This is the entry for Saturday just gone (forgot to post this on Sat)…

Running a bit late on the blog entry this week I know, though I do have except-able excuses, mainly langford open mic night organisation and pathology DSE.

Firstly and most importantly…The premier Langford Open Mic Night.
I decided a good while ago that it’d be a bit of an alternative interesting evening to organise an open mic night for the vet school this term, of which the date for was Wednesday just gone. Thankfully the evening was a fair success, though this now means I’m wanted by the vet school to produce future evening’s entertainment…
I ran the night at Langford vet student bar, which was fairly cramped for the 150-200odd people that came, though this added nicely to the atmosphere, with people on chairs and tables all round the back of the audience. I ran the night in two halves, with 15 acts in total between the two, these included…
- Charlie on the trumpet.
- JP, me, 2x andys and Claire plus Chris doing 2 acoustic numbers.
- 8 freshers doing a very special “Freshers fit club/fat fighters” dance.
- Andy Henderson as Ronan Keeton.
- Marsden singing two solos.
- Ian and Chris doing stand-up (Ian went down a storm with great vet related and non-vet related jokes, unfortunately Chris was not quite so comically blessed).
- The enders singing and dancing two boy-band numbers (highly amusing).
- Jenny and sarah singing Mariah wotshername’s Xmas song.
- The new vet band Blue Juice (debut performance and really good).
- Me and Em singing a counting crows duet.
So as you can see an amazing diversity of performances.
The evening was intended to be a light hearted talent contest type evening but without the competitive edge. However I did involve the judgement of Professor Domingo Tortonese to add another aspect to the evening. He awarded the following prizes…
Best overall performance…JP
Most entertaining act…Enders Take That rendition.
Most talented performance…Me and Em (no bribe I assure).
The night ended off with an after party at my house, where we all got hideously drunk at and played limbo…which was nice.

Other important non-work related occurrences over this past week include Paul and I getting wasted last night in front of the tele and then making it for last orders at the Crown, which we decided to take round to the guys in John’s car…fairly random. Then spent the evening playing guitar and decorating the guys lounge with paper chains and beer cans (their tree looks awesome).

Thursday night I had a pleasant evening in Bath with Hayley, getting a bit of last minute Xmas shopping in (which I’ve now finally completed after today’s Cribs excursion plus ice rink trip). Bath is really impressive as far as Xmas decorations and lighting goes. They’ve placed a very Christmassy outdoor market around the Abbey, which Hayley and I spent the majority of our time pottering around (so to speak…basically I bought food and mulled wine and Hayley went from one jewellery store to the next).

The only critical work related item to mention is Pathology DSE (which I’ve handed in today). For this we get given a tissue sample and slide and have to write a short report on pathology seen and possible aetiology. I received a section of lung from a ragdoll breed of cat. From the microscope I diagnosed diffuse, probably acute, interstitial pneumonia and from the macroscopic section consolidation and pneumonia. The sample was taken from a kitten which died following pyrexia and dyspnoea (fever and shortness of breath). Many other kittens in the litter also died from the disease.
I’ve diagnosed feline calicivirus, will see whether this is correct or not when I get my report back next term.

Only thing left to mention is the social life this upcoming week, with Xmas dinner tonight, clinical panto tomorrow, xmas party in Bristol Wednesday and the last night of term Thursday. Could be a broke much subdued Pete driving home Friday.

Tuesday evening and after much organisation I’m hoping to get over to the pub for last orders after completing this entry.

Over the week there actually wasn’t that much on for once, main items on the agenda included bingo!!, a house party and numerous films plus take-away…

But firstly work related issues must be addressed. The main subject causing time to be swayed in the work direction is currently pathology. Last week we had our final mini-test on the liver and pancreas which went ok (not as well as I’d have hoped after actually putting a marginal amount of effort into it but never mind). The continuing effort in the subject is due to pathology DSE which begins this week. This basically involves us receiving a slide each and writing a project on it. I’ll have more info next week on this once the project is fully underway.
Other work achieved over the past week includes beginning to revise for veterinary public health, one incredibly sleep inducing subject to revise for, but at least I’ve begun.
On the lecture front the equine orthopaedics course is one of the main areas being presently covered. The subject is fairly interesting, though made unfortunately aggravating as I find it difficult to stay awake when the lecturer insists on keeping the lights on their dimmest setting.

Anyways, as far as socialisation goes over the past week things have been, as general, fairly active. I had a hilarious night Thursday when a horde of us went to the free Garla bingo night in Weston. The experience was most certainly unforgettable, and going by the fact that I got a bingo and won £25, plus Hels got a line and won £30 and Dave got two lines and won £40, plus beer was only £1.50 a pint, it was a hilarious, incredible cheep, alternative night out.

On Friday it was the vet nurse’s house party (safari themed). The evening started round at John’s, who cooked my house and his fajitas and then progresses to the Old Inn and finally the party. Amusing antics of the night included…
- Jim, Hayley and I stealing three chairs, a bin and a bunch of cleaning products (other people stole a toaster, an abs cruncher, paving slabs and an inflatable snake).
- Paul, Paula and I having an arms behind the back, eat two mince pies off the table competition.
- Getting saturated completely from head to toe by seeing how many vets we could get in the bath.
- Much amusing dancing with wild animal props.

Saturday was spent mainly in bed then in front of the tv with no food, then in front of the tv with Indian takeaway.

Sunday I worked.

The item taking presidency on Pete’s current agenda is the Langford bar Open Mic night scheduled for next Weds. The reason for this is that I’m the sole organiser (I aim for it to be my contribution to vet event organisation over the five years). Will explain all next Tuesday (probably Thursday as no doubt I’ll be incredibly busy the day before).

Today has been dedicated to that marvellous beast that is the horse. Though this maybe sarcasm I do in general not dislike horses, it’s just that after a day of lectures and practicals on the subject, plus the prospect of the same tomorrow, enthusiasm tends to wane. Lectures were mainly on equine reproduction and though the content was interest sustaining the complication came when the lecturer decided, for no apparent reason, that an hour and half lectures were appropriate (we’re used to 50mins), and surprisingly enough concentration does in no way span that long. The practical involved all participants taking a clitoral fossa swab to check for VDs and also appreciating were vulval stiches are placed to act as prophylaxis against vaginal wind sucking (I’m sure that’s sufficient info for all non-vet student readers).
Other work related issues recently mainly revolve around pathology as we’ve had many dermatology and liver lectures. In fact we’ve a liver plus pancreas DSE (directed self education) test on Thursday, so it’s brushing up for that tonight and tomorrow.

I think that maybe the first time I’ve started off talking about work for a long while, I doubt that’s because work’s been particularly interesting recently because I’m completely fed up of lectures, maybe I just sub-consciously wanted to get it out the way first…

Before I talk about the weekend I should mention that my clinical tutor group went over to our tutor’s house for dinner Wednesday (very generous of him I thought). Martin and his wife are both clinicians at Bristol and so a good impression was essential. Unfortunately I hadn’t eaten since very early on that day and after a couple of beers and marguerites I was uncharacteristically drunk for such an occasion (no joke intended). However thankfully I kept things together and once sufficient alcohol was consumed elsewhere I felt much more at ease. Good point’s that myself and a 5th Yr called Justyn ended up bantering with our hosts for most of the evening and so hopefully will have made a lastingly good impression (will see in 5th yr when I meet them on rotations).

The weekend was phenomenal… little bro (Rich) flew over Friday morning ready for Levator Ani’s Soiree performance in the evening. We made our way over early evening to set up and get sound checks sorted. The guys the Ents Reps had sorted out for us were excellent, the sound quality/levels were really good and they fully mic’d up my drum kit. The evening’s set list was a complete success with many congratulations all round after. Also Golden Touch which I’m on rhythm plus lead vocals for couldn’t have gone better… so ideal all round!! Rich I’m sure had a good night though he managed to consume enough alcohol over the course of the aft/evening to bankrupt a small country.
Saturday was hangover day, which was made even worse by the polar Bristol conditions along with our heating breaking down. To take our mind of things me, Rich and Paul went off for 9holes of pitch and put. This was an incredibly amusing activity, I think I may actually be the worst golfer ever (no exaggeration). My average was double figures for most holes.
Saturday evening was poker at the guys house whilst sat round their fire drinking vintage Bristol cider.
Once Rich and I finally got ourselves into action on Sunday we went off to Chedder Gorge. Here we had a day of cheese and cider tasting. We returned with six quids worth of very random cheeses and 10pints of cider. This was all consumed in the evening in front of perhaps one of the worst films ever… Detroit City Rocks (Hugo’s Recommendation).

Rich left Monday morning and since then I’ve been getting organised and aiming to do some work. The big think on the agenda at the mo. is the open mic night in December that I’m sorting, so a lot of time this week is going to be devoted to getting it under way.

This entry is mainly going to be themed around AVS, as it’s been by far the most important item on the past week’s agenda…

AVS = annual veterinary sports/social, social fits the mould best as the only sport I saw was mud-wrestling by the Dublin nutters. The weekend occurs obviously yearly and the location rotates around the six vet schools. This year AVS was held at Glasgow university and it was an incredible event (big thanks no doubt due to impeccable organisation by the Glasgow AVS ents, esp. Gordon, to whom I owe the thanks of “thee” Glasgow AVS t-shirt)…
The weekend commenced Friday mid-day when the ridiculous bus trek began, thank fully my guitar (coined “Gary” by the girls?!) accompanied to prevent pre-drinking boredom. However once drinking begun the coach ride went remarkably quick. Comedy coach events include me playing sit-down in a services with most of our coach sat down, much to the amusement of passing by travellers, the incredible rapping/beat boxing achieved by double figure’s worth of vets, me falling over a car whilst someone was in it, Mark placing parts of his body into the hands of a famous plastic purple dinosaur + grinding with a musical Santa.
We arrived at the club Fri evening very close to closing time, infact as Bristol was the 1st to be called away many of us had virtually no time in the club. However due the bottle of wine necked before the club I was completely oblivious to home time and ended the night dancing with Sue and a bouncer on an empty dance floor.
Saturday theoretically is sports day, so off John, Sue, Caz and I went to the sports field, though the only time we made it out of the tent was to watch Dubliners fight and through mud at each other. The tent was amazing fun, the only people there were 50 or so Dubliners and equal Bristolians, and everyone got incredible filthy and drunk then danced like nutters to some great indy tunes for an entire afternoon (was as close to an AVS equivalent of leeds/reading as no doubt possible).
Saturday evening was held at the union. Before hand we did a sort of min-pub crawl across Glasgow, which I missed a fair chunk of as I found myself a very friendly bunch of Newcastle non-AVS girls to go round some bars with first.
The union was very impressive, a multitude of bars + a huge club upstairs and its own Subway!! The night here was definitely an improvement on the subsequent, for one we didn’t arrive at closing and also I didn’t get quite so smashed so it was possible to remember the night. There’s a few comedy antics worth mentioning from the night:
Pete getting thrown out with his 70’s style terminally ill retro hoover which he dragged across Glasgow.
Gav and his girl getting thrown out for sleeping.
Andy urinating into a pint, which the bouncers saw, and then drinking it (his logic was that he had to do something really impressive for the bouncers to let him stay in once they caught him urinating in subway… unfortunately downing it didn’t accomplish this).
Nick sticking his tongue down the throat of every girl he saw.
Much much comedy dancing, especially to the world famous tune of Wannabe?!
Sunday’s bus journey back was pretty much spent asleep. I found myself a sleeping bag and some floor space then hibernated until Bristol returned.

Other than AVS there’s not been a great deal on, no doubt I should mention some work achieved over the last week so here goes…
Yesterday was another pathology mini-test, this time on the gastro-intestinal tract. Don’t think it went too bad, which was quite surprising due to the weekend’s antics. Thank fully I managed to squeeze in a bit of revision for it so all well.
Other recent work includes the start of our large animal orthopaedics course, continuation of dermatology in pathology and general lack of VPH efforts. However the VPH situation is currently being addressed as yesterday I began organising my notes and sighing myself up to begin revision in the subject.

Main events for the rest of this week include the Soiree and my brother visiting for the weekend. Levator Ani are once again playing at the Soiree, and so many evenings this week will be devoted to rehearsals. Though thankfully I think everything should be fine as jams were going really well before AVS. Line up this year is as follow…
Greenday –Holiday
Coral – Dreaming of you
Ash – Shining light
Razorlight – Golden touch
Ash – Life less ordinary
Franz Ferdinand – Matinee
Levator Ani – Vet life
Brim full of asha (comedy encore)
I’m drumming for all except Golden touch which I’m rhythm plus vocals for (could be nerve racking).
Will report next Tuesday with full details of the performance’s success or lack of…

xx

This entry may be marginally disjointed owing to the fact that I’m trying to do a thousand and one other things at the same time, plus it’s gotta be relatively quick if I’m to join the house film watching session this evening.

Anyway, essential inclusions for this week’s entry are my three day mid-term demi holiday with little bro, a little bit of chat on general work efforts or lack of as you will and maybe also up and coming antics…

At the beginning of term I thought it would be a nice idea to take a little break at some point during the term and visit my little brother who’s in his 1st term of uni studying History at Newcastle. This trip was scheduled for Thursday of last week until Monday morning, so quite a substantial study break. I thought visiting him might be quite an unfortunately long drive but thankfully Bristol airport is conveniently close to where I live, plus the metro at the other end made the excursion incredibly easy.
I was there for three full days, in which we managed to cram a ludicrous quantity of fun and activities. This included two insanely awesome evenings out, one of which being student themed and the other Geordie, a trip to a modern art gallery (got the culture part covered), Rich Scales’ tour of the quayside + millennium bridge, much shopping at the metro centre plus city centre, a Chinese meal out, a visit to Wet n Wild water park, one cinema evening and a very tiny quantity of quiet time enjoying Monty Python’s meaning of life (the middle bit of “Where’s The Fish?” being significantly the most used quote of the weekend).
I feel I could write an absolute essay of my time in Newcastle but there’s pressing matters at hand, so I’ll just bullet the highlights…
Newcastle uni… Thought the campus and halls where really impressive, with the most amazing location to the city centre possible. The union was a fair size and includes an excellent large sized club.
A most random talking/music/plastic blob orientated piece of modern art.
Helping Rich buy his 1st guitar.
Friday night’s antics in the union (inc. chatting up the dj’s girlfriend, almost knocking out an female fresher, two guys thinking me and Rich where gay judging by our dancing (which was pretty dam hilarious me things).
Saturday night’s Geordie experience, don’t think I’ve ever been out when it so blatantly obvious that every person is really up for a good night. It seemed to give every bar an amazingly hyper atmosphere.
A very tasty plus inexpensive Chinese meal.
Lots of laughs and jokes with little bro, whom I seem to be able to have the most random, hilarious conversations with.

Now back in Bristol and it’s back to the grindstone so to speak as I’ve a fair bit of work to catch up on. Though I’m managing fine, as during this blog I’ve been photocopying missed notes and handouts. I’ve not really much to speak about on the work front apart from the past couple of days.
Work in pathology is continuing with the gastrointestinal tract, I’ve managed to work my way revising through Oesophagus plus stomach pathology and hopefully will soon get round to nailing intestinal pathology as there’s a mini-test on this subject on Monday. In companion animal science work has included dermatology, which is relatively interesting. However this result I feel is mainly due to the lecturer keeping things interesting and running through at an ideal pace. Basically I reckon a good lecturer can hold attention and get across the information of any subject within reason (i.e. I don’t think it would be humanely possible to make half a century of meat lectures for veterinary public health in anyway interesting).

Well that’s al I’ve got time for, the only thing left to mention is AVS… A trip to Glasgow for all vet schools to meet, exchange pleasantries and leave… will tell all next week.

TTFN xx

Writing these blogs seems to come round so quickly at the mo, which I guess illustrates the fact that the weeks are flying by incredibly quickly this term. This I put down to the fact that I don’t seem to have stopped doing something since arriving back for the fourth year…

This past week since has been fairly constructive, not from a work point of view, but just considering what I’ve been up to/got organised.
It’ll be easiest this week if I just list what’s been going on each day…

Weds: Discovered a new running route taking me all off road, which was nice?!… Then in the evening gate-crashed the guys + Paula’s meal and ended up getting fairly inebriated and playing cards till late, then watching copious amounts of Fast Show. Unfortunately while we were all distracted watching the programme Paula’s dog crept upstairs and defecated in Hugo’s bedroom, which later Bennie stepped in, most unlucky.
Work wise Weds was all about a post mortem uterus practical. We were confronted with many tables with half dozen bovine uteri on which we were able to study/feel with an aim to appreciating what can be felt on uteri when pregnancy diagnosing a cow i.e. what structures are present on the ovaries, how thick the uterus is, whether fetal membranes are present, if there are cotyledons to palpate, or simply appreciating the various sizes that can be presented.

Thurs: Honestly can’t remember what happened during the day, maybe a couple of lectures… Though in the evening Hayley and I went to Brixton to see the Kaiser Chiefs, Maximo Park and the Cribs. It was Hayley’s birthday present to me and all three bands were fantastic!

Fri: Attended a few lectures including starting the new gastro-intestinal tract pathology course. I really rate the lecturer for this subject and thus was able to follow well and make some hopefully fairly useful notes.
In the evening it was another Langford bar night to celebrate a clinician leaving. Best parts of the night were the live band Mo-Funk that apparently played at Glasto this year and they were incredible + on a completely different note Paula and Louise going swimming in Langford fountain… legends!

Sat: Not to much of a recovery was essential for once, as most of the previous night had been spent bopping to Mo-Funk. So a good run was in order followed in the evening by Mat cooking a meal for the house.

Sun: Being the day of rest I went fishing. Not much more to say (apart from the fact that I completely drew a blank on the fish front and Ian caught 6, including a 9 pound carp).

Mon: I cooked curry last night for 7 and watched the ridiculously zany film that is Napoleon Dynamite.

Over the next week the main activity is a trip to see little bro in Newcastle. I’m flying over Thursday night and coming back Monday morning. No doubt they’ll be plenty to tell next week after three days with the nutter up North.

Tuesday lunch and I’m feeling very unproductive due a great fun first house dinner last night. Don’t think I mentioned in the last blog that we now have a new house member, Jim, so to celebrate fulfilling the accommodation potential of our house the 7 of us went to the Stag and Hounds last night for dinner. The best part being that the entire meal was on Claire’s Mum, as she paid us a fair sum of money to stay in the house over summer (I don’t mean fair as in deal, but as in a lot, as we all attempted to not charge her though she wouldn’t have it). Evening went as follows: went to pub, told Jim to remove the word sick chalked onto his shirt that he hadn’t noticed, drank and ate lots and lots, watched a very amusing Paul and Jim vinegar drinking competition, went home, drank more, got out schiza thing, played amazing name guessing game thing the girls taught us in Morocco and eventually went to bed.

Anyway now I’ve finished ranting about last night I think I’ll give a few brief words on last week. I say brief as I’m very hungry and Neighbours time is ticking!

Work stuff past week has included a few Path practicals, a PD prac, lots of tedious lectures and belief it or not a very very tiny bit of revision. Path practicals were on the subjects of skin and pancreas (not very exciting and left early to complete them properly using the computer tutorials). The pregnancy diagnosis practical in cattle was really good, it’s so refreshing to actually do something practical and relevant, so naturally I really enjoyed it, plus I managed to find a few ovaries and get a fair idea of what I’m doing instead of just randomly waving my arm around inside a cows rectum as was the general fashion in foster practice. Lectures don’t really need mentioning, lots of similar stuff to last week. Big success this week was that I actually did a tiny bit of out of lectures work (though this wasn’t in anyway extensive, it’s just the success of starting getting into the mentality that work out of lectures is necessary).

Fun this past week revolved around two parties:
Firday night was the first Langford Vet bar party. The theme being super heroes, I did Peter Pan with tights and all… Was a really good night, which is probably half due to the fact that I wasn’t expecting a good night… Bring on this Friday’s Langford Halloween type party. Most amusing thing of the evening being that Sue and Caz the intercertators have been grounded by the Langford halls for a week after letting people back after the party (where Ian got flour and talcum-powder all over the hall and Andy set off the fire alarm… tut tut guys lol).
Saturday night was the Vet girls 80’s themed house party. Not a bad night, though no hilarious tails to tell.

Well that’s sufficient for this week. Time for lunch and neighbours.

TTFN

Tuesday lunch and today has been incredibly non-productive after last night’s birthday festivities for my 22nd. I did go into vet-school for a PM pathology practical that I discovered is to be done in groups over 5wks, and so swiftly returned home. Now it’s all about life organisation and a house clean up, as the place smells like curries hidden throughout the house. This is due to 25ish people coming over last night for an Indian take-away to celebrate my birthday. I had an excellent night though am feeling the effects of polishing off our cider keg this morning. Birthday pressies included nice shiny new mob, cd’s, dvd’s, money etc…

Since last blog there’s been a few awesome evening events, but before mentioned I’ll get the work section out the way…

Now that I’ve gotten round to printing off my time-table my lecture organisation has become much more structured. That’s not saying that there’s been an increase in attendance but that I actually know when VPH (veterinary public health) lectures are so I can plan to miss them.
Work over the past week has been centred around reproduction and cardiology in CAS (companion animal science), skin in pathology, and not really sure in VPH. Repro is a bit dull as lecture speed is fairly arduous (fairly impressed by my vocab there) but the content is very relevant and so it holds interest fairly well. Cardiology is as good as lectures/lecturers get, the guy who’s teaching is excellent at explaining the topic, and with my general interest only in small animals it’s all incredibly relevant. The guys also quite amusing and lectures are entertaining. Last area covered in cardiology was a seminar on ECG’s and auscultation of cardiac and respiratory sounds, where he played us clips of various types of heart murmurs and ectopic beats. Skin pathology was interesting enough (especially for path), the lecturer goes at an ideal speed, if you’re awake enough, and learning the various classifications of skin maladies was fairly relevant I thought (giving the number of skin cases presented in small animal practice). Oh and VPH…?... Will learn the subject at some point (presently I’ve simply become a collected and organiser of handouts received by little Miss Thirtle).

Always a bit of a chore getting the work bit out the way, but allow, as now I can inform my avid readers and fans of the immense fun that’s taken place over the past week. Firstly Weds was Mat’s birthday and this was celebrated by going to see The Arctic Monkeys in Bristol. One hell of a gig, the venue was fairly small and pretty much the entire crowd was really into the music. Mat had a good night, which is what counts.
Friday night was the big night of the week that everyone was talking about. The Chav party at our place. Costumes were absolutely immense! Hayley and Laura looked legendarily hilarious, especially Hayley with her awful belly chain, hair gelled up, thong on show and awful sport top. We started the evening off with pics round Mat’s Chav wagon, as he owns the most awfully suped-up Ibiza (including fake alloys, steering wheel cover, lowered suspension, sound proofing boot tape and those crappy seat belt covers with the Max Power logo displayed prominently upon) and then hit the copious punch quantities + 2kegs of cider. Highlights of the night for me were our competition and Louise’s quotes (which can’t be written down due to their offensive nature). We decided to have a shouting match to see who our Chav King and Queen were. Myself and Em co-hosted the event and the winners were Hayley and James Greenwood, their prize being a night spent in each others company achieving sordid acts on the back seats of the Chav Wagon.
Saturday night was a 5th Yr Old School Rave party, which was nicely fitted out with smoke machines, red lights, strobes, disco lights etc and music of sufficient volume to go through two amps over the course of the evening. My night was spent dancing like a nutter to hilarious rave music.

Well that’s enough I feel for the past week. Next things next I’m gonna make myself a tuna sandwich then think about getting myself mentally ready to consider attending this afts three lectures on Repro and infectious diseases… no probs there me feels.

Next weeks activities included many many lectures (9-5 daily) and two weekend parties again… so quality all round.


PS: Played footy, 6 a side against the 5th Yrs in the equine diagnostics building Sunday evening and stuffed them 10-2… Not happy 5th Yrs!!

Can’t quite believe it but uni life has again commenced, making the summer seem like a minuscule blib of time over the past year. Which is even more amazing given the ridiculous amount of work/travelling/general fun that has taken place over the past four months.
Uni started last Monday, and being an awe-inspiring forth year we’ve now descended upon the quiet country villages of Langford and Congresbury. The only problem of which is that we’re over half an hr drive away from Bristol, so we’re all going to have to adapt to the country bumpkin life style (or just pay ludicrous taxi fairs to get in and out of Bristol). It is however quite cool having all the 4th and 5th yrs together, though that novelty may wear off once house parties decrease and work mounts up.

1st things 1st… summer. This has potential to be one super-sized paragraph, will just have to see how much I can actually recall from the past 4months / what I think is interesting enough to warrant being displayed on tinternet. Not that I could feel too guilty if anything’s relatively boring given the quality of general nonsense plastered on the net (though maybe that sentence ironically fits the description)… Right, summer began with a much needed and appreciated chilled out July. After hardcore swating for June’s exams some layed-back quality time was essential (not that some people thought this necessary as off they went straight into foster practice the crazy fools). Majority of time was spent drinking, running, playing guitar in the sun and sleeping, with maybe a little work and some female company spliced into the time at places. High points of the month were two camping trips for mate’s 21st Bdays, including a five day bender in Wales of which most comedy features included white water tyre rafting, over 300beers in a tranny van, a campfire very possibly seen from space made by a trainee firemen, me playing Tom Green’s salmon song to the campsite on top of the tranny van, and our blockade hippy fort that took up half the campsite. Needless to say one quality weekend.
Into Aug/Sep the theme was foster/specialist practice and travelling… Extra mural studies (EMS) included 3wks spent at my foster practice Scarsdale in Derby and a week with the quality vet that is Doc Kieran at Marshall and Till, also in Derby. Both places had their merits and neither any negatives. Scarsdale was ideal for the array of cases and the surgery/medical referral work done there. Where as M&T was great because Keiran’s a legend (along with the rest of the staff) letting me chip in with the majority of the ops list, as well as taking consultations. Both places made me feel really welcome and I managed to tag along on a couple of social events at both, including seeing Babyshambles with Kieran, going out for dinner with all of Scarsdale, and on a sideline dating receptionists… Most impressive things (in my opinion) that I was let loose on were; all types of neuterings I was left to do except bitch speys where I watchful eye is still very much essential, blood samplings/catheters, bandaging, BP taking and doing my own routine consultations (by far the most nerve racking thing).
After a recent interview with the student administrator/pre-clinical dean I’ve now got more of a diversity of EMS booked over the next year, including time at the RSPCA, with an orthopaedics referral placement, plus more at Kieran’s, Scarsdale small and large animal branches. I opted not to go for any VLA or research work due to my general lack of interest in these areas.
Anyway to finish off summer I feel travelling should be mentioned. This year’s trip was to Morocco for four weeks with Mat, Helen, Em and Tamsin, and even though it wasn’t anyway near the cost I had as much of a great time as I did in Australia last year. We flew into Spain, then made our way over by boat and bus to Meknes, Fez, then south to the Sahara, over land through the atlas mountains to Marrakech and the Falls D’Ouzard and onto the coast before working our way back up to eventually Torremolinos for a relaxing two day chav culture ending to the trip. Highlights included a camel trek + stay in the Sahara making it up at 4:30 for an awesome sun-rise, the falls D’Ouzard with their constant rainbow (according to Mat more attractive than Niagara though I’m dubious), getting dragged into the almost stand-still backwards lifestyle on the coast, drinking and smoking schissa with newfound travelling company with panoramic views of Fez, the crazy culture shock city that is Marrakech and the general chilled out realxational theme of the whole trip (probably induced by uber-Moroccan heat, the minimal effort ethos and the lack of energy from little food and group dysentery). Would definitely recommend anyone to go as has got to be the cheapest destination for an amazingly contrasting cultural experience.

I think that essay has adequately elaborated on my summer, hopefully some readers have struggled through thus far and are now eager to here about life back at uni in the semi-professional 4th yr?!

Might as well mention work load for this yr first off. Subjects include farm animal science (FAS), companion animal science (CAS), pathology and veterinary public health (VPH). So as you can see everything has suddenly got immensely relevant to the career choice, which a year ago would have scared the crap out of me, though for some reason I’m far more relaxed about the whole course this year, I think EMS has helped majorly. Subjects commenced over the past week include VPH, Path and CAS:
VPH is certainly not a joy. Though it’s our easiest subject and most simple to follow in lectures, it’s also all about dull lectures on faeces contamination, zoonotic implications of the slaughter industry and other equally exciting subjects. The general them has thus far been get a handout and leg it (only joking Geoff if you ever read this).
Path is hardcore on difficulty but interesting and worth trying to learn as the lecture goes because we get mini-DSE 1% tests in the subject. So far we’ve covered pathology of the locormotor systems i.e. Bone and Muscles, and also Skin. Mini-test on locormotor went fine C/B grade.
CAS is by far the most relevant thing covered ever. We’ve had some lectures on radiography which were fairly interesting, and also yesterday we started cardio-respiratory pathophysiology.

Social life this year hasn’t been amazing yet though things are about the go crazy on the alcohol front (what a bizarre culture we have)… First night here was fairly big, few of us descended on the old inn for summer discussions and drinks, then went back to John’s for an after party type thing. All would have been reasonably civilised I’m sure if not for John’s fermented African corn drink (80% proof) of which every entrant to the party had to take a shot. This stuff was by far the worst thing I’ve ever drank (and I’ve drank shots of soya source, vinegar, mustard etc) it feels like you’re stomach is on fire for a good couple of hours, and every time you belch you gag… not ideal!... Freshers party was last Thursday night. This was one hell of an incredible night, the reps put on buses for us Langford loosers so we could get nailed and dance like complete tools infront of the freshers and demonstrate the appropriate manner in which one conducts themselves at a veterinary social event. Funny story of the evening Hugo, Ian and JP all using the “I’ve missed the bus can I stay at your place” line and pulling it off. Best thing was none of them realised the others had had such a successful evening until they tried to ring each other for lifts back to Langford the next morning.

Upcoming events include:
Tonight: Fresher’s pub crawl… theme “what I’d be if I wasn’t a vet” (my costume = hippy).
Tomorrow = Mat’s Bday… Arctic Monkey’s gig in Bristol.
Thursday = Hugo’s Bday… some overly expensive slap-up meal some where?
Friday = Our Chav themed house party (keg already purchased).
Saturday = Justyn’s house party, 5th Yr… theme = old school rave.
Sunday = play hockey.
Monday = My birthday!!
Tuesday = relax and write a blog.

Gonna be a much more subdued less chatty Pete by next Tuesdat. TTFN x

End of the year and end of an era… Tomorrow it’s back home to Derby and then next time I arrive in Bristol I’ll be a Langfordton semi-professional type folk, crazy stuff!!
The pre-clinical year’s are over, and from now on its concentration and serious commitment to the clinical side of the course for the next two years (god knows who I’m trying to kid, but I thinks that’s the mentality we’re supposed to adopt going into next year).

We got our final results for the year on Friday and all my friends did really well, plenty of merits and the odd distinction scattered among them. Somehow I managed a clean sheet of merits in the three subjects (basic clinical science, microbiology and pharmacology). Couldn’t quite believe it when I looked at the results, it just goes to show that even though lectures are adamant that it isn’t possible to cram for this course the technique definitely suits myself and many of my friends.

Since the last blog I wrote I’ve had a great few days;; I’ve been surfing, visited house parties and I’ve sorted out my living arrangements for next year.
The surfing trip was in celebration of Paula’s birthday. A group of 9 of us went to Devon for a night, the surf was ideal for begins, low white rollers, everyone except maybe Milnethorp got standing. In the evening we camped nearby in an awesome little campsite, that even though it was cheap, had a swimming pool and sauna. We of course made us of these facilities in typical vet fashion, clothes on in the pool, thrown out after closing and much dunking and fighting. George made a valiant effort on altering Paula’s mental state, we learnt during the evening that Paula had somehow never thrown up by alcohol, therefore George made that the evening’s mission. Somehow Paula survived and didn’t even have a hang-over the next day… she must have one hell of a liver. The most comedy thing of the trip for me, thought it wasn’t at the time, was my tent falling down twice during the night. Once the whole fly sheet came un-pegged on three sides and blew off. It was raining and windy, though I’m sure tents are still meant to stay up in these conditions. I blame Polly’s poor effort at tent assembly.
The couple of house parties have been as good fun as ever, much alcohol etc. I went to good bbq party at Louise’s last night with John and then we got dragged off to some random party with some Law students we met at lousise’s. The party was actually a 21st celebration and I think the guy was fairly surprised when me and John wished him a happy birthday then proceeded to consume the parties alcofrol. Good definitely came from the night though as I now have the phone number of an incredible attractive law student. Hopefully this will spell date for tomorrow night, will have to see.
Housing stuff is now finally sorted. Our place in Bristol is cleaned up and ready to be left and I moved stuff into our new place in Langford today, which was even cooler than I remembered. There’s a massive lounge/kitchen communal area and a wicked garden for parties. My room is pretty nice to, though perhaps a bit on the small side.

In the house in Bristol now is just me and Mat, everyone else flew the nest yesterday. I’m probably going home tomorrow date permitting and mat is leaving on Wednesday as he’s travelling directly to Glastonbury. Unfortunately I’m not going this year due to a holiday that has now fallen through, a slight tragedy but never mind.

Over the summer the theme is foster practice and Morocco, not at the same time… Over July I’m slacking around getting things organised, getting fit, playing guitar, drinking and maybe doing some bar work. Then in August it’s foster practice for three weeks (small animals this time), then its onto Morocco until the end of September, when I may do a week of specialist practice with Kieran, as this would no doubt be an awesome experience for me.

I don’t know yet whether I will be appointed to continue my blog writing in the clinical years, maybe I’ll find out when I work for the workshop during vetsix in July.

If my diary is unwanted next year then this will be my last blog. Hopefully they’ve been of some interest to my immense amount of avid readers and fans, and most importantly I hope they’ve given some people an insight into the life of a Bristol Vet Student.

It's Monday afternoon and it's so good not to be hungover or drunk. It's always the same, finish exams then go on a week longer bender before getting results. However this year there's a slight difference as we all pretty much know how we've done due to viva lists. Once papers have been marked and results tallied up each department gives vivas to those who've failed (and those lucky enough to receive merit/distinction vivas). Therefore I already pretty much know I've passed all three subjects. Though there's always an element of doubt till you see your candidate number with the list of passed students.

Since I last wrote I've had a cool weekend away. It started off at rediculous 0'clock on Saturday morning to make it to alton towers for an awesome day out. Even though we set off early it still took us ages to get there and only had just over 5 hours in the park. Though this was alright as we managed to get round all the worth while rides. Best ride for me = air. Worst = corkscrew (courses immense pain and headaches for all riders!).
Saturday evening we (that's Mat, Me, Laura, Kate, Kate's boyfriend who's unknown to us, Claire and Hayley) made a lasagne and then spent the evening drinking outside round a fire. A fairly pleasant evening. Everyone loved mine and Claire's Hex ride reconstruction, you have to have been on this crazy ride to appreciate how bizzare it is).

Sunday I got up mega late to make up for the day befores festivities and then set of to Polly's for her 21st birthday party near Manchester. I had a great night at the party, bit of drink and an absolute indulgence in rediculous dancing with many people.

Today had been really chilled out, had a bit of a Jam with JP and Ian, looks like the skills haven't gone to rusty over the revision period, but then to be fair far more guitar gets played during revision time than not.

Tonight it's off round to Paula's for drinks and 21st birthday celebrations including, as she said in the e-mail, games where we may get wet...so god knows what she's got instore.

Tomorrow its camping time as continued celbrations occur for Paula's 21st. Gonna be a fun few days!

Exams are finally over (unless I get any vivas). The last one was a microbiology spot which took place yesterday. It didn’t go too bad, can’t see why I shouldn’t scrape the half marks needed to pass. The exam was an hour long and involved 9 short questions of different viruses, microbes and fungi. Each question has different photos of animals and plated microbial samples to use in answering the questions.
I decided to revise for this at home over the past few days, though can’t say I really got much work done, saw some friends spent too much money in Derby on many non-essential items. It was nice to be at home for a bit though, see the family, no cooking and some relaxing runs around my village. It was also useful to be at home to help my little sister Hannah out with some GCSE revision.

Since I last made an entry there’s not been much work done apart from the odd bit of microbiology revision, though there’s been a couple of pretty big nights out, one after the exam last Friday and another last night in celebration of finally finishing exams. It was cool on Friday to get out and see everyone again after being cooped up revising for so long, which is probably the main reason for the crazy story of the night… too much revision add some alcohol and a stressed JP = an arrest. JP wouldn’t have been arrested if he’d given his proper details as all he did was litter. Though I think telling the police his name was Wayne Gretski the ice hockey player, and that he came from 12 Lincoln Street, Lincoln did the guy no favours. Thankfully he hasn’t got a record though he did get a massive £80 fine… In future JP be nice and polite to police officers.

After the exam yesterday I spent the afternoon with the house and a few mates chilling in the garden with some beers and a bbq, essential post-exam wind down. Then in the evening we went to another bbq at Andy’s house and then from there to Mat’s old house’s house party. Not much to say about the night apart from me and Johnny consuming all the oranges from the massive punch, from which the alcohol had some major effects! Bed by 12 and a stinking hangover today (I suppose the ridiculous amounts of beer all day probably contributed). According to Mat I spent most of his house party chatting to various random medics I’ve never met, though my case of CRAT is too severe to remember this socialising (can’t remember a thing).

Today has been a nothing day, watched a film went to the park to play frisbee for a bit, got an ice cream and tonight it’s off to Emily’s surprise birthday bbq party… What a stressful student life.

Tommorrow it’s off to alton towers then a few people are staying at Mat’s house in Stoke before going off the Polly’s 21st on the Saturday.

Final critical exam over with!! Basic clinical science steeplechase. No this didn’t involve jumping hurdles and water, it was a crazy computer based exam. I had to answer 50 questions in 45mins on such wonderful topics as surgical implements, patho-physiolgy, biochemistry and anaesthesia. The blessing of this exam was that it gave you a mark at the end. Therefore I’m feeling pretty good right now with my 71%, and as this exam was worth 20% of BCS the pressure has been majorly lifted!

Last exam is on Wednesday, a microbiology practical. However no work is to be done for this until maybe Monday. So now its kick back and relax time i.e. Out tonight for a well deserved binge drinking booze up… Ideal!!

Last written exam of the 3rd year finished, though it's not party time yet as I've two practicals, one tomorrow and one on Tuesday.
The final written yesterday was pharmacology, which went really well (not very often I get to say that). The format was six questions to answer out of a choice of 12, then 175 true/false negatively marked questions. I chose questions on autonomic nervous system innervation to the respiratory smooth muscle, a2 adrenreceptors, anti-inflammatories and other equally riviting topics.
Today its revision for tommorows basic clinical science steeple chase, then after that tomorrow it's chill out time and a big night out for Em and Andy's birthdays!

Next two exams are over… Basic clinical science and BCS research.
Research went well, though it’s only worth 10% so it’s not the greatest of achievements. However it may help to boost my marks if the main BCS exam scores poorly. This exam involved designing a study, I chose one on bitch obesity post spay. Managed to right ridiculous amounts, though majority of it was nonsense I’m sure.
As for the main BCS exam worth 60%, things went ok. We had to answer 12 compulsory questions, allowing 12mins per question. Topics included diarrhoea, thrombocytopenia (decreased blood platelets), removal of gas from anaesthetic machines, causes of ascites in dogs, legislation involving the misuse of dogs and numerous other exciting topics. I managed to write something for all the questions, so will now just have to wait and see.
Tomorrow is pharmacology, so it’s back to the grind stone for me, a place I don’t feel I’ve really left for the past month, but then that’s what this course is all about… a third term revision night-mare… Chin up though few days and it’s holiday time, ideal!!

First exam over… Microbiology. Had to answer two questions out of four on bacteria and two out of four on viruses. Didn’t go too bad, managed to produce a fairly good answer for three of my essays though the last one was a bit of a disaster. Hopefully the other three will pull it up to a pass mark, will see…
For bacteria I wrote an essay on tetanus and strangles in horses and one on TB and Johne’s Disease in cattle.
For viruses I wrote an essay on Scrapie disease in sheep and attempted one on Bovine syncitial virus. This was quite a major disaster, as I couldn’t remember the key points of the replication cycle let alone the indepth answer required. Though as the other 3 went well I’m sure I’ll be ok. Plus I can afford to fail it slightly as my marks for the mid-sessional exam are strong.

Crazy times at the mo, so much stuff is on/been on that I’ve hardly had time to sit down and write one of these entries, but then that’s what the third term tends to be like.

It’s quite hard to know where to start as it’s been too long since I made an entry. I suppose the best start would be to talk about the awesome first two weeks of term I had after my pathology exam (of which we still haven’t had the results back). During this time we had lectures and therefore I didn’t feel at all inclined to start revising. Instead time was heavily invested in plenty of drinking and socialising. This included a few nights clubbing, some quality house parties, a bit of sport, a gig and a trip up North.
Nothing particularly special happened as far as nights out is concerned, though we did have one quite amusing night when a big group of us had a “punch-off” party. The story behind this is that we all fancied a cheaper alternative night, so 15ish of us made four teams of different colours and each made a punch of their colour to see who could make the best/most interesting punch. Mat, Hayley and Me made up the yellow team, our punch consisting of… gin/vodka/cider/banana lacquer/southern comfort/lemon jelly/lemon lacquer/lemon squash and concentrated lemon juice. The outcome was actually fairly tasty though ridiculously potent. All punch was consumed throughout the many drinking games, and those that were up for it went off to the Wedge. Me and Mat were bit too drunk so got food and played Mario Cart (ultra cool!).
A really good night during this time was a Futureheads gig Me, Mat and JP went to. I spent most of the night on the barrier and ended up absolutely minging and wet through. T-shirt purchasing was compulsory to replace the horrific top I was sporting.
Another good night was the Vet Hockey Social. This began with the elections for next year’s captains. As there were only two entries and two positions, choice wasn’t difficult. Though it still had to be accompanied by the compulsory boat races and drinking games. After elections it was on to the Sultans for a curry. This was fairly messy as one of the old captains decided to re-decorate the side of the curry house (indoors). After the curry I walked Sinead home and for the first time ever watched some sex-in-the-city. My excuse as ever was alcohol!
The last big night out during this time was a trip up to Skipton to attend Hayley’s Granddad’s rugby ball. Very good of the guy to pay for me to go to this, and I had a pretty good night.

Sport wise over the first week or two included a couple of football matches and the battle of the fridges sports day. Footy was all about staying in the cup (as we messed up the league ages ago). We had one really big match to avoid knock out and unbelievable went out on penalties! The weather was horrific and the team we were playing were brutal to say the least. Thank god we had a ref, if not the game definitely would have got messy. Last time we played them, one of our team members ended up punched in the head. We only lost by one penalty, so the match was a bit disappointing!
The battle of the fridges sporting afternoon is a time for all vet sport teams to play one another at each sport with the chance of winning the ultimate price in sporting achievement… the vet sports cool box (obviously couldn’t afford a fridge). Football came second, it was neck and neck with Hockey until we lost to Netball at Netball… so ashamed.

Work over the beginning of term was fairly dull, as usual. We had two 1% DSE test for pathology, of which the results will be very interesting! These were on the genital tract and the urinary system. They didn’t even give us a chance to revise for the urinary one as they put the test on the same day as the lectures (because obviously I’d have put immense amounts of time and effort into revising for it otherwise).
Lectures have been all on 4th year syllabus this term. This includes veterinary public health lectures (the dullest course possible), a few goat lectures, a few sheep lectures and some companion animal science cat reproduction lectures. A fairly bizarre lecture on the subject of cat sex, encompassing many amusing photos (no need to explain).
The most interesting work related thing timetabled was a day of communication skills. This involved getting into groups of 5/6 and acting out various consultation room scenarios. The uni had actors in for us to converse with, which I found really good as the actors made the scenarios very realistic. My scenario was about a man who I had to speak to about the condition of his poisoned puppy. With the main aim of the conversation to be that I discover what the puppy had consumed.
The other day the whole year had to have a medical check up to get our certificates to enable us to work in an abattoir. This was fairly straight forward, tick some boxes to say that all is well and the doctor signs it. However what I found fairly amusing is that John ticked the diarrhoea for more than 24hr box and subsequently has had to provide a faecal sample.

Recently I’ve spent most of my time at home in Derby getting some revision done. I find working in the garden with a bit of sunshine by far the place to get my head down, though I doubt the weather will last. I came back home on Saturday mainly to be here for my mate Rob’s 21st on Monday. For this a big group went out into Derby. It was a fairly good night until we left Walkabout (after much drinking and karaoke) to go to a club of which most of the group was already in. Unfortunately one of us didn’t have the ID required which ended up in a heated bouncer argument and consequently the bouncers phoned round the other clubs and gave them our description (I have a strong dislike of bouncers). After getting food we tried to sweet talk the Zanzibar bouncers round, but no luck. During this time we got into some heated arguments with some guys, which culminated in the police turning up and an obese guy lying naked in spar door way, definitely a very random night!
A much better night was last night’s barn dance back in Bristol. I took down my bro and 3 of our mates for the wild west occasion. As always the barn dance delivered. I think when everyone has so much revision stress and are all dressed up as cowpersons you can’t fail to go a bit crazy. Best things of the night were attractive 1st years, Tom telling a vet nurse that he was a vet (he’s studying business) and that vet nurses are just non-intellectual vets (as many vet nurses have the opinion that vets are a bit arrogant, I doubt Tom helped matters), Mat shaving of his friends brow, going crazy in the play area, stealing a watering can and getting in plenty of ridiculous country dancing.

Right now I’m in Derby and it’s where I’m staying to hopefully get on with some essential revision. Best think about being at home is that there’s little distractions, I don’t have to cook and I’m saving loads of money.

Upcoming there’s well revision, and hopefully lots more revision… if all goes to plan. Exams this year are Microbiology, Basic Clinical Science and Pharmacology all around the end of May/beginning of June. I do have things to look forward to though, mainly a holiday in Morocco, more about this at a later time.

Now I thing I’ve made up for the lack of entries and I’m going to go to bed as I’m tired.

Well I’m back for the final term of the year, a term associated with pretty much work and only work. The Easter break was really a non-event as far as a holiday is concerned, as it was work experience and revision throughout, though I did manage to spare some time for a couple of crazy nights out in Derby (including one night where we got kicked out of spoons for attaching a soap dispenser to a wall in the bar, but that’s another story).

Though having to work in the Easter holiday for no pay is quite frustrating it was pretty cool to have a look at the job I’m going to be doing and get a break away from constant theory learning. My work experience was at Scarsdale large animal hospital in Derby. Thankfully the hospital was excellent and all the staff were very friendly, as I’m going to be going back there many times over the next 2years. Bristol operates work experience by issuing students each with a foster practice where they’ll spend their holidays (a vet student has to have completed 26weeks of adequate work experience before the RCVS will issue a degree). Throughout the rest of Easter it was Pathology revision for the MCQ exam, worth 20%, last Monday. The exam went fairly well I think, I didn’t have to put too many don’t knows so should be ok (questions are true or false and are negatively marked). I was a bit stressed about this exam as I spent the Saturday before it at my Grandparent’s golden wedding anniversary and drove back from it on the Sunday. They live in Suffolk so it was a fair drive from Bristol; thankfully I had Hayley with me to narrate pathology to me all the way. The party on the Sat was really good. My Gran had made an amazing effort with food and marquees + it was really cool to see all the family I havn’t seen for a while. Also my uncle got pretty wasted as my auntie had left early (most amusing about this was how appalled my Gran was at her sons new found coarse language).
Back to uni on Monday was cool (once the exam was over). Always good to meet up with everyone again, which we did as a big night out to evolution. Quite a standard night out I think, nothing really comical happened, though we did meet some one who may fill in as our 7th housemate for next year.

Over the next week there’s not a lot on lectures and work wise. I should probably start revising fairly soon, though I didn’t start before now last year and I had more exams. This year exams will be on Microbiology, Basic Clinical Science and Pharmacolgy. Will fill in more about exams nearer the time. The main work thing we have on is a poster for pharmacology coming up soonish. We have to make this poster in our own time and present it to a member of the pharmacology department. The topic of the poster is the same as our chosen DSE essay i.e. Two contrasting methods of treating rheumatoid arthritis in dogs.
As far as work goes over this week the main thing we’ve done was a communications day on Tuesday. For this we were placed in groups of 5/6 and had to give consultations to actors. The point of the day was to improve communications skills by acting out consultations in front of a group and then analysing them. Though a fair amount of veterinary knowledge was needed to be able to carry out the consultations.

Social stuff over this week is pretty good; I’m off out tonight to the pub to meet up with a load of vets + the potential house mate Kate that I mentioned above. The big social thing on is the battle of the fridges on Saturday, this is where every vet fridge team gets together to play each at other at their various sports to see who is champion over all (each vet team is named after a fridge e.g. football is Nice Fridge, Netball is Nasty Fridge). Hopefully footballers will keep hold of the fridge trophy for another year! Especially after our great 4-2 victory yesterday.

Right now it’s time to stop typing as I need to “Freshen Up”, as a club toilet fragrance technicians would say, before attending the pub.

There’s been quite a lot on over the last week with regards to work, social stuff and sport. Including an exam, a pantomime, a gig, a trip to Crufts and a half marathon…

I’ll get work over with first, starting with the most important thing, the farm animal science exam of last Thursday. Quite a weird exam this one as we had an hour to sit and plan our answer before putting pen to paper. The subject of the exam was veterinary current affairs and welfare. We had an hour to answer two questions out of 10ish. I choose to right about TB and welfare considerations for housed dairy calves. I thing the exam went pretty good, by that I mean I wrote a lot, though haven’t a clue if any of it will have warranted much marks, will see. The exams worth 4% of FAS, but as FAS is a 4th yr subject I’m not too concerned.
Friday’s work was nice and simple, we’ve been studying anthrax in microbiology lectures so that practical was very brief (don’t think giving us samples of anthrax to test on would be best safe!). Then Friday afternoon we completed the CNS pathology lectures, now we just have a mini-test on this on Friday (1% of pathology).

This week work wise is fine for lectures but not for out of work lectures. We’ve a pharmacology essay to get finished between 6 of us for the end of the week worth 10%. Probably should have got this out the way ages ago as my house of DSE slackers got set it last term, but no worries, wheels are now in motion of the Hartington Park Pharmacology machine (much to the pleasure of Steve who’s been fretting over this essay for weeks).
Other work stuff this week includes revising for the mini-pathology test on Friday and updating my microbiology identification table for a final micro identification DSE practical also on Friday (Thursday isn’t going to be a fun day!)

Fun stuff recently has been chiefly Levator Ani’s gig at the pre-clinical vet pantomime on Thursday and Friday last week. We arrived on Thursday with all our stuff far to close to the start time for comfort, as we’d had the FAS exam, thankfully set up wasn’t too difficult though sound levels were a bit dodgy in performance as we had very limited time to sort them out before hand! However Friday’s performance was really cool and crowd got well into it.
The panto was also pretty good, the quality of the acting, singing and especially dancing made up for the awful story line that even after watching it twice I don’t understand. Dancing was especially good due to Lexy and Hayley’s quality choreography!!

Over the weekend I’ve been to Crufts, slept in a caravan and supported some friends in the Silverstone half marathon.
Crufts was pretty cool on Saturday, never been before so was quite an experience. Best thing had to be duck herding + I’ve decided my favourite and least favourite dog breeds, pug/poodle and Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retreiver (not that way round).
Saturday evening was spent at Claire’s house in Stratford, which was packed to the rafters with German Shepards (claire’s step-mum breeds them). We had to sleep outside in the caravan (dogs have preference).

On Sunday I drove Claire and Paul over to Silverstone for the half marathon, Mat and Laura were also running it so we met them there. All of them did really good (especially Claire as she hadn’t done any exercise for a month and the most she’s ever ran is 8miles). They managed to raise a fair bit for comic relieve.
Something I didn’t know about running till yesterday was that top runners frequently loose continence over long runs, as Mat unfortunately spotted in another runner… running=nasty!
Not really anything left to talk about, Friday is the end of term and Claire’s Bday so will no doubt be a big night and then it’s into Easter and foster practice.

Past few days have been awesome fun!! Starting Thursday night with my band playing at Langford, then two great nights in Bristol.

Thursday was quite a concern at half 7 when no one had yet turned up for our gig, though by half 8 there was quite a good crowd of 3rd and 4th years so all was good! We managed to get through both set lists without any major probs and even Life Less Ordinary went fine which we learnt two days before playing. Unfortunately JP wasn’t able to sing a couple of his songs due to a lethal cold infection, but Ian kept the show on the road by filling in as the amazing singing drummer for these two songs.
The after party was immense! Me, Mat, Laura and Paul decided for some reason to have an all night drinking session till 6 and got through a hideous amount of spirits (most of which belonged to some 4th years, though we’ve replaced them all so no probs). Best cocktail awards of the night must go to Paul’s Port with a salad cream mixer, close 2nd and 3rd to Mat’s Bernard Mathew Turkey Gin dipper and my mug of port with a dash of English mustard… There are no excuses for these horrific combinations, just drunken idiocy.
Langford Friday was a no-go!!… as would be expected. I spent the day sleeping off my hang over in the on-duty clerks 5th year bed (Paul and Mat slept in the common room, some how Laura was fine and went to the Micro Prac, crazy girl). Once it came to five o’clock I felt save to drive home so went back and slept some more ready for Paul’s bday night out. I think Paul owes us a thank you as not many people get to celebrate there birthday twice on the same day!

Paul’s birthday was at Hullabuloos BYO booze restaurant. I had the pork with Stilton and bacon followed by the banoffee pie… nice.
After the meal we lost Paul to his new girl and went home for lots of tea, drink, music and Mario kart till early.

I woke up Saturday with the best intentions to get some work done (at 2:00). Though none really got done, though I did achieve a big Tesco shop and cleaned out Lemi (the rat) not bad. Saturday night Hayley and I went out for a drink and then on to George Zambia Miller’s 21st house party. If a house party is judged by the amount of booze it contains then George’s was top-notch (punch, beer, wine and spirits in large quantities). The consequences of which I think were most noted on John who’s constant playing of water polo seems to have had adverse affects on his alcohol tolerance. That or deciding by himself to drink a glass of punch every five minutes did the trick.

Yesterday I recovered fully and actually got a bit of work done! The next virology DSE is now complete (a series of multiple choice questions online) and I copied up anything missed by Fridays little snooze! I also gave home a ring yesterday to find out whether Mum appreciated her slippies (microwaveable lavender scented slippers for those with cold extremities… not entirely sure what Mum thought of these a) because you have to put them in the microwave and b) because you can’t even walk around with them)… remember it’s the thought that counts Mum!

Today started off with a fairly interesting though slightly dragged out analgesics (pain killers) lecture, then went on to 2hrs of sheep parasites (not so interesting).
This afternoon I’m allowing veterinary public health lectures to get some notes together for Thursdays farm animal science exam. In this we have an hr to write two essays on recent vet related issues. My house has split up all the recent issues then once we’ve got the info will reproduce it six ways. My topics are the new fallen stock scheme on farms (can’t burry dead stuff anymore basically) and milk price wars, plus I’ve got the more minor issues of MRSA transfer to animals and horse passports.

Other than the FAS exam on Thursday the other big work thing on is pharmacology DSE. This is an essay done between six of us that must be in for the end of term. Our chosen subject is rheumatoid arthritis and for this we are comparing two drugs to decide which has better therapeutic value. Hayley and I have NSAIDs to look at, though we haven’t yet picked which NSAID to use yet. Loads of time left for this though.
NSAID = non-steroidal anti inflammatory drug.

Best things coming up include tonights glitter ball and crufts on Saturday.
Hayley and I are going to the medic glitter ball tonight. A reason to get dressed up, give money to charity and have fun.
Crufts = Paul, Me, Hayley and Claire going to Claire’s and getting into Crufts for free thanks to Claire’s Dad. I’ve never been so am quite looking forward to it.

It’s Tuesday morning and I’ve managed to make it in for some microbiology lectures, quite an achievement I feel as 4 of my house have decided that their bed is a better use of their time. Though to be fair to my house everyone is ill to varying decrees. Paul and Mat have got themselves a bit of a cold, JP has flu and Hayley has been bed ridden with flu since Thursday. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before me and Steve catch something!

Weekend just gone was really cool! Spent the Friday back at home in Derby which was really nice as haven’t seen the family for quite a while. Went out for a meal then watched a couple of films with Dad and little sis Hanny. Then on Saturday I went to see my cousin at Warwick Uni (which is in Coventry and not Warwick, a fairly time consuming mistake to make). Had a great evening out there with Mel at her union. The place has a massive union with 2clubs and loads of bars, so we went there for a 70’s/80’s night after getting plenty of drinks down us at Mels flat first. They were a good bunch to go out with, though some slightly unusual, as proved by the bizarre infatuation of blowing up peoples noses?!

Sunday I got back to Bristol mid-afternoon to begin my role as Nurse Scales for Hayley who was in quite a bad way. I’d already spoke to someone from NHS direct and pretty much confirmed flu so just case of sitting/sleeping/coughing it out. She was a bit better yesterday and so we watched a film in the evening…film of choice being Hook! I’d forgotten how weird and amusing it is. Hopefully today she’ll be much better as she’s meant to be in a dance show at the end of the week!

Work stuff over this week isn’t too bad as the main thing is over, an Anaesthesia DSE talk with Avril yesterday. Each group of four had 10mins to complete their talk and then 5 minutes of questions. Our topic was laryngeal paralysis in the dog and I got given the diagnostic part of the talk. This involves choosing an anaesthetic regime with least effect on arytenoids cartilage motion and that induces a very light plain of anaesthesia so that a positive diagnosis of laryngeal paralysis can be made by endoscopy. Our talk went really well, especially as we had to go last out of the 6ish groups. We nailed Avril’s questions and got some really positive feedback off her. Can’t be bad as the talks worth 10% of basic clinical science!
As for lectures, yesterdays were non-existent for me as I stayed with Hayley to drive her in for her and my talk in Langford, though copied up fine last night. Today we have Actinomyces and Listeria micro-organisms to study. Don’t really mind the micro lectures as the lecturer is really good and explains well, so note taking is a piece of cake.
Tomorrow its continuing with pathology on the CNS, the lecturer for this is excellent, we’ve only had him once so far and he’s also the clinical dean (though can’t remember his name) … very conscise with no patronism or extra random crap that you’ll never ever need to know.
On Thursday its just one veterinary public health lecture (though probably not for me) and then Friday is typical micro practicals and lectures.

The most important upcoming event of the week by far is Thursday night when Levator play Langford! We’ve got a minimal of 14songs sorted so should be able to give the 4th and 5th years a fairly long set list, plus hopefully we’ll get a few 2nd and 3rd years out there. Should be really cool, will speak about how it goes next week!

Over the weekend hopefully I’ll see Hayley’s dance show on Saturday illness permitting and then go on George’s house party to celebrate his 21st.

Almost forgot to mention another highly important event of the week!? It’s Paul’s bday on Friday so we’re all probably going to go out for a meal to celebrate (though will save money as think he’s booking a BYO booze place…ideal!)

Only 2lectures today on microbiology so nothing too strenuous! Probably had better not get too used to these slack 11:00 starts and few lectures though, as before I know it 4th yr of lecture hell will be upon me. However till then I’ll make the most of it! Tomorrow is the same with only 2lectures, and on Thursday it’s a complete day off. Though spare time isn’t going to be that slack as I’ve got to get my Anaesthetic DSE sorted for Monday when my group of 4 has a 10minute talk worth 10% of basic clinical science (trust me it doesn’t seem that basic).

Last week and this work hasn’t been too bad. My therapeutics talk on Thursday went really well, think I managed to sufficiently bore the class enough with my four minute talk on how chronic renal failure causes vomiting and the therapeutic agents we would used to control the problem. Then on Friday I had a respiratory pathology DSE test worth a whole 1% which went ok (definitely much better than the one the week before).
Work over this week principally involves DSE I need to get on with as lectures are fairly minimal, even Langford on Friday has only 2lectures, though there is a 3hr microbiology practical involving Corynebacterium and Mycobacterium i.e. TB.
The DSE I have is about anaesthetising a dog for lateralisation of the arytenoid cartilage, I can talk more about this when I know something (next Monday I hope as that’s when the talk is).

Social stuff over the past week has been really good!! Last week we had a Vets Vs Layers Vs Medics pub crawl. I haven’t a clue who won as I spent most of the night drinking at Lexy’s house with a load of vet girls then went straight to the club (saving money). The night was pretty good, nothing special really happened though I was quite amazed to find that our fluffy sheep vet mascot made it back to our house after its night of reflex clubbing.
Also very importantly last week it was the half way day!! We celebrated this with an awesome day of paintball fun and a meal. Paintball was amazing!! We split the vets into four teams of 15ish and managed to fit in time for 6games each. Our team was best and came first by a massive point margin…ego through the roof. Funniest thing was the last game which was a free for all to use up remaining paint balls…Painful! I had no bruises till this game and sustained multiple back, leg, crotch and arm injuries (back looked like a paint-by-numbers). Surprising how much the things hurt at close range! The crotch shot was especially disturburbing as was literally cms away from groinal disaster!
The meal in the evening was really cool! 80 vets out for a nice 3course meal in Zero Decrees Bar in the centre.

Social wise over the upcoming week is fairly minimal till the weekend when I hope to go home for Friday night and then head over to see my cousin in Warwick on Saturday for a 70’s/80’s night should be cool.

This week is turning out to be well hectic, there’s something on every night and the weekend doesn’t get any less busy…

Over last weekend I had the company of my little sister Hannah and her friend Zoe who came down to see what student life is about, though as they’re to young to go out so I doubt they really appreciated the student life in full. Friday night I cooked them both a meal and some friends came round for a very socialable evening in. Think Hannah was quite impressed with my cooking as she’s never seen me make anything more than a microwave pizza at home. Then on Saturday we went out to Cribs to do some shopping and go see Meet The Fockers. They both made themselves useful out shopping as there valentine’s day gift ideas proved popular on Monday.

I dropped the two of them off fairly early on Sunday leaving the rest of the day to get to grips with our Therapeutic DSE that we got set last week. This is given to 2 DSE groups each week for those groups to perform a talk each the following week. The subject of our talk is chronic renal failure in cats. As it’s therapeutics we don’t have to go into diagnosis/prognosis, we just have to say which drugs we would use for treating the cat and constructively criticise our choices. I’ve been researching drugs for vomiting control due to the uraemic gastritis.

Yesterday we started our veterinary public health lecture course in Langford, thankfully we don’t get examined on this this year, but the 70 lectures that we have of it over the next couple of years don’t sound best fun.
In the afternoon my Langford practical group had no practical so it was a nice early home time to get on with more DSE (why some of the ridiculous amount of DSE we have couldn’t have been put in last term I don’t know).
In the evening Hayley and I went out for a nice meal to Las Iguanas, a very pleasant evening with excellent food (though bit expensive).

Today has been spent moping around the house trying to get through some therapeutics, though I think I’m sorted now as have collected and sorted out enough info on vomiting to make a contribution to our talk. Unfortunately this has meant I’ve had to miss a couple of lectures today, but this was pretty unavoidable as I can’t do any work tonight due to a meal I’m attending in Langford… my clinical tutor has invited all his 3rd , 4th and 5th year tutees round for an evening meal. I don’t really know my tutor as we don’t get lectured by him till the forth year, but he specialises in small animal orthopaedics so in my opinion he’ll no doubt be interesting.

Over the rest of this week it’s DSE, tests and social fun… Our therapeutics DSE is on Thursday, we need a powerpoint presentation and handout completed for that, then on Friday we have a Respiratory Pathology mini-test, not entirely sure where I’m going to find the time to revise for this.
Tomorrow night is the hockey social, always a messy one. As normal it’s meeting at Roo Bar for drinking games then on to Indian Ocean for curries.
Thursday night there’s a vet vs medics vs lawyers pub crawl and on Friday night I might stay in.

On Saturday it’s Half Way Day!! This is being celebrated by a day of paint-balling followed by an evening meal (the attendance figures for the meal are over 80 all from the year, pretty good going me thinks as the years 107).

Firstly I apologise for the distinct lack of entries for sometime, this is due to a mid-term holiday, loads of work and a ball!

I arrived back from Switzerland on Thursday night after a wicked 6day break over there with my little bro who’s having a gap year. He’s out there for 4months working in a hotel, where he spends his free time skiing in the Swiz Alps…alright for some. I hadn’t really skied much before, one day in Australia and one in Tamworth snow-dome, but picked it up fairly quickly and managed to keep up with Rich on some red runs. We spent our evenings watching films as was both far to nacked to go out, though we did venture out for one very expensive night with some of Rich’s hotel staff.

Unfortunately as I arrived back late on Thursday I missed the centaur (Bristol’s vet society) elections. This is were a brand new centaur committee is elected each year, usually quite a laugh as people bring loads of alcofrol into the lecture theatre, get hammered and then go out. Positions up for grabs included President, Vice President, Books Rep, Clothing Rep, Ents Reps, Fresh Reps and Sports Rep. All voting is done democratically with home made vids for presidents helping to make up peoples minds. Our new president is Gavindar Panisar, top guy, just have to hope the position doesn’t go to his head… joke Gav if read this.

Friday’s main academic task was a pathology cardiovascular test, this went ok despite the fact that revision was principally done on a plane. Most questions went fine except for the last couple as he started to read out the answers so had to quickly hand it in (very informal these pathology tests though they do only count for 1% each of pathology). Also on Friday we had our last microbiology practical before the DSE sessions began. I managed to polish off my table for this the other night so I’m fully prepared for this Fridays DSE. This involves three unknown micro-organisms which we have to identify using a variety of stains, biochemical tests and practical techniques. Probably the most interesting and fun thing we’ve done this year, makes you feel like a sort of microbiologist detective, or that might just be me?!
Friday evening the house had a quiet one in watching Dogeball, would recommend purely for Stiller’s comedy acting in it!
Over the weekend I spent some time nailing my MircoDSE identification table and copied up the lectures I’d missed by having a half term break. On the Saturday night however I did have something exciting to do as it was the vet2005 ball. This year it was held at the winter gardens hall in Weston and was expertly organised by Hayley, Andy, Louise and Tonia (ents reps). We started out the night at the union bar for a few then all pilled on the bus with much alcohol in hand for the 1hr journey there. The night was a great laugh, nothing especially comical happened apart from Steve trying to break JP for letting a party popper off in his ear and all the injuries that were sustained off the flying carpet (it became apparent on Monday how lethal this thing was as so many people had carpet burns on their face and hands, including myself who has a fair patch of skin missing from my thumb). The speakers were great and the meal delicious, good job ents reps!

This week is fairly busy work wise. We had a hectic day in Langford yesterday, three anaesthesia lectures, 1 radiology and an anaesthesia practical. The practical was ok, got to connect each other up to ECG machines and measure each others blood pressures and blood oxygen saturation. However I think the take home part of the practical was supposed to be working out which anaesthetic breathing system should be used for different animal case studies and what gas flow rates are appropriate (got a good bit of notes on this so no worries).
As for work for the rest of the week we’ve got microbiology most of today and then health and safety this afternoon (can’t imagine this being the most riveting subject, though health and safety is of course important so I shall attend with an open mind?!). Thursday we have two endocrinology pathology lectures to attend followed by another miniDSE test on the subject on Friday, these little tests are well annoying.
I suppose I will also carry on with my ongoing DSE tasks this week, probably had better start on pharmacology DSE before Steve gets more stressed about the groups current lack of effort.

Fun wise for this week… not much until the weekend. We have a footy social on Friday (typical stuff, Kings arms for drink, curry and pool then not onto a club for me as my little sis is arriving the next morning).
Saturday I’m entertaining Hannah (sister), will probably take her ice skating with the Hockey social that is there during the day, then maybe shopping and film or pub in the evening (have to let me know how that sounds Hannie).

PS: First results of the year, microbiology midsessional (15%) managed to get myself an A, crazy stuff I know, but not that impressive as the whole years marks were pretty good (what happens when they give us one exam to revise for over xmas and not four).

Monday morning and back in Langford again, this year just seems like we spend all our time in Langford or travelling to/from it (but then as we have 2 full days at Langford Monday and Friday and the rest of the week is a few lectures and DSE it’s not surprising). I suppose they’re just easing us in to the 4th and 5th years for continual Langford clinical fun.

The end of last week’s main item of work was my talk for research, which had to be given to the year (was done between 6 of us so not all bad). The subject was fructo-oligosaccharides and their effects on intestinal bacterial overgrowth in dogs, exhilarating I know. Though the subject was dull the practice at public type speaking was fairly useful. The talk went fine, though I doubt many people listened to a word of it (can’t blame them).
Friday night was a bit alternative, you could say we went out but then as we were only in a club for less than an hr and didn’t leave the house till half 12 that’s questionable. Hayley went out with the vet-girls and the 5 of us left decided to save the pennies and drink in. After drinking games (which included the new found comedy game of pants master) JP was the cause of the night’s highlights by producing his holiday litre of ouzo, so after many cut the pack ouzo shots we left calm and civilised to go to a club. A lot of my memory at the club is pretty hazy, but I’m sure it was a good night. Most comedy part of the night has to be mine and JP’s taxi bartering… we decided that £7.70 was too much for our taxi (though we normally pay around this so I don’t get the logic) and so offered him £6, he wasn’t best happy so we all got out and I told Hayley and Steve to leave at a pace. After many minutes of arguing with me and JP the guy threatened to phone the police so of course we took the only logical action and legged it…I suppose that makes me a fugitive now?!

You know without alcohol I reckon these blogs would be pretty short!

As for the rest of the weekend many people didn’t surface best early on Saturday, once 3pm came though I was fairly active. I managed to get some immunology revision done of sorts and then went to Mat friends Stu’s birthday bash for some coke (cola). Stu had got some stand-ups in for the night, very amusing.
On Sunday I got up early to begin a very productive day, the achievements included…
· Tidied the lounge, including hovered, dusted!, cleaned rat out, removed ouzo stains and used a large quantity of air freshener to remove the pungent smell of beer and ouzo.
· Tidied the kitchen, cleaned the surfaces, mopped the floor and cleaned the oven.
· Did many hours of immunology revision in preparation for Fridays mini-DSE test. The test only counts for 1% but it’s the learning of the stuff in general that’s the point. I managed to get through 5 out of 15 sections including antigen presenting cells, the complement pathways, immunological tissue and cells and major-histocompatibility complexes and transplantation.
· Booked a flight for Morocco for the summer. Mat, Emma, Tamsin, Helen and I are off for four weeks. The flight was really cheap at £75 return. However once Helen and Em booked there’s and Mat booked his mine went up to £91, not best happy as I noticed the cheaper flight in the first place…dammit.

As for the week coming I’m crazily busy. I need to get the revision done for this immunology test on Friday plus I need to get some BCS (basic clinical science) DSE done as it has to be handed in very soon after I get back from Switzerland. The subject of the DSE is the anaesthesia of a dog that is to have an operation on its larynx to re-position the arytenoid cartilage, haven’t looked into much yet, hopefully will get started tonight.
Also over this week I have and Idlewild acoustic gig to attend on Tuesday night with JP and Mat plus its off to Switzerland early Saturday to see Rich for 6days ( Next Monday to Thursday I have very few lectures so it shouldn’t’ be too difficult to catch up).

As for the rest of today I’ve got a sedation and premedication lecture in 25mins then this afternoon its IV induction agents followed by poultry post-mortem, will include the main points of this in my next blog.

If anyone would like to leave any non-abussive feedback on my blog please send to...
scalesvet@hotmail.co.uk
I can't promise any replies but comments would be insightful, thank you. Pete.

Monday morning and I’m back in the computer room at langfordton. Day started off ok as we somehow managed to get here on time and get that god-forsaken hand out off Avril that Paul and I put so much effort into trying to locate last Friday. With the handout in my possession I had no choice but to attend this mornings lecture on anaesthesia… so very very dull! I find it pretty difficult to follow Avril so that’s why I’m here writing this and not in her second lecture of the day (will copy up and go through it tonight, I’m not being that slack…comment aimed at parents and grandmother).
The rest of today isn’t too bad, a couple of non-Avril anaesthesia lectures and then a practical on housing (apparently Joe Roe gives us tea and coffee during this prac… novel). Tonight a few off us may be going for a couple of drinks at the Highbury Vaults, work depending, plus its up early tomorrow for skiing at Tamworth. I’ve managed to organise the little trip for 9 of us tomorrow (only £15 for 2hours skiing including all hire, pretty good I thought). Tomorrow evening it’s work time again hopefully, need to get as much DSE out the way as possible before going to see Rich in Switzerland.

As for the rest of the week work wise there’s a fair bit to get done. We continue autonomic pharmacology work on Wednesday and continue with the different genera of micro-organisms on Thursday (last week we did Enterobacteriacae and this week its haemophilus, Bordetella and Reoviruses + Calichiviruses). On Friday we have a microbiology practical then I have to do a talk with 6 others for our research course. Thankfully this doesn’t count for anything, but it does mean that I’ve got to read a paper on fructo-oligosaccharides and micro-organisms and discover where the mistakes are in it (will go through this on Wednesday and Thursday night… not much point putting in too much effort when it’s on research and counts for nothing).
Other than work and skiing I’ve not got a lot planned for the rest of the week. The only other thing on my agenda is a 2.5hr band practice Thursday afternoon. This is well needed as Levator Ani are playing Langford Bar on 18th Feb and need two fairly long set lists.

Will write again next Monday.

Hello and happy New Year!
I’m back for the 2nd term of the third year, a term most people associate with copious amounts of DSE (directed self education or drinking starts early as you will). Christmas was great, I had only one exam to revise for and I managed to clear the travelling dept so ideal. I worked from the end of term for 9days at the medlink conference in Nottingham, 17hour days and on-call at night, was pretty hectic but the work was fine and the staff very cool. Mat was working to as security and transport. Obviously we can’t have been too crap as we’ve both been asked back to work in July on the Vetsim course, should be pretty cool do work with potential vets and not damn medics. I also managed to get some work at a pub in my village over the festive period.
Christmas was mainly a bit crap as worked it at the pub. However once Xmas day started at 7pm ish was really good, I think my family must have been some of the last people on Earth to open their presents at 9pm, but was worth the wait as I got a mini-fridge and a suit…definitely not working next year.
New year was alcoholic. A big group of mates at home went out for an Indian, which was byo drink, so naturally I took along plenty to save funds later. However I think I over did it as whilst walking home I fell over a wall into field and got a bit muddy you could say, though thankfully my brand new shoes cleaned up really well and I was able to take them back and exchange them as part of the shoe had come apart in the 2hour walk home.
Came back to uni on Sunday, though I had no time to go out and see everyone, as revision was essential for yesterday’s microbiology exam. The exam went really well; if only all exams were like that the course would be ideal. Last night I went out into Bristol with the usual crew, cocktails and shooters in henry africas 2for1 was fun so bit hung over today. Todays lectures have all involved anaesthesia, however unfortunately me and paul haven’t been able to attend them due to a hand-out problem. The story goes… Lots of traffic, late to first lecture, avril gets mad when late so went to play pool with paul (the others chanced it), went back at break to join lecture but avril didn’t break, went back at end of next lecture avril left early, needed 80page hand-out beast to go to this afternoons lectures so went to avrils office, not there, went to Churchill building, small animal hospital and back to office, no joy, went to see the oracle that is Geoff who told us she’d gone to Bristol so now have to wait till Friday to get handouts… frustration.
This afternoon we have an anaesthesia practical that I can attend so looking forward to that.
This evening John’s coming round to show us his skiing vids from xmas and I’m off out food shopping, great?! I hate food shopping, though mercifully I just have to push the trolley and Hayley puts stuff in it.
Best thing up and coming is a trip to Tamworth snow dome that I’m organising for Tuesday as we have the whole day off! This is in preparation for my visit to see my little bro in Switzerland at the end of the month.

Just read this through and realised and haven’t explained about DSE that I mentioned;
We have pathology DSE on going which is mini-tests each worth 1%.
We have farm animal science DSE which is an exam on the end of the term on current issues so I’m meant to be reading vet record and farmers weekly to keep up to date.
We also have pharmacology DSE which is a project of our choice were you compare two completely different treatments for the same disease (we’ve choosen arthritis).
And there’s therapeutics DSE though I don’t know what this involves yet.