Right. Now that I've finally made it back home I suppose I should be seeing about getting on with some work. Okay. Five minutes of inane rambling to settle my head, then I really should be off and doing. I want - scratch that, I don't want anything of the sort - I need to get all this paperwork for my Maternity profile thing finished sometime tonight and I'd really like a little sleep, too, so I should be up and doing.

Right. Today!

Pretty fab for a fair number of reasons. The weather's been nice. Screwy, but nice. Nice bright sunshine (and not too hot) coupled with some satisfyingly heavy rain. I like rain enough for this to make me a very happy person. I also got to wander round London wearing my sunglasses and I like my sunglasses, I'm stupid enough to think they make me look laid-back. I've also done a satisfyingly large number of satisfyingly fun things.

First off: I went to the Wellcome Medical Museum in the Science Museum for my 'visit' for the Maternity placement. I was told museums'd do and I found out a fair bit about obstetric care this way. Some of it was really rather gruesome. For example: before the 19th century there was only one way to deal with a hopelessly obstructed labour. This was by piecemeal delivery of the foetus. Yes, piecemeal delivery. What this basically meant was - well, it should be pretty obvious from the name. No, it's really not a pleasant concept. Even for someone like me, who really isn't into kids or childbirth, that was a pretty revolting thought.

Gotta wonder who some of the exhibit descriptions - and the ocassional exhibit, for that matter - in the Medical Museum were aimed at, though. I understood them courtesy of (almost) two years' nursing training and experience of the language of medicine. From a lay perspective, though, they'd be pretty baffling.

After I'd finished grossing myself out - scientifically, of course! - I met up with my parents. They took me out, I got a very nice meal. Hint: if someone else is paying for the food and they say they don't mind, go for the steak. After that we headed off to see the Hitler Film. 'The Downfall'. Very good. I'd recommend it for all it's really pretty depressing - the summary executions of supposed 'deserters' and the depictions of the sufferings of injured soldiers particularly - though the fact that it's in German with subtitles might turn some people (not me, mind!) off. I had a few Inappropriate Moments of Fangirlishness in the middle of the thing, but it's not my fault! If they really are going to keep going on about betrayal and doing so in German, they cannot expect me to keep my mind entirely off other things. Namely Ken.

One last thing before I apply myself to serious matters of seriousness.

It's interesting to see how many of my Pissed Off Predictions about the maternity course actually bore fruit. True, the experience wasn't as excruciating as I feared it was going to be, but a couple of the things I said about the course were actually surprisingly close to the mark.

I really have had the Joys of Childbirth rammed down my throat by my classmates. I have been subtly patronized for being deliberately childless, as if my not wanting or having children at the grand old age of twenty-two were somehow a failing. I have been made to feel as if daring to have an opinion on something I have no firsthand experience of was the height of presumption. I have come to the conclusion that not to have fallen pregnant has led, in this part of the course at least, to my thoughts, queries and the like being treated as somehow less worthy than those of any mothers in the room. Well, what else can you call it when someone treats you like an idiot for asking a reasonable question, but lets the mothers in the room witter on ad infinitum about their 'birthing experiences'?

I guess this means reality bites, though it could suggest I'm psychic. Still, it could be rather worse: at least I'm not one of the group's Token Males. Sigh.