Friday, November 5, 2010

it goes on and on and on....

Last Tuesday, I finished my Psychiatry rotation (apart from an ethics presentation and a revision session).  I think you can tell by the number of posts I have mentioned it in, that I have enjoyed this rotation a lot, and it has affected me a lot, both positively and negatively.

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I will miss it a lot: I brought one of the patients I had gotten close to some chocolate, and wished her well in the future.  I always felt that in Psychiatry, it can get hard to maintain a proper doctor patient relationship, because the patient seems to let you into their life a little more, more than a normal other speciality doctor patient relationship.  I guess Psychiatry had a very profound effect on me; I hadn't really had any experience in this speciality before, and it is something I would like to explore in the future.  It seems to be a sort of 'dumping ground' for the things that other specialities in medicine do not want, like dementia or learning disability.  But I feel as though Psychiatry has taken them up well, with good team working and the like.


Went out with some friends towards the end of the week; it was good.  Sometimes I just get this feeling where I really want to go and dance, so this was very well timed.  I thought I wouldn't have heard of a lot of the songs, which was true, but equally, I also knew quite a few too!


At the end of the week, I went to the North, to my boyfriend's brother's wedding.  It was held in the place where I had my "debs" (as it is known in Ireland) so it was lovely to see that everything was still the same, and that I could recognise all the places.  On the Friday, we got in quite late, and then went for dinner.  The wedding was on the Saturday afternoon, so I drank all the complimentary tea for lunch to stave off hunger (it failed) and had a hot bath, then got ready :)  The actual ceremony part was very short - I suppose I just had preconceptions from seeing them on TV or whatever that the ceremony would be quite long.  Maybe it was because it wasn't very religious.  It was a little nerve wracking to meet the majority of both sides of P's family, and had trouble remembering everyone's names.  Yes, there were that many of them.  It was such a good first wedding.  Now here's to the next ones!... yes, you reading there... please get married soon and invite me!


So this week has been my 'consolidation week' which I used to, er, consolidate... This week has been one huge blur, and now it is Friday (at time of writing),  All the days have meshed into one, where I have slept, studied, eaten at the wrong times and been rained on a lot.  I finally opened my graduation present - it was a little artificial as I knew what it was already and there wasn't anything I wanted. (although, there is now).


I think my conception of present receiving / buying is a little unconventional to other people's.  I don't think that Christmas represents the buying of presents, and now I am legally recognised by the state as an adult, I don't feel I have a right to ask for Christmas presents from my parents.  So Christmas doesn't mean buying presents for my family (sorry family).  Surely, the whole religious concept behind Christmas is to celebrate the birth of an important religious figure.  I know it is celebrated a bit early, and the timing is a little bit off and also stolen, but the idea behind it makes sense.  It seems okay for a religion to want to celebrate what they think is the birthday of someone important to that religion.  So buying a present.. that does not really represent a birth does it.  A present does not have a birthday itself, so it doesn't make sense.


But I have no qualms about buying presents at random times.  Sometimes it is just good to treat yourself after a long spell of very hard work.  A reward system, if you will.  So whilst the things I want to buy for myself may coincide with the time that others do Christmas shopping, I am not buying myself something for Christmas.  Does that make sense?


I find present buying a very difficult affair generally anyway, because I never know what to get them.  I haven't gotten P a present for a very long time; we called a gift amnesty so we don't get things for birthdays, anniversaries, Valentine's Day, Christmas, graduation, passing of PhD's etc.


But I may heavily hint at the Lanvin x H&M collection; I do this quite a lot but a lot of the things I want, I just have a passing want of.  I want them but then time passes and I feel that the amount I want them reduces significantly so that I don't want them anymore.  But you know, a girl can always do with more dresses.  And Lanvin designs great clothes :)


I was on the bus the other day, and it just happens to go past a football stadium (sometimes).  There was a Champion's League match on, and half the road was blocked off. No one looked happy, and it got a bit rowdy and ambulances were involved.  I never really understood the emotional investment that people put into football.  You can buy the clothes, the merchandise, the tickets, the books, you can go to all the matches but still, the players will not know who you are, they will not acknowledge your spending (well, they might in the fact that they like the fact they go home in top of the range cars).. they will never say thankyou to you... There is something unique to football, unlike any other sport, that reduces people's mentality in a way.  People support teams that belong to cities or towns they have never been to, or were not born to.


I can understand that people might want to support the team of the place where they were born.  You know, home loyalty and all that.  But a lot of people I know support the most popular teams.  Is that just because they know they will win, so they can share somehow in that glory?  Or is it because they genuinely believe they are very good?  I have asked a few of my friends about that, but maybe they are too proud and their support is so long established that they won't like to admit that 'their' team has done badly.


(That's another thing.  I can never imagine being so invested in something such that I would refer to it as though it were mine, e.g. "we played badly today", when in fact, "we" means "the players I do not know in real life")


I can also accept that people may be brought up supporting the same team as their parents / family.  A lot of people are introduced to football in this way.  But similar to religion, where people are brought up (generally) in the religion of their parents.  But you grow up and you form your own opinions and then you can choose whether or not to keep being a member of that religion.  So if your parents bring you up supporting one football team, does that mean you need to keep supporting them?


It is one of those things I feel I will never understand.


This song was playing a few times when I went out last week.  I had heard it before, and realised I did know it.


This is a cover version of the song, which I quite like.  This song in general makes me want to get up and dance :D


Hope you are all well!!!!
Carol xxx




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