The End of The Year

It's time for resolutions again.

I've decided to keep it simple this year. My new years resolution is to stay focused with medicine and keep working hard. Only 18 months to go and it's getting harder and harder as I have to know more and more stuff. As well as knowing stuff I also have to be able to do all kinds of things with sharp needles and rubber gloves.

Thankfully I'm really enjoying it still. I had a bit of a wobble in Sept/Oct where I thought I wasn't good enough and would never be able to do it, but sticking with it paid off.

We'll see if I'm still saying that when I get my last exam results on the 4th of Jan. Scarily they're putting all our exam results up before our "welcome back" lecture, where you can usually just check them online. Fingers crossed this won't be the first exam I've failed.

My only other resolution is to stick with the blog. It's amazing how much writing about silly day to day things helps sort out my thoughts about things. I also love the fact that whenever I'm feeling down or have a dilemma I get lots of lovely comments offering advice and kind words.

I hope everyone who's reading this has something nice planned for this evening and has a wonderful New Year celebration, with an even better year to follow.

Lily xXx

The House That Lily Built

I've decided to make the most of the boyf having all of betwixmas off of work.

For a while my Dad has been suggesting I should retile my bathroom properly, as opposed to the few tiles around the bath.

Last month we bought all the tiles and other bits and bobs you need for tiling (which is a lot of stuff... loads of trips from the car to the flat). We've since been waiting for spare time, and now we've got it.

Unfortunately it's not that simple.

The woman who owned the flat before me is the person who tiled the bathroom last. She seems to have stuck the adhesive onto bare crumbling plaster and used it a little like polyfiller. This essentially means that now the bathroom is crumbling in around us. What should have been a day of stripping tiles has so far been 2 days and the walls are still covered in adhesive which is not going to budge without taking most of the plaster with it. Joy.

I also have sinusitis. This means I'm extra grumpy and snore like nothing anyone has heard before. I bet you all envy the boyf having to spend time with me :-p

Lily xXx

Las Vegas

I never know the best way to tell people about a holiday. Do they want to know more or less? Well as this is my blog, you'll all be getting the more treatment....

Tuesday :

We were staying at the boyf's Grandparent's the night before we went away as they live nice and near to the airport. We got to start the morning with a yummy cooked breakfast and then we went to leave for the airport. Disaster struck and the car had a flat tyre, but thankfully we managed to swap cars and off we went. The airport was the usual thing. Queues weren't too large but getting a fish finger sandwich was about £10!! Food on the flight was shocking, I had a beef cobbler that I'm still convinced was warmed up cat food, but the 10 hours went suprisingly quickly.

We landed just after 6pm Vegas time and had a pretty quick cab ride to our hotel... the MGM grand. Check-in was quick, and we found out we'd been upgraded to a suite with a HUGE jacuzzi tub. Fantastic!

After that we wandered up the strip and sat outside the Paris hotel, watching the Belaggio fountains with delicious steak for dinner.

Wednesday:

The day started off with a huge buffet breakfast. Not only did I have the usual yoghurt, bacon, eggs, sausage etc that one would expect... I also had sushi.

We had a nice long walk up the strip wandering into lots of the big hotels. We managed to see the worlds biggest chocolate fountain at the Belaggio. Om nom nom...

We then bumped into some reps for a timeshare in Vegas and in return for sitting listening to their proposal (total rip off by the way), we got a pair of amazing seats at Phantom of the Opera for the next night.

As we'd been walking all over the place so much we went for dinner in the hotel at a restaurant called Wolfgang Puck's. Cue lots of rude mispronounciations from the other half all night.

Thursday:

Thursday was dedicated into looking around all the big hotel's that we hadn't yet seen. I had achy feet but a big smiley face by the end of the day.

Friday:

More sight-seeing during the day and then a very special evening.

We decided to have a really special evening. We booked a table at Top of the World. It's a huge revolving restaurant at the top of the Stratosphere which overlooks the whole of Las Vegas. We had a 5-course dinner that was immense. One of the courses was a 16oz steak. That is practically the size of my head. It was delicious.

Saturday:

We rented a car the day before. A big car by my standards, but small by American ones. An Hyundai Santa Fe. We drove to the Hoover Dam, less than an hour away from Las Vegas. We got to go down into the power station and I didn't even freak out although it was squishy full of people.

A new hotel complex opened in Las Vegas, including a hotel called Aria, where a new Cirque de Soleil show was playing. Viva Elvis. We managed to get tickets and it was amazing. Unfortunately the boyf is petrified of heights and we were right at the front of the balcony. I thought he was going to puke on the people below us, but in the end even he enjoyed it.


Sunday:

This was the big driving day. We drove all the way to the Grand Canyon and back. I drove over 100 miles of it even though I haven't driven for ages and was pretty nervous at first. Turns out driving big cars isn't actually any harder than driving small ones.

The Grand Canyon was breathtaking. Unfortunately I had a major ear ache/headache/face ache and was a big baby and burst into tears about a mile into walking around it. But it was worth feeling like death for.

Monday:

Home day is always the saddest day. We had a good morning of picking up a few presents for family we'd not got Christmas presents for. After that we went to the airport. At the airport we queued for hours to check in. Seems that as the flight was SIX HOURS delayed, check-in staff thought they could work at half speed.

On the plus side I got a free Burger King. On the not so plus side I had to sleep on the airport floor. Then unfortunately it was time to go home, but I had an AMAZING holiday, and I don't think I'll stop smiling until the next one.

Lily xXx

Guess Who's Back?

... it's me!!

I'm finally back from Vegas, after a really delayed flight and a nice cosy sleep on the airport floor.

I had an AMAZING time. Not only did we do all the Vegas stuff, we also went to the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon.

It seems I have lots and lots of blog posts to catch up with and still some presents to buy for xmas (eek!!), so I'm going to do that and then I'll give you guys a supersized post or two on how amazing the holiday was.

Lily xXx

Holiday Time!

After GP today my holiday officially starts.

Unfortunately for some reason my body thought it was only having a nap last night so wouldn't let me sleep more than 3 hours, so GP might be harder than first thought.

Once I finish GP about 4, I have a 1hr journey back to my flat. I'm already packed. I just have to pack up the ferrets (into a carrier, not my suitcase) and then trek down to my Dad's. My big sister (who I only see about twice a year) is also visiting with my niece and her husband which should be lovely. I get to spend all weekend with them and then Monday I get to visit one of my school friends who had a very very cute looking baby boy a fortnight ago.

After I'm back from baby-visiting, it's back in the car and to the Boyf's Gran's house (not to be confused with Nan, as I so often do). She lives really near the airport so it means we can have a lie in and get her to drop us off at the airport without having to pay extortion for parking...

After that it's VEGAS! Wooooooo! I'm so excited.

Needless to say I won't be posting until I get back, so hold tight until the 23rd!

Hope everyone has an amazing Xmas if I don't get around to posting before then.

Lily xXx

Cleaning Frenzy

I had my exam yesterday.

It went OK. As always there were a few of those annoying questions where I knew I'd learnt the answers but couldn't remember them, but otherwise it wasn't too bad. A good mixture of easy, medium and downright impossible questions.

Anyway, I'm glad it's out of the way now, and the only uni thing that I have to do before breaking up for xmas is my GP visit. Unfortunately my partner and I can't get hold of the woman we're supposed to be visiting first. I hope we get hold of her by Friday.

I really need to tidy the flat today. Later some girly friends are coming over for a couple of hours. It still resembles some kind of revision squat at the moment. It doesn't help that I'm not a naturally tidy person. Fingers crossed there won't be more than a couple of hours cleaning or I'll die inside.

Lily xXx

Different Term, Same Problems.

As per usual I'm getting to the point where I can't really revise.

I try but then I get distracted. Even if I sit in a quiet room and read my notes after about 20 minutes I realise I've been thinking about something else while "reading" and haven't actually properly read any of the revision cards.

This year is strange too, a bit like 3rd year I don't really know what to put on my revision cards. In all fairness for 3rd year this meant I made no notes and just stressed myself out even more, so at least I'm making notes this time. Excitingly they're on different coloured record cards this time. Ooooooh.

I've made all my notes for everything except rheumatology, which I've been avoiding as it's boring and long. I've also had the most teaching on it, so I reckoned it was more important to learn the stuff I've had less teaching on.

I'm actually looking forward to the exam on Monday. It'll be so good once it's over and I can concentrate on enjoying the xmas holidays (and having my GP placement on the Friday).

I have a game-plan for the week.

Monday: Exam then drinkies.

Tuesday: Tidy the flat, pop to the shops, have the girls over.

Wednesday: Into town, get my dollars, have my eyebrows threaded. Do any little bits of shopping I need to do.

Thursday: Pack. 2 bags. 1 weekend bag for home, 1 big bag for my week in vegas.

Friday: GP placement and home visits all day!!! Then pick up the ferrets, get in the car, go home!

Saturday: My sister is also visiting home, take the ferrets for walkies, maybe cinema.

Sunday: Family lunch (om nom nom...), bake cupcakes for my friend who had a baby on Friday.

Monday: Visit friend who had baby on Monday. Go to the boyf's Gran's house which is near the airport.

Tuesday: Fly on holiday!!!!!

What an exciting time to look forward to. Thankfully the boyf's sister has also said she'll look after the ferrets. I don't think she knows what she's letting herself in for!

Lily xXx