I never thought of blogging as a commitment, but if it is, then I'd better write up my dues before someone labels me a commitment-phobe!
Ok, where should I begin...
Ah yes, was away to Oxford on Wednesday for an interview at John Radcliffe Hospital. Yup, you've guessed it, placement stuff again. The interview/informal chat with the principal education pharmacist went quite well, thank you very much. Nothing out of the blue that they wanted to pick my brains on, and I guess the only blip was the question about what I liked AND disliked about the course. Pah! Never saw that coming and erm, haha, found myself a little tongue-tied. Can't exactly remember what I said but I think I blabbered something about how I "enjoy" learning about the different disease states and the respective therapeutic management etc etc etc. Doubt I sounded convincing at all but what the heck...they either take my answer, or leave it!
You know, it's actually rather unusual for me to take an instant liking to a hospital on a first visit, but that's how it is with JR. No major "urgh I don't like this or I don't like that", just generally a modest, new, well-maintained and brightly lit hospital (this girl just can't stand dim hospitals FYI).Looks to me a good hospital to working in...
Haha, that was, of course, a very superficial observation on my part...it might be the exact opposite when one DOES actually work there...who knows?
Anyway, more news about placement at JR later.
My train to Manchester from Oxford wasn't due till 6 in the evening, so I headed back to town straight after the interview. Didn't manage to do any sightseeing because, well, my fault for not checking out the places of interest prior to my trip, so I had to make do with just going around in city centre...
Ooohhh, Oxford is pretty. Many of the buildings are historic-looking (or maybe ARE historically signifcant themselves), adorned with nice, intricate carvings that stood the test of time. The city centre itself isn't exactly huge, but shopping looks great. Comparable to Cardiff if not better! And if I may add, students are everywhere! All these brainiacs I tell ya...
And after a brief walkabout in town, I left for Manchester in the evening as planned. A signal failure that happened 2 hours ago delayed many FGW trains and the backlog left many people stranded at the station. It was rather chaotic, with stewards shouting at the top of their lungs, and blowing whistles like mad just to maintain order. But thankfully I was on Virgin, so that didn't set me back much. In fact, I arrived at Piccadilly earlier than scheduled because I boarded the earlier train by mistake! Talking about blessing in disguise...
But I didn't bother hurrying my friend who was to come pick me up, so I found the nearest seat and sat my butt down. Spent the entire time just taking in the granduer of the train station really. Yeah alright, it's not THAT big, but it IS very modern-looking. For some bizzarre reasons, it looks a bit like a mini-KLIA from the inside, with all the glass ceilings and spatial design!
Oklah, maybe I was just tired, and dreamy!
I didn't have to wait long before Hua came to meet me, and we walked back to her halls in Grovesnor Place which was only about 20mins away. Hua and I actually met 2 years ago when we went for student warden training together. She graduated from Cardiff last year and is now at Manchester Uni doing a Master's course in Marketing. She was kind enough to host me while I am in the city to attend a conference on Thursday.
The conference was organised by the British Pharmaceutical Students' Association, and they invited quite some speakers to give us talks on pharm-related issues, and all the career stuff. Very insightful :). Sola - my pharm mate - was supposed to join me for this conference thingy, but being the good girl that she is, she decided she wanted to use the time for exam revision, so it was just me, myself and I.
Do you remember yonks ago, well, it was only last month I think, I mentioned about the McNeil's Responding to Symptoms competition in Birmingham? Yeah, I didn't make it pass the semi-finals, but as kismet would have it, one of the finalists pulled out in the last minute, and so they approached the nearest substitute, which was moi! Was rather shocked when I got the text from Sian a few days before the finals, which was to be held on BPSA day, the day of the conference, in Manchester. She asked if I was interested to take the girl's place, and I thought, well, since I was already going to be there for the conference, why not? And as far as I was concerned, I had nothing to lose!
Haha, it turned out that I had much to gain...coz I actually won the competition!
The words "dumbfounded" and "stunned" and "flabbergasted" were nowhere near the emotions I felt when they announced the winner at the conference. Okay, I know this is going to sound weird, but I don't actually know what were the sort of criteria they judged us on...Communication skills? Content? Relevance of advice? Oh well, I guess that probably explained why I was so shocked to find myself emerging as the winner, for I don't even know where I did well, if at all!
But not bad for someone who wasn't meant to take part in the first place...and to the other 3 finalists, I'm truly very sorry!
...to be continued
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