Summary of Since Tuesday...

So. Tuesday was officially my birthday. Many people asked me what I planned to do/what I did for my birthday and I honestly did not know and scarily, I cared a lot less than usual! D: Perhaps it was because I had many things on my mind at that time, what with it being the end of my favourite block and all. In summary, I spent Tuesday staying up to finish my workbook and had 4h of sleep. I spent Wednesday feeling like shit in clinic, finishing off the remnants of my workbook, going late for Dr H's teaching, going for the nice SHO teaching, and finding out that we still had our silly screening programme to do. Got back at 7.30ish and Sania had to finish this ridiculous e-learning that we all had to do. We then had my birthday dinner (takeaway pizza, garlic bread, chips, onion rings and 7-up) at 10p.m. while watching the apprentice. It was really enjoyable and cosy, and Sania was so sweet for remembering.. Ended up sleeping at ~1.30a.m. though, despite the previous 4h-sleep night :/ Somehow, I managed to jump out of bed at 7a.m. the next day feeling extraordinarily cheerful and chirped my way through my last day at KGH with a really good Endocrine clinic, followed by card-giving and thanks-saying. Got to interpret an ECG and blood gas result as a farewell present from the Endocrine ward.

Not surprisingly, Kettering decided to snow heavily just as we were leaving. Had some trouble reaching the same place at the same time as the taxi and inhaled way too much snow for my own good as a result. It all ended on a good note though, when we found out that the undergraduate coordinator (the coolest 1 we ever had) had ordered the taxi for us and that we did not have to pay for it (:

Got home and finished my e-learning shit within 2.5h! XD Ok actually it was quite useful overall but I had been rather stressed thinking about it when some people had told me how long and tedious it was :/ Thought that meant I could squeeze in a spot of renal studying but I had decided to print off my e-learning certificate in Paula's room, so that meant we ended up talking, which meant that I ended up sleeping at ~1a.m. again.

Had to catch the 7.50a.m. bus to get to my assessment the next day. I jerked awake at 7.20a.m. and somehow managed to grab a copy of Metro and stride in coolly just as the bus pulled up at the bus stop *smirk*. Sat for the Endocrine assessment, which was okish but a bit tricky and did not know a few of the conditions. Had THE screening debate after that, where we shockingly managed to garner a whopping TWO votes. I believe they were out of sympathy. At least we did not get zero votes. Had lunch and renal assessment after that, which, while not easy, I somehow quite enjoyed solving. That is not to say I will get full marks or anything. Ended off with the poster, whereby Sania and I (and everyone else) waited with bated breath and found out..... that we were not chosen!!! Sania stole a half-glance back at me and we gave each other a :D and thumbs-ups. I think many people were secretly hoping that they would be picked though, because of some contradictory reactions I observed. Sadly, we did not know (well I did not, anyway) that besides the punishment of having to present the poster, there was also the incentive of getting a certificate for being 1 of the top 3 :/ Oh well, I do not think we would have done it much better even with that added carrot dangling in front of us anyway.

And then... Shuang Ning came! Walked a bit, talked a bit. Went with her to the Bham German Christmas market the next day which, despite the snow storm, was actually a really good market. If anything, the blizzard made it all seem even more Christmassy. You know how, when you take pictures of snow scenes they often end up just looking like a rainy day? The snow yesterday was so heavy and the snowflakes so fat that you could actually tell that the snow was snow from the photos! Got some hot German cake things and German sausage hotdog. The German sausage went 'Piak!' each time we bit into it. Did some more shopping, more eating, had scones and tea, and found out that Shuang Ning is a really fun shopper because she takes all the clothes she likes without looking at the price, tries them all on, and leaves without buying anything.

We arrived at the train station to find out that the previous train had been cancelled because of the snow and were all 得意that we had decided to spend that previous 1/2h shopping instead. Our smugness was short-lived however, as the next train still did not show up and the train station continued to swell with commuters. It got to a point where it got rather chaotic and little Shuang Ning and little me were in danger of being lost in the stampeding melee of frustrated commuters. Well, I say stampede, it was more of... like, squeezing toothpaste out of a very small hole. Train was delayed by a total of 1h in the end.

I think the continuation of my update warrants a new post.