Power napping in the library doesn't work!
Well, let me qualify that by saying power napping is NOT a substitute for enough sleep at night!
Okay, back to oncology notes…
I’ve read a lot of Peter Goldsworthy’s books and I’ve found there’s a similarity to them; I guess it’s his writing style, which makes sense. They’re always nicely written, easy to read but leave me feeling disatisfied or mildly annoyed at the ending. This book follows the same pattern so I’m not sure I can recommend it, but I can’t exactly give it the thumbs down as it was a perfectly acceptable story. Maybe it just ends blandly and I feel let down by the time investment, more so now that leisure reading time is scarce.
Quickie post. I know it’s been a while but I had to post about Avenue Q. Wonderful, upbeat, hilarious, sweet, toe-tapping fun. If you haven’t been to see it, go! It’s having its first run in Sydney. Has been running in the US for 6 years, the UK for 4. If you grew up on Sesame St and loved Bert & Ernie, this show is for you. Even if you didn’t, you’ll still love it – unless you’re a conservative old fart who gets shocked easily… you might not get such a kick out of it then.
http://avenueqthemusical.com.au/home.html
I’m still singing “It sucks to be me” and “The internet is for porn…” “just grab your dick and double click”. Hmm. May not be so appropriate at uni; fortunately, we are on a two week hiatus! Yay, I can sing inappropriate lyrics while staring at penises and studying reproductive anatomy!
One set of neighbours, a few doors down, make a lot of noise 3-4 times a week, until 2-3 am – it seems like 20 people and their kids descend on this house, they cook a cow, a sheep, I don’t know and play cards whilst arguing at the top of their lungs.
Another set of neighbours, a few doors up, are the local drug dealers and, when people aren’t trying to shoot at them, their kids are riding unregistered motorised bikes at scary speeds up and down the back lane.
A new set of neighbours moved in next door and will only be there for 6 months while they renovate their house in Randwick. They have 2 kids, and 2 dogs. We think they might have gone away for the weekend as the house has been dark all Friday night and, so far, all Saturday night. This wouldn’t be a problem, except, they have left at least one dog who barked/howled/cried from 10pm to 1am. Then from 2 to 3, then from 4 to 5, after which he just whimpered until about 9am (I say he, but it could be a she, I haven’t yet been introduced). We called the local police who said all the cars were out but they’d put it on the list. What were they going to do, though? Throw it a bone? We thought the dog should be tired today from all that, but it started barking again just now. It’s going to be a fun night.
The other day, we took Spot to the park for his walk and nearly got attacked by a couple of local kids who were trying to beat up another kid and his girlfriend. The girlfriend assured us they weren’t being mugged. One boy looked ready to punch Grant but took a look at his grizzled, unimpressed face and backed off. Yuck.
It’s time to move, but everything takes time and the house isn’t quite market ready. We spoke to an agent, whilst ’shopping’ for the new house, who said he could see 1.2M + in our street if the house was renovated (he’d sold something 10 doors up from our house last year, so knows the street). I think there’s a few things to do yet to make the house a ’show-stopper’ but we both get ‘tired and emotional’ when we start planning for a move.
Anyway, in more mundane pursuits, I’ve been looking for a passionfruit tart similar to what Grant’s mum used to make. I’ve found many very similar versions of one I’ve tried which basically used condensed milk, or too much sugar. End result, sweet thing that doesn’t taste all that much of passionfruit. I’m about to give up and make up my own, which will taste nothing like Norma’s version but at least won’t be cloyingly sweet.
Saw this product on a beauty blog of all things. You basically get a piercing put through the bridge of your nose on which the glasses sits. I guess it’s good for those that don’t like the idea of laser eye surgery. Personally, I’d opt for the surgery if I was going to make a change!
Pierced Glasses
This isn’t new but Dara O’Briain is WONDERFUL and we recently had an academic espouse the benefits of homeopathy. I think the majority of students walked away thinking the same as Dara – it’s just water!!!
People are repulsing me today.
I’m trying to study at the new Freehills Law Library on campus. By and large, law students are a quieter group when studying than the health science students (medical, medical science, biology, pharmacology… they all go to the library to yak which gives me the shits and increases my stress levels so rather than confront all of them, I retreat to the law library).
They have a really nice set up at the law library; lots of tables, lots of powerpoints and people just reading and working on their laptops. I’m sitting in a room with a cathedral ceiling and skylights so it feels really airy and light. And while the medical library is usually stuffy and either too hot or too cold, it’s the perfect t-shirt temperature in here.
A guy has plonked himself down opposite me and has a cough which is only mildly disruptive and disgusting; he’s also listening to something externally audible through his headphones (so he’s deaf too); he also needs to lose 15kg because he’s a mouth breather and is making all sorts of respiratory distress sounds and is a bit florid-faced. He’s probably 20 years old. I’m grossed out, really. Oh joy! He’s leaving! My day has just gotten so much better! I’m not a nice person. I think I’ll log off and feel bad for 2 minutes before going back to reading about acid-base balance and pH regulation in the kidneys.
I’ve been noticing that this post is my most popular and that a Google search terms “Neuroanatomy for dummies” pops that post up first. I guess the Wiley publishing group hasn’t put out one of these titles yet but there are a significant number of people wanting to know about neuroanatomy in a simple way. For those looking for help, I found the following texts really useful during neurology block at Sydney University and now that I’ve decided to do USMLE, they’ll be useful for studying for that exam too:
- Neuroanatomy: An Atlas of Structures, Sections, and Systems, North American Edition (Point (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins))
- High-Yield Neuroanatomy (High-Yield Series)
A good colouring book is also helpful if, like me, it’s hard to remember structures just by staring at them. I found both of these good (you don’t need both):
- The Human Brain Coloring Book (Cos, 306)
- Or Neuroanatomist’s Colouring Book by J. Stone (not at Amazon.com)
If you’re into free stuff try these websites:
Anyone got any ideas? The vet said we basically have to live with the screaming, but poor Pixie screamed for the 2 & 1/2 hours it took us to get to Putty last Saturday and calmed down on Sunday afternoon only to be shoved back in the kitty carrier for another 2 hours of hoarse crying/screaming. The ABC coverage of the cricket on the radio quietened her down a little (we tried an audiobook which made the screaming worse). Lillie & Spot were distressed, Grant was speeding to get home and I got nauseous. We tried a spray with lavender, chamomile, and mandarin but it did diddly. Anyway, we are hoping she gets used to the car trip soon!
Putty was lovely – Grant & Tom wandered out for walks and tidied bits and pieces around the yard, talked to the horses, played with the dogs (Tom’s 10 week old blue heeler, Noah, is adorable if something of a boofhead and a veritable peeing/pooing machine), read, sat in the sun, had a wombat standoff… all the things you do on the weekend at a country property. Me? I sat indoors and studied. Quite productively too! Amazing what you can get done without the distractions of internet, tv, shops, etc.
Sound interesting? Well, it’s not. While Grant was excited to find lucerne to get all the 4-leggeds to come over to him, the alpacas stopped eating at my approach and wouldn’t start again until I left. Then Dumb (or maybe it was Dumber) blew a raspberry at me and scored.
We’re mostly moved in thanks to our removalist, Honda Express. We were a bit worried they might be a little dodgy but they took almost as much care to pack our things in the truck as Allied Pickfords when we moved to Italy and were so much better (faster, more efficient, more careful, fit more into the truck) than Bolliger who packed us up in Italy. Grant keeps telling me, if I had seen the Bolliger boys pack our stuff I’d have had a fit – glad I missed it!
