Times when cycling in London doesn't seem so bad...

Thought for the day: At least I'm not in NYC


3-Way Street from ronconcocacola on Vimeo.


(via Gaz at Views of a Cyclist in Croydon and Andreas at London Cyclist, respectively)

Panniers

So I've been cycling to school for a while now and have been getting increasingly bored with sweaty-back syndrome caused by carrying my capacious backpack. So in a bid to treat this frankly life-altering condition (carrying a spare t-shirt, knowing that if it rains my books will be soaked, getting my sweat on with the least amount of exercise) I bought a pannier rack and this badass pannier bag.

And the change has been dramatic. No more sweaty back, having a waterproof storage medium (it's made from super hardy trucker tarp), it's large enough to hold my smart dress for clinical days.

It's all good. If a little dorky.

Incidently, this was meant to be a test post of emailing a post from my iPhone. Turns out you need to be careful with your formatting. Duly noted.

Bicycle vs. Car

Sooooooooo...

One big meaty hole, to go, please.

I've officially had my first proper crash on the streets of London. It hurt but it was one I could walk away from. I was on the cycle, she was in a car and decided to turn left immediately in front of me. I pulled on the panic handles and slid into the passenger door on her car and then slightly underneath it. Or at least my bike did, I tumbled off to the side and lay on my back for a while considering how quickly everything had happened.

I got up and exclaimed, using some rather salty language how surprised I was at this occurance, and how the woman driving should pay more attention to other road users.

No damage was done to my bike and I seemed to have no more than skinned knees and elbows so we left it at that and went our separate ways.

2 hours into my PBL session and one of my knees was still bleeding from what looked like a puncture wound caused by the head of an allen bolt. As my PBL-mates became progressively more grossed out by the blood dripping down my leg, I decided to head on down to the A+E dept (one of the joys of having your med school attached to a hospital). I got an x-ray for my troubles (and first hand experience of surgical emphysema - it crackles!) and a good scrub down with betadine at the hands of the A+E consultant.

It's not going to stop me riding around London, though I might go a little slower. I'd forgotten how painful it is to have a hot shower with skinned knees.

Keep death off the roads. Drive in the cycle lane.

I have become a cyclist.

Which is to say, any given weekday morning 0800, I don my Hi-Viz orange jacket and trusty skid lid and take my life in my hands battling the half-awake drivers of South London.

I spend 30 minutes practicing my defensive cycling (generally involves pointing at drivers poking their noses out of side roads and into *my* cycle lane), working up a sweat and a sense of modest superiority.

It does generally mean that PBL mates and lecturers alike see a little more hairy calf than anyone wants to see, but hopefully I'm burning off the Christmas calories.

And I've discovered that to be a cyclist on my course is to join a clique I didn't know existed. People are coming up to me asking how my ride in was, suggesting websites to buy gear and generally giving me props for riding in whatever the weather. What other mysteries will this lifestyle open up to me?

Where have you been?

Everyone just wants to have a good time

When I started this blog I had such high hopes of being able to update regularly and for the first few months I think I did okay. Then revision and associated exam pressure descended on me, and you know what? Med School is *hard*. And revision takes *a lot* of your time, trust me.

Anyhoo, I've been mulling over stuff to write now that the holidays are over and I have 24 hours to breathe before school starts again tomorrow. I'm not the most inventive chap on the planet, so here's a couple of lists for you:

What I've been doing:

• Revising
• Having my first proper exams
• Getting very, very drunk
• Getting my results (passed, but need to pull some grades up to stay in a good place)
• First Christmas as a married man (a lot of fun - combination of family traditions from both sides, with a little something that is just us)
• First NYE in London that I've not been working
• Planned out and tested my riding route to school (Father Christmas brought me a bicycle so now the road is my friend and I am a vision in Hi-Viz orange)
• Playing a bit of World of Warcraft (Don't judge me!), though this stops today because, well, I can't trust myself to not play it too much!

Things to come (pre-loading worries for the new year)

• Actually getting some nursing shifts at my new hospital (Lost forms, general apathy towards the notion of work and hospital bureaucracy have all working against me for the past few months)
• First OSCEs (getting to be examined on skills I've been rushed through - yikes) 
• Essays, essays, essays
• Money worries (I know this will be part of the leitmotif of medical school, but that doesn't make it any easier to deal with)
• New PBL groups! A chance to get to know another six of my coursemates a little better than before. (Something I'm actually looking forward to!)
• Losing weight - The scales are no longer my friend and nor is the app on my iPhone that declares me to have a BMI of 25.1 - I am now overweight. Boo to that.

I've not made resolutions, because I figure I'm only going to keep on doing something if I either enjoy it and/ or want the results of it enough. I'm not sure that promising to do/ not do something really works for me. 

I hope the people who read this have had good times in the past year and will have even better ones in the upcoming 12 months.