Right well term’s finally over and I’m back home. This last week has been chaotic, but at least it ended well with a mega wedge blow-out, so all is good.

Yesterday Dad came over at 10:30 so he could come to the union and listen to the last Levator Ani jam of the term. Unfortunately we played the worst we’ve ever done, even worse than before Xmas when we got together! I blame it on Long Island Ice Tea John bought me. Where as I think Ian and his mate blame it on the three bottles of wine they started the night with at Claire’s 21st birthday dinner. However after 2 hours of going through new stuff we did our half hour set list ok and Ian’s mate Dazza recorded us for our web site www.levatorani.co.uk. He’s setting this up for us over Easter. It’s looking amazing and should be awesome when complete!

Over the last week unfortunately I’ve done pretty much nothing else but work. I’ve known about the Anatomy DSE/exam scheduled for the last date of term for ages but have not really had a chance to get any work done for it, so I had a lot to catch up on. Thankfully I didn’t have much on last weekend except hockey and so was able to knuckle down for it a bit then. The task is to learn soft tissue, bony structures, vasculature and innervation by a multitude of species (some of them a bit pointless I thought, but you never know when I’ll have to do hindlimb surgery on a llama?!).
Hockey on Sunday was eventful. We’ve entered two centaur teams into the intramural championship (as we have so many players). One of the teams had already made it through to the final, but we still had to get through the semis to achieve a centaur vs centaur final, how cool would that be!! (no sarcasm intended). We were playing “Chaos” (the physics squad) and though we put up a great effort though we lost 2-1. Being so close we thought our A-team, made up of mostly uni players including a couple of 1st and 2nd team veterans, would be able to slaughter them. However 2 goals down after twelve minutes showed things weren’t going too great, then a 1st year performed a crunching challenge on a computer scientist (why the hell she was playing for the physics I don’t know) and broke her ankle in three places (the game was very heated). By the time the ambulance came it was almost dark and so the match was abandoned. A re-match is scheduled next term.

For the majority of last week I’ve been revising with Hayley. It didn’t take long to learn the hindlimb for the horse and dog. Therefore cat, ruminant and pig followed relatively easily. However bloody crow, llama and rat were far from ideal. Plus we didn’t get asked a single question on them. Why set us to learn these dam animals and not ask a single thing on them…Where’s the frickin logic in that?!
I did however have a nice break from revision on Tuesday with a well needed trip to Langford. It was canine behaviour all day and though I didn’t go expecting much it was actually an interesting day. Lectures in the morning, followed by a practical where we got to see real life animals and real life owners(not so exciting). Our case was with an Irish Wolfhound and its nervousness and aggressive problems. Not really ideal with a dog that size.

Well that brings me up to the exam on Friday. It was 2.5hrs long and really only needed to be 1.5hrs, but I stayed for most of it anyway. I always feel that I should never leave an exam early, it’s always worth checking it through as many times as possible.
I think it went ok. By that I mean I think I should have passed. I don’t really set my sites high when it comes to Anatomy (or any other subject come to thing of it, as long as I pass I’m not going to complain).

I suppose you’re all eager to know what Joe Blog vet does over the Easter break, well it’s dam exciting…wait for it…3.5wks of night lambing. Every night starting tomorrow I’m off to Townend farm (20mins away) to sit by myself (that’s if you don’t include sheep as company) and watch for lambs popping out of ewes. I’m actually quite looking forward to going back. I need the money so John and I can fund our trip to down under during the end of summer.

The Easter break isn’t all about sheep though. I’m taking one evening off to go to Hugo’s (IIyr) house party. It’s a joint 21st party with one of his friends, should be a massive occasion. Me, John and Mat have got our costumes sorted, it’s characters from Shrek as the dress code, so we’re all going as merry men. John’s Mum is being great and making us all our costumes, including green tights apparently, we could get some funny looks if we stop of at any service stations on the way!!
Also Hayley is hopefully going to come down to visit me and spend a couple of evenings lambing with me. Being an adept lamber hopefully I’ll just be able to leave her to it, but I doubt I’ll get away with that. Presently she’s in Dublin (one of her flat mate’s 21st birthday).

Well that’s it for now then folks, if I don’t get the privilege of writing for you again then I hope my blogs have given an in-depth insight into the chaotic, hardworking, tiring but awesome fun time that I have on my course and at uni.

Thanks, Pete.

Sorry for the long break in entries, have been very busy over the past week and half with band practice and work. However now it’s all over and it’s just a case of anatomy revision for the exam next Friday (last day of term).

Biggest news over the past week is Levator Ani’s great success at the vet panto. Obviously all our practice effort paid off, as the crowd loved us. Pritchard even got a thong and bra thrown at him (the muppets sent out an e-mail to try and recover the owner).
The panto was also a great success, a very funny script written by Honor and Hugo (2nd Yrs) and some great acting from members from all three pre-clinical years. The story this year was sort of a twisted mess up of aladin+lord of the rings “Aladin and the magic lamp of firedoor”.

Right well what have I been up to since I last wrote: Last weekend the vets made it the through to the final for the inter-mural hockey cup!! This weekend it’s to be settled. We’re up against a team called chaos, though I’m not sure which department they are.
Apart from exotic anatomy work there hasn’t been a great deal of work in vet school. We’ve finished lectures on avian physiology and only have a revision histology session left next week.
I think most of my time has been spent trying to organise Levator’s interval panto slot. We don’t own any drums or PA equipment and so have had to find/hire the lot. Thankfully majid in our year leant us part of a drum kit, so that considerably reduced the hire cost.

Today I’ve only had two lectures, however before hand I had my physiology DSE talk, which counts for 5%, so quite a big deal (enough so I couldn’t go out drinking after the panto last night dam it). It went pretty well I think, we get the results some time next term, but I know I passed the essay which counts for 10% so all is good.

Tonight I’m off to the vet hockey social! Always a great laugh and guaranteed mass drunkenness!! It’s a 7:00 start in the union in hockey shirts for lads and shirts and skirts for girls. Then off to the Indian Ocean curry house, and possibly on to the Wedge.

The half marathon is finally over! I made it round on Sunday in 1:35:01 which I am very happy with (I was aiming for under 2hours). Obviously all the training paid off!
Mat is now talking about going for the London next year. I suppose it’s something to aim for.

Saturday night was the vet ball. This year it was in a couple of good size Marquees on the other side of Clifton. The evening was very glam, everyone puts on their best ball gowns and djs then proceeds to set about ruining them by consuming as much alcohol as possible. Though I’m surprised it was achieved so well this year as the bar prices were ridiculous. Not that it mattered to me though as I wasn’t drinking (running the day after). I just enjoyed the very tasty meal and even did a little dancing towards the end, crazy I know! During the evening I had a little chat with Kieran. Interesting to hear what the poor forth years are getting up to, stuck all the way out in very lively Langford.

Monday I had only one lecture, which I had to let be as Levator needed some quality practice time. Don’t worry though Mum, it got copied up in the afternoon before we finally finished off Parasitology DSE!!
Levator practice is going well, and I thing we’re going to be ready to play next week at the panto. We sorted out hire of a PA system and now just need to get some drums together for Wednesday.

Yesterday was a full day of glorious work. I attended some very exciting lectures on nutrition in Langford and in return got presented with some more DSE. This now means that I have to spend almost an hour watching a horse called Patsy eat, whilst tallying up how many times she chews, spits and pulls hay. Don’t worry it is a video so I can watch it in the comfort of my own home with a couple of brew-skies.
In the evening I finished physiology DSE.

Today I’ve had some histology on fish and birds and I’ve just spent a couple of hours doing nutrition DSE on the tinternet. I now feel much uplifted as I’ve finally removed the heavy burden that is DSE.

Tonight I’m off to the Nice Fridge football social at a comedy club for much celebrating!