Best foot forward, spit-spot!

Many a month has passed since I last blogged, and I thought I may as well do the thing properly and just start anew. After all, a much-married girl like myself can't talk about bouquets forever (see my last blog for more information). So in the hiatus (my finals-frazzled brain wants to add 'hernia' at this point) I have done my medical finals, and on a whim, took up knitting.

Finals were interesting. The first exam, was an exercise in willpower..question after question, long paragraphs followed by five impossible-to-choose-between answers. The practical exam, which I was scared stiff about, ended up being not as bad as I had expected, but then the last one was hard again, so I can't say whether I passed or failed. There was a time during the exam when it was touch and go whether I would manage to stay awake or not, but I battledvaliantly against the temptation. I hope inshallah all will go well and I'll pass, but if not, I have planned an exciting fun-packed year of "medical student tourism", working in the hospitals of the world – so I can find a bright side to failure if I need to.

In the midst of this, I finally I found a book I had first looked at in Cambridge last year, called Fast Knits Fat Needles and got very sucked into the whole knitting world. Fortunately, we had a useless internet connection at home (dial-up 44k and only after 10pm) so I wasn't able to indulge the whim as much as I would have done otherwise..possibly the only thing which may save me from finals catastrophe.

I've just started a placement in the same department that I'd be working in from August if I pass. It seems cushy as house officer jobs go – two house officers share two wards and cover for each other so they can each take the afternoon off on alternate days! The consultant is also pretty chilled out – a post-take ward round took an hour and 15 minutes (compared to the last nightmare one I did at MRI – 7.30am until 6pm) and then he took us all for a coffee afterwards. When he found out that, far from being a keeno student who was raring to go again straight after finals, I was being forced by my medical school to do this placement, he said it would be fine for me to skive off as much as I wanted, which suits me just fine. Gives me a chance to sneek off to Loop one of these days..

Anyway, will continue later, and will possibly even treat you all to pictures of my knitting!

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