Let's all pop the contraceptive pill like they're Smarties! It'll be REEM!

So I'm not normally one to blog on political issues, but when I saw this earlier I felt the need to point out what a stupid idea it is.

So the NHS are now thinking that it's a good idea to allow girls as young as 13 the pill without parental consent, what a FANTASTIC idea! Let's all encourage 13 year old girls to have sex, and let them know that it's okay to have sex when you're still a child, as long as you're being safe. What a load of bollocks.

When I was 13, I was into puppets (Muppets style, not those creepy Team America type puppets), Drake and Josh, and doing my homework - yes, I may have been a geek (and a proud one at that), but at least I had some self respect.

I get the logic in preventing unwanted pregnancies at such a young age, but at the end of the day, 13 year old girls shouldn't be having sex anyway, so they shouldn't need it! Considering the legal age is 16, what is the point in allowing them to have the pill before they can legally have sex?

I'm not a parent, so I don't want to tell anyone how to raise their kids, but surely if parents are raising their kids properly, this sort of thing wouldn't be necessary? Also, at 13, kids are forgetful, how many girls are going to forget to take it each day? Yes, not all tweens are forgetful little girls with their heavily foundation-ed faces, and the packet of fags they've begged the kids in the higher years to buy them just so they can look cool when they skive maths to have a smoke in the toilets, stashed away in their little "I *Heart* PB" bags, desperate to be an internet sensation in a Tulisa-style video, but lets face it, if you're 13 and planning to have sex, it's not exactly going to be for love is it?

They're also not considering the small fact that was drummed into us in sex ed - the pill won't protect you against STIs. So the NHS are basically saying, as long as you don't get pregnant, go ahead and have sex - you might get chlamydia, but at least you're not pregnant!

It seems like I'm getting old, as I appear to have turned into a parent already. Just saying, to all those 13 year old girls, stick to your love of Justin Bieber and shopping in Claire's Accessories, and don't go on the pill just because all your BFFs are on it. Much love.

Hospitals Suck.

First of all: I'm blogging on my phone, which is totally awesome. The not so awesome part is the fact I'm currently sat in eye casualty waiting to be seen - as are about 20 others.

I'm fine, just a mishap with some contact lenses on Friday which led to 2 hours of waiting and the most excruciating dye put into both eyes. Anywho, the doctor told me to come back today to check everything's okay now.

So, as I'm obviously going to be here a while, I'm going to bore you by talking about hospitals. I have an odd fascination with them, in the sense of: "what's behind that door?" "what do they do in that ward?" and not forgetting "I wanna see the operating theatre!" I've been in an operating theatre once in my life, and I was actually disappointed that I was out like a light before I got to see it. Stupid aneasthesia room. I was also out for my first ambulance ride, but thats another story - and I was unconscious for a different reason.

At the same time of being fascinated by them, I hate them. Mainly due to the fact that they smell odd, they're unsettling and as an emetophobe, no one likes to go to a place where norovirus makes the rounds every year.

Waiting times are a massive pisser offer of mine. Probably the same with everyone else on the planet (aside from those lucky enough to go private), but its just annoying. Like now, its a 3 hour wait to be seen, and I'd put a large amount of money on the table in saying that I'll be with the doctor all of 2 minutes. I was told to come back today when I saw the doctor on Friday, but when asked if I needed an appointment, he said no. WHY NOT?! I'm here because you want me to be here, not because I fancy a free day out! Despite my curiosity, I'm not going to wonder around corridoors seeing how far I can go before an areas blocked off, so I just have to sit in your waiting area watching some shitty BBC documentary.

Just imagine, this is what the NHS is like now - and with our *lovely* government at the moment, its only going to get worse. How about they take the 9 billion or however much they're spending on the olympics and use it to improve our rapidly failing health service?

Procrastination

When I was younger, I used to watch The Amanda Show on Nickelodeon. It became one of the many foundations of inside jokes between me and a close friend and heck, if it was still on, I'd probably watch it now. Specifically, there was a sketch in one episode of a superhero called The Procrastinator - basically whenever there was a...thing that superheroes are needed for, her catchphrase was "I'll get to it...EVENTUALLY!"

I've been thinking about that sketch a lot lately. Mainly because this time of year, procrastination is what I do. Exams are dawning, too quickly if you ask me, and where 2 of them I'm pretty confident that I can pass at the very least, one is slowly eating away at me, in that I have no idea how I'll scrape a bare pass, let alone a reasonable grade. I'm talking about cognitive psychology. The bain of my life. And I'm sure many psychology students feel the same when I say that it appears to be the most useless and soul-crushingly difficult area of psychology ever allowed to be declared a field by the BPS.
How do we think? How do we understand speech? How do we organise knowledge? Answer: no one cares. Well, I certainly don't.

I was hoping my revision for this year would go much better than last year - last year, I sat at my desk each day for 3 weeks miserably reproducing mindmaps again and again - and in theory it has. I bought myself a nice little study guide (14 Days to Exam Success - Lucinda Becker) and some fancy ass fineliners and some cards, and things were going well. Right until we went home for the Easter weekend.

The revision timetable I planned did not allow any revision or work to be taken home as it would be my version of a break - I prefer a long break of a few days to 10 minutes every hour - but once I stopped, I really didn't want to start again, so in turn, did a variety of tasks instead of revising:

1. Attempted the challenge of watching Embarrassing Bodies while eating (Nb. I passed - but it was difficult. No one likes to see fat flaps at the best of times, let alone while you're eating).
2. Scanned all of my DVD collection into an app on my phone.
3. Went to work on my usual days and used that as an excuse when I got home.
4. Watched pointless YouTube videos.
5. Refreshed Facebook, Twitter and my e-mail inboxes continuously.

Luckily, I've managed to get back into things, although I'm sure things will stop yet again when I go home for my birthday in two weeks time.