Ramble on....

11th June 2008, 0635B

After 2 frustrating hours I’ve eventually decided to give up on rolling around pointlessly in bed & just get up, perhaps even do something constructive. Not much chance of that though, we’re talking about the Procrastination King here after all.
This insomnia I’ve had lately has got to bloody well stop, and soon. It’s been better the last few days, but I still didn’t get more than 5 hours sleep last night, or the night before, & it’s doing neither the happy thoughts, nor sense of goodwill towards my fellow man any good.
When school breaks up next weekend I’ll head into the office to sort out my leave / prac shifts so that they know where I am, & while I’m there I’ll see the doc for some sleepy pills. I had hoped to avoid this though, I spent too damn long relying on drugs to sleep while I was in Burundi.

Anyway, enough of bitching about not sleeping. The last few days have been pretty quiet, with just tech going on really, and even there there’s not been much happening to speak of. We had a brief 20 minute anatomy & physiology lecture on Monday, and an hour or so of library orientation yesterday, and that’s been pretty much it so far. It’ll be the same again today, just another short library session, a pretty useful one this time though as we’ll be learning how to reference the way the school wants us to, which is important for the assignments we have coming up.
Tomorrow looks like it could be a lot of fun though, as we’ll be taking part in a large disaster management exercise at the airport, a simulated air crash. I was involved in one of those a few years ago from the military side, and while the actual management side of things turned into a huge circle jerk – these things usually do by all accounts – the practical “on the ground” part was quite fun. It’s also good to get to meet the people in the industry you’ll be working with in future, and network a little. You can make some very handy and beneficial contacts at little events like this, contacts which may prove very handy in a few years when I graduate.
Other than this event, the schedule at school looks pretty quiet for the rest of the term, and it looks like we’re done with OSCE’s (practical evaluations) and tests for now at least, with just some neurological emergency, assignment rubric lectures and a post-traumatic stress presentation left before we break for the vac. I’m kind of looking forward to the PTSD presentation truth be told, though not so much for myself – a reasonable number of the class I’m in isn’t new to the industry, but we do have a fair few “youngsters” with us who haven’t had the exposure, or learned the coping mechanisms the more experienced among us have along the way. I can’t help but think I might have found a few presentations like that useful back when I was 18 or so – chances are I would have laughed them off for the most part, young macho soldiers being what they are, but perhaps something would have stuck along the way, and maybe I’d have known how to cope with the fun and games in the townships a little better. Those were not always such fun & happy times, take my word for it......

So far as plans for the vac are concerned.... technically I’m supposed to either go back to work at the office, or take leave for the duration of the school vacation. I [b]really[/b] don’t want to do the first, and I’d prefer not to do the second, so I’ll be trying for Option C – having the school roster me for practical shifts in either hospitals or at ambo stations. Evidently my old Officer Commanding here at the unit on the Bluff was bitching about my having taken leave for the last vac, and had wanted to know why I’d not been at work, but my section head from the School for Military Health Training in Pretoria has confirmed he’s happy for us to do prac shifts instead of sitting around the office during vacations – his requirements are that we do something constructive, and that it be controlled – we have to be able to show we weren’t just loafing around at home instead of being at work / on shift in other words. Other than that I have a fair sized anatomy and physiology assignment on neurotransmitters to do, and also a fair bit of studying, both for the upcoming A&P test, and also because I’m not happy with how my last emergency care test went. Like I said in the last post, I know I could have done better, and I have to accept that at least some of that was because I was over confident about it – I can’t blame everything on insomnia – so I really need to work on being a bit more conscientious about studying.
And during the vac I also want to work on being a little more diligent about getting some exercise, which is one of the other reasons I decided to resurrect this thing – to keep track of my progress in losing at least some of my fat ass. It’ll be awhile before I can really start with that plan given I’m so broke I can’t pay attention, never mind afford a gym contract and assistance from a biokineticist that’ll entail, but for now I can at least start with doing a few sit-ups & push-ups, and on the days I’m really feeling enthusiastic I can go for a jog too I’m sure. It was gratifying how quickly my fitness improved at the beginning of the year when I had that fitness test motivating me to do something about how out of shape I was, but since our recue lecturer resigned & we’re not doing pt any more..... things have dropped off again, & I’m not much fitter now than I was at the beginning of the year :/

Anyway, on that note I think it’s time for me to finish off here, grab another cup of coffee, and then start getting ready for the day. Till next time.