Whoo! Time off!

Finishing early tomorrow at 1:30 due to timetable reshuffling, and I'm only in for 20 minutes on Monday, and off next Monday! Wheeeeee!

Husband is under the impression that I should have went back to uni years ago as he's really liking coming home to his dinner ready. I've not told him that this is a transitional thing yet. In other news his blood pressure was checked at the doctors again and it was "normal". I remain unconvinced given high readings we've been getting in the house of late. Meh. We'll check it again at some point no doubt.

In other news, Nutter Number 1 seems to be quietening down a little. Not by much mind but this meant that NN2 - and we also have a NN3!! She joined today - actually talked away for a bit. I have decided that NN2 is annoying. I have been formulating this train of thought over the past few days but today has put that particular train on the rails to pain in the ass town, Population 2.

In brief:

NN1 - babies babies babies. Thats all she ever talks about, mentions or shows any interest in. Apart from Vodka.
NN2 - Too precious for words. Mummy and Daddy's little princess.
NN3 - Undecided yet. Bit schemey. But only one day in so am trying to give benefit of doubt.

I may well edit this over the coming weeks to look a bit less mental and all out psycho.

The internet burns my eyes!

Got handed some Nursing Journals today - apparently "Nursing Journals" or "Nursing Periodical" is the preffered term as I discovered when I asked for one of the Nursing Magazines :0( . Now I'll quite happily read the Nursing Times, or the Nursing Standard (ooooh get me) online but I'm not paying £200 a year for the subscriptions, so I read what I have managed to scavenge around campus. I have accrued 3 so far. One of the articles is on toileting of patients. Okay. So I go online to look for more info because my interest has been piqued (it's been a slow day). Disturbingly there are a large number of sites, and disturbingly blogs, dedicated to poo. One is by a poo nurse. I won't go into more detail as I can see you sitting there dry boaking at your desks, but even I was clicking in a kind of awed horror at what people have wrong with thier bums.

Anyhoo. Apparently I look funny. Not funny as in "visually arresting" funny but look funny as in "What you staring at?". A lecturer actally moved away today after declaring I was looking at him in strange way (and no he was not pumpable so it wasn't that way) and it was unsettling him. He was giving a lecture at the time, and class emptied promptly at end so I didn't have time to ask him in what way I was "looking funny".

Now feel like I look a bit psycho. To be honest it's left me a little paranoid. I'm going to check with him if I see him later this week. . . .

Updates.

Oh my! That's the biggest one of those I've ever had...

And it was damn tasty...*

Well we're back. Been in 2 hours and my ma's phoned twice. She also camped out in our house for the 4 days we were away. Apparently she deserved a holiday too. Eaten me out of house and home and drank my vodkas. Its like karmic payback for all the years I lived with her.

Budapest was good. The only disappointing thing was the food. Full of China Buffet Kings, MiccieD's, and Subways. All I wanted was Goulash and pork. It's disappointing how hard it was to find goulash in Hungary.

*We did find a wee place to eat in the shopping centre next to the hotel, which we would toddle around for supermarket shoppings and cinema viewings. For a starter I ordered the cheese and toast. I was expecting a wee plate(maybe 2 slices of cheese and toast), of cheese and some toast. No. In Hungary the portions are huge. The waiter (pince) brought out the biggest cheese board I've ever seen. With 10 slices of toast. Seriously. 10 huge slices. I swear there was enough cheese to serve 4 people. After sending the waiter into hysterics (Paul says the look on my face was priceless) I endeavoured to do the cheese justice. I failed. I roped Paul into help but gave up partially through. At one point I thought "Oh thats nice, peppers and fruits as garnish" No. Not a garnish. A container for more cheese. The peppers hid Feta and the fruit hid other cheese. I'm actually scunnered at cheese now.

So aye. Hungary was good. Bumped into a guy from Motherwell and ended up in a pub with him where 6 rounds of JD & Coke for me, and beer for the guys came to 5300HUF. Which is less than £20! Score!

Booze/Wine is cheap (about £1 - £3 a bottle and it was nice stuff), cigarettes are cheap, the public transport is amazing, the people are lovely (apart from the odd arsey person) and the weather was crisp, but dry.

The Terrorhas (Terror House) was a monument to how Hungary suffered during the Nazi, Arrow Cross and Communist occupations. Not one for the easily downhearted. Left me so upset that we decided to skip the Holocaust Memorial Garden as I couldn't have taken both in the same day, and I'm fairly emotionally void. On one of the tours around the old town theres still bullet holes in the wall where they lined people up to shoot them. It was humbling to think of all those people killed for making a stand for the things we take for granted.

Also brought home why my grandparents, and father in part, were so scared of anything like that ever happening again and why they acted the way they did. You can read about it in books, but to actually go there and see it in living history and speak to those who have been through it, is so much more touching than I ever thought it would be.

Anyway, on that sombre note I go, as have to try and find all the stuff my ma has "tidied" in random places before Monday. Because Monday is my first day of school folks!

Wish me luck!

Shit! I've slept in!

Woke up at 6:30 this morning. Thought "Nah its okay. Monday lie in." back to sleep

Woke up at 9:35am, jumped out of bed, started running about grabbing clothes, phone etc shouting at Paul.

"UP! UP! We've slept in! N's gonnae beast me if I'm late..."
"Marri. You don't work there anymore."
"Aw aye. Right enough. Sorry"

Tonight we embark on the adventure that is case packing with Paul. Seriously this is a nightmare, let me explain. We are going away for 4 nights.

I'll pack: 2-3 pairs trousers, 4 tops, underwear for 4 days (always having the option of washing in the hotel sink and drying out on the radiator), a hairbrush, mini deoderant, wee bottle of perfumes from giftsets (no point taking a bog one see) and a guidebook. My entire stay would fit in hand luggage. I don't even bother with make up. I can be just as ugly abroad as I am here.

Paul will pack: 5 pairs trousers, 5-8 tops (see underwear), a spare jacket, underwear for 8 days (in case he feels compelled to change twice a day), hair brushes (yes plural), hair straighteners, moisturiser, spare shoes, slippers for hotel room, a book, his satellite navigation system, his mobile, his mobile charger, travel iteninerary in a plastic folder, toiletries, 2 bottles of man perfume, ibuprofen, and other bits that he will find and squirrel away in the giant suitcase.

Obviously we have two very different travelling styles. Personally as long as I'm clean I don't care. I'm sure people abroad don't care either, as long as you are polite, spend your money in thier place of business and aren't completely filthy.

We will not be going to Gundel (place where Queen dined, very swish) as its black tie, and I really cannot be faced with the hassle of packing a suit for paul and a dress for me.

Taxi is all booked, and we leave in 17 hours! in the meantime I have to have another tidy, buy snake food, clean out the mice, and try and hide from my mammy who has been phoning 20 times a day since "Yer no workin'.".

See you when I'm back

And so my friends, the end is near

I planned each charted course;
Each careful step along the byway,
But more, much more than this,I did it my way.

Yes, there were times, I
m sure you knewWhen I bit off more than I could chew.
But through it all, when there was doubt,
I ate it up and spit it out.
I faced it all and I stood tall;
And did it my way.

Ive loved, Ive laughed and cried.
Ive had my fill; my share of losing.
And now, as tears subside,I find it all so amusing.
To think I did all that;And may I say - not in a shy way,
No, oh no not me,I did it my way


Sentimentality aside, its been great working with you guys. Okay the work has sucked at times, but as they say whenever you leave somewhere you miss the people not the work. I'll miss you guys. This much *holds arms outstretched*

I'll be back in to see you all though. Thats if Stuart lets me in the front door.

Hang on a minute....

If you have a minute, and you are so inclined, please complete the e-postcard to your MSP to ban snaring. (see what I did with the title post? Did you see?)

http://www.bansnares.com/action.php

Hi!

So yes, hello there.

I have as requested by the big yin* started a blog. The blog of the next 3 years** telling you all of my time as a "kept woman". To be fair kept woman hardly applies. No working in return for Stepford wife type antics?

No.Note that this comes with disclaimers, I am not going to be a "lady what lunches". I won't even be a lady what gets to sit in the house watching telly, knitting and eating unlimited amounts of toast, no for I have chosen the route of the student.

Yup a student. Spent 6 years in a meteoric rise to the top of the civil service where I have earned acclaim and riches beyond that of my wildest dreams. Actually that last sentence was a lie, I actually spent 6 years working away earning enough money to return to university to become skint again and hopefully keep a roof over my head during that time. Maybe I'm meant to spend my life in a mobius strip of skintness?

So what can you expect from me as a student? Well, older and wiser one would say that the past is not necessarily the pattern for the future, but then one would also say that one will never change in all the time one has hole in ones arse so...

1. I am hopelessly disorganised. Do not deal well with paperwork. This does not bode well for 3 years of paper based assessments.
2. I run late. Seriously late. Its like time plots against me. This does not bode well for lectures, placements or indeed life in general.
3. Last time around I was terrible with money. I have no idea what I did with it. This at least has changed as I'm now tighter than a ducks arse.
4. Last time I was a skinny wee thing. This was mostly down to being skint (see number 3) I had to walk everywhere, and also the fact that I subsisted on toast, soup, black coffee and oranges. Seriously, my diet was so bad I thought my eczema was scurvy.
5. I spend way too much time on the t'internet. Expect regular updates.

So aye that's enough waffling for now, I'll update after I'm back from my globetrotting in Budapest.

* The Big Yin being N. You know who you are.
** 3 years being the length of the course, assuming I pass and don't fuck up immensely. Again.