Day plus two - Sunday

Lazy morning consisting of food, packing all my stuff and loading up the car. Headed over to No 13 for the last time to say goodbye to everyone, had quick brew before heading over to the hospital. Dropped my keys off at reception and popped into A&E to say goodbye to any staff I'd missed earlier in the week. Then left Stornoway for the last time!

Drive down to Tarbert only took 40mins, really quick on empty Sunday roads (everyone's in church!) Definitely going to miss the traffic (/lack of) and the roads up here. Arrived with plenty of time for the ferry - bought ticket for Alice before going on a quick walk around the harbour. Incredibly wet ground, and loads of black furry caterpillars wondering around.

Lots of caterpillars in the grass near the harbour - Fox Moth caterpillars?

The ferry was a bit late but managed to watch it navigating through the islands on the way to the harbour before we headed back to the car. Leaving the Outer Hebrides - not sure when I'll be back but definitely more to do up here. Top of the list is some climbing on Sron Ulladail, along with more surfing and heading down to the Uists and maybe even as far as Mingulay. So that's it - elective finished!

The ferry back to Skye - signalling the end of my elective!

Day plus one - Saturday surfing

No lie-in on the first day after finishing - alarm went off at 8am for an early start! Quick breakfast before hitting the road for the 1h15m drive down to the absolutely stunning Seileboste beach down on Harris. Golden sands, crashing waves - the only thing missing was the blue skies; the weather was pretty overcast but wouldn't make too much of a difference as we were going to get very wet anyway! Minor panic when we overshot the turn off to the beach, only to round the corner and be greeted with huge waves smashing into the rocks... Alice said "Oh yeah, it'll be down there" to which I replied something on the lines of no flipping way was I getting in those waves! 5 mins doubling back and we located the correct beach with much smaller, more amenable waves for beginners!

Scary big waves and rocks - not the location for beginners!

Met up with Cheggs and Nicola from SurfLewis for our surfing lesson, 3hrs for £15 including all the equipment, pretty good value! Sized up the boards/suits, got kitted up and carried everything down to the beach. Alice opted for wetsuit gloves but as it turned out we didn't need them. Had a really good little education snippit from Cheggs about waves, rip currents, safety etc - made me realise that there's a lot of similarities between teaching surfing and delivering DofE/mountain leader stuff, all outdoors based education with lots of similar techniques. Quick bit on how to catch waves, position on board and starting off by just catching the wave and arching back without standing up and we were into the water! Not cold at all (the 5mm wetsuits may have had something to do with that!) and the bottom of the beach was beautiful smooth sand. Even about 50/100m out I could stand up, albeit to my chest on a smooth sandy bottom. Once in the water the waves looked a lot bigger!

Got practiced at catching the waves and bodyboarding them before another quick beach session on methods of going from back arched to standing - 3 types: the pop-up being the best but hardest, the step up or the kneel up. Main thing = don't split the knees! Back into the water for the main bit, must have spent over an hour practising and it was brilliant fun, everyone was really supportive of each other, cheering when we caught the waves! There were 8 of us there, all beginners. I managed to catch a few waves, although was definitely cheating by splitting my knees sometimes! Think the slackline balance helps a lot, and my board was so humungous that I could stand on it all day!

SurfLewis surfing lesson - my board was humungous!

Truly shattered we made our way back to the van, stripped off and got warm with spare clothes from the car. What a great morning! Driving back it just started to rain - we had timed it perfectly!

Back at the flat we were both knackered! Massive lunch before skyping my folks, not too long before I'll be back in Kendal and get to see them again now. Chilled out and started to pack up all my stuff in the afternoon.

Over to No 13 to see the Aberdeen lot - turns out the helicopter hadn't flown this morning so good job we'd gone surfing instead! Had a chinese takeaway for dinner, good beef chowmein. Turned into a bit of a send off with booze/homemade truffles/brownies out in the flat - delicious! Andrea had made these superb Oreo truffles - incredible. Then the other lot of students rocked up with homemade carrot cake and more booze, fuelling a games night in - salad bowl game, rapidough, even a round of blind man's buff which was pretty hilarious at times. With no early start the following day it was a pretty late night, good celebration to cap off the placement!

Day fifty-four - Friday, my last day!

My last day had arrived! Baked another banana bread the previous night to bring in again, along with a goodbye card I'd made to give to the staff in the dept. Went down well, and I even made it up onto the 'pin up boys of A&E' noticeboard in the coffee room - Stephen wasn't best pleased that I'd beaten him to it. Was only in for the morning, but saw an interesting head injury patient - ran through history, examination with full neuro (cranial nerves, upper/lower limb motor and sensory), cleaned the head wound, dressed with Opsite spray on dressing and discharged after checking with EDP. Great last patient really, tying up everything in one case! I think that summed up what I'd got out of the 4 week placement here - getting comfortable with doing an entire casualty assessment from start to finish on my own. Great experience for final year and I feel pretty confident now with most of my examinations, having had the chance to practice loads here.

Around midday I said my goodbyes to the staff - it had been a superb placement from which I'd gained a huge amount. Quick look in the doctors room to say bye to some of the junior staff before heading back to the flat to wake up Alice (~1pm!) and have some lunch.

Weather was pretty rubbish but at least not raining so we capitalised on the free afternoon to do some touristy stuff on the west coast. First stop the Callanais standing stones followed by a cream tea in the cafe - felt very old! Pet hate though - the scone and jam were amazing (handmade) but the cream was the rubbish spray can cream, total rubbish. If it had been proper clotted cream it would have been amazing. Does this mean I'm now old?

Alice at the Standing Stones of Callanais

Next to the centre stone - shame it was a bit of a grey day, but at least the wind kept the midges away!

Another tourist tick - the Carloway Broch

Headed straight from the broch down to Tarbert on Harris to meet everyone for dinner at 1830. Slight problem though as I couldn't get in touch with any of them! Eventually managed to make contact and discovered none of them had yet left, meaning they wouldn't be down in Harris until much later. Alice and I just decided to eat anyway, and they informed us they'd booked a table at the 'Heritage Hotel'. Didn't know where that was so asked at a pub = "There's no place in the Outer Hebrides called the Heritage Hotel" was the response. Right, sack this, everyone's useless - being over an hour late and not knowing the name of the place!

We headed to a nice looking place on the harbour front instead, called the Hebrides Hotel. Superb food, very funny Australian waitress who took no messing from this guy who accidently whacked her with his large rucksack! Very reasonable price too. Alice sampled the Lagavulin whiskey which I'd been recommended - bit of a misunderstanding when the waitress thought I'd asked for the entire bottle! Man at the bar laughed when he heard it and I agreed that I couldn't afford the bottle! Very smokey.

Eventually the others did arrive, turned out they meant this place anyway. They had dinner before we all headed over to the local community hall for the second ceilidh of my elective! Again, pretty rubbish space for it in an old gym style hall with absolutely zero atmosphere. Was good fun though, everyone was getting involved. I heard from some of the other elective students that they were going on the helicopter the following day - gutted! They didn't think there'd be enough space for me and Alice and I had booked a surfing lesson anyway as part of the Harris Mountain Festival. Bit of a shame but I know I'll get out on helicopters at some point during my career anyway! Alice drove the hour back to Stornoway :)

Day fifty-three - Thursday

Banana bread - Mk I

So as it was my penultimate day I decided to bake some banana bread for the A&E staff - it's my go-to baking recipe! Turned out pretty good, and went down extremely well in the dept! Quiet morning but a highlight was the unexpected return of one of my first patients, the man who's ear I'd stitched up in the first week. I spied him waiting outside one of the cubicles but couldn't place him, then when I walked past he said hi and pointed to his ear - the penny dropped! I have to say the scar looked incredible, it had healed really nicely and was barely visible. He was pleased with it which was the main thing. It's not often in A&E that you get to see the long term recovery of your patients, so I was very satisfied to find out in this case.

Before long it was midday and I nipped out to the ferry terminal to pick up Alice - she'd taken a sleeper train from Euston to Inverness the previous night, then a coach to Ullapool before the ferry over to Stornoway. Due in at 1245 I was there on time - obviously it was then delayed until 1315! Short wait, but was nice to see the ferry coming into the harbour knowing she was on it!

Alice arriving - after 10 weeks!

Drove back to the flat, had some lunch and caught up briefly before duty called me back to A&E for the afternoon - needlessly it turns out as no-one came in during the afternoon! Snuck off a bit early to chill with Alice before heading down to the Thai Cafe in town for dinner with everyone. On the way called into a really nice Harris Tweed shop called By Rosie (http://www.byrosie.co.uk/) where Alice had mysteriously arranged an item of clothing for which I was measured but not told what it was. Under duress I had to choose a tweed, went for a really nice deep green with flecks of gold. Not sure what it's for though! Stornoway was having a late night opening to promote the local shops so it was quite strange wondering round at 7pm with all the shops open - maybe they should try it on a Sunday occassionally!

Thai Cafe for a superb meal, Alice and I had the set menu which was perfect - great value and proper bona fide thai food. Lovely. Good turnout from the hospital as well, most of the med students and lots of the foundation doctors. Moved on to McNeil's irish pub in town afterwards with the Aberdeen med students to support Tim Martinez and the Charango Trio who were playing on the open mic night. Was good fun, nice to have a bit of a send off drinks, as tomorrow will be my last day!

Day fifty-two - Wednesday

Sorted out a few things before heading down to the ED in the morning: paid my £200 odd accommodation fee, scanned in my elective attendance forms and picked up a letter from reception that had been there for a week without me knowing (one of the Aberdeen students had seen it while collecting their own post!) Quiet in the morning, chatted to Stephen the receptionist about GTA V that's just come out, definitely gonna have to get a copy, looks awesome. Although still need to get into Skyrim - bought that for cheap off Amazon just before exams so deliberately didn't play it too much. Turns out one of the students brothers got a copy of GTA V delivered to their house on Uist on Saturday!! It was officially released on Tuesday, but amazon sent out a few copies early by mistake and the publishers Rockstar weren't too happy. I guess they thought it might take longer to get to Uist so sent it out a few days early?

Saw a chap who had come in the previous week having fractured two bones in his hand, the xray was quite dramatic however they had the option of conservative management with just splinting/buddy strapping or surgery where they'd fix the fragments in place with K-wires, which would then have to stay in place for 6 weeks. Buddy strapping is quite a useful trick, where you strap the injured finger to a neighbouring healthy one, keeping it immobilised without any cumbersome splints. Patient went for the conservative option.

Lunch in the doctors office, burger/chips. Got admonished by one of the canteen staff who said I needed to be 'careful with my portion control' - her exact words. I wouldn't have minded if she said it was a large portion and was going to charge me a bit extra, that's cool. But was a bit annoyed being told I'd basically got too much - they should serve out the portions then! Also got me thinking, would it be unfair to just target 'portion control' to overweight/obese people? If a tall slim young person comes in with a massive plate of food is that a bad thing? I wouldn't have thought so. But they could be performing a decent public health intervention by helping overweight/obese reduce their portion sizes... Maybe they should weigh people at the till and titrate their portion size accordingly... !! Oh dear.

Stomach contented I went back to A&E. Patient came in, took the history and examined them, was obvious straight away that they needed catheterising- a procedure that's pretty simple but has lots of little steps along the way. Also catheters are one of the biggest sources of infection, so everything has to be done in as sterile a way as possible - King's drills this into everyone no end. I had a 'prepare a catherisation' OSCE station in 3rd year (practical exams we have to do), where I did not do very well, partly due to the equipment being different to what I was used to (no tweezers provided meaning hands couldn't remain sterile = confusion in the stress of an exam about how to move things around!) Sometime's it feels like we have to be mindreaders to work out what the examiner wants you to do, and that was definitely one of those stations. Infuriatingly too it was not testing the skill, just testing the preparation! I had some pretty crushing feedback on that station but seeing as on the other more 'worthwhile' stations such as heart/lung exams I did well I didn't pay too much attention to it. I can see what they're getting at but feels a bit pedantic at the same time.

Anyway, was supervised by one of the nurses in the ED whilst put it in. Useful to have another person to help open packets and give tips on what to do. As I said, it's a straightforward procedure but lots of stages. Got nearly half a litre out straight away, and the patient started feeling alot better! Nice thing to tick off aswell. I'd done them before but only on patients in theatre where everything is sterile and the patient's asleep = much less pressure! I remember one of my friends who's now qualified saying they had to do their first ever catheterisation on a patient who went into acute retention, on a night shift, on their own... They managed it and the best part was the patient thought they were a superhero as they went from unbearable discomfort to blissful ease as soon as the pressure was released. It's the kind of thing where you can't really go too wrong, you've just got to do it!

Headed back to the house before nipping down to the pool. Forgot my goggles but borrowed a pair from one of the lifeguards, kind of them. Front crawl massively improved, almost at the point where can just keep going now. Did 6 lengths without stopping at one point = success! Technique is probably awful, that's the next thing to work on. At least I'm breathing every 3 strokes on alternate sides, which I've heard is the thing that alot of people find tricky. Forgot to mention too that I've self-diagnosed myself with de Quervains tenosynovitis on my left hand - had pain over the thumb extensor muscles for a few days and then today had palpable crepitus when moving my thumb. People in A&E straight away thought it was tendonitis. Some mild swelling too. Not really sure what's caused it,possibly the swimming so tonight probably didn't help! Tesco to pick up some Ibuprofen and banana bread ingredients before house and spag bol dinner. Bit of 4OD online then baked the banana bread, incredibly straightforward recipe and the oven's not too bad (rare for hospital accommodation) so turned out pretty good! This one's for all the juniors tomorrow, then I'll bake another one for the A&E staff on my last day :)

Day fifty-one - Tuesday

A&E in the morning again, selection of cases including some paediatric stuff, foot and elbow injuries requiring xrays etc. Was interesting talking them through with the ED staff, working through the management plans. Mac cheese lunch with the Aberdeen lot again before heading over to teaching by an anaesthetist on pain management. Very important topic but unfortunately the room was soporifically warm, in combination with a calming voice and slow turnover of powerpoint slides = eyelids were drooping around the room! I'd just had a coffee so was fine :)

In the downtime, casually smash out my top score on Boom Town! So addictive...

Back in the ED afterwards, did a cannula and some bloods. Fairly slow day, but quite nice variety of things. Headed back to the flat in early evening and rustled up a rissoto style rice/sausage/veg/cheesy concoction = lovely! Nipped to shops to stock up on booze and watched Side Effects with Aberdeen people in No.13, really intriguing film, about a psychiatrist (Jude Law) who puts a patient on a drug and strange things begin to happen - constantly rethinking who is actually the crazy one! Looked through their pics from Uist, looked like a great little weekend away. Shame that I won't get down there now but maybe I'll come back on another trip one day!

Day fifty - Monday

Last week in Western Isles hospital - come round so quick! In just before 10am to a quiet department. After catching up with Stephen about his recent trip to NYC I saw an acute exacerbation of asthma that came in by ambulance. They'd received excellent care in the community, had oxygen going, been given salbutamol nebs in the ambulance, GP had loaded them with prednisolone, ipratropium had been given. The only thing missing was theophylline but as they walked into the department smiling and chatting, with sats of 95% on room air I don't think they needed it! Was good revision though, got me thinking about O-SHIT and O-SHIM again (mnemonics for treating asthma/COPD).

Lunch with the Aberdeen lot in the mess, heard about their weekend on Uist and I regailed them with with tales of hardship and bravery on Skye. Back to A&E, everything was quiet until around 1500 when a patient came in that occupied all of our time until the early evening. This blog is so frustrating at times. It was a milestone for me in my time as a med student.

Rainbow on the walk back to the flat

Left back to the flat around 1830, beautiful rainbow on the way home. Hopped in car and drove to the pool to have a swim and chill out after a big few hours at the hospital. Bumped into the Aberdeen lot down there, random! Did some front crawl work again, definitely improving. Managed 75m without stopping, can do 50m comfortably now and not as out of breath. 10mins in the hot tub = amazing, followed by 10mins in the sauna = the perfect stress buster! Drove back via Co-Op to pick up some supplies. Chicken, then bangers and mash for dinner - double cream in the mash again, oh yeah! Gotta love the calories.

Chatted to Alice, she's just finishing her last few shifts as a student midwife = milestone! Went over the events of today as well, good to talk it through. Arranged drinks in Edinburgh for next Tuesday, the night before my Potential Leader Course with World Challenge - really psyched, the next step in becoming a leader for them! Meeting up two friends from London, hopefully crashing on one of their floors!

Day fourty-nine - Sunday

Super chilled day, spent recuperating after the exertion on Skye! Up at midday, food before starting the process of writing up the mini-expedition. Decided to post it on UKClimbing for a bit of added exposure, had an instant result as the hits pushed me over 3000 views for the blog since I started!

Poached eggs on a Sunday, mmmmmmmmmmm

Not much else happened. Skyped folks and my brother, sorted a few bits and bobs. Got my deposit back for my flat from last year, hooray! And that was my Sunday. Oh, and it was horrendous weather outside, hail, extremely heavy rain. Felt less guilty about totally chilling out inside all day :)

Day fourty-eight - Saturday

Quite a funny night in the car. To start with I was flat out for about 4 hours, woke up at 0200 feeling a bit chilly. Put my shoes back on and tried to get comfy again, a difficult task in a reclined car seat. One of the problems was that the snazzy Golf TDI had bucket seats, meaning the sides of the back rest pushed your shoulders forward when flat! I tried to sleep on my side instead and use them as mini pillows. Few more hours, woke up, glanced across at Mike to see he'd cranked his seat to about 40 degrees. What the hell?! Wondering if I was missing a secret trick to sleeping in a car I cranked mine up too and dozed off again. First light around 0600, glanced acrossand Mike was at 70 degrees, almost vertical! Unbelievable. I cranked mine up again and dozed off. Both woke up around 0800 and decided to go for breakfast, over which he revealed his vertical tactic was to alleviate the shoulder problem!

The long walk back to the gear stash

Lovely fry up in Sligachan hotel, good value too at £10 for cold buffet, coffee and decent quality fry up. Drove off down to Glen Brittle and reluctantly set off on the 2hr walk back to Loch Coir a'Ghrunnda. Weather was pretty sunny, and the two rivers we'd had trouble crossing 36 hours ago were easily crossable today on stepping stones, no worries of wet feet! Passed two groups of walkers on the way up - we were both moving quickly with only an empty rucksack to bring down the kit. It was good to get the limbs going again too!

Arrived! Coffee on...

I arrived first and got the stove going. I thought we had one last sachet of coffee in the gear dump but after searching couldn't find it! Gutted I turned the stove off. Feeling sweaty after the walk in and all of yesterdays efforts with no shower I stripped off and dipped into the lochan - bloody freezing but felt revitalised on emerging a cleaner man! Mike arrived shortly after and I explained the coffee situation. He had a quick look and unwrapped the aluminium foil wind shield to be greeted by the coffee sachet falling out! A few minutes later we were holding warm cups of coffee with big smiles. Packed everything up and hiked out, downhill from here!

Walking out happy!

Before long the knees were aching again. I'm sure I felt my ACL straining on some of the awkward downsteps with the pack on! We did 100m descents each, which meant swapping over quite quickly at the start before longer stints as the terrain flattened out towards the end. Beautiful sun, nice views over the coastline to sea.

Arrived back at the car in blazing sun! Took the opportunity to lay all the kit out on the grass to dry while we went down to the beach and cooked some fresh pasta lunch. Took 2hrs to walk up, about 1hr15m to walk back down. Great to chill on the beach, almost warm enough for t-shirt/shorts, just the wind was a bit cool. Back in the car we drove back to Sligachan before continuing on to Portree and then Uig, Mike testing out the performance of the TDI Golf on some of the bends!

At Uig by 1600, my ferry not till 1800. Headed to the Pier Restaurant for a pint, great views over the harbour. Mike showing off his grated finger tips - definitely wear sturdy gloves if you're gonna have a go at the cuillin ridge!

Mike's shredded finger tips

Wondered around the Skye brewery shop before watching the ferry come in. I bade Mike farewell, what a 48 hrs!! Boarded the ship with all my kit, feeling pretty knackered after an uncomfortable night in the car. Slept most of the journey!

Arrived in Tarbert by 1945, walked over to my car before setting off north to Stornoway. None of the traffic was hanging around, everyone was absolutely gunning it along the road! I was following a van with 2 bikes on the back - how fast could that go right?! Pretty flipping fast! Had trouble keeping up! Got to the Co-Op by 2030, got some milk and chicken as everywhere shuts tomorrow (Sunday, sigh). In the checkout queue met one of the GPs who's involved in the helicopter service up here. Sadly he informed me that I'm not gonna get a flight on them this trip, as they're all currently switching over to Bristow control in the recent government shakeup of services. Disappointing but would have been icing on the cake. Back at the flat, quick food before a very welcome hot bath for aching limbs! Briefly sorted kit before collapsing unconscious for a long sleep...

Day fourty-seven - Friday, the Cuillin Ridge attempt

Alarm went off at 0430 after a fitful nights sleep. My feet got really cold around 0200 so had to put my thick socks back on! Heated some water in the porch for porridge - in small disposable pots, good find in the supermarket. Filled up Mike's mini-thermos with coffee, however at the time didn't realise that the coffee sachets came with sugar so when we tried it a few hours later the added Splendour sachets made it almost undrinkably sweet!

Bags/mats away, tent down by 0500. Stashed all our unwanted kit in the big dry bag and piled some rocks on it so it wouldn't blow away. We'd camped in a handy little dry stone shelter, walls only around a foot high but still made a difference. Set off in the dark with torches to climb the last 200m up steep scree to gain the ridge. Once there we dumped the bags and set off south. The one problem with camping where we did is that it meant doubling back for the first section, adding about an hour onto the time but it was a very convenient place to camp and we thought it was worth it. Over Sgurr Nan Eag, the first munro, we carried on in the faltering sunrise to gain Gars-bheinn, the 895m start point of the ridge. Stop watch was started! By then it was light and on the descent back north we met a team of three who had set off from Glenbrittle campsite at 0300... Crazy early! Back onto Sgurr nan Eag I was glad to be heading in the right direction. It looked like we were first in the queue, with the team of three around 30mins behind us and then another pair behind them.

Loch coir a'Ghrunnda, the spot of our camp. Sgurr Alasdair behind, 993m and the highest point on Skye

Picked up the bags and stopped for a pot of yoghurt and a drink. We had 2L of water each, a pair of cheese/salami sandwidges and lots of oaty snack bars. The weather was overcast but at least not raining. Up onto Sgurr Dubh an Da Bheinn we then cut east to gain the summit of Sgurr Dubh Mor (944m) and the second munro, a bit of a diversion off the main ridge but required to tick the summit! The next challenge was the infamous TD gap. A short abseil down, followed by a Hard Severe climb up the other side.

Mike abbing into the TD gap (I think!)

I lead the HS up the other side of the TD Gap, felt pretty tough in big boots and bags - there was a big ledge out left that I had to mantle onto, felt thrutchy and lots of grunting! Before long topped out and belayed Mike up. Next we summitted Sgurr Thearlaich and nipped west to tick Sgurr Alasdair (993m) and the highest point of the ridge. Three munro's down we were going well but due to the damp rock we moved together over the next section and were losing time.

Coming down off Sgurr Thearlaich we descended to a bealach to be greeted by King's Chimney staring down at us. This is given Diff in our little guide - bollocks!! Felt at least VD/easy severe. Mike scrambled up to the base and belayed me as I did battle - definitely glad to have the gear with me as I puffed my way up the slimy corner. Lots of tat (fixed slings left by other teams) at the top and I belayed Mike up. When he was around half-way the first bout of rain started, pretty heavy and some of it fell as sleet, hitting my legs as wet snow before melting. Air temperature must have been pretty near freezing and hands got pretty cold on the climb. I'd been wearing some fingerless sailing gloves up to now which turned out to be a good idea as the rock had lots of little crystals and shredded our hands.

King's Chimney, the groove to the right of the flat upper face - not a Diff!

Sadly the rain continued for an hour, and we stayed moving together as we climbing An Stac, a crumbly moderate. I felt pretty insecure on this, so was glad when Mike took over the lead. The rock was poor and there was not much in the way of gear, coupled with rain and wet rock = lovely!

Somewhere between King's Chimney and the Inn Pin - weather cleared temporarily = photo op!

Summitted this before long and dropped down the other side to face the Inaccesible Pinnacle - the only munro that you have to rock climb to get to the summit. Poor visibility at this point as we were enveloped by cloud. I led off first, moving together up the moderate south east ridge. Mike leap frogged and we topped out on the Inn Pin, munro number five. Felt great to have finally topped out on a summit I'd heard so much about! I abbed down the north west side and snapped a pic of Mike shortly after, halfway down the ab. Grim weather, cloud closed in. Probably made it much less scary as couldn't see the drops!

Mike halfway down the Inn Pin abseil, grim weather

Thankfully the rain stopped as we continued north to Sgurr na Banachdich, the weather even cleared to give us good views down into the valleys. I'm sure in Sligachan there was bright sun, but the ridge seems to attract the clouds and rain! Summiting Sgurr na Banachdich (965m) was our sixth munro, but by this time we were well behind schedule. The slow walkers time to here was 6h30m, and we'd taken more like 7h15m. I think this was due to the rain and our consequent decision to stay roped up for a lot of the technical ground. We were roped together from the TD gap to the Inn Pin which inevitably slowed us down. In my head I was feeling pretty down at this point, pretty soggy and knowing that we were unlikely to be able to do the whole traverse. I also started doing some maths in my head and realised that even if we completed in the average walkers time of 14hrs we didn't have enough daylight (sunrise 0630, sunset 0720). I asked Mike "How far do you think we'll get?" hinting that I didn't think we'd manage the whole thing - he replied "I've enjoyed the climbing so far" - completely dodged the question!

Nice views in the cloud breaks

Mike at one of the bealach's - respite spots inbetween the technical ground 

We carried on, navigating through the complex route finding to the summit of Sgurr a'Ghreadaidh (973m) then Sgurr a'Mhadaidh (918m). After this came the three tops of Mhadaidh, where we had another 30minutes of rain. This did have some advantage however, as Mike had run out of water and we were able to fill a bottle in about 30s with run off from the rocks! One of the main problems on the ridge traverse is reputedly a lack of water - not on our trip! Also along this section I scrambled up to another knife edge ridge point and looked down to the other side to see my first ever brocken spectre! Was too slow to get a photo but looks like this... It's a weather phenomenon where the sun behind you casts your shadow onto mist below, and a circular rainbow forms around it. I'd never seen one before! Quickly called Mike over but when he got close it disappeared. Excitement over we descended to the bealach na glaic moire, a nice resting spot where the weather improved and we refuelled with some sandwidges and snack bars.

Heroic poses, looking back at Sgurr a'Mhadaidh (I think?)

Check out the leggings!

We had a decision to make, as we were still behind the slow walkers time at this point. There was an escape route to the west here, or if we carried on the next place to bail would be off Bruach na Frithe where it would be possible to walk back to the car, however this was still ~3hrs away and it was getting late by this time with sunset at 1920. We opted to press on, as we could walk back to the car in the dark and if we bailed here we would have had no shelter at all (tents at the lochan and car in Sligachan).

Next up was the supposedly complicated route finding on the traverse of Bidein drium nan Ramh but this posed little problems and before long we topped out on Bidein, not a munro at 869m. Getting off this would have been tricky as it involved downclimbing wet slabs; fortunately there were two abseil points complete with tat that we abbed off down into the bealachs. Up over the north summit we then did battle with An Caisteal. Descending from this a short down climb section to the next bealach was a bit spicey. Climbing out the other side we paused for a drink and looking back were both pretty surprised at what we'd downclimbed, looked pretty nails from the other side with big drops if you slipped. Up to here I'd been operating almost on autopilot, just getting on with each small section without contemplating the route as a whole but thinking back we'd covered some pretty complex ground in less than ideal conditions. I realised then why the route had such a reputation - it was all pretty serious!

Mike on the last climb up to Bruach na Frithe, cloud closed in again

The last climb was steep but straightforward considering the ground we'd previously covered and before long we were atop our last munro, Bruach na Frithe at 958m. This was munro number nine of the day, with only two more on the ridge ahead of us, Am Basteir and Sgurr nan Gillean. However the next section involved a technical climb up the Bhasteir Tooth and it was already 1900 when we stood on the summit of Bruach na Frithe. This was 12h15m after leaving Gars-bheinn, the start point, so although we had made up time on the last section after the weather improved, the next and final section was projected to take 2-3 hours. With only 20mins before sunset it was an easy decision to cut off north and back to the car at this point.

Summit of Bruach na Frithe, our ninth and last munro

Despite bailing off the route without completing the last section it didn't feel like a failure. Two factors had conspired against us - the weather and the daylight hours. Weather wise I'm glad we sacrificed speed for safety when we roped up between TD gap and the Inn Pin due to the bouts of rain/sleet. In hindsight the shorter daylight hours of mid-September made a one day attempt pretty ambitious. Both factors taken together I think we did well to get as far as we did, and we descended in good spirits.

The descent into Fionn Choire and the spring

Satisfied with our effort we dropped off into Fionn Choire and located a spring where we rehydrated before dropping down north to join the path back to Sligachan. The sunset was spectacular to the west, looked like the sky was on fire.

The long walk back along Allt Dearg Mor was pretty brutal - knees aching and soles of my feet burning. The last hour was in the dark with torches. We arrived back at the car around 2100, having been on the go for around 16hrs, 12h15m of which was on the ridge itself. We traipsed into the Sligachan bar and ordered a celebratory pint - never has ale tasted sweeter! Quickly ordered food, thankfully we'd made it before the kitchen shut! Venison burger and chips. Ecstasy on a plate.

Mike, with a grimace of pain, pint in hand, having done battle with the Cuillin!

Having taken our boots off for the bar we had to squeeze tired feet back into them before making our way over to the hotel reception. A quick enquiry about a twin room rendered us both incredulous at the price of £130 a night. Guess it was back to the car - no other option as all our camping stuff was at the 700m lochan! We piled our stuff into the boot, cranked the seats as flat as they'd go and collapsed into an exhausted slumber.

Day fourty-six - Thursday, preparing

Up with alarm at 0800, didn't sleep much due to thoughts of the ridge churning in my head! Food and finished packing all my stuff. Main decision I hadn't decided yet was approach shoes or Sportiva Trango S Evo's - light weight but risky or slightly heavier but safer. Took both in the car! Drove up to the hospital to quickly print off a few copies of the ridge mini-guide to use on the ridge - one for myself, one for Mike and a spare incase either got wet - the forecast wasn't guaranteed... Nipped to Boots to pick up some hyoscine hydrobromide for the ferry (aka Kwells) before powering down the superb road to the ferry port of Tarbert on Harris for my 1140 ferry. Sat in the ferry terminal the guy working there told us we couldn't use the main door of embarking but had to go out round the side - lucky as once outside I realised I'd left my B2's in the car. Still hadn't decided whether to wear approach shoes or boots, but quickly went and grabbed them out of the car before getting on ferry. Fate...

Hebrides ferry to take me to Uig and the Cuillin, on a wet drizzly day

Landed in Uig at 1330 after an uneventful crossing. Headed to one of the port cafe's, unfortunately the kitchen was closed so had to settle for cold sandwidge and pretty rubbish machine coffee. All in all probably should have picked a different one! But at least it was dry inside, unlike outside where the rain was falling with alarming heaviness. I kept telling myself it'll be alright, there's meant to be a weather window tomorrow and Saturday...

Mike arrived just after 1400, great to see him again! Also he rocked up in a 2L diesel turbo 2013 TDI VW Golf - what a hire car! Funny story of how he'd wanted to upgrade, but it was gonna cost too much so he just accepted the keys, walked round to the garage to see a little Fiat Panda waiting for him. Sigh, walked up to it and pressed the button, to which the hazard lights of the TDI Golf parked next to it lit up = score!!

Set off south down Skye to the main town of Portree and to Co-Op for food shopping. I was taking it all very seriously, calculating calories in my head, looking for the balanced electrolyte powder to add to my water - Mike on the other hand was chilled out! I kept reminding him that this is no ordinary route, it's the Cuillin, became a bit of a running joke :) Found a nice little cafe for a late lunch of mac cheese and bacon, overlooking a very wet harbour - the rain hadn't stopped yet. Drove down to Sligachan (pronounced sli-ga-han with a quick middle 'ga') and discussed tactics before sorting through all the gear and kitting up. Gear wise we took wires 10/8/7/6/5, 3x 120cm slings, 2x 240cm slings, my 60m half rope and belay plates/prussics. The mini-guide recommends 45m rope but I wasn't gonna chop mine so just carried the excess weight round. Could defo use a shorter rope - I've since looked at a 7.9mm 50m rope for ~£100 on rockrun, would have been better. Clothing was long sleeved merino base layer, fleece and hardshell, leggings and hardshell trousers - could have left the waterproof trousers had weather looked better. In end was glad I took them! Footwear I opted for my Sportiva Trango S Evo boots in the end - was still raining when we were setting off and approach shoes would have been soaked before even getting to ridge.

Plan was to leave car parked at Sligachan hotel and take all camping stuff up to Loch Coir a'Ghrunnda, a lochan at 700m near the start of the ridge. Hitched a lift down to Glen Brittle - really nice guy picked us up in a Volvo estate. He was going to Carbost but we got chatting and he then very kindly drove us all the way to Glen Brittle instead - legend! Arrived at the campsite there around 1800 and set off on the walk in, looking decidedly D of E-esque - we had small packs for the ridge and our camping stuff wouldn't fit in. I'd brought a big dry sack to stash it all in at the Lochan, and so we'd put our sleeping bags/mats/tent in that and just carried it in our arms on way up, swapping over every so often - not very pro!

Raining on walk in, and the first river we met required a bit of walking upstream before we were able to cross it. Mike went over, I threw the bag to him and jumped across. Back on the path for 30mins we then met another river that we were not going to be able to get across with dry feet. Boots came off, tied round neck and waded across - felt pretty adventurous with river in spate, like we were on a proper expedition! So much water pouring off the hills, tops all enveloped in cloud. Boots back on there were no more rivers to cross on the last bit of the approach. Bit of scrambling at the end then we popped out at the lochan just as dark was setting in, around 2000. Tent up rapidly, it was cold! Couscous first course, followed by chicken/veg/noodle soup for seconds. Finished off with hot chocolate before quickly reviewing route. Lights off by 2200, alarms set for 0430. We were ready for the epic to come!

Day fourty-five - Wednesday

A&E first thing, had a patient that essentially needed a chronic pain review. Complex history, luckily one of the docs in the dept was a GP who knew the patient and so took over. Slow morning after that, with only a finger wound review that came in and took a couple of minutes - essentially a wound had become infected and developed cellulitis but now was clearing up nicely.

Lunch then a dramatic looking knee injury came in, large laceration across the patellar around 15cm long. Couldn't really do much with it except steristrip and dress, as sutures would not take in the thin skin and would probably pull out with all the bending movements. Required good irrigation first before one of the ENPs sorted out the dressing. Another patient then required an im injection into the gluteus, was good to go over the safe injection site knowledge from first year anatomy sessions! Intramuscular injection is really straightforward but I haven't had the chance to do many so far, maybe in GP I'll be giving out more immunisation injections. So was good to go over it.

A good samaritan then dropped off a head injury patient at the department, having picked them up after seeing them fall over. Did the full assessment, history, examination, cranial nerves, neuro exams. No worrying symptoms (vomiting/loss of consciousness/severe headache/amnesia) so after review they were given some head injury advice including things to look out for over the next 24 hrs and discharged. Then two majors patients came in, both chest pains. The first had a complex cardiac history but was fairly well, the second had no history and was pretty sick. Took bloods and helped clerk them in before leaving them in the hands of the docs and heading home for some dinner. Another satisfying day, saw quite a lot and reviewed stuff I wasn't too strong on.

Rang Mike in the evening - the forecast for Sunday was apocalyptic so I decided to head over to Skye tomorrow morning, try the ridge Friday and come back Saturday evening. The ferry would probably be cancelled on Sunday due to the weather and I didn't want to get stranded on Skye! Downloaded the Skye ridge mini-guide from Rockfax website, had a quick read and pulled some of my kit together. Left most of the packing for the morning as it was pretty late by then. Psyched!

Day fourty-four - Tuesday

Spent the morning sorting out admin stuff, cancelling bills on the flat and trying to get my deposit back - landlord being a bit slow but should defo get it all back after buying a new oven and repainting the entire flat for him!

Into A&E shortly after midday, first patient had unfortunately been hit in the eye by an object, so took history, had a go at an eye examination before dropping some proxymetacaine/fluoroscein in - a mixture of anaesthetic to numb the eye and a dye to show up any abrasions/defects on the cornea. Then the ENP got the slit lamp out and we studied the cornea - fairly obvious abrasion just above the pupil, shown up really clearly by the dye. Quick xray to confirm no foreign body and then they were discharged with some eye drops. Next we prepared for a 999 ambulance call of a chest pain/collapse, doctors came down, nurses prepped the resus room, everyone on edge - that was until the patient was wheeled in smilling and talking to everyone. Stand down!

After sorting that all out it was a bit slow until the end of the afternoon when the orthopod came down and sorted out two patients, the first an ongoing knee problem which was diagnosed as soft tissue injury. The second was much more interesting, a fracture-dislocation of a finger - fairly easy spot diagnosis as the finger was pointing a different way to all the other ones. Xray, then saw the orthopod do a ring block on the finger before manipulating it back into place, on the second go there was an audible snap sound as the joint relocated. Quick xray to confirm and then discharge with buddy strapping/splint and review in a week at fracture clinic. Great to see the ring block and manipulation, must be really satisfying to perform. The neurovascular status of the finger was ok before hand, had capillary refill and sensation, but immediately after relocation the finger did turn a darker shade of red as blood rushed back in so obviously some of the vessels had been occluded.

Left back to the flat for a quick bite to eat before heading down to the pool again for a few lengths of front crawl - doing 2 lengths consistently and starting to get a rolling feeling going in the stroke. Good fun but tiring! 10mins in the sauna (this leisure centre is awesome) and back via Co-Op to pick up some food. Dinner of bangers/mash with double cream in the mash = calorie replacement! Lovely.

Day fourty-three - Monday

beep... beep... BEEP BEEP BEEP - groggily surfaced from deep sleep to the blaring of an alarm in our corridor. Pulled my phone over, checked the time. 0430. What the... Out into the corridor saw it was the fire alarm going off. All the doors opened as people leaned out, collectively wondering what was going on. Guess we had to evacuate the building, sigh. I grabbed my belay jacket on the way out, glad of it once outside - it was freezing! Stars were out though. Everyone from the accomodation on the south side of Laxdale had evacuated, and around 5mins later two fire engines rocked up. Reminded me of halls in first year! Obviously it was a false alarm. After the firemen had sullenly checked every block they drove off, guess we could go back in then. 5hrs later my alarm went off again and the day began...

Fire engine drama at 0430

Into A&E by 1100, greeted by a fairly empty waiting room, maybe it was going to be a slow day? Saw a patient straight away, surgical problem, took history/examined/cannulated/bloods. Drew up provisional action plan, but with a complex history the surgeons were going to decide what to do with them eventually. Met up with the Aberdeen students and had some lunch in the doctors room.

Back in A&E by 1400 and patients had started streaming through the doors. Saw a good variety of stuff all afternoon, every room (all four of them/five if you count the corridor bed which was in use at one point) was full from 1500 to 1900. Loads of patients, everyone went into proper work mode and I think I was actually able to help out by clerking some of them, presenting to juniors and getting them shifted either home or into the hospital. Saw a bit of trauma/spine stuff, chest pain, stuff that should have gone to GP, surgical stuff. Then just as A&E was quietening down the crash bleep went off - I was running down the corridor with the doc when the door to our right flew open and another group of 3 nurses/docs joined us from upstairs, all very dramatic. Thankfully nothing major once we arrived, but took a little time to sort everything out before leaving.

Headed back to flat by 2000 for spag bol and a brew - successful day. Chatted to Mike about Skye this weekend, gonna give the Cuillin ridge traverse a go, weather permitting. The ferry over is only £11 return for foot passenger from Tarbert to Uig! Internet in the flat wasn't working so made my way up to the library at the hospital for an hour to send some emails. Met Andrea/Mark up there before going back. Hope tomorrow is as busy as this afternoon was!

Day fourty-two - Sunday

After yesterday's horrendous effort with getting up I was determined to make proper use of the day, so when my alarm went off at 0800 I had no excuses, even if it was a Sunday. Porridge/coffee and packed everything up before setting off in the car for the long drive to south-west Harris, aiming for a small place called Abhainn Suidhe, at the southern end of Gleann Uladail. Weather was absolutely glorious driving south through Lewis, and had Feeder blasting out the radio. Some of the roads just make me imagine a helicopter tailing me, filming a top gear shot in washed out colours and mic'd up engine sounds, so much fun to drive. Roads were empty too, with it being a Sunday morning. Passed a few elderly men walking alongside the single track road off the main road, guess they'd just come back from church. Took just over an hour to drive to the start point.

Boots on, it was looking decidedly overcast down on this end of the island. Set off around 1030, first a bit of a road bash. Had the choice of this at the start or the end, so opted for the former to be kind to my knees at the end of the day! Steep ascent up Cleiseabhal (512m), no paths to speak of on the entire round. Was combining two routes I'd seen on walkhighlands, the main attraction being Sron Uladail and it's spectacular cliff. Shortly into the walk I came across some fresh peat cuttings - the main fuel source for the islanders...

Top of Cleiseabhal, with Tiorga Mor (679m) centre and Oireabhal (662m) to the right

Once up there was a fairly consistent ridge without too much variation in height, so pleasant walking all the way north to the summit of Sron Uladail (442m), where I could sense the brooding cliff below me but hadn't yet seen it! Passed a group of american hillwalkers, one of whom stated "I can't believe how big this island is!" Didn't quite know what to say! Spotted a mountain hare, just had time to get out the budget binoculars to get a close up. Pretty sure I saw a big eagle too, not sure what type.

Air was really clear giving great views, if a little cloudy higher up

So much rock everywhere, but no sizeable crags. Until...

Contoured down to gain the stalking path that runs up the base of the gleann, had a spot of lunch at the head of Loch Aiseabhat. Then contoured up the opposite slope to Creagan Leathan, and before long was rewarded with a spectacular first view of the cliff of the Sron, guarding the valley! Onward to the top of the ridge and stopped for a while at two small bodies of water to finish my lunch and study the cliff through my binoculars, trying to work out the climbing lines. Spent a good 10mins eyeing it up. The actual climbing part of it must only be around 100-150m tall, but it's so overhanging it's unreal. Also the setting is immense, with the backdrop of flat ground stretching to the sea, peppered with lochs. Incredible. One day I'll be back, - my climbing stuff will be in my rucksack, I'll have a partner to share the adventure and I'll be climbing E6! (Ok, maybe not the last one...) The original aid route put up by Doug Scott et al has been freed to give an E6, but there are alternate lines down to HVS. Super psyched. If you walk in the stalkers path along the valley floor it would be a really quick walk in too.

Boom, the massive cliff of Sron Uladail!

Wow. Just wow.

Hanging out with the Sron

Made tracks south, heading up towards Tioga Mor. Spotted 3 deer on the ridge, so went into stalking mode, trying the walk slowly up the hill with binoculars in hand. They were backlit and above me so didn't get a very good view and then they disappeared. Disappointed I carried on upwards, glancing backwards occassionally until I caught sight of one again, now above them. Crouched down with my binoculars and was rewarded with an entire herd then bounding onto the top of the ridge!! Must have been about 60 initially, the first half continuing over and out of sight, the second sticking around on top for a bit. I counted 29, a whole range of baby ones, young stags with antlers. Watched them for a while before they too rounded the side of the hill and retreated into the privacy of the far slopes.

The last top of Tiorga Mor (679m) was reached before long, and there was another orienteering stamp on top, similar to An Cliseam but without the laminated card. Weather was turning, again it was really cold in the wind, hands going numb again so had to keep them in my pockets! Had a fairly decent view of St Kilda as well from this summit, crouched down in the summit shelter with binoculars out. The air was very clear.

Looking back at the ridgeline I'd walked earlier in the day

If you look closely in the centre you can make out St Kilda and the surrounding islands

Descended the southeast ridge of Tiorga Mor, nice rocky scrambling sections leading right down to the hydroeletric power station and track back to the car. 20min hike down this and I was back at the car, 5h30m after setting off. Reckon it was about 20km in total, and I stopped quite a lot for wildlife/cliff viewing! Taking off my boots I noticed a tick crawling along my leg, don't think it had started munching on my blood as wasn't swollen or embedded so quickly brushed it off, no Lymes disease for me. Started getting midged so sped off fairly quickly in the car. Passed a tiny little primary school on the road, must be only a handful of students!

Back at the flat by 5ish, quick shower before delivering the roast supplies to the Aberdeen flat then skyping Alice. Had a bit of a disaster with their oven - turns out the grill on oven mode is much better than the actual oven! So we left Mark (the new Aberdeen student) tending to the rotation system to ensure everything got cooked properly whilst the rest of us watched Crash in Tim's room. Not sure what to make of the film really! Some bits were clever, some bits we all worked out before and then it got really tiring when they kept making oh-so-subtle references to it, some bits were just plain nauseating. Enjoyed it though!

By 9ish the roast was cooked and Mark had put on a great effort, laying the table and everything! Cracked open the vino and demolished the dinner in about 10mins - quite amusing to think it was gone so quickly after 3 hours to cook. Clearing up afterwards one of the Aberdeen lot had a minor incident with a smashed wine glass - cue too-many-med-students! Soon determined his airway was still patent, after the obligatory forgetting to check for danger ;) Bandaged up, we then played a bit of mini-pool before turning in. Great day, certainly more productive than yesterday!

Day fourty-one - Saturday

Wow, incredibly lazy morning. Alarm went off at 1000, read a bit of BBC News, replied to a few whatsapp, fell asleep, woke up again at 1400... ahem. Mid afternoon breakfast before wasting most of the remaining afternoon browsing internet/wikipedia/facebook. What am I doing with my Saturday?! On the plus side did discover the TV room here...

At about 5ish I got a grip of myself and headed down to the pool. Mens only swimming for an hour, although they didn't have direction signs for lengths so everyone was just going forwards and backwards on one line independently = not enough room for all of us! Bad times. Felt like the front crawl was getting easier, consistently doing 50m without stopping - obviously not very good but baby steps. Guy in a tri suit in the pool, started giving me tips about technique...

Stopped off at Co-Op on way home to pick up a chicken and some veggies for roast tomorrow with the Aberdeen students. Made a big batch of spag bol once back, should see me through next week. Chilled all evening, skyped various people. And so finished an unbelievably unremarkable Saturday. (Sunday was more interesting if you want to read on!)

Day fourty - Friday

Day started slowly, with a bit of a late rise! Was thinking of going in but was knackered after yesterday's effort on the hill and the training in the evening so ended up staying in the flat. Did lots of useful stuff, admin type things - sorting out term dates for next year, going through some situational judgement test (SJT) stuff from uni and then starting to look at the dreaded FPAS... This is the 'foundation programme application system', a new name for MTAS 'medical training application system' which a few years ago was so full of flaws that they decided to radically overhaul it - by renaming it.

Every final year medical student in the country will apply through FPAS in October for their foundation posts - their jobs for the next two years. It works in two stages, first you get assigned an area of the country - which has been divided into complex foundation school or deanery arrangements, which are constantly changing and counter intuitive. For example North West included Barrow and Lancaster in Cumbria, but not Whitehaven which is included in Northern. Lots of weird things like that. So after being assigned an area you then rank every single junior doctor job within that area and the computers whirr again before spitting you out your jobs. It's all decided on your EPM 'educational performance measure', 50% of which is made up of your time at medical school (6 years of higher education for me) and the other 50% coming from 70 multiple choice questions sat in a 2hr exam, aka the SJT... So bizarre, how your entire medical school career counts for the same amount as the SJT!! And in fact it's slightly less as there's some extra points for additional degrees. After a few hours browsing numerous websites claiming to 'demystify' FPAS I wasn't really any the wiser, and so headed out to meet Jonny from HebSAR at 1800 for a spot of mountain biking instead!

Nice bike that Jonny leant me, a Cube Aim Disc!

Met Jonny in the golf club carpark in Lews Castle grounds. He runs a bike hire business and kindly leant me one of his bikes to ride for the evening, a really nice Cube hardtail. One his mates came along for the trails, normally they have a good group of them on a Friday evening but as it's the end of summer a lot of people are away apparently. Go going on the trails before long - really cool specially designed mountain bike trails. They're really new, and in fact some of them haven't been finished yet. The other two knew them like the back of their hands, so I was just following, trying to keep up... When they both rocked up in shin pads/gloves I felt a bit of a numpty in my hoody!

Great views over Stornoway harbour and town

Beautiful evening for a ride, sun low on the horizon and blue sky. Midges were out though, so couldn't stop for long without getting annihilated! The trails were quite short, only taking a couple of minutes downhill to ride, but there were loads of them that we linked up to make great circuits. Amazing to have this facility literally across the harbour from the town, and all for free! After warming up on some of the easier tracks we tackled the more technical ones, with rocky drop off's and split logs to ride along.

Jonny and his mate, part of the Friday night biking crew!

Beautiful evening to be out riding

After an hour of riding Jonny's mate had to head off but we carried on for another 30mins, heading right up to the top of the grounds for some more superb views before one last long descent through the trails. Along the way I was chatting to Jonny about his summer ML - he's going for his training in October. Back at the car, 1h30m after starting my legs were wasted, still feeling the run from yesterday on top of some hard biking! Got a lift back to the flat in his pimped out Golf, covered in mud.

Quick bite to eat before heading out to town with the Aberdeen med students for 9ish. Went to MacNeil's, the irish bar in the middle. Not that busy, was expecting it to be rammed on a Friday night. Jonny joined us later on and after a couple of drinks we got turfed out as it was closing, moving on to The Lewis bar. Possibly a bit of an error, was dead, with the only people in being either alcoholics or underagers! Another few drinks before again being turfed out, second time in one night! Did a spot of lapping - the local past time here. The idea is to walk around the town, doing 'laps'. I'd highly recommend it. You can either do it on foot or in a car, indeed after a couple of minutes walking I'd already spotted the same cars coming round 3 or 4 times! Bit of late night sustenance from the chippy before heading back to the flat.

Guinness in MacNeil's - when in Rome...