Exams!!

Well two weeks of term left and not nearly enough time for my brain to absorb as its mean’t too.

Sitting in one of the university libraries trying to learn something about pharmacology I came across an old friend who originally attended Queens with me some time ago. Now he did back in the day play for the enemy, i.e. the presbyterian halls, but time is a great healer. It was quite funny that 9 years later since both originally starting Queens here two of us where pretending to revise our chosen subjects. It is moments like these that make me smile.

You have to take any small joy you can out of sitting a library learning about Superfamilies around midnight!

Well better get back to pretending to revise as my birthday is going to be a special one this year sitting in a practical exam!

The new library!

As I currently sit in the eighth floor of the main library, with the lift under repair and the plaster coming off the walls in the toilets, I still am beginning to realise that actually I am a nerd for quite liking this old architectural disaster. Apparently it being replaced by a new one and the bloke its named after didn’t even study here. (Secretly I am happy at the fact that a former Lions player gets a library named after him. Seriously it has nothing to do with the fact that he paid a lot towards it!)

So apart from pretending to revise what else has the holiday season brought!

1) A road trip with the boys across Scotland. Highlights would be the the 5 hour train journey back from Skye. It always amazes me how much fun looking out a window can be while pretending to work. Also sitting on a pier and just looking out at a bay.

2) An opportunity to just spend a few days chilling out. It amazes me how refreshing it can be to just not do very much.

Now I better get back to pretending to work and contemplate what to do with the summer as I look out the window.

From Poacher to Gamekeeper!

Over the last few months I have probably been keeping a low profile. That might have something to do with having exams after Christmas for the first time in about five years. Having exams after Christmas must have initially been thought up by some real Dickensian like nerd who had a bad experience as a child.

I often find the exam experince quite weird, sitting down at a desk for a defined period of time and wringing your gray matter out and hoping that you get enough inspirational thought to get above a predefined point. The other thing I hate about exams is the pre-exam confidence chat that some people have to have with you to prove that they know their stuff. I am convinced that these people only do this to either demoralise someone or to make themselves feel good. My hatred for this chat has led me to a tried and tested routine of heading to the loo or discussing sport prior to entering an exam.

After the exams finally passed I managed to get a break for a few days and then it was back to the office. This was particularly weird, being back in my old job for a week and also having students for the week. It really was a bit weird! The concept still makes me smile. Having students one week, being one the next week!

Last weekend I had a similar experience while refereeing rugby with the boys I coach. Having been back at uni I haven’t had the chance to see the troops in action this season.  It was quite funny to watch, especially when one the boys placed the ball infront of the line and then wondered why the opposition picked it up and ran 40 yards. I think he is coming to terms with himself now.

Getting to referree often makes me think what I would be like to referree in rugby if I had time to play. As I referree I tend to think of what I would do in particular situations and am always thinking at a ruck, I wouldn’t have done that!

The single minded man!!

Last night a late night caller arrived at my parents house after midnight. They asked if I was in, left a card and a present, paid complements to my parents about me and vanished into the night.

Today when I arrived at home for the banquet and present opening I discovered the gift that had been left in the night. The card  inside was addressed to, “The single minded man”.

It was probably the highlight of my Christmas and I hope that I end up being half as good at being a doctor as he is at his job.

It started and finished at the Doorstep!

Last monday I received a text from a friend who kindly informed me that we only had four and a half years to go. I initially looked at the text, reread it, sat back and realised that the journey was going at a canter. The phrase, “time waits for no man”, had just rang home.

Looking back over the last term has been a blessing. It has taught me much about myself. It has made me think, it has been one hell of a rollercoster. Being a fresher at 27 initially had its apprehensions. I was 9 years older than the A-level entrant. I was entering a new generations turf and I was the alien in a new land. This worried me initially, I remember on the first day not seeing anyone to at least 4pm who could consume alcohol in the US. Some of them probably couldn’t see the resemblance  between the John Major,  “Spiiting Image”, puppett and one of our statistics lectures. (He doesn’t half go on about p’s).

So twelve weeks later looking back to day one do I still have these fears? I can safely say they have been vanquished by a motley crew of fellow students who are some of the best to walk this land.

Tonight as I sat at tea with one of the legends I realised that on this journey some true legends were on board. As we sat in Doorsteps this evening and also at lunch it dawned on me what a journey this had been so far. I was informed how last year I phoned him asking about the interview questions for Glasgow and forgot to tell him I had applied. He also told me how on the first day both of us had ended up in the aforementioned shop and ordered and eaten the same meal. Infact we both had ordered the same drinks if I remember right. This made me smile and think that both of us had started day one and finished the first semester on the same note.

Looking back over the twelve weeks, there have been some extraordinary highs and lows. The first week as I have talked on before was a real voyage of being emotionally lost. I think over the next few weeks it took me a while longer than I had anticipated to get used to all the changes. I remember waking up the morning before I started and not realising for an instant that I wasn’t at home. I remember visiting the bakery,  “The Oven Door”, on the Springfield Road for the first time. Here is a memorial to how customer service should be. It is the complete opposite to that robotic repetoire Tescos staff are scripted by the till to tell us. This is a good old fashioned, “love” fest. (I have stolen this phrase from Sparks. A “love” fest uses basically  the use of, “love” in every sentence). I love this place for a cup of tea (you want sugar, milk or black black “love”), a scone (”you want that buttered love”) and a bun you get chance from £1.30 . (”sure that ill do “love”). It really make Monday and Friday classes so much easier. The staff all have a great sense of humour.

Another highlight this term is the chance to get to do rowing. Since my initial enthusiasm the training has gone through the roof. A dose of tonsillitis killed that idea in the head.

Sport at Queens always has been a passion of mine and the chance now to get the Medics back playing rugby makes me realise that even though I am back five years on I may actually get a chance to get a new project up and running.  The thought of taking these boys on tour!! Willie John McBride would be needed to keep these gents in order.

During the term I have been travelling up from near home and the traveling is the only downside. It takes its toll on you. I feel that traveling takes away from having a chance to fit into and give back to the local community, it is in someways quite selfish. You only take from the experience and don’t give much back. When I get back to  the city I will have to take up the opportunity of giving back to Belfast. Otherwise I will turn into more of a selfish prick.

So if the last twelve weeks have been a rollercoster, its time to get off, re-adjust the balance and sit down and work out what I have learnt over the last three months. About me I suppose that I need to be more disciplined. It is better to do a few things well. To take time and put others first, this was highlighted by a classmate telling me about his term yesterday. Here is a true gentleman miles away from home who is too polite to put anyone out of their way heading home and not having really experienced much of Ireland. Next term it is my plan to get him to see and experience some of the local hidden gems.

So as I drift off to sleep on the last day of term. looking back over the last twenty four hours and the craic in one of the halls, the night out and the fry to finish before we all parted this afternoon.  I can safely say that I will miss the motly crew over the holidays and it has been a  blessing  in having met some absolutely fantastic individuals over the last twelve weeks.

Now to work off or add to that “your look like a boy with a bit of padding”, over the festive season. (We couldn’t have that lecturer short for things to talk about on the first day back could we!!).

On the Road!

So what has the last three months on the road taught me?

Well last Saturday I set off for Dublin at 06.45. I was hoping the fact that I was up so early that I would be rewarded with a spectacular view of the toll bridge. (See below for a view i got elsewhere at this time). As I drove to Newry my chances were getting slimmer and the fog lights were on. The fog lifted for a while and then near the bridge it struck again, my chances of a view were dashed.

It was that cold on Saturday that as I got out of the car in Dublin I noticed beads of ice had formed on my wing mirrors. I suppose the main thing this all means is, the next morning I have to drive to Dublin at this time I will be nearly guaranteed a better view. (During the last three months I have been sitting diligently through statistics lectures. Now it has only just reaffirmed my theory on certainty and two other things).

So why the preamble about last Saturday and fog. Well I think it helps me nicely picture my situation before three months ago, “in the rut”. You can’t see where you are going so you just drive on and hope you will get there. In really bad fog you slow down and take it even easier just to avoid any danger. You get annoyed when you don’t get the view you expected. You become comfortable driving in it as long as you have heat and music.

Once you get out of bad fog, you certainly don’t want to go back as you now can see where you are “mean’t to be going”. It is only when you get out of the fog and re-orientate yourself, that you realise you were lost and that you need to get back on track. By getting out of fog/ a rut doesn’t mean that I won’t enter another fog. I now just won’t choose to go back into it or I will now hopefully avoid it.

All of you nice and filled with metaphoric cliches. Being back on the road does have one disadvantage. I can’t go “home” for five years. Of course I can go to my parents house, but that is not the place where I could at anytime crash on the sofa, put the vibes up full, look at the ceiling and put the world in my head to rights.

Being anyone’s lodger is not “home” either. The bath is not metal, the toilet doesn’t have a bookshelf (Radiator), and there isn’t a pile of bricks arranged out the back. Its weird to say but I miss my pile of bricks. Yes the concept of this is weird but being able to go out set up a BBQ at whatever time you choose and have a beer and look at the stars. (I don’t even have a picture of the fine construction).

So where is my new home? Well I suppose its the road with all its twists and turns. Secretly I have enjoyed all of the good, bad and ugly bits. None of the journey I would change so far. Some of it I have to work on quite hard.

Would I go back to where I was at tomorrow just to have my pile of bricks etc? Not one bit of me would want to be back in that rut. Parts of it I miss of course but being on the road is a minuscule sacrifice to pay and every piece of it is worth it.

Vino

As I sit here this evening reading some online rubbish and genuinely try to convince myself that I am being productive. I notice that somehow I had forgotten what a good glass of wine was like. I think this one was particulary good as it was only £3.99 a bottle that is a pleasant surprise. It also probably highlights the fact that we think expensive wine tastes better. I remember reading once about a trial in which they told people the wine cost different prices. Somehow price affected taste and if someone was told a bottle was more expensive it somehow tasted better. Well tonight I can safely say at £3.99 this tasted better than some bottles which would be over a tenner.

Alma Mater!

So as many of you have guessed I am back at school and back to, “the books”.  Yes I did buy myself a nice new schoolbag and yes I did get new stationary , (actually my sibling bought that for me and I am trying to work out what all of it is for).

Now lets get back to that phrase, “back to the books”. Many of you who know me well will know that when I needed to study in Queens that I tried to avoid all the places you would expect to find me. Places like the Science Library and the Biomedical Library. Instead I used to go to the Main Library. For those of you familiar with it, you know that it is a museum to seventies architecture. The fact that a beautiful old 18th century red brick building has an ugly seventies towerblock appendix adds to its charm.

The main reason I went there was probably because it has individual desks and back then it had two desks per floor which bascally had a cupboard appearance that Potter would have made homely. To me this was a productive place and it was key to avoiding people when i needed to get my head round something. The other great fact was that it had 11 floors so if you turned up on a floor and someone you knew was there, you just picked another one. I suppose the main reason I tended to hide there when I needed to do some work was the view over Belfast.

The other reason I tended to hide in the library was because to get to and from it you get to walk through the black and white hall at Queens. I must admit everytime I walk through I love just looking up and seeing those words, “COURAGE, WISDOM, ALMA MATER, TEMPERANCE, JUSTICE”.

World tour of emotion in one week.

If the week that has just passed was a rollercoaster it would have been only suitable for training purposes for the Russian airforce!

Last Saturday started with a great day at a friends wedding. To see a close friend in such a great place just made me smile. (I have heard there are few other theories on why I was smiling). It was a truely great night.

The morning after the night before, I awoke in a bed in a friends house. Looked at the wallpaper and thought, “that could do with a change”. Then I realised I wasn’t in my own house and I wasn’t going to be changing the wallpaper.

As Sunday progressed it dawned on me that my checklist before starting medicine was now complete. I had nothing left to do apart from just turn up . Two years of planning and the last thing on the list was Nicci’s wedding. Now two years had disintegrated into one day.

So as the evening dawned I sent a few texts to people who needed thanked for keeping me sane during the planning process.

As the alarm bounced like a flea on speed on Monday morning and the backup radio sounded. I had already been awake for twenty minutes.

As I arrived at Queen’s I sat in my pre-designated seat and awaited the next five years. The morning rattled through the various intros. I soon realised that I hadn’t seen anyone who would be allowed to drink in the US. I suppose this panicked me a bit being Gramps but it took until the afternoon to realise that there were at least ten of us.

As the week continued I gradually began to realise that I had to get to know a ‘new’ generation and it slowly became less intimidating.

On Wednesday I realised that the other thing I missed since last being at Queen’s was the buzz of the uni at the start of term. The ‘freshers  Bizzare’, really is a conglomerate of energy that tries to sign up students to all sorts of miscellany. It also attracts the raging hordes of freebie seekers. (Yes I did get some free pens, t-shirts and mugs).  The only club which really tempted me was rowing. I await my ideas of drinking PIMM’S and Magners on the river to be smashed quite soon.

So Thursday eventually came and with it came news which I had been waiting for some time arrived. One of my longest and closest friends dad had died. As I left Belfast that day and headed towards his house I stumbled through the recesses of my thought process as to what to say. I kept focusing on making sure I avoided chat about dissection room, cadavers and all that stuff. As I got to the house and inside I realised this was one time where I was lost for words. I had nothing to say. It was then that I realised this was the first parent of my close friends and he was probably one of, if not the best equipped to deal with it.

Friday was a day of lectures which could have been done via directed reading.

Today well it was just surreal. To attend the funeral of a friends parent puts the rest of the day into context. It suddenly makes falling down the stairs, trying to work out if rugby training was on or off and finding out that the first of the next generation with my family name had been born and no-one told me seem rather irrelevant and meaningless.

So for one week I probably can safely say,

“It was the best of times it was the worst of times.” (Charles Dickens).

Follow me!

Being in Donegal over the last few weeks has had its good and bad points. Learning new systems and having to work would be its bad points. If you can call that bad.

Things that have really brought me that sense of, “only in Ireland”, have been:

a) Driving at approx 00:20 in the middle of nowhere and coming across a set of roadworks with a red light. (Do they ever appear otherwise is a point worthy of debate). Which after sitting there for a few minutes I suddenly realised that the lights didn’t work and out of the night a car appears with a massive sign, “Follow me”, strapped to the back of it.

b) Sitting in a hotel during my first week, for “the last night of the season”, and hearing a great band playing all the Irish pub classics. At about midnight I leave and get aboard the taxi home. The next morning I have a chat with the hotel owner and  he informs me of the shenanaghans that occurred after I had departed. At about 4-5 in the morning the band, minus lead singer, were trying to play ‘Madame George’ and failing. So some genius decides to phone the lead singer. Who is at home in bed with the missus. Can’t imagine why you would answer the phone at that time! So anyhow up he starts his repertoire from beneath the sheets, via his mobile which is on loudspeaker, over the sound system to the masses. Just imagine the misses face!

Only in Ireland!!