London, Baby!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, it's been rather hectic.  My dad came to Edinburgh on February 20th and then we left for London yesterday, March 1st.  Travelling with much luggage and the bingos, made for a long day.  We stopped in York on the train to stretch our legs and get some eats.  Then, it was on to London. We got stopped on the tracks for a problem ahead and I was concerned it was going to be an hours-on-end ordeal, but fortunately it was not.

We all made it intact, just hungry and tired.  We are staying at a flat owned by my old neighbor in Hilton Head.  He is from London, but spends most of his time in the US now.  His flat is in a prime location, about a block from the Tower Bridge.  We are going to head out to do some sightseeing today. Not sure what the day has to offer, but a trip to the bridge, tower and a view of the Thames River is a must.

Also hoping to meet up with my high school friend for lunch either Thursday or Friday.  I did get to see her in Edinburgh when she and her mom were passing through a few months ago.  She's been living in London for a couple of years now.

Tonight, we shall have dinner with the owner of the flat's very dear friend from here.  She met us and gave us the keys last night.  Oh, that reminds me, I need to write about the cab driver.  But, that will have to wait, as I need to go get ready for the day.

Over-N-Out

A Quickie......

Just to say Happy St. Valentine's Day to everyone!  I haven't had a memorable Valentine's Day in years, but it's ok because I do not get too wrapped up in it all.  Back in my former life when I was flying, this was always the week me and the other pilot went to our annual simulator training down in Orlando, FL.  If you ever want to curse Valentine's Day, trying going to a warm, mega-resort area during the winter with all the love birds and get a decent meal at a decent hour.  Rick and I would have been in training all day, go back to our hotel, get ready and head out to dinner only to find.........lots of prom-date-look-alikes clogging up 'our' restaurant.  We would always forget what day it was and then notice the corsages.  That's when my gag reflex would kick in.  It was at least a 2hr ordeal.  It would not have been so bad if we didn't have an early schedule, but we always did.

So yeah, not a huge fan of VD (in any form), but still hoping everyone had a lovely day.

It's rained/snowed here today and expecting more of the same (probably all rain) tomorrow. Yippee.

Over-N-Out

Free Health Care??? Biggest Scam Yet.

If there is one thing that boils my blood, it's false advertising.  'Oh, you'll have FREE healthcare in Scotland'... Well, that depends on your definition of free.  A tax of 20% on all goods, to start, does not exactly equate to 'free' for me.  But, I self admittedly am not very good at math.

So, all I wanted was my annual gynecological exam, a health form filled out for school and some vaccinations needed for vet school.  I first scheduled the gyno exam and was told to discuss my paperwork for the vaccinations when I arrived.  Since my appointment was still 2 weeks away, I decided to take my paperwork to my doctor's office so they would have it before my appointment.  I already knew I would have to pay for some of the vaccines, but I was fine with that since they are not something everybody needs.

The half-page form I needed filled out requests the following information:

Height
Weight
Blood Pressure
Pulse

And, to describe any abnormalities of the following:

Eyes
ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat)
Neck
Heart
Breast
Abdomen
Rectum
Nervous System
Genitalia
Extremities

It requires a signature by a physician.

This is where it gets really interesting.  Pay attention.  I don't know about the rest of you ladies, but my ob/gyn from the States does a thorough examination in addition to performing a pap smear.  Because, yes, I'd really like to know if she finds a lump in my breast that I've missed, an abnormality in my abdomen (like where my ovaries and uterus are located), any swollen lymph nodes, etc.  She also would tend to discuss with me relevant issues that may affect my health...my relationships, diet, any major changes in my life, emotional well-being, medications, etc.  You know, all the normal stuff, right?

I am informed by the lovely receptionist that I will need a separate appointment to get this form filled out.  Why, I ask?  I am getting seen by a gynecologist and fairly certain she/he will be able to easily complete this form.  Oh no, it is a nurse and she is ONLY doing a pap smear.  Like, as in not even checking ANYTHING else.  Wow, really?  You are going to have a nurse get me in the stirrups, take a swab, and be done with the deal?  Not even she is going to take a peek around while I'm all there for her to see?  Nope. Not even throw a stethoscope on my chest/lungs to have a listen?  Nope. How about a breast exam.  No, not done here.

I informed them they have never even done a physical on me and do they not practice preventative medicine here?  No, they really don't. I said, 'So, you do not do a physical exam to find a baseline on your new patients'. That answer is No again.  They said I could have a complementary 'chat' with the nurse and she would do my height, weight, BP and I could drop off a urine sample.  Gee, thanks. Do I get a free cup of coffee with that? I told them that I wanted EVERYTHING checked by a doctor because lo and behold, I am NOT a doctor and would really like someone to listen to my heart, look in my ears and make sure their trained eyes do not see anything out of the ordinary.

They advised me they can help with my request! Alright, I'm now getting somewhere. Yes, I can have all of that and more for a mere £120.  That is $200USD to look me over with out even a prick of my skin!!!!  After my jaw hit the floor, I said, "So, this really isn't free healthcare, is it?"  I had two ladies dealing with my smarty pants by this time and they literally stared at me for 30 seconds before saying, 'Well, our system is different than yours'.  You think?  I passed on the offer. Not sure what I would have done if they would have said, 'But wait, there's more.  For £120 you can have your form filled out and we'll throw in a free colonoscopy.  And, if you book your appointment TODAY, we'll give you this handsome 'I survived the NHS (National Healthcare System) t-shirt in either happy, pastel pink or dashing green.'

Moving on to the vaccinations.  I am asked to fill out a form so that they may research exactly what I need.  Wait a minute....I am GIVING you a form by the vet school as to EXACTLY what I need.  And what I really need, is to make an appointment so that we can get started. The 'consultation' fee to do the research is £25, or $42USD and then I get to pay for all of the vaccinations as well...anywhere from £30-40 per shot.  Oh, and it will take them a week to 'research' what I need (it's ON THE FORM) and then I could make an appointment, which will take 1-2 weeks to get in. <Bangs head on desk so hard it starts to bleed profusely>.  Oh wait, NOW I can go get my 'free' healthcare to get all stitched up. Perfect system.

So yeah, Scotland can take their 'free' healthcare and shove it up into a place that I can't get them to look at on me for less than 200 bucks. I'll pass on the free pap smear.  I don't trust you to read the results correctly anyways.  

I'm not going to start on my political rant....but, just know that THIS is what happens when the government sticks their nose where they shouldn't.  Only the sick are seen here.  There is no such thing as preventative care.  It's only for the well-to-do.  And don't even get me started on dental.

I am soooooo Over-N-Out

The Doctor is In

You can just go ahead and start calling me Doctor, as in Ph.D-worthy.  I have ground-breaking evidence that dogs also need a healthy dose of sunshine to be all that they can be.

You may have inferred from my last post that I am not enthralled with the weather in Edinburgh. Congrats, you have an IQ of at least 20.  With that being said, it has come to my attention that perhaps one of my dear Bingo Boyz is also afflicted with the wintertime blues.  I have realised that I actually have years of reliable and overwhelmingly convincing data to prove my thesis that dogs also suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder).  Please follow along my photo research project as we see the transgression of poor Mugsy from a happy, well-adjusted (in most aspects) pooch to one who just wants to sleep the day away and dream of summertime's past.

Following is the ground-breaking data:

We must start at The Beginning.  We lived at the beach on the coast of sunny, humid and warm South Carolina.  The was the start of the Mugger's days on Earth and he enjoyed his time here immensely.  He was a very young pup, but early pictures show how he is drawn to the light, much like a newborn piglet.

We moved from SC to the blistering hot desert of Las Vegas, NV.  This is where research has shown Mugsy to thrive.  The house was one level and had a sliding glass door out to the back yard, which consisted of artificial grass surrounded by a rock garden and a 6ft tall cinder block 'fence'.  As I worked from my home, I would wake up and immediately open the slider about 6 inches so the dogs could enjoy the 'cooler' part of the day when the backyard was still shady.  It became clear that the Mugger waited until about 10am, when the sun started to shine in the backyard, to make his way out for hours on end. It would easily be 90F by this time. These are a few photos capturing his Heaven on Earth:

He liked the sun so much, he liked to jump in the pool, take a swim, cool off and then catch some rays.

He was also so invigorated, he became a tad mischievous.  While I was inside hard at work, he dragged all of these items out to his little desert play land...apparently he did not want to come back inside. Ever. He's the bad boy out in the grass.  His brother came out with me to assess the damage.

Sunny and hot Las Vegas was left behind for Richmond, VA for 10 months prior to leaving for the dark depths of Edinburgh.  Again, the proof is in the pudding. Didn't matter if he was inside or out. See for yourself:

I thought I would take the Bingo Boyz to the beach in Hilton Head one last time before we sailed off to Europe.  We stayed a month, and of course Mugsy loved every second of his sun-soaked vacation:

But, then....it was time to go.  We sailed over on the Queen Mary 2 from NY to Southampton, England.  Mugsy loved his time on deck when the sun was out:

Then, we docked in dreary Southampton and I became concerned for our well-being. But, have no fear, Edinburgh was absolutely lovely in August!  Check out the puppy basking in the sun:

I advised both of them to take advantage of all the sunshine they could get, because before too long, it would be gone.

And unbelievably, they listened....

Then, winter came and it was dark. Thankfully, dogs are resilient and adapt to their surroundings.  So, when given something that vaguely represents the sun, guess who takes advantage of it?  From a floor heater:

To my computer desk lamp:

Suffice it to say, winter is in full force and the does not come out often. And, when it does, unfortunately it does not enter into the flat where Mugger can soak it up.  So, sadly, this is what he's become:

I don't even have many pictures of him from this winter, because they are all the same....his eyes closed and sound asleep.  I think I have found the solution for the poor little guy, but you will just have to tune in next time for it.

Till then, 

Over-N-Out

The Poet Know It

Robert Louis Stevenson on Edinburgh: "But Edinburgh pays cruelly for her high seat in one of the vilest climates under heaven. She is liable to be beaten upon by all the winds that blow, to be drenched with rain, to be buried in cold sea fogs out of the east, and powdered with the snow as it comes flying southward from the Highland hills. The weather is raw and boisterous in winter, shifty and ungenial in summer, and a downright meteorological purgatory in the spring. The delicate die early, and I, as a survivor, among bleak winds and plumping rain, have been sometimes tempted to envy them their fate. For all who love shelter and the blessings of the sun, who hate dark weather and perpetual tilting against squalls, there could scarcely be found a more unhomely and harassing place of residence.


Nuff said.  This describes Edinburgh to an absolute Tee!!!!  A schoolmate sent this to me after I whined about the weather.  I at least now know I am not imagining things and am not alone in my distaste for the dark, dreary, misty, rainy, overcast winter.  Blehhh.


In other news, exams are rapidly approaching and everyone is buckling down.  It has been study, study, study around here.  We have exactly 2 weeks until we begin our 4 days of hell.  They have stopped our lectures and all we have this week are a few practicals. Wed and Fri we are off and the other days we have one dissection, one clinical anatomy lab, a trip to a boarding facility, an ultrasound practical and two review sessions - one for cell bio and one for anatomy.  


Last week was great fun. We had another sheep practical in which we got to trim their hooves.  The ewes are pretty preggers now and quite heavy, at around 70 kgs.  It was not nearly as easy to cast them (get them from standing on all fours, to resting on their backside with full body weight against you), but my partner and I devised a two-man casting system that worked like a charm!  We managed to trim up 8 ewes while some 3-4 person groups did half that amount.  It was fun stuff.  This is what it looks like after you cast a sheep while your partner trims the hooves:

I will not be posting much between now and the end of finals, but am definitely thinking of everyone.  I do have a few fun things to look forward to in the next couple of weeks.  The first is this Friday - it is the Vet School talent show.  It is supposed to be a riot and one of the funniest nights of the year.  Then, on Sunday, a classmate is hosting a Superbowl Party!!  Yay, NFL football....Yay.  The following Friday, a few friends are going to cheap movie night. Gotta love student discounts.


Ok, it will be a slow month for posts until after exams, but I'll update as much as possible. 


Over-N-Out 

Egads!

Oh my....it's been pretty darn busy since starting up the semester a week and a half ago.  Last week was absolutely brutal.  Talk about being forced into getting back on track with a schedule...sheeesh!  I could simply not get enough sleep.  I had 3 dissections and volunteered out at the farm last week, making for some very loooong days. I went out Friday night to celebrate a friend's birthday and it all came to a head this weekend.  I slept and slept and slept and slept.  And slept some more.  Me and the Bingos were professional couch potatoes and I felt no shame. The weather was perfect for it though...typical Scotland with overcast skies and periods of rain (really drizzle here).  Sooo sleepy.

Last week was good, just super long days.  We started our dog, cat and equine lectures..yay.  Like I said, we also did 3 dissections - two of the thorax and began the abdomen.  They went very well.  A classmate and I volunteered to help out at the sheep farm one afternoon scanning ewes.  It was open to all years and about 12 of us showed up.  They were scanning (ultra sounding) for pregnancy.  We had to go through about 400 ewes (female sheeps).  Our job, as students, was to move the sheep from pen to pen, get them up the chute and into the crush for the technician, put a dot of paint on their wool according to how many babes they were carrying and to do anything else that was needed. The norm for an ewe is twins, as she has two teats to milk her babes.  We did not mark these.  We marked for singles, triplets, quads (had one) and empty (not pregnant).  There were very, very few empties.  These gals are fertile!  You mark them for how many lambs they are carrying so they can feed them appropriately.  Also, at lambing time, you would want to take a lamb from the mother of triplets and put it with a single, so everyone gets milk.  Ewes will kill lambs that are not theirs, so you have to disguise it in bodily fluid from the mother or one of her lambs.  A little disguise, if you will.

In addition to getting more handling skills under our belts, we also got to observe the screen showing the ultrasound.  It was a challenge for me in the beginning to even have a clue what any of the blobs of grey meant. Or even what blob I was supposed to be looking at. Eventually, I had convinced myself that I could see something, but honestly was not sure at all.  Occasionally, he would point them out and show us where the head was, followed by a body and where the other lambs were hiding in that black hole of a uterus.  That is when I KNEW I was getting it!!  I could actually pick them out before he told us sometimes...amazing.  We learned that he scans about 120,000 ewes a season at about 50-55 pence (cents in USD) per scan.  Wow.  Lambing season here for the most part right around Easter.  We get a month off at Easter time to go lambing on farms as part of our requirement for our extramural studies. That should be great fun and everyone looks forward to it.

This week has been just as busy through today. Another dissection on Monday, followed by a Pig practical today. We had to go almost an hour out of town to an agricultural college since we do not have pigs at our school.  And, I think I know why.....whew......do they stinkola.  There were only 15 of us in our group and then we got split into two smaller ones.  My group went to see the sows and piglets first.  The welfare regulations here are actually better than in the US for the piggies.  Once the sows are ready to farrow (give birth), they are moved to small stalls that only allow the sow to stand up and lie down. There is extra space on either side of her, but this if for the piglets and she is cannot really move around. This is because it is common for the sows to inadvertently crush piglets.  There is also a box in the front of the pen the piggies can go into that has heat lamps and is kept very, very warm. We saw a sow in labor and she had just delivered her first baby. It is not uncommon for them to have 8-13 piglets.  They are kept in these stalls until the piggies are weaned at 28 days.  We got to vaccinate several groups of piglets, which was fun. Oh, did they ever squeal like babies as you held them for whoever was injecting......SQUEEEEEE....right in the ole ear.

We also got to play with older pigs who were being 'finished off'.  This means they fatten em up for slaughter. This is where the stench factor was thousandfold compared to the sows and piglets.  They are all housed indoor and it's warm, humid and unbelievably odorous.  We were taught how to move the pigs around with a board that is about 3' x 3'. We had to shuffle them from their pen on to a scale.  They are crafty big things and will run you over if you are in the way and they decide to go somewhere.  The 'Baconers' are over 90kg and ready to become bacon.  We had a couple of them in our group.

All in all, a very good start back.  Exams are looming in on us and we are all feeling the pressure. I can't talk about it without getting the shakes.

Tomorrow is a short day, thank goodness.  I'm finished at 11am and will love it.

Both of the Bingos are snoring, which I absolutely adore.  It means they are happy campers and sound asleep. Time to wake em up and head to sleep myself.

Over-N-Out

The Fun is Over

Break is finally over and reality hits tomorrow early.  I've not been on the best of schedules and am forcing myself to go to bed early tonight.  Like, 4 hours earlier than normal.  Surprisingly, I am tired.  It was a good break, but honestly a bit long for not going anywhere.  I'm happy to be going back and cranking up the ole brain again.  Tomorrow promises to be a nice, long Monday.  Two anatomy lectures on the thorax, followed by an afternoon dry lab on the thorax.  Yipppeeee.  I should be up to my eyeballs in thorax tomorrow...wait, is that anatomically possible?

Keeping with my new schedule, I'm...

Over-N-Out

Hogmany

My sleeping schedule is getting nice and out of whack.  I am going to bed later and later, which of course means I'm waking up later and later.  The dogs have actually bought on to the new schedule and are letting me sleep.  Unbelievable.  I wake up at 7am during the term and we are consistently past 9am these days.  Sometimes, I will even take them out and go back to bed. I ended up finally getting my sorry self moving around 11 today! Now, to be fair, I've been staying up quite late...1,2..3am sometimes.  I need to make an effort to get back on track asap. So, I will go to bed at 1am and get up at 9am tomorrow and not go back to sleep. Then tomorrow night, I need to be in bed by midnight and up by 830am.  It IS still my break, so I do not see any need to stress myself by getting up at 7am between now and the new term, but I will start going to bed at a decent hour.

Hogmany, or New Year's Eve, is a ginormous celebration here.  Of which, I took no part.  I was in South Beach FL last year for the big party and had zero chance of topping that wonderful experience, so I decided to stay in.  They did fireworks, of course, but I had no idea they would basically be in my front yard.  They did some at the castle and apparently more down at my park, The Meadows. I heard them going off and looked out my flat to see amazing stuff.  I took a picture to show how close they were.  If I had thought more of it, I would have turned my lights off, as there is a glare...but, you get the idea.

The streets were full of people that night.  There was also a big celebration in city centre.  They do a procession of torches the night before, which looks incredible.

And, here is what it looks like from above:

Finally, a picture of the fireworks at the castle:

2011 it is.  Officially.  Hoping this year brings us all good health and happiness.

I have now officially hit the wall and am calling it a night. Tomorrow is Monday and my goal is to finish up all of my projects for school that are due this month and need the finishing touches put on them.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Over-N-Out