Shima Jafargholi: A series of unfortunate events

Unleashing the geek within

2007-01-25T15:19:00.000Z

Hey guys, its Sheems here.

Wow, I haven’t updated my blog in absolutely ages. I have missed these pink little walls. Alas, I feel it is time to update you all on what is going on in Shima world. It’s pretty exciting here you know. I have just completed my finals and as long as I don’t have any resists, my exams are over!!! Four years, down the drain, LOL. Nah, it’s been fun really. I don’t start my project (which I shall give you some more insight into later) till next Tuesday so I have a few days to relax and socialise with people. My housemates are quite shocked really because I don’t think they have seen me out of my room for such long periods of time.

Anyways, I feel I ought to explain the title of this entry, “Unleashing the geek within”. I thought it was a suitable title since I have completed my final exams and am coming towards the end of my time as a student. It is common knowledge and dare I say it, a fact, that I am a “geek” or a “nerd”, or whatever you kids like to call it these days, but this past year I have surprised even myself with my geeky qualities. As ever, I will list these geeky qualities in an organised fashion.

By the way, before I start, I thought I would share a little story with you about how I subconsciously knew I was going to be a pharmacist from a very early age. On Christmas day, Lora and I were talking about the times our parents smacked us when we were children (random, I know!) and there was one vivid memory which came to my mind. I think I was about 7 years old and Shaz had a cold, so my mum gave her some Calpol. Anyways, while my mum was checking on Shaz, I decided I quite liked Calpol so I just casually started to drink it like most people would drink a bottle of coke. Naturally I got a smack from my mum, which is good because I could have killed my liver, LOL. But isn’t it funny that the one smack I remember is drug related. I shall leave you to ponder on that.

Better get back to those geeky qualities, which are as follows:

1. I have a Dictaphone. In case any of you don’t know what that is, it is a little device which allows you to record things and I actually purchased one to record my lectures. And, afterwards, I listen to my lectures again at home. It is quite funny though, listening to me laughing at my lecturers jokes. I hate my laugh, lol.

2. I laugh at lecturers and pharmacy related jokes. I just can’t help myself.

3. I also laugh at my own jokes. Is that a geeky quality?

4. I dream about pharmacy. In my most recent pharmacy related dream, I married my project tutor. We just came to a mutual agreement after my project. Strangely enough, we were in Mount and I remember him saying to me, “Shall we get married straight away, or get engaged first?” to which I replied, “Maybe get engaged first”. I don’t think I saw him after that. He’s French you know.

5. I answer questions out loud in lectures. I have always inwardly mocked those people who speak up in lectures but in my third year, I had a sudden urge to do it myself.

6. I remember page numbers in textbooks, for chapters which are relevant to me. For example, I know that in the BNF, the section on infections starts on page 271 and the section on palliative care starts on page 14. That is not an exhaustive list. A few days ago, I went to ask my lecturer about some past paper questions and I mentioned that the question was in the 2001/2002 paper. When he opened that paper, it wasn’t there so I apologised. He then said to me, “Don’t worry, it would be really sad if you remembered ever single question in all the past papers”. Inwardly, I laughed to myself and thought, “If only you knew!”

7. I get excited about exams. I know this is extreme but this year I did actually get excited about one of my exams, which actually didn’t go well at all. It was an oral exam and we had actors come in to play the part of patients and we had to pretend to be the pharmacist. I was mainly excited about what the actors would be like. I of course wasn’t expecting Brad Pitt or other ‘A list’ stars but I was excited all the same.

8. Lastly, I am always in the library and I have had a lot of fines on my books.

I am sure that you guys also have some reasons for why I am a geek but I feel those are the main ones. As for my dissertation, I am sure that many of you will be excited to know that my title is as follows:

“Evaluation of the effectiveness of using contact plates for monitoring microbial environment – recovery of Candida albicans”.

It is a lab-based project, which I am sure will shock many of you, considering my track record in the lab. For more details on my amazing lab skills, see my previous post entitled "The end is nigh". I feel for my tutor. I don’t think he will want to marry me after he has seen me in the lab. Indeed, I don’t think he will ever want to marry me because he is already married. Oh well.

Finally, (I bet many of you are glad to hear that word, but somehow you don’t quite believe it) I would like to throw a question out into the stratosphere. I have watched the Truman show quite recently and was thinking that if there was a show about my life, entitled “The Shima show”, would people watch it? Would you watch it and do you feel you would be amused? How many viewers do you think I would get?

Thanks for your co-operation. I am sure I will be back here in the not too distant future to inform you of another interesting lab incident or accident rather. I am off to enjoy my time. I can’t be social for too long as I get withdrawal symptoms from my studies.

Love Sheems xxx

Those darned clocks

2006-10-30T12:57:00.000Z

Hello my little chicklets :)

The time has come for another inspirational blog entry. I don't know if you knew this, but I started this blog with the sole purpose of amusing others rather than keeping a literal online diary. I really do hope that you have been amused thus far.

This post refers to my latest classic "Shima moment", which occurred at approximately 9:15am yesterday morning. Allow me to set the context for this particular event.

Sunday morning events in Gabalfa Baptist Church

9.00am - 10.15am ~ Adult Bible Class

10.15am - 10.50am ~ Music practice

11.00am ~ Morning service

Other important details (Lol)

Housmates were away from Saturday to Sunday night.
Simon is the leader of the Adult Bible class and the Music group.

Getting to the point

I hope I have psyched you up for the story now, lol. I don't know if I have made it clear, but I am part of the music group for Gabalfa (I am one of the singers, lol). Usually, me and my housemates, who are also in the singing group, walk to church together but I was on my own this weekend (get out the violins).
Anyways, I got ready and walked to church and arrived at what I thought was 10.15am. I was allowed into the church by someone from the adult bible class and I went into the main church to wait for them to finish because they usually take a little longer than 10.15. I was sitting there playing the piano casually (yes, casually) and the time was slowly ticking away. It was now, what I believed to be 10:50am and I just thought to myself "My gosh, Simon is pushing it a bit isn't he? We should start practicing by now!". And then I just looked around the church and realised that it was incredibly empty. I just though "Where the heck is everyone? Is there something I am missing? Why are the doors shut?". And then I realised what had happened and I started laughing to myself. I was pretty sure that the clocks had gone back and I decided to confirm my suspicions by ringing home. If the clocks had indeed gone back, my parents would not have left the house. I rang and my mum answered the phone so I told her my little story. She laughed and said to my dad, "Aw Bless, she went to church early". I cannot believe I was 2 hours early. Lol.

After this phone call I sat in my little pue and just laughed because it had taken so long for me to realise what happened. Of all the people in the world, I am the kind of person its most likely to happen to (does that make sense?). I guess you could say that I am truely unique.

Why I need a man

As I previously mentioned, my housemates were away this weekend. When I went to brush my teeth in the morning, I felt really lonely because only my toothbrush was there. Lol. That is when I realised that I would never like to live alone. Also, I am having a lot of trouble with my house key at the moment. It takes me ages to turn it so I just end up ringing my bell. It would be rather handy to have a man to open it for me. Lol.

Its time for my lecture now. I hope you have enjoyed this story. I know I have, LOL. Do comment.

Love Sheems xxxx

How could I forget this quiz?

2006-10-05T23:16:00.000+01:00

Hey guys,

I can't believe that I forgot to write about this quiz. One of our lecturer's was giving this rather boring lecture on audit's and throughout his presentation he had several quizes (is that how you spell it?). Now this icecream one was amazing. Go to the site below to find out!

http://www.personalityquiz.net/test/icecream.htm

He did a poll to see who liked what flavour. Now obviously these quizes are rubbish and they don't mean anything, but in my case, it was surprisingly accurate. My favourite falvour is banana icecream and this is what it says about me:

"If you like banana, you are easy going, well adjusted, generous, honest and empathetic.(Prototype: the perfect husband, wife, parent or child.) "

I was laughing so much. I am not sure I can be the perfect husband but I am pretty sure I am a perfect child and I know I could be a great wife, LOL. There was also a compatibility chart which said that I am compatible with all flavours. My housemates Helen, who chose strawberry and Becci, who chose chocolate chip, were most distraught to read that "Strawberry is compatible with chocolate chip". Apart from amusing myself with these quizes, I have also spent my time embracing wildlife. See http://www.beccinoake.blogspot.com/ to find out!

Best be off, time for lectures :)

Sheems xxx

The end is nigh...

2006-10-05T21:50:00.000+01:00

Hey guys, its sheems here.

I am currently sitting in my living room, waiting for some inspiration for this blog entry and I must admit I am really struggling. I feel that my struggle is partly related to the fact that my housemates have decided to throw things at me. Its seems that I will always be a victim of abuse (physical and verbal (not by my family)), wherever I go. Ok, I think I am safe now. They have stopped throwing things :)

I guess I should start by explaining the title of my blog, "The end is nigh...". As most of you know, I have moved back to Cardiff and have started my final, yes, final year in the Welsh School of Pharmacy. I can't believe it really. I didn't think I would survive a week at university but here I am. I feel so old now, introducing myself to the freshers as a fourth year but I am filled with new strength and courage because I know that after this year I will have no more revision or exams. I will now describe the events during my first two weeks in an organised fashion.

Fresher's week

I can confidently say that fresher's week has been the most boring week of my life. Due to the fact that I am not actually a fresher, there wasn't a great deal for me to do. However, I think the most exciting (I am contradicting myself aren't I?) part of the week was going to the societies fayre, where I received several freebies. It was amazing. My favourite freebie was the dental pack, which included a decent toothbrush, a mini colgate sensitive toothpaste and a sachet of colgate mouthwash. I love dental stuff. And I got a few free pens too, which is great because I forgot to buy some this year. That is really all I have to say about freshers week.

Pharmacy lectures begin...

I can't begin to tell you how happy I am to start lectures. You are probably thinking I am a super geek now but I love being busy! This week, we have had a series of introductory lectures for our modules and there was one introductory speech which really stood out for me. I honestly felt as if I was being spoken to personally. For the last 2 years, Dr Daniels (looks like Santa) has given us a speech saying, "If you thought last year was hard, you ain't seen nothing yet", which is always a joy to hear. But this year, he didn't say any of that! Instead, he lectured us on our final year project...

The time has come for me when I have to choose the title of my final year project and I have to submit my top 5 titles next week. Dr Daniels was explaining the selection process when he spoke these imortal words:

"Now, you should know that you can choose to have a lab based or a non-lab based project. For those of you who only need to look at a test tube for it to shatter into pieces and who are inclined to pour things on the floor, you may want to choose a non-lab based project".

And at that point I just smiled knowingly and shook my head in agreement to his speech. Surely, he was talking to me. I wonder if I can ever reach that stage where I can break equipment by staring at it. Last year, I had a test in one of the labs and at the end, when I was putting my books back, I managed to knock over several bottles. My tutor said, "You didn't even make anything!" I really am that bad. But considering this, I am actually going to opt for a lab based project, mainly because the others are computer and maths related. I am most excited by this particular project where you take the fluorescent protein out of a jellyfish and you inject it into the cell. Then you look at the protein with a microscope to see what the cell has done with it. Well, I find it interesting anyway. I must admit, this is turning out to be the geekiest entry I have ever written.

Other stuff

Other than lectures, I have been enjoying myself by watching certain tv programmes. My favourites at the moment are X factor and...wait, that's it actually. I am really looking forward to next week when Strictly Come Dancing starts. And Casualty. I must watch Casualty.

Summary

To conclude, these last two weeks have been both boring and interesting and this is probably my most boring entry. I bet you are glad you read it now. I am still trying to think about all the interesting things that we did in Rome so I can write an entry about that. I think that is more appealing.

Love you all,

Sheems xxx

Its in the name

2006-08-22T20:44:00.000+01:00

Hey guys, its Sheems here,

I just thought I would share a few of my more recent classics with you. You need to bare with me as there is a little story to lead you into the classic comments. Actually, I think will put them under subheadings according to where they occurred. Yes, I'll do that!

Co-op Pharmacy, Branch 360, St Helens Road

So, I was happy in work today and it came to that time where we had to sort out the order of medicines. There are a few companies where we get our drugs from but the main ones are AAH and Scotchem. Now, the AAH one, we can just send over the computer but the Scotchem people ring us to ask us for our order. And everytime they call, there is a lovely and polite scottish lady on the other side to ask us what we need to order. I don't know why I didn't get this before now, but today it just really hit me why the people are scottish. This company is called "Scotchem" and it is in Scotland. Its in the name! I decided to share this thought out loud, which brought people in work into the realisation that I am rather dippy. They ain't seen nothin yet. I cam close to destroying their phone/fax/copy machine. And we know I have wrecked their dyson. I think I am allowed one more electrical appliance and then I won't get a pre-rej. LOL.

Gregs, Swansea city centre

For most of my lunchtimes, Fong and I take a little walk into town and I pay a visit to Gregs, the bakery. I am a boring and predictable person so I often go for my usual, two small sausage rolls (Thats 77p). One lunchtime I was really enjoying my sausage roll and then it hit me. It was as if a light went on in my head. This caused me to say, "Wow, there's a sausage in here". Well duh Its in the name. I always knew it was sausage roll but it just hit me in a completely different way that it was a sausage, rolled up in pastry. There it is.

The end

Don't make friends at petrol stations

2006-08-05T18:28:00.000+01:00

Hey guys, its me again.

I feel like I have been offline for absolutely years but I know that this is far from the truth. I feel I ought to share a little story with you about an experience of mine at the petrol station funnily enough. It happened a long while ago, probably during my second year in cardiff. It was an ordinary night and me and Mari were driving somewhere and Mari decided she needed petrol (are you impressed with how I have set the scene for you?). So, we stopped and she put in the petrol and then went inside to pay while I remained in the car.

So, I was sitting there waiting and I was just looking around as I normally do, and in the car on the left there was an old man and I accidently caught his eye, and I smiled and turned the other way so that he didn't think I was looking at him. Then, Mari came back into the car and sat down and we heard this banging/knocking on the window. I turned round and the grand-daughter of the old man in the car on my left was knocking the window to get my attention and the old man was like "Alright luv, alright?" and he was waving at us madly. Mari and I were just waving at him and looking rather bewildered. We were both asking eachother if we knew him, which we didn't but he was really eager to get our attention and I thought that it surely couldn't have been because I smiled at him. LOL. He kept going for about a minute so we waved and drove off.

Now that I come to think of it, I must smile at a lot of random people because people are always waving at me as if they know me and looking around, I can see that I am the only person they could be waving to. Its mad. They all seem to be in buisness suits as well. Its really strange. Maybe from a distance I look like someone famous, like that girl from Blue Peter. I don't know! Its all very strange though. And I guess you had to be there so find it funny really :)

And I shall have to leave you on this strange note.

Sheems xxxx

My Surprise Surprise 21st Birthday Party :D

2006-07-29T10:09:00.000+01:00

Hey guys, its Shima here.

I just thought I would express my feelings about my surprise birthday party last night. Now, you may have read the title of this blog and thought to yourselves, "Daft girl, she has put the word Surprise in twice!" but alas, there is a reason for this. By the way, just as an aside, doesn't the title remind you of Cilla Black? Do you remember that show she had called "Surprise Surprise", where she surprised people, not surprisingly? She always sang that song at the end, "Life is full, full of surprises...etc" LOL. Ok, it seems as if I am the only one that remembers.

Anyways, back to the story! Before I went to America, I was considering having some sort of Party for my 21st because after all, it only comes round once. So I said to Sam and Mari, "Hey, do you fancy organising me a surprise birthday party?" and the big surprise was that they did and that was a surprise. And considering it was about 2 weeks after my birthday, it was completely unexpected and added to the surprise. It was really funny because I knew about it (not the party of course) like last week. Mari and Sam told me we should do something this friday like go to Castle a mare (I know thats the wrong spelling) for coffee and because that is a usual meeting place for us, I didn't think anything of it. Mari did laugh a lot everytime I mentioned it though but I just didn't catch on.

The pre-party preparation was the funniest though. I went from home to find Shaz and Garbo there, which again is normal. Then I saw Leila and Leila-Marie walking to Sam's and Shaun came in. I didn't think it unusual that Leila was coming and I thought Shaun was just round to see Garbo and Shaz. Then, when I was round Sam's, Mari came and was discussing how she was getting Garbo, Shaz and Shaun there without my noticing. They were whispering and then when I found out Mari had brought her car, I was confused and started asking questions. This was because I was under the impression I was giving them a lift and I was trying to convince her that she didn't need her car and there was room. That was when Mari got flustered and started making up stories. After I was convinced by her story, I was distracted and during that time, Sam gave Mari the cake through the window and Shaz, Shaun and Garbo legged it in the car and they drove off.

The arrival was the absolute best though. As we were walking up I could see Paul and people sitting inside and to myself, I thought "Oh wow, its a coincidence that they are here at the same time!" LOL. Then I went in and saw everyone and Shaz and Garbo and I was like, "Hey, how did you get here?" and then they all started singing and everyone in the restaurant was looking at me. I was embarrassed but happy at the same time. And that is it. I just had to write about it because it was my first surprise party and it was lovely. Big thanks again to Mari and Sam, the ring leaders/organisers of the party. Love ya both.

Love you all a plenty,

The one and only, ever blogging, Sheems xxxx

Ps. Do you think I could be entered into the Guiness book of Records for most repetitions of the word "Surprise" on one blog entry? ;)

The American Adventure: The Random Bits

2006-07-23T22:25:00.000+01:00

Well here it is guys, the first part of my American Adventure. I thought I should share the random bits of the adventure with you first because I myself am random and I thought it would be fitting to do so. So, without further a-do(?), here it is...

The People

Wow, I really don't know how to start this one! The people in America are lovely and really friendly. They did however manage to gather that we had a very strong non-American accent and the phrase "Where y'all guys from?" was used frequently. We did however have some very interesting conversations with some people and these conversations are outlined below.

Conversation One: The Direction giving man

Mum and Dad: Excuse me, could you tell us how to get to Ironbound road?
Unknown man: Sure sure. Y'all guys Italian. (LOL)
Mum and Dad: We are from the UK.
Unknown man: (The man gives us the directions). Y'all kids speak English or just Italian?
Me and Shaz: We are not Italian. (We did say this nicely)
Unknown man: (He confirms the directions). Well as they say good-bye in Italian (And then he says good-bye to us in Italian).

How many times do we have to say that we are not Italian?

Conversation Two: The man in the hotel

Hotel man: Where y'all guys from?
Me: The UK
Hotel man: Japan. Nice
Me: No, the UK, Britain!

Do we really look Japanese to you? That made me laugh so much! Maybe its the way that I speak.

Conversation Three: The man in the clothes shop

Man in Shop: (To Shaz). Hey, can I try these on?
Shaz: Sure, but I don't work here.
Man in Shop: Really? You look like you could work here.

This was like two days into our trip. I am trying hard to think of some other random conversations. I know that there are more. But so that I don't keep you waiting, I'll push on to the topic of "Interesting finds". This is about random and funny stuff they sell in shops etc.

Interesting finds

I have to say that the funniest item of clothing I saw was this t-shirt which the following written on it:

"Nobody cares about your blog"

I thought it was amazing. And behind the title it had was looked like a really long and boring blog. I do hope that my blog doesn't come to mind when you are reading this! I should have bought it really, but it wasn't worth the price unfortunately.

The second amazing find was this sign I found for my door. When I saw it, I was immediately reminded of myself. This is what it says:

"I'm going to be more assertive
if that's ok with you"

I love it. It is me to a T.

The third amazing find was another church called Mount Pleasant Baptist Church. Yey.

The fourth amazing find was a book about weird myths and traditions in some countries. The funniest was this:

"In some European countries, there is the belief that a good remedy for constipation is eating bacon. However, this is most effective if the bacon is stolen."

This is just to bizarre! I mean, who, I repeat, who discovered this? And why would they steal bacon of all things? I would just love to be an English teacher and set this as an essay title and ask them to discuss it. I feel it would be a very interesting read. Anyways, I feel it is time to press on to the last of my titles, which is "Novelties".

Novelties

I have to be bold now and admit that the most amazing novelty for me, was found in the toilets or "Restrooms". Every single toilet had a toilet seat cover dispenser. It was amazing. So hygienic! No more putting toilet paper on the seat - they had actual covers. To get them out, you pull up and then down, and then you break the tabs. I had so much fun doing this but it meant that I did spend considerably longer than everyone else on my loo breaks. Also, I am a very sad (As in weird sad, not upset sad) little person. The other novelty was the flush. You get up, (I'm sorry if I am going into too much detail here) and the intelligent toilet simply flushes itself. Amazing. This novelty however was slightly rarer but still amazing in my sparkly eyes. The other novelty for me was the air conditioning in every building and though this was highly appreciated, it was not as impressive as the amazingness of the toilets.

Now, I feel it is time for this particular post to come to an end. But before it does, I would like to share some other things that have amused me these past few days, in the hope that it will amuse you too!

Amusing Thing One

Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend in Cardiff (this detail is relevant to my story) and was saying that I was so jet-lagged because we were five hours behind in America. But my friend looked rather shocked and confused and said "You are five hours behind in Swansea?!" This was so amusing. Her name has not been included in order to protect her identity.

Amusing thing Two

We were having a lovely conversation today with a Welsh family and not surprisingly, the meanings of some Welsh words sprung up. I was horrifically reminded of the times in school when my Welsh teacher said "Shwmae" to me. Shwmae means "Hello" but me being me, I thought she was getting my name wrong so I would continuously say under my breath "Its Shima!". Luckily, I don't think she ever heard.

Amusing thing Three

Lastly, I was just reminded of one of my classic comments in school. I was in my maths lesson when I asked my teacher the following:

"Please may I have some scruff paper?"

I obviously meant rough. She merely laughed and said "Haha, Scruff!". LOL. I am so strange. And my strangeness seems to increase as the day goes on. I really better leave you now. I hope that this has been an exciting post. I would say good-bye in Italian but since I am not actually Italian I will not.

Farewell loved ones...

Sheems xx :)

My exceptional CV

2006-06-29T08:33:00.000+01:00

Hey guys.

Unfortunately, it has come to that time in my life when I have to fill in several application forms and update my CV to get work for my pre-rej. If there is one thing I have learnt for this is experience, its that you should never, no never, ask your parents for help, especially if that parent is my dad. Looking through my files the other day and I came accross this beauty. My dad took the liberty of changing parts of my CV for his own personal amusement. Please sit back, and enjoy. (I have included only the relevent parts and bear in mind, I was applying for dentistry then).

EXPERIENCE:

Next, Fforestfach

Sales Assistant

A vacation job working for Next retailers store on their sales day. Stole a pair of shoes and shouted at my line manager a few times.

Marks & Spencer

Sales Assistant – Food Section
I stole food from shelves and every now and then some cash from the tills as well. My line manager was in tears see me go (tears of joy).

Belgrave Dental Surgery

Impersonated a dentist and did a few odds and sods here and there - pulling out teeth, couple of facial repairs (patient was beyond recognition by his family). Every now and then I let the gas out and we all had a good laugh (LOL).

Volunteering jobs

Bullying weak students.
Not helping elderly across the road

Organised a local advertising drive that decreased the number of elderly people coming to the centre by 100%.
Organised crime against people attending in the afternoons.
Escorted some of the elderly people to and from the centre picking their pockets for those sweet sweet pension cash.

PERSONAL DETAILS:

Date of Birth: 11/07/1985

Marital Status: Pushed my husband down a well.

Driving Licence: Provisional (I look really nice in the photo).

INTERESTS:

Teasing people.

This information describes my character so accurately, doesn't it? Hopefully, this application also explains why I am so weird! I am so glad he told me to check it before I sent it off! LOL. Until next time, Sheems xxx

My first actual normal blog entry (well, kind of)

2006-06-15T23:55:00.000+01:00

So, I got my exam results today. I passed the third year of my pharmacy degree and I am this much closer to being a threat to the community. I now have to think of what I have to do for my dissertation next year. I think on the form, we have the option of having a "lab based" project or a "non lab based" project. I know which one you think I ought to tick! Ah the memories of my first lab lesson back this year. I literally single handedly managed to remove a shelf from my cupboard and by doing so broke several bits of glass equipment. That certainly broke the silence. Maybe I should tick the "non lab based" box. I think that is safter for everyone. See, this entry has been relatively normal, and dare I say it, a little boring! Enough of my ranting, it is 12am and I should sleep. Until next time . . .

Sane or Senile?

2006-06-11T22:34:00.000+01:00

I feel I should explain this rather unusual picture (scroll down to see the picture). I hope you will enjoy the explanation. A few months ago, Sam and I arrived early to church so we were just sitting around chatting but Sam was tired so she decided to lie down in the pue, while I remained sitting. That is who you can see in the picture by the way. It is as if you are looking down from the church ceiling and you can see Sam lying down and I am sitting and am chatting to her. We were having a lovely chat but the problem with this situation was that everyone on Sam's side of the church, who were facing me (I am facing the back of the church) couldn't see Sam because she was lying down, so they thought I was talking to myself, or to the pue. It wasn't until Helen Payne approached me that I realised why people were looking at me, rather puzzled. She saw Sam and said "Oh good, I thought you were talking to yourself!". Sam, naturally, found that were funny. The worrying thing was that I was laughing a lot during our chat and people actually believed that I would laugh and talk to myself.

On a happier note (?) I found a website called Shima.com. Amazing. And the slogan is "What you need, when you need it". It is a bit like google, but more selective. So instead of googling stuff now, you can Shima it. You can also buy roller skates called Shima from ebay. Here was me thinking that my name isn't that common but it is world famous! I best be off now.

See you all, Love Sheems xxx :)

Ants and Cheese (no that is not a sandwich filling)

2006-06-06T13:49:00.000+01:00

I know this is random but I just have to tell you. The other day I was grating cheese in my garden (as you do) and being me, I got a considerable amount on my lap rather than in the bowl. Anyways, I got up and shook off the cheese and for a moment, I thought the cheese was moving. On closer inspection I found that the ants were carrying away my cheese. I thought this was quite cute. Then I saw an ant carrying what looked like another dead ant so I went back inside. I hope you enjoyed that short but pointless story.

Sheems xxx

Examinations: The acute and chronic effects

2006-06-05T15:28:00.001+01:00

I can't believe I am blogging (or should I say bogging?) again. It has almost been a month since I have written here but I am glad to be back, lol. I should just warn you that this is going to be a long one, but hopefully it will be worth it. My end of year exams are finished and I am free and happy. There is nothing like that feeling when you have completed 5 beastly exams and you have at least 4 months of holiday ahead of you and yet I feel compelled to tell you about my exam experience and the short and long term effects they have had on me. I will now list the effects and explain them in an organised fashion.

Acute effects

Unnecessary panic - I believe that there are two kinds of panic you can experience during the exam periods. The first kind of panic is a necessary panic and is due to a complete lack of knowledge of any of the topics you have covered in the year whereas the second panic is unnecessary and is not directly linked to the exams. One morning during my revision, I experienced this second type of panic. The way that I revise is to read my work and then to cover it and write it down, and I use a pencil to do this as it is quicker for me to write. Anyway, I was revising and then I looked at all my pencils and saw that I had sharpened them so much that I could barely hold them anymore and then the panic (yes panic) came in. I thought, if I don't have pencils I can't revise so I need to buy new pencils but I have to get the ones I usually get from WHSmiths but WHSmiths is in town and by the time I walk there and get back I could potentially waste 2 hours and I can't afford to loose that time. This train (lol, should that be trail?) of thought continued for a few minutes as I planned how I would get the pencils that I needed without wasting too much time. Then I stopped thinking and had an apple and it was all ok again. Fruit is always the answer.

A reduced humour threshold - Now, if there is one thing that I have learnt from my revision is that all the cells in our body have a baseline level of activity. I know this sounds boring but please do bare with me. Anyways, our cells have a baseline level of activity and they also have a threshold level of activity and when this threshold level is reached, you can produce excitation. Now, I personally would like to believe that each of us has a humour threshold. For the majority of you, this will be pretty high i.e. you need to be a told a pretty good joke to make you laugh. Mine, however, has always been low (meaning that I laugh at pretty much everything) and I believe that during my exam period it was lowered further still. This led to a rather embarrassing moment.
One tea time, we were having some lovely rice pudding for dessert and as I was eating, Vicky said something to make me laugh. Now what she said wasn't hugely funny but I, with my low humour threshold found it hilarious. This led me to laugh and thus shoot out the contents of my mouth i.e. the rice pudding. It really did go quite far and I am glad that only my housemates witnessed this.

Irrational thinking - At the end of my exams, I spoke the immortal words "It is almost worth having exams just to experience the that amazing feeling when they are finished". I of course, did not mean that as I was thinking irrationally.

Chronic effects

I don't think there are really any chronic effects to speak of. Maybe you disagree. Let me know if you do.

Well, thats if ladies and gentlemen.

Alas, more amusement

2006-04-27T12:50:00.000+01:00

Hello, its me again. Shocking isn't it?

I am back in Cardiff, and everything is just MAD! Exams are approaching, have a dissertation to do, all boring stuff really. But alas, I have found more amusement whilst revising my neuropharmacology notes. Those of you who didn't read my previous entry, I mentioned being amused by an excited tiger, but that is another story. Anyways, I was reading about anaesthetics or analgesics or something of the sort and I wrote the following in my notes:

Oxygen, at high pressures can cause anaesthesia. Deep sea divers have been known to do some very weird things under the influence of oxygen at high pressures e.g. taking out their mouth pieces and giving them to fish. The fish live, but the divers don't.

As you can see, that is not exactly revisable material but it is a desperate attempt on my part to make my revision slightly more amusing, if even only for a second. My attempts so far have been transient. Any ideas for me? I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel though. Will be finished by May 31st and will have another legendary long summer holiday. I need to stick a Nike tick on my computer screen to remind me to "Just do it"! LOL. My apologies to you all. This is by far my most boring entry. Maybe you disagree, LOL. I hope that is not the case though.

I best go and do something productive.

Ta ta, Sheems xxx

The Wedding and the Girlish Scream

2006-04-17T18:35:00.000+01:00

I would just like to say a massive Congradulations to Mari and Ben on their most wonderful engagement! Truly the best news ever! LOL.

To re-live the moment, here is my phone conversation with Mari at approx 5:40pm.

Mari: Hey Sheems.
Shima: Hey Ma, Happy Birthday
Mari: Thanks Sheems. Guess what happened today!
Shima: I dunno, what?
Mari: Guess Sheems.
Shima: :O (This is my face when it clicked). Your engaged?
Mari: (Laughs). Yes.
Shima: Arggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh (Girlish scream). Congradulations (Is that how you spell that by the way? (I didn't ask Mari that in the conversation)).
Mari: Thanks Sheem. Keep yourself free next summer because you will be wearing something pink and frilly.
Shima: Arggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh (Girlish scream).

And so on and so forth. Basically, there was a lot of screaming on my part, and a lot of laughing on Mari's. And, this is not related to the story, but I just got spaghetti on the keyboard.

Well, I am going to be a bridesmaid, and so is The Durke i.e. Sam. I have only been one once, when I was 10, so I am super excited now. Next summer, I will have finished my Masters in Pharmacy and I will be a bridesmaid. I am officially at my prime.

Congradulations again to Ma. Love Sheems xxxxxxxxxxx

Shima

2006-04-16T23:27:00.000+01:00

It is Easter Sunday, 11.26pm. I am here at my computer and have a sudden desire to find out what my name means as one often does at this time of night. So, my first step it to go to Dictionary.com. I type in Shima. Result: No entry found for Shima, BUT there were some alternatives.

Shim: A thin, often tapered piece of material, such as wood, stone, or metal, used to fill gaps, make something level, or adjust something to fit properly

Shema: A liturgical prayer consisting of three Scriptural passages (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37-41) recited twice daily by adult Jewish males to affirm their faith.

Then I googled my name. The result was rather interesting. Apparantly Shima is a common Chinese name or surname as the majority of the 2,470,000 sites were in chinese. Here, however, are some of my personal favourites.

http://www.shima.co.uk/home.htm
http://www.shimasushi.com/
http://www.crossedamerican.com/ca/pages/home.php
http://www.shimakarate.com/
http://www.shimalimo.com/
http://www.goodexperience.com/ayoc/000054.html
http://www.shimapearl.com/
http://shimagwp.com/
http://shimmie.43people.com/

There is quite a wide selection there. There are Shima restaurants, karate lessons, limo companies and pearl making companies. So, in conclusion, my desire to find the definition of my name has not been fulfilled but I have been amused in the process.

Dunno

2006-04-14T16:19:00.000+01:00

Lol, I coudn't think of a title worthy of this post as I intend to talk about random stuff. By the way, it was some zoo keepers in London, not vets who gave the drug to the tiger. Possibly even more amusing.

Today is Good Friday and we went to church this morning. Clem Roberts spoke on Jesus death and how he must have felt in those hours before his death. It was a really good service. After that I went to Burger King and then came home and have been attempting to do my neuro essay since. It is SUPER boring.

But tomorrow should be good. Having a Ben and Jerry's night at Sam's. I have just discovered the world of Ben and Jerry's icecreams. I really like fishfood. It was quite amusing because when Sam and Shaz mentioned it to me, I just looked really confused so, taking the opportunity, they told me that it had tuna fish in it. I must say, I believed them for a brief moment. I know now that it contains fish shaped chocolate, and it is very very nice. Mmmmmm. Might have some now. . .

A little light amusement during my revision

2006-04-13T18:24:00.000+01:00

So, I was revising my neuropharmacology today. Thats all about the brain and stuff and how drugs work on the brain. Anyways, I was learning about benzodiazepines today, thats a group of drugs that can be used to reduce anxiety. It was saying that in some species of animals, it causes a taming effect i.e. it reduces their aggressive behaviour BUT in some animals, it causes excitability. Wait, this is the exciting bit. They discovered this because some vets accidently gave a benzodiazepine drug to a tiger before an operation and it got excited. Shaz laughed for like a second and then shut the door on me. Well, thats it! Sorry but it amused me thinking of an excited tiger. It doesn't take much to amuse me during my revision because its all so boring. Until next time, Shima :)

Why I will always be welcomed back into Co-op Pharmacy, Branch 360

2006-04-07T16:03:00.000+01:00

As hopefully all of you know, I am a 3rd year pharmacy student in Cardiff University. This means that during my Summer holidays I try to get "pharmacy related" work in Pharmacy's. So, last year, I worked in Co-op branch 360 on St.Helens Road. The branch and location aren't really relevent to the story. Anyways, one day during my summer placement, the dispensary was rather dirty so the pharacist asked me to hoover. Little did he know that that was just the worst mistake ever.

So, I pugged in the dyson and started hoovering. All was going well. Then, a small piece of the hoover came off but I didn't really think much of this because it seemed to be one of those extra little attachements you get to clean awkward corners or something. So, I decided to "help further" and moved on to the shop floor to hoover that. I don't know what I did or how it happened really but the hoover went a little wild and the sound it made was much louder than usual. So, I switched off the hoover and tried to fix it only to dismantle all the pieces of the whole dyson hoover. I obviously didn't know how to put it back together because I wasn't sure how it came apart in the first place so the Pharmacist and technicians came to my aid. They had a few laughs to say the least. I laughed too.

I popped in to say hi to them recently and they said they tell everyone the hoover story. I am officially the summer student who broke the dyson. The experience was beneficial though because I know how to use my dyson hoover in my student house.

Cheerio, Shim xx

A classic quote

2006-04-07T15:55:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago, me, Shaz and my dad were just talking about money and stuff, as you do and we were discussing how little some people earn in poorer countries. To illistrate a point, I tried so say that Children in some countries earn about 5p and hour for making clothes and stuff but I accidently said that they earn 5p per second. Now, I am very fortunate to have made this mistake with such an easy number to work with because 5p per second works out to £3 per minute and a whopping £180 per hour which is arguably the same or better than some surgeons earn. This rendered my illistration useless. I just remembered it today and started laughing and thought I would add it to my blog :D so there we are.

Correction of a spelling mistake

2006-04-02T23:23:00.000+01:00

Those of you who have read my last post would have noticed that I thanked Miss Smallacombe for saying my Bog was great. I of course meant blog. It doesn't really "boost my ego" if you think my Bog is great because, lets face it, its just a bog. For an explanation for this random blog entry, check the time at the bottom of the post. It is half past eleven at night which is why I am making random entries. On this random note, I think I should get some sleep. I am currently in need of an adequate balance of REM and non-REM sleep. For those of you who are wandering what-in-a-blue-moon I am talking about, just ask to borrow my neuropharmacology notes on anxiolytics. It should explain a few things, namely my insanity. Night Night :)

For Miss Smallacombe

2006-04-02T23:19:00.000+01:00

This post is hereby dedicated to the lovely Miss Jo Smallacombe for saying that my Bog was great. I am a fan of a good ego boost, LOL. Just to say Jo, I have changed my settings so that anyone can make a comment on my blog so you are free to make as many as you wish. I personally believe that this technicallity is the sole reason for the lack of comments on my blog. Who am I kidding? Laterz xxx

Would you rather?

2006-03-31T17:25:00.000+01:00

Last Sunday (or was it the one before last?) us Cosmeston girls decided to make a radical move and invite four guys around for a nice Sunday roast. After an entertaining lunch we decided to have a series of random conversations and the "Would you rather..." questions cropped up in the conversation. So, Ian asked me, "Shima, would you rather be a unicorn or a magical flying Lizard?". I said that I would rather be the unicorn because it is prettier. But then, I said "Ahh, but unicorns don't exist!". Becci then laughed and said "Well neither does the flying magical Lizard". Ahh, I guess you had to be there. I promise it was funnier at the time. :)

All about me!

2006-03-25T16:06:00.000Z

Hey guys, its me again.

I have been exploring some of your websites on Bebo and have discovered that you have answered a list of questions about yourselves in your profiles. Since I can't figure out how to do that on my profile, I thought I would answer them all anyway in this post called "All about me!" Firstly though, I think I should provide a picture of myself so that you don't confuse me with any other Shima's who you may know, which as we all know is highly likely!

Well, as you can see from this picture, I still haven't figured out how to work my new blog :) Just to clarify, that is not a picture of me. I foolishly didn't check my disc before loading a random picture onto my blog. That in fact is a picture showing how cold it was in Switzerland when I went skiing. Incase you can't read it, it says on the bottom one, -25 degrees. Can you believe I survived those conditions? I still can't believe it. The next post really will be all about me, Shim x

And so it begins...

2006-03-23T16:44:00.000Z

Hey guys, this is Shima here! (I bet you wouldn't have guessed that from the title of the blog!)

I thought I ought (do you like my little rhyme there?) to start a blog as it is the "in thing" to do at the moment and I can't be seen to be behind in the trends. Also a lot of interesting and funny things seem to happen to me on a regular basis which just have to be shared. So, rather than blocking up your inbox, which I actually intend to continue doing, I thought I would set up a blog of my life which you could view at your pleasure. I do hope you do actually view it and make a comment every now and again. It is rather exciting for simple minded people like myself to recieve e-mails and comments.

So, why call my blog "Shima Jafargholi: A series of unfortunate events"? I have given this name to my blog as it is the title of my e-mail to many of you about my most recent unfortunate event. Incase you didn't recieve the e-mail, I shall copy and paste a draft of it below for your enjoyment and to help you understand my choice of title. I would just like to clarify that I do not save drafts of my e-mails normally, LOL. So, to complete what seems like the longest post ever, here is the e-mail.

This is Shima here, as I am sure you have gathered from the title. Miss Samantha Durke requested a group e-mail so here it is. You shall have to contact her with your complaints. I hope you don't have any complaints though, as the things I have to say are highly amusing. Well, at least I think so.

I would just like to clarify that hence the title of my e-mail, there is just one unfortunate event worth mentioning as the others don't compare. Anyway, here it is. As you know, I am a learner driver (are you laughing already?) and over Christmas, I have been driving my parents car. Now, there are some vital differences between my parents car and my instructor in Cardiff's car which led to this rather unfortunate event. In my parents car, the gear stick is slightly more to the left and not central, like in my instructors car so make a note of that. So, Friday, I had my first lesson back and my instructor had grown a beard but that is another matter. Anyways, I went to move off and was looking ahead of me and checking my mirrors as I have been correctly taught to do. I went to change to first gear and reached slightly too far left and found myself grabbing my instructors leg! This was highly embarrassing, especially since it happened twice. It wasn't even his knee but more his thigh. By the way please don't tell my parents this on Sunday, I am not quite sure how they would react!

Anyway, I touched his leg and screamed and quickly removed my hand and said "Sorry Rich" to which he replied "Are you assaulting me?". He was joking though. This whole event gave me the giggles needless to say and you know that once I start giggling, I cannot stop for the life of me. I was literally biting my lip and he could see me in those special mirrors they have to check that we are checking our mirrors. He was like "What is so funny, is it my beard?" and that is why the fact about his beard is relevant. Not surprisingly, at the end, he said it was a good lesson! LOL. Only joking. I did drive well though, I am not joking about that.

I hope you have enjoyed my story. I had to tell you because it is the last thing that people would expect me to say but out of all the people in the world, it is most likely to happen to me. I am missing mount a lot and missing all of you, so please do something radical today and reply to my e-mail. It would be great to hear from you, even if it is to call me a loser. Whatever. I would love to have lots of e-mails tomorrow when I have a break from making faulty tablets.

Take care and keep in touch,

Love you all,

Shima xxxxxxxxxxxx