Happy Birthday To Me...

It was my 21st birthday yesterday and I had such a fantastic day! My flatmate brought me a glass of champagne in bed, which was lovely. I need to wake up like that every morning.Went for tapas at lunchtime with my Dad, his girlf and her son, which was really nice. Unfortunately the champagne kept flowing and I had not 1 but 2 champagne cocktails. Bad move. Especially when I said I wasn't drinking! Oops.

Ended up going for more drinks and dinner with a few friends from uni at my fav thai restaurant. Unfortunately I was a little too drunk to fully appriciate it, but it was great none the less. I got so many really thoughtful and beautiful presents too. It just shows how well my friends know me.

Unfortunately I have a stupid exam tomorrow and I am so hungover. This is not the most sensible thing I have ever done. Oops. Thankfully this is my last written exam. Hurrah! In the afternoon afterwards my flatmate and I are jumping on a train home to go and party some more. I can't wait!! Seeing all my home friends will be fab.

Lily xXx

Grumpy Lily

Sometimes I wonder if I am in the library or if I am in a playground. I've just had a bunch of giggling girls stand behind me throwing things at each other and squealing. Why oh why do they always have to stand near me? It's so annoying. There's loads of grass outside, if you want to run around like little savages go and do it there when I won't be disturbed!!

As you can probably tell from my grumpyness I am not in the best of moods. This is because my revision is going awfully. I am actually retaining NOTHING. My Dad made the mistake of asking how revision was going on the phone last night and I almost burst into tears. The fact I completely don't understand alot of it doesn't help. Learning and understanding pathways (especially involving lipids) has always been my weak point, and unfortunately this exam focuses alot on things based around metabolic pathways. Eek. I'm screwed. Although I guess at the end of the day, no matter how upsetting it'll be when I get bad results, doing less than brilliantly on this BSc isn't the end of the world. At least failing this year won't make me fail medicine.

On the plus side two good things have happened today. Firstly I've eaten lots of milkybar. This makes my insides happy. My lovely flatmate's lovely boyf brought it back from Tesco for me. Mmmmmm. 900kcals of white chocolately goodness. Secondly I think my lymph nodes are going down... If they are it's fantastic. It means some evil surgeon won't have to cut one out or stick a big needle in one, and most of all it would mean I don't have lymphoma or anything bad like that. Hurrah! To be perfectly honest apart from being a bit more tired than usual I don't feel particularly ill so I really doubt it is anything that serious, but still the GP seems worried so it's rubbing off on me. Needless to say the hospital STILL haven't got back to me about biopsying my lumps. Considering they completely forgot about me last week I don't hold out much hope of them getting back to me this week.

It's my birthday tomorrow!! Yay. It would be a shame to revise all day on my 21st birthday so I'm going out for lunch and then dinner. Fingers crossed I'll have the motivation to do 3 or 4 hours revision over the day so it's not completely wasted.

Right. One more squeak out of the noisy library girls and I'll have to stab one of them with my biro. If I dont' blog again for a few months it's because I'm in prison for GBH....

Lily xXx

Chugging Along with Revision

I'm back in the library squirreling away like a little scientific squirrel. Managed to read the entire lot of my notes for this exam this morning so I'm going to spend the afternoon tackling some past paper questions to try and fix some of the knowledge in my head. There are so many annoyin little details to learn for this exam. Lots of cellular bits and bobs with receptors and kinases and other things I will never understand. Because it was raining really heavily all morning and most exams are over the library is almost empty and for once it's peacefully quiet. At least this means I have a small chance of getting some work done.

I'm going to stay at the library as late as I can force myself to because my flatmate has her boyf around, and it'll be nice to give them some time without me in the flat too. Things would become alot less romantic if I joined their candlelit dinner. On the plus side it means I should do a lot of work... or at least that's the idea.

Yesterday I bought some new tanning moisturiser. I was looking for the Nivea one as Anna from Being Enough was singing it's praises. Unfortunately for me it must be pretty good because both shops I went to were completely sold out. Rather than being patient and getting some on another day I bought the L'Oreal one. It smells really really strongly of fake tan which I hate. However in 2 days it has turned me a slightly more golden shade of pale, it also has a tiny amount of glitter in it which is nice. It was also on offer at half price, which makes my dissatisfaction with it's smell less of a problem. At £3.50 for a big tube even it's whiffyness doesn't get me down too much.

I really better get back to revision now. Out of the corner of my eye I can see some of the other people on my course working alot harder than I am. This seems to be the story of my year.

Lily xXx

Lovely Day Off

Well I took today off instead of revising. I feel pretty guilty about it, but I had a fab day. Went to Borough Market with my flatmate, her fella and a mate from home. Highlight of the day was having an oyster. It was delicious. Even though I realise it's may (and you're only supposed to eat oysters in months with the letter "r") it's been so long since I had an oyster. It tasted like the seaside was exploding in my mouth. Delicious. So delicious that I haven't stopped talking about it. I'm convinced if I was rich I'd be really skinny because I would literally just eat oysters, sushi, grilled prawns and tomatoes. Just thinking about it is making me salivate.

I've spent all evening thinking about starting revision and instead decided to sing songs from musicals. I've been having a bit of an Evita moment and can't stop listening to "Another Suitcase in Another Hall". I think if I sing along with it one more time my flatmate might actually murder me. I guess that would mean I don't have to sit the exam on Friday.

I'm both looking forward to and dreading my last exam. I really want to get it out of the way, but there's so much to learn. I've only really got Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday to revise. I can't see myself getting much revision done on Wednesday as it's my 21st birthday! I guess if I work stupidly hard for the next 3 days that isn't completely impossible. I sense panic setting in again...

Lily xXx

1 Down, 1 To Go.

Well what an anti-climax. My first exam is over. It was neither good or bad. The questions seemed rather tough compared to other years, but I managed to pick 3 essay questions and write some kind of answer. Unfortunately I feel my answers may have been a little brief, but at least I didn't sit there blankly for the 3 hours like I thought I would. What did panic me however was the discussion everyone had afterwards which made me realise how much I left out of my questions. But it's done now so there's no point in worrying.

As I worked pretty hard this morning in the exam and slept badly due to nerves I've decided to give myself the afternoon off. Unfortunately I am so not used to relaxing now that I'm not quite sure what to do. Maybe a nap and a trip to Tesco later... I really know how to enjoy myself!

The first thing I did when i got home was to chase up the appointment I was supposed to get to biopsy or remove one of my lymph nodes. It's been 10 days and noone got back to me like promised. Turns out someone had "forgotten" to give my notes to a doctor who could decide what type of surgery I was having. I'm not impressed. Thankfully the nice lady said she'd chase it up for me herself today. This is why being nice to people always pays off. I'm sure if I would have shouted at her and said the whole thing was a pile of crap she would have made me wait another few days. What amuses me is that I had to phone to make the appointment with the new Choose and Book system, but was told that they'll choose an appointment and call me up to confirm it. Surely if this is how it's going to work then implimenting the whole choose and book computer system and such like was a big waste of cash. Oh well...

Lily xXx

Allergies

I'm allergic to the library. They must have cleaned the desks last night because after 2 hours of resting my arms on the desks they've broken out in hives exactly where they've been touching the table. Lovely. I've had to resort to putting on long sleeves, but with the sub-zero air conditioning in here thats probably a good thing.

I'm also allergic to revision in general. It's brought me out in spots. Attractive.

My tiredness from yesterday has also now caught up on me. I've got "afternoon-slump" and it's only 11.30. This doesnt usually hit me for another 3 hours, but it's the most difficult thing to work through.

I've also just found another huge gap in my notes for something that has come up in loads of past papers but has been totally skimmed over. Meh. Too much hard work!

Lily xXx

Extreme Panic Revision Update

2 more revision days. 3 days until exam.

Thank goodness... I finally got some work done. I'm seriously starting to freak out. If I'd spent all last week working as hard as I did today I might have the slimmest chance of passing this exam. Just to read through my notes takes 4 hours and I'm a fast reader!!

Wrote 3 more practice essays today which makes somewhere over 20 done. In a way this is good because it means I'm looking extra stuff up, but I'm freaking out that the content of my notes is not enough to make the essays from.

Tomorrow (which is now technically today) I'm hoping to read all of my notes, plus the 20-something essays I've written and maybe write 4 more essays. Needless to say I shall be in the library at 9am and will probably stay until 9pm. I know cramming isn't always the best plan but it's better than nothing. Tomorrow is the day before the day before the exam. So technically thats not cramming. Pulling an all-nighter on thursday would be cramming. Which I'm NOT going to do. On Thursday I'll be home by 7, have something nice for tea, probably freak out and read notes until 11 or so and then I should crash out and get a good night's sleep.

I'll probably take 5 or 6 little revision cards to the exam in the morning to kill time while I wait. Unlike many I believe in the power of last minute memorising of stupid things I can never quite remember (such as the enzymes involved in steroid synthesis).

I need to have the dicipline to go to the library after the first exam and start revising for the second one. I really want to go for lunch with my Dad on my birthday which is the 28th and then dinner in the evening with my friends so that basically gives me 5 days to learn ALL of 1 course-unit. By working the evening after my first exam I'm gaining another 4 or 5 hours of revision. Much needed revision. I'll probably try to revise on the morning of my birthday too. What fun. Not long until its all over now!! Scary stuff.

No reminders about my project viva please. I'm pretending that exams end when the written ones end. I shall be very pleased to get this chapter of my life over and done with.

Lily xXx

Birthday Fun

Yesterday was my flatmate's birthday. It started off awfully. She ended up going to the emergency dentist to have a huge abcess where her wisdom tooth is coming out drained. It looked so painful and was all pus filled and horrid. Unfortunately she was also given antibiotics that she can't drink on. The evil ones that begin with M (shows how good my pharmacology knowledge is!) Anyway they basically give you a hangover within 15 mins of having a drink. Needless to say she's starting them today, not yesterday.

I cooked a celebratory birthday breakfast which she just about managed to eat and overall I think she had a great day. Lunchtime she went out with her Mum and Uncle, meanwhile a surprise was underfoot. One of her best friends from home (which is up north) came down to surprise her as he'd said he couldn't make it. The look of surprise and the squeal of delight when she saw him was priceless. I think she was suitably thrilled.

We all went for dinner at Strada which was really nice. Some of her home friends, her boyf, some old school friends and my clinical partner for next year all came along. It was such a nice mixed group. Everyone was really interesting, so conversation always flowed which is great. I hate going to meals with lots of new people who just don't seem able to hold a conversation.

I went home to get some sleep, along with one of my flatmates friends as we were both up early in the morning, but everyone else went off partying. The vomit down the side of the toilet when I got up for a wee in the night kind of suggests that they must have had a good time, or they'll have been so drunk they won't remember so can just believe they had a good time. I feel dead boring not for going out. I literally got home, had a cup of tea while watching the last half of gossip girl and then toddled off to bed.

On the subject of gossip girl it's the season finale in the US tonight! Hurrah! Thank goodness for the Internet so I don't have to wait months to watch it here. I probably shouldn't admit to being totally addicted to it, but I LOVE it. Its amazing. I can watch it without having to use my brain which is always a bonus this time of year. I also love the fact all the characters have a bit of a bad side. I think that's pretty good as too many programs have annoyingly goody-two shoes people in them. I will however admit it is basically the OC but set in Manhattan.

Anyway I'm in the library now so really should be getting on with my work. I'm going to have a cram-tastic 3 days in this library. Joy.

Lily xXx

Excitement

Ooooh! Excitement! Tomorrow my flatmate is 21. I've been telling her that she's got to be home in the afternoon for a special surprise. I've yet to tell her what it is. I'm so excited. Clearly I can't tell you guys what it is either as she might see, but I think she'll be really chuffed. Yay!

Then it's my 21st on the 28th. Hurrah. Loads of birthday fun and games! Shame about exams... However I've kind of got to the point where as much as I want a 2.1 I now realise it's not the end of the world if I don't get it so I should stop panicing. Or so I keep telling myself.

Revision update. 5 days to go.

Oh my days. That means 4 revision days left. Bugger. I think I'll be doing a 3 day cram Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Bugger, bugger, bugger...

Lily xXx

Open Letter to Supermarket Shoppers

Dear Supermarket Shoppers,

I would like to say that I greatly enjoyed partaking in a light spot of grocery shopping with you today, but that would be a big fat lie. To make our future encounters more pleasant I have a few pointers in proper shopping etiquette.

1. Stopping your trolley surrounded by 6 children in the middle of an aisle is not clever. The fact little Sam has just shoved a banana up Jimmy's nose does not make it acceptable. This causes congestion. It also means people shove in to me, expecting me to shove in to you... clearly hoping to bash you out of the way. I don't like being shoved. In fact any physical contact from strangers makes me squirm inside.

2. This point is aimed at all the friendly ladies who choose to stand at the entrance to an aisle, blocking it with their trolleys to have a chat. Please don't. Most supermarkets have a nice little cafe which is perfect for chatting. If the supermarket doesn't have a cafe why not buy some tea bags and go and have a chat at home? It's warmer and more cosy there. There is also the additional bonus that if your 20 minute chat takes place at home you are not blocking my way in to the juice aisle. Lack of mango juice makes me angry. Being kept apart from it so forcefully could lead me insanity. This insanity could lead to violence. I would not be responsible for my actions. It could get messy.

3. When I say excuse me politely because you are in my way please don't look at me and scowl because I have interrupted your conversation. Be thankful that I didn't throw a potato at you and step over your unconscious body.

4. Commenting on the contents of my shopping basket is also not OK. It is none of your business. Please note that just because my shopping basket only had a carton of mango juice and salad items does not mean I have an eating disorder. It means I stocked my freezer up with lots of things last week and I only need some fresh veg to prevent scurvy.

Now that those points are clear I hope our next shopping experience together is much more pleasant.

Love and Hugs

Lily xXx

Mini Rant and Randomness

So I realise I said I'd write something about the government's response to the petition to bring back free accomodation for FY1 doctors. Because I've been so busy freaking out and not revising which I'll explain in a minute it's going to be a short rant. There were a few points that really bothered me.

1. They basically tell us to be grateful for the 2.2% pay increase this year. Well that would be nice if the inflation on my student loan wasn't over 4%. So technically thats a pay decrease when going along with the inflation they use to measure student loan interest and most other things in the country.

2. It also says we should be glad we're not having to work such stupidly long hours. To be fair I'd rather work the hours so I can be a competant doctor. In fact most doctors will probably end up working long hours still, they just won't get that reflected in their pay packet.

3. It says doctors should be treated like all other healthcare professionals. Does that mean like shit? Because thats pretty much how they seem to be treating everyone these days... Grrr.

Rant over.

Now for the explanation of why I've spent the whole day freaking out. Well yesterday the GP said I needed a lymph node taken out or biopsied to make sure I don't have lymphoma. As I am borderline for "urgent" referal and I have exams for the next 3 weeks, we took a mutual decision to make the referal non-urgent so I can do my exams and if anything changes before my appointment with the surgeon I should go back to the GP.

I've finally explained all this to my Dad and properly freaked him out and I feel awful for him. My Mum died of cancer 8 years ago, as did his mother 7 years ago and his father 2 years ago. So although the chances of me having anything are stupidly slim, as I told him, he's still really worried. I feel awful for making him feel bad. To make it worse all I want to do is go home, have a big cuddle and cry about it. I'm actually getting really scared. Unfortunately at home I'll get absolutely no revision done, which is even worse than the little revision I'm doing here.

I've done half the revision I should have done and I just can't be bothered. It's too difficult and I'm knackered and grumpy. Meh.

On the plus side I've lost loads of weight in the last month (... yes I realise considering the whole possible lymphoma thing I shouldn't be so happy about this), so I bought a new pair of jeans which look really good. To be fair I only bought them because they look teeny tiny on the hanger and actually fit on my bum! Granted it's just one size less but when you're little like me one size is alot!

Lily xXx

Backstreet's Back... but now they've gone again.

Backstreet boys last night was amazing. I felt like i was 10 years old all over again! They played practically every song that was ever a hit for them and some of the new stuff. In fact they were on stage for almost 2 hours, which is pretty good considering a lot of big names don't stay on for much longer than 1. I was also really impressed that my £27.50 tickets were really really good seats, while my flatmate paid over £60 for spice girls and was up in the ceiling of the venue. It was such a revelation going to such a big pop concert. In fact I've never seen a pop band live before. By the time I was old enough to be going to see bands I was much more into indie and rock, so I'm really glad I took this chance to experience something different.

On a less jolly note the GP has decided I'm having one of the swollen lymph nodes in my head or neck being biopsied or cut out because they still haven't gone down and I'm losing a stupid amount of weight as well as being really tired all the time. Fingers crossed it's down to stress.

Interestingly I got an email earlier with the governments response to the petition for free accomodation for FY1 doctors. Once I've got some revision done I'm going to comment on this because to put it nicely its made me a little angry.

Revision Update. 8 days to go.

Argggghhhhhh! To keep to my timetable I have to write 6 practice essays every day until Tuesday! This wouldn't be so impossible if I had any idea what to write for any of them. Meh.

Cleaning Mayhem

Today I have had a highly busy yet unproductive day. I got an email from my landlord this morning saying he wanted to bring people to see the flat. It was a tip. My room alone was a hole of exam revision notes and textbooks. My bed on its own has 3 large notepads, loads of loose sheets of paper and textbook in it, and my desk was piled high.

My flatmate and I spent hours cleaning the place. I have to admit that it looks really good now. However as nice as it is to be in a shiny clean flat, I got virtually no work done today. Tomorrow I have to go to the GP and to see Backstreet Boys, so yet again... I probably won't get much work done. Fortunately for my landlord the first group of people who came through the door decided they wanted to rent the flat. Hurrah! The should mean no more disturbances while I'm trying to revise. I could not handle another day of manic cleaning in the run-up to exams.

Revision Update. 10 days to go.

Not only did I not get much work done today but I've started to freak out about past paper essay questions. They're really hard. Not only are they hard but the answers aren't in my notes. Argh! Our course organiser promised we'd be able to answer the questions just using our lecture notes. He's a big liar. I should know this as he was my project supervisor. Grrr.

Insanity Strikes

It's so hot that I think I might melt. melty melt melt.

The heat has sent me a bit crazy.
So crazy I can't even read revision notes.
Or maybe it's the revision sending me crazy.
As crazy as a slug. Or maybe I mean as slow as a slug?
In this heat I could very well mean as slimy as a slug.

Every time I pick up my revision notes I die a little inside. I actually can't wait to finish this daft BSc and get back into being a medical student.

Lily xXx

Bribing Children... Right or Wrong?

Today I am going to have a little rant about an article I read in the free Boots magazine. It was an article about getting through a holiday without your children being little nightmares and causing loads of trouble with countless temper-tantrums. I'd like to point out as I have no children I'm pretty much talking out of my backside and might regret saying this when I look over it in years to come. However I was once a child, and can remember how I was brought up. My Dad (who clearly has had children) agrees wholeheartedly with me on this, so I guess that gives me a little validation.

Basically the article gave lots of tips on stopping children being naughty during a holiday. All these tips involved bribary. There was the suggestion of hiding a new toy until your child starts to play up and then telling them that if they promise to behave they can have the toy later on. I think there's something very wrong with that. When I was little I behaved because that was how "good" people acted. If I didn't behave I was punished. I didn't behave to get a toy. I really think this is just teaching children to be devious and greedy. Surely the best way to ensure your child behaves most of the time is to teach them that this is just a nice way to act. I think a treat for good behaviour is a nice thing. I used to love getting a surprise packet of sweeties or a copy of Bunty magazine, but outright bribrary just would have never taught me to behave for the sake of behaving. Maybe the woman who wrote this article needs to learn that a bit of praise and some positive attention would be better than bribing a child with a toy and turning them into a greedy spoilt brat. I think the author could be making a rod for her own back. Will her children start trying to bargain with her? "I promise I'll do my homework if you buy me that new playstation game." or "If you get me an ice cream I'll go to bed when you tell me to." Maybe they'll just expect new toys and treats whenever they're supposed to be behaving, and be disappointed and misbehave when they don't get them?

The article wasn't all poo. It did remind people to pack snacks and plan games to play when travelling, but the whole bribary thing really bothered me. I'd like to know if this is just my skewed sense of morality, what do other people think?

Revision Update. 13 days to go.

The fact I'm reading free magazines says it all. I'm sooooo behind on my work today that it's freaking me out so much so that I'm finding it hard to sit down and do it.

Lily xXx

Sunburn Stupidity

It turns out that yesterdays lunchtime picnic in the park was not as good an idea as it seemed. Foolishly I was ruled by my rumbling tummy and decided to eat lunch before buying suntan lotion. Clearly I'm stupid. Being a redhead I usually ALWAYS wear suntan lotion. Luckily I tan fairly easily for someone so fair, even wearing factor 30 and trying to stay out of the sun, so I thought that 20 minutes wouldn't be too bad. Needless to say halfway through the evening I realised that my shoulders were bright red and getting more and more sore. Thankfully almost half a bottle of moisturiser seems to have sorted them out and they're brown today but that doesn't change the irreparable damage I've done to my skin. I decided to cover up with a kaftan-like thing today. However it seems like the weather got there before me and has covered up with clouds.

As I usually take good care to cover-up with both material and sunscreen I get through bottles of suntan lotion each year. It never fails to shock me how expensive the stuff is. £12.99 a bottle! Granted it was buy 1 get 1 free so that worked out at around £6.50 a bottle but that's still a lot of money. It surprises me that with so many campaigns stressing the importance of sun protection, it is still so expensive. I have to be perfectly honest that when I saw the price yesterday I thought "£12.99... I could go to Wagamama and gorge myself on noodles and diet coke for less than that..." and considered not buying any. Thankfully I did or I'd be condemned to a summer of unbearable sunburn related pain, hugely increasing my risk of skin cancer and getting wrinkles. I guess I could just stop moaning about how much it costs and only leave the house under the cover of darkness. Like a vampire. A vitamin D deficient vampire. Do vampires need vitamin D?

Random Blabberings

I went to see my GP again yesterday and she still hasn't had the results of my x-ray back. I'm taking that as no news probably means good news. I'd be a bit miffed if it took the hospital over a week to process an x-ray with something obviously wrong on it. My swollen lymph nodes are also alot less sore now, although they're still huge. Fingers crossed this is the start of them shrinking and vanishing away. Fingers crossed it was just a random virus that the doctor can't pin point and I'll be back on form soon.

I've spent so much time in the sunshine over the last 3 days. Off to have a revision break in the park with a picnic and my flatmate in a short while. We've got really nice cherry tomatoes, salad, salami and this smoked salmon and dill dip which is like heaven in a pot. I'm drooling on the keyboard just thinking about it.

I've just found out my ex is staying in the town my Dad lives in this week to finish some work. I can't decide whether I want him to bump into my Dad or not. Clearly it wouldn't be pretty. However I completely think that he deserves to be given my Dad's best scowl. It's a scowl that would give even the most hardened man nightmares. Better tell my Dad's girlfriend to hide the power drills, power saws and large pieces of wood until the ex has left...

Revision update: 15 days to go.

Revision is happening. There's not much more to say than that.

Lily xXx

Why Does It Always Rain On Me?

Why is it that whenever I put on flip-flops/a summer dress/sunglasses or anything vaguely summery something goes wrong with the weather? Last week I wore flip flops out on a beautiful day and it rained on the way home. Today I wasn't about to be caught out. When popping out to buy some milk and soak up some sun as a little revision break I thought I had the weather sussed. For the previous 3 hours it had been gorgeously sunny with the lightest breeze. I decided my combination of vest top, denim mini skirt and flip flops was perfect. Maximum skin surface area for vitamin D absorption and all that jazz. Or at least as much is legally possible in this country. Just as I got too far for it to be practical to just turn around and go home to change suddenly there was a hurricane. OK. Maybe I'm exagerrating, but it got really windy. I flip flopped as fast as I could to the shop to get milk and flip flopped home again to defrost. Disaster. Tomorrow I'm wearing a ski-suit.

Revision update: 17 days to go.

I actually got some notes written today... I've probably got another 15 minutes or so note writing before bed to be on target. Hopefully my doctors visit tomorrow won't throw off my revision too much. Thankfully my new internal body clock waking me up at 6.47am every morning should allow me to get a bit of work done before I go.

Why is it that when I revise I drink double or triple the water I usually would? Not only do I spend valuable time running up and down the stairs for more water I also need to wee every half hour. It's abnormal. I'm abnormal. But hey, I've known that for a while.

Lily xXx

Deep Fried Brain

My brain is fried. I'm struggling to string together a sentence. For some unknown reason my brain just wouldn't switch on today. I woke up naturally at 6.45am feeling amazing so really thought today would be productive. The second I got in the library the feeling just went. My hand hurt so much from all the notes I've been writing and all I could do was stare out of the window at people parking their cars. What stupid person put windows in the library? Especially windows with interesting things like parking happening outside.

After a few pages of revision notes I just gave up. Decided to have an ice cream in the sunshine and go home and start to sort out the junk in my room. How is it possible for such a small person to accumulate so much random rubbish? I clearly make up for my stunted height in lots of silly little gizmos. Not Gizmo the Gremlin unfortunately. I'd like one of those. But only a nice one, not when he turns into a horrid Gremlin.

In my spring cleaning frenzy I cleared off the desk in my bedroom. Tomorrow I'm going to try and see how I get on working there and not the library. The library is getting far too loud now 1st and 2nd year dentists and medics have finished lectures. All they do is chatter. Annoying.


18 days until exam numero uno. Eek!

Lily xXx

My First Meme

As I'm avoiding my personal little revision deadlines I've found a way to waste even more time. Dragonfly posted a nice little meme, and as I'm most definitely procrastinating I guess that makes me tagged.

1. Ten years ago I was: Just about to move from London to the seaside. I was so excited about having a new house walking distance from the beach, but really apprehensive about leaving all my friend's behind. I was also chubby.

2. Five things on my to-do list today: Write notes for one more lecture, hang up my washing, dig out the past papers I've put somewhere safe, have dinner, wash my hair. Gosh I lead such an interesting life.

3. Things I'd do if I were a billionaire: Buy my dad a house in the French West Indies. Make sure all my family and close friends never had to worry about money again. Buy a nicer flat. Give the Kenyan Orphan Project money so they can afford to build a night shelter for street kids and keep up all their good work. Fund some interesting and useful PhD research projects, as well as giving money to researching illnesses that often get overlooked. Donate lots of money to Cancer Research to make up for the fact I can't do race for life this year. Buy all my food from yummy places like Borough Market.

4. Three bad habits: Forgetting what I'm saying when I'm talking. Realising halfway through a sentence that I've stopped listening to whatever someone is saying and I'm thinking about food, shedding my hair.

5. Five places I've lived: A house in London, university halls, a grotty student flat in London, a house near the seaside and inside a hotel.

6. Five jobs I've had in life: Medical secretary, music columnist for the local paper, waitress in an italian restaurant, barmaid and hotel receptionist.

So now, if anyone else is trying as hard as me to procrastinate, I'm tagging you...

Lily xXx

Anything But Boris

Today I have a whirlwind of disjointed thoughts in my head, so I apologise in advance for the randomness and lack of flow in this post.

First and foremost, Londoner's what were you thinking?! Boris?! It's no coincidence that Boris' nickname is the Buffoon. I'm so disappointed. I love Ken. Which reminds me of a story...

Freshers week this year, I'm rather hungover and stumbling to uni to help out at a stall on the freshers fair. In my haze I glance towards the river, it's swooshing and splashing makes me feel less sick. This crazy old man thinks I'm looking at him. Bugger. "Hello" he says cheerfully. "Hi" I groan thinking "Bloody hell not another crazy person. Am I fly paper for freaks?". Anyway crazy old man asks where I'm going and says it's great I'm a med student. He also tells me how he's born and bred in the area. As the conversation goes on I think "Crazy old man, you look rather familiar". Next thing I know he's waving bye bye and strolling into City Hall. It hits me. It was Ken Livingstone. What a nice chap.

Even though I woke up depressed after nightmares of a Boris-run London, the whole day was rather good. The sun shined so much that my face and arms are a bit brown. If it's like this tomorrow I'm taking out suntan lotion. Managed to get a decent amount of notes written in the library and had an amazing lunch. Dim Sum.

There is another reason the library was so fun today. The hottie next to me kept stretching and flaunting his six-pack. So yes, I drooled over him. I'd like to add to this that I'm not one of those crazy girls who's obsessed with only gorgeous men. I get obsessed with not so gorgeous men too because in the end what matters is how someone makes me feel not how they look. However, this doesn't stop me perving over hot men flaunting their six-packs in the library.

My last thought of the day is guilt. Why does the idea of going to the pub for a few drinks on a Saturday night over 2 weeks before my first exam make me feel so guilty? I'm not doing any work now, but I certainly can't go out and have fun. Probably because I realise I have to go to see both Backstreet Boys and to my friend's 21st birthday dinner before my first exam and then my 21st is between exam 1 and exam 2. Woe is me.

Lily xXx

Savory Revenge

I'm being haunted by kidneys. Not only have I spent the whole day trying to get my head around the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and natriuetic peptides but then I had steak and kidney pie for tea. In my little head as I ate every chunk of kidney I just thought "muhahaha, take that evil kidney!". In fact I've never enjoyed kidney so much as tonight. I usually have a bit of an issue eating a body part that filters wee out of the body, but tonight it was revenge.

I've also discovered yoghut covered digestives. Yum. By the end of exams I'm going to be so fat!! I'll be able to roll into the exam hall.

Lily xXx

Happy May Day!

Today has been exceptionally exciting for a revision day. I'm thanking the fact it's finally May for why today was so good. I managed to wake up 4 minutes before my alarm went off. There's something bizarre about how amazing it feels to wake up naturally after a good nights sleep compared to being rudely awoken by a noisy horrible alarm. What is even more worrying is that I just wrote exam instead of alarm. I would not like to be woken up by a noisy exam!!

Then I managed to get some revision notes written. As a reward I went to our student canteen. I always pleasantly surprised at how lovely the food is. I can be a fussy eater. Not fussy as in not eating vegetables or fish or something, I'll eat anything... If it's cooked well. Today for a bargaintastic £4.40 I got a huge bowl of tasty vegetably curry and rice and a can of icy cold Fanta. Heaven.

Mmmmmm....

Then to top it all off on the way home I managed to stay between two rain clouds the whole time. So while the rest of London was being rained on, I was strolling in the sunshine.

It's London Mayor voting day today. As always I voted. What shocked me however was how people weren't at all sure how the voting system worked. Having done an A-level in politics I covered how the different voting systems in the world worked, so I guess I'm lucky in that respect. However it means that I have spent all week boring people with the ins and outs of how it all works. As of tomorrow hopefully I'll have a new political conversation on my hands. In my group of friends we have both Boris and Ken supporters. Lunch time tomorrow should have some interesting conversation.

Lily xXx