Living in the real world

Back to reality.

And harsh it is too.  The whole week on call from 8.30 to 9.30.  Long days, no free time and the warm memories of last week being rudely pushed away.  However, facebook seems to have found a way back round the blocks at work which is nice. 

I’ve also been distracted greatly to the shock ending of Doctor Who this week after catching it on BBC iPlayer last night.  Came out of no-where and now my mind is abuzz.  I don’t want change!  Can’t wait till the resolution on Saturday.

Home to eat.

Got back last night from Chamonix from the Wilderness and Expedition Medicine Course and it was truly a great week (that seemed much longer in a good way).  Entertaining course, great people and new friends and a wonderful location.  The weather has been hot, sunny and just perfect.  The mountains are stunning in a way I really wasn’t expecting and I’ll post a few pictures once I’ve gone through them.

Too tired right now to explain more.  We cooked a fabolous roast today (my first of this year I think) and I’m pretty stuffed.  On call all week which is annoying.  To bed.

Off to Geneva and then Chamonix tomorrow, rather earlier than I was expecting.  Got to go and pack now.  Back next week.

And thanks to Mr Neil Gaiman and his wonderful blog I have now joined Goodreads. 

All of the books I read will be updated there along with the occasional review (and I’m trying really hard to actually use the whole of the rating scale).  Add me as a friend if you wish. 

Who knows, if it rains really hard for a long time come August when I have no job and am trying not to spend money, I may go through my entire library.  May take a while. 

Link on the right

I’m off to eat soup.

Managed to get a last minute dentist appointment after 3 days of tooth ache only too have nothing done. 

I’m sure it’s his fault.  What with all the moving around in recent years I’d not been for a while until K kept giving me a hard time, saying she wouldn’t love me if my teeth fell out (so superficial!).  Anyway, saw him a few months back and I’m all fine, still no fillings and healthy teeth.  The sensitive one I have has been stable for years and doesn’t really bug me.  He gives me advice, I go away.  And since then the pain in my sensitive tooth has got worse and worse.  Methinks bad advice to drum up business…maybe too cynical?  Anyway, sensitive toothpaste for me from now on (apparently he’s been on it since his early twenties – he tells me lots about his own teeth) and a ’scrape and polish’ in a month.  Such a lovely phrase. 

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Lola (our new secret cat) has settled down the weird behaviour somewhat.  When I first got home she was going mental, banging her head into anything around, quite manic, jumping and generally being strange.  Then she relaxed and even curled up on my lap while I was reading.  She likes having her head scratched, just like me.

Then when we were sitting quietly she suddenly went for me, bit me, sunk her claws in and generally looked quite frightening.  Then she sat right back down next to me.  About 20 minutes later she did it again.  Now I think she’s schizophrenic.  Or maybe bipolar…  I’m going to hold judgement on whether we’re still friends.

Speaking of schizophrenic cats, it reminds me of someone we learnt about during my psychiatry rotation.  Louis Wain was a painter famous for pictures featuring anthropomorphised cats. 

He then developed late onset schizophrenia and his paintings changed, developing a deep focus on the cats specifically creating increasngly abstract images as his illness progressed.

He eventually ended up at Springfield in Tooting which is where I learnt my psychiatry.  Check the links out for more information.

This shows the apparent progression,  more of his paintings and as part of a larger thesis.

Woke up early today and on my way down to the shop to buy eggs for a more lavish breakfast I walked past 3 girls having a full blown barney completely in sign language.  Violently expressive & emotional with a fluid velocity, yet silent.  That’s a new experience for me.

If you want to join in:

We also now have a secret cat for the week as a friend of Ian (my flatmate) is off on holiday and needs a sitter.  Secret because we’re not supposed to have pets.  It’s a cute ginger cat who spent all the time I saw here wandering around quietly perplexed, investigating the strangeness and generally looking at her mummy for guidance on why she was being hoisted onto strangers.  She did seem to warm to me but was doing this strange thing were her tail stood straight up and rapidly shivered.  I guess it’s a manifestation of fear and the unknown.  Any cat psychologists out there please help me out.

Turn here to see the dark half.  Just making me more and more excited.

A tribute to Stan Winston

My friend Kristin has a little old blog running that is filled with beautiful things.  And is only moderately baby obsessed.  Check it out

And another blog that is just chock-a-block with wonderful things.  Make a sound I found the things below from there and wonderful they all are.  I would very much like for someone to make me robot cupcakes.  That would make them a very good friend indeed!

Well that news upset me.  The man was a legend and personally responsible for the majority of those movies in my younger years which made me fall in love with the magic of film.  Aliens, Predator, Terminator, The Relic plus countless others.  RIP.

In other news I’m still on nights and things are still calm and civilised (that’s become a mantra now to stave off the ‘q’ word).  Which is good and boring.  Still, next week I’m off to Chamonix for a Wilderness and Expedition medicine course.  Should be a good laugh and useful too.  They refused to give me study leave for it annoyingly but I’ve got annual leave left so that’s what I’m doing.

A few weeks back during Brighton Festival I bought a painting after going to one of the artist open houses.  I had originally planned to spend a whole day visiting them but it never happened.  Then one day walking back to mine we saw a sign for an open house in the tower block near us.  I wanted to check out the view so we went up mainly for that reason…and fell in love with a picture.  Which I stupidly bought.  Stupid because I’m leaving the country for a few years in 3 months and can’t take it with me, plus I’m trying to save money.  Still, that’s the joy of art – you see it you like it and I’m lucky enough since working to be able to afford it (within reason – I did manage to haggle her down a fair bit).  Check it out here: Moon Light Rain

Later

A bunch of links starting off with Ed Norton singing about the humble cock, through to him Hulking out in a not so incredible way, leading to an aside about how we could all end up roasted from the gamma explosion to end them all, followed by a few thoughts on how supremely intelligent people could bring about the end of the world.

Brad Pitt and Edward Norton singing the Penis Song

What would happen if you really got hit by a bunch of gamma rays

Death from a Star

Geeky ways of killing us all

I’m off to watch Doctor Who on the BBC iPlayer.

I would probably write here more often were it not for crappy internet access.  Anyway.

K and I had a nice holiday in Sardinia last week (hot, mostly great food and even a few rare days on a beach – I know!  I even have a vague tan).  Still, going immediately back to a week of renal nights takes the fun away slightly.  As such I also can’t see the Incredible Hulk till next week.  I wasn’t that keen to start with (ans still remain one of the 10 people in the world who actually really like Ang Lee’s Hulk).  Still, iron Man was awesome and I’m so excited about the concept of an Avenger’s movie that I’ve bought into it.  I’m just a big sucker for continuity.

I was also looking forward to The Happening (being a big fan of M. Night) but the reviews have been so terrible I’m not sure whether I can make time for it.  Both Iron Man and Hulk came out while on nights and if that happens with Dark Knight (my most anticipated movie this year – closely followed by Wall-E) I’m going to be narked.  Wait a minute…FUCK FUCK FUCK – I am on nights.  Damn it all to hell.

Sulking now.

More another time.