“This horchata tastes like soap”

Slight delay in getting round to writing about it, but on Monday I came back from sunny Barcelona! I’m currently wearing my Barcelona Beer Festival t-shirt and it’s keeping me cheery.

Two of my friends decided to run the marathon, and being the kind-hearted, selfless individuals we are, a group of my friends and I decided to go along and support them. We arrived and left at different times but overall I think there were ten of us, so obviously the holiday was great craic. It had been a good few years since I’ve been on holiday with a group of my school friends, so it was a nice opportunity to all hang out together.

Barcelona as a place, it turns out, is class. I had heard about Gaudi’s buildings and his interesting architecture, but I hadn’t realised how the whole city is filled with intricately designed buildings, and so I had a great time dandering about gawking upwards. We had this apartment and oh my god it was so sweet- there was a massive kitchen and huge ceilings and two giant sofas and a huge TV and several bedrooms and an office desk and a BALCONY.

I took photos but I’ve tried and I have no idea how to upload them from my phone so you’ll just have to imagine the pretty scenery. Of which there was a fair amount- we had a great walk around the area where the Olympics were, and along the beach/marina, and where the marathon started/ended with its bajillion fountains and waterfalls. Rest assured it was National Geographic level of quality. One of my friends actually brought along a GoPro with him and catalogued the trip in true hipster fashion.

Spanish everyday culture was a bit different to what we were used to. For one thing pretty much everyone has a wee nap in the afternoon, and when they’re not napping they’re floating about on micro scooters. Between us we also got offered enough drugs to write two Beatles albums. I took no drugs, rode no scooters and siesta’d no siestas- clearly didn’t get into the spirit of things enough.

This wouldn’t be one of my blogs without talking about the fooooooooood. I was expecting to get bled dry with the amount I was planning on eating, however stuff actually didn’t cost very much which just increased the sickening volume of stuff that I bought. One night we went to this tapas place and people were getting like four things between two people. We had fourteen between four, and it was glorious. One of em was foie gras and it still only came to 20 euro. Life is good. I had a nice sample of horchata, paella, seafoody stuff, tapas, cheesecakes upon cheesecakes, Spanish bready things and the glory that was white chocolate-covered Oreos.

We also went to a beer festival and it was great one of them tasted like bacon the end.

M

I just can’t control my feet

I think I have athlete’s foot. And it’s just the grimmest thing that’s ever happened to me. How people with things like psoriasis live their lives without turning into a giant flaming ball of tears I’ll never be able to understand.

Note to self: must learn to grow up

M

And on the ninth day..

I’ve just finished an eight day stretch playing the role of the “surgeon of the week”- which basically means going round all the patients that have been admitted under the ’emergency’ team, ie all the people who have come through the doors and haven’t been labelled to be under a specific team like urology, ENT or vascular surgery.

And it was a very busy week. I think the take was busier than it normally is, because the wards were all pretty full and the ward rounds were going on a good hour-and-a-half longer than they normally would. Which meant at times it was pretty stressful, and I was having to work pretty hard the whole time. There were also a few patients that got pretty sick in quite dramatic ways.

That all being said, I actually really enjoyed it. I felt like I was properly doing the job I signed up to do, and I think I was doing a good job at it too. I tried my best to be organised, walking around with my clipboard and lists of patients and rapidly burning through the ink in my pen. At times your efforts are in vain, but that’s life, and that’s the NHS. The sick patients got better, and part of that was down to me being the one working out correctly what was wrong with them- which was a pretty good feeling.

Sadly there were a few days that were just incredibly busy, staying several hours later than I would have liked, being late for social events and missing my Chinese lesson, but again that comes with the territory so I’ve gotta just man up and get on with my life.

Man was I ready for this weekend though. Getting up shortly after six and not getting to sleep until 11 or 12 for over a week really takes it out of you. My plan had been to get stuff done today but I’ve spent most of my time stuffing my face and watching Game of Thrones. AND IT’S BEEN GLORIOUS

I’ll have another post coming up soon I think. Til then: tatty-bye

M