Bonjour again.  This time I am belatedly updating from Liverpool! :D  However before I tell aaall about that I shall re-cap on the last couple of weeks.

The poultry placement was, as expected, very dull and involved killing of unfortunate birds.  Basically I arrived about 8.30am and proceeded to walk through four enourmous barns of stupid chickens.  Dead ones were picked up and taken out, any that were too small or lame got killed :(  Once all barns were "walked" we had a cup of coffee then off home I went about 11.30.  So it wasn't that bad really, aside from the killing and the hour-long drive each way :P

Last week was my last placement of the summer at Falconry Uk Ltd. in North Yorkshire.  Seeing as we've been working rather hard all summeraxeman2002 and myself decided to rent a holiday cottage for the week and have Sat and Sunday as a little bit of a holiday.  On Sat we set off for York, where we spent a few hours looking round before going to Jorvik (the funky viking museum/replica village).  From York we headed up to North Yorkshire where we eventually found our cottage after a close encounter with a tractor (I also discovered that, having come face to face with a big red tractor on a bend, my instinct is to swerve not brake. Huh).  On Sunday we went to the James Herriot museum in Thirsk which was very interesting, then saw Steve and Becka in the afternoon (cos we were staying really near where Becka lives).
On Monday morning we started work at the Falconry place.  Apart from Alan (the vaguely sexist "joker" who was rarely serious about anything and deserved many a good slap) the staff on Monday consisted of Kerry, the 16-yr old daughter of the owners, and Chris who was about our age and had never worked with birds of prey before.  So it was pretty fun really.  We (us two and Chris) started off by doing a half-day course where we learnt how to tie a falconry knot, used when tieing a bird to either the glove or a perch.  Once we'd got that sorted we could do much more with the birds - by the end of the week we were getting the harris hawks out in the morning, weighing them and taking them to their outdoor perches for during the day, weighing the falcons and owls, getting birds out for shows, doing handling with the public and putting birds away at the end of the day.  We also gutted lots of chicks (and got somewhat covered in chick guts, yum), cleaned lots of bird poo, hosed, raked and watched many displays.  Oh, and we got to fly a few birds too.  It was all really fun actually, the birds were all awesome and we got on with everyone :)

Anyway it's taken me ages to write this and I'm now really tired, so I think I'll have to come finish this later.  Very very briefly - I'm in Liverpool, all's good so far.  The house is great, we have phones and internet.  Me and Mark also have two baby rats, who are lovely.  Parents are all piling up tomorrow and lectures start on Monday!  Anyway I shall be off now, until next time..

1.  Leave me a comment saying something random, like the lyrics from your current favorite song, or your favorite kind of sandwich.  Something random.  Whatever you like.
2.  I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
3.  Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
4.  Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions

So my questions from callita...

1. What's the one song which has moved you most, and why?

I honestly have no idea.  There are books which have stayed with me for years, and songs which have meant so much for a short period, but nothing that stands out as having had a pronounced effect on my life.  Mike Oldfield's album "Voyager" moves me a lot though, but there is no reason I know of for it!

2. If you were president of the world for just one day, list a couple of things you would do.

Freak out for a start!  I'd want to try and do something about poverty - there are so many people with no money at all, and so many rich, stupid people who have more money than anybody can ever need.  I'd enforce some global measures towards global warming and all that malarky; no more huge countries refusing to comply.  In all honesty I'd probably do very little of use - if you told me a month in advance then I'd plan a busy efficient shedule but I'm awful at thinking of things on the spot!

3. From a scientific and then personal perspective, how much truth is there to acupuncture and other traditional oriental medicines?

Acupuncture works because the needles block the nerves which transmit the pain sensations to the brain, so yeah I believe that there's truth to it.  I don't agree with any nonsense like rhino horns and monkey bollocks but a lot of herbal supplements do work.  Plants have various chemical properties and everything that happens in the body is essentially chemical reactions so I guess it makes sense at some level.  Get back to me in four years and I'm sure I'll have a much more accurate knowledge base!

4. If you could be any fictional character, who would you choose and why?

Ooh hard question!  Maybe Lestat, or perhaps Gabrielle or somebody who gets to be around him.. ooh or Jesse, because the Talamasca would be the most awesome job, and there's that whole being with Lestat thing..  And then Helen from "The Historian", because I just want to be in that book so much, and a Rohirrim because I would love to live on a huge hill and ride horses and wield swords, and of course Elsa, because then we could live in Cara Calad (that right?) which was just amazing.

5. What life experience would you say has scarred you the most?

Without naming names, then the fact that some of the closest friendships I have ever had in my life have quite quickly been abandoned and forgotton without a backwards glance, and with no real warning.   It's scarred me because I'm sure I had more self-confidence before everything happened - I know that I find it harder now to have faith in friendships being genuine; I tend to assume that I'm just hanging on as part of a group.  Bleh.


Postscript - I'm not getting a hamster.  I'm getting a rat :D

So tomorrow never actually means tomorrow, but you knew that right?  Still, I might as well pick up where I left off..

Last time I wrote here I was nearing the end of my dairy placement.  I was supposed to do 14 days straight, but they didn't want me at weekends and I ended up only doing 9 days!  It was enough though cos it was boring as (cow) shit.  I had to get up at 5.15am so that I could drive for 30-40 minutes and arrive for a 6.30am start.  Until about 9.30am I'd help with the milking, which basically involved reaching between cows' back legs to try and get big suction things on the teats, while trying not to be pissed or crapped on.  Then you wait for them to finish milking, kick them out, get another lot in and do the same.  For hours.  It was dulllll.  Afterwards I'd hose down the parlour, squeegy out and hose down the huge yard that the cows wait in, and maybe help move some cows or something before being told to go home about midday.  I didn't learn a lot though I did get to feed some cute calves, watch a calving, and put my hand up a couple of cows' arses when the vet came.  I had no idea what I was doing though; I think I felt the uterus and an ovary?!

This week I did my kennels placement, which was pretty good really.  A 7.30am start but it was only 15 mins away and I only had to work till 10.30ish.  The week didn't start off great as I threw up on Monday and again on Tuesday, and eventually spent Wednesday in bed, but the work wasn't too strenuous.  They had some little fields/grassy enclosures that we put the dogs in while we picked up poo and hosed out their kennels.  I'm now very good at slipping a lead over a dog's head, and not too bad at holding onto the lead of large, strong, bouncy dogs that want to go very very fast.  My favourite dogs were a group of 5 - one mongrel, a big whippet, two younger whippets and one tiny 10 week old baby whippet called trixie!! :O  Whenever I was in with them she'd come and jump up and down till I picked her up for a cuddle :)  I finished there yesterday and they gave me a thank you card and £20 which was really nice because most places let you come and see how they do stuff, but the kennels said I was really helpful and they appreciatred my being there.  Always nice to be appreciated ;)

So after I finished yesterday I shot off to axeman2002's house (or at least as much as I could "shoot off" with a laden car in a 30 limit) where I shifted all the junk into his car and had some overdue foodness before we left for Liverpool! :D  Didn't take too long to get there though the rain was really heavy and we got stuck in some boring traffic at one point.  We eventually arrived at our spiffy new house to be warmly welcomed by Steve and Becka, and much jumping around and shouting ensued due to not having seen each other all summer and the house still being as huge as we remembered.  The kitchen had some worrying areas (unidentifiable stickyness in the cupboards and the no-longer-transparent oven door) and the upstairs bathroom looked grotty with the grouting between the tiles a funny brownish orange colour, but some leaning stuff and a new shower curtain (with fish on!) soon sorted it all out.  We found a problem in our attic bedroom, in that the bed was under the slanty part of the ceiling, and as such you couldn't physically stand up next to it.  This was sorted though by shifting the bed over, and bringing a second desk and cabinet up many flights of stairs.  Our room is now beautiful though and I'm so so excited about moving in!  We went to good old ASDA and then curled up with pizza to watch 51st State, during which I was physically abused by both Mark and Steve (Becka had gone home by this point) and laughed at for looking shocked when that guy got crushed :P  Today we had to go and sit in a hospital for several hours, where we mostly sat and moaned about how very very hungry we were, before visiting a pet shop and home bargains to buy a bin *nods*  We also picked up our keys before it was time to head home *sigh*

And now I should go, as I have at least an hour-long drive to Bolsover in the morning where, by all accounts from Mark, I'll be looking at and killing chickens.  W00t.  I will be back soon this time, I have meme-ness to be a-posting!

It's been so long since I've written anything here that I don't really know how to start.  Dave's post got me thinking; I stopped making entries here mostly because I was busy, but also because it felt like I couldn't find a happy medium of detail with which to tell my old friends about the new, making it understandable enough to be interesting but not so detailed to be boring.  Though it's a strange coincidence that after wormlover's post (somebody I never knew that well but, unless I start making proper use of a site like this, never will) came one from callita (somebody that I used to be so close to but haven't talked to properly for months if not years).  I suppose I should take notice of these two very good reasons to keep this journal alive before it's too late eh?

That leaves me the question of where to start.  Since I last posted I have taken the rest of, and passed (only just in the case of one) all of my first year exams.  I have also taken my driving test twice; failing once and passing the second time with one more minor fault (9) but considerably fewer serious faults.  I have also seriously diminished my savings by purchasing a car, which I have a somewhat love-hate relationship with.  We get on ok now though, and I reckon I'm a reasonably safe driver :P  (Incidentaly the car still has no name.. It's an electric blue skoda fabia, any suggestions?).

As I'm sure I've complained about to most of you (or indeed you've already heard from axeman2002) I've spent most of this "summer" doing pre-clinical extra-mural studies; also known as free slave labour for farms, during which vets students learn key skills such as how to sort eggs into no less than 5 seperate catagories, how to manouver a tractor out of a badly positioned gate, the fastest ways to shift large quantities of poo and other such useful skills.  To a lesser extent we also learn key animal handling skills and general knowledge about the running of farms.
So far I've done pigs, horses, more horses, alpacas, more pigs and chickens, and I'm currently doing my second week of dairy.  Unfortunately the dairy is a 6.30am start, and a 40 minute drive away.  This means I have to get up at some sort of crazy hour and, after a week of it, am unbelievebley knackered.  Thus I think I'll leave this for now, and resume when I can, hopefully tomorrow.  So until then, adios!

Seeing as I have a (worryingly) neatly written post-it note in front of me listing a full 17 items of work that need doing (each of which could easily take an hour) I have decided to emerge from the depths of inactivity to write something vaguely resembling an update.  It does not promise to be thrilling.  As I really do have a lot to do I believe I shall write a short list of things that have happened, on the basis that it'll do until I somehow create an extra hour in the day in which I shall write something acceptable.  So here goes.

~ Numero uno on the list may have to be the fact that I did indeed pass all of my semester one exams :O  This was a great shock as none other than the head of something (admissions maybe?) told axeman2002 that most people fail a couple of them.  But no, we all did rather well really.  I didn't get the best marks (ranging from 55% to 66%) but as 50% is a pass and we don't get "grades" there's no problem.  I guess it also makes nearly killing myself with stress over xmas all worth it now...

~ After realising that most farms are in the middle of nowhere (disgraceful isn't it?), and thus not accessible by buses, I  took charge of the money my parents had put away for uni and booked myself a driving lesson for Wed.  Having never actually sat behind the wheel of a car before I was a little "uneducated" in the matters of driving so Becka let me go sit in her car just now.  I wasn't expecting to go anywhere at all but she blatantly had other plans and instructed me off round the car park.  As it was a surprise I had my foot on the accelerator a tad too much and got yelled at to "BRAAAKE!" quite loudly by her and Teddy (which I eventually managed :P).  After another try I was getting the hang that brake didn't mean more accelerator, but got scared by the fact that I was very un-insured, I'd owe Becka a lot of money if I actually crashed, and she has faulty brakes.  So off we went round the block with me in charge on the gear-stick, which was easier than I'd expected and made much more sense than "driving" Mark in the vet common room :P

~ Last Wednesday was not only the money-making scam that is Valentine's Day; it was also "Vet Valentine's".  First year vets are in charge of making lots of money in silly ways, this year for PDSA.  As well as party boys, a bake sale and kissing booth there were people collecting money and selling flowers.  Being very odd people, Mark dressed in a toga, angel wings and wellies while I wore a disturbing amount of pink (including hot pink fishnets and cowboy hat :P).  Off we went around the uni, taking it as a chance to explore new places.  We weren't doing badly when we wandered through the law department into some sort of secret garden, then out the other side into what we believe was modern languages.  Whatever it was it was a lovely place and we got lots of money (for looking stupid) with minimal harassment ;)  We then got bored so went and ate cake from the bake sale for a while.  After a freezing trip into town we helped the Steves count the money (over £100 in our bucket :D) before heading home.  As it was also St. Valentine's day we went to a great takeaway place to get a chinese before going into town to see Music and Lyrics.  For a romcom starring Drew Barrymore it was surprisingly original, and Hugh Grant singing in butt-clenchingly tight trousers is amazing :P  Then, if the day wasn't fun enough already, we went to the station to scare the hell out of/collect a Reno!  Then him and Mark talked about warhammer in more detail than I can cope with so I zoned out and fell asleep. Ah well.

~ Lastly, to make you all glad you aren't attempting to get through vet school, we started our dog hindlimb dissection today.  For the forelimb we got a young alsation called Bruce who, if a tad fat, was lovely and a pleasure to work with/on.  Today we got Manky Mandy.  She is evil-looking, skinny, three-legged, going off (ie. green) and looks as though she's taken some serious abuse to her sensitive parts.  And she reeks, it was a struggle not to retch.  Possibly the lowest low of the year so far.  How I look forward to 9-5 in there tomorrow...

PS - Erm, a small note: if anybody's been contacted by DoubleTake Studios I apologise.  I won a photoshoot, which I had the other week, and was told I'd get some extra stuff if I put enough names down.  So yeah: they're basically a good but v. expensive photography studio.  If they tell you you've won a comp it's not a scam and it's a great day out but the photos were crazy expensive in an unaffordable way.  Anything else you want to know just ask me...

Raarrr!  Three down, one to go.  Feeling more relaxed now, though not entirely convinced I'll be saying that on Friday morning.  Last Friday was module 113 (don't ask me to try and remember the name) which was 80 multiple choice questions, half based on knowledge of the notes alone, and half based on "things" - mostly microscope slides, but also a plasticised heart and a dead lamb (uni exams kick ass over school ones).  Considering I hate microscopes and it's 50/50 whether I'll see cells or blurr it could have theoretically gone a lot worse.  As it is I recognised some stuff, had a guess at some of the rest, and left some blank because I got scared of negative marking :P  After a quick hello and not-talking-about-the-exam with axeman2002 I went into town while he sat the same exam.  I got a new watch after having gone a week being stressed about not knowing what time it was, and (being brave) went into Games Workshop all by myself for the first time ever.  And I talked to the assistant and he asked me if i was buying the paint for my boyfriend! :O  And, as ever, he tried to talk me into going along to game or paint or just watch.  They're very sweet really, in a lonely geek sort of a way :P

Once back at halls we had roughly two days to learn an entire module for the next exam.  No mean feat!  Amongst the frantic "learning" of things we also tested out my new set of pans for the first time, constructed a surprisingly delicious meal of pasta for about £1 :P  To make sure it wasn't a fluke (and to try out the brand new wooden spoon purchased for the grand price of 13p :P) we also cooked a stir-fry last night, which was equally edible and equally cheap (once we fished out the bits of sticker that we hadn't taken off the spoon, heh).  Hurrah.

So yesterday was the "Introduction to Systems Physiology - Cellular Support" exam (whatever thats sposed to mean).  This one was half multiple choice and half long-answer, 10 questions of which we had to answer 5.  For some reason despite feeling totally unprepared I actually found the exam really quite easy.  Of course I then talked to Teddy and Steve afterwards who didn't agree, which scared me :S  But yeah, hopefully I've got the required 50% *crosses fingers*

So now there's just the animal husbandry exam on Friday morning.  There's very little understanding involved, just a hell of a lot of boring information to memorise.  Y'know, such interesting things as the 10 most important minerals, what they're for, what they're found in, and what happens to each type of animal if they don't get enough of it.  Urgh.  Well I'd better type up these notes on chickens.  Toodlepip for now x

So, one down three to go.  The exam ("Concepts in Cell Biology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology" I think it was) wasn't how I'd expected.. Turned out to be 3-4 mark parts to each question rather than just 10 long-answer questions as anticipated.  Still not entirely sure whether this was a good thing or not; it certainly made answering easier but they were asking for more specific details (such as names of individual enzymes) than I'd learnt.  Oh well, I put something for everything, some of which I think was right.  Hopefully 50% of it was, otherwise I'm re-sitting come August.

Incidentaly, I am James Bond.  Well, either that or I'm candidate number 007 and I have a fool for a boyfriend.  I guess either is possible :P

Life isn't actually too bad back here.  They (as in the kitchen people) actually made an effort with the food, and I've eaten a decent amount three nights in a row :O  I don't expect it'll last though so have been to buy pasta and other cook-able items for testing out my brand spanking new set of pans.  I should probably get back to work, despite just learning all five types of white blood cells and what they look like, there's a lot left to do *sigh*  Shall try to update again soon, just as soon as I've done something to write about in fact..

And in case you were wondering, the end to the quote in the title was "...how do you resist the temptation to just stare at them in the mirror all day?" :P

(Oh, and thanks to callita for making me cross something off my "things to do before I die" list before I've even written it ;) Without you I'd be far less openly un-innocent :P)

Happy New Year everyone!

Ok, yet again I have not updated for aages, yes yes bad shula, so shall attempt some sort of holiday summary post. This will involve trying to remember what I didn't have time to write about in the first place, which with my already over-full appaling memory is no mean feat. So here goes..

If I remember correctly I came home from Scouse-land nigh on three weeks ago to be presented with Hannukah presents from the parents. These were a stethoscope (yeah I asked for it, they're not that boring), two series of coupling, series 2 of young ones, series 1 of sugar rush, a book on dogs (thrilling life of a vet student :P) and some jelly beans. (Ok while I'm typing my Mother is talking about how kissing is not as important in a relationship once you start sleeping together. She really scares me at times, I don't want to be her friend!!)

Roll on Monday morning and I journeyed out to Fox House on the 272 to be met by axeman2002  for our interview at Chatsworth. We were incredibly early so went and sat outside the farm shop for a few hours, during which time we ate lunch and he head-butted me again making me bite my lip *sob* After a quick look at all the nice foods we went along to the office where we met Wendy and Mr Turner, both of whom we'd both met before. Wasn't much of an interview really.. he apologised that we'd only earn about £350 (we're poor student, that's loooads!) and told me off for not being able to drive yet (blame my parents!). After a look at the farm where I worked a couple of years ago (still looks the same, just minus several hundred sheep) and the dairy farm (where I've since secured a PCEMS placement) we got turfed out back at the office. Being poor students an' all we did the proper thing and went for a cream tea, which was very exciting and included tiny little jars of jam *nods* From Chatsworth we drove back to chateau Waining where I cuddled trix while he changed into that t-shirt (you know, the one with the damn apostrophe - I have since stolen it and it shall not be returned without a struggle). Onto my house for a quick snack on his part before Mark went off to the Maiden gig, although he ended up coming back to crash at mine afterwards because of the scary fog.

Next morning the actual work began, along with phoning numerous places to try and get some work experience. After talking to a lot of people I managed to secure 14 days at Chatsworth dairy farm, 10 days at an indoor pig unit in Hemsworth, 7 at the livery yard at the top of my road, and possibly 2-3 days at the biggest deer herd in England. Whoop-de-do. Still need loads more *agonises* Sue it'll er, sort itself out :P

Lots some work filled in the next several days until the weekend, when I gave up. Compromising on family time I hitched a lift with my parents to Castleton where we met up with Teddy for some afternoon tea, as well as seeing both John and Garry (teehee :P). Completing the required amount of conversation we made a quick getaway to his house for more conversing and eating with family, before again rushing off, this time to go to the cinema. Here we met up with Ems and Souter and it was voted we see Happy Feet. I was a little skeptical about it, having somehow managed to avoid every trailer, but didn't take long for me to melt when the little ball of fluff appeared on screen. And no I'm not ashamed to show my "girly side", it was damn adorable! Plot was a bit silly, but I will never look at penguins in the same way again (I will find a dancing one one day!!!).

Monday was Christmas day (duh) so I enjoyed not having to work and had a nice lie-in. Got up in time to help make the dinner before Mark came round for present swapping (which I believe was successful all round). In case you were wondering, amongst other things he got me a vibrating duck *nods* It was both intended and taken as a joke, which is a good thing because when we finally got the batteries in it was loud and violent! :S After he left we sat down to what was honestly one of the worst xmas dinner disasters in memory, but I'd seen the recipe before-hand so did not have high expectations :P After eating a very restrined amount we all sat down to watch lots of TV, including Monsters Inc (despite not being overly fond of children I want that little girl!) and Dibley.

Boxing day I went over to Marks on the promise of there being warhammer. He did not disappoint and, after he fell down the stairs with most of it, we settled down to "work". I filed and glued and puttied and eventually started painting something vaguely resembling Aragorn :) Unfortunately I didn't get very far before we stopped for food, but I have been promised that paints and such will be coming back to uni so he can be finished at a future date :) After eating we did the family thing again, this time watching some tv and playing both Cludo and Pictionary. Was really fun, methinks next year I will buy a load of old games and make everyone sit and play them every so often :P Even though I never know the rules to any that is. Next morning I went home to work, continuing to plough through the horrible module that we have next Monday.

In fact, I worked and worked until Saturday, when I went off shopping with Mark. I was very restrained and only got hair dye and booze for the evening, while he spent a small fortune on DVDs and such. Not that I'm complaining, I get to watch them all ;) After hanging out at mine and eating with parents (well, I lost my appetite so barely ate, instead drinking a couple of glasses of wine, getting tipsy, and introducing the cat to an avocado) we got a lift up to samegrazedknees  's for the annual New Years Eve Eve bash. As ever it did not dissappoint, was a fun-filled night of eating, dancing, drinking and generally being silly. That, and we played with her ninja cat :D
Next morning, well afternoon by the time we were up, Mark and I watched a few episodes of coupling before again doing the family thing and playing games, this time with my parents :P Got through quite a few, including an awesome jenga tower which he perfectly captured the fall of!   After more food we went up to Souter's for his New Years Eve bash.  Despite low turnout  it was still a good night, got to continue catching up with people and play with more cats! :D  (you now know; if you want me to enjoy a party have cats :P).

It's now Wed and I've just been out fot a pre-birthday meal with Mark and family.  Was really nice little restaurant and good company, and  there was even a giant budda towards the end of the evening.  We didn't find out if it could be pushed over, but it was impressive non the less :P
So, what's next.  More work tomorrow, desperately trying not to panic..  Then mybe off to Mark's on Friday, in between packing, before Certificate Evening and night out, yay.  Then it's off back to Liv on Saturday (is it bad I now refer to my little room as home?) for desperate last-minute cramming ready for first exam on Monday.   Argh, I may just fall over and die at some point *breath*  I should also stop writing, this has been a horrendously long entry- kudos and cookies to anyone who actually made it to the end! xx

Yep, tonight is the first night of Hanukkah.. and I'm missing it :O  Family have promised to conduct minimal celebrations tonight and wait until tomorrow (and my return home) for proper exchanging of presents, although that's kind of all we do really.  Of course there will be lighting of the Menorah (which axeman2002  has been promised to get to watch one night) and possibly eating of doughnuts and/or latkes.  Yumyum.  There may also be playing of BNL to my parents (hehe), especially seeing as they're actually just modern takes on traditional songs :O

For some reason I feel strangely festive, sitting here getting warm - I'd promised Mark that I'd take him down to the park to try and lure some geese over and feed them our left-over bread.  Despite it being cold, dark and very wet we went anyway, and succesfully "lured" about 20 canadian geese over!  And by over I mean they surrounded us, we even hand-fed a few and got them to beg, it was very cute.  They stayed for a while, hopeful that theyd get to eat my camera, before we went off home.  Not that there was anything remotely snowy or christmassy involved, I just feel kind of excited now, yay.  And on the festive-ish note, a meme stolen from totally49 :

( Meme )[ETA: Mr "I love judaism" Waining just made the most intelligent comment: "if Jews ate lots of carrots, would there be no hanukkah?"  He amazes me sometimes, and not in the good way :P]

"Occupation of a receptor is transduced into adenylate cyclase-mediated intracellular cyclic AMP production by the G-protein cycle"
Fun stuff...  Indeed the only vaguely amusing aspect of those entire series of lecture was that cyclic AMP is, in fact, shortened to cAMP.  Not suprisingly I left it until now to make actual notes which I can (theoretically) at some point use to revise and learn :P
That said, it makes slightly more sense that the veterinary public health lecture I went over yesterday which included information on the potential risks of both cheese and vegetables as well as useful nuggets of info such as "shark meat may not kill you but direct contact should be avoided".  I do question what I'm doing here sometimes...

What else have I been upto apart from working and offending histology lecturers *thinks*  Last night we (myself and axeman2002) decided that  we were hungry so took a night-time jaunt down to Tesco.   We managed to spend a healthy £7 or so on snackage before trudging back during a small a hail storm of all oddities.   For some reason I always wear the same pair of not-very-waterproof-at-all shoes whenever we get caught in exceptionally wet weather, so by the time we got back my feet were freeeezing!   Seeing as it was now after 11pm we decided on watching something "not too heavy", otherwise known as Wayne's World, while consuming said snacks.  I hadn't seen it before but it was pretty much what I expected from what I'd heard about it, including very good and wonderfully quotable :D
Today my alarm again failed to go off, so I didn't wake up until 9.50.  The dining hall shuts at 10am but Saturday breakfasts are good so we decided to give it a go- and somehow ended up there for 9.55 :S  Considering that it usually takes 5 mins to get from my room to the dining room, and neither of us were naked or in any other way indecent, I'd say this was pretty impressive.  It was also a good thing that we made it as we still haven't got the hang of shopping so (despite the trip the previous night) were left with nought but custard creams for lunch :O

This time next week I'll be at home, which is a weird thought.  I'm not really sure how to feel; on the one hand it'll be nice to have proper food, more than one room, pets and a washing machine that doesn't charge, but on the other hand I'll have to work loads in a place where there are way more distractions,  I'll have to adapt around my family's routine again, and of course, I won't have Mark around to contantly "accidentaly" headbutt my nose and wake me up with questions about avian fornication (which, if you're interested, apparently looks just like dogs but with wings).   Ah well, this week's gonna fly by I can just tell..

Anyway, shall now go and do something.. which may involve the careful drawing of hair follicles.. don't all kill yourselves with jealousy ;)  Oh look, I made a new icon.  Isn't it erm..eye-ish? :P

Woo, first actual real entry at last!  I actually feel slightly guilty for writing this when I could be working *sigh*  People keep telling me not to be so stressed but I feel like I don't know anything yet; it isn't going in!  That said I don't really want to spend time not working moaning about how I should be working, so I shall promptly shut up :P

I don't really know where to start - the best place is probably the last time I saw most of you; so last weekend when myself and axeman2002 once again journeyed back home this time for joebarnsley's birthday!  As became common knowledge during the evening Casino Royal was (shock horror) the first Bond film I'd seen, though I'm sure you'll all rejoice to hear that I did enjoy it (well apart from the obvious scene which freaked me out but which is a spoiler so cannot be properly commented on).  Then had fun catching up in the bar and scaring BK staff, before returning at some almost un-godly hour to watch Pick of Destiny.  Which, honestly, wasn't that bad :P  I would have enjoyed it more if I'd been a. drunk, and b. not shouted at for blinking and missing bits, but it could have been a lot worse considering the market it was targeting (Tenacious D fans and young teenage boys, neither of which I am).
Saturday I went shopping with my Mother (wahoo) for an outfit to wear to both the winter ball and my cousin's wedding.  Ended up with a black corsety top that I have to now be talked out of, and a long red posh swishy type skirt.  Also worked out cheaper than I'd feared it would be, and so far I've only been asked for a minimal sum by parents :)  That evening Mark came round for the first experience of "a meal with the Bergs" which, as far as I'm aware, went fine for all concerned.  My Dad actually seemed receptive as well, which is a promising sign, he seems to like me much more now I don't live in the same house!  After eating lots of decent food myself and Mark make a sharp exit to go and see the Prestige, in what must have been the smallest and weirdest little cinema screen I've ever been in :S  Managing to ignore the three other rows of people in the room (at no incline, bah) I really enjoyed the film; lots of twists and turns and, of course, Hugh Jackman (and Christian Bale who stirs up fond childhood memories)!
Sunday I spent a quality hour or two sewing the hem of my new (black) jeans so that I can walk in them before heading over to Marks for a return meal with his parents.  All went well (I hope) and we got quite an early train back so as not to have to stagger round Liverpool looking for a taxi like last time :P

Monday and Tuesday flew by and soon enough it was Wednesday; exciting for two reasons - firstly our long-awaited vet logo clothing arrived (so don't expect to see me in anything other than a black hoodie until it falls apart on my back), and secondly maidenite came to visit again, hurrah!  Actually Kev arrived rather later than planned, almost late enough to get pelted with frozen soya beans, but we took pity and instead just escorted him back to halls.
Once back we spent hours doing make-up but, if you check the pics out on ringo, I think you'll agree the finished designs were amazing.  Then it was off to town for much spinning around the xmas tree and being excitably gothic (breaking stereotypes, right?).  After some more shots by candlelight back at halls we were all exhausted and went to bed prepared for an early-ish start.
Again we spent a few hours doing make-up before myself and Mark "treated" Kev to a wonderful seminar on Dairy Cattle.  I was impressed by his continued consciousness through-out, but nobody blamed him for his early exit!  They did give us "goths" a few interesting looks though, teeheehee.   Afterwards it was on to Starbucks for much mocha-drinking and randomness, including a bit of photography.  Done for the day we went back to halls for pot noodle and some interesting semi-deep discussion.  Always nice to talk properly to people, especially those you haven't seen for ages.  Makes me look forward to the holidays and possible parties as good occasions to /properly/ catch up with everyone - something that's hard to do when you're only in the same city for a day or two each term.

So Kev left on friday to attend his own lectures while we (myself and Mark) had our first real dissection.  Was very exciting - a heart which came with lungs, trachea and osophaegus still attached.  I'm not entirely sure how much I learnt, and I'm almost definately sure that Mark and Steve weren't supposed to be crafting rings for myself and Amy out of cartilage, but we were touched by the thought none the less :P

Did pretty much nothing this weekend which was lovely.  First time for ages I havent been away, had people visiting, or been going out.  Nice combination of work, sleep and lunch out made me feel quite relaxed if not entirely un-stressed.  And on that note I should probably do a little more work (pharmacology; actually rather interesting) before the general time-wastage that always preceeds sleep.  Raaaarrr!!

Oh dear, I have to write another of those "journal opening" posts which I am so very very bad at.  Perhaps I should take note and stop making new journals? :P  It seems to have become some sort of compulsion of mine; every time something important happens in my life I chronicle it by starting a new blog.  Last time I did keep it though, and have full intentions of doing the same this time.

I feel kind of silly writing this, I doubt anybody will read it other than everybody who read my last account and thus already knows me.  So (assuming that to be the case) I'll start by apologising for not having published any sort of drivvle for several weeks now.  The first week or so here I was far too busy to even contemplate turning Grenville (my laptop) on.  Then a lot happened which basically turned my life around, but in the best possible way (I'm not going into that, you all know what I'm on about and if you don't just ask).  So then when I sat down intending to post I had no idea what to say..  Do I skirt around the edges and pretend everything's fine?  Do I pour my heart out in an attempt to figure out how I'm actually feeling?  Or perhaps some sort of un-happy medium..  Either way it's irrelevant now; I avoided the matter at hand by not posting at all.  And then, of course, I hadn't posted for so long that I didn't know where to start.

So here I am with a nice new journal *pets it*  I feel like everything in my life is different to how I was, so it's only fitting that I start afresh here.  And on that note I think now is a good place to stop typing!  Once LJ starts to behave and lets me customize this thing properly I will friend everyone and make a proper "what I've been up to" sort of a post.  Hurrah you all cry (or not :P).  So yeah, until then...

Sxx