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Some great stuff this week. The 'strange holidays' theme came from a news story that suggested the Swiss preferred going on cow-milking holidays to sunning themselves on the beach. I loved JT's tale of his childhood vacations in Glasgow:

"When I was wee I went for a week's holiday to a high rise flat in Paisley Road West, Glasgow. I spent the week gazing out the window watching the trams go by, watching the anaconda of Rangers fans going to the game and of course seeing the pubs tip out into a dark, sinister Saturday night. It certainly wasan education for a country boy in the late 1950s Scotland."

Then there were ironing disasters, following on from the siege in America where a young man took his mum hostage after she refused to do his ironing. Here's Maninacave:

For reasons best known to herself my wife went on ironing strike. So what, I thought - if a woman can do it so can I. It was going so well until the CD finished and I went to change it. To save time I had stacked 6 pairs of my wife's best silk briefs on top of each other. While i dithered over the CD selection the iron scorched through her expensive and lovely briefs - oops. The strike is off, by the way.

Having spent much of last weekend in Glasgow's Western Infirmary, I had nothing but praise for the great and glorious , and this provoked some stories about other folks' excellent encounters with our health system...and of course those in other countries. There was Neil Halley, in Spain:

"I haven't been sampling the NHS but last week I was in hospital for a week in Spain, following an operation, where I learnt lots of new words that I hope to never use again. The most disappointing was when I was told that I was about to get what I thought was a milkshake only to discover that the words for milkshake and enema are very similar! The other valuable lesson learned yesterday - When Spain score the winning goal in the don't leap out of your seat if you're wearing a catheter.

Keep playing the good music as I'll be spending the next two weeks sitting on my balcony recuperating."

And finally, to put it all in perspective, Drew Vervan from the USA got in touch:

"I'm from the States, and, several years ago, while my girlfriend and I were on holiday in the UK, she needed some medical care - nothing serious, but she needed to see a doctor and get a prescription. We went to a hospital, and she was cared for immediately.

Based on our experiences in the USA, we were stunned at the speed, competancy, and courtesy of the medical care.

You're so lucky to have such a great healthcare system."

Cheers,

Drew