OK, it’s grown on me, I must confess.
Up early for the first session of the conference, on delirium. First up, a twenty minute presentation on a study on whether having a spinal anaesthetic and being awake for surgery on your broken hip is any better than having a standard general anaesthetic for preventing delirium (spoiler alert – no). Then a twenty minute presentation on whether demented people should be included in studies looking at post op delirium in spite of concerns about consent (spoiler alert – yes). Then a twenty minute presentation on why basic good humane ward nursing care is better at preventing post op delirium than any clever expensive drug or intervention at the time of surgery. This was followed by question time during which every question from the floor was whether giving drug x or y at the time of surgery would help prevent delirium. This is what every medical conference is like.
Once we could stand it no more, we headed back to the cathedral quarter for lunch and then out to the Ulster museum which is right next to the botanical gardens and Queens university. The walk there was through a much nicer area than anything we’ve seen so far in Belfast, with nice houses and lots of greenery. We enjoyed the museum much more than yesterdays as well. We did the sections on the history of Ireland from prehistoric times to the modern age. Excellent.
From there it was back to the cathedral quarter (no trouble keeping our steps up this week!) for cocktails at The Spaniard, a tiny famous pub, 250 years old.
From there we went across the road for a complete change of scene, the Merchant hotel, an old bank that is almost as posh as the palace we stayed at on Paris. Here we had more cocktails and a lovely dinner.
So, I have revised upwards my opinion of Belfast. In less positive news, I have revised downwards my option of the boots I bought yesterday. I valiantly wore them to the conference this morning, but after a couple of hours I had to make an emergency stop at a cheap shoe barn for a pair of 7 pound emergency comfort shoes. The humiliation! In contrast, Kirsten has been wearing her fabulous French boots all day with no problems. Harrumph.