Scott’s Spiel

This is usually the bridge I walk over on my way to work. As you can see, on Saturday my options were a bit restricted. I didn’t even know the bridge could do that so was a little surprised when I saw it. The River Festival was on and a number of boats were in the area which is why it was raised. Thankfully there’s another bridge a few minutes down the river and I managed to get to work on time (phew!).

Work itself is remarkably different at the weekend than the weekday. Things are a lot more relaxed and enjoyable as the majority of us are students. I’ve gained a lot of experience already at phlebotomy but I know I could do with more practice. When we get to the haematology ward then I really notice how much I struggle. Thankfully, most patients are happy to let me try a couple of times and many know they have, quite honestly, terrible veins.

I felt so sorry for the patients that I decided to go into town on Saturday and donate blood in the afternoon. One of my first aid colleagues works there but was unfortunately on a training course. Nevertheless the member of staff I was with knew him well enough to slag him off.

I’ve been told by 02 that I can’t get an iPhone until my contract is almost up. While this obviously makes business sense I was hoping for something similar to what they did for the original iPhone. Hopefully when they get a decent level of stock they’ll start to offer an upgrade to those who’ve registered interest. This puts my aim of christmas quite possible but we’ll see.

Two weeks this very day I will have finished the first paper of year two. I have jumped my revision into what I’d describe as 4th gear. Yesterday I managed to kill my personal record for revising in the SL - a whole 14 hours. Unfortunately this is probably a bit of an overestimate as I do need to eat, excrete and not forgetting procrastinate. I remain worryingly confident that all will be well. Even today, as I glanced over my least favourite of the blocks (gastro), I feel that come two weeks I will still be smiling - perhaps a little nervously.

At the moment I’ve been spending far too long looking at electives for the coming years - this assuming I will pass. Ideally, I’d love to spend my third year (junior) elective with the HEMS team in London and my senior one somewhere abroad. Unfortunately the competitiveness might be too much for me and I’m not generally too lucky. Still, it’s worth an email, I just want to wait till my exam results are in. I can’t really work out plans for my senior one until I know whether I will be intercalating or not. This is a big decision, probably bigger than it should be, and I’m still on the fence. I don’t even know whether I’d be allowed or not.

Three weeks today an I will have finished my first training session as a phlebotomist. Yes, I finally got some news. Apparently there was much of a mess up with recruitment and a few people have been having problems. The date is provisional, which is a bit of a problem come trying to work out a start date for the Safari Park. Hopefully the two should help avoid a financial hell-hole next year, combined with a much reduced rent.