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.