Catching up... again

It's been ages.  And quite a tough stressful ages.  The car issue has been dragged out and I've been back in Bristol, dealing with the stress of sorting it all out and dealing with it all alone.  I know that this is a decision that I have made for myself, and I honestly don't mind, but I don't think I've ever felt it as much as I have over the last couple of weeks.  I have been in touch with my friends and family loads, but knocking around my flat by myself, time has dragged, and the loneliness dreadful.  I've felt so restless at times and so trapped at others.  I've wanted to scream and then cry.  You'll be glad to know that I haven't!  But I've felt like it!

But in amongst it all there have been positive moments, with the support of my wonderful friends.  So here it is, the story of the last few weeks.

The car:  I ended up accompanying the car, on a flat bed truck, to the insurance appointed garage, which was beyond Bristol.  Fortunately, the very lovely recovery truck driver gave me a lift back to Gloucester, from where I was able to jump on a bus and get back to Cheltenham, at the end of a very long day.  The burnt smell of the airbags lingering on me, all I wanted to do was shower and wash my hair.  And then just curl up in a ball and sleep.  I resisted the urge though, and instead went out for dinner with my coursemates, to celebrate the end of our time in Cheltenham.  I think getting out and about was good for me, to be surrounded by people and to have some distraction.

Thursday, I did allow myself to wallow.  I was suddenly hurt.  I'm not sure if it was a seatbelt injury, or if it was from holding myself tensely and shivering and shaking so much the previous day.  But I was so very sore across my chest.  And exhausted, I had barely slept.  So I stayed at home, did a little knitting, watched some stuff on my laptop and then ended up sleeping all afternoon.  Then we went out to dinner as a flat, a final bonding experience for the three of us, who had individually gone through so much in that flat, that we had shared and supported each other through.  I'm so glad to have bonded such lovely girls who I'm sure we will always look back at our time fondly and be grateful for.

Friday brought new adventures - driving again.  I had a courtesy car from my insurance company.  And I was dreading driving.  First time after my crash and also because I've hardly driven any other car since I learnt to drive.  Pleased to say, in a slightly strange, lacking kind of way, it was fine.  It was just driving.  Once I was in the car, it was almost as if nothing had happened.  One of my friends agreed to come back to Bristol with me, to act as some morale support and as a very soothing, calming influence.  And she was wonderful.  Thanks Charlotte.

And life goes on... it was back to work at the weekend.  And then the nightmare of sorting it all out.  Last week Tuesday was an overwhelming day.
1)  I learnt that the driver of the other car is making a personal claim, via a very snooty, aggressive, intimidating letter.  (Which luckily, I have legal cover with the insurance, so all I had to do was forward the letter onto the insurance company and let them deal with it all, so glad about that).  I was very upset and thrown by this letter, but I have been reassured by everyone that it's just par for the course following an accident these days.
2)  I found out about my jobs.  I will be spending the first two years if my working life in Yeovil, a place I've never been to before.  I will be doing the following rotations: F1 - endocrinology; gastric surgery; general medicine.  F2 - GP (mmmm, not something I really wanted); trauma & orthopaedics (something I wanted even less!) and finally Obstetrics and gynaecology (yay, at least I got this!).  I'm sure these two years will be full of all sorts of adventures and learning experiences
3)  The engineer from my insurance company phoned to confirm that the car is a definite write off and to let me know how much I will be receiving.

In amongst this all - the slightly more positives.
My birthday - was on a Sunday.  Was lovely and lazy, full of loving messages, and a evening meal at a pan-Asian buffet in town with some of my friends.
Uni - am currently spending four weeks doing a GP audit.  I have collected my data and then trying to get motivated enough to start writing up the results!
Knitting - Ru wristwarmers are finished.  And so are two gorgeous vests for two lovely little girls.  And now I'm busy working on a lacey scarf for Farrah, using one of the balls of hand dyed that I painted at the workshop.
Friends - random pancake evenings, random relaxing at home, watching 24, playing on the Wii, and general distractions
Visits - the Clarks came and spent an evening with me last weekend.  I crazy, busy, joyous afternoon and evening.  My little flat hasn't had that much noise in weeks combined.  It was great, and just what I needed.  Company.  We didn't do very much, we went shopping (much to the girl's horror, and only redeemed by going to the best toy shop ever!), and a lazy dinner of naan bread pizzas, and all things yarn!  It was lovely, thanks guys, and we have to do it again!

And I think that is a fairly brief summary of things.  I'm still waiting for the cheque to come through, the insurance company have had some silly delays caused by people going on holiday without filing reports.  I'm hoping to get it in the next couple of days.  And then I'm hoping to go home to Derby for a long weekend, to see my parents before they go off on holiday over Easter and to have some company to cheer me up.  I need the soothing, cathartic influence of being around those I love.

And now, some photos:
Firstly, the yarn all dried and looking so amazing, I'm so proud of my creativity and can't wait to see what it all turns out like when knitted.

Sock yarn - pink with purple lowlights

Sock yarn - much brighter green than originally intended

Final sock yarn

Silk hankie

DK for Sarah, was supposed to be turquoise and purple, but ended up blue and purple

DK in gold and earthy red tones

Scrumptious Lace (45% silk, 55% merino) in semisolid plummy colour

Scrumptious Chunky in various shades of blue, purple and red

Ru's wristwarmer's - it's very difficult to take a photo of both your hands when you're by yourself!

Playing with my new toy, a wool winder

Getting ready to start Farrah's scarf

Little vests:

Close up of Jenna's armholes, unintended two tone as I was sooooo close to running out of wool

And they fit!

And finally, my flat being filled with people

The girls helped me wind the left over wool from Morgi's vest and made just-for-her wool of Sarah's.  And not the DVDs aren't all neatly lined up.  Apparently best game in my flat for little bean hands is to pull them all off the shelves until you're sitting in a pile bigger than you!

Apparently wool-winders are great toys for all ages, not just for me!

Just looking through these photos and it amazes me just how busy and full the last few weeks have been, filled with so much bad and yet so much good.  No wonder I feel drained and not myself.  Such a rollercoaster.  But I suppose that's just life...

Catching up

Wow, this really is a slippery slope.  Just a few days without posting everyday and then it just gets longer and longer between posts.  Oooops.  There's no particular reason for having not posted for nearly four days, it's a combo of having really dull days followed by very busy days.  And the now usual lack of sleep in Cheltenham making me exhausted.  So here we go, a quick catch up over lunch, and I have loads to say, so let's see how far I get.

I slept absolutely awfully on Sunday night, but fortunately I didn't have anything going on on Monday besides my nine o'clock seminar.  So I yawned my way home and curled up in bed and ended up sleeping for about three hours!  It was soooo needed that I don't feel entirely guilty for avoiding going to the wards and clerking.  I really don't think I would have got much benefit out of it.

Tuesday was by far my busiest day so far this week.  Nine o'clock seminar.  Followed by clerking with a friend.  First clerking I've done in weeks so it was really good to have someone there with me, as (a) kind of obliges me to get on with it! and (b) good for feedback on things that need improving on or are just a little rusty from having not done it for a while.  In the middle of my clerking, one of the other medical students came and dragged me to the corridor.  Just to let me know (at 11am) that I would be having my first exam of the year at 2pm.  Ahh, advance warning always so great!  The organisation here in Cheltenham has been rather questionable!  But there you go.  So after rattling around for a bit at lunchtime, moaning via text to Sarah (thanks for listening!) and trying to get it straight in my head how I felt about it all.  The exam was an observed long case - a new introduction to have them so early in the year this year, but basically the exam format which is responsible for me still being here at medical school rather than being out there in the big bad world, actually being a doctor.  How could I feel anything but negativity toward this exam?  Fortunately, it never really dawned in properly or felt real, so that avoided a lot of the nasty nerves.  I was surprisingly relaxed during the exam, much more so than during the exams last year.  I don't know what to make of it, but I got some very positive feedback, and I got a chance to really talk it through with the doctor who was examining me, and she said "there were no major pass/fail points" which I don't know if that meant I passed overall, or there was no one big thing that I would fail on that I really messed up.... so who knows.  I don't know when I'm likely to find out what I scored/if I passed.  So I'm just in limbo, but feeling relatively happy about it.

Then Tuesday evening I drove to Cirencester to meet up with Lorri and have dinner.  Which was lovely, and just what I needed after the unexpected exam.  I love catching up with Lorri, and she spoils me rotten when we have dinner, taking pity on the poor student.  We have a deal that with my first pay cheque, I'm going to repay the favour, but at this rate, I'm going to have to take her to Paris for a meal or maybe the Ritz or something crazy like that, either way, something big!  Lol!  I'm so lucky to have such amazing friends.  It was an okay meal, Lorri's steak was over cooked, and the humous wasn't humous, but I did have a very very tasty ginger and honey icecream for desert.  Mmmm *licks lips*!  And it was lovely just to be with a friend, and have a really good catch up.  Lorri is working and staying in Swindon at the moment, hence meeting in Cirencester, which is more of less half way between Cheltenham and Swindon, taking us each almost exactly half an hour to get there.  We're planning to do it again next week, choosing a different restaurant this time though.

Yesterday I had about as lazy a day as possible.  I was exhausted and didn't really have anything on in the hospital, so I stayed in bed (in the morning) and in my pjs most of the day.  Watched stuff on my laptop, dozed, and eventually got round to knitting a little bit, making a start on the second wrist warmer.  Eventually at about 5, I decided enough was enough and put some clothes on and forced myself to go to get milk!  Ohhh, it's a tough life I lead. Then in the evening I went with one of my course mates to go see Sherlock Holmes, making the most of Orange Wednesdays and having a cinema about a minute's walk away.  It was pretty good.  Predictably a bit about the violence and explosions.  But I did quite enjoy it, and I've been meaning to see it for ages now.  So can cross it off the list!

And here we are, back to Thursday.  I overslept this morning so was late to my teaching first thing.  Ooops.  Then am about to head in for "on call", whatever that will entail and maybe have some consultant teaching.

So I had better get going.  I have a few more things to say about my weekend, but I will have to leave that for now, but I am well excited about my plans!

Back in stinky Cheltenham

No, it actually does stink, well, in the kitchen at least (full bin and crazy heating.... mmmm, tasty smells there!)

So the delights of being back to Cheltenham, and after a weekend of... well, not much.  I'm really finding it hard to think of things to talk about here that aren't tedious running commentries of my life or moans that I've already had. 

Work was work.  Actually a very barable shift.  Nice patients, nice nurses, enough work to keep me busy and not twiddling my thumbs but not too busy to actually get everything done whilst still chatting to patients.  So that was good.  I honestly really find it hard to say that I enjoy work, I just don't find it a particularly rewarding job, it's just a means to an end.  And it makes me crave being a doctor and doing what I feel passionate about all the more.

This morning I finally got round to getting out of bed early enough to go to my local CofE church, as part of my quest to find a church that will give me what I need/want/think I need out of church.  It was a nice short walk up there, listening to the bells.  Very old school traditional!  It was Candlemas today, so it was interesting to see, as I've never been to a Candlemas  before, but I suppose it wasn't their usual sort of service, so I think I will try to make it back next week and try a more run of the mill kind of mass.  There was a lot of pomp and ceremony, which I do find a little needless in Christianity.  But I did get to take communion, for the first time in years, so that was nice, as I do believe it is an important part of church and practising Christianity.  I definitely left the church feeling very moved, relaxed and content.  I don't know if I learnt anything necessarily faith-strengthening, but I did enjoy it, and I'm hoping next week will be good too.  And they were very friendly and welcoming, so that definitely counts in their favour.

And finally, the wristwarmer is still not done, but very nearly.  I'm just debating on the length of the palm part, but hopefully will finish that tomorrow, along with the thumb, which shouldn't take too long at all.  So yipee, nearly half way!

 

(not entirely sure why I looks so shocked and dazed in this pic... I took it, I knew it was coming... lol!)

 

Here-Hereford (say it fast and you may get the pun!)

Hereford really is the back of beyond, but happily took me less time than my "worst case scenario" that I had been imagining. In fact it was actually a very pretty drive. I still have no idea where Hereford is, but fortunately Ken-Ken (my Aussie voiced sat-nav) did. Still not sure if it was worth it for the three and a half hours spent there.

A positive thing (well depending how you look at it!) was that as I was heading out of Cheltenham, I drove past a place claiming to be the UK's largest fabric shop. Guess where I'll be heading tomorrow afternoon... lol, not sure if I actually will buy any material, as I have no idea what I'd do with it, without a sewing machine and a somewhat lack of time... well... but it can't help to look, can it?

Finally making a little progress on Ru's wristwarmers, getting the hang of the pattern, much easier than I orignally thought! So am pretty happy with that. It's been a slow start to it, but hopefully will pick up pace a little now.

And finally, a philisophical end to this post: is it really only just Tuesday? Why, oh why is this week dragging, I keep feeling like it's a Wednesday, so it's extra depressing to think it's still so long until the weekend and my chance to escape back to Bristol! Bugger! Why, oh why!

Two days without posting

I've officially broken my trend.  I had blogged pretty much everyday since I began, until this weekend... and there's not even a proper reason for it.  I went to Bristol, and finished the socks as documented in my previous post.  And then I made Harry's hat, the only model for which was me:

Another delightful pic of me taken (mainly due to laziness) with my webcam

I crocheted the hat.  It look about a day - I'd forgotten how absolutely simple this pattern was and how quickly it came together.  So I was really happy about that.  I've made this pattern for Harry about 4 or 5 times before, and I think that he's managed to loose them all along the way - not sure if he'll ever learn, or me for that matter, I do keep on making them!  I had to be a bit inventive this time.  He wanted a thinner wool (pattern calls for bulky/chunky) so I went for an aran weight and increased the pattern repeats, and actually managed to get it right, first time!  So yay for me, about adventurous as I've ever gotten with modifying patterns!

And now I'm on to making the wristwarmers for Ru.  I haven't got very far, the pattern uses a chart, something I've never done before, and I had a few queries about it, and obviously had to trawl the net for answers as I didn't bother bringing The Knitter's Bible.  Looking forward to the challenge.

Work on Saturday was about as exciting as I was expecting.  I was bored out of my wits, and got glared at and made to do menial, non-essential things when I dared get the crochet out (despite the fact they were all surfing the net and checking hotmail!).  So I took the hint and sat around staring off into space instead.  Oh well, I was at work after all, so it's bordering on being cheeky to sit there crocheting.  The times I've knitted have all be night shifts, so I obviously can get away with it more then!

Sunday was a bit of a write off.  I really wanted to get up and go to one of the local churches, but switched my alarm off and promptly feel asleep again... oops.  But I've been so tired, I've not been getting amazing sleep in here at Cheltenham, so it was definintely a case of catching up on it all!  When I did eventually get out of bed, I decided I'd go have breakfast (well, brunch!) at the local cafe, so I could sit with the free wi-fi and focus on finishing ranking my jobs.  Which I'd almost done when my laptop run out of juice and I didn't have anywhere near my table to plug in, and changing tables wasn't an option since they were packed (in fact people were kinda glaring at me for taking up a four seater table!).  So I ambled home and finished ranking there.  So glad to get it out of the way.  Now it's just a case of waiting about three weeks and I find out what jobs I have.

Then following having Harry and Claire round briefly so he could pick up the hat (and very generously pay for the yarn - yay, so it was guilt free wool shopping!), I decided to follow up on an idea that Sarah gave me last week.  I roasted a chicken, and had a lovely roast dinner, something I generally don't get round to doing as it's such a waste when I live alone.  And now I've got loads of leftovers to do stuff with.  I had a jacket potato with lemon-mayo chicken, I'm going to do a salad with the other breast, and then make up some soup with whatever's left over.  I may yet be able to get another meal out of whatever other meat is left over before I make the soup.  It was a really good idea - it works out quite cheaply (even splashed out on an organic/free range chicken), I have meal plans for most of the week, and I had a nice easy to think up shopping list.  So it really ticks a lot of the food rules boxes.  So thanks very much Sarah.

And then a quick dish wash and back to Cheltenham.  Had a really busy day today - 9 to 6.  So absolutely knackered right now.  It was a fairly good day.  I was with the consultant who had lead our ethics teaching last week and pretty much the first thing he said to me was that I had had a lot to say last week... I guess I was memorable!  Lol!  Not that I had several arguements or anything like that during ethics!  Lol!  He's quite a nice consultant and made sure I got to see lots and get a bit involved with the team.  In the afternoon, we spent time in the radiotherapy session, which was cool, as it's something I hadn't done before, and I was able to see all the stages.  I like to do things like that, then if I'm ever asked by patients, then at least I can have some grasp of what goes on. 

The most exciting thing to happen this weekend was when I got "chatting" to someone on Ravelry about the socks, and I had a look at her stash, and man did it make me lust.  She's got this huge stash of absolutely gorgeous yarns.  So I complemented her a bit and then we got chatting a bit about where to get wool.  And then she randomly asked for my postal address so she could send me some of her hand-dyed alpaca.  I'm so touched by the kindness of strangers.  She was so gracious about it, and wants absolutely nothing in return.  Can't wait to get back to Bristol and see what it is that she'll send. :)

And here I am... ready for bed.  Not a very exciting weekend, so I'm hoping for a better week!

Blah

Not much to comment on about today.  It was actually a very busy day - in from 9 - 4.30, boring lecture type thing on communication skills in the morning (you'd have thought someone giving a communication skills seminar would actually communicate better, and not make me want to curl up and sleep!) and ethics session in the afternoon, which got a little lively and was quite interesting.

Nipped to the bank at lunchtime to pay the credit card bill, and ended up having a review of my accounts - basically the woman trying to tell me ways to improve my financial commitments whilst I tapped my foot, glancing at the clock, thinking I needed to get some lunch and get back on time.  Hopefully this will have saved me money (in the long term at least) and eases my money worries for now.  I'm always a little skeptical in banks that they're trying to con you, so I asked lots of questions and I think she was genuinely trying to help me out.

This evening, as it was pay day, I decided to try out the cinema that is so tantilisingly close and went and saw Nine.  It was a musical, and quite interestingly shot and had an interesting way of depicting the songs and stories, but I didn't think the songs were very catchy.  All in all, I enjoyed it, but was nowhere near as lively as I was expecting. 

And then when I got back, did a couple of rows on the socks and then went round to one of the other flats for a glass of wine to celebrate someones birthday.  It was a lovely evening, and I'm very lucky to have such nice people on my placement.  There was plenty of chatting and telling of childhood stories (bizarrely enough!).  Was great fun.

And then just washed my hair and now it's past time to get ready for bed, so off I go...

Yet more snow mis-adventures

Today was another one of those frustrating days that I seem to have had quite a few of in the last month - snow destroyed.  As I mentioned, I was due to go to Hereford this morning, for the whole day for clinics.  I duely got up at silly o'clock and as I was munching my brekkie, I looked out the window and start muttering about the rain bucketing down.  And then, as I was finishing my tea, I looked out again and thought, "hang on a second... that rain is different... (squint against the dark gloom)... that's not rain, that's snow!... mmm... interesting, well shouldn't settle following all that rain".  And off I trotted to go get dressed and ready to head off. 

When I was ready, I opened the blinds in my room, and was greeted with white everywhere.  And there was massively reduced visibility.  A glance downwards to the road revealed the worst - slushiness covering the roads.  Cue internal debate.  So I decided to check the weather forcasts for Cheltenham - snow at 9, sleet at 12, snow at 3.  Mmm, checked Hereford's forcast and it was snow more or less all day (switching between heavy and light and then back again) with tempertatures hitting freezing or lower for the afternoon/evening rush hour.  So after debating it with my flatmate, I decided I really should be safe and not drive through it. 

To make up for the lack of clinic-ness, I walked into the hospital here with my flatmate, gettting all soggy and cold feety to go to a library session which I was going to miss in favour of Hereford.  At least I now know where the hospital library is, and I got out and about for a bit and got to have a walk. 

Following this, I came "home" and have mainly been knitting my sock all afternoon, interspersed with lots of tea, and the odd bit of prep for a tutorial tomorrow and sitting around getting to know my flatmates better.  So, all in all an okay day.  Nothing wildly exciting, not for me at least.  I'm very proud of Sarah who is making the most of her time off her feet by learning with amazing speed how to crochet, using some of the goodies I had sent her on Monday.  Hehehe!  I've corrupted her with my devious crochet/knitting addiction.  :)  So going to have to start a crafting group when I next am in Derby where we can sit and do stuff and natter!  Can you tell I'm excited about having a friend join the world of crochet?  Someone I can share the experience with!  Tis truely awesome!

Sock progress for today:

Did the heel and about half of the foot today

It's definitely the second sock - next to the first for comparison

And this is me... being bored by all the stupid snow keeping me stuck, mostly infront of the computer. (and yes, that is my South African rugby jersey!)

Still waiting to be enchanted by Cheltenham (and Hereford)

Well, I'm still alive!  Somehow.  Time is dragging here, and in a bizarre kind of way, I'm actually looking forward to my road trip to Hereford tomorrow (look it up on a map, I had to!  Heard of it before, no idea where it was!).  I've not heard positive things about the drive, but ooooh well, at least it'll be something to do.  Which is better than today.  We had a 9am tutorial and then that was it.  I suppose I could have been more pro-active and hit the wards to clerk afterwards, but I felt like an exhausted zombie, so I plodded home via tescos (no milk = no tea = disaster!) and stocked up. 

And then came home and did a little bit of reading, watched a little "tv" then gave up completely and crawled into bed.  Really struggled to sleep - let's blame the bed, but eventually did nap for a couple of hours, so hopefully I've caught up on the sleep I missed over the weekend and that I've not been getting because of the bedsprings sticking into my sides.  I've gotten so used to my lovely memory foam mattresses (both in Bristol and Derby) that I've forgotten this joy.

I spent a little more time chatting to my new flatmate (whose name I can't remember... oops!) and she's been wonderful and brought along a whole bunch of pots, pans, crockery and basically saved the day, bless her!  And so we can actually cook semi-decent meals.  Although, when at tescos, I mainly stocked up on things that would require minimal pots, e.g. pizza, salad, pies, stuff for pitta bread pizzas (for lunches/other lighter meals), jacket potatoes and fruit.  Miss calculated the number of tea bags I had left, so now I'm down to my last one for breaky tomorrow.  Oh man, I can't live without my tea :(  Lol, enough with the dramatics!

I've spent this evening doing some knitting (almost at the heel of the second sock now) and starting to rank my jobs, which is the next part of my job application for junior doctor jobs i.e. the next (hopefully!) two years of my life.  I've basically got a list of all 272 jobs that will available for junior doctors in the deanery (the collection of hopitals approx within 1hour radius of Bristol) and I have to rank them in order of my preferences as to which ones I want.  It's harder than it sounds, and it feels a little pointless, as I know for a fact I didn't score very well on my application and thus am not likely to get anywhere near the top of my list.  I've ranked all the jobs that have some obs & gynae in them at the top (all 39 of them!) in some sort of thought through order as this is the speciality that I'm leaning most towards.  But it's also one of the most popular, so the chances of me getting one of these 39?  Put it this way, I'm not optimistic.  And then how do I rank the other 230 odd jobs?

This whole thing has been made extra stressful as it's one of those things that I've done before with so much excitement and anticipation... and now... and now I'm not feeling it at all.  It's just a horrible reminder of all that's happened.  And whilst it has quite brought me to tears, I do find that I'm facing quite a mental hurdle to do it.  But it is interesting to see how my reasonings for ranking have changed.  Last year it was Obs/Gynae jobs, then paeds, then jobs which had both years in the same place, and then more randomly.  And I put so much effort into it.  Giving all the jobs a score out of 5 as to what I thought/felt about the rotations included in them.  And of course I got rid of all the paper that I did this on!  And I don't have the energy or inclination to do that again this year, although it was kind of useful.  This year, my priorities are more along the line of Obs/Gynae jobs, jobs with first year in Bristol (would be useful to be able to stay in my flat), maybe jobs with A&E placements (I really enjoy A&E and is prob next on my list of possible specialties after Obs&Gynae - I think my subconscious is trying to tell me something with picking the jobs with the anti-social hours!), and then... don't know.  Not sure if I really care.  I'm going to have to stop for tonight anyway, and maybe think about it on my commute tomorrow.

Resisting temptation

After all the excitement of first thing this morning, I'm cream crackered, so just a quick post.  Yes, I know I always say that and then...

First day of placement today.  Bit of a let down, the lecturer couldn't make it, so we only had some housekeeping issues to sort out.  And then I had the rest of the day free.  I could have done so much like nap, do some reading, rank my jobs, go food shopping, etc. But I didn't get round to any of this.  I mainly vegged in front of my computer, half-heartedly watching iPlayer and knitting and feeling bored and frustrated.  But I don't have anywhere comfy to knit, so I didn't get oooooodles done, but I suppose some is better than none.  And right now, I know I'm feeling extra moany, but that's probably because I'm tired, so I really shouldn't say too much, as I don't know if I'll fully mean it.  But here's a list of my Cheltenham issues:
1) they're expecting me to spend half my time (or seemingly half, tiredness may be slightly, but not greatly, exaggerating this) outside of Cheltenham, just because I have a car.  They're sending me to Hereford (officially can claim 40miles each direction) which apparently would take only slightly less time than it would to get to Derby.  So I'm not impressed, especially as I will have to pay up front for petrol and then claim back, which will undoubtedly take weeks (that last part might fall under the "may not actually mean if I wasn't so tired" category)
2) lack of stuff here - no linen, next to no cookware/crockery.  The accomodation is not really exciting me at this point in time.  So frustrated about it.
3) no tv - there's not much to do in general, unless you want to spend money (e.g. cinema on next street, oh temptation thy name is Cineworld) or it involves sitting in front of a computer screen.  We're almost slap bang in the middle of town, so there's not even anywhere decent to go for a stroll.
4) the heating is crazy - I've had to turn down the night storage heater in the kitchen/lounge and open all the windows as it was like a sauna.  It was too uncomfortably hot to sit in there, which is a shame as that's where the sofas are.
5) there's no toilet paper - we have to provide our own... apparently.  I'm not 100% sure.  But I'm guessing as I can't find anywhere and now we are out.  Mmmm, emergancy run to 24 hour tesco or beg/borrow/steal from another flat. 

Good things (perhaps?) about Cheltenham
1)  I saw three craft shops today on my walk to and from hospital.  Oh temptation thy name is yarn!  I'm pleased to report I only went in and felt (get it!! and before you say anything, I did warn you I was tired) the wool in two of them.
2).... I'll have to get back to you on that...

Sarah and I did however end up chatting for nearly 2 hours this evening, exchanging woes and frustration and having some interesting ponders about the world in which we live, which was a lovely way to kill my boredom, and was ultimately the highlight of my day.  Thanks Sarah, although be forewarned, you did such a good job, maybe back to bug you again soon!

Anyhow's, off to bed now.  Night y'all and here's to a fire alarm free sleep.

Never leave towels on night storage heaters

Had a lovely early wake up call at about 7am today, with the fire alarm absolutely screaming the place down.  My first instinct was to say, "oh damn, someone's burnt their toast... who makes toast at this time of day anyway?".  But as soon as we got out of our flat into the stair well, we could start to smell the acrid, noxious fumes.

We had no idea who was officially in the building.  So we had to hope for the best.  Then there was the debate over if we should call 999 or if it was automatically linked to the fire department, as many university halls are.  We didn't really debate for too long, we just phoned straight away.  And whilst someone was phoning 999, I ended up trying to get hold of the supposedly 24hour security office, in the hope that they would be able to assist us with matters like a head count, if the fire department should be called etc.  And we couldn't get hold of them, despite numerous attempts, especially when the fire crew were trying to switch the alarm off so we could all go back inside.

Turns out someone had left their towel on their night storage heater.  I went to move my car (which was in a time restricted bay) so I missed the big "action" but the firemen managed to remove the towel and leave it on the pavement outside the front door.  I saw the embers when I returned.  Don't think they needed to do anything else, besides help with aerating the block of flats and tell off the girl responsible.  Then we were eventually allowed back in after about 40mins.  Everything still stinks like mad, and it makes my eyes water a little every now and then, but hey, things could be a lot worse.  I'm just deprived of sleep now, there was really no point in attempting to get back to sleep after all that.  So I've just randomly surfed the net instead.  It's all but time to get ready now.  I did take a photo of the fire engines, but it was on my mobile, and I currently don't have the means to upload them, so I'll put it up eventually.

Have a good, fire-free day everyone!

Busy Sunday

What a day.  It feels like I've not stopped since about 8am!  It all started with Harry and Claire wanting to borrow my sat nav, and the best time for them to pick it up was about 8 this morning.  I have a new request to crochet Harry a red hat.  I sense another excuse to do the banned wool shopping!  But he said he'll refund me the money!  Can't wait to go shopping.  I want to get a really nice yarn, and I have an excuse, and it's not random pointless shopping for a vague project in the future, so I can get away with justifying this to myself!  I really struggled to get back to sleep despite the early hour. 

I eventually dozed off for about 20mins then got up to go pick up Ru (who had spent the night with another friend) and go to her old church.  I was quite excited about this, as finding a church is one of my things that I want to do under The Rules.  I think officially it's non-denominational, but it definitely borders on being evangelical, in the big, loud, stereotypical American kind of way.  Which seems a little OTT for me, so I'm not sure if I'll give it another try.  I did like the message and ethos of the church, which had a very "let's get down to business, bypass church politics, bypass distractions, focus on the Word" feel to it.  Which I really agree with.  Too much of Christianity is taken up with needless pointless junk that's been added over the years, but isn't really part of the original message of God and it's so easy to get side tracked with it all, rather than focusing on what a relationship with God is all about and how to cultivate it.  So, all in all, I'm not sure.  I think I will try a couple of other churches, like my local CofE, despite the fact I consider myself non-denominational.

Then Ru and I decided to make the most of our time together and went out to lunch, meeting up with some other people for some Nando's.  I'm really feeling guilty about all the money I've spent this weekend, but I don't think I was overly frivolous, but I really should be more controlled this week to make up for it.

Then it was goodbye to Ru, who I thoroughly enjoyed having around, and home to pack for coming to Cheltenham.  Which is where this is coming from.  I did find someone to give a lift to, so yay for being a little more environmently conscious and car sharing a little.  The accommodation here seems okay.  A little on the small side, and there was no linen, or pillows provided.  I've managed to locate a couple of old, sad looking pillows, so hopefully it'll be okay.  But there seems to be a nice bunch of people here.  The room looks a little like this:

(low res webcam photo, but gives an idea of the size)

I've not even picked up my sock knitting today, besides to pack it, and I'm missing it!  So tempted to do a couple of rows before sleep, but I know I really shouldn't.  I need to be up in the morning, which means according to The Rules, I should be in bed and all but ready for lights out.  And I know that I never really sleep well in strange, unfamiliar beds, so I think straight to bed/lights out is the way forward.