Week 7 - Scrabbling & Texting

Thursday # 8 – this day was not off to a good start when I inexplicably woke up at 5.30 and could not get back to sleep...for about 15 minutes.  By the time the alarm went off at 6 I was dead to the world and snoozed for the next 2 hours before calling work at 8 to inform them I wouldn’t be in. Oops.  Luckily they were quite supportive of my plans to spend the day studying; it’s just a shame that didn’t happen.  Then it was back to sleep for another couple of hours before finally getting out of bed and kicking off a doozy of a Thursday.

Since the uni gods had thoughtfully decided my time would be better spent seeing patients this week rather than living it up in NYC I was naturally a little down.  Had hoped this post would be filled with stories of the Macy’s thanksgiving parade rather than stories of how I spent my day playing words with friends and catching up on TV.  Gossip Girl? Check. How I Met Your Mother? Check. Beauty & The Geek? Check. The Doctors? Check. Some new show that I think was called Happy Endings? Check. Losing in scrabble to The Goalie? Check. Preparing for uni on Friday? No check...my bad.

The day brightened a little with a message fest from a slightly intoxicated DTM that lasted about 3 hours.  Thank goodness for WhatsApp or my phone bill would be reaching those all-too-familiar highs that result in emails saying I’m approaching a credit limit I have no recollection of agreeing on!  The Marge popped in and made us both lunch before heading off to Bris Vegas and leaving me alone to spend the night charging my optom equipment and looking at photos from my work Christmas party on Tuesday – which was perhaps the reason I had been so tired to begin with.  This Thursday reminded me of a song that The Weather Girl once tried to work into a short story – things can only get better!  I have high hopes that next Thursday will be a step up from this downer.

Week 6 - Pre-Drinking & Celeb-spotting

Thursday #7 – with exams finally out of the way it was back to the always exciting world of full time work.  I rocked up and did my thing only to leave with it looking like not only had I not made a dent in my workload, but there was perhaps more to do than there had been at the start of the day.  The joys of only working 5 or 6 hours a week during semester means my “holidays” are spent catching up on the previous 4 months work.  On the bright side, the day went pretty quickly and it wasn’t long before I found myself on a bus to M-Dizzle’s for some dinner and beverages.

Despite me starting my journey from the Northern Beaches and her starting from Randwick, I somehow managed to beat M-Dizzle to Kensington after work.  Luckily The Doctor was around and let me in so that I could do important things before M-Dizzle arrived home – such as moving the UDLs out of the freezer and into the fridge.  Very important.  We cracked open our cans (which were left over from our post-exams celebration at the beach and which needed to be finished so that they wouldn’t need to be packed and moved to a new house) and sat down to enjoy some soggy-based pizza.  Turns out accidentally using the griller instead of the oven does not a crispy pizza make!  After polishing off the uddles it was time to hit up The Rege and introduce The Guest Kiwi to the joys of Thursday night karaoke.  We spent a considerable amount of time deciding what to wear and whether or not we could even be bothered changing – the 4 or 5 UDLs we had each consumed probably did not help speed up this process.  I stayed in what I’d worn to work and added a headband to jazz shit up while M-Dizzle opted for her whore top and after much deliberation, a pair of havaianas.

The karaoke was noticeably disappointing – our favourites (who have been known to rock out to The Divinyls’ I Touch Myself and Chicago’s All That Jazz) were sadly absent and had it not been for the “seven minutes and six seconds of glory” provided by The Hippy Engineer and his rendition of Rapper’s Delight, the evening would have been a complete waste of time.  Luckily The Guest Kiwi didn’t seem to mind and I’m pretty sure he enjoyed his visit to The Rege – how could he not when he got his photo taken with a celeb!!  OK, so perhaps celebrity is a bit of an exaggeration but M-Dizzle and I were pretty excited to discover The Jim Beam promo girl was in fact one of the beauties from Beauty And The Geek.  Extra special since it was a Thursday and had we not been out and about we probably would’ve been watching her on TV that very night – amazing.  We got a quick photo but then she moved on, I think our jugs of cider perhaps gave her the hint that we were not going to be buying whatever bourbon based product she was selling.  A cheeky cheeseburger stop and then it was time for bed.  Not overly eventful but a pretty good Thursday nevertheless.

Week 5 - Cramming & Napping

Thursday #6 – not the best start to the day when I woke up with a throbbing headache that I can only assume was related to the previous evening’s futsal game.  The Vegetarian had decided it would be appropriate to yell comments about DTM from the sideline in an effort to make me run faster.  Unfortunately (for both my head and the team) it only resulted in me laughing and running into a fence. Oops. And ouch.  So after popping some panadol it was time to get my study on once more.  Having had an exam in the morning I’d decided to give myself Wednesday afternoon off and instead learn my entire subject the morning of the exam.  It was a flawless plan and probably could’ve been pulled off had I not decided after showering and eating breakfast that a nap would be appropriate.  I really need to stop napping an hour after I wake up.  So post-nap I tried to cram as best I could but was interrupted by emails from The Pen Pal which were a welcome distraction to the always riveting world of magnifiers and telescopes.

Eventually headed into Randwick for an exam that lasted about a third of the time it took me to make the return trip to the racecourse.  We enjoyed the new announcement about plastic bags and tried to work out why it had only featured in one exam.  It was pointed out that pens and pencils were not considered valuables and plastic sleeves were not sealable – a very educational exam indeed.  The Italian and I spent way too long trying to work out how long the actual racecourse was; even with markers for 50, 100 and 200 we were unconvinced it was being measured in metres.  By our very scientific calculations (“that guy looks about 1 metre 70 and you can fit 34 of him between the 100 and 200”) we determined the markings were 57.8 metres apart and wondered what strange measuring system they were using when they put those markers out on the way to the finish line.

After getting home from the exam it was time to once again attempt to cram an entire subject into less than 24 hours and somehow also sleep.  There were more emails to and from The Pen Pal as I tried very hard to read my notes without napping.  A pretty full-on Thursday of trying to memorise stuff with a hectic headache but also exciting as I knew that the very next day I would finish my exams for the year and also my self-imposed 12 day facebook ban.

Week 4 - Examing & Tanning

Thursday #5 – the day kicked off with some last minute cramming ahead of the afternoon’s contact lens exam.  I decided after showering and dressing that bed would be a good place to read over my notes (for the first time since writing them) but soon found out this was not the case when I realised I’d been asleep for 20 minutes.  Oops.  As much as I enjoyed my sleep it didn’t seem very conducive to study so I relocated to the lounge room to continue my reading.  Before I knew it, it was time to get on a bus and haul arse to Randwick Racecourse for my exam.

Going to uni across the road from a racecourse has its drawbacks.  For one thing there’s the constant smell of horse poo to contend with; which can be particularly distracting at this time of year, with the spring racing carnival and exams both being held at the racecourse.  Once you get past the stench, you then have to navigate your way through bars and past the people filling fridges with beer to find your exam room.  Inside the exam room you have to struggle to ignore the drink menus offering frozen cocktails and focus on the paper in front of you.  If you can do all that you’ll be ready to listen to the all-too-familiar announcement of “mobile phones must be switched off, not just turned to silent but switched off and placed on the ground underneath your seat with your wallet or purse for the duration of the exam”.  Today’s exam had an added distraction – not only did we struggle to keep a straight face for the announcements as the main supervisor on the microphone had a particularly ridiculous accent; we also had to try and block out the racing commentary.  I appreciate that we were at a racecourse, but trying to focus on eye infections while some man excitedly yells “and they’re off and racing” is a bit of a big ask.

Exam done it was time to get some colour – coming out of winter and into studying did not bode well for my pasty white skin and with the engagement party of my fav Woolworths coupling on Saturday night, something needed to be done.  A quick spray tan later I was leaving the city with skin which resembled that of a normal human, and not the weird so-white-it-was-almost-transparent look I had been sporting.  I stopped off at The Oaks on my way home to pick up my external hard drive from The Weather Girl and got roped into enjoying a couple of cheeky champagnes.  I stayed long enough to hear my 2 Ricks on the jukebox (you can’t go wrong with Jessie’s Girl and Never Gonna Give You Up) before bussing it back home in time for dinner.  DTM texted some insults to round off the day and it almost felt like a normal Thursday – apart from the obvious lack of free movies.  Not the best Thursday I’ve had but surprisingly good for an exam day.