Christmas and New Year

Christmas and the promise of photographs sadly didn't really happen in Yorkshire this year.

I love my family to pieces but if my boyfriend had not have been with me this year, then the event would probably not have happened at all.

Tension was obvious throughout all of christmas with my parents, and hasn't really ceased yet.

Anyhow, that aside.

2008 has been a mixed bag of a year with family arguments, new relationships, new houses, new academic years, old housemates causing problems (I AM NEVER EVER BILL SHARING AGAIN UNLESS I CAN HELP IT)

Since September I have been a third year medical student, and would have loved it a whole lot more had I not become unwell at the beginning of October, something which has not really yet resolved. I've had to miss a lot of uni and paid work and my academic studies have suffered accordingly. Hopefully 2009 will bring an improvement.

But, for the time being, and before things go a tad mad, I am sitting on the private ward waiting to wish the patients a Happy New Year and head off on my break with a blanket and a pillow.

So I wish you all a safe and healthy night, and remember, hospital is not a place you want to be on New Year's Eve, or else you might end up coming across a grumpy Yorkshire auxiliary nurse with a stinking cold.

Look after yourselves and your loved ones, and think of me while I'm cleaning up diarrhoea, yet again...

4 people, 3 rooms

Merys is in the dining room using a computer and doing university work that isn't due for months. She isn't doing this because of stunning academic efficiency, rather that it keeps her out of trouble.

Merys' mother is in the living room watching EastEnders.

Merys' father is watching something relating to logging trees in the kitchen in the cold with the dog for company. The dog is only there because he hopes Merys' father will give him a mince pie.

Merys' boyfriend has travelled up to stay with Merys and family for christmas, and is currently sitting in the living room with Merys' mother, and he is sat playing Age of Mythology - The Titans. I don't think Merys' mother knows he's doing this though.

Four grown adults sitting in three seperate rooms on Christmas Eve.

No amusing photographs from me today, just a realisation that spending this much time with my family isn't necessarily healthy for me.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Love and hate

I have a love and hate relationship with my parents and their internet setup.

My Acer laptop is hellishly unreliable. It will not work with the battery even attached and crashes all the time. If I can find enough work this year I will be saving up for a netbook (or potentially finding a mobile broadband contract that suits me...)

Consequently when I am at home I borrow my parents larger Acer Aspire 7110. I was incredibly distraught to find this time that it seems to have acquired several Trojans including the Gadcom.exe, as well as 221 pieces of adware. Therefore, it would not go on the internet.

I've spent approximately 9 hours trying to clean the bloody thing, and have eventually managed it, but have been left with this. I cannot get it to update the automatic updates. I even went into the major control menu thing* to try and reset the automatic updates, but to no avail.

For now I am stuck. But on the 29th (if not before, pending war) I will be back at Uni.

* Girl speak.

Not my knickers

Simply because I can multitask, I can combine eating 'gathered earholes'*, ironing and watching ER season 5.

Because I'm simply amazing.

*I have no idea why my mother calls lemon curd tarts gathered earholes, but she does.

Climbing the walls

I've been home less than 24 hours.

Already I appear to be trying to get vertical on the building supports, if you get my drift.

I love my parents to pieces, but being an only child at the age of 25 and suddenly losing all independence is a complete pain in the arse.

I can't do anything, go anywhere or call anyone (because I have no phone signal) on my mobile.

Yorkshire is a wonderfully bleak place sometimes, and I love that, but I do wonder how the hell I would manage now if my parents didn't have broadband (they only got it less than 2 years ago, and when I first started uni broadband wasn't available in my village at all!).

I'm going to be taking a series of photos over my period at home to show you what I've been up to, so expect lots of crap pictures of the dog, wrapping paper and the tree, etc. I'm certainly no photographer...

Ho ho ho and all that jazz!

Making hay while the snow falls

I look forward to holidays with a mixed feeling of dread and pleasure.

The dread because a little bit more of the academic year has passed, and I am aware of how much harder things are going to get. 

The pleasure because I get to take a break. Maybe.

Or perhaps I would get chance if I wasn't having to work so hard to make my hay.

Take the next week for example; I seem to have collected a fourth job somewhere down the line.  I mean I have 2 pretty much stable regular jobs and two less so. Two are more casual. They call, I agree if the terms are right. One of those is the outdoor adventure centre - business varies at this time of year along with my ability to run around in the cold when I have joints that get more painful with dodgy weather.

The other job I have only worked for once before. It paid disgustingly well. In fact I'm slightly ashamed to say I was on between £27 and £55 an hour for some very easy work. And before some smart arse comments on this, it was totally legitimate, legal and taxable at 22%! 

Two days ago they called me up again. Would I be interested in two full days of work for £95 per day from 9am-6pm. Conveniently I've finished uni by then and my two hospital shifts that week conveniently fit around it as well as my bar work.

Sadly I can't tell you exactly what my job entails, as A) I feel a little bit of a pillock doing it and B) it's a bit too obvious to give me away.

You'll just have to all trust me that I'm working insanely hard.

You know you're tired when...

Perhaps this made more sense in my head, but that's what I wrote for the last patient history I took.

Auditory stimulus

In the bar, my familiar sounds make me smile. Make me happy.

The sound of glasses clinking, beer bottles opening, pool balls being sunk, the strange click the door makes. You see where I'm coming from.

There is nothing in the bar that scares me. Makes my heart pump faster than I would like. It's my comfort zone.

The hospital is a different matter. My comfort zone at work there revolves around call bells, the word 'nurse' being called repeatedly, bleeps going off and telephones ringing, remaining unanswered.

My comfort zone does not include the crash bell. 

For the first few seconds of bleating, I'm always confused. Horrifically oblivious for a few seconds as to what that particular sound signifies.

I was talking to a porter the last time it invaded into my subconscious. For a second, confused by the intrusion. Then running following the stampede of nurses. 

Today my arms and shoulders burn from the effort I put in. Still feeling broken ribs against the heel of my right hand.

We are all trained for it, yet it still catches us unawares. Adrenaline pumping for a considerable amount of time after the event. A small part of me becoming detached each time. 

I wonder if I will lose my soul completely?

Cleave me in two with an axe

I apologise once more for the long absence in posting.

Since the beginning of October I have been unwell, and despite trying desperately to 'soldier on' I've had to admit defeat (and some advice from the dean) and take a couple of days off uni to stay in bed.

I've been back and forth to the doctors like a yo-yo, and eventually have a neurology referral, as I've been suffering with severe headaches for ages now, with little break in between them.

My bed has become by friend, along with paracetamol.

So for the time being, I'm here in body, but not necessarily in spirit.

Back soon, hopefully

disasterous

I really am a disaster zone.

I've managed to injure 4 fingers.

FOUR!

Not amused.