The Scottish Borders

For 3 whole weeks, I was posted at the Borders, the piece of land that is right smack bang in the middle of Scotland and England.

A really pretty place indeed, except that it is also right smack bang in the middle of nowhere.

The closest town is Melrose which is a 30 minute walk away, and there they only have ONE street.
Yes.
ONE.
The only supermarket there is Co-Op which in my opinion, is some charity rah-rah supermarket that does not have anything of everything.

The next town which is a 10 minute drive away is Galashiels. What I like about Galashiels is the multi storey Tesco they have there that is alike the Carrefour or Giant supermarkets in Malaysia. And of course, being multi level, they have EVERYTHING of anything!

Amazing!!

Gala also has ONE club, called Indigo that has 12 year old kids DJ-ing in it. It is 1 pound to enter, and 1 pound for a vodka mixer. That is DIRT. CHEAP.

While the accommodation and company in Borders was good, what made my 3 weeks of separation from civilisation worth every minute was a tour I got from a lovely NHS technician on the 2nd last day of my attachment.

The bridge leading to the residencies

Oh wait, the 45p scones and 40p coffee was also unforgettable. Makes eating breakfast at home and drinking homemade coffee almost not worth your while.

On the 2nd last day of my attachment, I accompanied the consultant all the way out to Duns (again, in the middle of nowhere) for a clinic. He drove at a tearing speed of 20 miles/hour and what do students do when in a car with their consultant?
The right answer is to suck up. Praise his driving skills to the sky and comment on how effortless the glide of the screen wipers are.
But no....
Dr Consultant gave both Leanne and I a tutorial on urinary tract infections before we could even start mentioning how swanky and totally hip his new speed-o-meter is.
Imagine sitting in the car with someone hammering questions at you (which you do not know the answer too) when what you really should be doing is to talk about the weather?
Nope.
Not Good.

After Duns, we made our way to Eyemouth (yes, Bingo. In the middle of nowhere too!) where another clinic was held. 45 mins drive to Duns and another 30 mins drive to Eyemouth pretty much means we have been around the 3 corners of the Borders.

Upon arrival, the consultant insisted we go try this amazing fish and chips in a local restaurant and to walk to the harbour wall.

Wah, where got people go for clinic but get sent off to sightsee wan?

Yes, only in the UK.
So off we went to Giacopazzi and had their famous fish and chips. It WAS good.

And after that, off we went obediently to look for the harbour wall.

Nothing too exciting about the wall, but it was a lovely, cold day and we did what we had to - looked at the harbour, the water and also oohed and aahed at the seals that kept popping out of the water.

After about 1 hour of sightseeing, we decided to return to the clinic to do some proper work. However, upon arrival, the receptionist told us that we were to follow this NHS electrician back to the hospital as the consultant cannot fit us and the rest of the doctors in the car during the return trip.

So we hopped into this van:


and followed Mr NHS electrician to do his odd jobs all over the Borders.


From Eyemouth to Coldstream (apparently they get first pick of Kodak Bear skins from Canada to make the Beefeaters of London's guard hat) to Kelso, we bumped along the wintry, windswept roads touring the Scottish Borders - all courtesy of the NHS.



The tour was so good that there were actually pit stops for photo taking opportunities.


The highlight of our tour included visiting Henderson Park in Coldstream where we got a first class view of the bridge over River Tweed.


This bridge, says Mr NHS electrician-tour guide, Is the bridge where the Stone of Destiny was returned to Scotland from England, when it was removed from Scotland in 1930-something. It is also... (and proceeded to recount the entire history of conflicts between England and Scotland)

He also brought us to Floors Castle through the back way. Mr NHS tour guide then mentioned that over the summer, some royal wedding took place there and Prince William and Harry was IN that castle. Once again for me, wrong place at the wrong time. Imagine if I met both princes. I wouldn't be sitting here typing this entry anymore.

Floors Castle is there... beyond the road.. into the distance...

Our tour ended 2 hours later when we finally reached home.

I knew being a medical student had its perks.

I just didn't know that touring of Scotland was included in its package.