Oxygen Conservation

Let them eat Cake

2007-03-30T19:07:00.001+01:00

Low, one of my most favouritist bands ever in the history of time have released a new album, 'Drums and Guns'. Here is the semi-nauseating video for their first single Breaker.

Low - Breaker

Catastrophe and the Cure

2007-03-25T12:23:00.000+01:00

And so on to more exciting non-work related things.

El musico. I have taken up playing guitar again after an absence, but after bashing out a few covers and playing the same old tired chords I realise that I need to put in a serious amount of effort to create anything that I am remotely satisfied with, get disheartened and stop. I know this is a sad picture to present, but only because I hope to improve on it in future.

Listening wise, I am taking in the new Explosions in the Sky record (and its interesting remix second disk) but not listened to it enough to decide whether it is as good as the last two albums. Also my brother, Stephen sent us 'Wincing the Night Away' by the Shins, which is great as expected. The Shins are one of those bands that inspire me to create music; reasonably simple songs with great melodies and interesting instrumentation [inspiration is one thing, however].

I don't think I've mentioned that we now have a Nintendo Wii, which has been enormous fun. Interestingly Wii Tennis and Golf and Rayman Raving Rabbits have been our most played games, although I have got stuck into Zelda: Twilight Princess [just past Goron Mines, Zelda kids, in about 12 hours of play - think I'm a bit of a Zelda delinquent] when I was off on annual leave. It's great to see people playing the sports and laughing - although I have more than once accidently thumped the wife whilst taking a vigorous swing at the tennis ball. We also picked up Tiger Woods Golf, which sounds a bit sad - I'm not more than an annual pitch and putter in real life - but it has been pretty enjoyable to hit a round using the wii remote. So anyone who's in the vicinity and fancies a game, feel free to pop in.

Chimpy chompy. Till next time.

I still owe you for the hole in the floor

2007-03-25T11:48:00.000+01:00

Another week passed, just 6 days left of my current job; it has had its ups and downs and in betweens.

At times I feel I've regressed into that medical student who didn't care about things and just wanted to get home as soon as possible, but when I'm in a more positive mood I've learnt about continuity of care, having had some patients on the ward almost throughout the whole time I've been there. I don't like sitting about doing nothing, but I don't feel there's very much wriggle room for initiative within the department, hence it is only noticed when you make an omission. It's probably just a clash of personalities with the all controlling Reg.

Anyway that was a bit depressing, sorry. On to the next post.

Thanks to the warning sign generator

Miss Happy Sunshine Face

2007-03-04T00:45:00.000Z

Not quite the return you had all hoped for but nevertheless better than nothing. Perhaps. Maybe I will regain my portion of the internaudience, all 3 of you.

Enjoy other 'failed' Japanese inventions here: Ueba. Monster.

I'm melting.

2006-07-28T02:21:00.000+01:00

It is very warm. Is Dundee always this warm in late July (in the middle of the night, no less)?

(I am merely posting this so that in December when it is 'baltico' I can look back and see how I complained about the warmth - self indulgent, I know but bear with me).

This ain't no holiday...But it always turns out this way.

2006-07-28T01:21:00.000+01:00

Well Mr Black it has indeed been my holiday, the holiday that has been the first 23 years of my life; sadly now it is coming to a fitful close, with the impending beginning of my working life. Being a student has never seemed like so little work. After over 18 years of learning (allegedly) I now have to put some of it into practice, with the side effect of earning some money.

Graduation gone, summer weddings passed, trip abroad over, it's enough to make anyone feel down. The rusty wheel of life trundles ever onward downward down the mist enveloped bumpy road of life. I hope there's a cold snap next week as being baked alive in some old semi-converted wartime pre-fab (think the old Wellington for you Belfasters) does not fill me with the joys of summer. Hmm. It's not all bad though - I will have a role, a function, a reason to be hanging around - the least important person but yet have some responsibility [good/bad?]. Oh, if only they didn't keep changing things, but everything comes together for good.

Trying to put together a Mix CD to remind me of this period in time, but still trying to finalise the tracklist.

Later tater.

The same place...some time later

2006-06-23T17:06:00.000+01:00

Bon soir mes amis.

Events:
I passed my exams and am currently a 'graduand', a strange state of limbo between finding out that I've passed my exams and getting bopped on the head by the bonnet of Dundee during graduation on the 11th of July.
Helen graduated yesterday with a 1st in her degree, which is impressive, cue champagne and tasty meals.
We had a short holiday in Greece last week, on the Ionian island of Zakynthos...pictures to follow, perhaps....
We also moved residence to a nice shiny new flat, which has been good to us thus far.
On Wednesday we were at the wedding of our friend Claire (née Woolsey) Trumper, which was great - the first wedding I had been to since my own - it seemed much more relaxing.

Life still seems inordinately busy but perhaps it will slow down a bit for a while now that some of the above have been done [but maybe that's just wishful thinking].

Added a couple of new links to friends' blogs - the blogosphere is seemingly alive and well, but I'm left feeling less and less unique by the day.

Enjoy.

We don't need oxygen...

2006-05-19T15:07:00.000+01:00

Not only are JJ72 wrong about not needing oxygen (QED by D. Blaine), a Japanese Spar-a-like chain of shops suggests that a measly 21% isn't enough by planning to sell compressed 95% oxygen in cans. One can will apparently last about 70 seconds (or 35 x 2s bursts as they are marketing it).

Hmm. I think I'll stick with the free stuff for now.

On a mat o' poetry

2006-05-18T16:46:00.000+01:00

Want an interesting comparative study in language or just a way to waste ten minutes listening to kids make animal and vehicle noises? Try onomatopoeic library Bzzzpeek [needs sound]. The British ones are quite amusing ('giddy up' from a Princess Anne sound-a-like) and some of the foreign ones are baffling - do goats in Hungary really say 'Mars Bar'?

Port-foiled

2006-05-17T13:12:00.000+01:00

Hello
Last Friday saw the hand in of my portfolio, the sum total of my 5 years of medical school. It was a momentous occasion, but one that passed with a great deal of not-sleeping. I blame the weekend of vomiting and diarrhoea that I had enjoyed the Saturday and Sunday before, but others might blame my lack of foresight and laziness. Unfortunately it isn't as simple as writing a lot of guff, I now have to justify the guff in an oral exam next week.

Of course in the midst of this we found out that the rent on our current flat does not end at the end of July (as we expected after we wrote a very polite letter much earlier in the year asking for this extension) but rather in 3 weeks time - scrabbling around for flats has never been so much fun. We may well have found one, but justifying earnings when all I have to prove that I will have a job in August is a rather vague letter of acceptance. Well, we shall see, we shall see (anyone got any nice watertight cardboard boxes?)

Musically, I've acquired a nice shiny pile of CDs including the lovely 'The Swell Season' from Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (who I saw live in Lisburn last summer) and a couple which I've been meaning to get for a while including Elbow 'Leaders of the Free World', Sparklehorse, 'It's A Wonderful Life' (thanks Stephen), and the Flaming Lips 'At War with the Mystics' and very recently, Grandaddy's departing album 'Just Like the Fambly Cat' all of which are proving great in a similar vocal style, save for Elbow.

For the next week I shall be attempting to prepare for my oral exam, but who knows what form that preparation will take? If only my favourite bands would sing about something more useful...hmm but I guess that would be pretty dull.

Bleep bleep.

Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands

2006-04-15T20:33:00.000+01:00

Hello Innernet Kids

The most exciting thing from last week was getting my thrice yearly hair cut....aah the time saved in the morning by having less hair to wash....and the feeling of the wind on my ears, the sun burning the back of my neck...ok, maybe that last one was a bit of wishful thinking.

In musical news...
I found a nice Elliott Smith website with lots of demos and b-sides, most of which I hadn't heard before....www.elliottsmithbsides.com

Fun.

Like a pig in a cage on antibiotics

2006-03-31T13:47:00.000+01:00

Hello

That much forgotten centre piece of Radiohead's OK Computer has been brought out of the shadows and into the flash light....
Fitter Happier

Have a good weekend. Mine will be spent writing my last 2 formal case reports....'fnu' as goats once uttered.

What's taters precious?

2006-03-28T16:16:00.000+01:00

Normally these kinds of things are rubbish but I found this quite amusing (well for the first 30s):

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/taters

Hm. Should really get back to work now.

Welcome to winners

2006-03-19T18:32:00.000Z

Hello

After a moderately successful week, visiting the radiology department of a small hospital half way to Aberdeen, yesterday I travelled to Glasgow primarly to pick up Helen from the airport, but secondly to visit with Pete. The evening started, as all evenings should, with a trip to the pub to watch Ireland play some rugby.

It was a great game with a large number of ex-pats, Scots and French cheering on the men in green. After an initial clumsy mistake which lead to an English try Ireland dominated the first half, scoring a try themselves and should have scored a few more points, but lead by a single penalty at the half. As in all games against England the second half was a tense affair; England hitting back soon after the break with a period of sustained pressure, which eventually lead to an easy try, before Ireland responded off a poorly thrown line-out with a superb piece of individual skill from Leamy, the No. 8, to get his hand to the throw and then to force it to the ground for the score. The atmosphere in 'Bar Budda' was far from Zen-like, with nervous faces all round. After a sin binning for one of the Ireland players, England took the lead again with a couple of penalty kicks, leaving the score at 24-21 with less than 5 minutes to go. Our adopted Irish friend in the bar, whose name I never actually found out, declared that he'd "had a feeling all day" that Ireland were going to win, and despite my disbelief at this prediction, I wanted him to be right.

And he was. One Ireland rush forward lead to a huge cheer, a second made people leap to their feet and by the time the winning try was scored people were shouting as loud as I've heard in a long while. It was a great game. [Why are the English always such bad losers? See 'England blame luck of the Irish' It's not like they haven't had enough experience of it recently].

After a pizza at the legendary Dino's on Sauchiehall St, we crossed the road to the tallest cinema in Europe to see George Clooney's much praised directorial debut, 'Good Night and Good Luck'. It was certainly an enjoyable film, with quite a leisurely feel, probably due to the excellent understated acting of David Strathairn, and despite its weighty topic. I enjoyed the black and white cinematography, full of shadows and boxed-in architectural claustrophia, adding to the tension. I didn't feel it was a pro-communist film, as I imagine dissenters would accuse, but more a rallying against trial by prejudice - this reminded me of the current controversies surrounding the detainments in Guantanamo Bay. And the musical interludes from Jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves were very pleasant as well. So, all in all, one to check out if you're in the mood for a quietly spoken film that will lull you in and subtlely make you think.

I think I've written enough now. Rock on.

Dave.

Science vs. Romance

2006-02-20T11:35:00.000Z

"Sometimes you see beautiful people with no brains. Sometimes you have ugly people who are intelligent, like scientists" - Jose Mourinho.

I'm not sure why scientists are singled out as being ugly (or in fact intelligent) but nevertheless the self-appointed 'Special One' has spoken.

Also Science vs. Romance is a song by Rilo Kiley, which I like; you could check out at the Hype Machine, a web page that lists all the songs from recent music blog posting; it's also got a good search facility for sampling those bands whose names you've only heard.

Thanks.

Cheesy Circle

2006-02-17T14:40:00.000Z

Today is Friday.

Another week has passed in my soon to end undergraduate career. It has been fairly quiet aside from a couple of tutorials and anaesthetic observances, which has given me a chance to laze about after my shadowing block.

A few selected tunes from this week (and if I was cooler and had web space I'd put up links):

Stars - Your Ex-Lover is Dead. Despite the title and some of the lyrics this quite an uplifting tune, reminds me of indie popsters the Delgados, probably mainly because of the alternating boy/girl vocals.

Gregor Samsa - Young & Old. The start is similar to Explosions in the Sky or Sigur Rós then fades into a Kings of Convenience-esque harmony for the vocals before heading out with something that sounds like Hope of States (recognising that they themselves are rather similar to EITS or SR). Not sure whether a whole album would be good but this is, as all the best 'post-rock' songs are, invigorating but always threatening collapse.

Aimee Mann - Wise Up. Always going to remind me of Magnolia and William H Macy, but is a good song in its own right.

Andrew Bird - Tables & Chairs. The Andrew Bird album gets better with each listen but this track is one of my favourites as it is quite subtle.
Belle and Sebastian - The Blues are Still Blue. From their new album The Life Pursuit. This song is the one that has stood out thus far with its Marc Bolan esque vocals and chunky guitar riff and a catchy chorus to boot. Never underestimate the power of a catchy chorus.

So there you are. Check them out if you care.

Have a good weekend.

Can you guess what it is yet?

2006-01-30T23:04:00.000Z

Without cheating and looking up the name, anyone have any guesses as to who this fresh faced troubadour is? Amusing example of 80s album covers nevertheless.

Also on an unrelated note - towering over Dictionary.com is my new favourite dictionary, 'the free dictionary'. Ah the wonders of having a favourite dictionary.

2 months and 1 Christmas Later

2006-01-29T15:00:00.000Z

...hello?...

The blogging return of both Pete and Stephen has encouraged me to type a little. I think attempting to recap on the whole Christmas and New Year period would be a little overwhelming, so it's almost suffice to say that it was relaxing, amusing and unique.

So back to January. We've been back in Dundee for 3 and a half weeks and, despite a blip of a few days towards the end of last week when I had an odd stomach flu and had to take a couple of days off, things have been going well. I am currently on a 'shadowing' block which means I basically follow round one of the junior doctors on the ward trying to pick up what I'm supposed to be doing in August(!) when I start working for real.

I have been attempting to compile a CD (as unfashionable as having music on those shiny things is becoming) of my favourite tunes from last year. I think the three genres (as unsatisfying/satisfying as classifying music is) from last year were instrumental, pseudo-folk and Sufjan Stevens. Concentrating on one task at a time is proving difficult as usual.

Yesterday we headed down to Edinburgh to see our good friend Tim who is now living in Hong Kong, teaching English to rowdy kids, but who returned to the UK to pave the way for his (second) wedding (within a week) during the summer. It was good to see yon Tim as well as some of other good friends...hm, should've taken my camera in hindsight as we went for a very pleasant walk in the Pentlands as dusk descended.

Back to the rock'n'roll lifestyle tomorrow as another week of early starts and as it is the last week of the block frantic computerising. Rock and roll indeed.

Out.

400? I'm coming over

2005-11-22T16:04:00.000Z

Ah well, another year, another bird-day.

Thank you to everyone who wished me well in the many various forms, cards, phone calls, text messages and personal visits (Pete....bringing multiple presents and Powerball excitement and Stephen's Stouffer present...(upload your Stouffer video please)). I ended up with a large pile of shiny new CDs, which will entertain me over the dark winter months and possibly comment upon. On the day Helen and I took a pleasant trip down the coast of Fife, eating Fish and Chips in the acclaimed Anstruther Fish Bar (patrons include Tom Hanks and Prince Willy) and walking several piers, dreaming of visiting the Isle of May with its three lighthouses, and watching the old men slowly pull their car into the harbour.

Elsewhere I played Frisbee in Glagow (8th...a bit below par) and in Dundee at the Inter-Medics tournament (losing heavily to Aberdeen in the final, unsurprisingly) as well as on the infamous Magdalen green. I have started a new block on 'Improving Prescribing', which involves learning to think like a manager (hmm) and not understanding various jargon terms (Defined Daily Dose (DDD) for starters) but doesn't seem too taxing. Best be getting on with the other stuff then.

Thanks.

Yawn! Sleepy sunsets.

2005-10-31T15:47:00.000Z

Ah hibernation, what a good idea.

So apart from randomly deciding the course of my future (by applying for a real job) last week (although I will have to wait some 4 weeks for the results of my actions) I have been well. Two beginners ultimate weekends in the last two, one which won (woohoo) and last weekend's Edinburgh beginners in which we came 12th/32, which was still a good result.

Two weeks now till the most important autumn tournament, indoor regionals in Glasgow, for the frisbee of course, but also for the party (or more the party theme). Dundee are the 6 times reigning party prize winners at Glasgow, due to our themes. The 2 others years I have been we were Hillbillies and Old People (walking down Sauciehall street dressed as a Granny was an experience) and this year's is still to be decided. Thus far we have had the ideas of cheerleaders (guess where Helen stole that idea from, Sufjan fans?), commandos (doesn't sound too good) and pirates (my own personal favourite).

Otherwise things are well in the Maconachie household. The view from the window was bathed in blurring autumn sun. Unfortunately it now gets dark (thanks to those pesky farmers) at about 5 and will continue to get earlier and earlier (I think it levels off around 3.30pm by December). An example:

Will try and update this a bit more regularly, but don't hold your breath.
Hope you are well.

This week I have mostly been listening to....

2005-10-04T22:22:00.000+01:00

Sigur Rós - Takk... The new one from those Icelandic post pixies. Good.
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Surprised it took me so long to find this album, Americana is the flavour of the month. Looking forward to hearing the other albums when I find them at good prices.
Calexico/Iron & Wine - In the Reigns. Almost country with slide guitars, but some nice tunes from Sam Beam and cohorts. Pity it's only 7 tracks.
Otherwise, a little bit of this and a little bit of that, some Johnny Cash, some Neil Young and a bit o' the Shins. Need to get a bit Indie again soon or who knows what I'll be listening to.

Aside from music my life is still travelling and GP-ing and frisbee...including new found organisational nightmares relating to things being overly popular (a first for the club). Enjoying it overall though.

" Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles..."

Helen and I watched 'The Princess Bride' movie based on the William Golding Novel of the same name last week. I read the book on the plane on the way to India way back in July and was pleasantly surprised; it reads like a good old fashioned fairly tale. The film seems to make it slightly more childish than I imagined from the book and some of the epic scale of the journey was lost but enjoyable nevertheless (includes a cameo appearance from Columbo). Worth a watch if you're in a light-hearted and forgiving of the 80s mood.

Goodnight.

[Listening to: Horses in the Sky - The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band - Horses in the Sky]

Yes! I am a long way from home

2005-09-26T23:19:00.000+01:00

I continue to live.

Ugh. What an ugly picture.

Anyway I am married now. Good work me (although I am many and variously failing to answer the question 'How's married life?' when asked, so far I've just said 'busy' or 'good', both of which are true but not the whole picture).

Pretty busy alternately with travelling to/from Glenrothes, pretending to do stuff at the GP's practice, playing ultimate and attempting to sort out the flat (with a good dose of DVD watching and generally faffing about) with some tasty meals in between. Perhaps I shall some day recount the tale of the three trips to IKEA within a week, with a little pause to speculate on what the acronym actually stands for, if it is indeed an acronym at all.

Until next time.

Mornin' M'Lord

2005-08-26T00:07:00.000+01:00

Forgot to mention that Radiohead have started a blog about the sessions for their new album. Pictures like this and other odd ranting abound.

I like Radiohead.
Thank you

Contamporaneous posting

2005-08-26T00:03:00.000+01:00

Hello.
Contrary to popular belief I have not sat still during the last 3 weeks, whittling away my time with endless prattling as a some are wont to do, but I have been standing in a (mostly) busy accident and emergency department, whittling away my time with some patient-doctor prattling in between sticking needles into said patients and forcing them to move (often with difficulty) various parts of their bodies. Having said that I have learnt a lot of practical application of my skills, gaining confidence but still managing to say something stupid as the first answer when I'm asked a question. I presented a case of a 33 year old who had suffered from a cocaine induced MI and a related paper at the department's journal club, which seemed to go down well. Tomorrow is my last day before my two weeks of holiday prior to returning to Dundee. Of course it will be a rather busy first week and hopefully a more relaxed second week. Things are shaping up fairly well for the 'Big Day' next week. Perhaps more on this at a later juncture, but for now to savour the hours of sleep before I must stand again.

Dave
P.S. Head on over to Filter magazine for a link to the new Sigur Rós song. Sounds like a good one, a bit more focused than ( ), but we shall see what the album has to offer.

You don't know how lucky you are

2005-08-07T11:12:00.000+01:00

So there it is, the end of my Indian adventure. I had a great time, both learning in the hospital and enjoying exploring the country to a very limited extent. The Indians are generally very friendly and the hospital had a good atmosphere about it. Iwas a bit ill a couple of times, but at least I didnt catch anything too bad and survived the roads. Everything I took with me was covered in a thick layer of dust (half my suntanwashed off when I got back) and I have some fairly slow healing wounds which should give me some nice scars to remind me of the month. I would really like to go back and travel more, especially to the north and see the differences there. As for long term, Im not sure if I would ever like to work in India there is a lot of bureaucracy but there is a lot of need, which will only worsen with the increasing numbers. Would I recommend the hospital for an elective? Yes and no. I didnt really get to doanything (compared with a tiny hospital in the back end of nowhere where you might be seeing and treating lots of patients) but I had a good time with the other students and a chance to see lots of interesting conditions in stages that I will probably never see here; I enjoyed the trips to the villages and the chance to see the houses in which these people liveand how their lifestyle contributes to their health problems. It was good to not just be a tourist but to be staying in the one place for a reasonable amount of time, having to travel around like the localsin autorickshaws and buy things from the local shops (Ghandi Rd). Ran out of steam there...

Back to the UK now...

My last week in India

2005-08-05T19:05:00.000+01:00

Last week at CMC was spent at their CHAD (Community Health And Development) department. In some ways a very separate part of the hospital, as it is not based at the main hospital site but at the college campus about 7 km away. The most succinct way of describing it is as a "super GP practice", the main activities of which are to visit the people in their own villages and provide Outpatient services. They currently also have a small number of in patient beds, mostly in the labour unit but they also have an increasingly small leprosy unit, which will soon be closed as leprosy patients will be treated alongside other medical complaints. Community Health has always been an interest of CMC ever since its inception due to the experience of its founder Dr. Ida Scudder.

The story goes thus:
Ida Scudder's parents (her father was a doctor) were missionaries in India during the late 19th century, based about 20 km from Vellore. Ida was born whilst they were in India but she didn't enjoy living in India and left as soonas she could to attend university in the United States to study science. Every year she would make the 6 week boat journey to India to visit her parents for 2 weeks and then return. If was during one of these visits that a dramatic event occurred. One night after dinner there was a knock at the door of the Scudders' house. A man from one of the local villages was there, asking for help as his wife was in labour. Ida explained that she couldn't help but her father and he could come. This was unacceptable tothe man and kept insisting that it should be Ida. After a further heated discussion (commonplace in India!) the man left, disappointed. Later on the same evening a second knock and similar incident, again the husband leaving disappointed. At this point Ida was starting to be concerned and a 3rd incident took place. Worried, but feeling helpless Ida retired to bed. The next morning there was a sound of a loud commotion coming from the village. The butler was dispatched to find out what was going on and returned with the news that 3 women had died overnight whilst in labour. This deeply affected Ida and she returned to the US to complete her degree, determined to start medical training as soon as possible. After a further 4 years she became a doctor and returned to Vellore to set up a hospital and training facility for women.

Over the years this grew and expanded into the hospital it is today, accepting male students in the 1950s. The CHAD department itself was initially only for students to learn from the symptoms and signs of the locals but developed into a fully fledged part of the work CMC do during the 1980s. Alongside the healthcare they run various development projects including providing jobs for the women of the families, welding, sewing and embroidering.

Also visited the swimming pool a couple of times during week, realising how bad I am at swimming; oh well, at least I don't sink.

David and the Temples of Umm...

2005-08-01T21:40:00.000+01:00

3rd and final India weekend report. Can't believe I only have 4 nights left in Vellore, the time has flown in.

First things first:
Friday
Instead of travelling by train this weekend's journey was taxi-powered. My travelling companions were three German medical students, Christian, Vicky and my room mate, Christian. The first destination was Thanjavur, a mere 400km from Vellore. 8 hours later we arrived (averaging 30 miles an hour, Indian traffic is pretty bad). The journey itself wasn't entirely a waste though, got to see a lot more of the country. Some notes I made at the time:

Many of the roads are half-constructed or crumbling, but others have good road markings and surfaces.
The vehicles are many and various ranging from bicycles to rickshaws to cow-pulled carts to speeding buses heading towards you and literally swerving 20m from the front of the car
You have to be insane to drive a car in India; the drivers cannot judge distances or point blankly refuse to believe that you can't overtake with only 2 car lengths room. I have never had so many near death experiences. I felt like kissing the ground like the Pope. Our driver seemed reasonable enough for Indian standards. The best moment was when there was a car over taking another car overtaking a truck all heading towards us at high speed.
I found out today that Vellore hasn't had a proper rain and harvest in 4 years and this was evidenced all around Tamil Nadu by the massive bridges spanning dusty canyons where once life-giving water flowed.

One plus of this journey was the amazing hotel that we had, it was very new and shiny; great food at the restaurant too, I've been really getting into vegetarian stuff since I've been out here - perhaps that's because of the quality or lack thereof of the meat involved.

Saturday
Saturday began with my first visit to a Hindu temple. We set off early to see the temple whilst it was still fairly quiet. The main temple in Thanjavur is reknowned for the size of it's Nandi (the Bull statue that sits in the courtyard of the temple); it stands at an impressive height, having been carved and polished from a single piece of stone (local legend says that it is still growing).

After the temple to the Palace, which was slightly disappointing (similar to Tipu Sultan's palace in Bangalore but not as impressive) but had an amusing climb to the top of a tower from which the whole town could be seen.

Next stop Trichy, home of a temple on a tall rocky outcrop (the Rock Fort) in the centre of the town and large temple on the outskirts. The rock fort allegedly had 440 steps or so but didn't seem too arduous even in the heat and whilst barefoot. Some really great views from the top and a refreshing cool breeze. Stood for a few minutes just feeling the sun on my face and the wind in my hair before clambering back down to the taxi to take us to the next stop (via the coffee shop and another chat with some of the friendly locals), the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple (here is a link to someone else's report of the area with some reasonable pictures). An impressive construction with a huge 73 metre tower at one side and several smaller towers dotted throughout the site. We had a friendly guide whose English was pretty good and managed to get a first idea of what the Hindus believe and what the different symbols mean to them.

Then another 3 hour car journey to the furthest south I will be in India this journey, to Madurai. Booked into another reasonable hotel and had dinner at the rooftop restaurant before heading off to bed.

Sunday
Another day, another temple. This time an equally impresssive building and a better guide, heard and forgot some more about Hinduism but was still interesting to see how the people lived their lives and for me to try and understand what seems like something very different to our Western Christian way of thinking. Reminded me a lot of the descriptions of Jewish temples, with stalls selling things for sacrifice and the different rituals that went on and with a very holy place at the centre. Interesting. After this temple a visit to the Palace (a rather bland building, probably not worth visiting after all the other more ornate places we had been to that weekend), before lunch and the start of our eight and half hour marathon car journey back to Vellore. Fortunately the roads were good for a lot of the journey and we made good time (original estimate was 10 hours). I was glad to be stopped and still in one piece.

This was a fairly brief account of the weekend. It was much more touristy than anything I had done before but definitely worth seeing to help me understand Indian culture and especially Hinduism better. Also managed to cope with all the German spoken and learn a bit of my own (hergenhantascha man's hand bag, brotbixa, lunch box and klostein...um, 'loo stone' apparently (those disinfecting cubes)). Useful.

Sorry no pictures as yet. Working on it.

Musical interlude

2005-08-01T10:28:00.000+01:00

Just some gigs I'm thinking about going to this autumn.
Going to see Iain Archer with Glen Hansard (of the Frames) in Lisburn of all places in a couple of weeks time, which should be good. Not been to a gig in quite a while and looking forward to seeing the Frames front man without the rest of the band.

Also under consideration:
Four Tet (and more importantly as I've heard that Mr Hebden isn't the best live) Explosions in the Sky - Glasgow at the start of November
The Frames - Glasgow's QMU on the 27th of November.
Sigur Rós - 10th November in Edinburgh (think this is during my Autumn holiday week), would be interesting to hear their new album; really enjoyed the SR gig 3 years ago (my, my, how time flies).

November is generally my gig month, always end up seeing at least one during this time; all of these are interesting but would probably end up costing about £60 or so. Any other recommendations for gigs in Scotland?

SS watch: Also see that Sufjan Stevens is contributing to a track-by-track covers album of the Beatles' classic, Rubber Soul; sounds like a winning combination.

Done.

Surgical times

2005-07-28T22:50:00.000+01:00

Hello
This week I have been placed in Surgery 1, which is one of the general surgery units at the hospital, but also specialises in Head and Neck surgery. In the rest of the world H&N cancers make up 10% of the total number of cancers, but in the Indian subcontinent it is up to 40% of the total. This is mainly due to the prominence of chewing tobacco and Betel Nut, often mixed with slake lime, a fairly potent carcinogenic mixture. This leads to some pretty horrific tongue and buccal carcinomas, all at a fairly advanced stage. This means that many of the operations carried out are fairly radical, involving large scale dissections of the neck as well as removing the primary tumour, with fairly large skin flaps from various parts of the body used. Also many of the people had travelled from West Bengal (up near Bangladesh in the north) to come to CMC, but I am not entirely sure why they have travelled so far, obviously it has a good reputation. Aside from head and neck stuff, there was a very nasty case of necrotising fasciitis on the ward, a benign parotid swelling, which we saw carefully removed to avoid damaging the facial nerve and lots of other hemi-colectomies and general surgery type things, which was quite interesting. Also attended some teaching with the Indian medical students, they get a whole week for head and neck conditions whereas we maybe had it mentioned once or twice in the ENT block but more related to pharyngeal cancers. I have enjoyed the week, although I haven't felt hugely well the whole time, quite a lot of standing in the heat and it has been a good opportunity to augment my knowledge illustrated with striking clinical examples.

The other main highlight of the week was our trip to see the Tamil Move Anniyan. Tamil is the main language of this region, Tamil Nadu and most of these films are made in Chennai (Madras), known locally as Kollywood films (cf Bollywood from Mumbai/Bombay). It was quite different from my expectations.
A few observations:

It was quite violent, having quite a number of fighting scenes and fairly brutal murders, although mostly off screen. I was expecting some kind of lovey-dovey romance with lots of songs and dancing.
There weren't as many songs I was expecting, I counted just 4, but the dancing was quite interesting and there were lots of scene and costume changes (This kind of thing would appall me in an English-language film but was somehow quite interesting in the Tamil film)
It was actually fairly modern, employed now oft-used Matrix-esque time-slicing techniques for the fighting scenes.
I was surprisd with how easy it was to follow the film, except in the long passages of dialogue.
Good representation of Indian transport systems, showing the autorickshaws and the train; a good sense of the 'I've done that' tourist feeling.

I'm sure there was more to say but my brain is getting to that seizeing up point in the day.
I'm off on a 3 day taxi excursion round the temple cities of southern Tamil Nadu this weekend, which should be very interesting and provide some good photos.

Hope you have a good one.
All the best.

Good Day Sunshine

2005-07-25T17:23:00.000+01:00

So anyway, to start on a good point, I passed my exams! No more written exams for the whole of medical school. It was an ugly pass but as said in ER, "what do you call the guy who graduates last in his class at medical school?....Doctor!"

The weekend trip was to Bangalore:
Left on Friday evening around 6pm (was meant to be a good half an hour earlier) and found my confirmed seat on the train. It was a bench seat which I shared with 2 other commuters whilst my new room mate Christian and 2 English girls Clare and Ali sat on the seat over the aisle; the rest of our group were in the same carriage but further down. It soon became duller and the train lurched into the night. Apart from the less than smooth running of the train we were also fairly constantly interrupted by all manner of people carrying different items for sale or begging for money. Some of the beggars could be very persistent, tapping me or the others on the leg or hand for up to 5 minutes. It was difficult for me. Perhaps in larger cities like London or Glasgow these kinds of thing are more common but in Dundee it is fairly rare to see someone on a street corner and I can count the number of times on one hand that I've been approached to be asked for money. It is difficult to refuse to give money to the polio crippled man who crawls down the train with a rag to clean the floor in return for a few rupees or the child who looks like he hasn't eaten a proper meal in a good few days.

Anyway arriving in Bangalore without somewhere to stay was, in hindsight, a bad idea. We tried phoning ahead once we had got into the train station but most places were already booked up. Having a large group of people (13 or something) was difficult and we were willing to split up but we eventually found a place not to far from the main commercial centre of Bangalore, MG Road. This "hotel" was called the New Central Lodge Hotel. I thought my room in the Annexe here at CMC was spartan, but at least it is fairly respectibly spartan. This hotel, even at 11.30 at night, looked grimy. I had a more comfortable bed on the floor of the train last weekend; fortunately I was exhausted and slept pretty well despite the chill that was in the air.

Saturday
Got up relatively early, in glad expectation of the warm shower I was promised. Bangalore wasn't particularly warm (probably still 23 or something), especially at 8 o'clock in the morning and having slept on a rather rigid bed my bruised shoulders could have done with a nice bit of massaging heat, but as you have guessed the shower was lukewarm at best. At least it wasn't freezing as it was on Sunday. The unhelpful taps didn't make my life any easier either, as I attempted every combination to make the thing heat up. I also have to blame the 10 girls with whom we were sharing the hotel and managed to get up earlier and probably use up all the hot water. Anyway headed off to Mathma Ghandi (MG) Road, the main road in Bangalore for breakfast at a local Barista place...think I had cake or something for breakfast as they didn't offer anything more savoury than this. Mmm, cake for breakfast. MG road was unlike anything I had experienced in India before - it could almost have been in London or Glasgow with its tall buildings and impressive shop fronts (and paved footpaths). Spent quite a while in the very western shops and ended up having pasta for lunch at a Lonely Planet recommended restaurant (average at best, pretty bland. Reminder: stick to Indian food).

After lunch the other side of Bangalore when we headed to the City Market. This was a pretty dingy place at first sight, worsened by the heavy rain (pseudo-monsoon), but the colours and smells of the market were very impressive, especially in the covered part of the market. There were many stalls selling strong-smelling flowers and many others selling strong-smelling brightly coloured spices. Definitely "An Exerience". After this we were a bit more touristy and headed to the Palace of Tipu Sultan, which was interesting building of tall columns and dark coloured wood, with a good guided tour by a friendly local.

Back to the hotel before dinner at an atmospheric restaurant before rounding off the evening with a few drinks at a packed 70s style pub, Pecos.

Sunday
After the frenetic activity of Saturday I had a much more leisurely Sunday, despite the coldness of the shower. Good coffee and chocolate cake for breakfast (at least it wasn't spicy) before we headed off to the Botannical gardens in the city. It was relatively busy (cost me the princely sum of 5 rupees (about 7p) to get in) but still quite quiet and away from the traffic. The gardens themselves weren't particularly beautiful with some low scrubby bushes dominating the flora, but there was some interesting Gneiss formations for all you Geology fans out there. Apparently they were some of the oldest rocks in the world but I don't trust signs.

The train back was at 2.30 so steadily we made our way towards the train station getting good views of the grand City Court and Parliament buildings on the journey as well as helpful advice from the autorickshaw driver regarding possible sleep-inducing drugs being hidden inside sweets offered by fellow passengers; urban legend if you ask me. The train journey itself was much less interrupted and managed to get a good bit of Sufjan-listening sleep. So I arrived back without major illness or even the minor illness that plagued the return journey from Ooty.

Overall it was a good trip, interesting to see the progressive, modern India coupled with areas of the worst poverty I've seen in India. Bangalore has about 5 million people and about 8% of these live in slums. Although this is less than some other places I've been (Kibera in Nairobi being a prime example), the contrast between the flashy banking and IT sectors and these slums is so sharp here, but still there weren't huge numbers of orphaned children or beggars as in Kenya; perhaps the relatively heavy police presence kept them out of sight.

Post-script
Heard about this when I got back, but didn't see any sign of it whilst we were there:
India’s IT capital wakes up to terror threat

Until next time.

The calm before the storm

2005-07-21T22:27:00.000+01:00

Today was a very pleasantly relaxing day. It was pretty warm all day here in Vellore and there has not been the evening rain that cools the place down to make it possible to sleep so I predict a fairly restless night ahead, despite my tiredness. Was in the department all morning, nothing particularly exciting, seemed pretty quiet - the cue for a reasonably long lunch break - before a short afternoon stint during which time no new patients were registered. After we could take no more the 2 German students and I decided that we would be much better spending our time beside the pool. It was my first trip and it was very pleasant, the water warm and sun not too scorching, all it needed was someone to serve cold drinks at regular intervals. Last day in Accident and Emergency tomorrow, hope to get an interesting case to write up for this half of the block. Head to Surgery for a week next week, think it's general surgery with some head and neck stuff thrown in for variety; apparently the doctors are quite good at teaching, but otherwise I have not really any idea why I chose to see this!
Anyway the weekend trip starts at 5.30 tomorrow when I head to Bangalore by train. Looking forward to seeing what a modern Indian city looks like - hope it doesn't cost too much.
Off for a nice hot chocolate before bed.
All the best.

2005-07-20T18:14:00.000+01:00

Katpadi is the train station closest to Vellore (about 7km from CMC). Click on the map for a more detailed view. Ooty (where I went last weekend) is in the most westerly part of Tamil Nadu. This weekend I will be heading to Bangalore on the train (west of here) and weekend 3 will potentially be a trip down to Madurai (about where the 78E and 10N lines intersect) and Trichy.
So there you go. Click clunk.

The longest weekend (finally)

2005-07-19T21:58:00.000+01:00

Hello!
Apologies for the very slight break in communication (I'm not dead Mum and Dad!) but I was away from Friday until Sunday and then feeling a bit dodgy the last couple of days; thanks to the marvels of over-the-counter purchasing of usually prescription-only drugs I am starting to feel better again (antibiotics not morphine or something...although I'm sure that it would be pretty easy to find).

So since I last posted:
Friday
Friday was another interesting day, not quite as hot as the others. Quite a few road traffic accidents came into the department including one who had pretty nasty looking 'road rash' - skin abrasions caused by coming off his two-wheeler after a bus hit him...and I thought motorbikes were dangerous in the UK, here it's only a matter of time before you have an accident and when you do most people have little or no protection and the outcome is usually a lot worse than it would be for a similar accident in the UK; That is, not mentioning other factors like the state of the roads or the cavalier attitude of the drivers towards sides of the road.

So after work we went out for dinner then met up at around 10pm to head down to the train. At this point I still didn't know if I was going to get onto the train, the board at the train station displayed whether I had moved up far enough on the waiting list to get a confirmed bunk in the sleeper carriage.. Alas despite my starting position of 30+ on the list changing some 20 places I didn't manage to be confirmed. Unperturbed by this I got on the train (some 20 minutes late - apparently this isn't a bad delay, at least the train turned up) with my colleagues; after a little wrangling with the train conductor 20 minutes after departure he said I could lie on the floor for the journey. Not ideal, but at least I was on my way.

Saturday
Arriving into Mettupalayam (the bottom of the hill) at about 6am we attempted to board the train that heads up the hill to Ooty...again I had the same problem, except I was now WL43. Ended up standing for 3.5/5 hour train journey (along with 3 others of the group), in a carriage where most of the locals made it fairly clear that the didn't want us to be there. Thankfully the scenery was fairly stunning with views out over the valley, with vegetation (somewhat reminiscent of parts of New Zealand) lining the track for most of the journey and fairly frequent breaks as the steam engine took on water and fuel (at one about 30 monkeys came converged on the train from all directions). Here's a picture of the train (not mine unfortunately but one I got off the net)

Upon reaching Ooty I felt a certain sense of elation, which was seemingly echoed by the train station announcer's words of "you are very priviledged to have taken this train today" - wasn't quite getting the same vibe but nevertheless pleased to stretch my legs again. The furore continued upon detraining with newspaper reporters and television cameras milling about on the platform - a couple of our group were interviewed and pictures taken. Apparently it turns out that the train had only that day been provisionally awarded special heritage status by UNESCO (see Chennai Online News) and that we were the first ones to arrive after this.)

After this excitement a couple of set off to find somewhere to stay and ended up with a chalet-type thing for about £3 for the night. It was pretty basic but clean and had hot water, so I could have my first hot shower since getting here - back in Vellore I was happy enough to have cool showers!

Lunch came and went (but could this have been the start of all the trouble?) and we stepped out into the street to the sight of Monsoon! everywhere. At that point I had never become so wet in such a short period of period time (the rain on Sunday was even worse) but in typical tropical fashion we expected it to be over within an hour or two and so took a leisurely trip out to the boathouse by the lake. Now at this point, being fairly wet I was getting pretty cold so I bought a fleecy hat (dual purpose, keep head warm and keep more rain from soaking head). I never once expected to be buying a winter hat in India, but such is life. When thoughts of taking a pedal boat were dashed after a good hour's wait for the rain to subside (it didn't) and with stubborness that only tourists can possess we went on a motorboat (with canopy around the lake). I'd like to say that this made the whole waiting around thing worthwhile and to a certain extent it was good but y'know, being in a boat in monsoon rain with the wind blowing water off the canopy and onto the only clean/dry clothes you have with you whilst you reminisce about the coat you left in your bag back at the hotel, sound good? Climbed out of the boat after these 20 minutes and sprinted through the rain, shivered whilst aboard the autorickshaw and sprinted through the rain again to the chalet before an alternately roasting/freezing shower. Spent the rest of the evening shivering through dinner, but slept ok afterwards.

Strangely although this day sounds like a nightmare, it was quite fun and I ate some pretty good chocolate (or was this the source of all the trouble?) along the way.

Sunday
Cold. But dry and warm in the sun, pleasant nap over breakfast! Today most of the group had arranged to hike up in the hills around the main town. Well when I say 'hike' it was more of a dander, through the tea plantations and fields. This was the best part of the weekend for me, not only was it not raining or too cold but it made it seem worthwhile making the difficult journey to the town. The sights were pretty fantastic (pity I forgot my camera...stupid stupid) and the silence was amazing, as the guide said 'this is not India'. Apparently the area to which we went was in a lot of the Bollywood films and Tamil films so there were big gatherings of India tourists in the distance. Also we were told that we weren't allowed to take pictures of one of the shepherds working in the fields or the sheep that she tended as she worked for the Government (apparently this rule extends beyond the military and police in India), before "enjoying" a bumpy journey downhill on a crowded bus at breakneck speed.

Back to Ooty, pick up bags, heavens open again, streets fill with water almost instantly, recently dry clothes saturate, shivering starts. Go for lunch, strangely not hungry. Visit toilet. Realise that niggly stomach pains were pointing to something rather more sinister. Worry about long train journey ahead. Take Immodium.

Left for the station immediately after lunch, find my *allocated* seat! Don't know what I would have done without one on the way back so that's good. Settle in for ride, doze off and on, look out through the windows, enjoying some of the views I had missed out on on the way up. Talked to a few of the people around me as well; seems like everyone in this area has heard of CMC, which is a good sign. Unfortunately despite my obvious annoyance at the fact, the father of the small child behind me wants to bow to said child's wishes and open the window fully. Now as I said it was not hugely warm and I wasn't feeling exactly well. A compromise of half open existed for about 20 minutes before somewhat rudely the father reaches over and opens the window fully again without even bothering to ask me (it probably isn't considered rude in India to do this, but I wasn't in the best of form). Cosequently I reached the bottom shivering like a leaf and despite pacing up and down the platform I remained this way pretty much until we got to Vellore. I tried to sleep on the longer train (I had a confirmed bunk this time) but was beginning to get more stomach pains and at one point had to rush to the toilet.

Monday
Arrived back at the Annexe at 3.30am. Didn't sleep too well for the rest of the night and wasn't well enough to go into the hospital on Monday at all. Drank some lovely oral rehydration solution and nibbled on some Milk Bikis, dry and plain. Thankfully I didn't really have any nausea as that would have been much worse. Felt a bit better by evening and able to go out for tea but didn't eat much then spent another fairly restless night.

Tuesday
Starting to feel a bit better, so I head into the department in the morning, but have to retire injured after the first couple of hours before making a triumphant return in the late afternoon. In between I made a dashing mid day expedition to retrieve money and purchase pharamaceutical items including much needed antibiotics, analgesia and some more sugary salty mix (definitely needed after the sun). Out for dinner again before a less restless but interrupted sleep (once to take dose 2 of cipro and secondly at 6.30 when Ravi my laundry man brought back the clothes I gave him on Monday).

And at last the write up is done. Sorry about that epic, hope it's not too much of a slog. Feel free to leave any comments and stuff if you're having a look, as the 2nd Immortal Phrase says, "Ask Any Questions and Take Ye Any Photographs You Like" (the 1st Immortal Phrase refers to different forms of cream).

Brain drain

2005-07-14T15:30:00.001+01:00

Hello

Another hot sunny morning here in Vellore, but the clouds have come over and it looks as though it could rain again today. Yesterday's downpour was well received (by me) as it cooled the temperature significantly and managed to have a good night's sleep for once. Still finding the sights and sounds and roads of India quite daunting, but beginning to come to terms with things. Lots of interesting stuff happening in Casualty this week, quite a lot of RTAs, a good few of which Dead on Arrival (somewhat less "interesting"), some overdoses (apparently the area around here is the suicide capital of the world...see BBC News), a couple of cases of malaria and a good few ordinary medical problems too such as food poisoning, heart attacks, strokes and the like. Fortunately none of these things have happened to me yet, although I've felt close to death at many times when I've been in an 'autorickshaw'. Story of the day was a guy who was a driver of one of these autos and was driving along when his vehicle hit a bump and he hit his head off the roof and was knocked unconscious and stopped breathing; he was pronounced dead when he arrived. I'll have to make sure I hold on tightly. It's quite a different medical system to the one I'm used to in the UK, I had never quite appreciated the difference having a national health service made, even more so here when the people have little or no savings and every investigation, every needle, every drug and every bag of fluids has to be paid for. In fact the way it works is that the doctor writes the prescription and the family has to go out and queue up at the pharmacy where they are given the syringes, fluids, venflons etc. and pay in advance for any bloods or imaging that is going to be carried out. It is not until they bring these items or the receipts in that treatment is started. Also referral for further treatment, e.g. ICU, is often based on who can pay rather than who needs the treatment. I have heard the argument that because CMC is a Mission Hospital they should pay for the treatment (and they do for the most needy of patients - discerning these patients is the difficulty, especially in an acute situation) but it would cost an awful lot of money and wouldn't be sustainable for very long. Otherwise I am very impressed with the standard of care, they have CTs and MRI scanners and all the results are available almost as soon as the scan is taken (depending on payment of course), there is good teaching from the senior staff and the junior staff all seem to have a good level of knowledge. It is also interesting to see the interactions between the doctor and the patient/relatives - as I don't understand the local language here I am judging mainly on body language, but it seems more up front than the "touchy feely" approach we are taught in Dundee. Anyhow, rambling aside.

Also managed to bump into the self-titled "laundry man" today to whom I am paying the equivalent of £4 and he'll do all my washing for me for the 4 weeks I'm here. Sounds pretty good to me.

I'm sure I had more to say but half an hour in the sweltering computer room and my brain is mush. No sign of that rain yet.

May be off to Ooty this weekend as long as I get a ticket - I'm currently on the waiting list, so hope that works out or I may be staying here looking round Vellore Fort in the centre of town, which would be ok.

Anyhow. All the best.
Dave.

For the benefit of Mr Kite

2005-07-12T18:13:00.000+01:00

Hello
I am in India! Hurray! Wish I had the energy to tell you of the marvellously exciting:

1. Taxi journey from Chennai airport to Vellore in the wee small hours of the morning.
2. Cheap and tasty food that I have been eating
3. Good books (How to be a bad birdwatcher, The Princess Bride and Generation X)
4. Hospital and emergency department here in Vellore (Snake bites et al)
5. Heat...well that's not marvellously exciting but continuously penetrating and interrupting of sleep as well as dehydrating...but I'll get over it!
6. Noise! Yes and at all hours of the day.
7. Other elective students from various parts of the globe.

But maybe some other time, eh? Now I've got my internet working at the hospital, should be easy enough.

Right off to have a cold shower to cool down and then out for some tea methinks. All the best.

0.6p per second

2005-07-10T05:19:00.000+01:00

Heathrow 5.20am and there is an increasingly huge queue, which I am about to join, forming for departures. Need to blag my way into the Lufthansa Lounge as well using my Dad's "Diamond Club" card.
This is the first step on my long and increasingly unknown journey into Asia. So far this first night has been pretty good. Dinner at the hotel ok, good power shower, which is always a bonus, expensive taxi to airport, fast check-in using self-service machine; I'm sure these things will become the norm in the coming years, speeds up things muchly and you can choose your own seats, which is good. Anyhoo. Hopefully this won't be my only entry for the next month. Hope you all keep well in the intervening time.
Best be off. 4p left...

Gasp (and sigh).

2005-07-08T19:34:00.000+01:00

No more exams!
All done...phew....pretty tricky stuff in the end, got the wrong end of the stick on a few questions, but hey, that's par for the course. But no more on that madness.
Getting ready to head off to India tomorrow, scary stuff.
Room is now quite empty as moving all my stuff (well Helen and my parents are) to my future marital home/flat.
Out for tea this evening, should be good
Attempting to move blog. You shall see if this is successful.
Looking out for updates from fellow world travelling bloggers.

Apologies for non-verbosity of above. Maybe more later.

Time is but a memory

2005-07-04T23:26:00.000+01:00

Just a quick message
Shoulder deep in 'revision' at the moment; thankfully handed in all the peripheral paperwork that is required these days for a medical degree and have oooh...about 4 whole days to revise for the actual exam. For the first exam since I came to medical school I feel like I am actually revising rather than learning stuff for the first time, which is good, but although I know a lot more I imagine that everyone else knows a lot lot more. Ah well, just have to try my best as me 'ol mum always says. Scarily only 8 weeks on Thursday till I get married too and in the intervening time I head off to India, for which I am not at all mentally prepared. The massive mental block of 'the exams' has cast a dark shadow over any events following it. I don't feel too stressed but my body is attempting to tell me otherwise with my previously seen lack of hunger in the morning, fatigue and other less than desirable effects.

Points:

Must write about the time "everyone" came to Dundee to visit as it was very momentous, but too tired right now

New link to Pete's blog about his elective to Boliva, sure to be interesting if he can get to a compy(-386) out there

I may be changing the URL of this blog at the end of the week as I am moving flat and this internet account will be deactivated at some point during July, but will redirect it.

Hope you are all well.

I cried myself to sleep last night

2005-06-20T19:43:00.000+01:00

Hurray!

After paying the rather exorbitant customs charge of 7 bucks on my import, I collected the latest porpoise from Sufjan Stevens x4 from the post office. Sounds great thus far....not hugely different in style from Michigan, but that's not a bad thing. Making me happy when all else is contriving to bog me down....need to make a mix tape.

This however, was not the best parcel I recieved in the last 7 days. As I previously mentioned I ordered a couple of CDs from some Belfast band, both arriving on a Wednesday of last week (perhaps the first Wednesday, or was it the second?). A rather sedate small envelope arrived with my Fast Emperors purchase, which I duly opened and out came a rather smart looking single sized CD. So far so good. As I opened the rather larger and puffier package (with extra H in my surname for comedy value) from those boyos at Panda Kopanda, out spilled not only a nicely packaged cardboard EP style CD but a hand written named note of thanks (extra kudos for asking for comments), several small flyers for the band, a copy of last months 'Vacuum' fanzine, a packet of jelly worms and some other sweets. The music wasn't bad either. I respect that kind of effort and they have found a special place in the musical valves of my heart. Who says gimmicks are a bad thing? More freebies I say.

Countdown to les examens: T-18 days. It'll be a'right.

I can walk into the sea and choke away the memories

2005-06-09T23:34:00.000+01:00

So Helen's off to Italy to melt some glaciers and my flatmates are doing some well-deserved revelling in their first class degrees, leaving me to be bored working in the flat. Fair enough so, you might say, they've earned their holiday and I'm not going to disagree.

It's urology this week; not the most thrilling of topics, but not too boring either; very quiet in terms of hospital time, which is good given the proximity to the exams. Can't say I've been overly motivated yet, but I really will have to be from here on in. Lots of peripheral patient presenation (not quite an alliteration there) work to do before I can get stuck into the proverbial meat and potatoes of actually learning something. Ordered some CDs today from local Belfast bands Panda Kopanda and the previously mentioned Fast Emperors. Should be good. Anyhoo, that was the excitement of my day other than a nice polio immunisation, made my arm rather itchy for a while.
Right back to it. Thank you for granting me this time out. Chomp.

Song of the day - Walk into the sea - Low. From my favourite album of the year so far (or was it last year? ah well), 'The Great Destroyer'.

2005-06-08T21:11:00.000+01:00

A sunny day in St Andrews. Yes this is an old picture, but a good 'un. The sun tonight reminds me of Regionals and Nationals in St Andrews last year....enter J Will centre stage for all his Southern drawl-pig loving-inbredness.

Farewell old smokey

2005-06-02T11:57:00.000+01:00

Hello.

After a brief trip back to Belfast over the weekend I have returned to finish my placement in Wishaw. All-in-all it's been pretty good, reasonably busy, fairly useful. This week has been spent with more textbook learning than any of the other weeks so far; not entirely my most favoured learning style, seems overly conducive to dozing off but nevertheless in these times of pre-exam tension it must done.

Thanks to Vic for the link to Asthmatic Kitty where you can get the new Sufjan Stevens album Chicago a full month before it's official release and for minimal expense (£5.77 per album...hence I have bought 4 copies to distribute unevenly).

Also a Happy belated birthday to my brother, Stephen, who has now reached the Grand Old Age of 21. At his gathering we watched the rather good Napoleon Dynamite, excellent at the start, wanes towards the end, but the characters are amusingly dead pan and any film featuring a llama has to be seen.

Back to Dundee tomorrow, so more frequent posting may resume dependent on level of work/actually having something interesting to write about (ok, so the latter hasn't stopped me thus far).

And finally, in a rip off from Ross' site (the mostly excellent Broken Sounds) here are some of the searches that lead to this site:

"caught kissing" - not sure where I even used the word 'kissing'...
"sumo pants" - ah the memories
"of male colon location" - in your abdomen
various "Nickleback" references - oh how I love this band (to be honest (which I'm not being, conversely), they dropped off my musical radar after that Spiderman song)
"pronunciation misunderstanding films" - I might search for this myself...

Signing off

Wishaw'll of you were here

2005-05-24T17:05:00.000+01:00

Hello everybody.
I'm on an 'out block' at the minute down in the lovely Lanarkshire town of Wishaw attempting to learn some stuff before my finals in 6 weeks. I only have intermittent access to the innernet so forgive my infrequent posting. Secondly I haven't really been up to much. Watch Star Wars Ep III last Thursday but I don't have the time or energy to talk about its moments of comic brilliance today (Hayden Christensen somewhat ruining the evil side of Darth Vader).
Was also playing a bit of frisbee at the weekend down in Bakewell at outdoor 'Not the Nationals', last Uni tournament of the year.
Tea beckons.
Rock on.

You say the right thing when electioneering

2005-04-18T20:52:00.000+01:00

Earlier this evening, while Helen and I were chatting about the questionable benefits of the continuing Space Programme, I began to question the value of democracy.
And lo I chanced upon an interesting page about the alternatives from the remarkable BBC:
Do we really need an election?

You can't say fairer than that, after the last derogatory post.

Most of them are scary. I don't know why I trust politicians more than random punters, because the evidence is that they'd auction their own children to the lowest bidder to gain power, but it'd probably all turn out like Northern Ireland where they'd pay themselves to do nothing. I quite enjoy the election run-up despite the lack of excitement for the last 3 goes; for the first time in the 4 or so years that I can vote I'm not really fussed. Perhaps it's because I'm in Scotland and although my vote actually might affect my life in some way (questionable) I don't have the same, 'I'd better vote for this person as a protest vote against the bigotry of the other candidates' feeling.
Politics, eh, who would have 'em?

Bring on the Major Leagues

2005-04-16T12:45:00.000+01:00

I know football players are the new royalty but this article is taking the once-revered British Broadcasting Corporation to a new low:
Man U stars make Welsh chip stop
See especially 'Which Star Ordered What' highlighted box.
Yawn.

Mobiles chirp and mobiles wwwerk

2005-04-12T22:58:00.000+01:00

Perhaps I've linked to this before, but some of these instruments have amazing names...the Telharmonium, the Dynaphone, the Pianorad. Goodness knows what they sound like, although I think a couple have popped up on some Radiohead stuff thanks to that eclectic noise-maker/experimenter Johnathan Greenwood.

120 years of Electronic Music

Lots of pictures at the moment, hope it brightens up the place...*blows off the cobwebs from around the edge of the screen*.

It Should Be Always Like This

2005-04-12T12:51:00.000+01:00

Just a quick link to a good band from Belfast (I'm not about to say "The Next Big Thing"):
Fast Emperors
Fomerly known as Edgeweather.

In the Navy

2005-04-10T12:14:00.000+01:00

Being paid to sit on a cruise ship for 4 months in the Caribbean with only a few sprained ankles to strap (well and the heart attacks), doesn't sound too bad.

From Ship's doctors - One of the more tricky situations...

"Back to Basics

'I once dealt with a passenger who was suffering from severe abdominal pain. He knew he had a hereditary illness but couldn’t remember what it was! I had to revisit my basic skills and clinical knowledge in order to conduct a diagnosis. A urine test was conducted and it was clear as the urine turned brown that this was a case of Porphyria.'
Doctor Sally Bell"

Anti-climax or what?

2005-04-08T17:00:00.000+01:00

Inspiring, isn't it?

Chicago!

2005-04-08T15:52:00.000+01:00

Further to previous excitement: Sufjan Stevens releases his new album on the 5th of July...aah 2-3 days before my finals. Something for me to listen to in India...hm, I'm sure there something "wrong" with that, but I don't know what.
see Pitchfork: Sufjan Stevens Album Details Announced

Also: Happy Birthday to Pete - Notching up his 22nd year on Earth.

Bananas.

Sumo Pants

2005-03-24T23:38:00.000Z

From BBC News:
One amateur sumo official told the paper: "Pubescent kids are not going to take part if they don't look cool."

'nuff said.

Br Danielson

2005-03-22T20:31:00.000Z

Just thought this was an amusing picture of Daniel Smith of various Danielson related projects:

Also rather frustrating box game:
Escapa

Down is the new up.

2005-03-17T16:52:00.000Z

Hello

Just thought I'd check in. I'm having one of those weeks where one day life is great and everything seems to go well (except for the sore knee I acquired along the way) and the next I remember all the things I still haven't done. So. End of neurology/neurosurgery tomorrow; it has been fairly interesting, as per usual and some good teaching this week from the consultants.

Been listening to the rather wonderful 'To Spirit Away the Mews' compilation by my new favourite record label Asthmatic Kitty (home of Sufjan Stevens, Danielson Famille and Half Handed cloud plus a load of others). I have an itching to get back to writing and playing more of my own music but the aforementioned 'things I still haven't done' always come to mind; not that it spurs me to do them, rather it just encourages me to ignore them, mostly by wandering the innnernet or eating. Yum. Food.

Also playing the Ultimate at the weekend at our outdoor Regionals. We did ok given our lack of experience in general. I had a good time, which is the main thing. I know that I'll never be the best player in the world but I retain the desire to improve and mostly enjoy the game; c'mon it's not a real sport so having fun is the main objective.

It's my Granny and Grandpa's 50th Wedding Anniversary today, so best wishes to them. They really are 'Golden Oldies' now. Ahem. 'Taxi'.
All the best to you and your kin.

Someday we may see a Woman King

2005-03-07T22:37:00.000Z

Just a quick note to say that I'm enjoying the new Iron & Wine EP - Woman King. This was my first introduction to the group and I am enjoying it muchly...as well as listening to the Clem Snide track 'Fill Me With Your Light' quite a lot. Melodic folky stuff (apologies for poor description) is very soothing to my slightly anxious mind at the moment. Pick me up Sam Beam.

Ready Reckoner.

Enjoy your Rabbit

2005-02-27T23:46:00.000Z

Yo, yo.

Anaesthetics. The flipside of orthopaedics in many ways, it is controlled and monitored, it involves little to no blood spillage and is relatively interesting.

Now that that's out of the way, to the worthwhile part of the week:
Went to see Low on Friday night in Glasgow. Was good, quite shambolic in some ways, with Alan Sparhawk seemingly randomly switching on and off various pieces of noice making equipment. I'm not sure if this new 'loud/fast' sound sits entirely well with the man but he seems to be having a good time anyway. The new songs are coming across well in a live setting, but you do lose some of that sense of bewilderment at the harmonies between Mimi and Alan when there is a growling riff in the background. Kid Dakota were surprisingly good, along their songs were a little meandering at points. Made me think...'hmm, I could write songs like that'.. But I couldn't sing songs like that. Sounds good on the record, I'd say. Regretting not buying it when I was there. Will maybe borrow it off Pete at some point if I can prize it from his huge food-caked fingers.

Watched 'Chocolat' last night. Ok, call me an unfeeling Philistine if you like but I thought it was pretty poor, especially as everyone gave up on their weak French accents after the first scene. The cinematography was also fairly uninteresting reflecting the inaneness (inanity?) of the plot. Maybe if I had stayed awake long enough to watch the end of the film I would have enjoyed it but I just couldn't identify with any of the characters; Judi Dench had a reasonable performance, but she rarely turns in anything too bad (it's no Iris, mind you). Still to see Anchorman...one of those films everyone keeps recommending. I'm looking forward to 'The Aquatic Life of Steve Zissou', the new Wes Anderson film - The Royal Tenebaums is one of my favourite films, although I can never pinpoint exactly why.

Just a last wee note:
Ireland 19-13 England. A pretty poor game of rugby but a result of which to be proud. Sure the referring decisions went our way but that makes a change - usually the English are 'cheatin' bandits' to steal a phrase from a Glaswegian friend of mine. I can't stand the biased BBC commentary, however. It makes the game almost unlistenable. If I was slightly less lazy I might have half a mind to write to them and tell them just what I think, but perhaps my white hot venemous rage might cool after several words. The last two games (France and Wales) are going to be pretty tough, I can't see us winning both of them. Ah well.

Hurray, no timetabled events tomorrow. Hope you have a fulfilling last day of February.

I was thinking 'bout your face

2005-02-20T20:18:00.000Z

Hello sportsfans

After a week of travelling to Perth and back I am a bit tired although going to bed regularly before 12 seemed to limited the extent of this. Orthopaedics is reasonably interesting, well the trauma part of it rather than the rather boring joint replacement part. Standing all day in an operating theatre watching bits of bone being sawn off the end of someone's leg is enjoyable from a pure gore perspective (there's something innately amusing about wearing goggles to keep blood from going into your eyes (yes I know that's sick and wrong) and there being a bone-crunching machine which works like one of those spinning cheese graters) but incapacitating in a muscle-numbingly stiff way.

Otherwise, weekend was pretty good, fairly non-eventful. Went to see Sideways at the DCA last night with Helen and Eddie (my occasional flat-mate). It was thoroughly enjoyable (well mostly, but it would spoil it to mention the less enjoyable parts), with some very funny moments. One of those films that didn't need a 'The End' caption as it was so well told it was obvious that the tale was complete. A wine-tasting tour may have to be embarked upon at some point, however.

We're off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz.

By the way, I signed up for a Gmail account in the latest round of invitations so update your file-o-faxes (I have to attempt to consolidate the 5 or so other addreses I have into one at some point). polardave@gmail.com

I'm a reasonable man get off my case

2005-02-13T00:08:00.000Z

Cloud Cuckoo Land | Current feature.
An interesting if long interview with Thom Yorke of Radiohead in Third Way magazine transcribed here.

One of those you need to read a couple of times. Interesting pointers to various lyrics but perhaps I'm just that sad that I see them.

Turn it to 11

2005-02-05T12:03:00.000Z

And now....for another fantastic idiot:
Conjoined guitar twins
Spinal Tap eat your heart out.

Hello Hello

2005-02-04T01:21:00.000Z

Welcome to the world of post-

Rock. Yes indeed. New Low album severely underrated by several reviewers. Yes it's different, but we can all handle a bit of difference in our lives. If you were in a band you wouldn't want to play the same kind of stuff for your whole life, would you? Also...Horses (haaarses/arses) in the Sky...soon.

Psych. -iatry. Yes it's over. Not so bad but not a bit tedious at the same time. Can you make anyone better from these problems? Perhaps for a while. it's enough to depress you, despite the inherent irony in that statement.

Ing. The post is great. I send a CD around lunch time yesterday, it gets to my brother in Glasgow before lunch today and I have to do very little except pay a paltry 29 pence. Civilisation has its uses.

The Stars are Underground

2005-01-25T15:41:00.000Z

I really should do this more often as it ends up that I have too many things to write about.

1. The Frames in Glasgow last Thursday. It really was very good. I must say that this was the first time I had seen the Frames or Glen Hansard live. Glen has an amazing energy about him, a great entertainer (despite his rather psychopathic glare at times); his voice was great and the sound was very good in what must be a tricky venue (the Arches - built under Queen Street Station). I Am Kloot supported...wasn't overly impressed at first impression, except with the drummer who looks like the archetypal stoner jazz drummer.

2. Manchester Not the Nationals Ultimate tournament. As 2 of our players dropped out on the Friday we left it remained for the 5 of us to play all the points all weekend. This was tiring, but surprisingly not much more than usual, at the time but the main point was the pain that endured in my legs and back for at least 3 days after we finished. We did ok, coming runners-up in the 'Plate' (10th). We beat Stirling (our arch rivals) convincingly, however, which made everything else irrelevant. Visited the curry mile and enjoyed on Saturday night.

3. Douglas Coupland, Life After God. The first Coupland book I have read. An impulse buy from Fopp for £3. Not exactly what I was expecting at all. I really enjoyed his style-the short chapters and tight prose really kept my attention (I did make the mistake initially of thinking that all the stories from the same narrator). I especially liked the apocalyptic part, for these kinds of things interest me (see earlier posts). I think I'd like to read more, recommendations?

4. I'm trying to do some recording again, finding it enjoyable (I am fascinated by all the wee production thingies you can do, even with my limited knowledge and age of the Cakewalk program I'm using), but ultimately futile - perhaps it is slightly narcissistic to want to perform songs that you've written? - as I do not have a band to play with and few musically like-minded individuals with which to play.

Finally got all the stuff to send off for my elective today, so should get that on the go.

Hopefully won't be this long again before I post.

Dave.

Back in the USSR

2005-01-09T19:07:00.000Z

Hello all. Back.
This was the first time since 1st year that I had been particularly apprehensive about returning to the flat; for a number of reasons - after the break-in earlier in the year I was concerned that all that would be left would be the chipped plates in the cupboard also I had forgotten to feed to the fish with a slow-release capsule before I left; furthermore this year, more specifically this half of this year, will probably be the busiest I have experienced in my 22 years.

Things to sort out this year:

Medicine wise:

Pass finals
Do 4th year project
organise & go on elective
chase record of achievement boxes
any other work for each block

Organise wedding and get married
Buy a flat
Later in the year I'll have to start applying for jobs (this I ignore for now)
Not go mad (this may be the most difficult)

So that's not too bad, but quite a lot to start the year off with. Planning and general hard work will probably have to suffice rather than some ingenious plan to ignore everything and hope it falls into place (unless you have any better ideas?)

Anyway, to my surprise the fish managed to survive 3 weeks of not being fed...they must go into some kind of hibernation, clever.
Also the flat was as I had left it before Christmas, another reason to be grateful.

Right, time to unpack and figure out where I'm supposed to go tomorrow.
Happy New Year.

Post-Christmas roll

2004-12-28T11:46:00.000Z

Hurrah.
I had a good Christmas/Boxing Day/Post Christmas sleep. I'm not going to go on about the snow, although it made me feel as if I was in a 1940s Christmas film...helping with the Christmas dinner as the snowflakes fell on the revellers below. Added poignancy this year as it may well be the last Christmas morning I wake up in the Maconachie family home; there's probably more room at Helen's house so it's likely we'd stay there next year. After that, who knows where we could end up? But Christmas isn't a time for philosphising, it's a time for sleeping, eating and relaxing.
The best part was seeing relatives (and future relatives) and friends (despite being trounced on both occasions at Risk), watching DVDs (Dave Gorman is a genius, I dare you to disagree) and eating junk food - I'm attempting to have a chocolate free day today. I also got a bit of frisbee in yesterday thanks to the guys from BUG who organised it; consequently my knee has flared up again today.

I have been watching a bit of the aftermath of the tsunami in South East Asia on satellite TV. Many of the people had no warning; I can't even imagine their sense of panic when water suddenly came rushing through their windows and doors.

Brian Wilson - Smile. Odd in places (it was devised in the 60s) but good, quite different to other music I listen to. I also completed my Sufjan Stevens collection by receiving 'Enjoy your Rabbit' for Christmas. I really must finish a compilation CD when I get back to Dundee (perhaps some sort of 'My Best of 2004', consisting of the music I was listening to during 2004, but with a snappier title)

See you in 2005.

Best foot forward

2004-12-16T22:51:00.000Z

2 posts? (Doing work makes you do crazy things)
See the second review on this site for an example of bad film criticism
Reviews of Garden State

Now, I may be slightly more liberal than some Christians when it comes to movies - perhaps it is just because I am used to hearing "atrocious language" (the F-word used an incredible 30 times! Wow! Close your ears! He obviously hasn't seen Magnolia (yes, I know there are films with worse language, but this was the most recent example in my mind)) or maybe it doesn't register with me. I understand the whole garbage in, garbage out theory and maybe for particularly susceptible people this is a problem; Anyway, I don't feel giving a film a bad review solely on the basis of 30 words out of a total of thousands is justified - the short plot run down (biased by little digs), followed by some praise for Natalie Portman ("wonderfully played") then a comparison with Good Will Hunting...from what I've seen of trailer for Garden State it looks nothing like GWH (hopefully not as I thought it was pretentious crap, but I've only seen it once on TV)...concluding with a telling paragraph about waiting for it to turn up on TV "when hopefully the objectionable material will be removed".
In summary, points made about quality of film, 2 - Natalie Portman good, film good enough to watch; points made about side issues, lots. Perhaps the writer of the film put the scenes or the language in for a reason? Outright dismissal is religious nonsense. Write about the film dude.
Anyone seen it and wish to enlighten me? I'm quite keen, Scrubs is fairly amusing and a couple of the bits in the trailer made me chuckle.

Tis the season to be jelly

2004-12-16T22:16:00.000Z

Hello all
End of term tomorrow, hurrah. Looking forward to the holidays and the sleep that it shall bring. Before then, a couple of hours work - yes the usual end of block Patient write-up rush (tests creative writing to the limits). Felt slightly Christmassy today but it soon passed when the wind blew my hood down and the sleet pelted my face.
Last minute:

Oxfam Unwrapped
Also World Vision

Mortgages are scary. I can't imagine ever earning enough money to pay it off...I don't understand the concept of borrowing an amount of money and paying back nearly double over 25 years; I hesitate "shelling out" £10 (except for CDs and DVDs - Amazon is dangerous).

Back to the coffee grinder. Yo ho hoomph.

It's not going to stop 'til you wise up

2004-12-14T20:35:00.000Z

Alright?
I didn't make it to the KYTN event...lack of friends hampered my progress. I did, however, watch (between naps) the extended version of Return of the King. I don't know if it's a good thing that I find the extras on the DVD more interesting than the film. 4 and a half hours is an awfully long time. Not that it wasn't good - I enjoyed the twists and turns...perhaps less so with the random "comedy" bits that P. Jackson et al decided to bestow upon the extended version. I missed the extended views of New Zealand scenery that we got in the Two Towers; it seems silly to say that it seems less "real" but that's the feeling I got.
Also:
Magnolia - this was an experience which I was glad I had; I'm not sure if the film was enjoyable as such - much like the Pianist or Schindler's List (in a non-Nazi way) - it was a dark film, but had rich intriguing characters; definitely a film I would watch again - the "plot" is largely irrelevant. Also a great soundtrack from Aimee Mann - integral to the film.
Thirdly:
Burn the Maps is still brilliant. Just in case you didn't know.
And...finally:
Last week of term and not a moment too soon. The fatigue of 4 months is very rapidly catching up with me. Slightly concerned about the Jan-July phase in the new year. Oh well, it can only send me more "insane".
Yes. The Star Wars DVD box set tempts me, but I'm not a huge fan of these "digitally remastered" versions...no Ewok song? Do-do-do ai ai..

Dave.

You rock rock

2004-12-07T21:44:00.000Z

Some films -
The Incredibles - good film, decent plot for an animated film, remembering that it is essentially a film for kids.
I 'heart' Huckabees - This was amusing...the plot is relatively guff but Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin form a visually comic partnership and the antics of the repressed aggressive Mark Wahlberg reminded me of an infantile 'Fight Club'. The pseudo-philosophy provided a worthwhile distraction provided you don't take it too seriously. Interesting points about learning by experience. I can see why people wouldn't like it- depends on your tolerance of pretension.
Speaking of pretension - this sounds interesting:
Kill Your Timid Notion
In Dundee's Contemporary Arts Centre - an attempt to marry experimental music with experimental film. Just the kind of thing I like. £8 for a day...I'd feel a bit lonely going on my own.
Underdeveloped thoughts there again, but I'm far too lazy to write anything detailed - and the effort of excavating long forgotten biochemistry is sucking my imagination.

Listening to James Yorkston & the Athletes - Just Beyond the River.

Nothing good can come of dead nostalgia

2004-12-03T23:37:00.000Z

Hello.
Thank you to everyone who was thinking of and praying for the family over the last week.
Grandpa's funeral was yesterday. The service itself was good; not in an enjoyable way, but the scriptures read at funerals always give me hope and joy rather than despair;

John 14:1-4 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."

I was glad to hear the stories of my Grandpa's life, times before I was born and the people to who he was able to minister both in an official capacity and the more informal side. He was certainly a man of the people, not in any false political way either, and the attendence at the funeral mirrored that.
Personally, I will always remember the time I was able to spend with Grandpa last summer, helping in the garden, and the random chats about sport, past holidays and his never ending interest in Scotland and my studies here. My thoughts and prayers will be with my Granny as she tries to adjust to a life without him.
Apologies for the somber nature of the posting this week, but I imagine you will understand.
Thanks.

I wonder what they'll make of me when I'm good and gone

2004-11-29T21:49:00.000Z

Hello.
I received some sad news this morning; Mum phoned to let me know that my Grandpa had died last night.
It is sad; he was very well up until the last year or so and even yesterday he went out to church as usual. It was less than 2 weeks ago that I last saw him. I worry more about my Granny. She is already very frail and unable to do much for herself. Last week my Grandpa intimated to her that he didn't want to die a long and drawn out death; perhaps this was God's blessing.
I have been reflecting on Myles' post from last week about being thankful. His words, "Thank God for life, and death" struck me at the time and seem even more relevant now. How is it possible to be thankful for this death? I pray that God will use it in some way.
All for now, I don't feel particularly lucid this evening.

"They're really Satan's little run-around"

2004-11-27T13:59:00.000Z

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 4x4s 'should carry health warning'
Interesting view point there. I always thought the Devil would drive something a bit more flashy, say a Lamborgini Diablo-the designers must have had a similar point of view.

It's a long long way to Tipperary

2004-11-24T17:56:00.000Z

Hello again netizens (Cheers Pete for this word).
I would like to say that in the last 3 weeks I have been away on a journey of self-discovery, to a land that exists beyond time, where friends are valued and that much maligned cheesy voice-over guy is praised; but I haven't. I finished off my GP block had a wee trip back to Norn Iron via the Uni Ultimate Regionals, where we came 6th, then the long way back via Gartmore House (and Virgin Megastore where there was a good 5 DVD for £30 offer and some of the money I got for my birthday was spent).
Very little in the way of news to comment upon; I was again uninterested to see the Fox Hunting "debate" last week...*yawn*. I have tried to interest myself in this...the cruelty to the fox, yadda yadda, (is there a more humane way?), the psychology of killing animals for sport, class warfare, blah blah (Conservative band-wagon)...but as I have never seen a fox hunt and only the occasional fox, I feel ultimately apathetic about the whole thing; chastise me if you wish.

Anyhow. I shall hopefully write more again soon. All the best to you in your everyday mishappenings.

2004-10-28T21:23:00.002+01:00

Apologies for the lack of posting of late, it's been a busy week.

Another musical "hero" of mine passed away this week. I guess he was getting on, but I didn't think he'd actually ever die. Thank you John Peel. Although I was a somewhat irregular (and a both surprised and equally disturbed) listener to his best known radio show, I was an avid follower of Home Truths (sad admission though that is). Purely by accident I discovered this delightful programme when it woke me one Saturday morning. It's not even that the stories people sent in were particularly interesting, but the way Mr Peel treated them was amazing...he could make the most mundane thing (and believe me many of the stories were pretty boring on paper) actually fairly interesting and amusing and made people feel like they were wanted. The best radio voice ever - comforting. I also admired his restless nature, always looking for new sounds and new music. 'Being stuck in a rut' is not a phrase you could use about the man. I hope I'm like that in my 60s (if I ever get there). I wish I'd listened more now.

Anyway that's my 2 pence to add to the overwhelming praise for the man.

Everybody knows that I only have myself to blame

2004-10-21T15:54:00.000+01:00

Hello once again nonsense seekers.
On Tuesday Andy and I arrived back to the flat to discover a tracksuited ned rifling through the detritus in my room. With a few shouts and some adrenaline-fuelled menancing walking towards him said boyo threw himself out of my now unlocked window, falling a height of around 2m to the ground (I expected to see him lying unconscious under the window), thumping his legs against my blind and bending it in half before running off round the corner. Several minutes later the police arrived, having been called by some of our neighbours who heard the breaking of the window in the utility room. I was unable to identify them and although Andy had a better idea, he couldn't be much more definite. So that was a bit of excitement for us. More worringly we're unable to find our large, fairly sharp, knife from the kitchen...

But anyway, nothing was taken.

The Frames - Burn the Maps is getting better with every listen - it certainly is different from For the Birds and Dance the Devil, even Glen Hansard's voice sounds more raw and the whole thing is an emotional experience. Livening up my morning walks.

Just got Elliott Smith's From A Basement on the Hill today, which seems pretty good; some interesting production noises (never completely getting away from The Beatles) and a slightly heavier sound on some tracks. Quite fitting that I got it today as it is a year to the day from his death. I don't feel sad listening to this album; certainly I couldn't listen to his music for a couple of weeks after his death - this is an unusual thing for me, the deaths of people I've never met have never affected me before - but this album is different, new and seen in a retrospective light; perhaps I merely feel regret and disappointment at this being his final work. His lyrics suggested that he was aware that he losing the struggle against the inevitable. It still felt untimely. One of the greatest tunesmiths of this era.
Also The Delgados - Universal Audio. I am a little apprehensive at this point, feel it could take a fair amount of listening to appreciate this album as much as their previous work.

Hope all is well with you in innernet land.

Walking with Thee

2004-10-11T22:11:00.000+01:00

Good evening. Some short and unrelated and underdeveloped points for you:
I slept in today. It felt pretty good, but think I'll go to bed early too. Ah this rock and roll lifestyle of mine.
My last week of General Surgery this week. It has been pretty good as a block - apparently I'll not get to do too much in the other blocks so I should take all the opportunities I can get, which I feel I have thus far.
This weekend is the Stirling Tune Up ultimate frisbee tournament . The first tournament of the year - the weather's not looking too good at the moment, but it is a whole 5 days away (still time for it to get worse).
I've ordered The Frames' new album - apparently not being released in the UK until next February but available in the Emerald Isle for a few weeks now. I am very much looking forward to hearing it, needless to say.
Lastly, I am still to think of a name for the blog, any ideas?
Night.

You're a slave to money then you die

2004-10-09T10:45:00.000+01:00

Further to my last post about cynical cash-ins, I see that the predictable Christmas Greatest Hits compilations have started to appear. Travis, The Verve and Placebo are all releasing "Singles" compilations, all with the now mandatory "previously unreleased" track or two and tie-in DVD. Again, it's difficult for me to see the appeal, but I dislike most of the work of said groups (Urban Hymns was, however, an integral part of my teenage years, which I refuse to apolgise for, despite the cringe factor now), perhaps if Radiohead were releasing a compilation - this seems a rather unlikely proposition - I'd be slightly more considerate, although I do already have all their albums; perhaps the DVD would hold more water with me.

Did you say, no this can't happen to me?

2004-10-02T16:54:00.000+01:00

Just back from lunch with (the rather nice) Helen at the rather nice Howie's restaurant in Dundee. It was great to have an hour and a half of relaxing and eating satisfying food; satisfying rather than over filling. My days of thinking of a massive plate of food as enjoyable eating are nearing an end. Perhaps this is what growing up is about; quality over quantity. Perhaps this should be more relevant in the things I choose to spend my time on. I am amazed at how quickly this week has passed and how many things still remain to be done. How many things I would have done; still I don't want to plan every second of my time. What kind of a life is that? (I thrive on danger).
Music of the day:
Jeff Buckley - Grace. I see that an expanded version of this album has just been released. Now I like the original version of the album and I think he was a good singer - perhaps a little grandiose at times (maybe this is merely a reaction to the number of pale copy-cat voices - Matt Bellamy J'accuse (quote from Punk icons NOFX - "I think Radiohead would be really good if they were good. Because when they have a good song it’s really nice, and there’s like two per album. I think Muse is way better than Radiohead, way better. Better songwriting." It's always good to see some intelligent criticism out there)) - but do we really need to hear any more "previously unreleased" material? The words "cynical cash-in" spring to mind. I can't really see myself buying a new version of an album I already own (although I hear they're going to re-release Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain much in the way they did with Slanted & Enchanted [thanks Ross]), but maybe some people are more obsessive - in saying that if there was a 10 year anniversary edition of The Bends with something significantly new, it would be hard to resist.

(Just in case - the danger thing was a joke).

The car is on fire and there's no driver at the wheel

2004-09-28T22:35:00.000+01:00

I am still attempting to get over my cold...every time I think it has gone it comes back in a different form, first it was the sore throat, then then the cough and now a stuffy nose. Not that it's keeping me from anything, but just a general lethargy. Some day I will 'score' some time to do something a little more creative. Haven't quite had the 'what am I doing here?' moment that all 4th years go through just yet but I can feel it niggling away just under the surface.

I open up my wallet and it's full of blood. Post-apocalypticism was once again brought to mind while I was watching Shaun of the Dead last weekend; mostly indirectly as said film was very amusing and filled me with a somewhat sadistic desire to wap Zombies with cricket bats. Rather it reminded me of 28 Days, another Zombie film (somewhat alluded to as "bollocks" by the end of SOTD); it isn't a particularly original or interesting film save for the first scenes where this bloke wakes up from a coma to a completely uninhabited London. I don't know why the thought of being that person frightens me, but it does. Perhaps it's the completely unlimited possibilities for why everyone has buggered off (maybe they don't like me or I smell too much etc.) or just having to cope on my complete lonesome. Would I believe that this was as it had been "predicted" Biblically?

Ahem. It's not like I'm pre-occupied with these thoughts but it's interesting to ponder them even for several seconds.

Hello Monkey Children

2004-09-27T21:44:00.000+01:00

Nothing much to say really. I had a nasty cold over the weekend tied in with a traumatic (in several senses) mouth ulcer.Also remembered how frustrating recording something in your room on your own is (well in my room on my own). Today was quite long, but reasonably edutaining (ah the Game of Medicine). I have gained a passion for (a limited amount of) 70s music over the summer, consisting mainly of Neil Young, Elton John and Nick Drake. I tried Tim Buckley too but he was just a bit too er...medieval (anyone want to buy a CD?) Bjaaarrk? Definitely odd winter music. Missing the electronica undertones (not electronica Undertones - Teenage Glitch), but perhaps I shall learn to love the choral ones.

Nonsense.

Some days are better than others

2004-09-21T22:06:00.000+01:00

Zooropa, that forgotten U2 album, is reasonably good, I think. It's never really grabbed my attention in the way that Achtung Baby or Pop have; War is also another favourite of mine (the album rather than conflict). I can take or leave the others. A brief unrequested opinion on the self-proclaimed "world's greatest band" or whatever rubbish Bono's been talking recently. In saying that, however, I appreciate his campaigning for awareness of Aids in Africa and previously during the "Drop the Debt" campaign.

Films recently watched (at the DCA, possibly the best cinema in Scotland/Northern Ireland , if not, inner most regions of the solar system):
Sunday - The Motorcycle Diaries - road movie cum pseudo-documentary; various South American people shine; beware romanticising of Che Guevara.
Monday - Collateral - Tom Cruise's trademark wooden acting is an advantage in this suspense thriller (beautiful shots - reminiscent of Lost in Translation).

I was going to comment further on the above, but it's suffice to say that both are worth watching, if not in the DCA then at your local movie emporium.

And further to the above - Star Wars on DVD; little more needs to be said.

2004-09-18T11:24:00.000+01:00

I listened to Elliott Smith's eponymously titled album last night before sleep. It's one of those albums creates an almost suffocatingly intimate atmosphere; his pronunciation of the lyrics, every syllable almost, (especially in Needle in the Hay) give the impression he is undergoing a kind of self-exorcism. The swearing seems so sincere that you want to join in and the extreme minimalism of the production only serves to reinforce this tension. The world is out to screw you up, it says; and who am I to disagree with that?

Goodnight brian brain

2004-09-17T01:14:00.000+01:00

Seemingly finished, although I reckon I could have done with a bit more work on it. Oh well, if only I hadn't....[insert moderately remorseful but generally not bothered remark here].
It probably all be guff in the morning and I'll have to rewrite it in half an hour, but isn't that the joy of university?

what I used to be will pass away and then you'll see

2004-09-16T23:38:00.000+01:00

Aaah! I just can't kill it off. Die curriculum outcomes. Feeling nervous about something, but I can't quite work out what it is as yet...this is a common feeling for me, perhaps it's just the coffee come down. Zombification to use a well-worn phrase.

Avoidance syndrome

2004-09-16T17:38:00.000+01:00

I have lots of work to do for tomorrow. Why am writing here? Because of what I like to call (but probably subconsciously stolen), "Avoidance syndrome". If I start it then I'll have to stop thinking about all the other things I'd like to be doing. Not sure how to be more disciplined, ah well, stuff that. Here are some of the things I'd rather be doing:

1. Sleeping. I am quite tired after last night and the previous week's ?musical efforts.
2. Eating. I can think of many and various tasty meals to be ingested, all of which take time and effort to prepare.
3. "Rocking the world" or at least doing a wee bit of recording. I enjoy writing songs, taking time to construct each part then screwing it up until it's somehow less listenable (this is what some people call "singing").
4. Playing frisbee. It's been a while since a threw a disc in anger. The fresher's fair is tomorrow, which I'll hopefully attend in order to recruit some bright-eyed, bushy tailed, Freshers.
5. Travelling to somewhere warm and sunny. This should have been first on the list. I wouldn't be tired, hungry or thinking about anything else if it were nice and warm. Perhaps this is merely a hangover from not having seen the sun much this summer and then waking up to find it's winter again. Ah well, I like winter when it's not wet.

Enough enough enuff.

To die is gain

2004-09-15T23:11:00.000+01:00

Gig. Set list:
Rocker
Stand Tall/Riff song
Belong
53
Christmas Tree
Acoustic song, which sounded great.
Then long amalgam of different songs: Imagine/Face Down then Lord you have my heart.

Reasonable performance. Personally I thought the rocker and stand tall and Christmas tree were good. 53 was patchy and Belong sounded a bit off tonight - but this is merely my own performance and possibly lack of ability to hear the overalll sound. It will be interesting to see if anything further comes of this current group after the Season Collective gig and Dingers experiment (The Action Verbs??) were partially abandoned. We need a rhythm section. Any takers? Thanks.

Bear with us while we sort out the problem

2004-09-14T23:23:00.000+01:00

You may find a few nasty missing links (hm, I wonder where the ape-man had got to) but they should be sorted out with the passage of time. Thanks.

Maybe it's time for a change

2004-09-14T22:57:00.000+01:00

As you may have noticed, I have changed the layout of the site - currently to a default blogger one, but hopefully I'll get a bit of a chance to change it. I'll have to update my links also so if you have a blog to which you would like me to link, send me the address or something. Nice one.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I hate you, Tomorrow!

2004-09-14T22:40:00.000+01:00

Well that was a bit negative, but I do dislike musicals.

Anyway, this week is proving to be a bit hectic. As usual I have left all my work for my end of block hand in till the last minute, which is unfortunate. Almost finished one of the parts of it. Unfortunately with the gig tomorrow (yes, playing with "Sow" tomorrow at the Fresher's week event in Sessions) and the practices...before I go on with this obvious excuse I'll have to admit that I have spent a bit too much time looking at blogs this week. A-henyway, I realise that often inadvertantly obfuscate whatever I'm trying to say, but this is mainly due to a misunderstanding and rather it is nonsense in the first place.

So there. Ha.

Did you ever wonder where that short Russian bloke went?

2004-09-14T22:33:00.000+01:00

Broken Sounds
yes, it's Ross Thompson. I wondered what had happened to him. Well I was actually looking for 5 dollar soul stuff, but by happy coincidence came upon his blog. It's actually very amusing. I shall link to it in my exponentially increasing links section.

The Ark Life

2004-09-11T15:49:00.000+01:00

A thought provoking article
Christian Sub-Culture
Perhaps more relevant in the US, but the same culture of separation threatens to engulf UK Christians.

2004-09-10T10:56:00.000+01:00

UK Ultimate
New University season starting soon, hurray. Looking forward to a bit of disc-chucking.

The Wolf and the Lamb

2004-09-09T22:53:00.000+01:00

"Once upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside, when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. "There's my supper," thought he, "if only I can find some excuse to seize it." Then he called out to the Lamb, "How dare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?"
"Nay, master, nay," said Lambikin; "if the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me."
"Well, then," said the Wolf, "why did you call me bad names this time last year?"
"That cannot be," said the Lamb; "I am only six months old."
"I don't care," snarled the Wolf; "if it was not you it was your father;" and with that he rushed upon the poor little Lamb
and
..WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA..ate her all up. But before she died she gasped out

"Any excuse will serve a tyrant."

Aesop must have met George.

Hit the neds

2004-09-09T16:37:00.000+01:00

Everybody Come Down

"The feeling is bad, the feeling is bad"

2004-09-05T19:18:00.000+01:00

Apparently Eddy Grant's "I don't wanna dance" was no.1 on the day I was born.

I don't know this song. Perhaps I should feel some kind of bond with it...or not.
Unfortunately the poor children born today will have Nelly as the no. 1 (well at least it wasn't JoJo).

"Whatever you do, don't drop the Baby"

2004-09-05T19:13:00.000+01:00

In preparation for my night shift on the Labour Ward I have compiled a list of tunes (and if were to own an iPod I may have made this into a playlist):
+ Don't Drop the Baby - Low
+ Cry Baby Cry - The Beatles
+ Newborn - Elbow
+ Up All Night (Frankie Miller Goes to Hollywood) - Counting Crows
+ Only Takes A Night - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
+ Sleep Comes Tomorrow - David Kitt

Any other ideas? Comment below:

Collating Sufjan Stevens interviews for the masses

2004-09-05T18:14:00.000+01:00

Read brothers and sisters!
Sufjan Stevens: Pitchfork Interview

It returns!

2004-09-03T10:43:00.000+01:00

(ignore the semi-nasty sunburst job).
Well hopefully it will be back up to 100% health (I wish people could be measured on a percentage scale)

We Haven't Been Told, We Have Been Loved

2004-09-01T09:30:00.000+01:00

Half-Handed Cloud
A great quote: "It sounds like a really smart Sunday school class on a sugar high let loose in a music store"

2004-09-01T08:37:00.000+01:00

Do you?

2004-08-29T17:31:00.000+01:00

This guy is asking to be beaten up, but it is quite amusing including the random statistics.
You Have Bad Taste in Music

Sufjan

2004-08-28T22:58:00.000+01:00

The third album by the now Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist combines post-rock rhythms, traditional instrumentation and a knack for tugging the heart strings to write moving and honest stories about abandonment, history and tourist attractions in Michigan that transcend the borders of his muse.

30th October
The Venue, Edinburgh

Another "cool but weird" medical story

2004-08-27T11:11:00.000+01:00

Man grows new jaw in back