My once-monthly post...

The cliffs at Kilkee

I'm in the middle of my surgery rotation. I started out slowly; so slowly in fact that I took a long weekend to Ireland with a colleague and my cousin D, who we persuaded to come with us while drinking G&Ts in Liverpool. Ireland was wonderful, as usual, and we had a pleasant road trip through the South, to Cork, Limerick, and the cliffs of Moher. Guinness really does taste better in Ireland.

Then my surgery rotation started in earnest, and I've been busy ever since. I'm enjoying myself, although I'm finding surgery much more tiring than Medicine. I'm trying to figure out whether I'm just tired from having done half a year of rotations, or whether I'm tired from surgery not being a great fit. I must admit, though, that the few occasions where I've scrubbed in for surgery and actually been able to assist, I've enjoyed it MUCH better than observing. Right now, I'm doing a urology rotation, so unfortunately, those surgeries are mostly observing...lots of nasty metal tubes...

But for the most part, I'm enjoying the medical parts of this rotation much better than the actual surgical. I spent a morning last week in a prostate cancer clinic with a prostate oncologist, and another in a prostate biopsy clinic. So I've gotten a lot of good experience in some bread-and-butter things.

So next week, I've a large exam, so I'm in full-blown procrastination mode. Anyway, I'm really too tired to care. Right now, I'm just glad I'm not doing rotations in the US, where I'd be doing far more scutwork and spending far more time in hospital.

Last week was fun. I spent Friday singing Evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral in London (with the Estherhazy singers), and on Saturday, I went with one of the nurses from the hospital and some of her choir buddies to the opera at Glyndebourne, which is a cultural experience. It was really fun drinking champagne on the lawn in my dinner jacket, with sheep grazing in the field next door. And the opera was well done too, and although I liked the tenor, he wasn't spectacular. But then again, I'm a bit of a snob. And I was offered a solo gig for Nov, which I had to turn down because the scheduling didn't work.

Oh well. Anyway, more later (if my posting record has been any indication, it'll be a lot later).