Something for the weekend

Last weekend was awesome. Not only was it my first day off in 12 days (we don’t count the 3 days when I was off sick because I couldn’t talk AT ALL, and it’s very difficult to clerk in A&E if you have completely lost your voice and feel like crap) but it was a nice day too, all cold and crisp and clear, just how I like it.

Andy had a band thing in the morning at a studio in Stockbridge which, although it meant getting up early to drop him off with his various drummer-man paraphernalia, was a good thing because it meant I got to have a proper day off. Beware, medical students, of sleeping through all your days off, which is very easily done but is kind of a shame, because you don’t get that many days off and it’s always nice to see daylight and have fresh air.

So while Andy was drumming his wee heart out, I wandered around the shops in Stockbridge and browsed the property. No, we cannot afford to live in Stockbridge (at least not unless we rent) and yes, I am aware of this fact, so don’t worry, but it’s always nice to look. I bought a lovely necklace and matching earrings which I may wear with a certain dress sometime in the future, and I bought Andy a wallet since his has holes in. Then I sat in a coffee shop and read the Saturday Times. Gosh, am I civilised or what?!

We went for lunch in the Grassmarket, in a wee restaurant where I used to work one summer when I was back from uni, and which has awesome sweet potato wedges among other things. After lunch we went to Andy’s house where his sister + husband + toddler son and his parents were waiting for me to play the piano for them to learn a few songs for a choir they were in for church the next day – Andy’s mum has, um, fully embraced the fact that there’s finally someone who can play their (very flat but in tune with itself) piano and has all but arranged a carol singing night for the whole family, Little Women-style. I’m dreading it! Must practice more.

In the evening we went to a birthday party (a nursery rhyme-themed fancy-dress 30th, no less) for one of Andy’s friends. We were Little Red Ridinghood and the Big Bad Wolf. No, I was not the wolf. Some people went all out, it was a really good party, everyone enjoyed it.

And that’s one of my best days ever, right there.

No medicine, just life. Aaaah, life. Enjoy it.

[The weeked got a little worse when someone drove into the back of my car on sunday evening, but apparently whiplash gets you a couple more days off work so I'm not complaining too much. I do like my job, honest!]

By yon bonnie banks

Remarkably, I’ve had a few days off! Four, in fact, from tuesday to friday. I am a happy bunny.

On tuesday I went to see a show at the festival with a friend from church (yes! I have friends from church now!), then I did a lot of rather frustrating online training stuff which is due for monday (yes, all you med students out there, even once you have reached the hallowed goal of doctorhood medical training is still a box-ticking exercise) including a pharmacy tutorial thing which is marked by a pharmacist and the results of which go to your tutor – it took me AGES and was pretty tough but I got like 92% so it can’t have been that hard! I hope the pass mark is less than 90%…

On wednesday I went through to Glasgow to pick up a friend who I haven’t seen for a year – it’s not that we are lazy or bad at keeping in touch or that we don’t like each other any more, it’s just that she was in Japan for a year and it’s hard to meet up regularly with someone who lives on the other side of the world. Not impossible, but certainly more difficult than if she lived just down the road. Anyway. We set off in the car for a wee road trip to Loch Lomond, and, believe it or not, it was a glorious day! Possibly the first since April. We climbed up a hill and surveyed the views while eating strawberries, we went out for lunch, we chatted about lots of things, we got lost a few times (she’s not the best map-reader in the world but we were in no rush and I love her anyway), we drove on a lot of roads which look like this but with forrest and hills, we stayed in a B&B run by a lovely man with a Highland accent (consequently I will always associate that region with Highland accents, although they are all Weegies), we pottered about a bit more and rated each town on their facilities (Aberfoyle, lose 10 points for not having a chippy but gain 20 for having nice toilets, Callander gain 10 points for having an excellent chippy, Crianlarich lose lots of points for having nothing! Though I gather the station restaurant is nice…), then we went home again. It was a great trip.

Last night I went on a work night out which was a bit of a let-down, especially given that only 3 of us turned up, plus one more from another ward – grrr at my registrar who organised the whole thing and then didn’t come, I love him a little less now. Today I have finished off the annoying training thing, and tonight am having a family dinner with, you’ve guessed it, my family. The parents are departing on Sunday which might be a bit of a shock, since they have spoiled me rotten by doing all my washing and making me food to take with me while I’m at work, not to mention picking me up after particularly long shifts!

I’ll leave you with another picture which my friend took yesterday and which apparently sums me up in a nutshell…though I think a stethoscope should be added for completeness!

blast from the past

Today I had lunch with a friend from school. We hadn’t seen each other since the day we left high school six years ago. It was ’surreal but nice’. [Name the film, I dare you!]

We talked about what we’ve been up to. We talked about people we knew at school, and what we hear of them. A lot of people seem to have kids. Not many are married (only one in fact). It’s very different from my friends at uni, where a lot are married and nobody has kids. It’s so strange to think of us all as big grown-up people.

It seems to me, from what we talked about, that not that many people are happy doing what they are doing. When did we all stop dreaming? So many of them seem to be working in jobs that they don’t like, or faffing about because they don’t know what to do with their lives. There’s nothing wrong with not knowing what you want to do, we’re only young (we are. We ARE.), but it makes me sad to think that people are unhappy.

I know how lucky I am that I knew from a very early age what I wanted to do (I think I was four, I had teddy bear hospitals with toilet roll bandages and traction and everything), and I’m lucky that I had the motivation to get on with getting there. It’s much easier to get good grades when you have a goal. High school for me was a get-in-get-grades-get-to-med-school affair. I didn’t enjoy it much, mainly because this kind of determination was not common at my school, and so I got picked on a fair bit, and I’m sure it made me less popular that I stayed at home to study rather than going out on the town with school friends.

But you know what? I’m about to start my dream job. I made it to med school (by the grace of God, it seems, because if you weren’t bad or stupid at my school you had to just get on with it, nobody really paid much attention – my career advice consisted of, ‘what do you want to do? Oh, a doctor? Right, better get on with it then.’ Full stop. You’re on your own.) and, more importantly, I made it out the other side of med school.

My friend said today that she thinks I’m ‘by far the most successful’ from our wee group of friends. But what does that mean?! How do you judge success? High school was no picnic for me, and neither was university. I had at least my fair share of struggles, dodgy moments and times when I thought I’d never get to the end of this darned education. But here I am.

I don’t think there’s any way that this is down to me. And I have no idea why I am so blessed to be doing what I love. It’s definitely not down to me. But I’m so grateful that I’ve been given the chance to serve God by doing something that I love.

I’m sure I won’t love it every minute of every day, there will be days when I am stressed and exhausted and when I wish I could go back to studenthood, but on those days, I’ll remember how blessed I am to be doing this job, and I’ll try to never take it for granted.