Matthew's Journal

Firstly, what I did. I went home the Sunday after my last entry; I spent the next week seeing small animal practice, with a sore throat that was steadily getting worse. After Saturday morning surgery, I went home, and felt crap as my throat got worse. My parents bundled me off to the NHS walk-in center at the Ashford Hospital, where the staff nurse said "It's a virus. deal". Sunday was worse still, so on Monday morning, after not eating breakfast, I went to the quack, who diagnosed pharyngitis, and gave me some penicillin. I managed to eat lunch (just), but the pain and neck spasms associated with swallowing got worse, and I couldn't manage dinner. Tuesday I managed breakfast, but nothing else for the rest of the day, so I went back to the quack on Wednesday (after having no breakfast). He gave me co-codomol 30/500 and ibuprofen 600, at which point I was able to eat and drink normally again. So, on thursday, I finally got to Colchester to see Anke, which was nice (although I was going to spend mon-thursday there :/ ), and thence to Cambridge.

Today, I've been Christmas shopping. Everyone else is off to TTT tonight, so I shall sit at home and twiddle my thumbs (or maybe do the Christmas cards) :/

the PhD news is more promising. The Wellcome Trust may be fuckwits (and won't give me a fellowship because I have too much research experience(!)), but the group has (against expectations) got a BBSRC grant; this means they'll have to advertise the post, but it's highly unlikely that anyone else would get it. So, this is good. Not certain yet, but pretty confident now that I have a Phd project :)