Hewitt Blew-it!

Just back from London after getting all political. Most unlike me, but one has to show support for those in my profession who are being screwed by the new medical training system - apart from the ridiculous application system that is no longer based on experience and CV, but on PC waffle, there is the fact that 30,000 will be applying for 24,000 jobs, when the NHS desperately needs them (like nurses and other allied professions who are also unable to find work that they've been trained for). It's disgraceful, for more information see here. So, 12,000 or so of us descended upon London to parade about like extras from "Scrubs" and it was all good fun in the name of a worthy cause. Afterwards there were a load of speeches, and David Cameron turned up to show his support (and canvass for a few votes probably), but fair play to him as Labour have overseen the whole fiasco and declined to send someone along as they knew they'd get lynched.

Afterwards we went for some dinner and stuff, then it was back to North London again to see another friend, ended up having a quiet night, out for dinner then playing 1980s name that tune DVD game which was quite fun, although I'm rubbish at the early 80s stuff as it was a bit before my time. Wham and stuff I'm fine on though! Spent today not doing much, my parents are off on holiday so I didn't have to go back home for Mother's day, so we watched a DVD (the History Boys - definitely recommended although I didn't realise it had such a sad ending) and then I had to make a pie for lunch which was very nice. Off to bed now I think, got builders coming tomorrow hopefully to sort out my damaged plastering, then I can finally get on with redecorating my bedroom.

Lazy sundays

Had some complaints re the lack of updating on the blog (ok, ten days, pushing the "daily" gubbins thing I admit), so apologies. But I've been busy! The new job is well underway, much the same as it always was really, but is good to be back and I'm trying to get my room sorted out. The receptionists have nicknamed it "the Boudoir" as at the moment the lighting is completely inadequate - fine during the morning when I get the sun in, but in the afternoon it has a much more subdued muted tone and I can hardly see what I'm looking at. All I need are a few scented candles and some whale music...

Anyway, today's blog is in celebration of the Great British Lazy Sunday. Had a bit of a big weekend just gone, as I was up in London for a friend's birthday, so spent friday night in the West End in some lounge bar/restaurant thing which was very nice, although we didn't move on anywhere afterwards apart from to the night bus. Had a lie-in on saturday and then went back into town, and had dinner and drinks out again by Covent Garden. Full of bloody tourists, and those stupid automaton things that the French seem to love, you know, the men covered in silver spray paint that stand still for ages and just aren't funny. Then sunday was a gorgeous day, I had bacon sandwiches made for me for breakfast, then was going to head off home as we all had stuff to do, but as it was such a nice day, we decided to go to a walk, then pop into the pub for lunch on the way back, which then turned into having a drink in the pub garden, which turned into two, you get the idea, then it was a case of crashing out on the sofa eating ice-cream before I finally left in the evening. Lazy sundays are most under-rated, it was probably one of the nicest days of the year so far!

Changing the subject, tomorrow I am undergoing the Great Haircut Experiment. Those of you who know me will know that I am generally pretty low-maintenance, but make one concession towards being high-maintenance which is to have my hair done at the local pretentious salon run by a celeb hairdresser (although probably not one that most have heard of). It's often in Vogue magazine and that sort of thing, lots of the staff are French and it's full of ladies who lunch air-kissing everyone and little lapdogs running around the floor. Anyway, my hair is getting a bit wild so needs a cut, and I couldn't get an appointment to fit around work, so I'm going to try out the old biddy salon up the road which is about as far removed from the posh one as you can get. And about a fifth of the cost. Since I'm tending to wear my hair more wavy at the moment, I figured it's not essential that I get the best cut in the world, but I'm going to make damn sure I ask for just a trim so I don't come out with a tight perm and a blue rinse. I will let you know how it goes...

Pimp My House

Here's the "before" picture of my new windows. Rather, the one in my bedroom that was the most minging. Nice green gloss pain on the woodwork. Green walls (and green carpet, that you can't see), and rubbish plastering that was falling to pieces, and mildew as a free bonus. The nice new windows are in now, they have to come back to tidy up the holes in the plaster, but the pimping of my house is not yet over. The next thing is to redecorate my bedroom to get rid of the green, and get a new bed as I'm currently sleeping on a mattress on the floor. But then in the summer I've arranged to have new fascia boards and guttering from the window company as I managed to negotiate them down by 50% of their original quote. Needs doing as they are rotting away and look pretty crap, so figured with the discount it was worth doing - what are credit cards for?

Talking of credit cards, one of mine has been stopped! Had a call from them yesterday saying that there had been a couple of suspicious transactions, I initially thought this was due to my monster shopping frenzy in London earlier this week, but it turns out it was over some 2p charges to Tesco mobile, which I knew nothing about. Not sure how "they" must have got the number, I've not lost the card and not given it to anyone dodgy as far as I know, but am glad the company are on the ball when it comes to noticing fraud. Happens quite often, they said, a few really low transactions to check the card works, then bang - a big one. Have not had the big one though so think I'm safe, although will have to check the statement a bit more thoroughly than I usually do.

I start my "new" job this week! Although since I've been working there on and off for the past two years it's not exactly a big deal, but still nice to have my own room so I can shift some of the books and stuff from home there. Then it's back to London on friday for a friend's birthday, and to catch up with some others too. May well be back in London the following weekend too as there's a big protest about the shambolic organisation of hospital medical jobs which are set to leave 8000 doctors unemployed come August. Luckily most of my friends and I have avoided the fiasco as we're a bit further advanced in training or careers, but the issue needs support so we may all be getting a bit political!

St David's Day

Just a quickie tonight, a lovely photo of me celebrating St David's Day exactly ten years ago at the med school annual St David's Day Dinner. Not the most glamourous of shots, but at least I retained a little more dignity than Paris Hilton/Lindsay Lohan/Britney Spears et al because I was wearing underwear.

Had a couple of fun days in London earlier this week, spent far too much but it was all worth it, and am back next weekend for a friend's birthday. House is getting a bit clearer now after the builders, still vacuuming up those bloody polystyrene balls that the windows were packed in, but it's almost back in order, and I'm inspired to start redecorating my bedroom which is still completely green (carpet/walls/woodwork) - have put up with it long enough!