ENT in Lincoln now. Not as chilled out as I thought. Our consultant is quite a character though. Very very warm person. A bit too emotional and close for comfort for a conservative stick like me but I guess he is nice at the end of the day. I wondered if it crossed the boundaries of professionalism when this sweet, nervous old lady said something that must have been very endearing, coz Mr C pinched her cheeks and went "... Youuu are sooo cuuooote! *Iggoowiggiegooieieieie..!*" and happily turns to us to say, "Isn't she cute???"

Finally seeing some blurry optic discs and stuff. I really suck at examinations in general. I can never pick up anything. Opthalmoscopes and otoscopes really take it to another level with me.

Got a cool room with weird flatmates. I like the double bed and alarm clock radio and personal electric kettle tea set, which just about makes up for the weird flatmates and daily hike to the hospital.

Listening to muttons on the move now. Nice and nostalgic (: I like how they manage to speak well without using a Western accent. They still make me laugh :D

Last 2 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is really the longest week ever. Feel like I have been here for ages even tho I only arrived the day before having spent it lao-saing and getting jelly legs.

Not that the people here are not nice. And to be fair I feel like a real pro (--,) talking about kidneys and fluids and all that now... which I guess means I have achieved my aims for this block.

Dunno wat to expect tomorrow. I guess it should not be as aimless as today in any case. At least I know there is teaching at lunch and that I'm going to pon the rest of the afternoon to let the accommodation people check my room.

I miss home. At least I can go home and complain over a plate of rice and kang kong and... belly pork. Mmm... belly pork is nice.

See. I feel sleepy already. It is 12.39a.m. in Homedom.

I was called a child in clinic today.

Back in UK for the longest 5 days ever :/ Was telling Yi Ling how these 3 weeks in Lincoln feels like an extended wait in Dubai airport alone, where I am stuck in the airport and cannot/don't dare to go out to play.

The last 4week holiday was 1 of my most awesome Uni holidays so far (: Everyone being home again and all that. To be honest it actually did feel long enough. Made full use of my time to stretch the 4 weeks to its maximum enjoyment potential. Made the same mistake as always of bringing home too many books to study. I'm driven by this keen enthusiasm at the end of every academic year, telling myself (and the people around me) how this time I have planned it all and I AM going to make good use of the abundance of spare time I would have over the holidays to catch up on my work. Definitely. I never learn my lesson...

Anyway.

Lincoln is nice. Ish. A bit anal in terms of paperwork but I've managed to creep past the 1st week without anything being flagged up (--.) I know I was pushing it, arriving in Leicester and leaving for Lincoln on Sunday after a more or less 24h journey, but every day spent at home counts. At least I got to eat pseudo-steamboat before I flew. The 1st week here, therefore, has been spent desperately trying to settle everything back to pre-holiday conditions while trying to blend in amongst those who have had a normal, uninterrupted August, and spending the remaning time hibernating.

Still getting lost in the hospital. But I'm learning to read the signs :/ 1st day back was a stack of bloods (and 1 cannula) waiting to be done. A bit of a shock seeing as I was still in transition to normality (still am actually) + I hadn't done any in my previous block. But the doctors were nice. And I used the usual "I am just a stupid medical student" defence to give myself a bit of a leg-up 1st. At least I had free lunch that day (: Which is good, judging by my very sad food rations I brought along from Leicester to tide me through my 1st week. But now I'm starting to wonder if I overdid it, because everyone seems to have really low expectations of me, and are assuming that I don't know stuff/are bringing me back to basics :/ Dunno if I should feel offended/relieved. Only the Leicester graduate seems to be grilling me (somewhat).

Wish the next 2 weeks will shoot by! Although the people here are really nice so far and my consultant is super cool and super funny. I need to be in contact with civilization again.

Ugh. I want to become an assassin. I want to kill time. 10 more hours to boarding :/

Almost finished reading shopaholic.

Hum dee dum...

Ngeh. I swear time in Dubai passes way more slowly compared to the rest of the world. Arrived here at 7ish with a good 24 hours to kill and yet, surprise surprise, the queue at arrivals was abnormally swift and the suspicious questioning person-at-counter was unusually indifferent.

The story is that Yuv spotted this awesome flying option where my transit time is only like 45min + the ticket was relatively cheap and me, thinking I had seen the same thing, had swooped down and grabbed the ticket. A good month later or so, I was in disbelief when I saw

Arrive Dubai Int 24th July 0700hrs
Depart Dubai Int 25th July 0745hrs

Shock shock horror.

That was why I was particularly nervous when the arrivals guy asked

"Where you fly from?"

tgo: Huh? Um. Er. Ummmmmm... UK...? Yea. Yea. From Birmingham.

arrivals guy: What hotel you stay in?

tgo: Ahm... No hotel

arrivals guy: *raises eyebrows*

tgo: Uh. Oh. I mean. I'm just transiting, but for- a long time. 24h I mean.

Ouch.

Normally that would have warranted a fairly high degree of suspicion, or at least I would've thought. Luckily the person just shrugged and said something like "Ngh." and let me through. Phooooo...

And this explains why I don't do well in OSCEs/when consultants are all nice and chatty and suddenly shoot, "So. Tell me everything you know about atrial myxoma."

So... I was kinda aiming to have finished checking out by... 9a.m. Earliest. But for once everything (even my luggage on the carousel) was quick and when I checked the time it was 8bloodya.m. :/ I had even taken the extra step of slowly going into the toilet, letting others walk before etc. ://

So for the past 4hours (omg it is finally 12p.m. 19 more hours to kill. oosh.) I have taken my time with checking back in again, hoping for a queue but again, no luck there. Check in person was being friendly and said, "So your flight is...... later this morning at........ nnnnaaaaiiiinne..?"

(polite smile) tgo: no. 7 something tomorrow morning. I know. I saw the date wrong.

And then it was 8 twenty bloody seven so I shopped. And the shops are really zzzzz. Milka chocolate? Random dunno what perfume? Wth?? I was done in about 3min. And I had made the effort to pick everything up and convert all the dirhams to pounds too.

Didn't realise how tired I was. I guess I had barely slept on the plane. Was feeling quite nauseous and almost vomited when I tasted the casserole. Which is strange because I usually have an exceedingly wide resistance to weird tastes. Plus I was starving 2hrs before boarding. Anyway, I managed to get internet (but not Whatsapp) and did the usual hotmail/fb etc. checks --> read shopaholic after that and kept falling asleep. Quite embarrassing coz I dunno if I am allowed to splay myself out at the main departure hall and sleep properly so I kept waking up. I was determined to stay at each spot for at least 3 hours so I wouldn't run out of spots and so I finally left for another long toilet trip at the furthest toilet and am now all settled in burger king with chicken fries (SIX pieces -.-), an apple pie, and the coffee that I need but spilt onto my pants. At least it dried up pretty quickly. And my pants are kind of coffee coloured. Thank goodness I decided to wear my long 3 random cats top.

Ah. I better go to the power charging point. Acer is dying again...

I like Oovoo :D

Ngeh. Of all things I got excellent for the blogging component of my A+E block O_o Leicester really does appreciate reflections. And to be fair, I really think I had reflected my socks off for that block.

Went to Alton Towers last week

Bought a bear and called him 中黑 coz he was black with flecks and coz I already have a 大黑.

Now on elderly care which I was really anticipating because Paula is working on the elderly ward and my plan was to velcro myself to her and learn loads. Reliable rumour says that teaching is quite good/hard-core + regular too, which is so rare in an inblock. I guess geriatricians do make really good teachers coz they are generally very patient and they have to have wikipedian knowledge.

BUT. Some smart ass went to suggest that we do 3 community weeks in Loughborough + 1 more week with Pharmacology students. Which leaves 3 weeks left (12 days after taking away weekends and Friday lectures and random talks) to do our workbook plus the manymanymanymanymanymanymanymanymanymanymanymanymanymany innocently hidden tasks within it. And also only 3 weeks to go on the wards and shadow Paula and get good teaching. The outblock people esentially get 7 whole weeks to chill out.

Community attachment is good... and I think we do have to know it particularly for elderly care... but we had done most of it before and it really was not worth spending 5.70 on trains + 3.20 on the bus every day + several hours travelling there for repeats of GP and home visits and specialist nurse clinics. POUNDS! That is like $20 man! Which is the amount I use to top up my ez-link card. Honestly... all that could have been done in a week :/ The Pharmaco thing sounds good actually but even then... I don't think we need a whole week allocated to that D:<

Ok Lilian Too says I should lie low and control my temper this month. And Yi Ling says I should take deep breaths.

But still. I have only seen... 1 patient in the past 2 weeks.

Meant to blog about Bath and show off some of the pictures that I had taken. But with Facebook, I no longer need to do that! Just upload your whole life onto 1 website and the whole world will know all about you, Wherever, Whenever... at a click of the mouse. Yes I am promoting Facebook because it is actually a website of awesomeness. It keeps you updated about family and friends all around the world and it is good not only for social networking but for intellectual purposes (e.g. news about GE) too :D

Nevertheless, I will still post some pictures here because my printer is still not installed so I still cannot scan my other pictures.

Stonehenge

Keewei + Paula + Me at the Roman Baths

Outside Sally-Lunn which is famous for Sally-Lunn buns. Food was quite nice (: They had duck.

This is the full crew including Patheodore Sammy-Lunn my new bear

This is how I look if I grow fat

This is the new book I am reading. I say new, I'm actually almost at the end of it. It is about an actor who has really random and whimsical ideas and sets out on weird expeditions when he has nothing better to do. In this book he sets out on a journey to find out where jokes come from and attempts to follow the trail of a joke. Super bo liao -.- But I like the weird ideas and quirkiness of the story :D It is keeping me entertained.

Cough almost gone now.

My cough is getting better. Whoop dee doop! Only had 2 coughing fits today one of which was in the library when I was attempting to have a whispered discussion with Sania. Went all pink and teary and snotty whenever I attempted to whisper-reply Sania. She just got back from Pakistan 2 weeks ago and got me.............. an Emirates teaspoon and toothbrush! The toothbrush is actually really cool because it comes in a little clear dome with a tiny cylindrical tube of toothpaste which fits into its own groove (:

Chloraphenamine seems to be doing the trick I think by making me have really deep long sleeps rather than by any antihistamine action. It seems to stay in my system a lot longer than is ideal, though, which makes me feel really drowsy and unwitty the next day. Unfortunately I did not realise that my 2 days off today and tomorrow were not real days off after all, cos I found out this morning that we had radiology teaching today and PUBLIC HEALTH DAY tomorrow O.O So I wandered into radiology in a rather dreamlike state and learnt about chest xray, abdo xray, pelvic xray and c-spine xray. Drifted off happily to Morissons after that :D

Into my 3rd week of A&E at the moment but technically only day 4/5 coz our group had blocks of offdays in a row at the beginning of the block and now we have all the shit in a row. We had started off in AMU and coz it was my 1st 2 days I was very law by law and basically only went for the ward round after which my shift was over. The FY1s were quite nice. Found a good case for my case presentation later this month. It was a classic upper GI bleed guy who presented with PR bleed. The smell of malaena wafts around AMU quite frequently which is good practise I guess for medical students to recognise it immediately in the future. It is roughly the smell of burnt rubber with a kind of sharp quality to it.

Had about whole week off after that whereby it was the royal wedding so stayed home and checked out the pictures on fb. Had the fever and post-karaoke I think pharyngitis over the weekend and missed 1st day in A&E paeds. Had a demoralising past few days where I failed all my bloods and cannulas. ALL. Even the bulging great big man veins. Yesterday was better coz at least I felt I was of some use presenting cases. Got a cannula in more comfortably but the poor old man was very very dehydrated (that is my excuse) so the blood stopped halfway and I did not feel comfortable having another go so got a doctor to do it :/ Ugh. So paiseh to admit I am final year. I cannot even do bloods and cannulas. And most people are going to go in with shitty spidery collapsed veins when I cannot even do healthy man veins. Have not had the guts to try ABGs either. I need more confidence man.

Guess there were quite a few cool cases like gaping wounds with ruptured tendons and hypos and pneumothoraces. At least I have something positive to blog about for my A&E blog. Yea we have to write in blog entries for this block :/ it is very IT savvy. No workbook. Everything online. We even have a virtual ward. Which is actually really quite good and will potentially be made into an iphone app.

Should I go in later? I have green sputum today.

Ugh. For the first time in my UK life I am falling sick S: I cannot help but wallow in self-pity because I have never fallen sick here before. Here. Away from home. With no family to fuss over me and make me "Take your medicine and go to sleep early. Ling/Bon feel her forehead in the middle of the night hor". Gosh, how pampered. On hindsight, getting sick at home was a really big thing and a sore throat used to bring on the full works of plain porridge/soup, leng yong and "Go and sleep! Go and sleep!" No wonder I would drag myself around the house slurring, "Ngeh... I feel saaaaack..."

Here whenever someone tells me they did not go to hospital because they are not well I either think "Really? I know what "not well" means... I invented the general malaise excuse..." *wigglewiggle eyebrows* or, if it is an honest, conscientious student I just give a superficial "Awww. That sucks!" or if there is a social obligation to make small talk/sympathise more convincingly, add in "Yea you should take the day off! Go home and have a good rest!" but really thinking they are fine.

Now I remember what it is like to fall ill :/

Hai. I had thought it was the overnight living room karaoke-ing last night that had caused my sore throat and the ngiam ngiam feeling in my mouth today. But as the day went on my sore throat has progressed from just sore to the painful-lump-when-you swallow feeling. I've also got a deep and mysterious voice now. The muscle pains (and my favourite excuse of general malaise) just started about an hour ago. Which makes me more and more convinced that my resistance to UK pathogens has finally been breached after my proud 4-year record of not falling ill (here). Will measure my temperature tomorrow. Good thing I earned 150pounds + a thermometer from my bird flu trial.

Ptoomb and Ptiu have died. Huey Ning dug them out from behind the taps using a plastic spoon and wrapping paper roll and we never saw them again. Sania told me that slugs got into houses by climbing up water pipes. I am worried that more of them will come.

There are 2 slugs on my bath tub. The big shit-coloured one is quite active and seems to be growing and has the ability to alter its colour gradient. The tiny diarrhoea-coloured one seems quite lethargic and has not moved from its corner. After a night's consideration, I have decided to name them Ptoomb. and Ptiu! repectively.

Last day in Norhampton. We should be going out for a picnic but the beautiful weekend didnt last and it is now cold and grey and gloomy again. Which is baseline English weather I guess :/ We had a leftovers party in the end. Which turned out quite fun! Played the A to Z game (each of us took turns singing songs from A to Z) and found out that my song vocabulary still lies in the 1990s.

The early days have started... Which is generally nice because long sunny days make me happy and when I am happy I function. But here I am awake at 5.45a.m. because my body is still on sun dial-time and believes this is the appropriate time to be up and ready to face a new day.

I passed my exams a few weeks ago but it seems I am never satisfied. I got over passing really quickly and am now worrying about being an FY.

Today I go back to Leicester for a genetics workshop. Seeing as they are generous enough to have a 10a.m. start I am assuming this means they can afford to end early (: This week has been a fruitless week. No work done + No jogging + No entertainment + Ran out of oranges. No entertainment except that I watched the champions league match with Xinyi yesterday. I think I should watch football more now I am here since there is no longer the need to stay up till 3a.m. to catch them. Not that I ever did that in Singapore. Just that now they are readily available in the doctors' mess/iplayer at the perfect afterdinner-time so I can watch them and and tell my friends back home "Oh yeah I forgot you have to stay up till 3 to watch the match! Shame." And when you are among people who are not ashamed of going "G- g- OH. Ok, ok.. G- goa- AwWwWrraaww. Shithead. Hehe." watching football is really really fun.

Spent the week running away/being scared by our consultant. I am convinced she has Graves. Or at least has some degree of hyperthyroidism. She is skinny + female + middle-aged/oldish + very anxious + uptight + has proptosis and exophthalmos (I checked from side view). Her eyes do scare me. They are So. Big. And they stare at you as if to pop out of her head. I think they are trying to escape from her too because they can't stand the stress either. Last week she walked in on me talking to her patient (on purpose) and went

Fake smile, "Hi! Hi! Oh. Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt!"*stare*

She then smiled more and nodded, "I just wanted to check how you were." *starestare*

I have a picture of her in that scene but my scanner is still not installed.

To be fair, she stares at everyone though. It just scares me.

I get worried when computers start going "ooohhmmmmmm..." for no reason. Like what the 1 I am using is doing now. It makes me think that I am doing something wrong. Perhaps library computers generally disapprove of non-academic sites like Facebook :/

Had Dermatology clinic today where the dear, sweet consultant from Malaysia gave me an Excellent grade for having good manners and being interested in Dermatology. I think she either saw that the entry above had given me an Excellent for no apparent reason (jolly old Pam the nurse :D) or she felt obliged not to dash my apparent dreams because I had told her that Derm is (or was) the 2nd most popular choice of speciality to get into in Singapore and that only the best people could get in. And that my parents wanted me to be one. Apparently it is very different here. Everyone seems to have a very discouraging impression of Dermatologists and seems to think they don't do much work. Apparently there is much talk of scraping it as a speciality altogether and letting GPs do more of the work :I I don't really know what to make of it... But I think Dermatology did become a specialty for a reason..

Recently found new entertainment in 1) The Black Magician trilogy and 2) The Office. I love random humour (: I also just found a new book called The Roaches Have No King. But I'm sure that with the restoration of an internet-available room next month, my old interests will be rediscovered. Ah but I probably really should give in to a DNR (Do Not Resus) request for my Acer now. Sad that is :( Thought I would have been able to stretch it out to when i graduate but it has arrested on me more than a handful of times in the past year so.. I think I need to let it go. Meanwhile, I shall indulge myself on pretty-looking laptops. Yi Ling and Evon and Papa can help me with the technical bits.

Halfway through my 2nd 2-week leg at Northampton. Why does everyone not seem to have to study and yet know stuff?

This week was spent in plastics/derm/maxfac. I still think plastics is possibly the coolest speciality there is. Too bad I don't want to be a surgeon :/ You see the craziest things in plastics - people walking through glass doors, people getting their faces sawed open by accident, crazy people sticking batteries into their skin... Plastics is really not the glamorous speciality everyone makes it out to be. If anything, they see the most revolting stuff and have the most morbid party stories to tell.

Nothing much achieved this week. A lot of waiting around and people not turning up to teach us when they should, a lot of time-wasting. Overall a rather unproductive week apart from the fact that I went jogging TWICE so far! Will go again tomorrow.

It has been several months and my printer is still not installed so have not been able to express a thousand words for a while. Anyway there hasn't been any time, or rather, mood to draw happy doodles of myself...

Everyone is now back in their respective countries (with regards to both friends and family) and life is starting to chug on like normal. Have not spoken very much to people until the last few days. The worst exam that I have ever experienced has just finished and there is this sudden sense of senselessness like the aftermath of an earthquake where a part of you is relieved that it is over but the other half does not know the extent of damage to expect. Again I am up at the crack of dawn (6plus) and so am twiddling my thumbs coz there is nothing particularly constructive that up to doing as yet. And believe it or not.. I am waiting to sit for another paper soon (although it is not counted). Oh well everyone (who had finished yesterday) had taken the day off to do their nails/go clubbing anyway so I guess really, no one is too bothered. No. No one is bothered at all about what the fake paper today entails. Until the day before I had been under the impression that we were going to be sitting for a completely different paper too -_- Trust me to be the blur one who is always out of the loop.

This is the first time I actually want the results to be out quickly instead of running away and wishing for it to drag out like how I normally do. The feeling of not knowing how you did is so... disruptive. I really think that GP block has left a scar. All ang mohs are so fake and I do not trust my feeling that I have done ok when I have just finished a station anymore. Oh need to get ready for my fake paper now.. Wish everything will really be over soon ><