So today was my first proper day off of the summer. And I haven't done much/anything of use.
As in real;ly, I woke up 18 hours ago, and i canl;t account for much of the intervening period. I slept a bit in the sun, cat like.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Bang!
I was sitting here about 20 minutes ago just on MSN and doing some emailling, when I head a bang. I got up and looked outside.A van has crased into the side of a taxi at teh traffic lights outside my flat. The van has kinda stopped dead, and the taxi has been shunted ovver into some roadworks - outside the building opposite.
It all went very quiet for five ninuites. I could see the van driver was on the phone, so didn;t feel any need to call the emergency services. Sure enough, within 10 minutes there was an ambulance rapid response car followed by a normal ambulance on the scene, anoither 5 minutes and the fire brigade arrived, and still no sign of the Police.
Meanwhile the 3 roads which empty into this junction are starting to back up and traffic is having to do U turns oin one way streets to get away - sounds like a recipe for disaster the way some people drive round Glasgow at night.
It all went very quiet for five ninuites. I could see the van driver was on the phone, so didn;t feel any need to call the emergency services. Sure enough, within 10 minutes there was an ambulance rapid response car followed by a normal ambulance on the scene, anoither 5 minutes and the fire brigade arrived, and still no sign of the Police.
Meanwhile the 3 roads which empty into this junction are starting to back up and traffic is having to do U turns oin one way streets to get away - sounds like a recipe for disaster the way some people drive round Glasgow at night.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
H O L I D A Y
I have booked my summer holiday.
First week in August, to London for 6 nights staying in a (hopefully nice - well it looks ok on trip advisor) hotel in Kensington.
Plan to see some school friends who live down there and also be very touristy - Science Museum, Kew Gardens, some shopping maybe, John Soanes house, Wellcome Collection etc.
Then I have the third week in August working at the fringe, and seeing a few shows as well, so that gives me two weeks in August to relax, see family and such like.
First week in August, to London for 6 nights staying in a (hopefully nice - well it looks ok on trip advisor) hotel in Kensington.
Plan to see some school friends who live down there and also be very touristy - Science Museum, Kew Gardens, some shopping maybe, John Soanes house, Wellcome Collection etc.
Then I have the third week in August working at the fringe, and seeing a few shows as well, so that gives me two weeks in August to relax, see family and such like.
Boiler saga
Well, 5 visits, several hours of workman trime, 4 weeks and a few hundred pounds later, my boiler has a new pump,m new valves, a new PCB, and will soon have new temperature sensors. Hopefully it will then work properly.
Currently I obtain hot water by opening the front of the boiler and wiggling one of the temperature sensor wires, which then causes the circuit board to realise that the water in the 'out' pipe is cool and thus starts heating teh water. This works for a variable period of 2 days to 20 minutes. Thankfully when not working correectly, the LED flkashes constantly, so it is fairly easy to tell.
After 10 plumber call outs in 5 years, my admiration for the boiler manufactuirers is immense. I habve no idea what the pourchase cost was, but I feel I have paid them at least the same value in out of warranty parts, thus maintaining their income!
If only there was mains Gas into the building.
Currently I obtain hot water by opening the front of the boiler and wiggling one of the temperature sensor wires, which then causes the circuit board to realise that the water in the 'out' pipe is cool and thus starts heating teh water. This works for a variable period of 2 days to 20 minutes. Thankfully when not working correectly, the LED flkashes constantly, so it is fairly easy to tell.
After 10 plumber call outs in 5 years, my admiration for the boiler manufactuirers is immense. I habve no idea what the pourchase cost was, but I feel I have paid them at least the same value in out of warranty parts, thus maintaining their income!If only there was mains Gas into the building.
Score!
Well that is term officially over. 25 weeks, or 175 days or....well you get the idea. 5 blocks, from ICU to psychiatry via Obs/Gyn and Medicine. It;s been a long term with lots of good bits,, and some boredom.
I managed to get to the end of term by getting a score of 2 for every module this year. With some complex maths which gives every piece of assessment from years 1-4 a score, I now know that I have achieved a score of 38 out of 70; the main reason for the low score being exam resits in years 2 and 3. So now faculty will rank the whole year group by these scores; and sort us into quartiles. The 4 quartiles then get a score of 34,36,38 or 40 points which counts towards the MTAS ranking. So for all mys core is not that great, it only penalises my a maximum of 6 MTAS points.
The MTAS score however will give me 5 points for having a BSc First Class; and I can get 1 point for a presentation at a National level, and 1 for a publication. Sadly I fear that my SSC Audit may not be written up and submitted in time. However I do have a paper from my BSc Hoinour project, so I can win back 6 or maybe 7 points there.
The rest of the Foundation Programme MTAS form is so awful and boring I am goiing to forget about it over the summer.
I managed to get to the end of term by getting a score of 2 for every module this year. With some complex maths which gives every piece of assessment from years 1-4 a score, I now know that I have achieved a score of 38 out of 70; the main reason for the low score being exam resits in years 2 and 3. So now faculty will rank the whole year group by these scores; and sort us into quartiles. The 4 quartiles then get a score of 34,36,38 or 40 points which counts towards the MTAS ranking. So for all mys core is not that great, it only penalises my a maximum of 6 MTAS points.
The MTAS score however will give me 5 points for having a BSc First Class; and I can get 1 point for a presentation at a National level, and 1 for a publication. Sadly I fear that my SSC Audit may not be written up and submitted in time. However I do have a paper from my BSc Hoinour project, so I can win back 6 or maybe 7 points there.
The rest of the Foundation Programme MTAS form is so awful and boring I am goiing to forget about it over the summer.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Choices, choices
Today I was thru in Edinburgh and once I had finished my ususal stuff, and been to an 18th Birthday lunch BBQ, I went to see a friend from my BSc days. She was a genetics geek and then went on to do a PhD and is working as a post doc researcher in cancer-y genetics in Edinburgh. She gets to go to all sorts of exciting confeerences in Prague, and Crieff......
It was very interesting to compare stories as to what could have happened if instead of choosing Medicine in 2004, I had chosen to do a PhD and go into biomedical research.
I had applied for medicine and a PhD and got back acceptances for both on the same day, thus meaning I had 24hrs before I had to reply about the PhD offer. Except by the time I got the email it was midnight and I had until 5pm to reply. I also had a really busy day and ended up only snatching moments to think about it, and came to the decision "You can do a PhD as part of research as a medic, but you may not get another chance to study medicine". Wheher accurate or not, that is how I made the decision!
It was very interesting to compare stories as to what could have happened if instead of choosing Medicine in 2004, I had chosen to do a PhD and go into biomedical research.
I had applied for medicine and a PhD and got back acceptances for both on the same day, thus meaning I had 24hrs before I had to reply about the PhD offer. Except by the time I got the email it was midnight and I had until 5pm to reply. I also had a really busy day and ended up only snatching moments to think about it, and came to the decision "You can do a PhD as part of research as a medic, but you may not get another chance to study medicine". Wheher accurate or not, that is how I made the decision!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
The boiler saga episode 2, part 2
Now that the boiler engineer has been, I am left with the knowledge that a valve has leaked, dripping water into the pump, which is shorting. He has dried the pump, but even so, it seems I need a new pump and new valves. Even then there could be microprocessor problems, though apparently these are unlikely.
Either way the parts will arrive Friday so it will be Monday before they can come and fit them, which means another half day off placement. Monday teaching is officially at 1.30, so I would hope to make it in for that.
Now just deciding whether to go in this afternoon and find my FY1, or whether to stay home and finish off my case write up, boil water for a shave and shower and just head in for 9 tomorrow morning.
Head says the latter, heart just doesn't know.
Either way the parts will arrive Friday so it will be Monday before they can come and fit them, which means another half day off placement. Monday teaching is officially at 1.30, so I would hope to make it in for that.
Now just deciding whether to go in this afternoon and find my FY1, or whether to stay home and finish off my case write up, boil water for a shave and shower and just head in for 9 tomorrow morning.
Head says the latter, heart just doesn't know.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Welcome back to my crazy life
The first part of this post has come back to haunt me.
The boiler died again last Thursday with a strange burning smell.... So I phoned the company, who said they would find out whether they could still obtain spare parts since it seems that Pulsacoil may have gone bust / reformed / stopped making the boilers. It turns out they wrote the phone number down wrongly. So they didn;t call me back, so then I called them yesterday and was told they did have the parts available, and there would be an engineer available this week. I requested that they come out. I am sure they said that they would come today........
But after a no show until 4pm, I phoned them and apparently they are sure it is for tomorrow....morning at 9.30. Which coulkd be interesting since I have hospital teaching at 11am, a 50min drive away! I am hoping they can fix it the first time, as a second visit will mean missing more of this placement and also I wnt a warm shower!
The boiler died again last Thursday with a strange burning smell.... So I phoned the company, who said they would find out whether they could still obtain spare parts since it seems that Pulsacoil may have gone bust / reformed / stopped making the boilers. It turns out they wrote the phone number down wrongly. So they didn;t call me back, so then I called them yesterday and was told they did have the parts available, and there would be an engineer available this week. I requested that they come out. I am sure they said that they would come today........
But after a no show until 4pm, I phoned them and apparently they are sure it is for tomorrow....morning at 9.30. Which coulkd be interesting since I have hospital teaching at 11am, a 50min drive away! I am hoping they can fix it the first time, as a second visit will mean missing more of this placement and also I wnt a warm shower!
- I also have a broken dishwasher, but cannot book their engiuneers only a day in advance, and also they can only commit to a day not a time, so i may have to survuive without that until end of term in July.
- I need a dentist appouintment, so might try to ring one of them as I have cracked a filling....
- I need to arrange an MOT for the car before the 17th.
- The wooden fascia of the dishwasher needs refitting to the dishwwahser unit
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