It’s Wednesday morning and we have the whole day off! This is a very unusual occurrence in Vet School, so naturally I’m going to make the most of it by playing football and having a Christmas dinner.

Since last Wednesday the work front has been fairly minimal...
In basic clinical science we’ve covered hepatic dysfunction and clinical aspects of haematology (fairly interesting stuff as it’s all relevant).
In farm animal science we had a day of poultry lectures. This was incredible dull, I suppose if one had an interest in chickens the lectures may be more exciting, but as it was we had three lectures by the same guy who pretty much just told us crazy stories on his poultry experience.
In pathology I attended a discussion with a quarter of the year on haematology and biochemical tests and their clinical use (it’s only a quarter of the year as on Monday afternoons we have a rotational thing set over four weeks). The talk was really interesting, we were given information on patient background and test results and then we had to interpret the results to work our way systematically to a diagnosis.

The main social event over the last week has to be our weekend break to Hugo’s family mansion in Hereford. A group of 8 of us went up on the Friday and then some more people came on the Saturday so that 12 people were present for a massive roast dinner on the Saturday night. The best night of the weekend has to be the Friday, as me, Pritchard and Paul stayed up till 7:00 playing pool and drinking a few cans. I think pool arrogance tipped us well off the tipsy edge, especially as JP kept putting vodka in the arrogance pint glass (pool arrogance = the two players contending place as much alcohol in a pint glass as they wish at the beginning of the game, the person to losses the game drinks). Once the time came to 6:30ish JP and I decided that we were never going to be up in time to make everyone breakfast as we had been instructed. Therefore we cleared the kitchen and set up breakfast for every one (this included putting out croissants, toast, cereal, all cutlery, fruit, milk, OJ and making huge stacks of blackberry and chocolate pancakes – I think these must have taken us quite a while to make as I can vaguely remember JP making me separate 12 egg whites at 7 in the morning).
On Saturday we went for a walk and played some rounders with a log. Then in the evening we had a much more subdued dinner and a few games of saucy charades. Hugo and Tamsin cooked an excellent meal.

On Sunday I left Hereford fairly early by train to get over to my house in Derby for my little brothers leaving do (he’s off to Switzerland for 4months). The whole thing had been organised as a surprise and Rich didn’t have a clue. He had a good evening I think, apart from tripping up on the way home while giving someone a picky back and busting his face up a little.

On Monday Hayley and I went for a quite drink. I doubt anyone wants to hear anymore than that.

On Tuesday it was cloudy in the morning and then it brightened up in the afternoon.

Today I’m playing footy for vets. We hope to get our first win of the season today as we’re playing a crap 3rd division side (we’re in 1st) – if we can’t win this we might as well give up. Tonight Hayley and John are cooking a Xmas dinner for everyone…nice.

Over the next week the main things to look forward to our…
Friday: Aids awareness ball.
Saturday: Levator Ani one year anniversary/xmas party.
Monday: Darkness and Ash concert in Cardiff.
Tuesday: Hayley and I one year anniversary dinner.
Wednesday: Fi and T joint birthday party.
Thursday: Vet Xmas Party.
Friday: Home.

Last week of term looks to be pretty awesome!!