Feel The Air...

....Shot into your eyes.

.....I "thought" I'd "volunteer" to be patient for third year optom students (I actually had no choice... it's compulsary!). The University's clinic is rather posh....nothing like what you'd find in the clinical labs - the playground for us inexperienced first years. It gave me quite a discomforting feeling; I had to act sort of "formal-ish".

I walked into the waiting area and it was all filled with old people...old, retired people who probably have nothing better to do but to become a student's guinea pig for a couple of hours...oh and they get a free eye test out of it!. So I waited. An old women sat opposite me kept staring at me. So I smiled at her... she just stared back...so I looked away, but I knew she was still staring. A few minutes went by and a women with a toddler walked in. The little boy stood in the doorway and refused to move. He'd probably had some traumatic experience with student's in the past. After a few words of encouragement from the receptionist he walked in and sat beside me (only because the toy box was on the other side!). Within moments he was on the floor with huge building blocks, learning his colours. He entertained me for the remaining time.

It was finally my turn. It was quite amusing. Four students, smartly dressed in suits with lab coats, walked in (when have you EVER seen an optometrist in a lab coat?!...they're only for doctors!). They all stood in a line, clinging on to their clipboards, each waiting for the other to call out for their patient first. Their supervisor suddenly came in, and they all four of them quickly called out their patient's name...hehe!

This guy was gonna test my eyes. I can't even remember his name, but the badge on his lab coat didn't belong to him. I later found out that he left his lab coat at home, so had to borrow someone else's (why didn't he just take the badge off?!).But I did feel sorry for him....his supervisor was the guy who helps out in my visual optics practicals; Dr I'm-smart-your're-daft.

He started off by confirming all my details and asking about family history etc.... and well, my optician has ever asked me soooo many questions. It did get to the stage where I didn't feel like answering... but I had no choice! Oh and the comment he got from his supervisor was, "Be more specific, ask more questions if you have to." (what!?!).....AND he (the supervisor) was suprised that I spend about 3-4 hours a day on the computer; it probably explains why I can't answer his questions in practicals!

I think he tested my eyes using every possible technique, but it wasn't bad cos I did learn lots. In the end he said he was gonna check the pressure in my eyes... I wasn't sure how this was going to be done, but it didn't sound very nice!

He held this thing near my eye - it looked like an extra large sized stapler. I looked at the red light inside and waited... and waited... and then all of a sudden air shot into my eye. It made me jump (which was embarrasing!)..and..and it hurt! :'( . He did this four times in each eye..... That test should be illegal!..It's not safe! What if it punctured my cornea?!

I was there for two hours. Overall it wasn't bad...well other than the pressure thing... But it was very time consuming and I missed my extra lab practice! (yes I'm a swot!)

Feeding An Army

I feel sorry for chickens and lambs whenever my mum invites anyone for dinner. Almost everything cooked contains meat or chicken.... and yesterday was no different.....

.... Mum had invited some people for dinner last night, and on Friday night we got a call from some distant relatives, telling us that they're gonna come over on Saturday afternoon. I nearly had a heart attack when I found out. That's 9 people in the afternoon and 11 in the evening.

So i had to wake up early yesterday (grrrr... saturday's the only day I get to sleep in). I did all the usual; quick shower, got dressed, cleaned my room. When I went downstairs, mum was already messing around with the extra-large sized pots and pans. My job was to make the lasagna.

After about 2 hours of messing around with 3lb of mince meat, a tonne of tomatoes, flour, milk and a load of other things, everything was ready. Now only the layers were left.

I buttered the dish, and started with a thin layer of mince...then pasta....then white sauce... then lots and lots of cheese.. and so on. I finally finished with cheese and sprinkled some oragano on top (so that it smells nice!..heh).

I shoved it in the oven and then helped mum with boring things... like making the salad and the hundreds of varieties of chutnies.

So the first lot came... ate... sat for a bit and went... then we cleaned up...and cooked some more. Then the second lot came and did the same. When they left I was exhausted..... and because mum thinks a dishwasher is a waste of space, all the dishes had to be hand washed. :(

We finished around 11ish....

That's when I realised it was the eclipse. So I impatiently stared the moon for about half an hour... then got bored and went to bed. This morning I found out that if had stayed there for about 15 more minutes I would have seen the whole eclipse...with the moon going red! Double GRRRRR!



That's a pic of the moon I took at about 11.30ish. Half the moon's covered. It isn't a very good pic. (magnified 8 times and there was a lampost in the way!)