Alien Babies

These are some alien babies, otherwise known as premature/preterm infants. Due to my fatigue I fear that this post will not match the verbosity of the previous one on the blog written by Miss S E Rose BA (Is it Hons? I presume so.)

I have spent the day doing an early shift on the SCBU in the hospital. We had 8 premature babies who were just growing, they're very difficult to feed and look after as they are very fiddly and too small to fit into things like nappies very well, also somethimes thay forget to breathe when they're being fed and machines beep at you. At the other end of the spectrum we also had a baby who had been delivered 12 days late weighing 10lb1oz, FATTY! He wasn't breathing very well and they thought they might have to intubate him and transfer to Glan Clwyd (where Hannah Lady is.) The poor thing had got a bit stuck (as you would if you weighed that much) and ended up having a ventouse AND forceps delivery, nice!

It's sunny in Bangor today so that's it for another year or so, it seems to rain here all the time, if it's not raining it just has or is just about to. Hannah says it's the same further along the coast. We went to 20+ last night and behaved ourselves, at least, Hannah behaved herself, I dropped things on the floor and made a fool out of myself but that was to be expected. I'm going for dinner this evening at someone from church's house, long may the dinners continue! I hope tht Cardiff is not too bad without Hannah and me, we'll see you on Friday, either together or separately.

Love

Fran

xx

Proposal for a BSc in Appellations

This is my usual conversation on the phone when trying to tell someone my name:

-What's ur name?
-Sarah Rose.
-Rhodes?
-No, ROSE. R-O-S-E. As in the flower.
-Ohhh. Ok. How lovely.
-Yes.
-And is that Sarah with a 'h'?

I guess it's quite paradoxical that pple can't spell my name, cuz u wudnt think it'd be that hard. Maybe a study should be done. I bet America has a degree on this topic. It wouldn't surprise me, because even UK students can now study for a degree in sex. Wow. Wouldn't like to meet anyone doing THAT course.

Maybe a study HAS been done.....hmmm. What d'ya reckon the findings were? I reckon the pple that have the most trouble are those with really simple names (like myself, where pple just can't fathom how simple it is to spell it), or incredibly difficult names. So the two extremes. Hmmmm, thinking about it, maybe rhymes and half-rhymes come into it too, along with the ratio of consonants to vowels, with some kind of mathematical explanation re. their frequency tensioned with the placement of these in relation to each other. Languages, date and culture would also come into it too I guess. And common sense. So maybe it should be a BA, not a BSc. Hmmm.

I bet there is a degree on this subject. If not, there should be. I plan to campaign for one if not. Any takers?

Hot or Not

Fobbs almost Famous!

Fobbs (who is still alive despite lack of bloggage) almost received International Fame this Christmas. Having arrived in China she was informed that she was required to go on national tv to record some Beijing Opera (yes that does require singing). Thankfully this would have taken 2 days of filming which was deemed far too long for the busy schedule that lay ahead.
Lx

Woooo!!! My bike is fixed! :D

This may be the shortest blog ever, but I just wanted everyone to know (especially Frannie, who I hope will be v. proud of me) that I fixed my bike...and washed it! And it only took 6 weeks! lol. The guy in the shop offered to do it for me (do I look that incompetent?), but I bravely took the tyre thingy home and did it all under an hour! Go me! :D If social work goes to pot maybe I'll become a bike fixerer.

Well, maybe this blog isn't the shortest ever after all...would like to hold that record though....maybe I'll start collecting world records....hmmm. All suggestions welcome. As Frannie mentioned, I already have one (joking aside, d'ya reckon that IS one?). I do hope so :)

Love you girlies,
Sairie
xxxx

Deepest Darkest North Wales

Well after a groovy weekend with lots of wonderful people in Sheffield, frannie and i convoyed it across the peak district on a very twisty twisty road through very pretty scenery behind very slow drivers to the North of this wonderful place called Wales! We managed to make it to the hospital near Rhyl where i am at the moment and parked up, and started the search for the porters office where apparently i would find my room key...finding it proved quite tricky considering it was 4:30pm on New Years day and there was absolutely no one in the entire hospital (so it seemed anyway!)

Once we had found the mr porter man we trundled round to the accomodation block, only to find a big barrier across the car park (traffic cones, red and white tape cordoning it off and a big sign ' NO entry) Tricky! So we backed the car up to the sign as close as possible and started unloading all the ridiculous amounts of stuff that i'd brought with me to survive away from cardiff (this seems to consist of an awful lot of chocoolate ...i don't know how i managed to acquire so much of the stuff over christmas, but i reckon i have enough to last me the entire five weeks - which in my case is quite a substantial amount!) So eventually we found my room (and i worked out how the little black rod thing they gave me attached to a key ring opens doors like magic! The actual key that is attached to the same key ring, apparently is just decoration - cos i've not found a purpose for it yet...it must open a door somewhere...) As frannie mentioned my room is nice and new and pretty and clean and big, superior slightly to the normal standard of student accomodation, there is even a lounge with sofa's and a tv, and the kitchen is shared between four of us.

So after we dumped all my stuff in my room, fran and i continued our adventure to visit her nein (i'm sure that's probably spelt wrong) and grandpa and aunty madge. So we had a nice little dinner there and i even got to speak to frannies mummy when i was there too!

Then i made my way back to my little room and tried to sleep...it took me quite a while tossing and turning, wrestling with the plastic coated polyester bed sheets before dispatching them for my sleeping bag. Also the whole halls are kept at tropical temperatures so my wooly jumpers are barely going to get worn at all!

wow, this is turning into another mamoth Hannah Lady rambling blog entry...
This morning we all wandered over to the postgrad centre and had our welcome session before being informed that we had to go to a different hospital for our first week of opthamology... so we all piled into a car and set off to find this tiny little hospital in the middle of no where....we had a brief tour and then got sent off to go get luch in the local pub (which offered soup or panini's - only one flavour of each - at an extortionate price) and then waited about 3hrs till afternoon clinic started, basically we spent 9-5 in hospital for about 2hrs of work...how i love being a med student!

Then i did a quick dash to Sainsbury's with Carly to get me some dinner - we spent ages wandering round the shop buying way too much food, but never mind ( i did however manage to resist putting chocolate/cake/biscuit into my trolley on the basis that i have so much left over from christmas inspite of my hormonal/tired/hungry state - three cheers for me!)
So now i've wasted my evening shopping, cooking, blogging, emailing, phoning ppl who may have just come back from China etc.)

Here's to a good nights sleep and a busy morning tomorrow ( i have the afternoon off in which to "study"- which i really should do...there's some exams coming up in feb apparently...)

Love to you all
The Hannah Lady
xxxx

Proverbs 4:25-27

Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.

Proverbs 4:25-27

The girls of Heathfield road have, possibly, somewhat dubious driving skills. The record for the most minors/majors achieved in a driving test is held by one of the housemates. My own driving misdemeanors fall under a different category (I have 3 points on my license and 2 of my 3 minors were for speeding, oops!) I do feel, however, that we all have something to learn from King Solomon who obviously knew about cars (maybe the Queen of Sheba brought him one.)

This holiday the house have driven between them approx. 1700miles and haven't damaged either themselves or anybody else in the process. Mim did have a problem with one of her tyres but Luke sorted it for her before she set out.

I am currently in Bangor contemplating starting an essay our consultant has given us. The monologue went something along the lines of:

Now, I know that no one likes writing essays but it helps to distil some kind of dicipline, you can chose from several titles [one to to with neonates, one to do with paediatric services in North Wales and one that I can't remember as it was very dull]. I'd like it to be 7-8 pages long, no Miss Cain, that's typed, not handwritten, and in on Friday, yes, this Friday. You can write it in English, Welsh, or, if you wish, Latin.

After a while we came to the decision that we are to hand them in next Friday and not to tell the medical school as they'll tell him off. I think he's come to the conclusion that we're a bit stupid (hmm possibly something in that) I appear to have shocked him as he "didn't expect that any of us had come from families of more than 3" little does he know...I thought it best not to give him the full sibling count of the house (15.)

We're in halls of residence which are lovely and quiet at the moment as all the students are still on holiday, they could be in for a shock if they make too much noise- we're all down to do on-calls; setting off a firealarm at an inappropriate time could cause some difficulties between the two groups.

I didn't mean to write such a long post but it seems to have mutated into one. Maybe Hannah should write about her hospital; the accommodation is much nicer, all we have are rooms with pod ensuites and a skanky kitchen with plastic chairs.

Fran

xx

Christmas in Churchstoke

I was woken at 7am by my mum's cheery "Happy Christmas" as she waltzed into my bedroom and announced it to be present-opening time. We all congregated in the lounge, some more awake than others, and proceeded to open our presents in turn.
Breakfast next and then off church by 10.30am. Grandad also came (which he never normally does, so that was very cool). Sang lots of carols (yay!) and was generally quite amused by my brother offending a lady in front of us (who had enough hair to completely obscure our view), and a man on the other side of church who chose to sit with a sheet draped over his face!

After church, Ben (brother) and I delivered a Christmas meal (made by a catering team at the church) to an elderly couple in town. We drove round for quite a while trying to find the right house (my brother's spatial skills seem to be no better than mine!), but found it eventually.

Went home and had a FEAST! The jokes and charades in our crackers amused us for quite some time - especially hilarious when Gran tried to act out 'Lord of the Rings'; she's quite often the source of amusement, harsh I know.
Then we retired to the lounge for more presents and the Queen's speech - which gran and grandad found incredibly interesting (see photographic evidence).

A couple of our neighbours came round in the evening - ate more food and had a good laugh...also watched the Vicar of Dibley (hooray for Geraldine and her man!).
After everyone had left, Bethan, Ben and I stayed up late chatting and eating Roses.
xx

Christmas north of the border

Good Day,

As yet there has been no snow (although the weather forecast says that we may get some tomorrow.)

Christmas started at the early hour of 9am when Tim and Lou woke up and decided that it was stocking time (we open our stockings first thing and leave our presents 'til after church) after that we all got ready and went to church - two streets away; a couple of people were wearing kilts but they probably make the pews even more uncomfortable to sit in!

The talk was on light and we sang lots of carols in interesting accents, there's nothing quite like Scots singing the last verse of In the Bleak!

We decided to have a light lunch and then have Christmas dinner at dinnertime so we opened our presents first; I got some new posh perfume, some books, lots of money, a maglite and other things.

After lunch we wrapped up warm then went for a brisk walk, it was so cold my face froze up (we have pictures but I can't get at them 'cos Lou forgot the USB cable)

A dinner of beef, Yorkshire pudding and Christmas pud followed, then we played scrabble (I won the first game with a total of about 220, yes I am a genius, and very lucky, using all 7 letters up on my last go with herpatic- something to do with herpes), yeah! I have to have some fun somehow as I have no friends and no where to go, the scrabble will probably be the highlight of the week!

Just before I went to bed I managed to break the cold tap in the bathroom, it wouldn't stop 'til my dad got up and fixed it! Oops!

See you at the weekend

Fran
xx

Christmas in the Land of Brum

Christmas Day in the Rose household always begins with Church, where four of us made up half of the music group! Having not played my flute for almost 3 months now, I almost collapsed after my descant in 'O Come, All Ye Faithful', being so out of puff! But thankfully, I recovered in time for Christmas lunch, pictured!

After lunch came presents, as my Dad and I were out-numbered, wanting to go for a walk before pressies!




I was very excited by a fluffy dressing gown, wellies and a map of the world :) We also got lots of boxes of Roses chocolates from various friends. It happens every year...Roses for Roses...very funny. But very yummy! :D

The rest of Christmas was spent trying to keep Oscar the cat from eating the leftovers, trying to win at the Game Cube (I always come last), playing Cranium (also came last, lol) and watching Vicar of Dibley, which was so funny! :D

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!! :D
See you at Lewis'.

Lots of love, Sairie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Christmas Day in Frome

So...someone suggested we blogged our Christmas days' so here is the exciting installment from Frome!
Well finally we decided to break with a longstanding household tradition and lie in on Christmas morning!! Hurrah!! The girls in the house were thoroughly enjoying having a relaxed morning - the boys on the other hand were grumpy and moaning about how unfair it is they had to wait till after church to open presents! (imagine the sacrifice mum and i have made for the past gazillion years - waking up early and then trying to be excited and happy whilst opening presents - mornings are not a good time for either of us!)

Anyway we were a bit mean and ganged up on mum in church - heckling from the congregation as she started her sermon - "what signs are there that it's Christmas day?" - some kid shouts out "presents!" , mum says "yes thats right" we all shout back " Not in our house there's not!" then mum explains to the church that for the first time ever we've decided to wait until after church to open presents, so the whole congregation starts booing and hissing! Hilarious!!

So after the service had finsihed, and we'd thought about the signs that were around in the lead up to Jesus' birth, and how despite many of the signs pointing to a royal birth and a prince, Jesus' death where he wore a crown of thorns was what made Him the Saviour of this world, we went home and opened presents.

Dad as usual managed to guess every single one of his presents (though he did own up to having seen an email about his Hot Air Balloon trip by mistake, which is how he "guessed" it) I was the most suprised and shocked when on opening a present that appeared to be a dictionary, found an envelope with a Hot Air Balloon pass in it as well!! So dad and i are going on a flight in a big balloon sometime soon!!! How cool!

The rest of the day was spent eating, watching endless Christmas TV, doing dad's jigsaw puzzle and playing Uno (which for the first time ever mum actually won!!)

Hope you all had good Christmas's too.
The Hannah Lady
xxx

The run up to Christmas in Scotland

Firrrstly Aye wooood liike tae congratulate Miriam on her ceke beeking pro-ess, tha luuks liike a sound ceke.

The fog has chased me to Scotland and is currently sitting on the silvery Tay. I've been practising my scottish accent (only in the privacy on our home, in case I get beaten up) but Tim says it's not very good whilst refusing to do one himself.

As my old MP at home is Mark Oaten, and Mim's is Lembit Opik, my money is on the next parliamentary scandal involving either Lou's, Sarah's or Hannah's MP (or all three).

Tim (my bro) is sitting next to me and is almost as tall as me, unlike anyone else in this place; in church this morning it seemed like the only two people taller than me were my dad and grandad, yes, I'm a 5'7" giant!

Last week I spend my time wisely, wasting tax-payer's money on making 'Do Not Feed The Animals' signs for the fence round the paras' compound and creating an amazing revue. I think for the New Year weekend each house/ small friendship group should do a sketch/ revue item.

Merry Christmas, I hope you've all been good enough for Santa to visit this evening.

Fran (and Tim)
xx

Sponge success

Hip Hip HOORAY! I made my brother a birthday cake and it actually worked - yes, it rose to a magnificent height! Just look at the air in that sponge! Wonderful :)
I was so proud, my family didn't really understand my excitement, but then they haven't had to endure a countless number of dense sponges in the past!!

(This is the best photo of my cake, but not the best of my brother...sorry, cake wins!)

The Dispersion

The Heathfield Girls have all dispersed... I (Fobbs) was the first to leave with much grief and saddness... but to show our true colours we enjoyed a beautiful time of song and dance together which (if I'm anything to go by) left our voices in a less than perfect condition for the Carol Services yesterday and our bodies in a rather sore state.

Packing is underway for the big adventure which begins tomorrow... China- here I come!!! I have found out today that I am to be 'The attraction' at some of the Christmas parties I shall be attending... can't wait to see their response to me!!!! Ha ha ha:)

Ur beautiful...

...Ur beautiful, ur beautiful its true! :) xx

Heathfield Loving

The Hannah Lady and Miss Fran

Christmas

December has been a busy month so far in Heathfield road, Hannah and I have returned from our travels and so fill our time wisely by reading in lectures and stealing sutures from clinical skills sessions.

Towards the end of November Hannah informed the Heathfield Guys that they would be providing us with Christmas dinner. Being good sports, they didn't tell her where to go, and dinner was held in honour of Christ's birthday on Tuesday evening.

Preparation started early (so that as much rum as possible could be injected into the pudding) and Luke created an amazing feast for our pleasure and delight.

After a small amount of trouble with the furniture (we removed some table legs) we sat down to eat some lovely smoked salmon. Some of us had more than others (uuurgh, it's not cooked!)

After the starter we moved on to the main course. The turkey was yummy, as were the potatoes and everything else; even the sprouts managed to taste good! Following on from this course we were treated to a presentation prepared by Mr M Bater on Christmas, although we are still not sure what role Maggie Thatcher plays in it, possibly she is what happens if you're naughty!

Miriam made a lovely cheesecake and Frannie made an awesome Christmas pudding, which we resisted the temptation to set alight in the usual Christmas tradition for fear that the house might actually burn down due to the excessive amount of alcohol she had been pouring into it over the previous two weeks!! Fran and I also managed to turn the ready made custard lumpy - however no one seemed to notice!!

That paragraph was written by a different housemate, can you work out which one?

After pudding came cheese and biscuits with coffee and mincepies, and port of course. Last, but definitely not least for Hannah, came the present opening (the real meaning of Christmas!....or not!)

Before we were allowed home Mr Bater tried to hug us all, even the waifs and strays known to many as Beth and Isobelly Smelly couldn't escape his clutches!

Finally...

Luke, we salute you for your amazing cooking abilities! Bachelor of the Year award goes to you.

Merry Christmas!!

Fran (and Hannah)

xx

Bathroom clean-up

Us ladies at 38 Heathfield Road are not generally known to be house-proud. Many have called our residence "homely" but never clean or tidy. And quite rightly too.
For instance, over the last few months we've had an increasing number of small back spots appearing on our bathroom ceiling (see photo).

Slowly but surely, more and more of these delightful micro-organisms surfaced on our ceiling, and had started to freak me out a little as they descended down the bathroom walls - invasion!! :O

As I have so few lectures this year, and as I will always choose cleaning over studying, today I decided to tackle our little Aspergillus monsters in a brutal but necessary attack.

The first stage of the attack was to remove all of our toiletries from the bathroom to a place of saftey - by the way, all that junk really out to be sorted through one of these days. Then, armed with a step-ladder, bucket of water and a j-cloth (and with musical encouragement from Snow Patrol) I scrubbed as much of the fungi from the ceiling as possible. I then simply painted over what I was unable to scrub away, using a roller and an artist's paintbrush (that was the only brush I could find).

The whole process took a couple of hours (as I thought I'd best clean the rest of the bathroom while I was there), but I'm sure you'll agree the effort was certainly worth it (refer to second photo). Now we have a sparkling-white ceiling and I am happy :)

Mim xx

Ladies' night out

This Friday Beth and I went to a guest night (she was my guest)

Unfortunately due to my fluctuating size I failed to fit into either of my ball dresses (one was too small and the other too big) and had to borrow Hannah's £7 from the charity shop one.

The preparation for the evening became even more difficult when I realised that my face was covered in insect bites picked up in the placement B&B. Luckily the lady at Boots painted my face for free.

Beth, as always, looked beautiful.

Soz (on the right) shared quite a lot of port with me, hence the colour in her cheeks.

Beth met lots of my friends and everyone had a good time.

At the moment the house is full of people, Hannah and I are both back from placement and have catch-up lectures. We are having a house meal this evening and making pizza together.

Fran

xx

Beware...there is a thief amongst us

I have just come back from a random little supermarket adventure in the rain with one of the heathfield guys (who shall remain unnamed).
This particular heathfield lad has , I am afraid to say, fallen into the ways of crime - having placed his bar of chocolate on the check-out to pay for it, he walked out of the store and climbed into my car with a bag of bananas in his hand which , apparently overcome by the distraction of being in my wonderful presence, he had forgotten to pay for!! Tricky!