nyet, pojalsta!

AUGH I just met John Barrowman and we talked! TOO AWESOME!

Other stuff happened too, but I think that was the highlight of the day.

It's pretty awesome. I feel good today. My health is a lot better, and even though I'm still struggling with some coursework (Law ha ha, fun detention today!) I'm pretty much on top of everything else. And my new Chemistry teacher is an Actual God, I swear. 100% in a practice paper? I am clearly destined for great things. And he's gorgeous.

Although I'm still worried about my A-level results, meh. It's easier to actually ask teachers for help, now that I've discovered they prefer helping me to biting my head off when I can't do things. So AAA will hopefully be achievable! I'm still flipping about universities I want to go to - I'm glad that I'm delaying my application a year. It might be awkward getting to interviews and things if I want to travel, but I figure I can always stretch tickets if necessary. Plus new job no.3 pays the money good.

Good things happening in the October half-term: working for the monies to go and see La Cage with Alice (yay!) who I love dearly, and then off to London Expo with Matt and Izzye, perhaps? Also revision, self. Revise, revise, learn, revise. Fun times. Actually, yeah! Fun times! It'll be great!

hello internets, I am using you as a diary.

TODAY: shadowed GP all day except when she had to make a house visit on a bicycle. v. tired, but learned a lot..

protips: be straightforward. observe -everything-, not just what they're indicating to. find underlying worries. all obvious when you think about it, but not during exams.

acupunture is awesome.

i am tired but i must write or i will forgeeeet

OOH is usually more fun that this, and by fun I mean interesting. Lots of crying babies not drinking enough - ya gotta push fluids! UTIs spouting out the wazoo (or, more accurately, not) and a few asthma cases to complete a summer night. My only home visit was a woman wanting reassurance that she could work with a cold and that she didn't have swine flu. Only 1 s/flu case, not at our surgery fortunately...

Otherwise, there was just a lot of call handling and watching other people triage. I did meet some epic people though: Ben the driver who gave me a lift back to where I'm staying (he was a fireman in his day job for bonus epic combo), the German doctor whose name escapes me.. Martin, I think? He was interesting to get along with (not in a bad-interesting way, a good-interesting one) but he was really a fantastic doctor - reassuring yet to-the-point. Lots to learn there, I feel. And a Norwegian couple who were visiting; they were just generally good fun to talk to during the appointment while Martin was finding out the Rx protocol (complicated)

In all, a good evening. I might stay late again tomorrow to get more of a feel, but there'll be a change of staff sooo.. anyway, sleepy-time now.
OH and I also became the Scourge Of The Reception Desk. I am surprised I still remember how to work the system. Did I get paid? Signs point to "no".

Work experience has begun! It's not been as bad as I thought it might be; the weather has been worse (torrential rain during the half-hour walk to and from the surgery, anyone?) but I haven't been shuffled off to reception like I feared - I can do admin anyday, thank-you-very-much.

So far, I have managed to:

a) shadow the healthcare assistant and take people's blood pressures. Feel slightly faint while watching her take just blood. Assist while she is taking blood! Watch a skin graft be redressed without feeling faint. (bonus)

b) shadow the nurse, but only for a little while. Learn about asthma checkups. (as imagined - how do you feel? how often do you use your inhaler? blow into this. bye!) See small child complaining of earwax, and learn that olive oil works to get rid of hard wax... nice. Especially the bit where it dribbles out your ear. Cost-effective, though.

c) make Tiny Paper Arms and Tiny Paper Shirt for Tiny Paper Sweden. (unrelated)

d) shadow the GP for the afternoon. Success! I have achieved the holy grail of medical work experience! How, you ask? I knocked on his door and went in. They are not as terrifying as you think they are. Whole host of cases. People are more worried than you'd expect, mainly due to the internet. Oh, and the cutest kids EVER. I managed to distract a toddler by clapping my hands. We then evolved the distraction system to include the reflex hammer. That boy WILL be growing up to become really good at hitting things. Mainly the desk and his mother.

e) commission the surgery for a whole half-hour between the regular shift and the OOH team. I am the Royalty of the Reception! Empress of the Examination room! Queen of the Consultation! And wheely-chaired Scourge Of The Corridors.

p.s. no-one has got a strimmer in their eye. Does this make it a good day or a bad day?

New, clear journal along with a resolution to write more! Ah, all the promises I shall break fun I shall have.

So, I recently went to the London Expo (last weekend, for my birthday!) which was obviously epic, in that I bulleted in to get ticket #48 for the Merlin signing, spent 3 hours wondering around in a daze looking at cosplayers and then managed to grab a seat next to valderys  who I had never met before but was so nice! And by nice I mean absolutely crazy-nice, which simply served to lift my day up into the higher echelons of epic-ness.

Actual Merlin panel: well, I can't remember it too well, my memory being as it is. I remember the signing afterwards better - Bradley scared my sister simply by saying hello, and wished me a happy birthday! Colin also wished me happy birthday, and I complimented his accent. (it's awesome, right?) I think it must be said that Katie was absolutely lovely; we had a little moment gushing about how lovely the con was because it was both our first times there. Grammatical errors notwithstanding.

Next, shopping for my lovely astrofae yielded a cute little pin, losing my purse in the process but found it being checked over by the pin-stall guy, who had kept it when I put it through the straps of my bag but not actually into the bag. Relief! Shopping a little bit for myself, then snuck into the masquerade via the curtains at the back. Fire regulations must yield to me, ah-ha!

It was totally worth it though. First masquerade I'd ever seen and, wow. Highlight had to have been the Hetalia group (massive group, eeh!) who I didn't even know were there but did some absolutely inspired skits with wonderful costumes and acting. kazayami  has a far better account than I can produce, on account of him being the wonderful Russia within the group.

I'll be back for October 09, hopefully accompanied by astrofae and Cory in lovely costumes! We're still shot for ideas for a guy and 2 girls that a) we can actually do and b) we all know who they are. Time to work on it begins now!