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, October 25, 2005
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
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!!
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!!
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
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
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
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