring, shooting, everything. Mince.

Still, not the end of the world! There were so many people I knew in the pub although they were largely people I didn't really like at school and don't really want to speak to now, to be quite honest. I don't know why people always insist on chatting away like they were best friends when they hated each other back then. I mean, I'll say hi and be civil but actually, I didn't like you then, I don't know you now and I don't see any reason at all to talk to you when I don't have to! Silly people.

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:22:20 GMT

So, it's been a while! But once again I am less than fully occupied and I have resorted to LJ. I'm hopeless at posting, although I have posted all of three times in the last six months on my wordpress.

Over the last few months, I passed my exams, watched a lot of Family Guy (which I'm still not convinced I like, I often find the humour crude and predictable), did a five week placement on a neonatal unit which was amazing, bought a piano, started to learn the guitar and generally arsed about. I've been in hospital, I've been crazy and hopeless, I've been better and not better but mostly, things are not too bad. My two best friends started a relationship with each other. I'm still with Robert.

I think I will try to update more regularly for a while (although this is not difficult, considering I haven't updated in like six months) because I think writing a decent journal would be fun for a bit :) Not promising anything though cause I am a bit hopeless (you may have noticed).

What else? It's way too muggy at the moment in Glasgow, hot is good but humid is just awful, I wish we'd get a thunderstorm. Still, I'm appreciating being warm.

I'm going out for a curry tonight with some of the doctors from the NNU, which should be fun. They're a really nice bunch.

Hopefully I'll remember to post again soon.

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:46:11 GMT

The med school really annoy me. I wrote an essay, a few months ago, and today I went and picked up the feedback for it. I got a C. I wasn't too impressed because I thought the essay was better than that, and I know I'm quite good at this particular subject, but you know, whatever, it's a pass. Until I read the written feedback. An entire page of 'you did this well, and that well'. The only negative comment was that I'd used too many web resources instead of print ones (this isn't my main course. I don't have any of the books), and that I'd thought Jean Piaget was French, when he's actually Swiss.

How does that warrant a C, exactly?

I swear the med school don't actually grade work, they just give it a random number based on, oh, how many times you used the word 'demographic' divided by the number of lectures you missed in first year, or the number of lines per page multiplied by the number of lecture feedback forms you've filled in in the past week. It's clearly not based on someone actually reading your essay and marking it in any kind of sensible way.

Fuck that. Why am I doing this again?

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:56:24 GMT

Ok guys, shopping SOS.

I saw someone wearing a coat today, and I have to have one. This is not like me, really. It was a calf length coat, tied at the waist, with a full, flared "skirt", and the hem was kind of irregular/wavy, like a gypsy skirt. I can not find one for the life of me.

Help! I'd be really grateful.

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 09:49:36 GMT

So, I did get my hair cut, and it's great.

I finished the exams, less great but done.

Nothing is happening in my life. I suck.

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:36:03 GMT

I found some pictures of haircuts on Google Images...

Looks quite nice and easy to take care of.

Might need some straightening and stuff :( Looks lovely though.

That's gorgeous. Unfortunately probably needs more styling expertise than I have. Really tempted to just go for it anyway. You could probably make it look at least reasonable with a blow dry and some stuff.

Also pretty awesome.

The trouble is, I just don't know what I'd be able to keep up with or what would suit my face shape and so on.

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:17:04 GMT

I suck. I haven't posted in ages and in that time I have been away on holiday, so I am nicely tanned, and not studied enough.

I'm also contemplating getting my hair cut off.

Does anyone know of a nice style that keeps it short and dramatic but I can still pull it back off my face?

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:48:57 GMT

What's with all the orange marches just now? The second one this week just went past my flat.

Don't know what all that's about. All I know is it's noisy.

I'm going home tomorrow, and then next week is my cousin's wedding. It should be fun.

I hate packing, though.

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:27:47 GMT

So I've been applying and advertising for some childcare jobs for over the summer (this was before I found out I had to resit). Today a lady emailed me basically asking if I could watch her 11 year old daughter for four weeks. I can't, because I'm away one of the weeks and my exams are in another, but I gave her dates when I'm free and she said could I cover this week. Which I can. But now I'm scared. I've never had a job and I'm not that great with new people. I have no idea what to charge or how to get to where she lives or what sort of thing to wear or anything really.

Argh! However, once I've got over the fear it will be good experience and probably fun, and it should bring me some money. Yay.

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:33:02 GMT

"The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed."

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks - I reeeeeeally want to read this.
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - hated it.
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - read it, loved it, read it again, loved it more.
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen - read half of it, hated it. Very boring book.
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan - read it, hated it.
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel - again, started it but didn't finish it.
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth - good book.
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - read the shortened version, I'd love to read the proper version.
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray - read half of it, got bored.
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - part of them.
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:09:14 GMT

Comment and I'll give you a letter, then you'll have to post five of your favourite songs beginning with that letter. dreamfolorn gave me the letter U. There's surprisingly few! It's strange. Anyway, here goes, in no particular order:

System of a Down - U-Fig (no video but the song)
I love this song! Melting the sun, melting the sun, who wants to come with me I'm melting the sun! I love System, they're so good and this is such a good song. Loud and rockin' and even has a message. Makes me jump around like a fool.

Muse - Unintended
I have a confession - I still love Muse. I may not be terribly impressed with the newer stuff, but the older stuff, Showbiz and Origin of Symmetry, parts of Absolution and Hullabaloo, I love. It still makes me smile as much as it used to. I adore this song. It's so emotional, so deep and simple. :)

Alanis Morrisette - Unsent
I like a lot of Alanis's stuff, I remember first hearing it and knowing I'd never heard anything like it. This song is about unsent letters, regrets, things you'll never express to a person, and it speaks to me a lot. It makes me sad that so many people must relate to this because there are so many things we never say.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under the Bridge(this is an 'unofficial' but beautiful version) This is the other version.
Beautiful song, great band. That's pretty much all there is to say here. It's such a calming song and the chorus really appeals to me too - "I don't ever want to feel, like I did that day, take me to the place I love, take me all the way". I hear that, I think we all do.

Apocalyptica - The Unforgiven
Yes, I know it's a Metallica song. I just really like this version.

That was really difficult!

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:58:54 GMT

I have a cold. A bastard of a one, too. I spent most of yesterday with my head stuck over a bowl of menthol steam.

On the plus side, we went to IKEA on Friday. Yay!

The panic is setting in...

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:58:21 GMT

Words/phrases I really like:

alpha ketaglutarate
toxoplasmosis
teratogenesis
tetrahydrofolate
methionine
amniocentesis
haematopoiesis
polymorphonucleur leucocyte
proprioceptive
splanchnic
spinothalamic
vasa nervorum
glossopharyngeal
diencephalon
intracranial
angiotensin
juxtaglomerular
serosa
anencephaly
cholecystekinin

Lovely words. They roll beautifully off the tongue.
Unfortunately these words (not the meanings, just the words) are all I know for the exams on Monday and Tuesday.

Help!

Fri, 23 May 2008 10:37:25 GMT

Ugh. Tomorrow I am twenty. And I'm going to spend the entire day writing about steroid hormones. What is the point?

Sat, 10 May 2008 21:44:14 GMT

I have had a very busy week. More Rainbows funstuffs.

Strawberry shortcake is awesome.

I hate medic's balls. As in big posh parties, not testicles.

That is all.

flat hunting for the lose

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 13:30:33 GMT

Ugh, drama.

So I went looking at this flat yesterday and we liked it and we were going to go for it and then I called my mum to check about the deposit, but she said that they want to look into buying somewhere. Which is great and all, but... fuck off. I've been talking about this for ages and you bring it up two months from when I need a place? ARGH. And then my dad phones me later on and says that actually they might not be able to anyway.

I don't really want them to, tbh. I don't want to lose all the independance I have again. I mean, they're far away and I'm not really that independant anyway, but it would just feel... rubbish, I guess. I don't know.

I've done fuck all today. I went to PBL, then wasted a couple of hours in the library, then went to Somerfields. Where, for once in my life, I managed to shop properly - buy the things on my list and no more.

Kind of sorted out last night's drama with Robert, but I still feel like crap, partly because of it, and partly because I'm having a bit of a miserable phase in general. Which is gash.

God, shut up whining. I'm going to go eat banana mousse and do something fun.

Yeah, I know...

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:32:58 GMT

I've posted twice already today. But that doesn't count...

Besides which, I am incredibly bored. I am sat in the SL, as ever, and I’ve sort of finished my PBL except for a diagram that for once I want to hand draw. I would go home but I’m going to see a flat with David in a bit, so I need to be here. I could go and read the paper in the Atrium, but I’m talking to Robert online. So I have to stay here and be bored and make occasional, futile attempts at revision.

It’s been quite a nice week. Two lots of anatomy though, which makes me sad, and since it’s digestive anatomy, it’s quite icky. We opened the stomach up this morning to find that there was still semi-digested food in it. Disgusting, even in a person that hasn’t been dead for months. I’ve also been doing lots of clinical skills revision and I learnt how to do a GI exam. Including a digital rectal examination on a plastic model arse. Which was novel, but also fun. Well, how often do you get to have a completely new experience?

Weirdly, those two things (dissection and rectal exams) appear to be the two things that med students are famous for. You tell someone you are a medic and the first two things they ask you are "do you cut up dead people?" and "do you have to put your fingers up people's arses?" Yes, and yes. It's not as bad as you think.

I'm really hopeful for this flat. I really badly want to move out of my current one. Fingers crossed!

I also really object to Livejournal putting weight loss advertisements across the top of this journal. I'm hypocritical about this since I'd love to lose a little weight, but I hate this whole culture of everyone having to be super-skinny. It causes so many people to be so unhappy. Curves are normal, goddammit!

Letter thing

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:57:18 GMT

Comment and I'll give you a letter; then you have to list 10 things you love that begin with that letter. Afterwards, post this in your journal and give out some letters of your own. Nincy gave me an E! Please do keep it going, and request a letter!

1. Endoscopy
Maybe not something I love exactly but I'm writing about it just now and it's quite cool

2. Eels
Not the animals, the Mighty Boosh episode. And most boosh eps, in fact.

3. Ends of terms
because I get holidays, natch.

4. Everyone who uses proper grammar.
I don't, always. But I admire those who can be arsed.

5. Eggs
who doesn't like the odd omelette? And egg fried rice? mmm.

6. Epithelium
Again, not really. But it's terribly useful.

7. Edinburgh
It's quite pretty. Although not as fun as Glasgow.

8. Edit buttons
Because I always forget something when I post anything to anything.

9. Eukaryote
The word, because I like words with K in. And the concept, I guess.

10. Emiliana Torrini
Look her up. Seriously lovely music.

This was hard. Mainly because I'm supposed to be working, so all I can think of is (o)esophageal cancer. Which is inappropriate, and you know, not a good thing.

Oo, I thought of another one....enzymes! I'm such a nerd, oh dear....

And another one! Ellipses. Because I use them all the time. Okay, stop doing this and work now.

So...

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:54:05 GMT

I once again gave into the lure of Livejournal. I had one ages ago, and I currently have a wordpress blog, but... I'm bored. So. Livejournal.

How many ways can I make this page pretty?