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
26 August 2005
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.
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.
07 August 2005
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...
Back to the UK now...
05 August 2005
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.
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.
01 August 2005
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.
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.
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.
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