Doctors have never scared me. Ever.

I always think that whatever is wrong with me is easily cured by painkillers and that any more serious health problems are left to people that are less dramatic and more positive about life. Firstly, I should mention that faced with the possibility of having a serious health problem, I have been neither dramatic nor negative and secondly, I'm now scared of Doctors.

It isn't quite the actual Doctor as it is the power that they seem to wield with their words "dysfunction", "unusual cell growth", "in brain". Yes, scary eh? I thought so too. I think there should be a ban on speaking in those terms if you have a medical degree.

(This has, by the way, been and gone, I won't be dying of a brain tumour any time soon)

This week has been a terrible news week. The football overtakes basically everything (thousands displaced in Brazil- death toll as yet unknown, Gaza blockade relaxed, Oil in the U.S and so on...) I hate the sporting news being more newsworthy than natural disasters/ important politics that affect us all in one way or another.

I was faced with an odd comment from a good friend the other day asking if I think it's right that "people would have to work until they're 70!" as if that should shock and appall me, it did neither. People in less developed countries work till they drop to be able to feed themselves, we work until we're 70 (when we have free health care and a good 10years before we become incontinent) and even then, if we saved money for retirement (10p from every £1 from the age of 28! seems unrealistic even for those of us most responsible) we could still retire whenever we wanted and we would be able to withdraw our state pension at the appropriate age. This last paragraph reminded me that I am a bit of a bore.

My old flatmate Ruth's short (but very sweet) visit has made me realise the transient nature of a city that has four universities and a big famous castle that brings the tourists to the yard (essentially Edinburgh Castle is the equivalent of Kelis' 'milkshake') and reminded me that this was always just a temporary solution to the lack of degree. Bah, where else will I find a mosque that serves me food? where?!

I need to remember all the bad things about Edinburgh. Jakies, schemmies, drunks, the last three leading to violence, lack of diversity, the general anaemia of the population, the strong winds that regularly batter me and I think in the long term would lead to premature ageing of the skin, too many tourists on any given sunny day, scary groups of small(ish) kids and I could go on but actually, I love this city, and the strange jakies, and the fact that it turns from Bruntsfield leafiness to Fountainbridge scariness in the space of 500meters and a 10minute stroll.

Pastures new. I want to learn Chinese, or at least how to say 'hello', 'thank you' and 'that one'.

D