no the NHS didn't finally kill me.
i've been on holiday for 3 weeks.
Ms D&C and i returned to my spiritual home, vancouver, with a view to collect rent from all the canadians who've been staying at my flat over the past three years.
it was fantastic. with each visit i struggle to answer why i don't move over there. my friend Broseph (who with his lovely wife let us stay for 2 of the 3 weeks) said that if i did go and did a masters degree he'd jack in his job in music production to do one with me. i did remind him that we would probably spend most of the time looking up stuff on youtube and flunk badly. he agreed.
highlights, apart from the copious amounts of red meat and pale ale consumed, were far too many to list.
we visited MsD&C's great aunt and uncle on vancouver island, caught up with Roger Dean Young and the new Tin Cup who played a gig in town, bid farewell to a friend and Tin Cup member moving to Toronto, stayed with another of the Tin Cup in his log cabin on the sunshine coast and gushed at a new baby arrival for two other friends. much of it involved hanging out with people but we were quite outdoorsy too: hiking, cycling around stanley park and finally snowboarding for a week in Whistler with Gnarls Barkley (whose MSF trip appears to have gone tits up) and his latest and greatest girlfriend. he'd come over from Edmonton, Alberta for a "conference" and managed to divert to spend some time imbibing with us.
i think i managed to see pretty much every canadian i know. i've also got a real bug again for snowboarding and am trying to get away again this season. any ideas of good destinations? anyone got a 150 burton board for sale?
i've come back in holiday mode to a much less stressful job and am floating on with memories of good times and fresh air.
i realised when i got back that everyone was incredibly stressed out about MTAS. for the non-medics this is an online application process which (nearly) every doctor who wants to work in august has to complete. it is analysed, processed and then refined into energon fuel which powers a huge robot who then allocates jobs. there has been a lot of worry because it's been poorly implemented, not carefully thought through and there hasn't been much information regarding how many jobs are available and how people will be selected blah blah blah
in short nothing that should surprise you about the NHS.
i did my form when on holiday. very much less worrying when you complete it after spending a day boarding. i also submitted it from the sleepy town of Squamish, British Columbia whilst waiting for a bus. very relaxing as it happens. probably fucked it up anyway.
anyways life is still uncertain, frightening and depressing. at least i know for the next few weeks, until the holiday feeling wears off, i can close my eyes, let all the stress wash around me and daydream of snow and mountains.
[i am listening to Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois by Sufjan Stevens]
