Catching up (aka. procrastinating)

I'm supposed to be packing.  I hate packing.  And I'm bunged up thanks to the tail end of a mild cold from the weekend.  My ear is popping like mad and I feel not quite of this planet... somewhat floating.  It's hard to concentrate on anything serious.  Just wanna sleep and veg.... but oh well.  I decided I'd make a start on a catch up post.  My poor little flat has been so deliciously crowded and noisy over the last couple of weeks.  Such a change from just me wondering round.  It's also a bit of a tip, because it's a tad bit packed, laundry everywhere (I want everything to be clean and fresh before it goes into storage), knitting/fibre everywhere, new books (on sock knitting, natural dyeing and spinning), I've been to lazy to doing the dishes (made a start this morning, they're drying naturally before I do the second batch).  Yup, it's a mess and chaotic, and right now I really just couldn't be bothered, with any of it.  I just want to sit here and ignore it all.  But soon time will pressure me into it all.  I have a provisional leaving day of Thursday, so I REALLY need to get a move on!... but not now.  Let me share the last few days.

I've mentioned the important things.  Yes, I am now a doctor.  Apparently.  It's a strange anticlimax.  It was this stressful build up and to be honest, I don't really feel any different.  I *know* that things are about to change, and I seem to be getting on with the planning, but it doesn't really feel like it's actually happening.  I think that when I start the job, this might be different.  But for now it's this surreal daze of "okay... now what?"  Maybe part of this is to do with the fact that I have so many distractions.

The Clarks arrived on Wednesday, after my morning nap to get over the night shifts.  My tiny one bed flat was very quickly childed!  My teddies were claimed, corners explored and things got into that I thought were suitably out of reach or at least temptation way.  After their long journey and my mucked up body clock, we mainly settled for a lazy afternoon at home.  As it was starting to cool down, we headed to the park, to burn off energy, to get some fresh air and to have a little picnic the the beautiful weather.

Unfortunately, our trip to the park was marred by Morgan falling over.  Sarah decided it was best to get her checked out as she fell onto a rusty nail and there's always a worry of tetanus with things like that.  Fortunately she was fine.  And made it back for a rather late night of cramming on my little sofa and having cuddles.

On Thursday, we went to the Suspension Bridge and the camera obscura.  I love the camera, it's such old, simple technology, but so effective.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so no photos.  After we got back, there was the tense wait for the results email.  Then celebrating, swimming, more friends round for champagne and fun.

My Bristol friends on the whole don't spend much time around little people, but they were all so gentle and sweet with the kids.  I really couldn't ask for more amazing friends with which to spend such a special day.

Friday was another very long busy day.  Since I am now officially leaving Bristol, I thought I should try do some of the things that I've been meaning to do for the last seven years, but never quite got round to.  SO we caught a ferry, went to @Bristol and the aquarium.  @Bristol was amazing, so much fun, and so interactive.  And the planetarium was awesome!

 Exploring a veggie bed whilst waiting in Castle Park for the ferry

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We rushed round the aquarium at breakneck speed so we could see the imax 3D screening, which rocked!  And then we attempted to go around again but didn't really go much slower.  We did manage to catch up with one of the feeding times which was really well done.  The girl who did it was really informative and told us lots of things about the various fish and turtles in that tank.

Afterwards, we descending on the fountains in the square outside the museums to cool down, relax and have ice creams in the late afternoon sunshine.

Paddy very kindly invited us round for dinner, and let the girls play on his wii, the baby had fun climbing into the washing machine and waving at people walking past down below from the balcony.

Saturday was a lazy, more self-indulgent day.  After all the long days and late nights, and my cold rearing it's ugly head, I think us grown ups were feeling less and less motivated.  Sarah and I abandoned small people with daddy and headed to Get Knitted to indulge ourselves in all things yarnie.  And we totally didn't buy over 20 balls of on sale Sublime...

Sunday was a slow day at home, with a roast dinner before my visitors headed home.  And now it's back to the quite of my flat and the hassle of packing.  But before I do... some of the new pretty colours and toys in my life:

My absolutely beautiful new spindle from Wildcraft.

And I think it is officially the first time my Dad has actually written me a card.  That sort of thing is usually left to my mom to sort out.

Now really must get on with some somethingness.

On being a medical student no longer

I think I need to find a new title for my blog! The current one now seems a little redundant! Yup, I am no longer a medical student but something completely different and nw, yet at the same time something that gas been longed for and wanted for so long now. It is well over 10 years now since I officially, definitely decided I wanted to be a doctor. And everything in my life has been leading up to this ever since that 15 year sat in front of ER and said, "that's what I want to do with my life". This I kept to myself at first, carefully plotting and considering. This is something I have never taken lightly. I did ponder long and hard, and walking around it would be all I'd think of. Inmentally composed a pros and cons list. I weighed this up. I thought some more. What would I need to do? What would I need to achieve to get this that I wanted so badly? It was a difficult time in my life. I'm sure those who knew me at the time would testify to the fact that I wasn't always the easiest person to be around. I was a depressed girl whose world had been turned upside down by having to move half a world a way from everything I knew. I was confused and uncertain of myself. But once that decision had been made, I had purpose and drive. A reason to live. There had to be something out there, greater than the world I found myself in. Deciding to become a doctor was my life and my whole world after that. And now... Mission acomplished. And what a ride it has been. The things I've learnt and experienced along the way, how i've grown! Now what... Next stop Yeovil and actually doing the job! How exciting!

Today was a busy day. Besides results, we kept ourselves on he go. We had a really lazy start to the day. After a late night last night following Morgan's trip to the hospital (she fell on a dirty rusty nail in the park, so Sarah was concerned about tetenus risk). We brought breakfast on the go, went to the post office, picked up a parcel (most beautiful spindle you ever did see and some utterly gorgeous fibre) went to the toy shop, went to the camera obscura in Clifton which was amazing, trekked home, got the good news, went swimming, had pizza for dinner, had some friends over for champagne and celebrating, my two world colliding, Bristol and Derby friends, in a happy coherent place, full of love, laughter and games. I could not ask for better friends and I'm so glad to have had . And now, we're once again exhausted. I will sit down at some point and do a proper blog about it all. But for now, my lids are heavy and we have another very busy day planned! Yay!

ETA:  my iPhone didn't want to play last night, so this is a delayed posting!  Ooops!

Busy Week

Yup, it's been a wee while since I posted.  This was due to two reasons, nope, three reasons.  First. I was enjoying life with no exams, no stresses and nothing to pour effort into.  I wondered round aimlessly, did lots of knitting, making stuff for a friend I just found out was pregnant.  And my first ever commissioned piece - a blanket in red, yellow and orange.  I was just enjoying me time, and not having stresses and just being.

Secondly, I did some shifts at work.  I've more or less gone through my insurance money.  It was good in that it gave me a chance to not work whilst I was getting ready for finals, and this was important.  It just meant that I had halved the income coming in, so it's now more or less gone.  So need some money for stuff over the summer, like paying a couple of bills, paying for storage, paying for yarn to play with (yay, planning on doing some more dyeing!  and spinning and well... all that stuff), paying for some new work clothes, and yup, basically need some money coming in so I can survive until that first pay cheque. 

And third reason was I had visitors!  Emma, Chris and Connor trekked down to Bristol on the train.  And I had a wonderful excuse to show off Bristol.  My camera was unfortunately out of battery and I can't for the life of me think of where the charger was!  So limited photos because like the dope I am, I forgot that I actually have a camera on my phone!  So there are only a couple of pics:

Connor was fascinated by the washing machine, and spent ages chatting to it was it whired and spun and did it's thing.  It's scary how big this gorgeous little boy has got.  My flat probably wasn't quite as baby-proof as needed for this very mobile fella! 

We went to see the suspension bridge and wondered round Clifton, wondered round the shops on Gloucester Road (how I'm going to miss this road!), and even got round to trekking to Weston on the bus to go to the beach, which was wonderful.  Connor found it an exciting place to be and apparently sand is quite tasty!  We had lots of meals outside, and trips to the parks.  It was lovely.  And we were truely blessed with fantastic weather, right up until we went to catch the bus to get them to their train home, when the skys opened and poured.  This, along with diversions through the city, meant that the traffic was crazy and we ended up not quite making it, despite having given ourselves extra time.  What was more frustrating was that it was by seconds, Chris literally was able to touch the train, and push the door open button, but we were too late.  But they did manage to get another one half an hour later, and got home safely.  Thanks for a lovely few days guys!

And now, it's back to work for a few more days, and then the Clarks visit and then packing.  It's going to be a crazy couple of weeks, but at least I'll be busy!

Keeping busy over the summer

When I found myself with all this extra time this past summer, I thought I'd go mad and have a complete and utter breakdown. Whilst I don't consider myself the most proactive or energetic of people, I am usually fairly busy. My typical week consists of me spending Monday to Friday at the hospital or uni doing lectures or clinical placement. Then on weekends, I work as a healthcare assistant (HCA aka nursing assistant) at the large city centre hospital. So basically, my typical week is filled six or seven days a week with uni or paying for life at uni. It is exhausting, and I'm so grateful when I get time off, but after a couple of days with nothing to do, I start to get restless. Not having anything to do is a very foreign concept to me. And my life usually consists of having the endpoint of passing exams. Always an final goal. Then suddenly four months of nothingness.

Yes, the other thing is lack of money. I could have arranged to come back to Bristol, but I couldn't face that - four very long months, working a mind numbing, often demoralising job, and being all alone with my thoughts and dwelling on the failure. This version of events was not the way to avoid restlessness. It would have been far more harmful.

So staying in Derby, with family and friends was better. However, there's only so much one can go wonder round town, go out for coffee and got to the cinema before it becomes financially unviable and boring in its pointless way. So, to find a summer project with meaning... okays, I can do that... to excess!

When I was a kid growing up, my Ouma filled her hours with knitting, my Gran and my Mom knitted too. Learning to knit was just done! Almost by osmosis. But as a little kid, I was rubbish! I had no concept of tension and knitting with 20 cast on stitches would eventually become knitting with 60 stitches and lots of dropped stitches. However, when I was about 10, one horrible rainy morning, out of boredom, I dug out a "How to crochet" magazine and learnt how to crochet. I found it easier and it was my method of choice for the longest time. I also over the years learnt how to do other various handicrafts. But as I grew up, I stopped having the time, or at least being able to find the time to do stuff.

So this summer, with a friend pregnant and due at the end of September, I thought to myself, I can make something for the baby. I decided it was time to learn how to knit properly. I had done things like making a scarf (basically a long thin strip) but never any proper items of clothing. So, I had a chat with my mom, and she dug out some knitting needles and some patterns. And so began an obsession, which had amused all I know to no end! But hopefully created some items that can be loved and cherished! My poor mom had to sit and listen to my woes, when I hit parts of the pattern that I couldn't make sense out of, or explaining a technique. And she would patiently unpick my mistakes when I got too frustrated with the frequent mistakes of my first few projects. So thanks Mom for your patience and understanding. And for telling me to go to bed when you found me still awake gone 3 o'clock in the morning, knitting in front of the telly, focused entirely on the fact that I had finally wrapped my head around double moss stitch.

Now, since the end of June, I've always had a knitting project on the go. It's the other thing that kept me sane this summer. Be prepared to hear lots about my knitting!