Well it’s the first night I’ve actually been able to sit and relax/sort stuff out for a few days as the schedules been pretty full up with either driving or drinking, obviously neither simultaneously Nanna so don’t fret. Important things to mention include a road trip, couple of quality evenings, a job interview and upcoming big events…

Lets start by considering the job interview and as such get the slightly more boring items ticked off. The interview was at Scarsdales in Derby last Wednesday (my foster practice) for a 100% smalls job with no on-call/out of hrs. The fact that it’s my foster practice means I’ve spent a fair amount of time there in the past and am well aquatinted with the members of staff and general practice running. The interview went fine I think, there were no particularly taxing questions and it was more of an informal chat than anything else. Will have to was for another wk or so before I’ll hear anything as other people are also being interviewed. If I’m successful they’ve agreed to let me start at the end of September so that time spent travelling won’t be compromised. However if they didn’t like what they saw then I’ll just get searching for jobs when I get back, as apart from the slightly interesting financial situation there’s no real rush.

The past few days has mainly been taken up with the Pete/Rich very rainy road trip. I set off to Newcastle last Weds to pick him up and maybe have a couple of quiet drinks out. However we ended up having a quality night in club called liquid. I don’t anything that incredibly comedy occurred other than Rich prancing around in a pair of girls leggings the next day…how concerning indeed.

On Thursday we drove back to Derby for a pit stop and sort out before continuing on to Bristol Friday evening after a brief shopping trip interlude Friday day with Han (mother’s birthday and fathers day presents needed sorting).

Friday we arrived in Bristol pretty late but we were still up for a couple of drinks, though this was almost compromised by the phenomenal level of rudeness we received from Budgens staff members, when we tried to buy alcohol at 10:59 (still not entirely sure why they wouldn’t serve us though stereotypical/ageist opinions of 2students that enter a shop at pub closing time to buy booze may have something to do with it…one bloke definitely deserved copious quantities of abuse though of course we remained outstanding, calm, respectable individuals and didn’t raise are voices to the retarded buffoon that thought it acceptable to shout at customers with no rationale)….sorry rant over…though this confrontation put the team in a mood incontusive to a quality evening, though much success in the name of fun was achieved at the post Langford Bar sports night after party in Congo at a house owned by a Wheelie-Bin (person’s name). The legends had loads of booze in and in general it was great to see everyone (especially Jimmy, Steve & Hugo who’d just got back from a few days living the high-life in Nice). Only bizarre story of the evening was Fully going on an angry bottle smashing rampage, though fortunately for everyone’s safety especially Valenzia’s he calmed down quickly.

After picking up Rich from Sinead’s on Saturday we sorted ourselves out and then visited a 4th yr bbq. A very tame evening but fairly chilled with features including guitar playing, shisha smoking, many burgers and Rich’s mad Bacardi event…following the bbq we had a little after pty at Sinead’s where Rich thought it wise to consume a Robinson’s cordial bottle containing a translucent spirit that Sinead found in her garage which was only identifiable by the big white sticker someone had attached with Bacardi scrawled across it in felt-tip. To sum things up Rich got hammered and slept on a toilet with 2towels as bedding.

Today we’ve played some 5a side footy, watched the 5th yr panto DVD and had a much needed relaxing evening in watching Dude where’s my car and eating some wholesome food, life is tough.

Upon reflecting at what I’ve just scrawled down it would appear my life is especially unhealthy at present, this is of course true and though I’m not overly joyed by that fact there’s little that can be done to control the current situation as there are loads of awesome nights ahead over the next week and then it’s off to Turkey to continue celebrations on the final year holiday (something I’ve been looking forward to going on ever since I watched an episode of vets in practice before vetschool where a bunch of students did a grand mooning jump off the side of a boat and I thought I can’t wait to do that). However the drinking is definitely being cut down over the next few days as we’ve the last ever Levator Gig on Thursday and I really don’t want to lose my voice like last time we played.
Other upcoming events include a meal out, a karaoke night, fancy dress alphabet pub crawl and the last ever Friday night of vet school…mental.

Now I’m going to get an hr or 2 sleep-in before picking up Paula from Bristol at 3am (she’s been diving in Egypt).

After over a term away I’m currently back at Derby home-home sat in the bedroom-above-the-garage (aka:study) and I plan to break the recent trend of crazy long blog entries as I’m shattered. It’s been a hectic day of sorting out as I arrived back in the early hours of this morning with a Corsa crammed full of general Pete paraphernalia which all required new homes. This accompanied with walking Alfie and collecting some boxes took me pretty much all day and there’s still another car-load to collect in Bris yet. One thing I can say for all this sorting out/packing up is it’s pretty emotional. By which I don’t mean I’ve been crying my heart out in my bedroom all day, but all this packing up, moving house, scraping old junk etc. could not portray a more powerful message that the long road is drawing to an end/final curtain/fat lady whatever. 5 years at uni and it’s passed in the blink of an eye, it literally seems like last week when Dad was dropping me off at halls armed with a head full of uni ideals and a crate of stella, and now I’ve qualified and graduation is only a stones through away…

Ok sorry about all that , the current situation is def not doom and gloom as the next few months is to be spent chilling/partying and appreciating the last spell of student freedom before work commences. However all this moving belongings out of Langford def has brought the situation home for me.
Since I last wrote there’s only been one big night that I’ve attended though there have been a couple of fair size events (jock’s house party). I decided due to my shocking health status at the end of last week to put myself on a drink your p**s style detox week before the onslaught of the 3rd week and the final year holiday commences, also I really want to get some of my material recorded and at the end of last week I could barely speak let alone sing.

The big night was last Friday…Geoff’s leaving do. This was held in a very posh/sophisticated hall near Blagdon somewhere which I’m surprised we’ve never used before (maybe it’s to be saved for such events so we don’t get banned from it). The evening was a great success; speeches/champagne reception/food/live music etc all gave Geoff the send of he deserves after giving so much time and effort in order to ensure the survival though vetschool of so many years of students. Comedy antics include:
- Dave/Fully caught attempting a naked lap around the outside of the building
- Steve
- Singing ++
- Sinead spinning incessantly
- John brown-nosing all night
The next morning wasn’t so amusing (ex issues).

Saturday was a day of relaxation, films, good food (though I’m biased as I cooked it), the biggest fright of my life (Paula and the film Descent are a bad combination for my wellbeing especially she chooses to hide behind kitchen doors in the pitch black and scream down my ear as I walk passed, literally the most scared I’ve ever been), and bizarrely enough, given the last sentence, essential relaxation.
Ohh-de-lally is always an important quote.

Sunday had a similar vibe to today though the evening was a good laugh as Nead cooked me dinner/soup and then we watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
The rest of the week I’m generally relaxing at home though I’ve a job interview Weds to prepare for and I need to pick up Rich from Newcastle.

x

Big news I’m a vet!... as of yesterday 11am I’m now permitted to add the letters BVSc after my name, although I’m not permitted to practice until graduation and royal college enrolment, and so after July 18th I’ll be Mr P Scales BVSc MRCVS; an incredibly concerning thought given that I’m actually going to have to have a stab at the job very soon. However until then I plan to make the most of my newfound freedom by continuing in much the same fashion as the past 4days, which is the reason why I currently feel like I’ve lost most of my mental capacity and am basically a walking Pete shell of alcoholism and sleep deprivation.
The results were put up in 2 lists, 1 for those who passed stating what subjects they passed with merit or distinction in and the other for those referred. Unfortunately four people were on the second list and so will be required to resit in September (can’t empathise with how crap it must be for them).

Somehow I managed a merit in VPH, an achievement I feel that seriously tarnishes my self dignity (which is definitely not true as me, Paul, JP and Hugo are now certified VPH geniuses…perhaps OVS is the career path of choice for me after all?!).

(All the above was written a couple of days ago at JOHN’S and Paula’s but for some reason I got sidetracked/fell asleep and so the rest is now going to be completed sat back in my bedroom, though as ever time’s not limitless as the big J Spence is awaiting a trip into Bath).

Anyway the basic theme of this blog is not surprisingly going to be based around the many evenings of self indulgence that the past wk has presented (can’t believe that a wk has already gone by since my last viva, “time flies”…).
I think the best way of tackling the wks entertainment is to consider each evening at a time, that way my memory will have a chance to recall some details.
Thursday
Post final viva I got my life back on tack and then had a chilled evening at the Bell house and here watching some crazy films (smoking aces and some arty Kate film). Half the year didn’t finish till Friday and so the big night out was to be delayed in accordance to fair play.
Friday
Haven’t an absolute clue what I did during the day (though to be fair I doubt I could recall any day time activities over the past wk and so will leave out daytime for the rest of the blog, though I do recall going shopping at one point…haha shopping was Friday, I met the rents at cribs for essential retail therapy and restaurant cuisine. Excellent to see the family and also to eat food that isn’t cereal or pizza. Quality purchases include shirt and awesome swimshorts with lobsters on…woooo).
Saturday
The Duffus meal!! At the promise auction last term myself and a group of 12ish won a meal for £500ish to be hosted by Prof Duffus and Isllyn at Duffus countryside retreat. The meal was held once in the past and the feedback from past students was very positive and so bidding went high. However it was worth every penny, evening highlights included…
- Transport to and from by FAP clinicians.
- Champagne reception and orderves in Duffus’ picturesque garden, including viewing of the cave and wood (definitely not a forest Paula will have you know).
- A many course sit down dinner with silver service and wine waiters provided (again by FAP clinicians). The beef and Prof’s fudge were exceptional though I feel my main course was let down slightly by Breen’s carrot under-catering issues.
- The décor is also worth mentioning. All best crockery was in use and lighting was provided by candlelight to suit the relaxing sophisticated nature of the evening. I do feel however that this was slightly upset by Wilson’s antics, which included punching (not simply knocking over) 2 large glasses of wine across tables, floors and new dresses, and also setting fire to a role of kitchen role which I now feel should be labelled with flammable signs when Paula is in the vicinity in order to reduce future fire risks.
- Many Disney songs were sung (“has he got a zoo? I’m telling you it’s a world class menagerie!”)…exceptional Disney lyrical knowledge provided by the DD.
- Also Hamish chanting and Chris’s professional air require a mention.
Sunday
The final yr dinner was a massive success and hats off to all those involved in organising. The food was good, clinician panto absolutely hilarious and speeches hilarious (especially comments from Geoff on John’s 1st yr animal health and husbandry mid-ses paper where he mentioned some crazy info about puppies missing out on state benefits in respect to the adv and disadv of neutering). Both Levator and Blue Juice played and both sets were quality. We played chasing cars, some might say, view, pulp and vetlife…definitely one of our best sets even though it was so short and I wouldn’t be unhappy if that’s the last time we play to the year. I was pretty stressed and hungover before we played but following the performance buz and a couple of pints and a cigar the J Spence I was back on track for one quality night!
Monday
Hot Tub Night…this night is definitely gonna have to be up there with my top 10 uni nights… The bell house filled a huge swimming pool with water and then attached a hose to the hot tab in the kitchen and left it running for about 12hrs, the result was awesome, quite literally a huge (and no doubt phenomenally expensive) outdoor hot tub in which 12 people started in and four people remained by daylight, them being me, Paula, JP and the Germanic appreciator Mr Wooding who was the most on form I think I’ve ever seen him. Special memories will include Ian’s clockwork toy dance (for which winding up is a necessity), the Manhattan cocktail, JP’s Mr Sheen with a hint of lime cocktail and Ian’s old school music collection including the likes of Mr Boombastic. JP’s feet are probably important not to be remembered!
All in all for many reasons one of the best vetschool nights.
Tuesday
BBQ at Johns and Paula’s, nothing very exciting just chilled outside on the sofas around the bbq. “I have never” was quite interesting/risky though.
Wednesday
Last night we had a bit of a lad’s night including me, John, DD, Fully & Mr Major. All important areas were covered (football, risk, beer, computer games).

Quite happy with how much I’ve managed to recall, the plan now is to drink very little over the next week or so as I’ve a few things to sort and I’d like to get some of my songs recorded which I can’t achieve with a screwed up voice as is currently the case. However there’s Geoff’s leaving do on Friday and the Jock’s house party plus Langford pub golf on Saturday so we’ll see how things go. Also I’ve an interview at Scarsdale on Weds so nx wk which I plan to spend at home.
Now it’s off to fetch big J and mossy over to Bath for a ruby-murry (in the words of a key Levator band member).

Ok well I’m back after a brief finals interlude of which the last one was this morning, can’t fault me too much for not keeping up with entries over the past few weeks, I felt guilty enough just cooking or sleeping and so there’s been little time for anything else but revision, revision and more revision….

But anyway big news; depending on whether all things go well with results on Monday I should hopefully never need to sit another examination in my life (unless of course I lose the plot in years to come and look down the certificate post grad qualification lines….wait what the hell am I talking about I’ve only just finished this set, to even consider future exams at this time is just ridiculous. Though perhaps this time next year I may suffer from exam withdraw symptoms given that I’ve sat life changing exams this time every year since the days of GCSEs. Reckon next year I’m up for a well earned break from them).

So things to cover in this blog entry… the 07 militant revision session, vivas, upcoming freedom!!

Revision this year has been accomplished purely in the vetschool library. I moved every-single folder, note, book that involves anything vetty into my chosen library spot (this took many car trips I can assure). My spot this year was in the cubicle shed (the same place I ended my revision for last yr’s) it was based in the corner of the shed with a nice open window, an attractive countryside view and a large plant which I didn’t realise would proceed to ooze sap over all my work, forming one large inpractice article on the entire course… Though I had my quaint little spot I tended to drift around a lot over the past few weeks, occasionally revising in the lecture theatre, sometimes behind reception and at one occasion lying on my back in the computer room attempting to force chicken knowledge into my head. However it may be important to note that at no time did I revise in the straw yard, though I did have very brief spells in isolation and at Amy’s desk on the cattle lines (good god we’re losers).
The general routine was arrive late morning, do little work, watch neighbours, do Fiona Fagon, drive back to the sound of blaring cheesy summer time hits, realise done no work yet, panic, revise like a beast till early morning, repeat.
Would imagine that’s probably enough info on what must be one of the dullest subjects I’ve ever written about (and though I realise I’m especially interesting that certainly doesn’t give me permission to ramble on about my revision habits). One last point though; whoever said A-levels are the hardest exams you’ll ever sit is due broken legs and a black eye, what sort of tool goes around telling 6th formers that kind of crap. In my experience exams get harder every year on this course and vivas were no exception to this rule.

(Extra note, I’m currently listening to Nirvana unplugged in New York, an album not aired in its entirety on the Pete jukebox since before vetschool, as such though this potentially symbolic of something poignant).

Final year vetschool vivas consist of five 20/25min long verbal assessments where you are confronted by 2/3 veterinary dons in their chosen specialist subject. You have 2 companion animal science vivas, 2 farm animal science and 1 veterinary public health viva. One of the farm vivas is a practical one and carried out on Wyndhurst farm. Vivas went as follows…
CAS
4: The Shales and Hill tag-team combo nailed me on eosinophilic granuloma complex in cats, atopic dermatitis and hock sub-luxation. I felt I did quite poorly in this viva, I was tired and just gave crap short unthoughful answers (think I may have been a little cocky in the CAS area which definitely didn’t help). However I don’t think I said anything stupid and I got to the right answers eventually.
5: An equine and anaesthesia viva (that’s not standard, just what I got). Neonatal foal health with questions asked by the big Taylor and anaesthetic considerations in a puppy with moderate blood loss and a bitch bleeding out following poor ovarian stump ligation. This viva I felt most happy about out of the 5, I think because the other CAS went poor I gave this one my all and felt like I nailed pretty much every question, which is especially ideal as you only have to pass CAS and FAS vivas overall.
FAS
2: On the farm went almost as well as the good CAS. I got a clinical exam of a cow including DDx of many conditions on the way round. Managed to get in a quality description of the Williams test…which was nice.
3: This viva was a joke, I sat down and the tv was turned on to show a piglet with breathing difficulties, tv off “tell me what you think”… in the short of it I got Ro-ed = an adjective which describes the feeling of your veterinary abilities being reduced to tatters due to the verbal bombardment of chicken, pig or housing related questions. Many students suffered from this syndrome during the 07 viva season, though thankfully (as with my case) most folks got a quality on the farm viva to make up for it. In this viva I also got pregnancy toxaemia and epidurals in sheep which didn’t course any great difficulties.
VPH
1: My first viva and it went surprisingly well apart from me telling the external examiner that his SRM picture was a bucket of fish. However the external commenced the viva by introducing me to a hypothetical consultation room where a pregnant toddler enters with family and puppy (he amended his slightly comical mistake).

Basically vivas in general have gone as good as I could have hoped for, many difficult questions but nothing answered too horrendously I hope. WAS Monday I suppose.

Well I suppose it might be an idea to mention what I’ve got up to today now I’ve got my life back, though I can assure it’s been a highly unexciting though very constructive day. I reckon I’m a bit odd in the fact that I can’t really relax properly until my life is in a generally organised well constructed state (which it certainly wasn’t in following the last viva)… and so today I’ve cleaned my room, tidied up all my belongings, moved out of the library (including Mr Parrot Snake), sorted banking issues, done some exercise, slept a little, had a shower and written this. The plan tonight is to get blind drunk in Dermatophilus Congolensis, think I’d quite fancy watching some Boosh also…which reminds me I’ve bought some awesome DVDs recently!
-A knight’s tale.
- Disney’s Robin Hood.
- Disney’s Sword in the Stone.
- Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
- Once upon a time in Mexico.
- Garden State.
- Dude where’s my car.
(I haven’t bought any DVDs in ages, but I think my stress levels may have exposed themselves through the means of compulsive movie ebay shopping…John pukes, Dave shakes, Paula takes Imodium and I buy DVDs…whose most odd?...John every time I assure, nobody could look as special as John in full-pelt revision mode, glad in dressing gown, mega beard and hat with toilet roll inserted down both ears and made into DIY ear mufflers, we salute you big J Spence and look forward to spying your look-alikes when One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is next viewed.

Upcoming joy is immense as I don’t start work until the end of September (fingers crossed). On a long term basis there are multiple holidays, parties, pub crawls, balls and graduation to look forward to. However in the short term tomorrow it’s off to cribbs to see the rents and then Bristol in the evening. Saturday it’s band practice and the Duffus mega meal in the evening. Sunday it’s more band practice and the final year dinner in the evening. Will provide more copious info on these areas of interest at a later date. For now it’s time to sign off get a beer and put my feet up, I feel I’m in the need of a well deserved period of quality relaxation.

xx

Right I’m currently in imaging and have 10mins to kill before I need to go and collect my dog for ultrasound so thought I’d make a start on this wks blog (probably pretty pointless as no doubt I’ll only have time for another couple of sentences).
Today isn’t crazy busy on surgery but I’ve a million and one other jobs on my to do list including graduation issues, this blog, a seminar, a cat spay and sorting out the removal of myself from Fri night on call in order to attend the barn dance…Would like to say that I don’t usually carry around a to-do list for the day but this seems to be an increasingly sad trend (maybe I should invest in a diary).
Important items on the past wks schedule include pizzas in Bristol, a cinema excursion, a house party, shocking revision quantities and general elective fun (sarcasm should be noted, my elective is not fun and though I’m a big surgery fan I regret not doing any other elective rotation, boo).

-----5hr general work break-----

Now in Langford puter room feeling much more stressed out than reasonable following my brief work interlude...After careful thought I’ve concluded the reason for my current annoyance level is the lack of inter-rotation group assistance i.e. Lex should have the aft off and hasn’t been able to due to overly stressed unthoughtful tools in her group. No doubt my slight intolerance characteristics showing through but the situation would make me especially peeved if couldn’t have an afternoon off because others were slacking.
Sometimes I think I should maybe edit my blog entries a bit as I’m fairly sure some of the stuff written could offend but then at least anyone bored enough to read this gets a factual/realistic account of my time at uni.

So anyway back to point…Believe it or not this blog isn’t going to be entirely work related and given that vivas are only 3wks away I’ve had an excellent wk. However talk on the subject of fun can wait post work…
For the final 2wks of the surgical elective I’ve been timetabled for soft tissue, which though I don’t prefer the discipline to ortho I very much appreciate the distinct drop in case load, the shorter surgeries and the decreased stress quantities associated with it. To be honest the surgical elective was a bad choice in that I’ve had little time for revision and there’s minimal teaching. However I don’t regret choosing the elective as the occasional tutorials we’ve had have been excellent and I doubt I’d have got much revision done anyway. The best tutorial concerned fracture management/repair and involved an afternoon of playing with fake bones. We were instructed through the placement of tension bands, cerclage wire, DCPs and lag screws. Also the rotation has been very positive in the nutrition department as we’ve had lunch every Friday and last week we all went for curry in Cheddar which was a much appreciated quality night out (I ate ridiculous quantities of curry which was inevitable given that my group consists of 2guys and 6girls).
Case load on the elective has been manageable, and those I’ve had have been pretty interesting. Also due to the fact that I’ve actually taken an active interest in learning from them I feel I’ve gotten lot out of them (shame I can’t really say that for the rest of the year). Cases have included elbow fractures, ventral bulla osteotomies, hock fractures, incontinence work ups, carpus valgus etc.
Tomorrow I’ve got a talk to give on “osteosarcoma (do we have a leg to stand on)?”, then Friday it’s elective vivas before the weekend on call and hand over to the forth years on Sunday. A time with no more checks or on call is so close, it’s going to be glorious, I can almost taste the freedom (perhaps a bit melodramatic).

Before I get stuck into the antics of the wk I think it important to mention the revamp of my blog that I spent way too much time over last night completing. Hopefully avid fans have noticed the improvements and now it’s possible to actually see the muppet writing this crap (and no doubt “omg, he actually looks as daft as he sounds” are thoughts audible from numerous readers, especially in respect to the sacred relics photo).
Friday night marked the start of my weekend of enjoyment with a meal at PizzaExpress (classy I know) in Bristol with Laura. During the dinner I thought it would be fairly amusing to ask if Laura could have a go at making a pizza (incase you haven’t been before the kitchen bit’s inside the restaurant and so you get to watch in awe as the super skilled pizza men through dough around the room during your meal). Laura’s attempt was pretty interesting and the hat and apron she was forced to wear were comedy to say the least. Ideally though we got to keep the pizza for free and so I had it for my lunch the next day, sweeeeebooooo.
Saturday I attempted to revise but got dragged away by Dave at 10pm to attend a house party in Bristol he’d just seen on facebook. The party was hosted by a bunch of medic females of which one dates Dave’s mate Greg (gotta love facebook). The party looked pretty shocking upon arrival, few people and not much atmosphere. However thankfully we opted not to make a swift exit as thinks got fairly out of control (plus we couldn’t really go anywhere as we were both sporting shorts and flipflops due to a lack of time to get changed. This also meant that chastity boxers were included in my general outfit but that’s definitely superfluous knowledge...my god I’m a geek). Anyway antics included:
- The conga clothing changing jogging circuit.
- Crazy cocktails.
- Bedouin tent.
- A well spoken medic named Emily.
- Dave’s parking.
And so Sunday was a hung over mess which meant Sunday night was fit for one thing…spider man 3, very cheesy but thoroughly fantastic, want to see it again and since viewing I confess I’ve had a very juvenile obsession with wishing my surname was Parker (this is becoming a very loser-esque entry).

Just realised I’ve definitely written enough plus there’s lots of jobs still to do today. Over the next few days it’s elective wind up and hopefully the barn dance on Friday. One may get the impression I’ve lost focus on the revision front but to be honest it’s practically impossible to revise and do a surgical rotation, plus I’ve 15days with nothing but 12hrs of daily revision still to contend with before my first viva.

xx

I’m now a week into the final chapter of this five year UoB veterinary science sentence and the end is so close it makes me nervous just thinking about it. I’ve got 2wks of the elective rotation to complete, 2wks of revision and then it’s finals, scary stuff! And though I’m heading into cliché territory “time’s literally flown by”; if I didn’t know for sure that I’ve been on this course for 5yrs then consulting my brain would state time spent studying in Bristol to be no longer than a year with an incredible amount squeezed in. (don’t worry I’ll stop with the nostalgia, there’ll no doubt be unbearable quantities at the end of this term).

Life back in Langford started aprox 3wks ago when I moved back in for Easter holiday ems. I managed 2wks at Derby home before this where time was spent completing my last wk of real ems and generally relaxing/studying at home before hardcore revision had to commence. The ems wk was equine in Derby, I could have done some farm but my equine knowledge is pretty atrocious so unfortunately I had no choice. In Langford over the Easter hols I had my absolute final wk of ems to complete which was a surgical CAS wk on site. These are normally far from ideal as you spend 7days checking animals and generally being a university clerking bitch, however due to multiple bank hols and congress the case load was minimal. Therefore time over Easter hols was mainly spent revising or having essential neighbours/Wilson exercise tape revision breaks (no more details on this subject).

Currently final year students are completing their elective rotations, mine being surgery. When we received the forms last term to indicate are elective preferences I really didn’t apply enough consideration as to what putting surgery as my first choice could entail, as now I’ve way too much work to get anything like enough revision done. Most other electives seem to be based around giving students as much teaching as poss as organisers know finals are so incredibly soon. However unfortunately surgery is always way to busy to afford anyone cast under it’s shadow of stress any free time. Apparently future years have complained about the rotation and as such we’ve a few tutorials and clinicians are definitely trying to involve the students as much as poss, it just comes down to the fact that the surgical department here is so crazy busy. I think if I had my choice again I’d have gone for imaging, clinical pathology or farm. However I do enjoy surgery most, I just wish I had some spare time to actually get some revision done. Though once the elective is over there’s still 17days to get some hardcore revision done before the first viva.
The finals consist of 5vivas and 2steeple chase examinations. There’s basically a smalls, equine, farm, farm plus live cow and a vph viva. The steeple chase exams consist of one CAS and one FAS computer based exam.Will give more info on nearer the time.

As far as anything particaulaly fun is concerned I’ve managed to get out and about a couple of times over the past few wks. Me and Dave had a comedy night out in Taunton when I recruited him for moral support/wingman purposes. Highlights of the night included crazy hats, lots of dancing, fox cubs, a broken now well hidden mop and Dave doing an anaesthetic early the next morning when the GA’ed animal was probably more with it him. Also I had a fun night out at the pubs of Nether Stwoey last Fri with Laura, potentially more news at a later date.

Well that’s enough for now as I’m tired, I meant to write this at some point during the day but got further and further behind work wise. Hopefully will report in again nxt w.e.

TTFN xx

Final blog of the penultimate vetschool term is being written in my foster practice, it's a quiet morning and so ideally I've found time to get this rattled off during my lunch break. Things to consider in this blog; the last week of rotations, couple of nights out, rounding things up and finally getting home and being able to spend a short amount of time with my family before work begins again... The last week of rotations for me was the behaviour/avian/exotics wk. An incredible week not only because you get the Monday and Friday off and there's no on call but the work is really interesting (something I don't say very often). However there was a distinct negative side to the wk which was a hellish day on rabbits. The rabbit day involved no tutorials, very limited teaching and generally moping around watching surgery which was so busy viewing the op site was not worth fighting the way to the front for. Though it wasn't all doom and gloom as I got to do some of an overly pampered spay. The avian and behaviour days were awesome, the clinicians involved gave some excellent, highly interactive tutorials and I really enjoyed the content as we covered many aspects that we could expect to deal with in general practice. One item I failed to mention concerning the wk before last was that we had an African Tawny Eagle come into the SAP that had eaten half a dead rat. The bird was incredible and worth a fortune as it was set to become a star in the upcoming planet earth movie. Thankfully we weren’t involved in the GA but the clinician in charge looked pretty stressed.
Theoretically rotations have now finished but there’s still the 3wk surgical elective to contend with and so until that’s over I’m not going to be really celebrating the end of electives. However the end of rotations does have an important significance as I’ll never work with my rotation group again, which is highly unfortunate as we were one awesome team and had some utter comedy times, I’ll not get too emotional until the year’s properly over.

Other than work the last wk has revolved around jobbin…i.e. tying up all loose ends, getting things sorted that have been put to one side and generally trying to reorganise my life after spending all my time either in SAP, at band practice or organising VetAid2. Thankfully alls back on track and I’ve only finals to worry about (only a little something then hey).
Couple of big social nights worth mentioning include a trip to the preclinical panto and an end of rotations extravancanza. The preclinical panto this year was excellent, comedy script and quality acting. I’d planned to not go out after but some how ended up in Lounge planning on driving back into SAP the next morning, unfortunately I got clocks muddled and ended running across Bris to get my car from the union and arriving SAP an hr and half late, thankfully much grovelling saw me through the clinician wrath. Comedy part of the evening has to be miniMat unable to get me out the club unless I sang all the songs out of bed knobs and broomsticks (can’t remember a thing).
End of rotations started very sociably at Dave’s with a rotation group Chinese and then we all trotted off into Bris for Lounge festivities. Not much to say really just a quality no fall outs end of term (quite a rarity as most term endings end up with carnage).
Also over the past wk I had a very pleasant evening in with Sinead watching a movie and eating a ready steady cook style dinner cooked by me, Sinead was much impressed.
This week I’m doing EMS then it’s revision then elective then revision then vivas, so not at all far off now. Honestly I’m not too afraid yet, I think the big fear will set in when I start revising properly and I realise I’ve a lot of work to do, it’ll be fine (always is).
I’ve had feedback from SAP and Liverpool, didn’t get Liverpool job and in SAP they say I’m either excellent or awful (least I know I can do the job when I feel like it and to be honest it’s quite hard to get motivated when you’ve zero responsibility). Current work plans now lie in general practice, hopefully close to home, 100% smalls with no on call or out of hours, plus I’ve embarked on a few entrepreneur schemes.

On a final note to round of the penultimate vetschool term, the final year of vetschool is god dam fantastic. This has been the best year by miles, no lectures, practical work, some sense of responsibility and a sort of psuedo work environment which is highly enjoyable and a quality place to learn in. However, I feel it’s definitely now time to flee the nest and I want to actually join the real world at last and have an income in a job I’ll hopefully enjoy.
No doubt will be logging back in next term so until then avid fans don’t work too hard, remember it’s EMS quality as well as quantity and respect your Nan.

xx

One week of rotations to go and it’s Easter hols, the end of final yr is drawing ever closer and the onset of the last wk brings the next stepping stone towards graduation ever closer. Once Easter is over I’ve a 3wk surgical elective to contend with and then it’s revision and hopefully vivas plus graduation. Great Scot is the quote that springs to mind and there’s a fair chance I could even end up resembling the doc after what’s gonna be one reclusive couple of months of revision!

The rest of SAP last wk was incredibly useful. I had a fair sized phobia of consultations before this rotation, not that I particularly struggle in any particular aspect of the skills required for consulting, I was very unsure of my ability to cumulate the skills. Thankfully all good though and my wks feedback basically said that I can consult really well (and also quite badly) and that my biggest problem was consistency, which is fair enough as I think once I’d discovered I could consult fine the challenge aspect diminished and so I couldn’t gather the enthusiasm to consult well when I knew everything I did was checked and the final decision isn’t mine anyway. I’m sure in practice when the responsibility for an animal’s health care is actually my own I’ll keep up the consistency of good work.
This wks rotation is exotics, one of the easiest wks, plus it’s non-assessed. Today and Fri are both off and the other 3days involve rabbits, birds and behaviour. The wk is non assessed and so passing SAP shouldn’t be an issue. Also I’ve got my feedback now from the last rotation (small animal medicine and ICU) and I managed a merit, though the comments were interesting. It stated that my strongest areas were academic/practical skills and that I was weak communicator which makes no sense as communication skills are by far my strongest area, comedy feedback really as just goes to show how much the clinicians can actually remember about each student.

Last wk a social live didn’t really exist as I gave my life to the band, practising pretty much every night. Though Fri night I did get chance for a couple of beers with JP and analytically viewing of one major chic flick…Devil Wears Prada (Hugo’s Choice).
The big event of the past wk was VetAid2 on Sat night. I organised one a yr ago with the help of Chris which was a fair success, however this years was even bigger and the night raised aprox £2k for charity. The evening’s line up went as follows:
- Doors 7
- Acoustic acts 8 (Prof Barr playing instrumental, myself playing time for heroes and lights go out in Langford, Chris and JP playing Bedouin Soundclash)
- Indecent Exposure (played 4song set).
- Blue Juice (played 40min set)
- Clinician auctions.
- Levator Ani (played 40min set)
- The Langford Stranglers (1hr set)
- Disco to the early hrs (inc. TT vs 50cent)
The clinician auctions went amazingly well and included some quality promises including a meal for 12, 6, 4 and 2 people, a bike ride, art work, cookies, fly a falcon, 4people canoeing trip, French maid house cleaning etc. Me, Dave, John, Paula and 8others won the 12person meal for £525 (£43 each) which sounds a lot but the promise is amazing…All picked up and dropped off at home, a 5course dinner cooked by 2 of the senior farm clinicians, beer and champagne for the evening and waiting services provided by the farm interns/residents…ideal! Think we’ll do it after vivas.
I was fairly stressed about the night until we’d played, the Stranglers set had gone well and everything was removed for the conference. I was then able to get incredibly drunk and dance about in the bar to the early hours, plus we had a mic and amp separate to the bar PA so karaoke was sort of possible and much comedy singing was achieved, including ranting to the likes of bat out of hell. However 50cent Vs Thomas the tank engine and the William Tell Overture win the most entertaining music prizes for the evening.

Today’s been a jobbin day, trying to get everything sorted I haven’t had time for over the past couple of weeks. Later I’m going swimming then meeting Dave, John, Pablos for dinner in Bristol to discuss summer travelling plans.
Still haven’t heard back from Liverpool interview yet.

xx

Crazy amount of time since my last blog but with fair reason, I know I always say I’ve been busy but the past 2wks have been ridiculous!..
Currently I’m in one of the consult rooms in SAP hoping I can get all I’d like to say down before I get dragged away to watch a dental…

Work wise over the past 2wks have included finishing my ICU days rotation, starting the SAP rotation and preparing for a job interview.
The ICU days rotation was quite enjoyable and though I mainly looked after one patient for the wk who had laryngeal paralysis/mega-oesophagus and a tracheostomy I felt I got a lot out of it. I also got a bit of spare time which was ideal as I was able to get some general revision done.
The past week I’ve been working in PDSA in Bristol which has been absolutely fantastic. My general fear of consults is now completely destroyed and I feel I actually had a fair clue as to what was going on with the animals I saw and what treatment to administer. Best thing about the wk was the vet responsible for our time there as he was an absolute legend. He talked things through with us, helped us come to our own conclusions concerning cases and generally provided a quality stress free atmosphere to sort out our consultation skills.
This week I’ve just started is small animal 1st opinion practice in Langford Site in the shiny new practice. I missed my first day yesterday due to an interview in Liverpool but I’ll come onto that in a min. It’s excellent that I had my PDSA week before this SAP wk as it means I’ve sorted out my consultation skills before the wk when they’re properly assessed. This wk revolves around morning and 4-6pm consults with tutorials run in the afternoon, the one today being on geriatric patients.
After this wk I finish my rotations with the exotics wk which includes Mon and Fri off (breaks I’m going to much need following the manicness of the past couple of wks and this one).
Big work related event since last entry is my interview for the internship in small animal studies at Liverpool. The interview was on Monday and I prepared pretty well for it after having spent most evenings in the library over the past 2wks. I got the train up on Sat so I didn’t have to travel the day before with plans to study in Liverpool’s library. It was quite useful having my friend Nick studying at Liverpool as I was able to crash at his place though unfortunately I’ve being trying to find time to go see him over the past couple of terms and the time I can make it up I had little time to see the dude.
The interview itself went fairly well with just basic questions on why I want the placement/what I think it involves/ can I teach etc. The hard part was the 15min written exam before hand which I hadn’t expected. This went quite terribly as I only answered 1 out of the 3 questions, though I answered the one fairly well I thought. However after speaking to others applying it seems very few people actually make much progress through the paper. After the interview a few pints in Liverpool were essential before getting the train back here to rejoin the bizarre pseudo-reality little insular world of Langford (love it really).

Main social events include (not as numerous as norm due to wrk efforts) a gig, a trip north, a band night and upcoming VetAid2…
The gig was Ash last Thursday. Myself, Sarah, Ian and his little bro went along and it was one of the best nights I’ve had in ages. They played a great selection covering all albums though unfortunately the Ash highlight of Charlotte wasn’t present as apparently she’s on solo projects.
The trip North was a weekend in Newcastle to see Rich. I always like to make it up there once a term and unfortunately couldn’t make it last so we had to ensure a quality weekend which was definitely achieved. The highlights included…
- Both Newcastle uni’s and Northumbria’s big weekly student nights out were attended where nothing especially comedy took place just the usual antics of much drunken crazy dancing fun, singing and lying around on pavements.
- A trip to the seaside in the bitter cold, including a walk round a market straight out of Bed Knobs and Broomsticks.
- A curry (always essential).
- Theatre excursion (highly cultural) to see Martin Freeman and guy out of Only Fools and Horses staring in a play about the importance of comedy and past war efforts with modern day implications.
- Quality feast and multiple film night in including The Goonies and Full Metal Jacket (definitely a contrasting combination).
Weekend before last there was a band night on the Sat which Blue Juice played in and organised, before hand though numerous people including myself played a few acoustic numbers. I got in Hard fi-tied up too tight, get cape/bright eyes song, view same jeans. Went down pretty well and rest of night was excellent fun, thought the William Tell Overture wasn’t played at the end which is always important for a quality night.

Presently the main things taking my time up are SAP, practising for this Sat coming, trying to start finals revision and generally juggling a million and one things I’m trying to sort/organise.
Sat looks to be a quality night, I’ve got 4bands lined up, a clinician promise auction, a dj set and a disco on the cards, all of which takes a fair amount of effort to ensure it doesn’t screw up on the night. Will report back next wk in regards to the level of success of the evening and the fate of the Langford music scene when I depart

Think that’s enough for now, it’s never a good idea for me to miss out blogs as the next one I right then becomes and essay. Expect to get one down Mon when the final week of rotations start, sounds scary stuff but quite looking forward to it, rotations have been awesome but I’m feeling it’s time to move on, grow up and face the music of the real world.

TTFN x

It's lunch time and I'm in the computer room surrounded by 1st years as they all get bussed into Langford on a Thursday for lectures and practicals. It's a bit weird because I can vividly remember being in their situation and looking up in awe at final years in their shirts and ties thinking I'm a million miles away from their position. But anyway I've made it this far and am now only a few vivas away from becoming MRCVS, crazy and scary but also cool as I'd quite like to have a go at the job and more importantly actually earn some money.

Ok work stuff over the past week has been ICU nights and the canine medicine rotation. ICU nights were 3shifts of 8pm-8am stuck in ICU. Thankfully all my nights were fine and apart from checks taking a fair time and Skeps getting bitten by an aborting cat all went well. I brought my guitar to keep entertained and Skeps got multiple Lost episodes in.
Canine medicine has so far been an incredible rotation. Time is spent taking histories, working up cases, having tutorials and looking after in patients. I currently have a chronic renal failure and a haematuria/carpal trouble case. The rotation is especially good because the clinicians actually take the time to talk through the cases and ensure we actually understand what the rationale is behind decisions ensuring we get the most out of it (and to be honest I doubt I've really gotten anywhere near the most out of any rotation as I somewhat lack the slightly keen/geeky drive required). The tutorials are most useful as a clinician spends the last half hr of each day talking through all the cases with us and if there's nothing knew to discuss conducting a talk on a subject of the 4 of ours choice.
Next week it's onto ICU days (not so ideal in anyway).

Social events over the past week have been fairly minimal mainly thanks to ICU nights though we did have one big night out on Tuesday when Dave, JP, John and me went to the nme indie tour and then me and Dave went to The Lounge. The gig was awesome as The View and The Automatic headlined and we’re all appreciating The View a lot at the mo as the album was listened to excessively in Glasgow. However the support acts weren’t quite so ideal (The horrors were comedy to watch though I especially liked the keyboardists cape). After the gig we got some drinks in (including our annual salt intake) then headed to Lounge for mad dancing and nose blowing (a recently remembered insult were one gets their nasal passages aerated by a friend/foe, not pleasant and my cousin Lemonie is to blame for it). Somehow me and Dave got left in Bristol as we got lost in Lounge and then decided to walk the 14miles back to Congresbury, obviously we failed but thankfully her majesty’s free taxis picked us up, and as the officer owned falcons he appreciated the conversation and decided to drop us off at Dave’s door…an ideal end to the evening though not sure the clothing challenged road run celebration was necessary.
Other social fun has included some games of risk and on the exercise front I’ve got a fair bit of swimming in.

Organising type stuff is fairly slack at the mo… Levator is practising hard for VetAid2, I’m playing 4acoustic songs for another band night this Sat and I’m trying to get all my songs recorded (badly) and put on cd.

Tonight I’ m relaxing and have checks at 8:00, and tomorrow I’ve a highly unusual meeting with a girl called Claire I met at Glasgow AVS.

xx

For the first time in as long as I can remember I’ve had a completely chilled out day… Got up late, read book, watched tv, played guitar, did some exercise and now I’m in the library which is where I’ve been for past hour and half thinking about doing some work. Haven’t really got any work done but the fact I’m here means the balls rolling on the revision front.

Since I last wrote work wise I’ve done pretty much nothing as I’ve started my ICU night week with the 3 days on call. Basically I worked Monday morning 3am till 11am, and then every night up till Thursday night I’m just on call and cross fingers I shouldn’t get called out. However once Thursday night is reached it’s 8pm till 8am shifts for three nights in a row. These shifts constitute living in ICU for 12hrs sleeping, watching youtube movies and hopefully playing guitar if I can smuggle it in. Obviously there is some work to be done and this consists of 12am and 4am checks which can take anything from 1-4hrs each (should only be about 1hr though unless very busy). The big disaster when on ICU nights occurs if a constant monitoring presents, when someone has to sit with an animal for the entire night (which is when the on call get brought in).
Last night myself and Skeps where very close to getting called in for an over the door check on a dog in isolation at both 12 and 4. One clinician wanted us both in to peer over the door of its kennel and clean up any excrement (something tells me our time isn’t highly valued)… Thankfully another clinician came up with the plan of: ICU night team (already in) looks over the isolation door at the dog and if it needs crap removing we get called in. Mercifully the dog refrained from crapping over night.
Once the week of ICU nights is over it’s onto dog medicine.

The main item on Pete’s social agenda over the past week was the Glasgow vetball. Myself, John and Dave drove up on Friday, I shared the driving with John which was horrendous. I only had to deal with rain driving but John got all the snow of the Midlands which severely hampered our efforts. I’ve strong memories of John talking to his Mum on the phone while the car tried to skid side ways down the motorway at about 5miles an hour. Though thankfully John ate plenty of strawbs to keep his energy levels and concentration at maximum (don’t stick them down your ear).
Friday night Sue, Sam, the 3of us and some of Sue’s house mates made it to Glasgow’s union for a few drinks which was great fun though lasted only about an hour.
Saturday the 5 of us went to a Loch which was nice. We took photos, drank some tea, went for a walk and Dave tried to drown me. My driving of John’s car was awesome though not all agreed.
Saturday night was the ball and the highlights were:
- The bag pipe impression (involving us 3 hitting a screeching cord and Claire freestyling over the top… probably one of the most horrendous noises a human could ever hear).
- Nose blowing in general especially on Claire.
- Dancing to the crazy Scottish folk music with an attractive Scottish girl who lead me though the crazy dance routines (including the Gay Gordon).
- The tackling of the giant jenka tower.
Sunday we had breakfast near Sue’s then set off on the epic journey back to Bristol stopping at DD’s on route for Sunday lunch.

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When I went to the Glasgow vetball I returned with bagpipes/ bucket smashed crabs/ candelabra/ Haggis/ drunk American man/ Chesney Hawks cd/ Gay Gordon dance routine/ coconut cake/ std/ ginger merkin/phlegm on the car/ lead lined sporran/ ability to Scottish dance/ bagpipe impression/ a DB9/ a broken leg/ the same jeans/ a muppet called Phil/ fire drill/crazy chinese man/ legend called Graham/ a back massage from the imaging team/ the archaic sign from outside the common room.
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Other social stuff this week included going out for dinner and visiting wildwalk with Sarah yesterday and hopefully tonight a load of us are heading to the pub to celebrate being single.

As far as organising stuff is concerned.
VetAid2 is sorted, just need to get the practicing in.
Levator album is making little progress though I’ve got a feeling that will have to wait till after exams.
There’s talk of us going travelling in Aug but will have to was.

Now I’m going to get another 2hrs work done before ICU rounds.

xx

It’s that time of week again where I try to cram all I’ve been up to into 30mins of rampant typing (which I admit sounds like I’m trying to glorify my super busy life but these past coupe few weeks have been crazy busy even for me)…

Work wise I’m still seeing practice in Bridgewater which I’m thoroughly enjoying (excluding the 40min drive there and back). I don’t get to do a great deal but I’m well included in all goings on i.e. I scrub into ortho cases, talk through consults and generally chip in with most tasks which nurses always appreciate. Today I got involved in a cranial cruciate ligament surgical repair on a rotty which was really useful and interesting given that it was the first time the surgeon had done the technique used and as such was being talked through every step by another partner at the practice.
I’ve only the remainder of this week at my ems rotation placement and I’m surely going to miss it next week when I get thrown back into the surgery building starting my small animal medicine rotation on ICU night duty, definitely going to be a plunge back into the Langford deep end.

Over the evenings of the past week I’ve been doing a fair bit of exercise (swimming etc) and Levator have had a few jams which have gone really well. It’s nice to be able to have a band practice without a forth coming gig looming over us and as such jams have been chilled out and we’ve able to play some oldees and generally just mess about a bit. However, we’ll have to get a set list sorted soon and proper practicing started as VetAid2 isn’t that far off.

Over the weekend I went out Friday night to Zizzis then the Lounge for Claire’s birthday which was a very contrasting night to my normal alcohol fuelled mad clubbing antics as I decided to remain sober given that I wanted to drive home home afterwards. Thankfully my fun sans alcohol experiment was a success and I had a good night, though driving home at 2am was interesting, thank god for redbull.
Saturday I got a well needed haircut avec Rich and then went to the infamous Derby Assembly Rooms in order to observe my skin and blister dance. Hannah’s been dancing for the past 15yrs (which is quite impressive given that she’s 18) and every year the school puts on a big show for all members from babies to adults (not actually babies that’s just the group name). Han dances for the seniors whom are always impressive to watch, unfortunately the same can’t be said for many of the other groups and shoddy adult tab could kill a man through boredom in less than 5mins. As always Han’s dancing was awesome, I just hope she continues when she leaves for uni.
Saturday night me, Rich and Chris (Han’s illegally stowed away boyfriend) hit some bars in Derby and got a lift back with one of Chris’s boyo friends (felt 17 again racing through the streets of Derby with some ridiculous bass cannon blowing holes in my ear drums).

Sunday was sort Pete out a job day as I set about the task of completing my cv and covering letter in order to apply for the Liverpool internship. Thankfully I recruited help in the style of Mr Borgeat, Mum, Dad and Rich (obviously Hannah and Alfred-Alfmeister were loitering in the side lines for general moral support). I almost got both of them done but unfortunately had to leave home before completion in order to make a band practice. However, alls sorted now and the plan is to get my application sent off tonight then cross fingers tightly for an interview.

Well that’s enough I feel, now it’s off to a crappy talk in order to get money off my final year dinner (they do like to bribe us), then it’s swimming with John and then the pub to celebrate Claire’s birthday.

This weekend I’m off to Glasgow for their vetball because I can’t go to mine because I’m on ICU nights.

xx

Lots to talk about but very little time to write it down in (seems to be the general theme every time I sit down to right one of these things)…

Firstly and obviously most importantly…work type stuff.
The past week or so has involved ems at a practice in Bridgewater which is were I’ll be seeing practice for the entirety of my ems rotation, a rotation where you purely do ems and get a much needed very ideal break away from the surgery building.
Work experience is great though I won’t mention the practice name, the staff are very friendly, the practice is modern and there’s a diplomat in small animal medicine present plus a referral surgeon often visits. So all in all an interesting place to see practice, plus they don’t mind what crazy hour I rock up or decide to leave which is a practice some places I’ve been to frequently dislike (fair enough really, but if there’s nothing interesting coming in or going on I never see why students have to hang around). As far as letting me get involved with stuff they’re pretty good, I put in most catheters, have scrubbed in on a cruciate repair plus limb amputations and they’re excellent a talking through cases with me…
However the most worrying thing is that I feel like I’m being treated as more of a slightly remedial vet than the generally pretty useless student that I actually am, which is much appreciated and by the end of this ems, and a whole mass of revision, starting work in smalls has become a much less daunting prospect, in fact I’d go as far as to say I’m looking forward to it!

The other work related item at the mo is my current aspiration inspired by the Borgeat to go for an intern position, obviously I won’t get one but it’s worth a try then I can have a year in practice and try again. Current application I’m trying to sort out is for Liverpool, need to write my CV and find me some referees.

Right now fun type stuff… The weekend just gone sort of started Thurs night with a trip out with the Greek and Jim to celebrate the forth years finishing their exams. Not much worth telling but a quality night none the less. The big event of the week was over the weekend and involved my rotation group plus JP going to a bunkhouse in the Brecon Beacons for a weekend where we basically got drunk and went for a walk. The key points of the weekend include:…
- Playing Sardines, the bitch, ring of fire, risk, mysteries of old peking.
- Pole dancing involving group dances and much spinning.
- Drinking popcorn.
- Truth or dare and spin the bottle (major old school) some excellent dares were achieved including nakedness, pruning, eating risk men, Russian roulette (though Dave’s a cheat!) and some unspeakable truths.
The motto of the event was: “What happens in the barn stays in the barn and the loser gets *****”. I’ve taken the ring of fire rules with me home as a keepsake.

Last night also needs a mention before conclusion… me and Sarah went to watch get cape at the anson rooms following an awesome subway and some comedy scrabble in a very nice bar. The guy was awesome and the album is now getting large quantities of airtime while travelling the 40mins to and from ems each day.

Upcoming stuff includes some levator jams, a trip home and a night out.
Organising at the mo includes vetaid2, levators album and intern applications.

Right now I’m going to do some exercise and clean the girls toilet (not at same time), Mat decided the house is to have an out of season spring clean…great.

Back for what really constitutes the final term of Pete’s vetschooling, as this will be the last term of normal work/play etc. However the problem with this mentally is that I’m likely to let my hair down (so to speak) for an entire term with the beast of revision being adequately suppressed to be released upon the third term, though really I should get cracking for finals some time this term (maybe I’ll start about half way through, then I could gradually increase the workload instead of doing the standard month of 12hr days)…

Honestly didn’t mean to come straight back in with a revision rant, but then it’s fairly obvious what’s top concern in my head at the mo.

Ok things to talk about… Xmas/NewYrs, first week back (wrk and social), upcoming organising and good times to come…

Xmas was fantastic this year due the complete lack of exams; this was the first xmas in 6-7 years that I haven’t had any exams! And thus I obviously made the most of this fact. Skiing before xmas for a week with 26 of us from the year/vet friends/and my little bro at the Les Deux Alps was an incredible time. The accommodation/skiing/company were all quality and favoured memories include:
- The falls.
- The sauna/pool mad drunken dashes
- Bottenanna bang your shoes on the ceiling song.
- Dave’s constant sewing in order to make Loic the stuffed Robin.
- Mine and Rich’s attic room.
- The stolen barbed wire, dirty laundry, present and red ski pole.
- Last night bbq and nxt door chalet break in including custard out the tea pot on the sauna stove.
Xmas was standardly very family orientated and my presents included ski stuff, electric razor and a wallet.
New yr was spent at DD’s with a mass of vets and the night ranked very highly if not highest on my newyr rating list. Things to take note of include:
- The cat toy pics.
- Dog bowl/tea cossy on heads (the sacred relics).
- Spirits in syringes.
- Sleeping outside
- Makareena with Dave’s parent’s friends.
Apologies if writing is a bit listed in this blog but if I tried to elaborate on these nights the length of this blog could be ridiculous.

And so after a few great fun nights in Derby and a two week stretch of large animal work with Scarsdale I’ve returned to Langfordton to once again try to seamlessly fit back into this bizarre lifestyle of work/play/s/alcohol/guitars all balanced in the most appropriate measures?..
Going back to large animal ems I scarily enjoyed my past couple wks, mainly doing farm work, and for a very very short period of time I was actually thinking of considering farm work as farmers are awesome, the few ops done are great fun and I love driving around chatting and listening to music. However, on your own doing the job and the lack of op diversity has dissuaded me, so the aspirations are back to small animals and their surgery. I’ve even got round to looking into some potential intern positions, but that can be saved for future entries.
The past week work wise has revolved around anaesthesia for the final week of the 3wk rotation. It was a bit odd coming back to a rotation after a 4wk break and it’s scary how much you completely forget as the knowledge level was equivalent to when I first started, infact the anaesthesia rotation seems to have two starts which is especially problematic considering the first couple days of most rotations are by far the worst before you get settled in. However the week somehow went fine and I anaesthetised a horse, couple of cats for neutering and a dog for a femoral fracture repair.
The rotation ended Friday with the anaesthetic assessment where everyone gets given a case/question and then has 30mins to read up on the topic and present a 15min talk. The general year consensus on this morning is one of stressful nightmarish hell which was once again completely untrue as all from my group delivered a quality presentation and the team marking were relaxed and appreciating the jokes added to talks i.e. Steve’s obese dog with aspirational pneumonia (in jokes so crap not worth explaining). So for most people the rotation ended Fri though for me it continues over the weekend as I’m call, though luckily have so far escaped call in (got tonight to go yet though!).
Final note on the past rotation is that I got chatting with one of the anaesthetic clinicians in the pub who let it slip that the entire group has passed that I’ve got a merit and there’s even a few distinctions dotted about.

Enough work blurb, social stuff over the past week has been quite exciting… I returned to uni Sat night and thought before I went home I’d go to the old inn with my car full of gear and meet the mates for pint. However the subdued plan got changed upon arrival after finding John on a drunken mission with the logic that if he got blind drunk Sat night he’d sleep all day Sun ready for ICU nights Sun night. And so thanks to Baron Spencer the night turned to drinking games, hitting the old inn gong, having an egg/lettuce/beer fight at Dave’s then onto John’s for lounge trashing and tickling (the weird, slightly perverseness of that last sentence has meant it’s escaped editing)… I think things are really starting to get out of hand as these sort of antics are quickly becoming the norm for a night out, maybe at some point we should consider growing up (though definitely not yet).
Other socialising this week included some nights of 24 and Billy Connolly, couple of pub nights, a dinner for KJB’s birthday and a huge night Friday at Langford bar to celebrate many people’s January birthdays. Points worth mentioning of the night include:
- much pre bar beer and Japanese Anime with Steve and Paul.
- Naked dancing (photos on facebook horrendous).
- Finishing the night with the William Tel Overture at incredible volumes watching a drunken mob run crazy round the bar acting like possessed jockeys. I think I may have discovered a new finale song for bar nights.

General organising at the mo includes VetAid2, our CD and the rotation barn trip. VetAid2 so far has Levator and Blue juice signed up plus we’ve sorted a date, and so the next items to be scheduled are; get a PA/hire the conference room/get Stranglers on board and get the band practising. The CD mentioned is what is hopefully going to result in Levator producing an album before the end of the year as a bit of a souvenir before levator is forced apart (it’s going to be emotional).
The barn trip is going ahead this weekend and looks like it’s going to include 8/9 of my rotation group plus some friends going for a weekend to get drunk in a barn in the Brecon Beacons, what more can anybody ask for in life.

That is definitely enough Pete ranting for now, I’m off to make some dinner then round to John’s for 24 followed by the pub. Tomorrow I start my ems rotation (3 wks of small animal practice 30mins drive South from here).

TTFN

Only going to be a brief entry as it was only 4days since my last blog, but I better conclude this terms blogs now or I might not get another chance till after xmas...

Since I last wrote I've completed another 3days of my Anaesthesia rotation which have gone really well. I've Anaesthetised a couple of cats, a rabbit, a dog and a calf. All were relatively routine except the dog which was a major orthopaedic op involving carpus (wrist) straightening due to a premature closure of a growth plate, major cosideration for the case being pain relieve as radius/ulna are broken during the procedure. All my anaesthetics have gone fine excpet my spey yesterday which went a bit light at one point (very difficult to assess as jaw tone was constant, eyes were fixed due to ketamine and palpebral reflex was bizzare and inconsistant with other depth parameters...it's all a learning curve).
The good thing with the Anaesthesia rotation is the copious amount of time off and due to some slight swapping around I've landed myself with today and tomorrow off to get stuff sorted, however I was 1st on call last night (though some how managed to not get called out and spent the evening being cooked for by dave and watching killbill2 with Sarah).

Big things up coming before the end of term:
- xmas part in Bristol tonight.
- final year xmas dinner tomorrow (whole year plus some clinicians get drunk and eat xmas food in the langford canteen).

Term finishes Friday and my little bro is coming over in the evening to make it in time for the meal. Then Saturday a group of 26 of us are off skiing in Les Deux Alps including Rich, should be fantastic. John and I are going to get some lessons there as are standard is a bit below others attending.

Last thing to mention before coming to a close is that Alfie is getting on great at home, there's been minimal accidents so far and he seems generally fearless of everything (Mum even woke him up with the hoover other day and he just went back to sleep).

Well that will do I feel for this term, which as I always say has gone incredibly fast. The first term of every year is always fantastic but this one for many reasons has stood out from the rest, I can honestly say that this term has been by far my best at uni, an openmic2 night, my band sounding quality, a great pantomine, some new friendships made/old ones sealed, and now it's due to finish with what will no doubt be an awesome holiday. In some way i feel that this term's conclusion marks an end of a vetschool lust for fun era as when i return the shadow of finals will be looming to close for comfort and work efforts may well need to increase. However I've no exams after xmas, so for the first time in 7years I've no xmas revision to do.

Happy Christmas everyone. x

Firstly I need to add an important evening last week that I missed out…Me and Rich went to Langford Inn for my slightly delayed birthday present, much essential relaxation after a very hectic week and some bread and butter pudding (always ideal)…

Anyway currently I’m sat at home getting this rattled off before I drive back to Bristol for some xmas dinners. Essential items on the past week’s addenda include a pantomime, some films, year book, and the dreaded Anaesthesia rotation!

So work wise, I’ve completed my first week on Anaesthesia and it’s actually gone completely fine. For some reason there’s a general fear amongst the year of this rotation as some of the clinicians involved can be quite stressy, however if you don’t mind being shouted at a little and don’t take criticism to heart then it’s actually a interesting very practical based rotation. I did a bit of reading around for once before the rotation began which definitely helped a lot and so far I’ve anaesthetised two cats and a dog, one of which was a routine spey and the others non routine. The best thing about the Anaesthesia rotation is the copious amount of time off, there’s actually more days out of clinics than in, and when you’re in you’ll probably get one or two cases for the day. However, anaesthesia on call can be a bit of a nightmare as if pretty much anything takes place on Langford site your going to get called in.
Next week on Anaesthesia I’m only in Mon-Weds as I’ve swapped some of my days off, this is ideal as I can get sorted for skiing on the Thurs/Fri and there’s parties/xmas dinners on these nights.

Biggest talking point of this blog has to be the 2006 clinical review! Every year the final years put on a pantomime to run for two days at the end of first term. The standard of the night is always ridiculously high especially given that everyone should be immensely busy stressing over clinics and fretting about the ever looming shadow of finals. Our panto was called “the Lion, the Witch, and the little cupboard at the bottom of the stairs at Southwell Street”. Big parts included:
Avril, MRO, Mike, Allison: Em, Queen, DD, Adelle
Henry, Geoff: Etchelles, Big J Spence
Isllyn: Me
Aslan: Andy F
J Day: Pete M
I managed to land myself the role of narrator which I wasn’t aware of at the time of auditions. This meant I had loads of large passages of txt to memorise which was pretty time consuming.
The story for the panto I tried to organise last year by having meetings in the pub every 2wks so that whoever wanted to give some input could and that a general story board was set before the director wrote the script over the summer. I did pretty much achieve this, though the general story line didn’t deviate too much away from what Rich and I came up with a year and half ago one night in Weatherspoons (though if the director was asked now I’m sure it’d all be her ideas, not a soar point honest). Anyway the story Rich and I came up with was to have four clinicians based in Southwell street when they were young and for them to stumble through a secret entrance that transports them to the oppressed land of Langford ruled by the evil queen MJ Day who’s put a ban on fun over the land. The kids then set to restore fun and happiness back to Langford by overthrowing the queen. Character ideas included a centaur as narrator, Mr Thumlus as Mr Thomus and Avril as a goody for once as she’s always portrayed badly.
The first night mainly years 1-3 come to see it and a few 5th years who wanted to go both nights. This was last Monday and the performances by all were awesome with only a couple of very minor mistakes e.g. I forgot some lines.
The Tuesday night was fantastic and the atmosphere much improved with the addition of all the clinicians that were being played. No one made any mess-ups and the add-libbing by all was incredible. Best screw up = Henry and MRO’s mics packed up during a song so they restarted with Ian stepping on stage to do some stand up while they sorted it.
Hopefully after xmas the DVD of the panto will be on sale, don’t think it’ll make highstreet stores though.

Not sure if I mentioned in the last entry that the naked calendar has now gone on sale and that everyone’s photos are great (can’t say too much as some people are getting one as xmas presents).

Rest of the time over the past week has been spent at John’s watching films, eating mince pies and drinking mulled wine with DD, Chris, Paula and Mat. So far we’ve got through some incredible classics…
- Home alone 1
- Home alone 2
- Hook
Monday night after the panto wasn’t as uplifting as had potential for other reasons, though Thursday night definitely cheered me up after spending time with Sarah in Bristol eating subways and having a drink. Also we’ve got tickets to see Get Cape in Jan which I’m very much looking forward to.

This weekend began mid-day Fri as I skanked out of Anaesthesia in the aft picked up my Han from Yatton and made our way over to Wales to pick up our puppy Alfie! He’s a miniature Schnauzer and he’s absolutely incredible (can’t say I’m that looking forward to leaving the house in 10mins knowing that I’m not going to see him for 2wks). He’s settled in really well at home and has such a confident strong minded nature.
Last night I went on the local practices xmas social to a murder mystery evening with Kieran. Ended up getting pretty smashed for relatively little (drinking with people earning definitely the way forward). Night was mainly spent dancing with old people, eating bread, and singing lots of xmas tunes with unnecessarily crude lyrics.

Now I’m off to Bris for a rotation group and a house xmas dinner, I’m going to feel so full.

PS: Reading his dark materials trilogy (fantastic). Going to dinner tomorrow night with Sinead (should be comedy).

Lots to write about this week, though not really as far as work goes as I’ve been on FAP and EMS. Rich was over from Thurs to Mon and times been incredibly hectic with Soiree and Open Mic2…

My second farm animal rotation finishes at the end of this week before moving onto Anaesthesia for two weeks up till the end of term (this term has gone lightning fast). Last week on farm was farm animal practice which involves going out with the farm animal clinicians and being on call every night for emergencies, though it has potentially to be very busy my week was fairly relaxed and really useful on the practical front. Now I’ve moved onto EMS (extra mural studies) where you have the option to do three days of farm work off practice, I’ve opted not to as I’ve 2wks booked over xmas plus I wanted to get a lot of non-vet stuff sorted this wk. Therefore basically I’ve got the whole wk off except for a foot trimming practical yesterday and a preventative medicine talk plus farm animal hospital rounds Fri morning.
As far as Anaesthesia goes for next week I think for the first rotation yet I’m actually going to read up before starting as there’s definitely potential for rotational disaster with my currently exceptionally poor knowledge in the field. Therefore this weekend and maybe tomorrow is going to involve library time trying to get breathing systems, drug combinations/side effects, anaesthetic machine set up and anaesthesia monitoring sorted in my head.
Results back for last rotation (surgery) = merit, which means I’ve now had a merit for every rotation except farm in which I got a high pass. So results suggest I’m doing well this year but personally I’m sure I’m doing the minimum to get through these rotations, least it’s reassuring to think that clinicians feel I’m on track and after plenty revision 2nd/3rd term I’m sure vivas will be fine.

The past week has been pretty crazy out of school with a Soiree, openmic2 night, 2comedy nights, relaxation girlfriend time in front of scrubs and the musical cats…

Rich flew over Thurs night and then had to put up with panto and Levator rehearsals. Friday I went in for FAP and managed to get a 3:00pm finish so we could get over to the Marriott in Bristol to set up for the Soiree. Friday night was awesome, sound levels were quality and band performance no worries, even my two songs went well. Crowd didn’t get into it as much as last year though as the lower year’s don’t really know us but a few of our new covers went down well.
Rest of the Soiree involved the usual much dancing, drinking and general antics including the compulsory long island ice teas and flaming sambucas (spelling?) as has become customary with the big J Spence at every Soiree.
Saturday involved organising/sorting for the OpenMic2 Sat evening, PA had to be collected and set up and cars collected from Bristol. Rich kindly parked Ian’s car for him, as he couldn’t make it in, in the big city centre NCP and then promptly forgot which level he’d parked it in (Ian found it eventually with Rich’s highly useful instructions of “I think it’s on a floor above level 2”).
Saturday night couldn’t have gone better, the performance quality was amazing and I think it’s safe to say that the night was even more of a success than last year with £700ish profit made for the spey clinic. The line up for the night was as follows…
Act1
- Andy F, (chasing cars etc).
- JP, (Fratellies etc).
- Me, (Time for heroes/Hallelujah/Lights go out (mine)
- Kieran, (decemberists and album of the year)
- Me and Rich (death cab and greenday)
- MiniMat etc (horrendous spice girls dance routine)
Act 2
- Valenzia (3songs inc. 1 originial)
- Chris Q (soundclash)
- Henderson (baby can I hold you)
- Em (bic runga sway)
- Chris Q (stand up in a bear outfit)
- Ad and Miles (the Hoff!)
- Charlie et al (big band inc. trumpet/sax/keys playing grapevine and grease)
Prizes as awarded by Domingo were…
Most entertaining…The Hoff
Biggest talent …Me n Rich (not rigged)
Best overall performance…Charlie et al
After party was fairly comedy at Jocks house, Kieran had a big Irish argument and produced the random quote of the evening…”NO,..Christmas,..I Agree”.

Sunday there was a lot of sorting and clearing to do before me and Rich could relax and make our way over to Cheddar to get some Cheese and drink some cider. In the evening we watched fast show and Mighty Boosh live with Dave, Ian, John and Paul and made some mulled cider.
Monday Rich flew home early evening so before then we went over to the Garden Centre and finished watching Boosh.
Generally the past week has been crazy with practices for panto and Levator and sorting Soiree and OpenMic, thankfully Rich was around as would have been a major struggle getting everything done without his help.

This week is revolving around getting stuff sorted that’s been put on hold…xmas shopping, puppy revision etc.
Night before last had a wkd comedy curry night with the lads. I made mince vinderloo and mulled some lambrini….we got mul-led*
* As quoted from the comedy genius double D (can’t have me taking credit for his jokes).
Last night had a much needed chilled out evening with Sarah watching Cats musical in Bristol at Hipperdrome. Not really my cup of tea but entertained never the less, think I’ve had a sufficient dose of eccentricity for another year though.

Now it’s off to the bank to get some puppy money and then later Sinead is cooking me dinner. Tomorrow Xmas begins with home alone 1 and 2 and more mulled lambrini.
Xx

PS: For this Christmas season I recommend for all those festive Chavs…mulled Lambrini, and I’ve been good enough to provide you with Pete’s tried and tested patented recipe…
- Half one 1.5L bottle of Lambrini into two pans and add half a bottle of dry white wine into each.
- Place one mulled wine sachet into each and a good sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg so it turns a gravy type colour.
- Add half carton of OJ into each to make a dull urine type colour.
- Pour large quantities of sugar into both and bring slowly to the boil.
- Serve in ornate glasses and allow dirt to sediment before consumption.

Time for another weekly blog entry, though I’m gonna keep this one short (and I actually mean this for once) as I’ve panto prac in half hr…

Currently still on farm rotation and will be for another week after this. The theme of this week being farm-animal-practice (FAP) where we go out on calls the farm vets and generally have an awesome time getting in loads of practical experience. Over the three days so far I’ve sorted my surgical castration technique, gained competence at pregnancy diagnosis and scanning, dis-budded some calves and paired up some feet plus diagnosed a solar ulcer and treated a lame cow. Today I went on a repro routine visit in the morning where we did some scanning and then saw some lame cows, and then this aft we’ve just finished a sheep fertility seminar and practical, learning about examining rams for fertility soundness and performing vasectomies.
The rest of the week on FAP continues as similar, though tomorrow aft a few of us are helping teach the first years in cattle handling/examination etc.
Next week work is minimal as I’m on EMS for the week which is basically a week off with the opportunity to visit some local practices if you wish (I’m gonna opt not to as I’m not going into farm work and time is essential nxt wk for relaxation and panto rehearsals).

Social life over the last week has been eaten up by panto, soiree rehearsals and sorting the open mic night, though I did find time for a Goth n Gimp party and a visit to Wales to see some puppies…

Panto is going full steam ahead with rehearsals every night except Fri up until the panto on the 4th and 5th. As my parts quite major (timid farm vet Isllyn, spelling?, as narrator) I’m in every practice until the panto plus I’ve got two songs to sort. However I’m sorted for most of my lines and the songs are coming together well so there’s not too much to worry about.
Theme of the panto is Narnia (Lion, Witch etc). More to follow nearer the time.

Soiree is Friday and our jam last night was pretty awesome so should go fine. This will be Levator’s third and potentially last Soiree so fingers crossed will go well, though there’s still one more prac Thurs night.

Open Mic2 is on Saturday night which I’m organising. I did one last year and it was a big success so repetition hopefully a good idea. Basically night revolves around aprox 10 acts from the year/vet school/graduates(Mr Borgeat!) singing, playing guitar, dancing etc with an aim to raise some money for the final year spey clinic at the end of the year. Biggest event of the night looks currently to be DD’s and the big J Spence’s raffle, as Dave’s been all over the place on his EMS week collected prizes including 3 free meals, hair cut, £20 gift voucher, bottle wine, cheese hamper etc (literally incredible).

Last Friday was another in the fairly minimal series of this term’s house parties (Goth and Gimp), evening fun but little to say, best bit was me, John, Mat and Dave getting ready before hand (John was getting majorly jealous at the awesome quality of everyone else’s make-up and Goth accessories, John made a s**t Goth).

Rest of this week involves FAP, Soiree and OpenMic, will report on all nxt wk…

Also Rich is over Thurs to Mon so hopefully get some quality brother time in Sun and Mon i.e. visit Cheddar buy Cider and Cheese and consume vastly inappropriate quantities.

Two important recent occurances that I failed to mention in past blogs...
- Chav party eyebrow shaving. House mates plus Shep and some randomers all got bits taken out of their eyebrows to look even more authentically Chav. However Milnthorpe's large middle section, my left side and Dave's two stripes are still incredibly visible after 2wks. Quite comedy really.
- Got to have a spin in Uncle's 911 Turbo other day, like some ride at Alton Towers.
Expect nxt blog nxt wk.

After three weeks of time consuming surgery rotation I've now moved onto my second 3week block of farm greatness, this is especially ideal as the last farm rotation I completed the 3more difficult weeks leaving VPH, EMS and FAP for this1. However now that work has slackened off slightly I've got some time to get the many other events coming up sorted.

My final week on the surgery rotation was on soft tissue surgery which was surprisingly pain free after the ordeal that was orthopaedics. I got called out twice over the week and both times it wasn't at rediculous o'clock and the surgery was fairly interesting, plus I got to do most of the suturing.
Over the weekend I was on call for soft tissue which was non-eventful. I assisted in surgery friday night for a dog that had impacted its ileum with chicken feed, and other than this case I had only one other over the weekend which was a awesome little Yorkie (not a breed I generally like but this one was comedy). Other than checks my weekend revolved around eating, watching star wars and scrubs and generally relaxing with Sarah, for a weekend on call it was surprsingly good fun (which is especially important as most of the year were off in Liverpool going mental on AVS without me).
Farm rotation begins this week with VPH (veterinary public health), for this we spend our time assessing Langford abbatoir on Monday and then spend the rest of the week writing a report. We split up the report and I received the section on zoonoses which I sorted out yesterday and this morning, the exciting title of my section being (drum roll if you will)... "Two important zoonotic biological hazards involved in the processing of ovine meat for human consumption".
Other than the report this week we have to attend a seminar Weds and a preventitve medicine talk on Friday, though as Mum's not very well at home I thought I'd escape the seminar and spend some quality time at home this week with a plan to return to Langford Thurs night.

Quite short on the work front this week (makes a change) as time has been directed elsewhere. Curerently I'm sat in the bedroom above the gargage at home awating a lift from Mother to get a much needed haircut (not sure why we don't call this room the study but never mind).
Time at home has, and plans to be spent:
- getting some quality son time in for the parents.
- shopping for ski wear (early xmas present of a white ski jacket, I'm gonna be invisible).
- buying 21st birthday presents for little brothers.
- doing VPH work.
- watching Borat again with little sister (probably tonight, I think Sarah is also watching it again in Bristol to).
- getting things sorted for the open mic night (wk on Sat).
- Learning lines for the panto.
Big news at home at the moment is the massively increased likelihood of us getting a puppy. There's been talk for a long time but recent occurances have changed Mother's mind. The choice looks to be a Miniature Schnauzer, hoping to get one some time before Xmas, hunt for puppies is about to begin...nice.

This blog was supposed to be posted yesterday but the cinema side-tracted me. Now it's lunch time ish Thurs and I'm due to go back to Bris in a couple of hours to make a panto rehearsal and band practice. The Soiree is now only a week away and so practices are being stepped up, though the last few have gone fine...set list this year is...
- Franz, this fire.
- Razorlight, in the morning.
- Chilis, other side.
- Ians new song.
- My new song.
- Libertines, can't stand me now.
- Franz, Matinee.
- Vet life.
- Brim full of asha (always comedy).

That's enough for now me thinks. Upcoming time probably going to be spent learning lines, sorting open mic and practicing for panto and Soiree. Going to be a busy week (though not with work...is nice)

Chinkoui, Yashamash etc...