It’s Saturday afternoon and I’m hung-over at home after a big wedge outing last night, I remember being told by past 5th years that going out is very difficult in final year, though we’ve now made it into Bristol the past two Fridays, so maybe they over-exaggerated.
The past week has pretty much revolved around farm animal hospital, with the rotation eating up the majority of my time, though I haven’t resented this in anyway as the week has been really productive. On the rotation students are responsible for the care of the in-patients plus they talk through appropriate lines of treatment/carryout workups with the hospital clinician. Cases this week have included:
- Lame cows/sheep.
- Alpacas.
- Hernia operations.
- Goat listeriosis.
To monitor animals checks take place at least 3times per day, plus we’re on call at nights and weekends.
Every Friday after the preventative medicine group give their talk (ours was last week and went well) the hospital students present the current in-patients to the rest of the FAS students and all the clinicians. I was given two hernia ops and a lame cow to present, and all went fine plus I was able to answer most questions. However one clinician didn’t appreciate my slight bit of chat-back after a slightly daft question and proceeded to interrogate me on antibiotics. Though I think it all worked in my advantage as I answered a few difficult questions and the guy was made to look a bully. I also had three clinicians separately congratulate me and apologise for the guy’s behaviour…so basically one enemy/many friends made.

Over this weekend I’ve little planned, today has mainly involved recovery from Em’s and Steve’s birthday celebrations from last night, plus I’ve had to go into the hospital twice to do checks and administer drugs. Tonight I’m off to the cinema with the Bell House to see Xmen3, and am very much looking forward to seeing it. Tomorrow I’ve got lots to organise/sort out, and I’d also like to get a bit of bovine reproduction revised for next week when I’ve got an interherd fertility report to write on a local farm.

As far as other interests are concerned, band is on hold until we can find some time to practice, the aim at the moment is to start getting some ideas together for next term’s Soriee. Also on the panto front I’ve yet had time to organise a meeting, hopefully next week we’ll get one sorted.
On the sport front football has now commenced every Thursday between the year and clinicians. Unfortunately I couldn’t make this week, but will start next.

At long last I’ve finally found the time to catch up on my blogs. I think it’s probably been a good 5/6weeks since the last entry and though you might think that I’d therefore have a vast quantity to say I unfortunately haven’t. The reason for this being the shockingly time consuming task that is revision, however these were the last written exams I may ever have to sit (depending on passes/post-grad potential qualifications). Other than exams it’s all about the commencing of clerking rotations, and maybe an idea of general social events recently gone/upcoming now that I can actually have a social life again after 6wks of solitary CAS/FAS revision confinement…

Exams this time were the super giants of CAS and FAS (companion animal science and farm animal science), which between the two basically cover the whole of veterinary science, for a brief over view for anyone who might be interested the general gist is…
CAS1:
Small Animal Medicine (cardiology, renal, liver, endocrine, toxicology, infectious disease etc.).
Small Animal Orthopaedics and ENT (ear nose throat).
Small Animal Nutrition.
Dermatology.
Behaviour.
CAS2:
Horsees (orthopaedics, medicine, surgery, ENT, reproduction).
Opthamology.
Anaesthesia.
FAS1:
Cows plus some small ruminants.
FAS2: The dregs of the course i.e. housing, pigs, birds, growth etc.
…I’ve no doubt missed some areas out but least that’s a basic overview of exam content. To get through all the material was an absolute nightmare, 6wks of 10-12hrs work a day then a week of non-stop mega revision over the exams. Thankfully this will hopefully be the last time I have to cram for exams and hopefully I might have a fair idea before starting to revise for final vivas next year.
The exams all went fine, there were no major successes or problem papers, and so fingers crossed for all round passes some time next week when the results are posted. Failure will mean resists Aug to be allowed into final year (scary scary stuff!).
Here’s a general idea of how each exam went…
CAS1: As I had 3extra days of revision for this, plus knowledge from vet legend Keiran’s tutorials, this exam went pretty good. Had a couple of difficult questions on spinal neurology and orthopaedics, but other than these the rest of the 12 I feel I answered pretty good, including questions on Hypothyroidism, Atrial Fibrillation, Chemotherapeutic agents etc.
CAS2: Went ok, unfortunately due to a slight muddle up by myself I sat this exam after only knowing from midday the day before that it was to take place (I thought like a muppet that we had CAS1 fist…logically?!).
FAS1: Went well, even though I class cows as my weaker area. The paper was fairer than CAS and required much more application of knowledge than simple regurgitation.
FAS2: Went really well (though I feel like a bit of a grade A looser for stating this).

That’s a basic overview I feel of the forth year final written exams, these beauties came to a closure Friday just gone and the day was spent barbequing in our garden, drinking much beer, playing much guitar and then heading off to the annual barn dance. Can’t say that much antics particularly took place, though the majority of the year was in a fair state, and though I thought I was fairly sober (due to no memory blanks) the entire weekend hangover said otherwise.

Right now the year is a stress fuelled clerking frenzy. We started our appropriate rotation today, mine being FAS, other options include Mat on Anaesthesia, Laura on Surgery, Paul on dog medicine, Jim on FAS etc. each rotation lasts 3wks and we must achieve at least a pass in 6 out of the 7 rotations in order to take final year vivas.
The year was incredibly stressed on Sunday, and there was a definite all round feeling of being plunged in at the deep end after only finishing exams on Friday.

My first week is on preventative medicine. Today my little group of four went off to a Sheep farm to inspect a flock for lameness problems. We’re expected to produce a report by Friday to present to the other two FAS rotations and all the clinicians (little bit daunting, but I’m sure it’ll be ok, sheep lameness is a fairly easy topic to research).

Over the upcoming week as far as social concerns the calendar is bleak, the only think potentially on the list is a bbq over the weekend if the weather’s nice, if not I’m off home for much essential relaxation and home comforts.

………………………………………………………………………………………

As I closing note I think it is necessary to sum-up what I feel is the importance of final year commencing…
The feeling when I woke up today was one I haven’t felt since starting primary school/secondary school/uni i.e. that of embarking on something completely alien. It was weird that I lost far more sleep stressing about beginning clerking that sitting any of my recent exams, though this is probably because I’m so used to exams by now.
The significance of the year ahead promises to be that dissimilar to all education previously undertaken, and therefore marks the next step in the long ladder of veterinary qualification. It’s daunting to think that lectures are completely a thing of the past and that future learning carries considerable responsibility, with a major emphasis on maturity and professionalism.
However on a more upbeat tone, I feel I’ve now finally properly got my leg in the door of the veterinary profession, and it’s onwards and upwards to qualification and life in the real world… crazy!

This is the last entry of a forth year associated with lectures, and therefore takes place at the end of an era. Next term it’s onwards and upwards with the start of clerking rotations that will take us up to viva finals at the end of 5th year. However the fact that this massive chapter in vet life is over and the final instalment is soon to be upon us does not come as much of a daunting prospect as I feel that it is long overdue. There is only a certain amount of lectures one can take and this threshold was reached some time in 3rd year.

Even though this may be the last entry it isn’t going to be excessively long, basically because I’m about to go out for mother’s day (I know it’s Saturday, Hannah can’t make tomorrow due to work commitments). Main things to cover are a gig, a party, a quiz, an exam and revision…

The exam was FAS on current affairs, I wrote for an hour on avian influenza and the new welfare bill. I think some of what was written may be relevant so I’m sure a pass will be achieved.
The second Langford bar quiz of the term wasn’t as successful for my team as the first as we came 5th and not 1st. Paul’s knowledge of music associated with films impressed all.
The gig was the VetAid night myself and Chris Queen had been planning for the past month. The night was a major success, both mine and Chris’ band played without probs (except for slight mic trouble for a couple of Blue Juices’). The Langford Stranglers clinician band headlined the night and pleased all with a four song encore. The night raised £650 for the 5th year spay clinic and so much praise was aimed at Chris and I.
Thursday just gone was the last lecture of the year, the final words of vetschool lectures being… “Anaesthesia is lovely”. I’d like to say that the year went crazy and ripped up the lecture theatre but it was fairly passive (probably due to the fact that most of the year spent the last lecture asleep, including myself).
To celebrate the end of vetness in its purely theoretical basis the year went mental at John’s house in cocktail dresses and suits. The night had every aspect of vetness I could want; dancing, drunkenness, stupid antics, potential scandal and female issues, what more could a budding surgeon ask for.

Now it’s onto the next 6weeks of revision hell, 12hours a day, all of FAS and CAS to cover, in a word it’s going to be a bitch. Though once done that’s it, no more material to learn, no more written exams to sit and I’ll be learning only for my own ability. Wish me luck.

xx

As far back as I can remember is Thursday so I’m going to start from there. This either means there’s nothing worthwhile to talk about before then, or that the weekend has stolen much of the previous week’s memories.
Thursday was the second Langford Bar quiz of the term, which a few of my house plus Stevie attended. I ended up on a team with Claire, Ben, Paul and John and somehow managed to win the event, the prize being four bottles of wine. I put the win down to a combination of post-grad knowledge and slight text cheating (though this was standard procedure for all teams involved, not that that makes it right of course, I’ll just have to live with the guilt). The deciding round ended up being the last as we were second for the entire quiz up until; I think it was probably Claire’s amazing TV theme intro knowledge that clenched it for us. Victory to 6FinaF.

Friday night was a jam followed by me cooking for Tamsin and John. They both were fairly impressed with my honey trout effort, and T has gone on to let most of the yr know that I’m god’s gift to the kitchen (which is definitely not the case), and now anyone who comes round is gonna except michelin star quality Pete cooking.
After the meal it was round the Crown for all, including my house plus JP and Kate.

The weekend in general was majorly unconstructive. During the days I think I did some exercise and got some jobs/stuff sorted and organised.
Saturday evening Claire cooked a house meal and then me and Mat were meant to be lambing for the uni, but when I went out at 10pm to check another 2of our yr showed up who had swapped to our day from another, which was ideal as it meant Mat and I didn’t have to go back that night and were free to attend the 5th yr house party.
The party was of the theme gay/bi/confused and was one comedy evening. As my house went over later none of us really bothered to dress-up, though Jim did put on one of Hayley’s tops and Mat went as straight. Important occurrences for the evening included much crazy dancing, Hayley stealing a massive ornamental sheep, loosing Jim (again), me busking for alcohol (2cans and 2bottles achieved), and one guy in 5th yr being sent away for stitches.
Sunday night was much more subdued, I watched a film and went to bed. Mat also cooked a house dinner.

Yesterday I spent most of the day actually working! We’ve got a FAS exam on Thursday on veterinary current affairs. My group has split the research between us and I’m covering the government’s contingency plan for when/if Avian Influenza arrives. I put together a fair chunk of material yesterday and have just reproduced it to distribute later.

Last night it was another jam in preparation for Friday, which is now the biggest think (other than the poxy FAS exam) on the agenda. Thankfully last night’s jam went well and we’re confirming the set list as follows…
-Some Might Say
-Get Back
-All These Things I’ve Done
-Ian’s Song
-Matinee
-Pulp
-My Song
-Can’t Stand Me Now
-Life Less Ordinary
Everything is pretty much sorted for Friday now, I ordered some lighting and extra staging last week and Chris has sorted a backdrop. Fingers crossed now for a wicked night.

Think that covers about everything, will no doubt write the end of next week for the last entry of the term, before the start of the biggest revision session ever.

xx

PS: To Grandparent readers, especially those of the Scales variety, thank you kindly for the letter and money, but I regret to say that I will not be toning down the content of the entries, as I like to feel they accurately reflect my veterinary student life (I’m sure you’d all rather know exactly what’s going on rather than a slightly fictitious version). Hope all is well, love you lots. Peter.

Currently I’m sat in my bedroom listening to Bob Dylan and eating gone off grapes which I only bought today, Morrison’s let me down, though I did buy a very tasty Sea Bass that I ate tonight, which I suppose makes up for their mistake.
The past week has mainly been spent going crazy with little Bro in Newcastle, followed by a couple of days of life re-organisation in a vague effort to get things back on track.

2nd Trip to Newcastle went something as follows…
- Arrived Thursday morning and spent most of the day house hunting with Rich and his mates. Apparently my veteran student housing knowledge was required, retrospect of whether it exists or not. The trip was successful as the four of them put their name on a house. In the evening we went out to celebrate by having a very sociable curry. The plan was to go to a curry house which the guys had an extra-special discount for, though upon arrival it was shut and so regrettably a more expensive restaurant had our custom. After the meal it was off to Digital night club for an Indie night of which the highlight was Carl from Libertines playing a short set, the fact that it was completely unexpected made it even more quality.
- Friday was a day at the coast followed by a cinema trip and a few drinks in Jesmond where Rich’s new house is. Some very nice bars and cliental, though unfortunately all shut at 11:00.
- Saturday we had an amazing day in Durham, which included going round the Cathedral and the Castle, having a few drinks and getting an all you can eat Chinese, where we caused mild havoc. The castle guide was incredibly bizarre due the over-enthusiastic/slightly mental tour guide, and the Cathedral was phenomenal, can‘t say I‘ve seen many other buildings in England more impressive.
- Saturday night we went to Northumbria’s student union, where I got far too hammered for my own good.
- Sunday we woke very late and after watching Team America spent the afternoon going round a few record stores. In the evening I treated Rich to another Indian and then marched back over to the student union to see Death Cab For Cutie play, who it was decided by all are ridiculously good live.
- Monday I returned to reality in Bristol.

The past couple of days I’ve mainly been trying to get life back on tracks, including copying up/sorting out notes and organising stuff for VetAid and the Panto.
VetAid is now a week on Friday and preparations are almost sorted. The night is going to include three bands; Blue Juice, Levator Ani (my band) and The Langford Stranglers (a clinician band). The aim is to play lots of music and raise money for the final year spay clinic. My band finally got its set list sorted on Monday night and are now looking to Friday’s jam to find out the length of it.
Panto organisation continues tonight as I’m hopefully going to type up the thoughts from last weeks meeting in preparations for the meeting I’ve sorted tomorrow night.

I think that covers everything recently, though I’ve just realised I haven’t mentioned work (probably because there’s not vast amounts to say, lectures finish forever in 3wks and I can’t wait, work however should include revision, though as I’m going to be doing 6wks solid work over Easter I’ve not got that much enthusiasm for starting yet).

TTFN x

This is only going to be a short entry as I’ve got a lecture in 30mins.
Crucial items of significance to cover might include work, ball, pub crawl, foster practice and ongoing band plus panto fun…

On the work side there isn’t a great deal to say, lectures are continuing 9-5 as standard, though I’m pretty sure I’m very close to reaching my tolerance for them after 4yrs. Thankfully all lectures finish by the end of this term, then it’s onwards and upwards to the clerking rotations of final yr.
Main work area of importance is revision which I’m now feeling the heat of more and more, and therefore have finally started getting some done. Not a great deal I might add though, however having started at last I can maybe try and ease myself into it (or that’s the why I’d like to put it to explain my extremely slow revision start. I’m sure all will be ok though, mates in final yr didn’t start till Easter).

Ball was a good night, though nothing really comedy to mention. Highlight being dancing to the whole of the Mo-Funk set with some 3rd Yrs, both Sinead and I had bruises on our hands the next morning from overly banging the tambourine the front man gave us.
Vet vs Law vs Medic pub crawl was a pretty good night. Everyone gets dressed up in appropriate clothing and competes against the other courses to buy a drink at the most bars (Law tends to win as they’re the only ones who take it seriously, vets and medics tend to stay together in the cheapest bar and get hammered).

The majority of my recent time has been taken up with Foster Practice at home Weds to Fri and then lounging around at home over the weekend getting some highly essential recouporation and rest.
Foster was a good time, highlights included mastering my iv injections and cattle blood sampling and also witnessing a cow cause destruction of a practice car.
My reasoning for doing foster mid-term was that I only did 3days at Christmas (hopefully no supervises will read this) and also it was Mel’s leaving do and Rose’s birthday who are both befriended vets at the practice. The leaving do meal thing was Friday night and was awesome as vets buy lots of drinks! Most comedy point had to be my dance off with the senior small animal partner Paul.

Ongoing areas of importance include band and panto. We had a jam last night and thankfully it went really well (as last weeks jam was shocking). The triple band night “VetAid” is set for the 17th March, will discuss more closer to the time.
Panto efforts are to continue Weds with a second script meeting. The first was really successful as we managed to get loads of ideas together and a basic plot line sorted.

Thursday it’s off to Newcastle to see little brother for 5days, will no doubt include all details of this excursion in great detail next week. After this I suppose it’ll be time to actually start knuckling down and properly getting on with revision.

Tuesday lunch and there’s actually not that much to report for saying a whole weeks gone by, an achievement which doesn’t regularly happen as I normally seem to be constantly rushed of my feet.

Work wise lectures continue to plod on with little much to say; only potential large source of interest for me is small animal orthopaedics this afternoon. It’s an unusual feeling to actually be sort of looking forward to going to a lecture, but then as I hope to go into small animal surgery future wouldn’t look great if I didn’t fancy learning a bit on the subject.
Most pressing work matter is that of revision for CAS and FAS exams at the end of Easter. I’ve tried numerous times now to start this arduous task but am yet successful. The plan is to begin this evening and drown my valentine sorrows with a bit and cattle medicine, oh joy.

Non-work stuff to mention over the past week includes one awesome night out and a highly unproductive weekend.
The night out mentioned was for Claire’s birthday, for which a good 30+ people managed to make it into Bristol using the newfound mini-bus transport system. Nothing especially comedy occurred, it was just one all-round fun night out.
The unproductive weekend involved much 24watching, a bit of exercise and the pub. However Friday night was an unsuspecting good laugh. John took pity on me being home alone for the weekend and invited me out with him, Sue and Sue’s little sister. We drove into to Bristol for food and drink and then returned to the Old Inn to get some pints down John, as the guy was driving. There’s always something really cool about a good night out when one isn’t expected, what was expected to be a quiet meal ended up one comedy night shared by all.

Last important thing to mention before rounding this up is the NME shockwaves tour last night, which was an incredible. Kate’s boyfriend Jack very generously got me and Mat some tickets and the line up included Mystery Jets, We are Scientists, Arctic Monkeys and Maximo Park (which completely ruled the gig, Monkey’s hype took away a bit of the enjoyment, though they were still quality).

Over the upcoming week main point of interest is the ball on Saturday which is always quality.

Today it’s all about swimming, work and pub.

TTFN

Results are in and I’ve made it through another gruelling set of exams. Achievements are a merit in pathology and C in VPH. Both of which I’m really pleased with (as Pathology is incredibly difficult and VPH is amazingly dull. Onwards and upwards now to CAS and FAS exams which take place at the end of Easter i.e. not long at all, so unfortunately revision is going to have to once again begin soon. The most daunting fact of all is however that once these last set are done in only a few months I should theoretically know all I need to begin practicing. Thankfully though there’s the year of clerking to look forward to when hopefully all the info will maybe become part of my general knowledge and not just some facts and figures learnt to forget after an exam.
I feel that after that exam rant that work over this week should probably follow, though there’s not really that much to tell. ENT (ear, nose and throat) is continuing in its highly exciting fashion, we’ve now received the lecture notes for the subject which reside in a mega beast 183 page booklet (with no pictures!!). The lectures for the subject aren’t too bad as no extra notes are obviously necessary plus the lecturer is interesting, the only complaint is the volume of them. We’ve a full morning of ENT today and have another Thursday.
Other current subjects include equine medicine, which is going well (mainly because we’re forced to write notes, and so it’s easy to stay awake), and exotics (a ferret and guinea pig lecture yesterday).

Big talking point for this entry is another brother weekend of fun and antics. However this time the weekend was extended as he arrived Friday morning and went home last night.
Over the weekend the activities included:
- Friday day Rich and I went for a walk to the crown but managed to get lost over the fields on Jim’s crazy route. However once navigation had been sorted we located the pub and met useful guy who took it upon himself to organise our site-seeing weekend.
- Friday night I organised a lads night out into Bristol, including mini-buses, curry, bar crawl and club. The night was an absolute success and fun was had by all (even if I say so myself). Comedy occurrences included Steve’s curry spillage, Jim getting kicked out of Wedges, Hugo’s and Ian’s standard jokes, and the loss of many good men in Bristol for which Tom conducted a minutes silence for on the return trip. We lost Mat for most of the night to a Gay bar but apparently he had a good night so all well.
- Saturday day was predicated by the crown guy, it involved a drive to a cider farm plus cooked breakfast, and then over to Wookie Hole for much touristy fun. Mat accompanied me and Rich on the trip, and I thing it was agreed by all that Wookie Hole is a quality place for an afternoon out. Attractions there included caves, underground rivers, a fairy garden, dinosaur valley, the chance to make paper!, a run through the mirror maze if you dare, and those crazy distorting mirrors that everyone loves.
- Saturday night was the Hungarian Folk dance at Langford, not a bad night though no Hungarians arrived. Unfortunately some people got a bit rowdy and damage was created, this has now led to the bar being shut straight after licensing hours finish, worse things at sea and all that.
- Sunday me and Rich drove over to Weston for fish and chips at the sea side and a look round SeaQuarium, which was surprisingly good for Weston.
- Sunday night was relaxation and films, an early night was essential due to general tiredness felt by both members of the Scales party.
In summary another awesome weekend with Rich, next one to occur beginning of March when I fly over to see him in Newcastle.

Only other things left to mention are that Panto and band organisation is yet to occur, hopefully we’ll jam this week and I’ll get an e-mail out to find out if Andy and I are organising the Panto officially or not,

Tonight everyone’s out for Claire’s Birthday, Bristol again, should be a good one.

Finally I’ve managed to get some time to sit down and once again poor out my immensely interesting life. This is obviously a sarcastic comment as the principal thing taking place, again, has been revision. Though I suppose there are a couple of social events to mention plus maybe a bit of Xmas and New Yr to consider…

I’ll get the work part out the way first, which as I mentioned has revolved around revision, this time for a Pathology exam and practical, and a veterinary public health (VPH) exam. Revision’s taken 3wks-ish which I spent at home, this may have been slightly ott as the exams actually went pretty good…
The written for Pathology was worth 40% and the practical 20%, the other 40% was done in the 1st term and in 3rd Yr. Written went really well considering how ridiculously difficult pathology is, questions involved the inflammatory reaction, lymphoma classification, diabetes mellitus, neoplasia development, plus others. Unfortunately the practical went unsurprisingly bad, though as 99% of the yr has this concern I’m not overly worried. Reason it was so bad is that histopathology is without doubt the most brain paralysing subject ever created and to learn for it is equivalent to slowly and repeatedly banging ones head against a wall. Just above this on the boredom scale lies histology, but as I passed this somehow in second yr things might be ok, will have to wait and see till Wednesday when the viva lists come out.
As for VPH we had only one written exam which though was incredibly tedious went fine. Three hours of answering questions such as “devise a cleaning regime for a chicken processing plant” or “explain how drip rate and carcass colour are related in pig meat” are far from any sane person’s idea of an interesting subject.
One big bonus about these exams is that I’ve finally got my head around Pathology and so can understand and keep up with companion and farm animal science lectures.

Before revision started I actually managed to achieve a slight Xmas and New Yr. Xmas was all fun and appropriately family orientated. I managed to bag myself a record player plus the beginnings of a rapidly expanding vinyl collection.
New Yr involved a meal out in Belper with Hayley at a surprisingly nice Thai restaurant (for Belper that is), and then on to Belper’s one token bar/club/hole to see in the New Yr with Rich, Hannah, Hayley and friends.
Before Xmas I worked at the workshop conference in Nottingham, not much to say here really, except hard work and some slight debt removing income.
One other important event to mention is mine and Rich’s one mid-revision indi night out into Derby, where I let off a lot of revision stress with much comedy dancing, and ended up bringing some random Derby lass back to Holbrook for essential apre-drinking tea, nothing underhand a might add we just wanted the lift home.

Right now I’m back in Langford Vet School typing away on schools comps as my lap-top keyboard has broke, though that’s a slight exaggeration as it still works, you just have to have the touch of a giant to get a letter to come up.
Since I’ve been back there’s been one pretty awesome night out on Friday (post-exam drinking). We all got mini-buses into Bristol and went pretty wild. Nothing scandalous took place but overall had a much needed awesome night.

Coming up there’s work, work, work and maybe some social life thrown in. Lectures have re-started and they’re amazingly relentless, 9-5 and all hardcore fairly un-miss-able. Current subjects include eye, nose and throat surgery, equine medicine and renal medicine.
Coming up on the social side…
Tonight a bunch of us are off to see the rakes in Bristol.
Over the weekend my little bro is over which should be cool as hopefully there’s to be a lads night Friday in Bristol which I’m organising and there’s a barn dance type thing in Langford on Saturday night.

Next time I write I’ll remember to mention the panto, and the pressing importance of the final written CAS and FAS exams (just put this in as a memo to be honest).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday I worked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

xx

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

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

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

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

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

TTFN xx

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TTFN

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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