2006 May Archive at ‘Sup With Pete

Archive for May, 2006

Going to the beach in Wales

Published by pete on May 30, 2006 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Me at ‘Ogmore’ being very pensive

The beach in Wales

This is us camped out after the BBQ at the beach. This is after to tide moved in, so we’ve moved from the nice, sandy beach up onto the Rocks. Still comfy though.

‘The Crew’ and the village at Ogmore.

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Well the term is winding down and exams are approaching. Well – for me and the medics anyways. Most other degrees are finishing their exams here at Bristol this week. Then a few luck people like Engineers, Dentists and Vets have ongoing exams. The medical students are the only ones still in classes (I think). We’ve got two more weeks of classes then a couple of days off and then our exam on June 15th. It’s pretty good, because the Wills Hall Ball is the next day on June 16th, so we’ll be exam free for that time. I’m planning to head home on June 24th provided the exam goes well! So I’m pretty much in study mode now – also, May was quite an expensive month, so I also need to stay in a bit.

Last Friday, I went to a party with the cast of the play I was in at the end of the second term (the Pre-clinical Review). We had a sort of bad-taste theme going on, so we had people come as very ‘bad-taste’ costumes (eg: Nazi, Monica Lewinski, Marmite (a rather revolting toast spread – looks like earwax, I apologize to anyone who likes Marmite). I went as part of the Adam West Batman cast. We had Batman, Robin, and I was the Riddler. He’s a green dude with question marks everywhere. It was great to have a night out with the cast – see everyone again as we’re not all in the same year of medicine and have a few good laughs. We had a few drinks as well.

Due to the long night out, my Saturday was quite uneventful. I did manage to play some squash. Sunday was also quite a relaxing day to be honest. I didn’t do much that day either. We had a nice roast dinner, I played some squash – as it’s been raining pretty much every day lately and I had some fish and chips for dinner.

On Tuesday, we got a bit of a break from the rain, so my friend Rich and I who often play Squash cancelled our game, and played some doubles tennis outdoors. I had another great match which finished up in time for dinner. That night I went out on a date, we went into Clifton for some drinks and mostly just chatted the night away. It went well, but it’s difficult to find time to go out now that exams are here.

On Wednesday again we were hoping for sun, but it rained. So I played some squash instead of going to the ‘Silly Sports’ day that was organized. Squash was good, I seem to be playing well lately due to the practice! That night was the pre-clinical year-end dinner. Year 1 and 2 medical students got together for an all you can eat Chinese buffet. Again, great to see many friends – and we finished off the night with Karaoke. I sang in two songs with others, but not on my own. I had a cold starting up, so I left early.

Due to the cold/stuffy nose, I stayed in on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, I took the night off and I hung out with my North American friend in Wills (Kate) and Rich. We sat out on the Wills croquet lawn (yes, Wills Hall does have a croquet lawn!) and had some beers and Pimms. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned Pimms. It’s an English Liquor that has a fruity taste. So, you add it to Sprite, and usually pieces of Fruit are added such as Apple, Orange, Cucumber and Strawberries for taste. Mostly just played Guitar (Rich plays) and chatted. It was a great, relaxing night. On Friday I took got to bed nice and early and had about 12 hrs of sleep.

This was a long weekend here in England (bank holiday Monday). I didn’t do much on Sat/Sun – there was a Rugby match that I watched each day with some friends (we had to go to the pub because the game was only on Satellite). On Monday though, I was invited to go on a road trip to Wales. We got up pretty late and headed out at about 11:00am to go to the beach! It was beautiful in the morning. We stopped first in Bristol at ASDA (the British name for Wal-Mart – it was packed as it was the bank holiday). We bought some disposable BBQs, some beach toys, some burger/sausages and set off to Wales. It’s easy to get to from Bristol as there is a Bridge crossing the Bristol Channel between England and Wales that cuts off about 1-2hrs of the journey around the channel. We crossed the bridge and made it to a beach near a town call Bridgend, just past Cardiff. I think the beach was called ‘Ogmore.’ I’d never really been to Wales before, but it was really beautiful. There’s loads of hills – and tons and tons of Sheep (not only common to England, but even more so to Wales). I don’t think you could look at any bit of landscape without seeing a few white-dots on the hillside. With the iffy weather, we had some light rain at the start of our trip, but by the afternoon it was sunny. The wind was blowing, so I kept my sweatshirt on most of the time.

We mostly just sat around where we could. I dipped our feet in the freezing seawater a couple of times and played baseball/rugby/football(soccer). We did our BBQ at about 3:30, but we left it to warm up and played some football(soccer) and when we got back the BBQ had blown out – so a couple of us had to run out and find some lighter fluid, difficult to find on a bank holiday when most stores are closed! We did manage to find out and we enjoyed our sausages, hamburgers and marshmallows by dinner time. This was also after migrating up the beach a few times because the tide was rolling in quickly. After dinner a few of us went on a short hike about the coastline. It was really pretty, and I put some pics up to show you. There were a few sheep and bunnies about too. Got back to Bristol in the evening and got ready for class today.

Due to the day of yesterday – I had a full day of lectures, I paid attention most of the time, however, by then end of 5 hrs of lectures it was difficult to concentrate! So, I’m trying to get into study mode with exams fast approaching. Then home for the summer!

Hope all is well, I did notice the Ontario weather was 32degrees yesterday! Hope it’s not too humid for all you Canadians!

-Pete

Me and the Men on the Rocks when the tide was coming in

‘The Riddler Costume’, Pre-clinical dinner and singing Karaoke

Rugby on the Beach

Beautiful Weather, Birthdays and Keeping Busy

Published by pete on May 18, 2006 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

This is me sitting at the back of the boat on the Champagne Cruise

Friends of mine playing Baseball on my birthday on The Downs near where I live. I’m already on first base.

These are pictures of a)Bristol b) ‘The Matthew’ - the replica of the ship that carried John Cabot to find Newfoundland and the SS Great Britain - first cruise liner.

This is a pic of Clifton - the area where the Uni is located. From the boat.

Thursday, 18 May 2006

Hey,

I can never seem to keep up with these updates. After all that studying, I seem to keep myself busy with all the free time I’ve had. But now, my last exam is 3 wks away, so it’s getting back to the books again!

What have I been up to lately? Well, after my last post, I had my 23rd birthday. On May 3rd, I was at a sports club dinner with my hockey team, and the other medics sports teams (rugby was also there, but I haven’t played as much with them this year). Everyone donned their fancy dress – typical in England, so, the hockey team when as convicts/burglars. I came as a sort of gangster . . . or who knows what, but at least I looked dressed up! I did manage to drink enough that night, before my birthday, which began on May 4th at 12:01 am, when a series of shots arrived the moment I turned 23. I did make it home in one piece and to my 11:00 lab the next morning. Except hangovers don’t seem to help on your birthday, and when looking down microscopes! I was fine by the evening of my birthday. We ate dinner at Wills and then I took loads of people out to try and play baseball. Everyone was very keen to play, but there’s a sport here called ‘Rounders’ which people think is similar to baseball, but it is really quite different. (It involves a tiny bat, a tiny baseball, an extra base, you can run without hitting the ball, and you can hit it behind the plate, which are only some of the rules). So with no one know the rules of baseball except me, everyone seemed ot think I was making up all these rules. I’ve never seen so many people make baseball seem so complicated! It ended up being a sort of mix of baseball and rounders – everyone had great fun though. Afterwards we went into the Wills pub for a drink.

The weekend was pretty relaxing. We had our end of the year formal on the Friday night. Sadly, it ended in a food fight – getting loads of chocolate cake on people’s suits and gowns, and there’s not going to be a returner’s formal for us to return to next year. It was the last formal of the year though. Everyone did get cleaned up and went to a club for the night. On the weekend we went and saw one of my future housemates row down the Avon in a competition against University of Bristol’s rival university (University of Western England – also located in lovely Bristol). After watching his team win – we headed downtown to watch Mission Impossible III – a great action movie!

On Sunday and Monday of last week I didn’t get up to much (or much I can remember this far away). I know I mostly stayed in and socialised with people in hall. I did manage to take part in some ‘Morris Dancing’ – another of my future housemates is a Morris Dancer. Morris Dancing is an English Folk Dance (mostly with skipping and hitting sticks – reminds me of going to watch something like Irish Dancing). Jack taught us the dance and we did it at a Wills music night – great fun.

Classes are going pretty well, we’re doing ‘systems-based learning’ now. Meaning, we study a concentration on body systems encompassing Physiology, Anatomy, Histology, Pharmacology, Pathology, etc. Right now it’s Cardiovascular – we’re learning about Heart Attacks, Arrhythmias, Angina, Blood Pressure, etc. It’s feeling a bit more medically relevant at the moment from what I was learning in the first two terms (although they formed a basis for what we’re learning now).

Tuesday night, we had a bar crawl with all the first year medics. It sounds like all I’m doing is going out drinking, but we were finished exams, and non-medics are finishing their year’s and starting to study for their exams now, so everyone was up for partying. The dress-code (again) was ‘School-kids.’ In England, most high-schools still require uniforms, so we were all out in ties and slacks, and the girls were all in pig-tails and skirts. It was loads of fun, and a good celebration of the end of exams!

Wednesday, I got to play this ‘Rounders’ game. It was great fun, but I’m still more of a baseball fan. We were having such great weather all week, so it was nice to spend the afternoon outside, soaking up the sun. Thursday and Friday I attended my classes, and stayed in most of the nights.

On Saturday, Wills held a champagne cruise. We all dressed up in Lounge Suits (girls in dresses) and we headed down to the waterfront for a boat ride up and down the Avon through Bristol. It was lovely, however, slightly chilly that evening. I was glad I was wearing a suit! The jacket kept me nice and warm. We had champagne on the boat, and then headed to a bar for some munchies and dancing/drinks/etc. This was the sort of end of the year event – so great to be out with friends from Wills!

Sunday – I played in another Rounders match against friends from Hiatt Baker – a neighbouring residence (rivalry again). It was a great game, I played a sort of centre field position and made loads of great catches (memories of the days when I played centre field as a kid in baseball). We won by ½ a rounder – yes, rounders even has half-points. I then played in a doubles tennis match with my partner Izzy, we won 2 sets to one against two other future housemates (Rich/Naomi). We finished off the lovely afternoon with a barbeque – you can buy these portable barbeques here – so it’s easy to have one anywhere (as the name suggests).

On Monday I got my NHS (national health service) ID card for the hospitals next year. So now, I’ve got an ID card to say that I can be in the hospitals as a student (we do a couple weeks in hospitals in the 2nd year to get used to being there). We also got our white-coats. Bristol has you wear a lab coat on the wards, but it’s short and only goes to your waistline – so they look really funny. They’re meant to be to identify the students from the Doctors/Consultants. I went over to a medic buddy of mine’s for some fajitas and a movie with a couple other friends that night.

For the past two weeks we’ve had stunning sun and warm weather – now it’s rainy and cold every day so I’ve not been doing as much outdoors lately. Tuesday – classes, squash in the afternoon. Wednesday – classes, squash in the afternoon. End of the year hockey meal. We went out as a team to a restaurant (I had mussles – mmmm) – then to a pub and a bar. I got the award for “Male Newcomer of the Year” -> so I’m guessing I might be continuing to use my goalie skills next year!

Today – labs all day long. However I did get to meet S.T.A.N. STAN is a ‘standard human’. He is one of two STAN’s that are part of the medical school at Bristol. STAN is set up to have several areas for taking pulse, he can have blood pressure, ECG, cardiac output and much more measured/controlled by computers. He is controlled in a room, so he can have a voice, blink, vomit, etc. He, along with his counterpart cost the school almost £250,000 each. That’s over $1,000,000 CDN together! They’re quite important because they allow medical students to observe and treat effects that we cannot induce in volunteers and patients. For example – today we observed a loss of 3000ml of blood to the system. 3 litres is a lot of blood, you could never voluntarily take that much blood from someone! Stan can be defibrillated as well and can be given drugs, and will even change what is expired in his air! It’s pretty amazing! I’m sure I’ll be spending more time with him during my time at Bristol.

I came home today and got in another game of squash, and now I’m off to bed. This week I’ll be getting caught up on all my work for the term, and will be at the last hockey of the year on Sunday (hockey tourney in Weston).

Also, I passed all my exams! It’s a relief. I don’t know the marks yet, as there’s a strike on with the lecturers at the moment, but we do know if we pass/fail.

Hope everyone is well, and all the mothers and grandmothers I have/know had a great Mother’s day last Sunday!

Hope all is well,
-Pete

This is me and Jack at the last formal dinner

This is me getting my award at the Hockey dinner - my nick-name is “Ice Man” if you’re wondering and I got the award for best male newcomer.

‘Morris Men’ - the guys I morris danced with and some of us school kids (1st year medics)

Me in my Ganster oufit, with two other gangsters of different eras, and a random pic of me to fill in the space

Hockey NAMS and EXAMS

Published by pete on May 2, 2006 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Space Invaders from ‘The Car’

This is me goal tending - not much action, so a bit of a dance going on for the crowd.

This is Bristol 1 (pink&black) and Bristol 2 (just black)

This is Ellie taking a shot, and us meeting up with Leister during a break during the Plate final match.

Tuesday, 02 May 2006

Hey,

Wow, so it’s been almost a month since my last post. But, basically I had been revising for my exams last week. I got home from Switzerland on April 6th, took that day, and April 7th off, then basically studied every day until my first exam last Monday on April 24th. It was absolutely exhausting. I had one exam on Monday (nutrition/biochem/genetics) that covered everything from October to December plus 2 biochem units this term. Then on Tuesday I wrote and exam on Immunology, Oncology and Pharmacology. We were kindly given Wednesday off to revise for our 2 exams on Thursday, one covering the sociology/ethics/whole person care part of medicine and in the afternoon a whole exam on epidemiology. This then rounded off with two exam on Friday morning, Anatomy on the whole year and histology on the whole year. That’s why I had been studying for the three weeks since returning from Switzerland.

During the break, I did manage: a trip to the Clifton Suspension Bridge to see the new lights put on and the awesome fireworks display on April 8th. This was to honour of Isambard Brunel’s 200th birthday (the same day as my brother John’s). He was the guy who designed the Clifton Suspension Bridge which spans the Avon Gorge in Bristol, Paddington Station (London), Temple Meads Station (Bristol), the S.S.GreatBritain, and much more. He was basically one of Britain’s famous 19th century engineers. There’s even a University named for him – and he also did a lot for Bristol. I also got out the night before Easter and had a few drinks with some other medics studying here, and watched some Rugby. Went out for curry on Easter and also saw a movie over the holday’s. So I did get away from the books every now and then.

As for how they went. They went okay. The hard one’s went better than I thought because I studied so hard for them, but the easy ones went not so good, because I didn’t study as much. I’ll be getting my marks for the year at the end of May, so I’ll let you know. It’s amazing too, I read a quote in one of my ethics readings about medical students. It basically said how before medical school people worry about not achieving, and upon getting to school all they worry about is failure. That really seemed to sum up these exams, because that’s all I seemed to worry about!

This weekend though was great. I headed back up to Newcastle for a Field Hockey tournament. I didn’t get to see our family friends there because there was no free time from the tournament. Basically, we left right after all the first year’s finished their exams. It’s called NAMS Hockey for the National Association of Medical Schools. So it was hockey teams from all the medical school’s in the UK that had one or more hockey teams and could make it. These included Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leicester, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford, Peninsula, Sheffield, Southhampton, Warwick and of course, Newcastle.

It was loads of fun, except for the fact that I hadn’t slept all week and was faced with two full days of playing hockey. Newcastle organized a great night out when we got there. Everyone was there in Fancy Dress the English term for putting on costumes. We went as ‘Space Invaders’ – so as you can see from the pics, I was painted green, with pink hard, head boppers, green tights and black underwears. Other schools had such things as construction workers, lifeguards, black-tie, etc. It was good fun.

The next day, after about 4 hours of sleep and a slight hang over we all got up and headed for the tournament. It was just outside Newcastle. We brought 2 teams, Bristol 1 and Bristol 2. We both played 3 games. I was on Bristol 1, we played fairly well, for our state, I think we lost 2 game 1-0 and tied one. The other Bristol team did much better that day. We did play well though. I basically stood there for 2 of the three games on the Saturday. The 2 goals were both scored on breakaways. Then, on Sunday the teams were all ranked into a Cup (the A teams), a Plate (the B teams) and a Spoon (the C teams). Both our teams were in the Plate championships. Here we got to the finals. But first got to play Bristol 2 in the semi-finals, which was awesome getting to play people from your own team (we just split into 2 for the tournament). Bristol 1’s won (that’s my team), but we lost to Leicester in the finals 2-0, sadly. It was a great game and there’s a pic of us in the middle of the pitch having a conversation while the refs left to deal with some locals who were disrupting the tournament.

All in all the weekend was load of fun. The Saturday night was also another great night out with the hockey team in Newcastle. We were brought out for a curry and a night out of drinking and we wore just jeans and our social shirts – no green paint/tights! On the way home from Newcastle (which we departed at 6:20 pm), we stopped off in the town of Rugby and had a home made curry, courtesy of my friend Ash’s mom. It was awesome! Just a great way to end off the weekend (a little spicy though). We arrived back in Bristol at about 1:30pm (you can see why I flew last time).

This week, we’re starting the 2nd year basically. It’s studying systems. We’re doing cardiovascular now, as well as musculoskeletal. We’re also doing resuscitation training – which I’m guessing is learning Artificial Respiration, etc like what you’d do in a first-aid course. Also, Wednesday is a sports-club dinner for all the medic’s sports, so it’ll be a great night out, followed by my 23rd birthday on MAY 4th! Due to possible drinking on the 3rd we’ll be playing some baseball on the downs after dinner and just going to the pub. Friday will be the last Wills Formal of the year.

Also this month; Wills is running a champagne cruise up the Avon. And I’m also hoping to get up to London to see BodyWorlds, the new anatomy exhibit that’s supposed to be amazing.

Hope all is well, and the weather here is getting more and more stunning everyday. People are out on the down’s playing football, having BBQ’s and enjoying their last bit of sunlight before exams! (everyone else’s exams start at the end of May).

Have a Happy Birthday Mom, on the 4th!

-Pete

This is the team just dressed in costure before leaving Bristol.

This is me, Joe and Vicki at the curry place (I got a bit of sun this weekend) and us at the bar in costume.

This is our Bristol vs. Bristol semi-final match (i’m not in this pic)

This is us at the bus stop and on the bus, on the way to downtown Newcastle for the NAMS party.