Cambridge was grey and drizzly when we arrived. We found our booking.com apartment easily enough, very handy to everything but in a singularly charmless part of town. The apartment is small but functional, part of an old building that\u2019s been subdivided into four. Two of the apartments are called Darwin and Newtown, but on our floor are Gilmour (ours) and Holcroft, which ring no bells for me at all. So, either unrelated names of no one famous in particular, or I\u2019m horribly ignorant of two unsung heroes of science. Apologies to you both if the latter (although actually Google knows no better than I do).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We found a little place that does pizzas, pots and pints for dinner. There was a table of people next to us playing cards who looked awkward enough to be PHD students. Simon reported that they didn\u2019t have the white wine that I\u2019d wanted to order, but apparently there was a French wine by the glass called Shelby that was meant to be quite nice. Feeling embarrassed to be so ignorant about French wines, i went up to the bar myself to see what they had. Turns out the bartender, clearly more familiar with beer than wine, had meant that there was a chablis available. It was a very pleasant evening, but when I woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night feeling horribly nauseated, i wasn\u2019t looking forward to my mackerel fillets making a reappearance. Luckily it responded to a buccastem and I slept the rest of the night.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jet lag managed to get me up in a timely manner this morning. I spent an hour over breakfast working on getting my blog up and running. Progress = zero, but I did meet a lovely man on the support desk called Edwin who was very sorry not to be able to be of more help. Out of his hands, unfortunately. Eventually i figured the admin staff at the hospital might be out of bed, and i made my way to Addenbrookes. Wherever the charming part of Cambridge is, it isn\u2019t out in that direction, i can tell you. Lots of impressive cycle lanes though ( a very cycle friendly place, Cambridge. We\u2019ve hired bikes for our three weeks here for the princely sum of 38 pounds each.) Addenbrookes is a hideous rabbit warren like most hospitals, but i eventually found my way to medical staffing where i found that although all my paperwork was in perfect order, unfortunately both the anaesthetists I had contacted about working here (including the well known Dr M Allford) were away on holiday for at least a week. Once my photo id was sorted, we found a very nice but rather bemused duty anaesthetist type person to deliver me to the neuro theatres where i spent the rest of the day. I worked with a lovely man, a very experienced but rather cynical anaesthetist called Derek. We both decided that the concept of \u201cobserver\u201d was very poorly defined, which is how i found myself intubating a very pleasant retired teacher with rather poor teeth (no worse afterwards than before, luckily). Pleading jet lag, i left well before their scheduled finish time of 6:30. Nap, dinner, and then back again tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Another pleasant day on Tuesday – a transphenoidal list (can you believe I ever wrote that sentence? Must be a first for me). Unfortunately, my skin has become horribly dry and flaky. I blame the theatre air conditioning. Best i take a couple of days away from work for the sake of my health.<\/p>\n
(Editors note: apologies for the flurry of posts; i accumulated quite a backlog while trying to get the whole blog business sorted)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cambridge was grey and drizzly when we arrived. 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Perfectly adequate in Cambridge, second only to Christchurch for lack of topographical diversity - would not be so useful in Wellington though, sadly. Cycling with my better half in Cambridge can be quite a challenge, even though it\u2019s a famously cycle friendly city. He seems\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/A663DC48-1FA7-4B35-A7C8-1F7C5BD1623E-300x225.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":176,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/12\/disgusted-of-cambridge\/","url_meta":{"origin":26,"position":1},"title":"Disgusted of Cambridge","author":"Interloper11","date":"August 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Not many people in our first class carriage to Cambridge, but there is a young mother with a fractious and garrulous toddler, and a miserable looking student type with a terrible hacking cough, either a pack a day smoker or some horrendous and probably infectious disease, pulmonary TB or whatever\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/01\/lessons-from-cambridge\/","url_meta":{"origin":26,"position":2},"title":"Lessons from Cambridge","author":"Interloper11","date":"August 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Things that are good with the NHS: Everyone is very lovely. The ODAs\/ODPs are efficient and very helpful. Surgeons understand that blood loss is due to surgery, not anaesthesia. Things that are bad with the NHS: 0800hrs list briefing; list finishes at 18:15! No thanks! Anaesthetic rooms. I don\u2019t know\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/01\/tourist-cambridge\/","url_meta":{"origin":26,"position":3},"title":"Tourist Cambridge","author":"Interloper11","date":"August 1, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Or, \u201cCambridge University: sexist bastards since 1209\u201d. Today we discovered the 800 sq metres of charming Cambridge. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 We joined a walking tour from the tourist information centre, it was a fun and informative way to spend a couple of hours and we\u2019d highly recommend\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/E92159C7-1DDC-42A6-8C1F-A7CA2E87C82B-300x225.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":43,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/02\/its-a-scorcher\/","url_meta":{"origin":26,"position":4},"title":"It\u2019s a scorcher","author":"Interloper11","date":"August 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"OML this temperature! Am I in Cambridge or did I take a wrong turn and end up in the Black Hole of Calcutta?? (Eds note - reference to Stephen Hawking - too subtle?)","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":337,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/05\/sabbaticalling-the-kirsty-way\/","url_meta":{"origin":26,"position":5},"title":"Sabbaticalling the Kirsty way","author":"Interloper11","date":"September 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Writing this in bed. It is still cold and rainy outside. Have spend the morning reading in horrified fascination of the latest White House shenanigans. Feeling vaguely guilty that I\u2019m at home instead of at work where I could be doing something useful. 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