The learned ways of Bob...

I just got rejected from Warwick. I only put them down as you have to have four choices, I didn't even want to go there. And now I feel sooooooooooooooooooooo sorry for myself. Anyway, so looking at all the advice online it's very common to receive rejections for grad medicine because it's terribly competitive blah blah blah blah it doesn't reflect on you blah blah blah... I feel like such a fool, I shouldn't even have applied... 3 more places to go... I fee like giving up already...

Anyway, I'm trying to adjust my thinking: if it doesn't work out, there are many positives! Like not being a penniless student for another four years! Like... ummm that's the only one I can think of right now. But! Anyway! Positive! There are many, many, many, many other careers which I would like to be involved in, and, when I've stopped sulking, I'll think of one.

Also, also I've been grinding my teeth in my sleep (my jaw aches all the time and my teeth are wearing down) so I'll have to start wearing a gum shield to bed. Or just practise breathing in and out a lot.

Going to Dublin soon. That's exciting.

I've just been checking all the prices for travelling next year (it's gone from being a trip through S.America to a round the world trip) and it's very manageable... I'm so excited I can barely sit still!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeexcitement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It won't be until April next year, so there's plenty of time to save pennies and get everything planned (which is novel for me, I usually just book the flight and go). I'll work out details over the rest of this month and then... it's just counting down the days until I get to waltz off round the world!!!!! :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

I had a lovely weekend in Manchester, seeing lots of old faces. I met up with Pete and was told we were going to a party and so I bought a couple of bottles of pink champagne for it... and we arrived at a squat party in an abandoned school... ahhhhhhhhhhh... so not really a pink champagne kind of event. So, I decided to take my bubbles of to Charlie's house and we talked nonsense into the early hours of Saturday.

On Sunday I went to the memorial service in Manchester and then went to see the Angels of Anarchy exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery which displays artwork from female surrealist artists. I have to confess I'd never heard of any of them (except Frida Kahlo) and indeed females surrealists are little known. It's a fascinating exhibition, I particularly loved the pictures resulting from the game The Exquisite Corpse and I would thoroughly recommend it... I was so excited by it I've signed up to a surrealist art workshop for next week, so future posts will be travelling down the claws of a lobster. Also, I feel I need to kick start my head with something different... hope it works!

Everything finally ended between Guy and I on Thursday last week. I feel less wretched now, although I damn networking sites for encouraging my inner stalker (and I really MUST stop). I have decided to pour all my affections and all my love into the rest of the world and people round me. All that adoration and feeling that would have instead gone to Guy, which with the sudden break has left me cut off and flailing uselessly since we ended things. Guy wanted to get married and have babies, I didn't (or at least not yet, dear god there's time yet?!) and so he decided that unless I could promise him it would be something someday and that I spent less time with family/friends he didn't want to continue... I cannot understand why being in love and happy with each other is so unsatisfactory or of so little value, apparently it is!! Anyway, as I always babble on about how much I like being single so much, I suppose I should be happy. And so I am.

i.am.so.tired.

I travelled to London after work on Tuesday night, flew to Paris, saw the Eiffel Tower all lit up at night from the air (the night was perfectly clear and it was glorious), caught connecting flight to HK on Wednesday night, arrived in HK on Thursday night, old friends, immigration stuff sorted, dentist, dinner, shopping, four hour walk from the peak, Kowloon, cocktails, Halloween, flew to Paris, half an hour nosebleed (will need to get nose cauterised), arrived in London last night. Got home at 2am. In work for 9am. 20 000km round trip, 4 nights, 3 days stay. Am so, so, so tired. Bodyclock has given up. Hope back to normal soon.

Love sleepy mog

Does anyone else think that giving Obama the Nobel Peace Prize is a bit... premature?

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE59828O20091009

I, too, would like to receive a Nobel Peace Prize to encourage and support me for the things I might one day achieve.

I think barcardi breezers are fairly disgusting drinks... I thought their main target group was young women, so I'm not entirely sure how they can have such a disgraceful ad campaign... perhaps I just lack a sense of humour?

http://jezebel.com/5296935/bacardi-ad-uses-misogyny-to-sell-alcohol-to-women

I had an excellent weekend in Manchester for Bethan's birthday, it was wonderful to see people!! After my clinical attachment position last week I am certain medicine will be an excellent choice, I'm really excited, I hope it all goes well!!

And in other random news, my old best friend from HK just eloped and got married... in a doughnut shop. i love her.

Oooh lots of exciting things going on I have my UKCATS exam tomorrow, am off to Fantasia in the park on Saturday, then to Manchester to see the lovely Lydia, Guy's (the on-off man of the moment - currently very much on)coming over on Sunday night and the new job starts on Monday! My flights to HK next month have been booked too!!!!

Valencia was lovely! It was very, very hot though I can manage ~32 degrees quite comfortably but quite a few days it was 38/40 degrees and that was exhausting. I went with my friend Alex, whom I know from work. She's got a neurodegenerative disorder so can't walk very well, so she brought her wheel chair with her. The last time we went on holiday my friend Sarah came too so wheel chair duties were easier to manage, although Rome isn't very wheel chair friendly. Five days pushing someone round a wheelchair all day is very, very tiring... I can't imagine how full time carers do it, it's a very tough job, but I lost over half a stone, so there are some advantages.

On the day we arrived we checked in and then went for a wander around the city and went around the Cathedral (where they have a relic which is purported to be The Holy Grail), up to the Torres de Serrans which is part of the remains of the old medieval city walls, to the old silk merchants market and to the ceramics museum. They're all so beautiful!





Decoration at the entrance to the Ceramics museum

We went around the city of Arts and Sciences (see the pictures from a couple of posts back), which is a mile long complex of buildings designed by Santiago Calatrava (whose other buildings I've seen in Tenerife, Malmo and Lisbon) and Felix Candela. The buildings are just astonishing, it felt like stepping into a science fiction novel, they're these huge shining white buildings of extraordinary design! I cannot say enough how amazing the buildings were. We walked all around and then had a break at the cafe and had drinks and listened to Jazz, then we wandered off to the aquarium (which is the biggest in Europe) which was lovely and they had sea dragons!!! I've never seen a sea dragon in the flesh, we didn't have any at London zoo, they're fascinating creatures. And of course there were little seahorses too, which I rambled on about at Alex for ages (glad to know all of it's still in my head somewhere).




Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia



L'Hemisferic

Alex and I have pretty different tastes about what we like to do, so after a day of gawping at pretty buildings and visiting every church in the area, we spent a day at the beach and one day shopping (the latter is a huge sacrifice I feel as I HATE shopping, I can't think of a more boring way to spend time). I spent most of the day swimming and it was very relaxing! Alex tends to sleep very late and wasn't really interested in cultural things, so in the mornings I wandered off on my own round the city, climbed up the miguelet tower, visited galleries and had breakfast in cute little cafes and sat in the sunshine. In the evenings we had lovely little dinners, I was really impressed, other times I've been to Spain I've found it nigh on impossible to manage any vegetarian food other than tapas, but there was lots of lovely paella to be had and the fruit and vegetables were delicious. We didn't see too much of the night life as Alex can only manage one drink and she's gone, plus she didn't feel very comfortable, she kept complaining that there weren't many British people around (which is not so suprising in Spain).

I had a lovely time, but it was a little strained at times, I know Alex quite well, but we're very different, she's a very demanding character and has been very spoilt (which I understand, given her disability) but she threw quite a few tantrums (actual tantrums, like a small child) and spending that much time together I found saw parts of her personality which were not so nice, so that was hard, as well as it being quite physically demanding. I wouldn't ever go on holiday alone again with her, it was just too much. I feel bad complaining having been away somewhere so beautiful, but I was truly glad to come home again, which I never feel after a holiday. So it was a mixed trip, I'd recommend visiting Valencia, certainly for a short trip, it's a lovely destination!!

This is just to say a final thank you to everyone, who so generously sponsored us for the Manchester 10km run. The run was undertaken in memory of Briony's friend, Katie, who died last year from Leukaemia. Your donations all helped to reach a total of £237 for St. Barnabas House, the hospice which looked after her in her last days, and another £195 for Leukaemia Research.

Thank you all so much for your generosity, support and encouragement!

With love,

Morag and Briony

xxxxxxxx

The final donations are listed on the pages below:

http://www.justgiving.com/ellabrionygunson


http://www.justgiving.com/brionygunson

The world post-thesis is a lazy one... after crashing completely and sleeping for most of the weekend, I feel much better. I still can't believe I've finished; I found a mistake on the first fucking page (idiot)! I went over to Manchester to say hello to Bee and we went off round the art gallery to coo over paintings, we went for a lovely lunch at trof and then had a few drinks... people collected and we had a few more, finally trundling home in the early hours of the morning. Hooray for disgraceful behaviour, drinking lovely things and staying out too late!!! So much more fun than sitting at home reading papers for my thesis!

I'm off to see Much Ado about Nothing this weekend, which should be fun... I'm going to Valencia at the end of the month, and next week I'm planning an exciting aerial adventure but I have to organise it first! There are also plans for a scuba trip to finish off my dive leader qualification (possibly in Cuba!!!!!!! Oooooooooo!!!!). And things with the Guy are perhaps, possibly a possibility. We'll see. Maybe. So, even if I have been very disorganised there are exciting things on the horizon...

How busy is everyone's schedule looking next week... (Leeds people and Manchester people) we should have drinks!!!!

Bee pointed out that as of this month we'll have been living in the UK for 10 years, which is very odd, it doesn't feel that long at all...

IT'S FINISHED!!!!!! I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

HOORAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!

I AM SO INDESCRIBABLY HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I often have dreadful nightmares and more so when I'm tense. This morning I was dreaming about vampires and it was all very tense and desperate, until my mind clearly decided to offer me some respite and lo! suddenly there were five little kittens pracing around the place, which I then spent the rest of the dream cooing over until I woke up.

I like the way my mind chooses to deal with things. Frightening, scary situations what to do? What to do? ... oooh kittens!!!!

I've been reading articles about human trafficking in the UK

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6702471.ece

And I was wondering, why don't they call it slavery, which is what it is. Slavery which has been outlawed for many hundreds of years (in England since 1108) and yet as it exists today, the term given to it is trafficking, which is less emotive and sounds, somehow, less dreadful...

EDIT: Huh. Article in the Guardian points out that the UN has labelled it modern day slavery http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/13/border-immigration-officials-human-trafficking

Having been running out in the sun, my forehead has tanned... in the most stupid way possible. It looks like I have the outline of a country on my forehead. I think it's Russia.

A little article of the astonishing mating habits of different animals

I knew about the snails, penguins and barnacles. But a detachable, swimming penis? That's fairly lunatic. Or the Argentine duck which can use it's penis to lasso his lady! Humans are so boring (although I would be rather put out if someone attempted to lasso me which such an appendage). I miss studying reproductive biology in animals!

There's a little cat (whom I've christened 'the splodgy cat' because I lack imagination) who drops by in the mornings for breakfast, he's terribly shy but today (after months of patiently trying to entice him) he came up to me to be stroked. I've not been able to determine whether or not he's a stray, but having been able to look up close he has big sores by his ears. He skipped off before I could get him to come in, so I couldn't take him to the vet. Poor little splodgy cat.

But in other 'cats' type news... the UKCATS exams start soon, I've got to book a place and then start getting application forms together, I'm shadowing a friend of mine who is a pediatriac registrar at St.James A&E so that should be good. I might try and ask another colleague who is an obstetrician if I can spend the day with him... I'm a little nervous about applying for graduate medicine, but I'm starting to feel excited about it... hopefully it won't go dreadfully wrong?

Bee and I went to bookclub yesterday, it was lovely to see people, sorry we had to race off at the last minute to catch the last train. Which we missed. So then we took a train to Manchester instead, woke everyone up and stayed up too late chatting. This morning we had to get up early, to get back and check on the substitute child (little Russian student, who is clearly filling a void in my mother's life) and so I am now extremely tired. But have come home with armloads of books, which is excellent!! PhD continues...

No. But I am accepting followers into the religion of Morag. I accept payment in the form of martini's, prosecco and nice cheese.

Meeting was abruptly cancelled on Monday - how is it that any deadlines your supervisor's set are immovable and terribly urgent, but if it's something they have to do for you the timeframe is indistinct? Anyway, with an evening spare I went over to MCR to see Bee on Monday and we went to Odder to see her friend's art exhibition and had lovely cocktails (i think Pornstar Martini's might be my new favourite drink), then we trundled on to Matt and Fred's listen to lots of Jazz, which was excellent. Final submission date creeps ever closer... exciting stuff!

I'm off to buy peppermint tea. The last time I had some in my house my cat Gypsy found it, tore the box open, chewed through every bag and rolled around in the spilled contents. I know about catnip, but I didn't realise peppermint was had narcotic effects of cats too. But then the smell of bleach pretty much does the same thing to my other cat Bob.

See what sitting at home writing does to you? A whole paragraph devoted to the thrilling escapades of my cats.

I've had this young Russian student, Nadja, staying at mine during school holidays and she's very sweet and normally very responsible. I've just received a panicked call from her housemistress asking me if she was here - 'no, but she's welcome to stay?' Ah the naughty little thing has run off! Eventually Najda rang me to say had I heard from school, 'Yes and they sound very worried, I don't mind if you want to stay out or at your friends, but you must let people know where you are, remember to send a text message and leave details of the address.' After loads of phonecalls back and forth everything is now sorted out and it's fine.

Oh. I sound like my mother! Grown up responsibilities, when did that happen?