A trip to Edinburgh

On Wednesday, Butcher Boy and I ventured forth into the great unknown, or Edinburgh as it's known. It was an afternoon of new experiences and some trepidation.

Firstly, a trip to Monster Mash - after all my raving, would it live up to my claims. Would the sausages and Mash satisfy, or would it be a flop, and I lose any reputation I had?

After a brisk walk through the meadows at dusk, we reached monster mash - we were the only customers - not good I thought. However, the food was lovely - the Monster Sausage with Mustard mash was lovely, and topped with Monster Gravy. The gravy was thick and rich, whilst the mash was creamy, and yet still absorbed any grease from the sausage to give a nice tasty meal, which was not stodgy at all.

With an hour or more to spare before the lecture, we wandered down the bridges, and round onto George Street before paying a visit to the Standing Order, where we managed to find a table - a first in my experience. After a leisurely pint, we sorted our ties and made ourselves loo smart for the walk round to the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh - the main reason for our visit.

As a Medical Student, who sins up for all sorts of ridiculous e-newsletters etc, I had signed up as an e-associate of the RCPE, and they sent out an email about their Christmas Charity Lecture - which was to be on the topic of Disaster Victim Identification, and given by Professor Sue Black from Dundee - a Forensic Anthropologist.

The lecture was interesting - combining both the politics and processes involved in setting up a victim identification capability in the UK, the training of Police Officers, and also some of the Biological aspects of how you identify someone, and what certainty can be put upon that identification. She also set this against examples of both the need for such a capability - London Bombings, Thailand Tsunami; and the UK Governments demands that the capability be able to deal with up to 9 incidents spread throughout the country occurring simultaneously.

All in all it was a very interesting lecture, and a good first trip to a 'proper' Medical event for me. Butcher boy was enjoying all the Police links, and pleased at scoring off another Police specialty he doesn't want to work in!