fun in the sun (not)

Hola amigos...

The weather in this part of England has been so nice recently, which is lovely and its great to be able to actually go outside in shorts as opposed to the many layers of jumpers, jackets, etc which I must oh too frequently don on my little excursions into town. Dare I say it: I may even have a tan!! (Though I must always remember to spare a thought for my poor pale friends who always end up looking more like lobsters than anything else after being in the sun for too long).

As I type this, I am sat at my desk in my little poorly lit room staring out over the fantastic fields that back onto my garden. Unfortunately I am in full revision mode at the moment, getting ready for my AS level exams which are soon to start in May, and so I am having to spend my time slaving away on chemistry past exam papers and the likes when I would much rather be on the beach. Having said that, I must admit that the wind is still a little bit nippy outside at this time of year and so I can hardly say that I could be found swimming in the sea. Those people who I see already in the water at this time of year are clearly out of their heads! - I have been down to the shoreline to get a taste for the temperature and it is sure as anything not swimming weather. It is basically freezing and I know that if I went in for a dip I would probably die of not only hypothermia, but also the shame of having made such a stupid decision.

One thing that managed to brighten up my studious Easter holiday was the discovery that they were selling packets of Double-Stuff Oreos in Tesco at half price. at only 69pence per packet it was a bargain by anyone's standards - so naturally I bought 8 packets. However, a wonderful find soon turned into a disastrous nightmare when I thought it would be a good idea to scoff all of them over the next couple of days. Granted, the filling in the middle is a wonderful sensation on the tongue that is surely a gift from God, but I don't particularly care for the actual biscuit part of the oreo and ironically that would be my cruel downfall.

It turns out that actually the biscuits are pretty hard and could even be described as fairly sharp. Therefore a few packets later the experience became nothing more than a painful and exhaustive slog which left me with nothing but a sore mouth for the next few days. Unfortunately the devilishly creamy fillings kept me going for more; and that fiery pain only became more intense and merciless. Next time I see an oreo I will explode - it is as simple as that. This event shall hereafter be known as The Great Suffering Of 2015.

In my next life I won't be surprised if I am a badger. I have done the math and worked out that it is the more likely of a few possible options. I don't feel like this will be a punishment particularly, as badgers are some pretty cool animals and pretty inspirational if you ask me. Maybe I have been judged to have been good in this life and so the badger life is to be my reward. Though, I cannot say that I am thrilled about this - maybe if I had worked a bit harder to be a good person earlier on in my life I would have made the promotion to duck in the next life! Though I mustn't grumble and I suppose it can be something to work towards in future lives.

not too bad, i must say

Perhaps in my next life I will be a sort of Joan of Arc for the badgers and lead in the fight against the badger culls in Somerset, sacrificing myself at the hands of the enemy and becoming a badger martyr. On such a career trajectory I envisage statues being erected in my honour and being made a badger Saint. Surely if I follow this plan I will looked down upon kindly and will someday make the duck life!

Anyway, that turned out to be quite a weird tangent, and I think its best to leave it at that and never speak of it again. Obviously because its exam season I probably wont be blogging as frequently as I originally started out doing, but I will surely be back in good time.

Dan

Work Experience, Surgery, and ROYAL BLOOD

Hello everybody,

I would like to start today by saying how fantastic I found my week of work experience at the RD&E Hospital last week. I spent Monday and Tuesday in the Dermatology department with a consultant doctor. I got to sit and watch clinics take place; one cancer clinic for people with suspected skin cancers, and a general clinic in which I saw many people with diseases such a psoriasis and eczema. Furthermore, I got to stand watch in theatre on the Tues morning and watch the excision of small skin cancers such as Melanomas, BCCs, and SCCs (Basal and Squamous Cell Carcinomas in-case any of you care). I had been warned that often when people watch theatre for the first time they have a tendency to pass-out, luckily I managed to keep it together for the morning because otherwise that would have been fifty shades of unfortunate!

My time in the Neurology department was super interesting as well, and I loved getting to see the science side of everything, for example learning a bit about genetics and inheritance while I was there. I saw many people with truly fascinating (though sad) diseases such as Motor Neurone Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Huntington's Disease, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and Parkinson's Disease (www.google.co.uk if anyone is interested). The doctors I shadowed were really friendly and interesting making it a pleasure to spend the week with them, and really inspired me to look more into medical careers.

All excited for theatre dressed in scrubs!

Later in the evening on Friday, I went with a few of my friends to go and see Royal Blood live in Plymouth. I was so hyped after seeing them win a Brit Award for Best Band just a few days before and I am so so pleased to say that they did not disappoint at all. They got the crowd going absolutely wild with track after track being amazing. Out Of The Black was my favourite song of the night and I lost all control of my body when Little Monster started playing and I took crazy to the next level jumping all over the place. At one point as I had just avoided being demolished in a mosh pit I managed to find myself in front of a fat man who essentially started grinding on me as he bounced up and down to the song. Luckily I managed to squirm my way out and save myself from further discomfort. But all in all: it was the best thing I've done in 2015 so far.

A very blurry picture of the set just after Royal Blood had finished

Yesterday (saturday), I went to work in Costa Coffee again and I made the best cappuccino and flat whites I have ever made in my entire lives, I was so proud of myself and it made my day. However, being the noob that I am, I didn't think to take any pictures at the time so have nothing to show for it.    :(

A flat white pattern I did a few weeks ago

And to top of what can only be described as a wild week, today i had to go and have minor surgery on my right foot because I had injured it an basically I've been dying over the past few months thanks to the pain. Hopefully now things are on the up again, but unfortunately I cant even get my foot into my shoes at the moment due to the huge dressing on my foot, and am having to use crutches to get around outside. Sadtimes for me.

Anyway, updates to follow...

Dan

Laser Sailing

Hello chums,

Today I really got down to some exhausting work today on the laser sailing training course I am doing over at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy. I've just finished a three day course covering all sorts of techniques for racing and rigging the boats to perform at their max; and whilst I really enjoyed it and learned so much, I would be lying if I said I wasn't relieved that it is finally over. All of the hiking out to balance the boat and pulling on the sheets has left my whole body feeling battered and in pain all over. Either I have worked muscles in places I didn't know I had them, or I have bruised myself in places I didn't know you could bruise.

Whilst at the academy I got to see some of the national Laser youth squad in action in the harbour which and it was amazing seeing them control the boats even in such windy conditions as we experienced on Thursday. That day us lowly beginners weren't allowed out in such conditions and so we had to stay in and for one session we ended up doing fitness circuits. Again, it amazed me how much work had to go in, physically, in order to be able to sail a Laser at a top level and whilst I was a mess rolling around on the floor attempting to do a couple of sit-ups, I could only imagine how much exercise those in the national squads have to go through.

In other non-sailing news, I am pretty darn excited to be spending the next week doing work experience in the RD&E Hospital. Monday and Tuesday will be spent in the Dermatology department and the rest of the week I will be in Neurology so hopefully over the course of the week I will see some pretty fascinating stuff as well as get a look into what it is like to be a Doctor- something I might like to do when I leave school (lets all pray that I get the grades!).

And finally, at the end of next week I am going to see Royal Blood live with a few of my mates which I am so so so so (etc.) excited for! I've only seen them once before, at Reading Festival last year, and they were without doubt one of the best acts performing at the whole festival. Their energy and stage presence was simply awesome; and if that alone wasn't enough to get the crowd going then the small matter of their AMAZING tunes were more than enough to get the crowd into a wild frenzy. Again, so excited!!!!!

I will hopefully have time to post another update at the end of next week with some pics to follow (if I can get my camera to work!).

Dan

Tests and Terriers

ello ello ello

Today has been very academically orientated to say the least. I had  my Unit 1 mocks for both Chemistry and Physics. They did not go well (to put it bluntly). Chemistry was a bit of a faff, i was working pretty well for the first half before I began having a mental breakdown when I reached a question about reaction mechanisms; and all I can say is that I have still not recovered.
After that exam I was so so so hungry but it wasnt even lunch time yet! I did think about going to the canteen to grab a bite to eat but I didnt think I had enough energy to reach the canteen and so I basically died.

More excitingly, I am more excited than ever at the thought of getting a dog. I have pretty much managed to win over my parents to the idea, but I havent really come to any sorts of idea as to what sort of dog I would like, or what breed. One of my friends has the coolest little golden cocker spaniel and I would love to have a dog like that (though I dread the thought of my getting the same type of dog as my friend). I guess I'll have to get a few ideas of my own. Some breeds that I've looked at include King Charles Spaniels, Kooikerhondjes, Pugs, and Labradoodles. I'll obviously have to put quite a bit of thought into it but it does look like there are exciting times ahead in Dan World.

This little Kooiker is looking pretty snazzy

Anyways, I had better get back to revision now. Hopefully I will be a bit more active with my blogging once these mocks are all over; but until then... bye

dan

Revision and all things coffee

I would say that this week has been a pretty studious week. Getting ready for my AS level mocks has been what its all about these last few days. On the downside I think that the more maths revision I do, the worse at maths I am becoming. Is this an excuse to stop? I think so.

In other news, working at the coffee shop this week as been pretty nice- things haven't been too busy thankfully. This gave me the opportunity to have a bit of practice on latte art and whilst it's clear that I'm no Picasso, I was pretty pleased with how this little heart shape turned out. (I'm just going to pretend that's what I had intended it to be).

Watch out! There's a new barista in town.

I think I've gotten a lot better at it recently and thankfully I think I am finally past the days of overflowing the cup and making a milky mess all over the floor - not that this didn't entertain customers. One day I hope to be dishing out beauties like this one below...

This will be me one day

Lastly, I've signed up for a Laser Sailing course over in Weymouth in couple of weeks which is really exciting. I've never really sailed in big groups and there should be around 40 other boats there and we will be getting some lessons from a few good coaches. You never know; you could see me in the next Olympic Games (or not)! But either way I hope to get a few good pics which I might put up.

dan

The Big Debut

My first blog... :O yayayayay

I haven't felt this excited since I tucked in to the lasagne I had for tea last night! Though in fairness, that is understandable because nothing tastes like the beautiful godsend that is lasagne.

I have so many ideas and thoughts as to what I might put in this blog, but I thought I might start by saying a little bit about myself:

My name is Dan (or Daniel, if you're my parents) as you may have probably worked out from the title of this blog. Born and spent my primary school days in London, but the last few years have been spent out in the English countryside: in Devon. I like to consider myself a pleasant mix of Londoner and Devonian - the best of both worlds. I guess you will have to decide for yourself.
I'm sixteen years old so maybe a bit of a young whippersnapper compared to some, but that doesn't mean I don't have big ideas (if a little crazy at times).
I feel like a through-and-through Brit, though actually my genes are a bit of a multi-ethnic mix. I am actually half Peruvian (or 50 shades of Latino, if you like) and there's even a tad of German in there if you look closely.

I am currently in the 6th Form at my school (for 16-18 year olds) and studying Maths as well as Physics, Chemistry, and Biology (so no prizes for guessing the reason for the name of this blog). My choice of subjects may suggest that I'm a bit of a nerd- unfortunately I don't have any evidence to disprove this.
Outside of school I have a job in a local coffee shop, and so I can often be found down at Costa Coffee spinning drinks for all sorts of different people, something which I love about the job. Not to mention, I would love to get better at latte art and so no doubt there will be a few pics up on here.

When I'm not making huge scientific discoveries (I wish!) or making coffee then I like to go sailing as you may have seen in the image at the top of this blog. (I am the second boat from the left). I like to think I'm pretty good, though I think if you ask anyone else they may well say something to the contrary. Let's just hope I'm somewhere in between.

Anyway, I think this has been a pretty solid start to what will hopefully turn out to be quite an enjoyable blog for me to make (and maybe for people to read).

dan