I’m suffering at the hands of an essay…this was part of an entry destined to be published three weeks ago. Needless to say, it didn’t happen, but it is happening now. If nothing else, it may distract you from the fact I haven’t been very active on here recently. Enjoy this unrelated picture of condescending wonka!

<flashback> – it’s the end of August, and I’m patiently waiting for the delivery of an air compressor. The sun was shining…wait…this doesn’t sound like Northern Ireland now. I’ll try again, but more accurately this time. It was cold, dark, and the sound of the rain thrashing against the rooftops was making me painfully aware that I still hadn’t managed to escape this country, but alas, someday I will. I was enjoying the blisteringly fast broadband, and the ability to watch YouTube without stuttering at a resolution higher than 240p for the first time in the entirety of summer. Yes, my broadband at home does suck, but I’ve been improving my network bit by bit to make sure the whole house is gets WiFi and print access if nothing else. I was writing, but not for long as you will soon see. I’m fairly certain that you will have already figured out this is a short article, partly because of my trend of returning after a break with an “articular snub” (I just made that up, but doesn’t it sound splendid?), and also because you can see the text below. Unless you’re experiencing tunnel vision and unable to see the bottom half of the screen, or are reading this on a screen with a “no screen-peeking device” installed from the golden days of split screen gaming. It is beyond me how anyone can play a game split screen without their eyes wandering, but I digress. I’m not really sure what I’m digressing to, but here goes anyway. </flashback>

I’m pretty much back to porridge. This week was an introduction into 3rd year medicine, which involved a lot of listening to pointless lectures and being bored out of my mind. There was the odd useful one, and a really interesting one on forensic medicine, but it occurred to me that the time would have been much better spent revising and going over the new lecture material for this year. Why walk to the MBC just to sit down all day and be told that we should be working right now, rather than just work? The mind boggles, but such is life, and in medicine we do love our excruciatingly long introduction talks. I’ve settled back into university life anyway, and our internet is being hooked up today, all being well. 30 Mb broadband! Three times faster than the last connection, and about thirty times faster than the speed at home. I have no idea when Magheralin will be getting fibre optic broadband, but if current trends continue, it could be in the next century or so.