This week... mid-March

This week, I have been mostly listening to:
Somewhat bizarrely, Duncan James & Keedie: I Believe My Heart!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWBfCeLaVmU

and also, the ace remix of what was quite a dull song before; Beyonce and Shakira, Beautiful Liar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSpzwF8CBok

This week, I have been mostly watching:
Castaway - I really like it! I also love that the "Remote Control" section, where you can choose the gift the castaways recieve is always nice - clearly the producers thought we'd all be knobs and send them ironing boards, fishnet stockings and steal their chickens, but instead we're giving them a surfboard, fishing nets and new chicks!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/castaway

This week, I have mostly been saying:
"Distal/proximal phalangeal joints"...

...and "Would you like something to suck on for landing sir?" over and over again and still finding it funny.

This week I have mostly been eating:
VERY badly - today I have had a bagel, some crisps, a sausage roll, 2 pints and some Kro mussels (which ended up making an early exit...)

This week, I have mostly been thinking:
"If I ate better, I would sleep bettter and I would look bettter and feel better. And so, despite knowing this, why can I not do it?!!

This week, I have been mostly doing:
lots of socialising - I have been out with different friends nearly every day for over a week!

This week, I have been mostly paying:
for things that get pissed away about an hour later

This week, I have mostly been stressing about:
Joints; Elective; Project Option; SSC; LGBT Conference; and whether PBL is on Friday as the timetable says (which I hope for), or whether it has been moved to Thursday again, in which case I will miss it because I am already booked to be somewhere else!

Psychiatry versus Sumo/Safari/Spanish

I'm currently undergoing an elective dilemma.

Next year, for my final year of medicine before I get a job (woo hoo), I have an 8-week "Elective" period to fill. The point of this period is to "experience a different healthcare system" - which for a lot of medics means getting a few grand of daddy, zooming to Australia to sit on a beach and then pop into Sydney General for a few hours. Which is quite fun thing to do... but it isn't really me. Plus the fact that my elective period is right before my finals.

I originally thought I'd just stay in England, probably Greater Manchester, and do something "useful" in a revision sense.

I've now been bitten by a bug that sees a new elective idea each day!

I would quite like to do Psychiatry for the block, because I love it. I could do the whole lot in Bolton as they have kind of already agreed, but I would like to go away really, at least for a bit, because it's a pretty unique opportunity. SO I could split the block in two and do two 4-week blocks.

And this is where the dilemma begins to set in.

I have always wanted to visit:
Iceland, Japan and "Africa" (whatever that means).

But the first two present a bit of a communication barrier, especially where I want to do a rather communication-heavy specialty. The thought of going to Japan makes me so excited, but I just don't know that I would honestly get much out of it in a educational way, and it might drive me mad that I don't understand anything! Ditto Iceland, and also, it's so near it doesn't seem "worthy" enough. Somewhere like Ghana or Kenya in Africa could be good - because English is the official language in a few countries so at least there is opportunity for translating from native languages.

Or I could go to Spain or South/Central America and use my not-too-bad Spanish? Argentina, Chile, Mexico?

But then I think of Japan again... and then Africa... and then Bolton.

It's really a battle of the specialty versus the location... I don't think I can go somewhere I've always wanted and do what I want to do!

And we've not even started talking about how I'm going to pay for any of this yet.

This is really hard isn't it?!

Haiku

Holding the words in,
I cannot help but wonder;
Silence? For what reason?

Trying to be good,
To do the right, honest thing.
Yet I pay in blood!

The game of ego,
Not something I care to play;
Just get on and DO.

Open and closed and shut,
Minds unreceptive to thought,
"But, me! But, ME! But..."

The low road, the high,
Neither without obstacle;
To run, stay, or hide?

Comedown

It's been quite a nice week really. No real hecticness, just chilled!

I have rediscovered the joys of Civilisation II on my computer, yay! I have also tidied my room and it looks pretty ace with nothing on the floor, I have not been able to look at myself in the mirror close up for weeks (maybe that's a good thing eh?)!

I have been a bit of a homeboy actually, and it's been nice just doing boring things like eating cereal at 3pm watching Will and Grace on Living! I have spoken to my mum and dad 3 times this week and I had forgotten how much fun they are. I don't think my card arrived though, but I'll blame the stamps confusion Royal Maul has introduced with the whole "Large Letter" thing.

My solo weekday outing was to the UMSU elections on Thursday. To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to them after stories of last year's endless recounts and fighting, but it turned out to be quite a fun night. I quite enjoyed watching how much it meant to people that certain candidates be elected - I guess politics really does rock some people's worlds.

I was relieved when Bev allowed me to NOT be her scrutiniser - I was scared of how much responsibility you have - you basically announce the votes unofficially as they are counted - can you imagine if I got it wrong?!

My ace friend Bev triumphed though, and whilst her "opponent" Rubbiah would have likely been a great Welfare Officer too, I had to side with my mate of 3 years (especially after she had me cutting out a zillion flyers the night before)! I'm not ashamed to say that there were tears on my behalf - Bev was totally unphased and took it in her stride whilst I was laughing/crying with pride and happiness!

I'll be sad to see Mina go... she's really helped us lots over the year and used what she can to make things better. But to see Bev in the Welfare Office will be surreal!

The other highlight of my week, was, of course, the joys of Scooch with wrinkles, performing to the max on Saturday night. I'm excited to see them in Helsinki for Eurovision in May, I think they will do alright (although somewhat scarily, there are far camper acts than them, look for Ukraine's entry, dear god). They won't win, but then that's not what it's about - how dull would Eurovision be if we hosted it in the UK? Last time it was Ulrikka Jonsson - I guess we'd have Kate Thornton or Fearne Cotton and they would be have funny accents or slightly odd English, and that's part of the fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kNoAddyUMQ

This week...

To make a trio of blogs, here is what I have been mostly doing this week.

This week, I have been mostly listening to:
"I Want Candy" - Melanie C & "Flying The Flag" - Scooch (our potential Eurovision entry)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISlAMQurClA


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qP4Rus8Lqs

Both these songs have been growers - I'm still a bit "hmmm" about Mel C's fringe, and also the 90s beat of Scooch. But then I love the trumpets in I Want Candy and sexual innuendo in Scooch's song!


This week, I have been mostly watching:
Comic Relief Does Fame Academy (sorry to see Zoe leave last night)

This week, I have mostly been saying:
"So... have you ever felt so low that you might consider taking your own life?" - the joys of psychiatry patient interviews

This week I have mostly been eating:
McDonalds - I have been 4 times this week - interestingly in 4 different places (Salford, Bolton, Stockport and Fallowfield!)

This week, I have mostly been thinking:
"It's all coming together!" - I have an idea for my elective, woohoo!

This week, I have been mostly doing:
lots of tidying - my room is beautiful!

This week, I have been mostly paying:
Credit Card bills. :-( (Goodbye interest-free period)

This week, I have mostly NOT been watching:
The Interpreter, my current LoveFilm rental, which I have had for 2 weeks and so heavily damaged my chances of making my subscription worthwhile this month.

PAL in ME

[l-r Fozia, Kat, Milli, Seb]

LGBT Awareness Week wasn't the only thing filling my time in the first week of March. I was also preparing for a workshop which I was to deliver along with Fozia, Kat and Milli on Thursday 1st March.

There was a lot of hectic preparations and practice, but we all arrived at Foz's in the morning, dressed to kill (I even shaved off the dubious beard) for our drive to Wythenshawe.

We had a workshop session to demonstrate our Peer-Assisted Learning project to staff involved with Medical Education from the North West region. There were 2 sessions of 90 minutes each, and we each had sections that were 'ours' - although our comfortableness meant we often interacted with each other! I was "Geek Boy" with the statistics we gained from our research - which left me open to a few tricky questions!

Our workshops went really well. We really fell into our stride and knew our stuff. We really impressed the people who came and it was an ace feeling! A low was Dr Mark Bradbury falling asleep in the corner, but I suppose it has given me newfound respect for teachers who have to put up with less-than-ideal pupils!

Our new goal from the workshops is to make the project sustainable, and so once we've all had a relax, I'm sure we'll be up and ready to start recruiting and making this pretty damn brilliant!

So to my new friends and pioneers, Kat, Fozia, and Milli, cheers to us!

Lend Us A Hand

I've been hibernating. (Well... kind of.)

Just over a week ago was LGBT Awareness Week in the Students' Union. It was, quite simply, brilliant. And it kept me so damned busy I haven't blogged in ages. And, because I think someone might be interested.

In the week beforehand we had a lot of fun painting the banner (I did the "D!" in Violet), and then getting to maul Rachel, Bev and Natalie who were wearing the white hoodies, which we then adorned with handprints. Ian, Stu and I had a great laugh running about the Union with paint-soaked hands. Thanks to everyone that came and helped - I won't namecheck you all again and risk me forgetting someone (with, I imagine, heinous consequences if I do), but I hope you all felt freaking proud seeing the banner up in front of the Union. Mina (Welfare Officer) commented that it looked like a professional banner, so well done guys!

The stall looked great, and I know Natalie and I had lots of fun running about campus in our hoodies and rainbow umbrellas. We certainly got noticed (as it was, (1) rather sunny and also (2) the wind kept blowing our cheap umbrellas out resulting in many comedy moments where we had to wrestle them back into shape).

Turnout at the evening events understandably dipped after the fiasco of Tuesday's film. After 3 DVD players, a change of room and nearly one hour's hanging around, we could not, in the end, watch Bev's (largely-in-German) film, Paragraph 175, as the UMSU does not appear to provide batteries for its remote controls, resulting in our inability to turn subtitles on. Oh dear. Thanks to Neil for inadvertantly turning off the projector and getting a cheer, and to Danny for trying to find some AAA batteries. I have now developed a pathological need to carry batteries with me wherever I go.

Those of you that came to Wednesday's Quiz seemed to enjoy it, and Jen and I definitely enjoyed ourselves, especially with our dance-montage, Supermarket Sweep pricing game, and our never ending questions (thanks to Siobahn and Rachel for providing some of the harder questions). Well done to everyone that came and I hope that you didn't puke on the Charlemagne/Champers, and that no-one was irreprably damaged by the 85p Tanning Wipes.

Friday's rainbow group hug was amazing. The aim of it was to get Manchester to see that there is still a campaign for LGBT equality, and it was also quite an important thing that LGBT people could be open and proud in public. I won't be wearing a rainbow cape every day, but it was important for people to see that LGBT students still have to fight for true equality.

About 40 of you came and joined us on the Union steps and we really got noticed. Well, maybe that and the creepy black silouettes behind us, each with a disturbing statistic on them.

In case you didn't get a chance to read all the stats, they are still be displayed in the Peer Support Centre, but I'll also put them here:

40% of youth do not feel safe in their school because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning

90% of young Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual people have experienced verbal abuse because of their sexuality

70% of Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual people are too scared to report homophobic incidents to the police.

In 8 world countries, the punishment for male homosexual acts is death.

82% of secondary school teachers are aware of homophobic verbal bullying among students in their school.

and, in my view, the worst:
30% of young lesbian, gay and bisexual people have tried to commit suicide more than once.

I hope that some of the people who had to make their way past these figures, or read them whilst passing on the bus (or indeed, whilst on the bus with us...) were surprised or shocked. A lot of people think that there isn't a need to campaign for LGBT issues. I used to think that too, and then I realised I thought that because I was/am lucky. My family support me, I have lots of friends, I'm going into a profession that is working hard to stamp out homophobia, and the laws of my state allow me to be who I am.

I hope that LGBT Awareness Week made someone ask "What does LGBT mean?", or in some way helped up the recognition of our campaign. I think it did. Thanks for "Lending A Hand".