Music & Drugs (Legal Ones)

I wouldn't say that I have an obsession with England or the UK, but rather a terrific preoccupation with much of the music that has sailed from GB as far back as the 1960s.  We can debate the greatest Beatles album, starting with Rubber Soul in 1965 and make winning arguments for every other recording that followed, including their last sounds ever put to tape in Abbey Road.  From there, one could pretty much list the names of artists who bloomed in the 70s: Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Cream, The Who, The Doors, Hendrix...and if you say Janis Joplin I will puke on you.   One can't forget the likes of Ian Curtis or Nick Drake, and the irony of overdosing on antidepressants.  I definitely had my fling with The Cure, My Bloody Valentine, Belle and Sebastian, and Blur.  

If you want to talk about new acts that have caught my fancy then I won't hesitate to mention "Over and Over" by Hot Chip or how Kele Okereke and Bloc Party made the best album since 2005 with "Silent Alarm."  Editors have captured my heart and been a staple of my live shows for the past 3 years.  An instrumental band out of Ireland that you must check out has released Thirtysixstrings, Cut Your Heart Off...From Your Head, and I am Brazil.  I could go on and on, but I am realizing this is not the point of my visit to England.  

From the first year of pharmacy school, an opportunity to visit Bath was presented.  What a better way to not only visit the country of such brilliant musicians, but to also experience the transatlantic practice of pharmacy?  I could dip my finger in the Primary Care Trust (PCT), get a better handle of the National Health Service (NHS) and check out the differences in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and how the practice of pharmacy is managed in the States.  I would be able to dispense drugs I have never heard of or possibly "splice" the positives of English practice and incorporate them into my own scheme in the future.  So, I interviewed for the experience, and I was accepted! 

 And so here I am.  Bath, England.  Oh, and did I forget to mention that one of the greatest records ever made by one of the greatest bands history will ever know was recorded in St. Catherine's Court, a manor house that is practically 5-10 miles from my bed?