Saturday musings

Hi!  (Hi Sam, now that I know you're reading this!)   So, today was a more typical sort of Saturday.  It started very lazy, as I was up reading till nearly 3.30am (when did it get so late?).  Didn't get out of bed till nearly 12 this morning.  Oh well.... win some, loose some.  I never get round to early nights.  This morning, once eventually up, I started to make some progress on my snowflakes - so weird to be crocheting.  The Just Soya wool is interesting to work with, it's quite soft, but the individual threads seem to seperate quite a lot, which is frustrating as I have to pay that slight bit more attention.  Don't think it's the best wool to be using, but the overall effect is okay.  I think I like the colour best, it's such a brilliant, pure white, that lives up to it's name "coconut"!

Four snowflakes so far, not sure how many the wool will allow.  Next to them, you can see my most ambitious project - my zig-zag strippy crochet blanket that I made about three years ago.  I really shouldn't be allowed to get bored!  It's about double bed sized - I just carried on going until spring got too hot to allow me to work under it.  You can also see to the left, my huge box of wool, currently over flowing!

Then it was off to work, thrill of thrills.  It wasn't too bad, again it was one of my less favourite wards, but it was at least a better shift than last weekend.  It was short staffed, but it was a smaller ward - only 20 patients so that helps.  Still felt like I perhaps didn't really have time to do everything.  Then one of the nurses had the cheek to get annoyed with me, when she tried to ask me to do something (menial as always, they always palm off the menial stuff on to Bank HCAs) when I tried to point out to her that I was already in the middle of doing something for one of the other nurses, when the third nurse had told me about two things she wanted me to do.  I mean, come on!  I've only got one pair of hands, and I feel like I'm letting down the patients enough as it is, without adding even more workload!

Then I had a very pleasant surprise when I got home - my SamSam phoned me.  Had a lovely catch up and chat.  Twas nice to have the company!  I'm really going to hold you to that Choc Orange pudding fest, yu-ummm-my!

Progress is being made on Chistmas decorations.  Since I'm still lacking a tree, I've been hanging most of my completed decorations up on my mobile - which is a present from my parents when they had visited family back in Zimbabwe a few years ago.  And a mini-Stieff bear that my mom gave me as a good luck pressie for my exams a few years back.  I think I'm going to get the tree tomorrow.  I'm too excited to put it off any longer!  Still have loads of decorations that I want to make, but at least they'll have somewhere to hang when they're ready!

I'm quite proud of this one - I sat and glued on loads of green seed beads on their side.  Great texture effect.

My growing collection, which now includes a couple of the polystyrene balls.

The mess that is my dining table, a.k.a. my craft table.  This pretty much sums up my life - the bright yellow paper is part of my uni timetable, there's lots of random experimentation remnants (e.g. the paper painted red), a nice smelly candle (winter berry, I think!) and part of my alcohol stash.





And finally, I've uploaded photos of the hat that I made for Mary.  She wanted a slouchy hat, and choose the pattern.  I got my lovely teddy to model again, because lying the hat down on a flat surface didn't allow for the full effect.  Only problem is that Teddy has a smaller head than Mary, so he looks a little drowned by it!

 

I am a weak human being...

I know I said that I wouldn't get anymore Christmas decoration craft stuff until I had used up the stuff I already had.  I realise that my actions today make me a weak person.  I know that I was only meant to be going to get some glue.  I know that this should not have taken me 2 hours at Hobbycraft, and cost me nearly £24.  Oh screw it, I had FUN!  And I'm really enjoying making these decorations and experimenting.  You'll get the idea when I mention that I've not even knitted a stitch yet today.  This is what I got today:

Also, again in my defence, I didn't buy any wool, or any knitting patterns, which is a big thing for me! 

So, my efforts today are:

The last one here was an idea that I got for my lecturer today.  She was wearing a necklace in this style of pearl beads threaded on ribbon.  I was mesmorised by it and kept staring at it!  It was so simple and elegant, and I thought it would make a lovely alternative to tinsel in my quest to make a homemade decorated Christmas tree.  This started as an idea to make a few things for my tree and have a little fun and a break from my knitting.  But it's taken on a mind of it's own.  I'm really enjoying it! 


I had a really fun tutorial today.  It was about ECGs, the last in a series of four being giving by some middle level doctors.  It was fun because we were doing various scenarios.  Case 1:  Dave goes.  Is stumped.  Lecturer says he can phone a friend.  He chooses me.  I answer flawlessly (Lecturer visibly impressed!) .  Case 2, after discussing a few points:  Hannah picked to answer.  She gets stuck.  Lecturer says:  "Alright then, you can phone a friend, but not Ashleigh".  Oooops!  Was I showing off too much?  Maybe a little.  But it was fun!  It also reassures me when I can demonstrate that I wasn't a complete loser and dounce that failed.  Later on, she kept on asking questions, and we came across one that no one could answer, so I had to ask if I was allowed to answer.  I know that this might sound a little vain, but it was a fairly relaxed and light-hearted atmosphere, and the other students are all pretty cool about me having failed, and I didn't get the impression that they minded!  And I don't always get it right.  I often just get used to blurting, or giving it a go.  They don't always remember that I get stuff wrong every now and then, they just think that I'm a fountain of knowledge.  I keep on getting approached about revision techniques and what I did last year.  It's flattering in a way.  I do try to tell it as it is though, and point out what I think were the mistakes that I made, so I give a balanced view of what happened.  I feel that I owe them at least that.

My arm is still hurting.  It looks a little like this, or maybe even a little worse!:

Right, back to my knitting.  Gonna try get a couple of rows done before bed, whilst I watch stuff I sky plused earlier.

Christmas decorations!

As I've mentioned in earlier blogs, over the last week or so, I've been accumulating random beads, card and ribbons with the intention of creating some Christmas decorations.  I didn't really have any idea of what I was going to do.  I had spotted some ideas in a hobbycraft (as in the shop) magazine, but didn't really like all of them, or want to do all of them.  My collection of oddments ended up looking a little like this:

So today, I decided that I should try make some progress on it.  I know that it's over a month till Christmas, so I shouldn't really be thinking of putting up a tree anytime soon... but there are several reasons I think it's justifiable to be thinking about making my Christmas decorations:
1) I live alone, so am responsible for no-one else's home asthetics!
2) I live alone, it's nice to have something to cheer me up, and what better than a colourful tree!
3) I live alone, so it's nice to have projects to work on to keep me occupied and not lonely
4) I live alone... have I flogged the "I live alone thing too much"?
5) It'll take me a while to make the decorations, so it's not like I'll be putting the tree up anytime soon
6) I won't actually be spending Christmas in my flat here in Bristol, I will be heading home to Derby.  So that means I miss about 3 or 4 days of the pre-Christmas period and some of the days after.  I need time to enjoy it!
7) Haven't got a tree yet, so will need to buy one before I can get too carried away....
Can anyone guess what I was thinking about whilst making my first attempts at decorations?  Speaking of which, here they are.  I've been making them very organically and just seeing where my hands lead me!  Any suggestions or ideas will be greatly received.

My swine flu jab is still giving me hassle.  Mainly just the local reaction.  I suppose that this is just my body mounting the necessary immune response.  But that doesn't mean I like the hot, red, tender lump on my arm, and the fact that my arm has been aching all day!  Grrr.  I've had the seasonal flu jab before, and it's not given me problems like this.  I was relieved when I was talking to some of the other Med Students today and they seemed to be having similar if not worse experiences.  I still say getting vaccinated is worth it, and I know that some of my friends don't really agree with the concept, I'm all for it!  It's for the greater good in my case, I'm around so many frail people that I wouldn't like the responsiblity of being a disease vector destroying my patients!  Also, worse case scenario, either in my capacity as a medical student or a nursing assistant, the NHS could be more heavily dependent on my services if swine flu really hits hard.  Just doing my bit, and in a selfish way, don't like being ill and missing things and feeling lousy.

Just another Tuesday

So, basically, this is my life. I just about made it in on time to my 10:30am teaching. Was on ECG interpretation. Had this topic to death, I know the basics, don't need people to come along and bore me with their "fail-proof" methods which are different from everyone else who has ever tried to teach me about ECGs. I know what I need to know, and I passed the ECG portion of the exams last year. Yes, repeating is boring.

Then I was good, I was proactive about life instead of leaving it all for the last moment. Those who know me, will realise this is very unusual. I could go on a rant about how this is a new start and I will be a better person from here on... but it wasn't anything nearly as fundamental as that. I just did some stuff that I had already being putting off for a while, and had some spare time. Simple as that. Still remains to see if being organised provides more benefit.

Then in another shocking turn of events I went to the library in the remaining spare time I had today. I flicked through books and looked some stuff up. I hardly ever step foot in libraries, and never this far away from exams. Is this the life other medical students experience?!? Have to be honest and say that I'm not that likely to return, was a bit disappointed in their range of books, and was mainly wanting to look at a book that I've been thinking about buying. They didn't have it, so I looked at some similar ones as alternatives and they didn't impress. I suppose that I could always just nip to the uni's med school library. I'm practically next door to the uni when I'm at the BRI. Would require me to have more time, but not much more. But it would be a nicer atmosphere. And it's always nice to look at the younger years and realise that I actually have come a long way, even if it doesn't always feel that way.

After my proactive hour, I had another tutorial. I rocked it. I rocked it in a very annoying manner, both for myself and for the other students. You see, I aced the theory/knowledge part of finals. I really worked hard for it. Going to tutorials where they're expecting you to have only the most basic of knowledge is very frustrating. There's only so many times you can blurt out the (almost all right) answers before it becomes awkward and everyone starts throwing looks of disguist in your direction. So I try to avoid this. But on the whole, we're a competitive bunch, us medics. It's hard not to show off that you know the answers! So I decided not to answer anymore questions. And the lecturer starts to do the whole "No, no one knows the answer. Well the answer is xyz, obviously" thing when met with a wall of silent and mostly blank faces to his questions. I'm thinking, well, I knew the answers, but people are getting bored and fed up of me answering. Don't tar me with the same brush as them. I know, I know. It's silly and childish. But this is how some of the tutorials make me feel.

Then I was naughty. Really should have gone to clerk. It wasn't late and I hadn't clerked so far today. But I couldn't be bothered. Not really the attitude I should be adopting. Avoiding the one thing I really need to be doing this year. But screw it... there's no valid excuse. It wasn't even a full blown case of "couldn't be bothered"sies. Just decided that I was actually looking forward to my walk home. It was a nice day. Simple as that.

Shouldn't really have decided that. Should have clerked, then taken the bus home. It's just toooo dangerous for me to walk home. Walk past far too many shops that I love browsing through. Was nearly two and a half hours. It should take max 45mins. Oh well. I've decided that I want to experiment with making some Christmas decorations for my tree this year. So I stopped at the bead store and spent ages trying to decide which beads looked vaguely Christmasy. The had to ask for advice regarding what sort of thread to use. Ended up with some silver-coat copper wire, various red, green, gold and wood beads. Have no idea what to do with them. Don't know when I'll know. Don't know when I'll get round to thinking about what to do! This is why it's dangerous for me to walk home!