Announcement!

Pass the word round please... especially those who don't have exams.

Everybody Needs Good Neighbours

No, there will be no sour grapes in this blog post. Sure, the Eurovision surprises this year were very disappointing (in my humble opinion, victory should have been Ukraine's) and countries just couldn't avoid voting for their neighbours (Denmark anyone?). Yet, the greatest disappointment of all was this - no Terry Wogan on BBC Prime. :'( I miss the way he cracks me up every year, even though the (crappy) Eurovision voting strategy is getting the better of his cynical sense of humour. (Anyway, anything is better than Eileen Montesin!)

Seriously, I needed Terry Wogan! Studying gets depressing after a while and I was looking forward to some decent fun. Surgery is my first exam this year, starting 30th May, hence explaining the picture of Justine's Hoops 'under the knife'. (Cool photo Justine. It's very you.) All will be over on the 16th of June.

And whilst the question on everyone's lips is whether we should boycott the Eurovision due to lack of neighbours, my question is this: Will I need a "good neighbour" to pass my exams this year? Well... I don't believe in stooping down so low and compromising my integrity in that way, for the sake of an extra mark or two (that aren't even guaranteed).

But the summer heat and the exam stress are getting to my head; my neurons are being abused and they're not thinking straight. Hopefully, I will manage to pass yet another year without the need "good neighbours". Or rather... Hopefully, everyone will manage to pass without needing "good neighbours" or "UoM Bathroom Notes in Medicine & Surgery".

Anyway, may I conclude that this space will be very uneventful for the time being. Perhaps, after exams, I'll get to post more often and tell you a little bit about my mini-adventures in Vienna. Got accepted on student exchange and I'll be away for 4 weeks: 5th July - 2nd August. Till then, there's a lot more studying that I have to get back to.

Something from my Inbox...

My Inbox is usually graced with a lot of Spam and rubbish. But here's an email I got that deserves to be posted on my little slice of Internet. It's not the type of post Sandro Vella would feature on The Maltese Blogosphere; but I sincerely believe there is truth in the article below...

SATAN'S MEETING: (Read even if you're busy or you're just not bothered)

Satan called a worldwide convention of demons. In his opening address he said:

"We can't keep Christians from going to church."

"We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth."

"We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their saviour."

"Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken."

"So let them go to their churches; let them have their covered dish dinners, BUT steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ."

"This is what I want you to do," said the devil. "Distract them from gaining hold of their Saviour and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"

"How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.

"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered.

"Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow."

"Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!"

"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive. To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ."

"Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogues, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes."

"Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night. Give them headaches too! If they don't give their husbands the love they need, they will begin to look elsewhere. That will fragment their families quickly!"

"Give them Santa Claus to distract them from teaching their children the real meaning of Christmas. Give them an Easter bunny so they won't talk about his resurrection and power over sin and death."

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted. Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's creation. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead."

"Keep them busy, busy, busy!"

"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences."

"Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause."

"It will work! It will work!"

It was quite a plan! The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busier and more rushed, going here and there, having little time for their God or their families. Having no time to tell others about the power of Jesus to change lives.

I guess the question is, has the devil been successful in all this? This blog post might make 'BUSY' sound to mean: Being Under Satan's Yoke. But now it doesn't have to be that way...

PS: For all those with exams... Wishing you the Best of Luck.

(I know some of you with Os and As are actually close to finishing. Hope your studies pay off!)

It's that time of year...

I am currently in the above state of being, hence the lack of posts. It's that time of year I suppose, where exams:

• Leave you with nothing to blog and no time to blog: The stuff I can blog about is extremely limited since my life stopped to a halt whilst missing out on various birthday celebrations and other activities: paintball, birthday meals... Anyway, I won't continue whining lest I instill an unmovable depression in my readers (and Happy or Sad, a Mood Can Prove Contagious). But colleagues of mine do get bored of their medicine at some point in time, allowing themselves to get distracted and spend a bit more time on Maltastar.com and Di-ve.com for any news concerning our future as doctors. But again, it's depressing stuff and the few it concerns have heard it all before from the fifth years who are happily leaving this country.


• Make the hay fever season worse: All throughout May, my mother has been complaining that I need to see a doctor because I'm all the time sneezing and consuming too much toilet paper. When bored of renal, I was happily browsing when I bumped into this: "Changes in immune regulation in response to examination stress in atopic and healthy individuals" Höglund, C. Olgart, Axén, J., Kemi, C., Jernelöv, S., Grunewald, J., Müller-Suur, C., Smith, Y., Grönneberg, R., Eklund, A., Stierna, P. & Lekander, M Clinical & Experimental Allergy 36 (8), 982-992. Apparently, my excess hay fever symptoms can be happily attributed to the 30th May - 16th June period.


• Make you gain the pounds: It's amazing the things science is ready to prove to the rest of the world. Physiological reasons have been discovered behind a friend of mine once saying "my sister told me third year is hard but it's in fifth year when you REALLY gain the pounds!" The reasons why are nicely summed up in this lovely graph below:

Glossary of Terms (for those not privileged to have Dr. G. Buhagiar teaching them Biochemistry):

Leptin: The hormone that's meant to suppress appetite. Hence, having too little of it ends you up spending more time with the fridge; and woe betide the fridge if you find it empty.

NPY: has the opposite effect of leptin i.e. it's the glue that keeps you bound to the fridge.

Cortisol & ACTH: They're stress hormones that make you want to get into unnecessary arguments with Adriana Crocker (the Medical School Administrator), leading the poor individual indulging in chocolate to fight away the guilt. And the pounds keep on piling.

Oh and PS; another thing that's not helping the situation: my uncle had to go to the A&E last Wednesday with crushing chest pain. It didn't come as a shocker to me since he had all the pre-requisites to get him to Mater Dei. But family remains family and it was something else to worry about. He's now been discharged but is in need of by-pass surgery.

And the leptin keeps itself supressed whilst the NYP continues to surge. At this rate, the next thing to pity after exams are the bathroom scales.