There's a certain irony about having a fire in your fire alarm...

So I came home last week, (Monday I think) and was told by the housemates that the fire alarms were making funny noises when they got back from lectures. They had rung the (fabulous) landlord who came over ASAP, despite only getting back from holiday that day. He discovered that the fire alarms were on the same loop as the downstairs plugs. This isn't good. Anyhow, all alarms were tested (but not all examined due to a lack of keys) but no blown fuses were found so it was assumed it was something to do with a plug in the downstairs bedroom (which couldn't be accessed at that point due to the above lack of keys).

Stay with me here.

Me: Ok, so funny noises. Anything else?

Housemates: The roof is still leaking.

Me: Oh joy. Anything else?

(There probably was something else but it was over a week ago and I can't remember :P )

Me: Right. Ok. I'm going to put my bags down. See you later.

I go into my room. And my fire alarm sounded like a sparkler. An actual sparkler.

*Shouts for help*

Turns out that when you turned the light off the fire alarm looked like a sparkler too.

There was a fire in my fire alarm.

How? Well, the water from the leaky roof (which has now been finally, properly fixed) leaked through the floor in the attic bedroom into my ceiling where it followed the wires and shorted my fire alarm.

Thus followed mild panic and a phone call to the landlord who was somewhere north of Wolverhampton and heading towards Stoke so couldn't come round. He sent his trusty electrician who is the sweetest old guy ever - he even offered to hoover the plaster off my carpet once he was done, but I wouldn't let him :)

I'm still missing a fire alarm. Instead I have wires hanging from my ceiling. I'm not planning on starting any fires, or lighting candles any time soon, and I've promised to be extra careful with my straighteners.

In other news:

I tried to give blood and they wouldn’t let me. Just take my stupid blood. I’m here, offering you a plump vein and you’re turning me down. A vampire would take it but no! What’s even more annoying is that once I’d convinced the nurses I was well enough I failed the haemoglobin test and a blood sample showed that even though I was above normal levels I wasn’t high enough to actually donate. Bet I would have been if I’d taken my iron tablet that morning.  

I got four books for less than £10 and found the nicest Waterstones ever in the process!!! It has three floors and ballroom stairs and ... sigh...can you be in love with a building?

One of my housemates had a pregnancy scare. That was fun. But thankfully it was only a scare. I don't think she's ever been so happy that she started her period.

Leicester is no longer an option. Turns out the course I wanted to do is an MA which means it’s a postgrad degree which means I won’t get funding from student finance which means I can’t afford it L Oh well, maybe once I’ve qualified. However the courses Birmingham offers are looking increasingly more attractive and I’m seriously considering it – I could use the break.

We’ve decided to sign for the house again next year, despite all the problems. Just hope we can all be a little more civilised about the heating. The point of my nose is like an iceberg.  

I had three meetings with three different people and I cried in all of them. In two of them we discussed mitigation for the January exams. In one of them we discussed anti-depressants.

I also had a bit of a breakdown. But I missed a few days, went home and now I’m back. Am I ready for life at the medschool again? Ummm, no, but I can certainly try. Just trying to ignore the fact I have a test tomorrow. I’ve told myself that I’m allowed to flunk one test in fifteen years of A* worthy education – I thought that test would be the last IIH ICA (Infection, Immunology and Haematology In Course Assessment for all non-bham medics out there) but as I didn’t do too badly on that one I still have the flunk-test wildcard available J What’s two percent in the grand scheme of things anyway?

I’ve eaten copious amounts of junk food and still seemed to have lost weight. But the junk food eating continues, as does a bad diet consisting of not enough veg and too many Oreos (the best biscuit ever!). This makes me a hypocrite as I told my medic kid to eat better.

Peppermint Mochas from Starbucks are like sips of a minty heaven. And I’ve upgraded myself to grande!

I’ve listened to soooo much music. And as I’m not entirely certain of the Islamic viewpoint on this I’ve also convinced myself I’m going to hell. (NB. If you’re going to leave a rude comment (you know who you are) about this don’t bother cause I’m not going to publish it). But it’s been useful and has given me many opportunities to scream and cry – I now have playlists for most occasions.

I’ve rambled for a bit so I really should go. Another update soon, hopefully. Sorry this has been so...weird. It's been a weird few weeks. Emotionally draining and weird. Sorry.

*Toodles*

Reading: Jingo by Terry Pratchett. I love him, and I love any book that can make me laugh out load in the quiet zone of a packed train.

Rambling thoughts and Leicester?

So I haven't blogged in a while. That was bad of me. Sorry. And I'm not sure if this post classes as a blog - it's more a collection of rambling thoughts.

It's SSA (Student Selected Activity) week this week. Thank goodness. Any more of the days I've been having and I would have fainted. At least I made it through to Friday night before crashing! Now I have a week to catch up on sleep, catch up on revision notes and to do my project. Also to write my novel, but more of that in a sec.

Speaking of Friday night - Stranger's Tour. Fantastic. Made me cry a little though, felt guilty for being an "inshallah Muslim" but it also made me smile, and laugh. There was that sense of not belonging again, although I'm getting used to it now.

I still haven't blogged about Feel Bright. I'm not going to promise you a post in the next week because chances are I won't follow through. But I will try.

This weekend I did nothing. Absolutely nothing. And it was bliss.

National Novel Writing Month started today. 50,000 words in 30 days? Sounds scary and it probably won't happen. Current word count: 535. I am going to try and write some more before bed though.

What else has happened lately?

I've had some very mean comments, and I responded.

I've also had blog readers from Denmark, Singapore, Mexico, UAE and South Korea :D

I've been made to feel (slightly) guilty about having a reading week.

I told my housemate she didn't have a heart because she laughed at the ending of Single Father (amazing) and then felt insanely guilty about it.

I made piri piri chicken using Quorn pieces - probably the most cooking I've done in the past 6 weeks.

Six weeks!

I've thought about intercalating in Leicester.

That's right Humaira - Leicester.


Leicester offer a MA in Medical Humanities. It's an 11 month full time course - not sure how that would fit in with Birmingham but I'm sure I could make it work. Bham offer Medical Humanity intercalations but they're in things like History of Medicine (I keep thinking History of Magic) and Psychiatry. Psych actually sounds really interesting but Medical Humanities sounds better. And it's an MA.

But it's in Leicester. That's a long way from Birmingham. It would mean leaving everyone behind, paying a whole year's extra tuition and graduating with the year below. But if friends are true friends they'd stay in touch. And it sounds so good.

I've sent off for a prospectus. And I think I'll mention it to my tutor later this week.

Big decision.


I'll try to blog more coherently later on. Try to, not promise too.

Toodles.