Today started at 8am by learning how to give intramuscular injections, although we did it on oranges, not each other. It was fun, until the combination of orange juice and alcohol from the alcohol swabs started really stinking. Then the oranges got really leaky and just made a mess.
It hasn’t made me look forward to getting my next vaccination though. Normally I do my best not to look anywhere near the doctor the entire time that any type of needle equipment is out in the open.
Over the last few years I’ve gradually been getting over it though. I’d gotten so good that last year when we learnt how to take blood I let someone else use me as their guinea pig, and calmly sat there while a classmate drew blood out of my arm for the first time, giving her feedback on when it was hurting. I don’t know if I could sit there and do it for an IM one though, damn those needles are big!
Let’s call our trainer Matron. She definitely gives out a matronly I’m-in-charge-so-don’t-give-me-any-BS vibe. She is a very funny, loud and witty person. She makes me laugh at the same time she scares the pants off me.
So her pointers for doing injections:
- Use the same action as you would for playing darts. Hold it the same way and go in hard and fast.
- What size needle you use is directly proportional to how much you dislike the person you are injecting.
- Ask the person if they are left or right-handed beforehand. If you like them, do the injection in the opposite arm. If they are annoying you, do it in that arm.
If I was one of her patients I think I’d be too scared to be sick. And you know what, I think that’s the way she likes it!!!
Exam update: 4 more sleeps to go!! Argh!!
Judging by the number of past posts here that are little more than “woe is me” bitch sessions, you can probably tell that I’m feeling a little bit emotionally labile at the moment. My exam is in exactly eight days and I’m packing it.
That’s why I’m sitting here writing what I think will turn out to be my longest entry here yet. Go and get a cup of tea (or something stronger) folks. You’ll need it by the time I’m done….
I don’t think I’m coping very well with stress right now. In the last week I have managed several times to lash out at people who are just trying to be nice to me, and I’ve managed to pinch my C6 spinal nerve.
The result of the former is that I think Dante was actually really looking forward to being able to escape up to his parents place for the day for his Mum’s birthday, and in a couple of hours time I think I should call up my own Mum and grovel a bit as well.
The result of the latter is that my back is strapped up with elastoplast tape and I have to go back to physio on Wednesday. Friday’s session helped immensely though, and the tingling and numbness all the way down my right arm has practically gone!
So with this background of high stress and poor coping, I could really have done without yesterday even existing.
Looking back on it now, it all started off when having breakfast in the café just up the road. This place is literally 200m from our front door so we go there for breakfast at least once a fortnight. Eighty percent of the time we get the same meal: ricotta pancakes with fruit and yogurt. Yum! The pancakes are fluffy and fresh, the yogurt to fruit ratio is always spot on, and it’s not over oily or over syrupy so it doesn’t make you feel all gross afterwards. When we go on days that I have netball we usually share the one meal (much to Dante’s disgust), as - speaking from experience - playing netball with a stomach full of pancakes is not a good idea.
So we were just in the process of saying we didn’t need to look at the menu because we know what we wanted, when the waitress told us that a few of the things weren’t on the menu because the oven was broken. This included sausages, some of the burgers and the pancakes. We quickly went with plan B, which was the big breakfast with extra mushrooms (to replace the sausages that were out) along with coffee and a serve of banana bread.
While we drank our coffees, I got to thinking. If it was just the oven broken, and not the pan bit, then why were the sausages and pancakes off the menu? You don’t use an oven to cook them, do you? And then how were they able to bake banana bread? Perhaps it was baked before the oven broke, or perhaps it was done off the premises.
I wasn’t really too fussed by the change in food choices because poached eggs and their yummy mushrooms are never something to complain about. But I hate not knowing stuff, and this apparent inconsistency in cooking methods really bugged me (and continues to do so one day later).
Surely it’s not possible to bake pancakes is it?
One of the few bright points in my day yesterday was netball. It started off pretty shaky when we only had 6 people turn up, leaving us a player down. I had to play centre, and after doing only some cycling and no jogging for 2 weeks due to my neck I was completely buggered by ¾ time. I swapped to GK though, so I made it through the last 15 minutes alive. We managed to pull a win out of our asses as well. At the end of the game we were actually 1 down, but then we had to play 30 seconds of injury time, in which we scored 2 goals and ended up winning. Of course we had no idea the score was so close, I actually thought we were down by about 5 by then, so most of us didn’t even want to play injury time. An unexpected victory like that is pretty damn sweet!!!
Unfortunately things started going pear shaped after that. I had to go down to Wollongong for the night for my brother’s birthday. He was having a heavy metal themed party, which I was really looking forward to (I used to be a bit of a metal head back in the 90s!!!)
Since I had a crapload of study to do the next day I knew I couldn’t really have a big night. Despite my brother’s offer to crash the night I planned on heading back to Sydney on the last train. Thanks to ShittyRail’s new timetable that removed a heap of services, the last Sydney-bound train now leaves Wollongong before 10:30pm. How ridiculous is that!!!!
So I left home at 6, thinking I’d make it there by 8, which gave me time to have a dance and a few drinks but not get too trashed before leaving at 10:30. luckily S gave me a heads-up that the local bottleshop wouldn’t be open, so I grabbed a bottle of red to take down with me.
I get to Central to find out that due to trackwork I have to get a bus from Central to Waterfall, and then a train from Waterfall the rest of the way. This supposedly only takes ½ hour longer. To make things worse the bus didn’t leave until 30 mins after the scheduled train departure time, which means it was after 7pm by the time we even left Central. It was a full coach too, making the trip even more uncomfortable.
As I was trying to get as much study done as possible I’d brought my laptop with me, and it was damn near impossible to get anything done on the coach. The distance between seats is tiny, meaning I couldn’t even open the screen fully. In the end I had to sit sideways across 2 seats with my back to the window. I’m sure this position was not great for my neck. Luckily my outfit, and the volume of my laptop bag, brown paper wine bag and big coat had discouraged anyone from sitting next to me. Then the driver turned all the lights off, so I had to rely on my highly inaccurate touch-typing skills in order to do anything.
We got to Waterfall around 7:45pm, which wasn’t too bad really. If we had a connecting train then and there all would have been sweet. Unfortunately the next scheduled train wasn’t until 8:20pm. How freaking crazy is that!!! 50 people getting off a coach and having to freeze their asses off at 8pm on a Saturday night. How the incapable idiots at city rail manage to explain their lack of ability to coincide coach services with connecting trains when they are the ones scheduling this damn trackwork is beyond me. I fully intend to track down some addresses so I can write to and abuse these people. I am so not impressed!!
So I called my brother to let him know why I was so late and to have a bit of a whinge. He’d been drinking for a few hours by then and was feeling quite jovial. When I told him I had a bottle of wine with me he said I should start drinking it. In my current foul mood, and feeling so cold, I did, brown paper bag and all. Thank goodness whoever invented the twist top wine bottle! Pure class.
At 9pm, an hour and half a bottle of wine later, I arrived at the station. In my haste to leave I’d forgotten to write down the address. All I knew is it was right near the surf club, and I should listen for the music. I’d never been to my brothers place before. Technically its not his place as he rents a corner of the lounge room for 4 nights a week so he can be close to the surf. The other 3 nights of the week he is back at my parents place, a whole 20 minutes drive away.
So its 9pm, I’m a little cold, tired and tipsy and wandering around the streets near the beach looking for my brother’s house. Neither brother is answering his mobile. The last train home leaves in an hour and a half so if I want to get in some quality partying I need to find this place quickly.
Finally I find a house that’s having a party. I can hear everyone out in the backyard, so when I knock on the front door and no one answers I am not really surprised. I wander inside and start trying to make my way out the back. Then this teenage girl bursts through a door calling out for her mother. Thinking this whole thing is going a little pear-shaped, I ask if this is S’s house. Of course it isn’t.
So I have walked into a complete strangers house and frightened a teenage girl into the bargain. My night is just getting better and better.
Luckily a few minutes later my other brother rings me and gives me some good directions. I finally make it to the party, with exactly an hour and five minutes before I have to leave.
It was a good hour though. Any longer and my resolve to catch that last train would have been dead in the water. As it was I had to run to make it to the station ontime.
I have to say my outfit paled in comparison to my brothers’. They were so metal.
And yes, that is a wig on the right!
The train-then-coach-then-bus ride home after all that excitement was not without event either. After having had consumed the other half of the wine whilst at the party I was a little snoozy and had dropped off within the first few stations. I was sitting downstairs in an empty carriage when this couple got on and sat RIGHT ACROSS the aisle from me, and started talking loudly in Spanish to each other.
I’m studying Spanish, so I eavesdropped for a bit, but could only make out the odd word here and there. So I cracked the shits, stood up and ASKED THEM TO BE QUIET IN SPANISH before walking upstairs and reseating myself. I think that was my proudest moment of the night.
I was slightly less proud when we all got off the train at Waterfall and back on a coach, and I had to sit within 5 metres of them again, but I fell asleep pretty quickly anyway.
Some days just don’t end quickly enough.
I’m not even going to apologise for my absence this time. If anyone still reads this, then I guess you have come to expect it already.
So from now on I will not apologise, nor will I explain my lack of apologies, mokay? Otherwise this entire blog will become as mundane as these last two paragraphs have been!
So anyway, it’s cold here. Winter has arrived with a vengeance, and brought with it a crapload of rain, which I would be happier about if it was bucketing down as much in the catchment areas as it has been in Sydney.
In response to this nasty weather I have done two things.
Firstly, I’ve gone out and procured a pair of reindeer boots that are possibly a little immature for someone of my age. But they’re cute, and they’re warm, and with a 15% off sale and a voucher at Target they cost $12.50, and I’m over seeing people walk around in ugg boots.
And don’t worry, over my dead body there will no WEARING THESE OVER THE TOP OF JEANS1.
Second thing I have done is hibernate. I only leave the house when I have to. As well as keeping me warm, it gives me more time to study2. My exam is 3 weeks – 2 days away now.
Expect this self-imposed vegetation to continue for the next few months. But right now there is a break in the rain, and we need bread, so I might actually leave the apartment for the first time today.
1 Although I reserve the right to wear them over a pair of pyjamas only within the privacy of my own house, where no-one else will see, STRICTLY to keep out the cold and in no way, shape or form a fashion statement of any kind.
2 Amongst other things of course, like reading blogs, watching TV, making soup and FREEZING TO DEATH IN THIS DAMN WEATHER.
