The end of Medical School!!!!!!

Exams finally came to an end on the 10th of June with a fairly horrendous final clinical exam. However, the elation of finishing was increased by Alex's impromptu visit to Newcastle, bearing Champagne and dinner. Having already made plans for the evening, we went out to meet lots of my course mates in Jesmond. Its a good job that Claires husband Morrow was also out to entertain Alex, since there was a lot of swapping of exam horror stories!

We didn't have to wait long for results, although the 11th of June has to be one of the longest days of my life. Unable to bear the prospect of sitting at home waiting for results, Claire and I went for the shop till you drop approach and went off into town in search of bikini's, shorts, ball dresses, wedding dresses - you name it we looked at it!!!! By 1 o'clock the nerves had well and truly set in. The results were due at 2 - and still they weren't out...but by 3 it was finally over. Our 4 years at Medical school were finally over. All my friends were safely through too. The distinction was just the icing on the cake!!

Most of the 12th of June was taken up with graduation ball preparation - nothing like leaving it to the last minute to buy a dress Claire - although we did bump into alot of the graduating medics in the metro centre that morning!!!
Graduation ball was an ace evening. It was held in Hardwick Hall, about 45 minutes away in County Durham. It was an excellent evening of wining, dinning, dancing....... and playing on the dodgems!!! The presence of the later definitely won the evening over for Alex. He now wants to investigate how much dodgems would cost to have at the wedding - wishful thinking i 'd say!!!

May 2008

With finals looming, a majority of May was taken up studying while trying to retain my sanity at the weekends. The month started with a mass invasion of Newcastle for May day bank holiday. Anna and Ben, Tom and Gareth and Suzy and Harry all arrived in Newcastle on the Friday night, surprisingly early considering it was both a bank holiday weekend and a long way (Oxford, North wales ......). We went off to Kielder biking on Saturday. It was an excellent ride with both Suzy and Anna demonstrating acrobatic falling off. The trip was ended by an impromptu trip north to Scotland since Tom and Gareth had landed themselves in the middle of nowhere without considering the need for petrol to get them back again. Even getting to this northerly petrol station was a tight call!!! Cath and Alex arrived after a days DIY in Sheffield and we all went out to china town for a fab meal! On Sunday, not really feeling i could justify a whole weekend without revision, I packed them all off for a days riding at Innerleithen. I felt quite pleased with my decision to stay behind while i was working/ watching the rain lash down outside, until they came home with tales of glorious sunshine in Scotland!!!! We rounded off the weekend with a trip to Hamsterley on the Monday. A fun trip round the black run was rounded off nicely with dinner in the pub!

Most of the rest of May consisted of revision with the odd day off here and there. Alex's parents came to visit. They spent half the day exploring Newcastle with Alex before i picked them up form town and we all headed off to the coast near south Shields for a beautiful walk encountering the coast line, lighthouses, wind mills and spectacular views across the countryside, enhanced by the flowering rape seed crops.

On bank holiday weekend, Alex went karting for Billy's birthday. A good day was had by all, although Alex was some what put out not to have won the race. We finished the day with a brief outing to the pub and birthday cake. We also went up to Northumberland on the Sunday with Billy and Lou to explore the Couquet gorge. It was a fun walk, although i did get quite a lot of abuse for not reading the guide book before setting off rather than just looking at the location - not only did we end up fording a river which was somewhat less than empty but also ended up walking across a firing range while the red flags were flying!!!