Well it's been 6 months and 1 day since I last blogged.
There's a story there... someone didn't like what I wrote about them and kicked off. So I suppose it's true when they say that the truth hurts - and she really is a miserable cow!
Anyway, I kind of fell out of the habit, summer came and went and I started final year of Medicine which has kind of taken over really. And so here I am, blogging because that's easier than doing what I should really be doing.
Perhaps I should explain. I'm currently on my second placement of four in Royal Blackburn Hospital, based on a Gastroenterology ward. And right now, this minute, I'm in the 24-hour library, with 6 of my fellow final years, as we all desparately try to complete our application forms for Foundation Training - our doctor jobs for the next two years.
The form we have to fill in might perhaps scare patients if they saw how their doctors had got their jobs.
As an example:
Describe one example from your own clinical experience that has increased your understanding of the importance of team working. What was your role and contribution to the team? What have you learned and how will you apply this to your foundation training? (8 points/150 words)
The questions are all like this and what I find most difficult is the 150 word limit. If you read the question, there are actually five separate components to answer and so about 30 words, or 2-3 sentences each.
Those who know my love of talking will understand the trauma this form has caused me. Never before have I had to be so ruthless with superfluous adjectives. And I personally am frustrated that to really display your acheivemnts is really hard without freedom to describe them, and so I imagine that most of the 1000s of applicants will have very similar answers, devoid of personality, but full of buzz words like "motivate", "negotiate" and "euthanise".
Well, maybe not that last one.
Anyway, I'm otherwise having a right laugh in Blackburn (anyone googling that phrase might be surprised to find it has a hit), living in the staff residence with some great people. I'm actually really going to miss being here, with the people I've met when I have to leave at Christmas. We had a great German-themed Oktoberfest party (which pleasingly generated complaints from the lower floors of the block) a few weeks back, and future plans include a "Communist" party - dressed in grey, no music, copious vodka.
Back in Manchester, wehre I usually return at weekends, I'm now living with Ruth and Hannah, and we are all so busy we have yet to manage to all go out for dinner together, but we regularly congregate round the stairs to rapidly exchange details of our lives.
That's probably enough now, I'd be better gently weaning myself back into blogging, so I'll leave with some links to songs that I am YouTubing more than is healthy (and I've yet to even mention Gethin Jones on Strictly Come Dancing)
Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
Same Difference - Reach (they are so happy its lovelyscary)
Jentina - Mysterious
