the return of fascination

this week has sparked my fascination with all things psychiatric and psychological again. sitting in on assessments, interpreting in psychoanalytic ways, and really focussing on transference and the patient-doctor relationship is fascinating. where else can you spend all your time frolicking with ethereal matters of the mind? where else can you learn about yourself as much as you learn about your patients? most people struggle with the fluffiness, the abstractness, the lack of clear demarcations between 'black and white' in psychiatry. but i find it fascinating, intruiging, a unique challenge. every day you have to think. think about philosophical and ethical issues. think about normality. think about what it means for 'me' to be, 'me'. i find the fact that all things mental lie on a spectrum, rather than as discrete entities, very intruiging and challenging . in a good way. seeing gross pathological states of being, as well as seeing some of the more subtle personality disorders, gives me much to reflect on. how do i think and behave? how do i feel, and react? what is the atmoshphere like in my mind, and what subconscious tides move me up and down? what moons of the past sit in my sky, and how do they influence these tides?

anyway. enough of that manic blurb. time for a

break.

- tuesday watched a play called 'spamalot' which is a musical comedy based on the monty python movie 'the holy grail'. absolutely, completely, hilarious! nirosh you would have loved it! we have to watch *all* the monty python movies, and some of them again and again!
- tuesday night clubbing madness. went to our favourite r&b hang out 'metra'. lots of exotic shots, good ol' beer and spirits (and i'm slowly getting used to whisky on the rocks, yeek), and of course a lot of drunken dancing to fantastic music. metra gets so packed with people, even on random nights like tuesday! crazy!
- visited the oldest operating theatre in london, which is now a museum. very interesting, in a make-you-shiver-and-shudder kind of way.
- watched another play called 'vegemite'. about australians who come over to live & work in the uk. quite funny.
- finally went for a run today. it's sad how one can work so hard in the gym for half a year, really make some great progress, and then in a few weeks of bangers and mash and cheese and indecent amounts of beer and other alcohols - throw it all away. very saddening.

any suggestions on what i should do with my free time from 21 oct to 2 nov? i was thinking london -> paris -> prague -> amsterdam -> maybe florence/rome -> london? give me some thoughts because i'm struggling!

hope you're all well! by the way, i can't believe that most of us are going to be starting to - gasp - work! as doctors, no less! am i the only one who is feeling just slightly nervous about the whole thing?