400? I'm coming over

Ah well, another year, another bird-day.

Thank you to everyone who wished me well in the many various forms, cards, phone calls, text messages and personal visits (Pete....bringing multiple presents and Powerball excitement and Stephen's Stouffer present...(upload your Stouffer video please)). I ended up with a large pile of shiny new CDs, which will entertain me over the dark winter months and possibly comment upon. On the day Helen and I took a pleasant trip down the coast of Fife, eating Fish and Chips in the acclaimed Anstruther Fish Bar (patrons include Tom Hanks and Prince Willy) and walking several piers, dreaming of visiting the Isle of May with its three lighthouses, and watching the old men slowly pull their car into the harbour.

Elsewhere I played Frisbee in Glagow (8th...a bit below par) and in Dundee at the Inter-Medics tournament (losing heavily to Aberdeen in the final, unsurprisingly) as well as on the infamous Magdalen green. I have started a new block on 'Improving Prescribing', which involves learning to think like a manager (hmm) and not understanding various jargon terms (Defined Daily Dose (DDD) for starters) but doesn't seem too taxing. Best be getting on with the other stuff then.

Thanks.

Yawn! Sleepy sunsets.

Ah hibernation, what a good idea.

So apart from randomly deciding the course of my future (by applying for a real job) last week (although I will have to wait some 4 weeks for the results of my actions) I have been well. Two beginners ultimate weekends in the last two, one which won (woohoo) and last weekend's Edinburgh beginners in which we came 12th/32, which was still a good result.



Two weeks now till the most important autumn tournament, indoor regionals in Glasgow, for the frisbee of course, but also for the party (or more the party theme). Dundee are the 6 times reigning party prize winners at Glasgow, due to our themes. The 2 others years I have been we were Hillbillies and Old People (walking down Sauciehall street dressed as a Granny was an experience) and this year's is still to be decided. Thus far we have had the ideas of cheerleaders (guess where Helen stole that idea from, Sufjan fans?), commandos (doesn't sound too good) and pirates (my own personal favourite).

Otherwise things are well in the Maconachie household. The view from the window was bathed in blurring autumn sun. Unfortunately it now gets dark (thanks to those pesky farmers) at about 5 and will continue to get earlier and earlier (I think it levels off around 3.30pm by December). An example:


Will try and update this a bit more regularly, but don't hold your breath.
Hope you are well.

This week I have mostly been listening to....

Sigur Rós - Takk... The new one from those Icelandic post pixies. Good.
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Surprised it took me so long to find this album, Americana is the flavour of the month. Looking forward to hearing the other albums when I find them at good prices.
Calexico/Iron & Wine - In the Reigns. Almost country with slide guitars, but some nice tunes from Sam Beam and cohorts. Pity it's only 7 tracks.
Otherwise, a little bit of this and a little bit of that, some Johnny Cash, some Neil Young and a bit o' the Shins. Need to get a bit Indie again soon or who knows what I'll be listening to.

Aside from music my life is still travelling and GP-ing and frisbee...including new found organisational nightmares relating to things being overly popular (a first for the club). Enjoying it overall though.

" Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles..."

Helen and I watched 'The Princess Bride' movie based on the William Golding Novel of the same name last week. I read the book on the plane on the way to India way back in July and was pleasantly surprised; it reads like a good old fashioned fairly tale. The film seems to make it slightly more childish than I imagined from the book and some of the epic scale of the journey was lost but enjoyable nevertheless (includes a cameo appearance from Columbo). Worth a watch if you're in a light-hearted and forgiving of the 80s mood.

Goodnight.

[Listening to: Horses in the Sky - The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band - Horses in the Sky]

Yes! I am a long way from home

I continue to live.

Ugh. What an ugly picture.

Anyway I am married now. Good work me (although I am many and variously failing to answer the question 'How's married life?' when asked, so far I've just said 'busy' or 'good', both of which are true but not the whole picture).

Pretty busy alternately with travelling to/from Glenrothes, pretending to do stuff at the GP's practice, playing ultimate and attempting to sort out the flat (with a good dose of DVD watching and generally faffing about) with some tasty meals in between. Perhaps I shall some day recount the tale of the three trips to IKEA within a week, with a little pause to speculate on what the acronym actually stands for, if it is indeed an acronym at all.

Until next time.

Mornin' M'Lord

Forgot to mention that Radiohead have started a blog about the sessions for their new album. Pictures like this and other odd ranting abound.

I like Radiohead.
Thank you

Contamporaneous posting

Hello.
Contrary to popular belief I have not sat still during the last 3 weeks, whittling away my time with endless prattling as a some are wont to do, but I have been standing in a (mostly) busy accident and emergency department, whittling away my time with some patient-doctor prattling in between sticking needles into said patients and forcing them to move (often with difficulty) various parts of their bodies. Having said that I have learnt a lot of practical application of my skills, gaining confidence but still managing to say something stupid as the first answer when I'm asked a question. I presented a case of a 33 year old who had suffered from a cocaine induced MI and a related paper at the department's journal club, which seemed to go down well. Tomorrow is my last day before my two weeks of holiday prior to returning to Dundee. Of course it will be a rather busy first week and hopefully a more relaxed second week. Things are shaping up fairly well for the 'Big Day' next week. Perhaps more on this at a later juncture, but for now to savour the hours of sleep before I must stand again.

Dave
P.S. Head on over to Filter magazine for a link to the new Sigur Rós song. Sounds like a good one, a bit more focused than ( ), but we shall see what the album has to offer.

You don't know how lucky you are

So there it is, the end of my Indian adventure. I had a great time, both learning in the hospital and enjoying exploring the country to a very limited extent. The Indians are generally very friendly and the hospital had a good atmosphere about it. Iwas a bit ill a couple of times, but at least I didnt catch anything too bad and survived the roads. Everything I took with me was covered in a thick layer of dust (half my suntanwashed off when I got back) and I have some fairly slow healing wounds which should give me some nice scars to remind me of the month. I would really like to go back and travel more, especially to the north and see the differences there. As for long term, Im not sure if I would ever like to work in India there is a lot of bureaucracy but there is a lot of need, which will only worsen with the increasing numbers. Would I recommend the hospital for an elective? Yes and no. I didnt really get to doanything (compared with a tiny hospital in the back end of nowhere where you might be seeing and treating lots of patients) but I had a good time with the other students and a chance to see lots of interesting conditions in stages that I will probably never see here; I enjoyed the trips to the villages and the chance to see the houses in which these people liveand how their lifestyle contributes to their health problems. It was good to not just be a tourist but to be staying in the one place for a reasonable amount of time, having to travel around like the localsin autorickshaws and buy things from the local shops (Ghandi Rd). Ran out of steam there...

Back to the UK now...

My last week in India

Last week at CMC was spent at their CHAD (Community Health And Development) department. In some ways a very separate part of the hospital, as it is not based at the main hospital site but at the college campus about 7 km away. The most succinct way of describing it is as a "super GP practice", the main activities of which are to visit the people in their own villages and provide Outpatient services. They currently also have a small number of in patient beds, mostly in the labour unit but they also have an increasingly small leprosy unit, which will soon be closed as leprosy patients will be treated alongside other medical complaints. Community Health has always been an interest of CMC ever since its inception due to the experience of its founder Dr. Ida Scudder.

The story goes thus:
Ida Scudder's parents (her father was a doctor) were missionaries in India during the late 19th century, based about 20 km from Vellore. Ida was born whilst they were in India but she didn't enjoy living in India and left as soonas she could to attend university in the United States to study science. Every year she would make the 6 week boat journey to India to visit her parents for 2 weeks and then return. If was during one of these visits that a dramatic event occurred. One night after dinner there was a knock at the door of the Scudders' house. A man from one of the local villages was there, asking for help as his wife was in labour. Ida explained that she couldn't help but her father and he could come. This was unacceptable tothe man and kept insisting that it should be Ida. After a further heated discussion (commonplace in India!) the man left, disappointed. Later on the same evening a second knock and similar incident, again the husband leaving disappointed. At this point Ida was starting to be concerned and a 3rd incident took place. Worried, but feeling helpless Ida retired to bed. The next morning there was a sound of a loud commotion coming from the village. The butler was dispatched to find out what was going on and returned with the news that 3 women had died overnight whilst in labour. This deeply affected Ida and she returned to the US to complete her degree, determined to start medical training as soon as possible. After a further 4 years she became a doctor and returned to Vellore to set up a hospital and training facility for women.

Over the years this grew and expanded into the hospital it is today, accepting male students in the 1950s. The CHAD department itself was initially only for students to learn from the symptoms and signs of the locals but developed into a fully fledged part of the work CMC do during the 1980s. Alongside the healthcare they run various development projects including providing jobs for the women of the families, welding, sewing and embroidering.



Also visited the swimming pool a couple of times during week, realising how bad I am at swimming; oh well, at least I don't sink.

David and the Temples of Umm...

3rd and final India weekend report. Can't believe I only have 4 nights left in Vellore, the time has flown in.

First things first:
Friday
Instead of travelling by train this weekend's journey was taxi-powered. My travelling companions were three German medical students, Christian, Vicky and my room mate, Christian. The first destination was Thanjavur, a mere 400km from Vellore. 8 hours later we arrived (averaging 30 miles an hour, Indian traffic is pretty bad). The journey itself wasn't entirely a waste though, got to see a lot more of the country. Some notes I made at the time:

Many of the roads are half-constructed or crumbling, but others have good road markings and surfaces.
The vehicles are many and various ranging from bicycles to rickshaws to cow-pulled carts to speeding buses heading towards you and literally swerving 20m from the front of the car
You have to be insane to drive a car in India; the drivers cannot judge distances or point blankly refuse to believe that you can't overtake with only 2 car lengths room. I have never had so many near death experiences. I felt like kissing the ground like the Pope. Our driver seemed reasonable enough for Indian standards. The best moment was when there was a car over taking another car overtaking a truck all heading towards us at high speed.
I found out today that Vellore hasn't had a proper rain and harvest in 4 years and this was evidenced all around Tamil Nadu by the massive bridges spanning dusty canyons where once life-giving water flowed.

One plus of this journey was the amazing hotel that we had, it was very new and shiny; great food at the restaurant too, I've been really getting into vegetarian stuff since I've been out here - perhaps that's because of the quality or lack thereof of the meat involved.

Saturday
Saturday began with my first visit to a Hindu temple. We set off early to see the temple whilst it was still fairly quiet. The main temple in Thanjavur is reknowned for the size of it's Nandi (the Bull statue that sits in the courtyard of the temple); it stands at an impressive height, having been carved and polished from a single piece of stone (local legend says that it is still growing).

After the temple to the Palace, which was slightly disappointing (similar to Tipu Sultan's palace in Bangalore but not as impressive) but had an amusing climb to the top of a tower from which the whole town could be seen.

Next stop Trichy, home of a temple on a tall rocky outcrop (the Rock Fort) in the centre of the town and large temple on the outskirts. The rock fort allegedly had 440 steps or so but didn't seem too arduous even in the heat and whilst barefoot. Some really great views from the top and a refreshing cool breeze. Stood for a few minutes just feeling the sun on my face and the wind in my hair before clambering back down to the taxi to take us to the next stop (via the coffee shop and another chat with some of the friendly locals), the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple (here is a link to someone else's report of the area with some reasonable pictures). An impressive construction with a huge 73 metre tower at one side and several smaller towers dotted throughout the site. We had a friendly guide whose English was pretty good and managed to get a first idea of what the Hindus believe and what the different symbols mean to them.

Then another 3 hour car journey to the furthest south I will be in India this journey, to Madurai. Booked into another reasonable hotel and had dinner at the rooftop restaurant before heading off to bed.

Sunday
Another day, another temple. This time an equally impresssive building and a better guide, heard and forgot some more about Hinduism but was still interesting to see how the people lived their lives and for me to try and understand what seems like something very different to our Western Christian way of thinking. Reminded me a lot of the descriptions of Jewish temples, with stalls selling things for sacrifice and the different rituals that went on and with a very holy place at the centre. Interesting. After this temple a visit to the Palace (a rather bland building, probably not worth visiting after all the other more ornate places we had been to that weekend), before lunch and the start of our eight and half hour marathon car journey back to Vellore. Fortunately the roads were good for a lot of the journey and we made good time (original estimate was 10 hours). I was glad to be stopped and still in one piece.

This was a fairly brief account of the weekend. It was much more touristy than anything I had done before but definitely worth seeing to help me understand Indian culture and especially Hinduism better. Also managed to cope with all the German spoken and learn a bit of my own (hergenhantascha man's hand bag, brotbixa, lunch box and klostein...um, 'loo stone' apparently (those disinfecting cubes)). Useful.

Sorry no pictures as yet. Working on it.

Musical interlude

Just some gigs I'm thinking about going to this autumn.
Going to see Iain Archer with Glen Hansard (of the Frames) in Lisburn of all places in a couple of weeks time, which should be good. Not been to a gig in quite a while and looking forward to seeing the Frames front man without the rest of the band.

Also under consideration:
Four Tet (and more importantly as I've heard that Mr Hebden isn't the best live) Explosions in the Sky - Glasgow at the start of November
The Frames - Glasgow's QMU on the 27th of November.
Sigur Rós - 10th November in Edinburgh (think this is during my Autumn holiday week), would be interesting to hear their new album; really enjoyed the SR gig 3 years ago (my, my, how time flies).

November is generally my gig month, always end up seeing at least one during this time; all of these are interesting but would probably end up costing about £60 or so. Any other recommendations for gigs in Scotland?


SS watch: Also see that Sufjan Stevens is contributing to a track-by-track covers album of the Beatles' classic, Rubber Soul; sounds like a winning combination.

Done.

Surgical times

Hello
This week I have been placed in Surgery 1, which is one of the general surgery units at the hospital, but also specialises in Head and Neck surgery. In the rest of the world H&N cancers make up 10% of the total number of cancers, but in the Indian subcontinent it is up to 40% of the total. This is mainly due to the prominence of chewing tobacco and Betel Nut, often mixed with slake lime, a fairly potent carcinogenic mixture. This leads to some pretty horrific tongue and buccal carcinomas, all at a fairly advanced stage. This means that many of the operations carried out are fairly radical, involving large scale dissections of the neck as well as removing the primary tumour, with fairly large skin flaps from various parts of the body used. Also many of the people had travelled from West Bengal (up near Bangladesh in the north) to come to CMC, but I am not entirely sure why they have travelled so far, obviously it has a good reputation. Aside from head and neck stuff, there was a very nasty case of necrotising fasciitis on the ward, a benign parotid swelling, which we saw carefully removed to avoid damaging the facial nerve and lots of other hemi-colectomies and general surgery type things, which was quite interesting. Also attended some teaching with the Indian medical students, they get a whole week for head and neck conditions whereas we maybe had it mentioned once or twice in the ENT block but more related to pharyngeal cancers. I have enjoyed the week, although I haven't felt hugely well the whole time, quite a lot of standing in the heat and it has been a good opportunity to augment my knowledge illustrated with striking clinical examples.


The other main highlight of the week was our trip to see the Tamil Move Anniyan. Tamil is the main language of this region, Tamil Nadu and most of these films are made in Chennai (Madras), known locally as Kollywood films (cf Bollywood from Mumbai/Bombay). It was quite different from my expectations.
A few observations:

• It was quite violent, having quite a number of fighting scenes and fairly brutal murders, although mostly off screen. I was expecting some kind of lovey-dovey romance with lots of songs and dancing.
  
• There weren't as many songs I was expecting, I counted just 4, but the dancing was quite interesting and there were lots of scene and costume changes (This kind of thing would appall me in an English-language film but was somehow quite interesting in the Tamil film)
  
• It was actually fairly modern, employed now oft-used Matrix-esque time-slicing techniques for the fighting scenes.
  
• I was surprisd with how easy it was to follow the film, except in the long passages of dialogue.
  
• Good representation of Indian transport systems, showing the autorickshaws and the train; a good sense of the 'I've done that' tourist feeling.
  

I'm sure there was more to say but my brain is getting to that seizeing up point in the day.
I'm off on a 3 day taxi excursion round the temple cities of southern Tamil Nadu this weekend, which should be very interesting and provide some good photos.

Hope you have a good one.
All the best.

Good Day Sunshine

So anyway, to start on a good point, I passed my exams! No more written exams for the whole of medical school. It was an ugly pass but as said in ER, "what do you call the guy who graduates last in his class at medical school?....Doctor!"

The weekend trip was to Bangalore:
Left on Friday evening around 6pm (was meant to be a good half an hour earlier) and found my confirmed seat on the train. It was a bench seat which I shared with 2 other commuters whilst my new room mate Christian and 2 English girls Clare and Ali sat on the seat over the aisle; the rest of our group were in the same carriage but further down. It soon became duller and the train lurched into the night. Apart from the less than smooth running of the train we were also fairly constantly interrupted by all manner of people carrying different items for sale or begging for money. Some of the beggars could be very persistent, tapping me or the others on the leg or hand for up to 5 minutes. It was difficult for me. Perhaps in larger cities like London or Glasgow these kinds of thing are more common but in Dundee it is fairly rare to see someone on a street corner and I can count the number of times on one hand that I've been approached to be asked for money. It is difficult to refuse to give money to the polio crippled man who crawls down the train with a rag to clean the floor in return for a few rupees or the child who looks like he hasn't eaten a proper meal in a good few days.

Anyway arriving in Bangalore without somewhere to stay was, in hindsight, a bad idea. We tried phoning ahead once we had got into the train station but most places were already booked up. Having a large group of people (13 or something) was difficult and we were willing to split up but we eventually found a place not to far from the main commercial centre of Bangalore, MG Road. This "hotel" was called the New Central Lodge Hotel. I thought my room in the Annexe here at CMC was spartan, but at least it is fairly respectibly spartan. This hotel, even at 11.30 at night, looked grimy. I had a more comfortable bed on the floor of the train last weekend; fortunately I was exhausted and slept pretty well despite the chill that was in the air.

Saturday
Got up relatively early, in glad expectation of the warm shower I was promised. Bangalore wasn't particularly warm (probably still 23 or something), especially at 8 o'clock in the morning and having slept on a rather rigid bed my bruised shoulders could have done with a nice bit of massaging heat, but as you have guessed the shower was lukewarm at best. At least it wasn't freezing as it was on Sunday. The unhelpful taps didn't make my life any easier either, as I attempted every combination to make the thing heat up. I also have to blame the 10 girls with whom we were sharing the hotel and managed to get up earlier and probably use up all the hot water. Anyway headed off to Mathma Ghandi (MG) Road, the main road in Bangalore for breakfast at a local Barista place...think I had cake or something for breakfast as they didn't offer anything more savoury than this. Mmm, cake for breakfast. MG road was unlike anything I had experienced in India before - it could almost have been in London or Glasgow with its tall buildings and impressive shop fronts (and paved footpaths). Spent quite a while in the very western shops and ended up having pasta for lunch at a Lonely Planet recommended restaurant (average at best, pretty bland. Reminder: stick to Indian food).

After lunch the other side of Bangalore when we headed to the City Market. This was a pretty dingy place at first sight, worsened by the heavy rain (pseudo-monsoon), but the colours and smells of the market were very impressive, especially in the covered part of the market. There were many stalls selling strong-smelling flowers and many others selling strong-smelling brightly coloured spices. Definitely "An Exerience". After this we were a bit more touristy and headed to the Palace of Tipu Sultan, which was interesting building of tall columns and dark coloured wood, with a good guided tour by a friendly local.

Back to the hotel before dinner at an atmospheric restaurant before rounding off the evening with a few drinks at a packed 70s style pub, Pecos.

Sunday
After the frenetic activity of Saturday I had a much more leisurely Sunday, despite the coldness of the shower. Good coffee and chocolate cake for breakfast (at least it wasn't spicy) before we headed off to the Botannical gardens in the city. It was relatively busy (cost me the princely sum of 5 rupees (about 7p) to get in) but still quite quiet and away from the traffic. The gardens themselves weren't particularly beautiful with some low scrubby bushes dominating the flora, but there was some interesting Gneiss formations for all you Geology fans out there. Apparently they were some of the oldest rocks in the world but I don't trust signs.


The train back was at 2.30 so steadily we made our way towards the train station getting good views of the grand City Court and Parliament buildings on the journey as well as helpful advice from the autorickshaw driver regarding possible sleep-inducing drugs being hidden inside sweets offered by fellow passengers; urban legend if you ask me. The train journey itself was much less interrupted and managed to get a good bit of Sufjan-listening sleep. So I arrived back without major illness or even the minor illness that plagued the return journey from Ooty.

Overall it was a good trip, interesting to see the progressive, modern India coupled with areas of the worst poverty I've seen in India. Bangalore has about 5 million people and about 8% of these live in slums. Although this is less than some other places I've been (Kibera in Nairobi being a prime example), the contrast between the flashy banking and IT sectors and these slums is so sharp here, but still there weren't huge numbers of orphaned children or beggars as in Kenya; perhaps the relatively heavy police presence kept them out of sight.

Post-script
Heard about this when I got back, but didn't see any sign of it whilst we were there:
India’s IT capital wakes up to terror threat

Until next time.

The calm before the storm

Today was a very pleasantly relaxing day. It was pretty warm all day here in Vellore and there has not been the evening rain that cools the place down to make it possible to sleep so I predict a fairly restless night ahead, despite my tiredness. Was in the department all morning, nothing particularly exciting, seemed pretty quiet - the cue for a reasonably long lunch break - before a short afternoon stint during which time no new patients were registered. After we could take no more the 2 German students and I decided that we would be much better spending our time beside the pool. It was my first trip and it was very pleasant, the water warm and sun not too scorching, all it needed was someone to serve cold drinks at regular intervals. Last day in Accident and Emergency tomorrow, hope to get an interesting case to write up for this half of the block. Head to Surgery for a week next week, think it's general surgery with some head and neck stuff thrown in for variety; apparently the doctors are quite good at teaching, but otherwise I have not really any idea why I chose to see this!
Anyway the weekend trip starts at 5.30 tomorrow when I head to Bangalore by train. Looking forward to seeing what a modern Indian city looks like - hope it doesn't cost too much.
Off for a nice hot chocolate before bed.
All the best.

Katpadi is the train station closest to Vellore (about 7km from CMC). Click on the map for a more detailed view. Ooty (where I went last weekend) is in the most westerly part of Tamil Nadu. This weekend I will be heading to Bangalore on the train (west of here) and weekend 3 will potentially be a trip down to Madurai (about where the 78E and 10N lines intersect) and Trichy.
So there you go. Click clunk.

The longest weekend (finally)

Hello!
Apologies for the very slight break in communication (I'm not dead Mum and Dad!) but I was away from Friday until Sunday and then feeling a bit dodgy the last couple of days; thanks to the marvels of over-the-counter purchasing of usually prescription-only drugs I am starting to feel better again (antibiotics not morphine or something...although I'm sure that it would be pretty easy to find).

So since I last posted:
Friday
Friday was another interesting day, not quite as hot as the others. Quite a few road traffic accidents came into the department including one who had pretty nasty looking 'road rash' - skin abrasions caused by coming off his two-wheeler after a bus hit him...and I thought motorbikes were dangerous in the UK, here it's only a matter of time before you have an accident and when you do most people have little or no protection and the outcome is usually a lot worse than it would be for a similar accident in the UK; That is, not mentioning other factors like the state of the roads or the cavalier attitude of the drivers towards sides of the road.

So after work we went out for dinner then met up at around 10pm to head down to the train. At this point I still didn't know if I was going to get onto the train, the board at the train station displayed whether I had moved up far enough on the waiting list to get a confirmed bunk in the sleeper carriage.. Alas despite my starting position of 30+ on the list changing some 20 places I didn't manage to be confirmed. Unperturbed by this I got on the train (some 20 minutes late - apparently this isn't a bad delay, at least the train turned up) with my colleagues; after a little wrangling with the train conductor 20 minutes after departure he said I could lie on the floor for the journey. Not ideal, but at least I was on my way.

Saturday
Arriving into Mettupalayam (the bottom of the hill) at about 6am we attempted to board the train that heads up the hill to Ooty...again I had the same problem, except I was now WL43. Ended up standing for 3.5/5 hour train journey (along with 3 others of the group), in a carriage where most of the locals made it fairly clear that the didn't want us to be there. Thankfully the scenery was fairly stunning with views out over the valley, with vegetation (somewhat reminiscent of parts of New Zealand) lining the track for most of the journey and fairly frequent breaks as the steam engine took on water and fuel (at one about 30 monkeys came converged on the train from all directions). Here's a picture of the train (not mine unfortunately but one I got off the net)

Upon reaching Ooty I felt a certain sense of elation, which was seemingly echoed by the train station announcer's words of "you are very priviledged to have taken this train today" - wasn't quite getting the same vibe but nevertheless pleased to stretch my legs again. The furore continued upon detraining with newspaper reporters and television cameras milling about on the platform - a couple of our group were interviewed and pictures taken. Apparently it turns out that the train had only that day been provisionally awarded special heritage status by UNESCO (see Chennai Online News) and that we were the first ones to arrive after this.)

After this excitement a couple of set off to find somewhere to stay and ended up with a chalet-type thing for about £3 for the night. It was pretty basic but clean and had hot water, so I could have my first hot shower since getting here - back in Vellore I was happy enough to have cool showers!

Lunch came and went (but could this have been the start of all the trouble?) and we stepped out into the street to the sight of Monsoon! everywhere. At that point I had never become so wet in such a short period of period time (the rain on Sunday was even worse) but in typical tropical fashion we expected it to be over within an hour or two and so took a leisurely trip out to the boathouse by the lake. Now at this point, being fairly wet I was getting pretty cold so I bought a fleecy hat (dual purpose, keep head warm and keep more rain from soaking head). I never once expected to be buying a winter hat in India, but such is life. When thoughts of taking a pedal boat were dashed after a good hour's wait for the rain to subside (it didn't) and with stubborness that only tourists can possess we went on a motorboat (with canopy around the lake). I'd like to say that this made the whole waiting around thing worthwhile and to a certain extent it was good but y'know, being in a boat in monsoon rain with the wind blowing water off the canopy and onto the only clean/dry clothes you have with you whilst you reminisce about the coat you left in your bag back at the hotel, sound good? Climbed out of the boat after these 20 minutes and sprinted through the rain, shivered whilst aboard the autorickshaw and sprinted through the rain again to the chalet before an alternately roasting/freezing shower. Spent the rest of the evening shivering through dinner, but slept ok afterwards.

Strangely although this day sounds like a nightmare, it was quite fun and I ate some pretty good chocolate (or was this the source of all the trouble?) along the way.

Sunday
Cold. But dry and warm in the sun, pleasant nap over breakfast! Today most of the group had arranged to hike up in the hills around the main town. Well when I say 'hike' it was more of a dander, through the tea plantations and fields. This was the best part of the weekend for me, not only was it not raining or too cold but it made it seem worthwhile making the difficult journey to the town. The sights were pretty fantastic (pity I forgot my camera...stupid stupid) and the silence was amazing, as the guide said 'this is not India'. Apparently the area to which we went was in a lot of the Bollywood films and Tamil films so there were big gatherings of India tourists in the distance. Also we were told that we weren't allowed to take pictures of one of the shepherds working in the fields or the sheep that she tended as she worked for the Government (apparently this rule extends beyond the military and police in India), before "enjoying" a bumpy journey downhill on a crowded bus at breakneck speed.

Back to Ooty, pick up bags, heavens open again, streets fill with water almost instantly, recently dry clothes saturate, shivering starts. Go for lunch, strangely not hungry. Visit toilet. Realise that niggly stomach pains were pointing to something rather more sinister. Worry about long train journey ahead. Take Immodium.

Left for the station immediately after lunch, find my *allocated* seat! Don't know what I would have done without one on the way back so that's good. Settle in for ride, doze off and on, look out through the windows, enjoying some of the views I had missed out on on the way up. Talked to a few of the people around me as well; seems like everyone in this area has heard of CMC, which is a good sign. Unfortunately despite my obvious annoyance at the fact, the father of the small child behind me wants to bow to said child's wishes and open the window fully. Now as I said it was not hugely warm and I wasn't feeling exactly well. A compromise of half open existed for about 20 minutes before somewhat rudely the father reaches over and opens the window fully again without even bothering to ask me (it probably isn't considered rude in India to do this, but I wasn't in the best of form). Cosequently I reached the bottom shivering like a leaf and despite pacing up and down the platform I remained this way pretty much until we got to Vellore. I tried to sleep on the longer train (I had a confirmed bunk this time) but was beginning to get more stomach pains and at one point had to rush to the toilet.

Monday
Arrived back at the Annexe at 3.30am. Didn't sleep too well for the rest of the night and wasn't well enough to go into the hospital on Monday at all. Drank some lovely oral rehydration solution and nibbled on some Milk Bikis, dry and plain. Thankfully I didn't really have any nausea as that would have been much worse. Felt a bit better by evening and able to go out for tea but didn't eat much then spent another fairly restless night.

Tuesday
Starting to feel a bit better, so I head into the department in the morning, but have to retire injured after the first couple of hours before making a triumphant return in the late afternoon. In between I made a dashing mid day expedition to retrieve money and purchase pharamaceutical items including much needed antibiotics, analgesia and some more sugary salty mix (definitely needed after the sun). Out for dinner again before a less restless but interrupted sleep (once to take dose 2 of cipro and secondly at 6.30 when Ravi my laundry man brought back the clothes I gave him on Monday).

And at last the write up is done. Sorry about that epic, hope it's not too much of a slog. Feel free to leave any comments and stuff if you're having a look, as the 2nd Immortal Phrase says, "Ask Any Questions and Take Ye Any Photographs You Like" (the 1st Immortal Phrase refers to different forms of cream).

Brain drain

Hello

Another hot sunny morning here in Vellore, but the clouds have come over and it looks as though it could rain again today. Yesterday's downpour was well received (by me) as it cooled the temperature significantly and managed to have a good night's sleep for once. Still finding the sights and sounds and roads of India quite daunting, but beginning to come to terms with things. Lots of interesting stuff happening in Casualty this week, quite a lot of RTAs, a good few of which Dead on Arrival (somewhat less "interesting"), some overdoses (apparently the area around here is the suicide capital of the world...see BBC News), a couple of cases of malaria and a good few ordinary medical problems too such as food poisoning, heart attacks, strokes and the like. Fortunately none of these things have happened to me yet, although I've felt close to death at many times when I've been in an 'autorickshaw'. Story of the day was a guy who was a driver of one of these autos and was driving along when his vehicle hit a bump and he hit his head off the roof and was knocked unconscious and stopped breathing; he was pronounced dead when he arrived. I'll have to make sure I hold on tightly. It's quite a different medical system to the one I'm used to in the UK, I had never quite appreciated the difference having a national health service made, even more so here when the people have little or no savings and every investigation, every needle, every drug and every bag of fluids has to be paid for. In fact the way it works is that the doctor writes the prescription and the family has to go out and queue up at the pharmacy where they are given the syringes, fluids, venflons etc. and pay in advance for any bloods or imaging that is going to be carried out. It is not until they bring these items or the receipts in that treatment is started. Also referral for further treatment, e.g. ICU, is often based on who can pay rather than who needs the treatment. I have heard the argument that because CMC is a Mission Hospital they should pay for the treatment (and they do for the most needy of patients - discerning these patients is the difficulty, especially in an acute situation) but it would cost an awful lot of money and wouldn't be sustainable for very long. Otherwise I am very impressed with the standard of care, they have CTs and MRI scanners and all the results are available almost as soon as the scan is taken (depending on payment of course), there is good teaching from the senior staff and the junior staff all seem to have a good level of knowledge. It is also interesting to see the interactions between the doctor and the patient/relatives - as I don't understand the local language here I am judging mainly on body language, but it seems more up front than the "touchy feely" approach we are taught in Dundee. Anyhow, rambling aside.

Also managed to bump into the self-titled "laundry man" today to whom I am paying the equivalent of £4 and he'll do all my washing for me for the 4 weeks I'm here. Sounds pretty good to me.

I'm sure I had more to say but half an hour in the sweltering computer room and my brain is mush. No sign of that rain yet.

May be off to Ooty this weekend as long as I get a ticket - I'm currently on the waiting list, so hope that works out or I may be staying here looking round Vellore Fort in the centre of town, which would be ok.

Anyhow. All the best.
Dave.

For the benefit of Mr Kite

Hello
I am in India! Hurray! Wish I had the energy to tell you of the marvellously exciting:

1. Taxi journey from Chennai airport to Vellore in the wee small hours of the morning.
2. Cheap and tasty food that I have been eating
3. Good books (How to be a bad birdwatcher, The Princess Bride and Generation X)
4. Hospital and emergency department here in Vellore (Snake bites et al)
5. Heat...well that's not marvellously exciting but continuously penetrating and interrupting of sleep as well as dehydrating...but I'll get over it!
6. Noise! Yes and at all hours of the day.
7. Other elective students from various parts of the globe.

But maybe some other time, eh? Now I've got my internet working at the hospital, should be easy enough.

Right off to have a cold shower to cool down and then out for some tea methinks. All the best.

0.6p per second

Heathrow 5.20am and there is an increasingly huge queue, which I am about to join, forming for departures. Need to blag my way into the Lufthansa Lounge as well using my Dad's "Diamond Club" card.
This is the first step on my long and increasingly unknown journey into Asia. So far this first night has been pretty good. Dinner at the hotel ok, good power shower, which is always a bonus, expensive taxi to airport, fast check-in using self-service machine; I'm sure these things will become the norm in the coming years, speeds up things muchly and you can choose your own seats, which is good. Anyhoo. Hopefully this won't be my only entry for the next month. Hope you all keep well in the intervening time.
Best be off. 4p left...

Gasp (and sigh).

No more exams!
All done...phew....pretty tricky stuff in the end, got the wrong end of the stick on a few questions, but hey, that's par for the course. But no more on that madness.
Getting ready to head off to India tomorrow, scary stuff.
Room is now quite empty as moving all my stuff (well Helen and my parents are) to my future marital home/flat.
Out for tea this evening, should be good
Attempting to move blog. You shall see if this is successful.
Looking out for updates from fellow world travelling bloggers.

Apologies for non-verbosity of above. Maybe more later.

Time is but a memory

Just a quick message
Shoulder deep in 'revision' at the moment; thankfully handed in all the peripheral paperwork that is required these days for a medical degree and have oooh...about 4 whole days to revise for the actual exam. For the first exam since I came to medical school I feel like I am actually revising rather than learning stuff for the first time, which is good, but although I know a lot more I imagine that everyone else knows a lot lot more. Ah well, just have to try my best as me 'ol mum always says. Scarily only 8 weeks on Thursday till I get married too and in the intervening time I head off to India, for which I am not at all mentally prepared. The massive mental block of 'the exams' has cast a dark shadow over any events following it. I don't feel too stressed but my body is attempting to tell me otherwise with my previously seen lack of hunger in the morning, fatigue and other less than desirable effects.

Points:

• Must write about the time "everyone" came to Dundee to visit as it was very momentous, but too tired right now


• New link to Pete's blog about his elective to Boliva, sure to be interesting if he can get to a compy(-386) out there


• I may be changing the URL of this blog at the end of the week as I am moving flat and this internet account will be deactivated at some point during July, but will redirect it.

Hope you are all well.

I cried myself to sleep last night

Hurray!


After paying the rather exorbitant customs charge of 7 bucks on my import, I collected the latest porpoise from Sufjan Stevens x4 from the post office. Sounds great thus far....not hugely different in style from Michigan, but that's not a bad thing. Making me happy when all else is contriving to bog me down....need to make a mix tape.

This however, was not the best parcel I recieved in the last 7 days. As I previously mentioned I ordered a couple of CDs from some Belfast band, both arriving on a Wednesday of last week (perhaps the first Wednesday, or was it the second?). A rather sedate small envelope arrived with my Fast Emperors purchase, which I duly opened and out came a rather smart looking single sized CD. So far so good. As I opened the rather larger and puffier package (with extra H in my surname for comedy value) from those boyos at Panda Kopanda, out spilled not only a nicely packaged cardboard EP style CD but a hand written named note of thanks (extra kudos for asking for comments), several small flyers for the band, a copy of last months 'Vacuum' fanzine, a packet of jelly worms and some other sweets. The music wasn't bad either. I respect that kind of effort and they have found a special place in the musical valves of my heart. Who says gimmicks are a bad thing? More freebies I say.

Countdown to les examens: T-18 days. It'll be a'right.

I can walk into the sea and choke away the memories

So Helen's off to Italy to melt some glaciers and my flatmates are doing some well-deserved revelling in their first class degrees, leaving me to be bored working in the flat. Fair enough so, you might say, they've earned their holiday and I'm not going to disagree.

It's urology this week; not the most thrilling of topics, but not too boring either; very quiet in terms of hospital time, which is good given the proximity to the exams. Can't say I've been overly motivated yet, but I really will have to be from here on in. Lots of peripheral patient presenation (not quite an alliteration there) work to do before I can get stuck into the proverbial meat and potatoes of actually learning something. Ordered some CDs today from local Belfast bands Panda Kopanda and the previously mentioned Fast Emperors. Should be good. Anyhoo, that was the excitement of my day other than a nice polio immunisation, made my arm rather itchy for a while.
Right back to it. Thank you for granting me this time out. Chomp.

Song of the day - Walk into the sea - Low. From my favourite album of the year so far (or was it last year? ah well), 'The Great Destroyer'.

A sunny day in St Andrews. Yes this is an old picture, but a good 'un. The sun tonight reminds me of Regionals and Nationals in St Andrews last year....enter J Will centre stage for all his Southern drawl-pig loving-inbredness. 

Farewell old smokey

Hello.

After a brief trip back to Belfast over the weekend I have returned to finish my placement in Wishaw. All-in-all it's been pretty good, reasonably busy, fairly useful. This week has been spent with more textbook learning than any of the other weeks so far; not entirely my most favoured learning style, seems overly conducive to dozing off but nevertheless in these times of pre-exam tension it must done.

Thanks to Vic for the link to Asthmatic Kitty where you can get the new Sufjan Stevens album Chicago a full month before it's official release and for minimal expense (£5.77 per album...hence I have bought 4 copies to distribute unevenly).

Also a Happy belated birthday to my brother, Stephen, who has now reached the Grand Old Age of 21. At his gathering we watched the rather good Napoleon Dynamite, excellent at the start, wanes towards the end, but the characters are amusingly dead pan and any film featuring a llama has to be seen.

Back to Dundee tomorrow, so more frequent posting may resume dependent on level of work/actually having something interesting to write about (ok, so the latter hasn't stopped me thus far).

And finally, in a rip off from Ross' site (the mostly excellent Broken Sounds) here are some of the searches that lead to this site:

"caught kissing" - not sure where I even used the word 'kissing'...
"sumo pants" - ah the memories
"of male colon location" - in your abdomen
various "Nickleback" references - oh how I love this band (to be honest (which I'm not being, conversely), they dropped off my musical radar after that Spiderman song)
"pronunciation misunderstanding films" - I might search for this myself...

Signing off

Wishaw'll of you were here

Hello everybody.
I'm on an 'out block' at the minute down in the lovely Lanarkshire town of Wishaw attempting to learn some stuff before my finals in 6 weeks. I only have intermittent access to the innernet so forgive my infrequent posting. Secondly I haven't really been up to much. Watch Star Wars Ep III last Thursday but I don't have the time or energy to talk about its moments of comic brilliance today (Hayden Christensen somewhat ruining the evil side of Darth Vader).
Was also playing a bit of frisbee at the weekend down in Bakewell at outdoor 'Not the Nationals', last Uni tournament of the year.
Tea beckons.
Rock on.

You say the right thing when electioneering

Earlier this evening, while Helen and I were chatting about the questionable benefits of the continuing Space Programme, I began to question the value of democracy.
And lo I chanced upon an interesting page about the alternatives from the remarkable BBC:
Do we really need an election?

You can't say fairer than that, after the last derogatory post.

Most of them are scary. I don't know why I trust politicians more than random punters, because the evidence is that they'd auction their own children to the lowest bidder to gain power, but it'd probably all turn out like Northern Ireland where they'd pay themselves to do nothing. I quite enjoy the election run-up despite the lack of excitement for the last 3 goes; for the first time in the 4 or so years that I can vote I'm not really fussed. Perhaps it's because I'm in Scotland and although my vote actually might affect my life in some way (questionable) I don't have the same, 'I'd better vote for this person as a protest vote against the bigotry of the other candidates' feeling.
Politics, eh, who would have 'em?

Bring on the Major Leagues

I know football players are the new royalty but this article is taking the once-revered British Broadcasting Corporation to a new low:
Man U stars make Welsh chip stop
See especially 'Which Star Ordered What' highlighted box.
Yawn.

Mobiles chirp and mobiles wwwerk

Perhaps I've linked to this before, but some of these instruments have amazing names...the Telharmonium, the Dynaphone, the Pianorad. Goodness knows what they sound like, although I think a couple have popped up on some Radiohead stuff thanks to that eclectic noise-maker/experimenter Johnathan Greenwood.

120 years of Electronic Music

Lots of pictures at the moment, hope it brightens up the place...*blows off the cobwebs from around the edge of the screen*.

It Should Be Always Like This

Just a quick link to a good band from Belfast (I'm not about to say "The Next Big Thing"):
Fast Emperors
Fomerly known as Edgeweather.

In the Navy

Being paid to sit on a cruise ship for 4 months in the Caribbean with only a few sprained ankles to strap (well and the heart attacks), doesn't sound too bad.

From Ship's doctors - One of the more tricky situations...

"Back to Basics

'I once dealt with a passenger who was suffering from severe abdominal pain. He knew he had a hereditary illness but couldn’t remember what it was! I had to revisit my basic skills and clinical knowledge in order to conduct a diagnosis. A urine test was conducted and it was clear as the urine turned brown that this was a case of Porphyria.'
Doctor Sally Bell"

Anti-climax or what?

Inspiring, isn't it? 

Chicago!

Further to previous excitement: Sufjan Stevens releases his new album on the 5th of July...aah 2-3 days before my finals. Something for me to listen to in India...hm, I'm sure there something "wrong" with that, but I don't know what.
see Pitchfork: Sufjan Stevens Album Details Announced


Also: Happy Birthday to Pete - Notching up his 22nd year on Earth.

Bananas.

Sumo Pants

From BBC News:
One amateur sumo official told the paper: "Pubescent kids are not going to take part if they don't look cool."

'nuff said.

Br Danielson

Just thought this was an amusing picture of Daniel Smith of various Danielson related projects:


Also rather frustrating box game:
Escapa

Down is the new up.

Hello

Just thought I'd check in. I'm having one of those weeks where one day life is great and everything seems to go well (except for the sore knee I acquired along the way) and the next I remember all the things I still haven't done. So. End of neurology/neurosurgery tomorrow; it has been fairly interesting, as per usual and some good teaching this week from the consultants.

Been listening to the rather wonderful 'To Spirit Away the Mews' compilation by my new favourite record label Asthmatic Kitty (home of Sufjan Stevens, Danielson Famille and Half Handed cloud plus a load of others). I have an itching to get back to writing and playing more of my own music but the aforementioned 'things I still haven't done' always come to mind; not that it spurs me to do them, rather it just encourages me to ignore them, mostly by wandering the innnernet or eating. Yum. Food.

Also playing the Ultimate at the weekend at our outdoor Regionals. We did ok given our lack of experience in general. I had a good time, which is the main thing. I know that I'll never be the best player in the world but I retain the desire to improve and mostly enjoy the game; c'mon it's not a real sport so having fun is the main objective.

It's my Granny and Grandpa's 50th Wedding Anniversary today, so best wishes to them. They really are 'Golden Oldies' now. Ahem. 'Taxi'.
All the best to you and your kin.

Someday we may see a Woman King

Just a quick note to say that I'm enjoying the new Iron & Wine EP - Woman King. This was my first introduction to the group and I am enjoying it muchly...as well as listening to the Clem Snide track 'Fill Me With Your Light' quite a lot. Melodic folky stuff (apologies for poor description) is very soothing to my slightly anxious mind at the moment. Pick me up Sam Beam.

Ready Reckoner.

Enjoy your Rabbit

Yo, yo.

Anaesthetics. The flipside of orthopaedics in many ways, it is controlled and monitored, it involves little to no blood spillage and is relatively interesting.

Now that that's out of the way, to the worthwhile part of the week:
Went to see Low on Friday night in Glasgow. Was good, quite shambolic in some ways, with Alan Sparhawk seemingly randomly switching on and off various pieces of noice making equipment. I'm not sure if this new 'loud/fast' sound sits entirely well with the man but he seems to be having a good time anyway. The new songs are coming across well in a live setting, but you do lose some of that sense of bewilderment at the harmonies between Mimi and Alan when there is a growling riff in the background. Kid Dakota were surprisingly good, along their songs were a little meandering at points. Made me think...'hmm, I could write songs like that'.. But I couldn't sing songs like that. Sounds good on the record, I'd say. Regretting not buying it when I was there. Will maybe borrow it off Pete at some point if I can prize it from his huge food-caked fingers.

Watched 'Chocolat' last night. Ok, call me an unfeeling Philistine if you like but I thought it was pretty poor, especially as everyone gave up on their weak French accents after the first scene. The cinematography was also fairly uninteresting reflecting the inaneness (inanity?) of the plot. Maybe if I had stayed awake long enough to watch the end of the film I would have enjoyed it but I just couldn't identify with any of the characters; Judi Dench had a reasonable performance, but she rarely turns in anything too bad (it's no Iris, mind you). Still to see Anchorman...one of those films everyone keeps recommending. I'm looking forward to 'The Aquatic Life of Steve Zissou', the new Wes Anderson film - The Royal Tenebaums is one of my favourite films, although I can never pinpoint exactly why.

Just a last wee note:
Ireland 19-13 England. A pretty poor game of rugby but a result of which to be proud. Sure the referring decisions went our way but that makes a change - usually the English are 'cheatin' bandits' to steal a phrase from a Glaswegian friend of mine. I can't stand the biased BBC commentary, however. It makes the game almost unlistenable. If I was slightly less lazy I might have half a mind to write to them and tell them just what I think, but perhaps my white hot venemous rage might cool after several words. The last two games (France and Wales) are going to be pretty tough, I can't see us winning both of them. Ah well.

Hurray, no timetabled events tomorrow. Hope you have a fulfilling last day of February.

I was thinking 'bout your face

Hello sportsfans

After a week of travelling to Perth and back I am a bit tired although going to bed regularly before 12 seemed to limited the extent of this. Orthopaedics is reasonably interesting, well the trauma part of it rather than the rather boring joint replacement part. Standing all day in an operating theatre watching bits of bone being sawn off the end of someone's leg is enjoyable from a pure gore perspective (there's something innately amusing about wearing goggles to keep blood from going into your eyes (yes I know that's sick and wrong) and there being a bone-crunching machine which works like one of those spinning cheese graters) but incapacitating in a muscle-numbingly stiff way.



Otherwise, weekend was pretty good, fairly non-eventful. Went to see Sideways at the DCA last night with Helen and Eddie (my occasional flat-mate). It was thoroughly enjoyable (well mostly, but it would spoil it to mention the less enjoyable parts), with some very funny moments. One of those films that didn't need a 'The End' caption as it was so well told it was obvious that the tale was complete. A wine-tasting tour may have to be embarked upon at some point, however.

We're off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz.

By the way, I signed up for a Gmail account in the latest round of invitations so update your file-o-faxes (I have to attempt to consolidate the 5 or so other addreses I have into one at some point). polardave@gmail.com

I'm a reasonable man get off my case

Cloud Cuckoo Land | Current feature.
An interesting if long interview with Thom Yorke of Radiohead in Third Way magazine transcribed here.

One of those you need to read a couple of times. Interesting pointers to various lyrics but perhaps I'm just that sad that I see them.

Turn it to 11

And now....for another fantastic idiot:
Conjoined guitar twins
Spinal Tap eat your heart out.

Hello Hello

Welcome to the world of post-

Rock. Yes indeed. New Low album severely underrated by several reviewers. Yes it's different, but we can all handle a bit of difference in our lives. If you were in a band you wouldn't want to play the same kind of stuff for your whole life, would you? Also...Horses (haaarses/arses) in the Sky...soon.


Psych. -iatry. Yes it's over. Not so bad but not a bit tedious at the same time. Can you make anyone better from these problems? Perhaps for a while. it's enough to depress you, despite the inherent irony in that statement.

Ing. The post is great. I send a CD around lunch time yesterday, it gets to my brother in Glasgow before lunch today and I have to do very little except pay a paltry 29 pence. Civilisation has its uses.

The Stars are Underground

I really should do this more often as it ends up that I have too many things to write about.

1. The Frames in Glasgow last Thursday. It really was very good. I must say that this was the first time I had seen the Frames or Glen Hansard live. Glen has an amazing energy about him, a great entertainer (despite his rather psychopathic glare at times); his voice was great and the sound was very good in what must be a tricky venue (the Arches - built under Queen Street Station). I Am Kloot supported...wasn't overly impressed at first impression, except with the drummer who looks like the archetypal stoner jazz drummer.


2. Manchester Not the Nationals Ultimate tournament. As 2 of our players dropped out on the Friday we left it remained for the 5 of us to play all the points all weekend. This was tiring, but surprisingly not much more than usual, at the time but the main point was the pain that endured in my legs and back for at least 3 days after we finished. We did ok, coming runners-up in the 'Plate' (10th). We beat Stirling (our arch rivals) convincingly, however, which made everything else irrelevant. Visited the curry mile and enjoyed on Saturday night.


3. Douglas Coupland, Life After God. The first Coupland book I have read. An impulse buy from Fopp for £3. Not exactly what I was expecting at all. I really enjoyed his style-the short chapters and tight prose really kept my attention (I did make the mistake initially of thinking that all the stories from the same narrator). I especially liked the apocalyptic part, for these kinds of things interest me (see earlier posts). I think I'd like to read more, recommendations?

4. I'm trying to do some recording again, finding it enjoyable (I am fascinated by all the wee production thingies you can do, even with my limited knowledge and age of the Cakewalk program I'm using), but ultimately futile - perhaps it is slightly narcissistic to want to perform songs that you've written? - as I do not have a band to play with and few musically like-minded individuals with which to play.

Finally got all the stuff to send off for my elective today, so should get that on the go.

Hopefully won't be this long again before I post.

Dave.

Back in the USSR

Hello all. Back.
This was the first time since 1st year that I had been particularly apprehensive about returning to the flat; for a number of reasons - after the break-in earlier in the year I was concerned that all that would be left would be the chipped plates in the cupboard also I had forgotten to feed to the fish with a slow-release capsule before I left; furthermore this year, more specifically this half of this year, will probably be the busiest I have experienced in my 22 years.

Things to sort out this year:

1. Medicine wise:


• Pass finals
• Do 4th year project
• organise & go on elective
• chase record of achievement boxes
• any other work for each block


2. Organise wedding and get married
3. Buy a flat
4. Later in the year I'll have to start applying for jobs (this I ignore for now)
5. Not go mad (this may be the most difficult)

So that's not too bad, but quite a lot to start the year off with. Planning and general hard work will probably have to suffice rather than some ingenious plan to ignore everything and hope it falls into place (unless you have any better ideas?)

Anyway, to my surprise the fish managed to survive 3 weeks of not being fed...they must go into some kind of hibernation, clever.
Also the flat was as I had left it before Christmas, another reason to be grateful.

Right, time to unpack and figure out where I'm supposed to go tomorrow.
Happy New Year.