trumpeting

Things that happened today:

1. Our symposium packed out a 250-seat room to standing room only
2. We all got a good number of questions afer our talks
3. All my jokes got proper laughs
4. Among those who came up to me after the symposium to ask follow-up questions was one of my heroes (hugely published, charming, leader in our field.  One of those people you want to poke to make sure they're real)
5. After the last session of the day, Dr Glamorous, Dr Hippie and I went for luscious, pink, pomegranate martinis
6. And we got ever so squiffy!

a chapter of accidents

1)  yesterday evening the six of us gathered in my hotel room to run through our talks and make adjustments and generally have a collective panic.  Quarter way through the proceedings we ordered beer from room service, and a bit later on we ordered another round.  Ten bottles of beer (I don't drink beer), one ice bucket and a flimsy tray later, everyone else left to put away their laptops and meet in the foyer to go out to dinner, leaving me to clear up my room.  The flimsy tray didn't like being picked up and threw two of the bottles off onto the bathroom floor.  Glass everywhere, including my finger.  (It's fine, the bleeding stopped pretty quickly).

2)  On the way to dinner last night, I stopped to get some more money out of an ATM, having the princely sum of $7 in my purse.  The maching spat my card out and asked me to contact my financial institution.  Now, I had telephoned my bank the day before I left London to say I was off to America so I was quite concerned about this - and concerned about how I could manage on $7 until Thursday night...

3)  I woke up at 4.00am (still jet-lagged, can you believe!) to the most attractive cold sore on my lip.  However, one good thing - I rang my bank and sorted out the money problem.

4)  Dr Hippie was freaking out about her talk this morning so we arranged to skip a lecture and she would come to my room so that I would help her.  Dr Hippie is always hungry so I ran across to the 7-11 and bought a bag of pretzels.  We both dove straight into them - and a huge chunk of filling broke off one of my teeth.  The pain is currently being kept basically under control by anti-inflammatories and all I am hoping for now is that I can get through my talk tomorrow and get home on Friday with minimum pain.

5)  And just to finish off this excellent 24 hours, somewhere between the CVS pharmacy down the street from the hotel (Advil run) and my room, I lost my key-card...

first we take Manhattan

I have spent the most gloriously frenetic day and a half in NYC.  It was my 4th visit to that amazing city but the first time for 2 of my colleagues and it was lovely watching their reactions to everything.  The weather was perfect (bright but chilly) which made it all the better.  Dr Beardie (one of the NY newbies) wandered around saying "f*ck, is this real?" pretty much the whole time.  He almost fell over when I led him to Grand Central and told him to look up as well as around.  The Hobbit (another colleague but one familiar with NY) took Dr Beardie to MoMA later on, and Dr Beardie's head about exploded.

Dr Hippie (the other newbie) wandered around in silent awe, although she did let out a squeak on Friday night when I turned her around and waited for her eyes to fall on the Empire State Building.

FYI - the cast of characters for the past weekend and the coming week (in a different city, indeed state) are:
Dr Beardie, senior consultant and convener of the symposium we are giving at this international conference.  I have known him for 13 years and I do believe that he is responsible for most of my grey hairs.
Dr Moody, senior consultant at a relatively young age.  Often charming, more often not.
Dr Hippie and Dr Glamorous, junior to the other two but senior in general. Very lovely women, but I sat with them on the flight over and it was 8 hours of talk about their children (2 each)...
The Hobbit - very junior doctor but ridiculously clever.  Very nice chap but oh my - no "off" switch.
And me.

tempus fugit

Guess where I am off to this afternoon?!

World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day.

www.worldaidsday.org

bumpy

This morning, at a meeting that starts before daybreak (8.00am), I was in a room full, FULL of pregnant women (two).  One was my friend, who sat next to me and we had a delightful 5 minute chat about her slightly bonkers obstetrician.  This was perfectly fine; my heart didn't get kicked through my stomach and I thought that I have regained a normal reaction to other people's pregnancies.

And then pregnant doctor #2 came in and I had to swallow a gulp of scalding hot silage (coffee from the machine in A&E) to create an excuse for the sudden tears in my eyes.

Maybe I have only regained a normal reaction to friends' pregnancies.  I can live with that.

The Story of the Blues

I haven't posted for a while because
1) I have nothing to say and
2) I've been (and still am really) feeling somewhat blue.

But, instead of telling you my own particular story of the blues (how I love this song!), I'm going to share a couple of things that have made me happy.

My darling little cat:

An autumnal walk:

This ridiculously catchy song and daft video from waayy back in the day.

A certain coffee company's winter menu, in particular this calorie-laden treat:

 And last, but by no means least, my new boots which not only look awesome, they also (unlike my old boots) keep my feet dry!