Ashes 2009

England won something – at last!!! Friendly rivalry is one thing but to constantly lose can be very tiring. Which is why England’s win in this Ashes’ series against Australia is all the more satisfying. Last time we won was in 2005 and I think we also won the Rugby that year as well. Clearly remember Johnny Wilkinson being in the newspapers quite a bit. Evidently Freddie Flintoff’s post cricket celebrations were also not missed by the papers either; the man couldn’t stay up right! Here’s a reminder in case you forgot! Start watching the clip at 0.40 for Freddie's contribution ;) Unfortunately I didn’t watch the series in 2005 due to exam time stress and all stuff. This time however, even though it was still exam/dissertation time, I made a point to watch at least a few matches rather than avoid it altogether. How did I not notice the size of the Ashes urn previously, that thing is tiny?!

Apparently the real one is kept some place safe – Interesting history though...

QUOTE: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_ashes >
“The series is named after a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, The Sporting Times, in 1882 after a match at The Oval in which Australia beat England on an English ground for the first time. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The English media dubbed the next English tour to Australia (1882-83) as the quest to regain The Ashes.

During that tour a small terracotta urn was presented to England captain Ivo Bligh by a group of Melbourne women. The contents of the urn are reputed to be the ashes of an item of cricket equipment, possibly a bail, ball or stump. The Dowager Countess of Darnley claimed recently that her mother-in-law, Bligh's wife Florence Morphy, said that they were the remains of a lady's veil.

The urn is erroneously believed by some to be the trophy of the Ashes series, but it has never been formally adopted as such and Bligh always considered it to be a personal gift. Replicas of the urn are often held aloft by victorious teams as a symbol of their victory in an Ashes series, but the actual urn has never been presented or displayed as a trophy in this way. Whichever side holds the Ashes, the urn normally remains in the Marylebone Cricket Club Museum at Lord's since being presented to the MCC by Bligh's widow upon his death.”

Ramzan

The month of fasting (Ramzan) has started and I’m in two minds about the whole thing. I may not be overly religious or a perfect muslim by some people’s standards, yet the feeling of this month doesn’t seem to pass anyone by. The build up to it, the actual month and the after-effects seems to draw everyone closer together and you can’t help but get drawn in. This feeling is very different from the remaining 11 months of the year and I believe it is a good type of feeling to have.

From a personal point of view, I welcome the change in pace this month brings. For this month alone, everything else takes a bit of a back seat and the main focus of most of your time is to remember your creator, doing good deeds and disciplining yourself. It is a bit of juggling act what with school, university, work and other daily duties but it is rewarding. Being born and raised in England, I’ve never had the opportunity to experience the month of fasting in say a muslim country such as Pakistan or Saudi Arabia but I’m guessing the normal routine of daily life completely changes in those places to accommodate the fasting month. Everything is made easier for the fasting masses so they don’t have to make alternative plans and can just get on with the task at hand. I’d like to experience that someday; not having to juggle everyday stuff just so I can fit in a bit time reflecting on my faith. I’m ashamed to say that in my day to day life, I hardly have time to sit down and read passages of the Quran or pray the full 5 prayers (I usually manage 4 out of 5). Perhaps I don’t try hard enough and so it is important for me to not get caught up in the same old excuses during Ramzan.

Conversely these past few years have brought a shade of unhappiness to this month that I previously enjoyed so much. I still enjoy this time but I am also somewhat saddened because as it draws closer it reminds me of the losses that I have endured during this period in previous years. No matter how hard I try and push things into a corner of my mind, I can never forget how I lost my sister. That whole month spent praying for her recovery, that unfortunate Eid morning and the events that followed after will forever be imprinted in my memory. Losing uncle Mirza Sahib a year later during that same month was also distressing for me as I had lost another major influence in my life. Following Aisha’s departure, this man (as well as many others) had spent hours advising me not to give up on my life ambitions and actively encouraged me to go back to finish my education. When I went back to university, uncle was the first one to congratulate me on getting my scholarship and there was a sense of genuine pride in his eyes. He was such an avid supporter of my career, always full of enthusiasm and I could always count on him for some inspiring words of wisdom whenever I felt down and depressed.

I learnt so much from both these people; Aisha taught me about how hard life can be and it is what you make it; whether you choose to cheerful (like she was) or depressed about it is up to you. Uncle taught me that even if life doesn’t work out exactly how you planned it to, it doesn’t mean you should just give up and not try to find your way around it. There are so many things that I want to write about at this moment in time, but I just can’t seem to compose myself and find the right words to convey how I’m feeling. For now, I shall take my leave.

Love and blessings to all - Ramzan Mubarak.

It’s getting there...

• Clinic – done.
• Data collection – done.
• Patient and GP follow up – done.
• Statistical analysis - nearly done. Would have been done earlier if I had stopped making changes from numerous suggestions.
• Reading – being continued.
• Writing up dissertation – slowly but surely getting there. Numerous drafts done so far.

Phew! I cannot wait to hand in my completed dissertation, here’s hoping I will get a good mark (iA).

Following the submission of my work, I have two/three whole weeks off before I go back to university for the start of the next semester. Here’s hoping we have good weather during my time off as my holidays were practically non-existent this year. These past few months, I’ve twittering about my dissertation progress during the final months of my MSc. Rather weirdly I got a tweet from a company offering to analyse my data and write up my dissertation on my behalf. All I have to do is send them the university guidelines, my word limit, how I would like it set out and a copy of all my data collected and so on. Helpful it may be but I didn’t take them up on it as; firstly I wouldn’t have spent any time and effort spent on it and so calling it my work would have been an unfair representation. Consequently the final marks would not have been a true reflection of MY work and in my academic/ professional life to date I’ve have never knowingly submitted something that hasn’t been my own work. Secondly I have major issues about plagiarism – handing over unpublished work to an unknown party (and sometimes even known parties) who may or may not be connected to your work is NOT a particularly smart move. I’m pretty sure most of you will probably say that I’m being paranoid but in my mind it’s better to be safe than sorry.

The reason why I have slowed up on posts lately - people witness my dissertation mess! This is what my room looks like at the moment. I promise you it is a good kind of chaos... organised chaos if you will :P

So yes that’s my dissertation progress and now onto other news...
Aah yes so far then – Independence days for Pakistan and India (14th and 15th respectively), Ali Zafar got married but I’m over it, lol (see cool but bordering on weird here) and probably the most major news the month of fasting (Ramzan) will soon be upon us and I’m in two minds about the whole thing. I will further explain this in a separate post later. Hopefully. Actually to be honest I haven’t had much time to catch up on a lot of news which is probably why I’ve been using twitter a fair bit these past few months. Twitter trend topics is good for catching up on general ‘need to know’ news – however I have a problem with this. I often find that trending topics is just a bunch of people tweeting to find out what it is going on and NOT actually informing me of why it all started in the first place. Not very helpful – maybe they should get someone to put up a little intro for each the current trending topics perhaps? Ok, maybe it’s just me then...

Must get back to some work now...

Scientific illustrations

Searching for some scientific illustrations for my write up and I have to say these are quite good :)

http://www.gcarlson.com/index.php

Clinical mistakes

I don’t really know who I am writing this for but you know me, when I notice something, it has to be said :P Also I thought it best not to mention any names of the people who this is directed at. In any event, it’s very unlikely that the he/she concerned will ever read this blog, but I still believe it is better to be safe than sorry. So what did I learn from my clinical placement...

1) Never argue with a patient. It makes you look very unprofessional plus the patient will think you are an arse no matter how sick they may be. It’s true.

2) Don’t annoy the staff. As a medic try not to annoy everyone else you will have to work with whether it is the nurses, technicians, care workers etc. However if you love making your life as difficult as possible then please fire away with the disrespect!

3) Puctuality. Try and show up on time for shifts/appointments etc. If you’re running late let them know as you are being unprofessional and uncourteous otherwise. Also don’t try to lie about why you are late, because a medic, people will look towards you for trust and honesty. Those same people can also tell when you are lying and totally see through your BS. Result - congrats on making a bad impression.

4) Laziness. Clearly if you’ve made it this far, there must be some hope. Don’t rely on other to do things for you, instead get stuck in and do it yourself. You learn quicker and earn the respect of others around you. By being a slacker, you do the complete opposite and all that time studying in med school goes to waste.

5) Suck up. In the medical world, you respect your seniors; it’s an unwritten rule and there is a hierarchy that is followed and goes something like this... (top) Consultant > SHO > HO > F1> Med student (bottom). To move up this chain, a lot of people suck up to seniors. I get it, I get; it has to be done, but must you do it so blatantly? Urgh!

6) Communication. Not telling other team members (doctor’s/nurses etc) what you have found can lead to problems for the patient and for yourself. If you spot something serious or haven’t relayed vital information back to the appropriate people, then it can lead to some serious hassles.

7) Correct authorisation. Don’t attempt to do things that you have not been assigned or allowed to do. It may cause problems for the patients (legal issues?!) but it will also without a doubt cause problems between you with your supervisor.

8) Fudging it. Don’t make stuff up because it fits in with your study hypothesis or because you forgot to take a patient observation and you need to make up for lost time. Again it makes you look unreliable and incompetent.

9) Know your surroundings. A hospital is a place full of ill people. Obvious I know but when you spend so much time in one place, it easy to forget sometimes. This also applies to your appearance; dress appropriately and smartly – we’re no longer in lecture halls but actually interacting with real patients. Play you part accordingly.

10) Err....

Unfortunately I don’t have a number 10 at this moment in time, but if you think of anymore then please feel free to add them on.