It's introspective and I want to introspect

I had an epiphany today. Well not exactly, but it hit me as to why I'm taking the path I'm taking in life.

In the past people have asked me why I want to go back to University to do a Pharmacy degree and my reply has been something along the lines of "Drugs are interesting and do you know how much pharmacists can earn?!". In a shallow way that was a fairly accurate reason for my career choice. Hey, it's going to cost me over 12 grand, but I'll make it back fairly quickly, I reasoned.

Well, back to the present epiphanied Lola. I was in work today and for a change I ended up spring cleaning the lab in preparation for the audit we have coming up. From the last post most people could guess that I resent work, and those people would be absolutely right, but today I wasn't at all peeved at being demoted to a cleaner. In fact I was quite pleased to go and get on with it, scrubbing the surfaces, cleaning dust from corners and equipment etc. No, I haven't discovered my calling as a cleaner, in fact my parents could tell you I'm usually as lazy as sin when it comes to housekeeping. The reason why I liked this task was the complete randomness of it.

Picture this, you work at a pharmaceutical company, you do test after test in a lab, with only a brief reprise for a write up before you have to go and do another test. The tests are, in themselves different but it's all lab work. Pipettes and volumetric flasks dance before your eyes on a day to day basis (not literally) and it becomes mundane. So when the chance to do something different comes along, like spring cleaning a lab for example it's a novelty, and escape from the routine. It provides variety to a job, and that I now know, is what I crave.

I must admit it's very unusual for a capricorn to crave variety rather than set down routines, but now that I understand that is what I need, everything else about my choice of career has clicked into place. Pharmacy, despite popular belief is such a varied career. On a typical day in the life of a hospital pharmacist one can meet different patients, consult with other healthcare professionals and deal with problems on an individual basis. Of course there is the aspect of making up the prescriptions, which cannot have too much variety for the patients sake, but the other parts more than make up for it. And if I become bored of the hospital, well there is always community pharmacy. If I want to reduce my workload, hello to locum work. If I fancy something radically different there's always academia, or working in a pharmaceutical company (although NOT as an analyst!). And if I tire of them, I can go back into practise again. It is such a flexible career, and that is a big part of the reason I am drawn to it. This is the career I want and I think I'm going to work hard to get it.

If you read this far you deserve a prize, go buy yourself a cookie.

Bonus points for anyone who knows where the quote in my post title is from.

Autumn blues

Hello all,

I know it's been a while, my world seems to revolve around work at the moment, and despite realising that it's really good experience and a moneymaker, I resent it for taking up most of my day. Grr. Maybe I should organise a day trip and take a day off for it. Plus my glands are swollen and it's starting to hurt when I swallow (not in a filthy way, you dirty minded people). I hope I'm not coming down with tonsilitis again. I used to get it all the time when I was younger. At one point it was a regular thing, once every two or three months I'd be croaking and once I was rushed to the doctors surgery because Mum thought I had lockjaw.

Anyway, I can't really think of anything to blog about today, so I'm going to recommend some of my favourite blogs for you to go away and have a read of;

Musings from the Mind of Karen: This is the blog of a friend of mine, she's currently a student teacher preparing to teach RE to young minds. A witty and entertaining blog with some thought provoking posts.

Carmelo Alongi: A student paramedic in London. Great insight into the trials and tribulations of student life, and gives you a good idea what it's like learning to be a paramedic.


Twenty-three and Counting: A great blog with a different theme each week.

The Company Bitch: Absolutely hilarious, need I say more?

Nee Naw: The blog of an Emergency Medical Dispatcher in the LAS. Good stuff

Ok, it's getting close to the time where I should be getting ready for work rather than sitting here blogging, so for the moment if you want to know which other blogs I read, check out my links at the side of the page and happy reading!

Grrr, work.

Poledancing baaaaaaaad

Hello all.

I'm still recovering from a night out on saturday. My arms are stiff and aching, and I have somewhat hard to explain bruises on my inner thighs. All because the place we were in had poles. So fun to swing around at the time, but hurts like hell later on. I seriously need to get fit! Owww.

Bookworm

I apologise for slighty neglecting this blog, part of the reason is that I'm getting back into my reading. When I was younger I was never seen without a book in my hand, Mum used to constantly tell me off for reading a book while I was walking. I honestly can't recall the number of lamposts she had to drag me out of the way of as I was along with my nose buried deeply in my book.

This behaviour has slowly tailed off over the years what with my active social life (I wish!), but when I was on holiday I managed to get through 7 books in a space of 14 days, and these weren't thin books either. So about a month ago I went to my local library and acquired a brand spanking new library card (and a funky keyring fob) as I'd lost my old one, and got out a bunch of books. Anyhow I finished them a little while ago, and so this week I returned them and got out a whole new bunch of books to read.

I felt like a bit of an intellectual as I checked out books which included; Catch 22 and Nineteen-eighty-four by George Orwell, however I can't help but think this image was ruined by the "rude and politically incorrect jokes" book I also checked out...

Now I get roughly to the point of this post, I want to read lots but I don't know which books to go for usually. If anyone reads this and has a particular favourite book to recommend I'd be ever so grateful. Now, back to the task at hand, sitting in bed with "Dress your family in corduroy and denim". This is the life.

A theatre review

This weekend I was in the capital for a little culture. I apologise for not telling you all before I went, but I don't think you missed me anyhow, heh.

Anyway, while I was there I managed to see two shows, Wicked and The Last Five Years. Both fantastic musicals which I shall go into in a little more detail later.

This weekend was a bit of a bonding experience for me, my sister (Peggy) and my mum. We headed down via train where I managed to embarrass my dear sister by forgetting that my mp3 speakers were left on (it doesnt necessarily need headphones) and not realising that Roy Orbison was blaring out into the whole carriage because I had my headphones on. We managed to negotiate the tube system and only got on the wrong train once, and we dumped our bags in the travelodge we were staying in and marvelled at our beautiful view...

Yes, a brick wall, isn't it lovely?

Once that was done it was back into the centre for Wicked. For those who haven't heard of this musical, it was a big hit on Broadway. It is basically the story of the wizard of oz, except turned on its' head. In this musical the wicked witch of the West is the good one. Wicked follows the story of Elphaba, the wicked witch of the west, from her birth til her demise at the hands of a young farm girl. Fantastic set, score and performances from all involved in this. The entire cast are extremely talented, a fact which asserts itself when I was struck dumb by some of the emsembles' voices. Special mentions go to James Gillan, who is talented and an utter sweetheart. He plays Boq, a charming Scottish munchkin with a massive crush on Galinda. Other mentions go to Idina Menzel who plays Elphaba, what a voice, and Katie Rowley Jones who plays Nessarose, again another gorgeous voice. My prediction is that Wicked will be a fixture in the West End for quite some time.

After the show a trip to the stage door was necessary as I am in fact a closet stage door fan. We got a fair few people to sign our program. Miriam Margolyes who plays Madam Morrible is a legend, so lovely and happy to sign programs. We also ran into a few fans we knew from another musical not so long ago (Taboo). We all seemed quite pleased to see each other, and me and Peggy were quite amused to see them dressed up as characters from Wicked. They are part of a Rocky Horror performing group called Less Vulnerable. Hence their penchant for costumes. After getting all the autographs we wanted and also nearly getting run over by a big red bus we headed back to sleep.

Bright and not really that early that next day we headed to camden market for shopping, I'd never been before so I do recommend it, there's some pretty stuff out there. The we went over to Vinopolis to use my dads birthday present of a wine tasting tour (I did feel bad about taking up his ticket, but it isn't my fault is he decided not to come and use it himself). We enjoyed the tour so much we came out slightly tipsy, got lost, had to ask directions from a bunch of Swiss Americans (they said they were from Switzerland but they sounded American) and had to leg it to the theatre so we wouldn't miss the matinee. There's nothing more sobering than having to run across London roads without hurting yourself.

The Last Five Years focuses on a five year long relationship with each of the couple starting at different points in the relationship. Jamie starts at the beginning, Cathy starts at the end and they work their way to when the meet in the middle at their wedding, then they split off again as Jamie works his way towards the end and Cathy moves towards the beginning. They end on a song where both of them are saying goodbye, Cathy after the first date, and Jamie for good at the end of the relationship. In my opinion after the initial confusion, this was a very moving piece of theatre, and a novel way of showing it. There wasn't a single song I didn't like and the two members of the casts' voices were brilliant. I'd definitely recommend seeing this.

Finally we had dinner in the Great Nepalese restaurant, which was lovely, and caught our train home. The lovely end to a lovely weekend.

Trainer Lola

Well I passed the course and all I have to do now is teach an actual training session with real students, under supervision to be officially known as a trainer. Yay me.

I'll admit I've been back two days but I've been too tired to blog, I considered saying I was too tired to go to work too, but I didn't think that would have gone down well, so I dragged myself into work. When I did get back on monday night I had the fantastic surprise of finding this in an email;

"Congratulations on placing third in this week's So You Think You Can Blog contest!"

Yes, I'm very proud, and I shall display my award for all to see



It's a great competition to do and does get the creative juices flowing, keep an eye out at Theory of Thought for the dates of the next So You Think You Can Blog competition.

Since I've been zombie-fied for the past few days I don't have much to say except, when you're faced with a "casualty" having a heart attack, never say,

"It's ok, you're just having a heart attack."

And that's Miss Cherry Cola's advice for today.