I was downtown today. There were a couple things I had planned on doing, and I managed to do them both, not that they were that difficult to begin with. I got the results from my STI test and I finished the book that George had lent me: At Swim, Two Boys.

The day downtown started off with me going to Starbucks on Jasper Ave and 101st to get myself a Gingerbread Latte. Once they gave me my coffee, I didn't really have any rush so I sat down and opened the book and read a few pages. The pages that I read set the scene for the climax of the book. After a little while, I packed up my bag and hauled the few blocks to the Edmonton General to get my results.

Walked in, had a lovely english nurse take me to the room. She opened the folder, and very casually mentioned that I was negative (thank God) for everything, but that I should go back in about five months to just get another blood test to be 100% certain that I am negative for HIV. She asked if I wanted to opt for the Hep A vaccine, and of course I said yes. I was stuck with a needle real quick, band-aid on my left arm, and I'm done. When I go in for the verification blood test, I get the second shot that immunises me for something like at least ten years to life. After the shot, I had to wait in the waiting room for fifteen minutes, just in case I had a reaction to the vaccine. After the fifteen, with the exception to a slightly sore spot on my left upper arm, I was fine (as I suspected I would be).

Walked over to the Canterra Starbucks where they have the comfy armchairs, got myself another Gingerbread Latte, and plopped myself down with At Swim, Two Boys. I took off my coat and cozied up with my latte and opened the book and read. I don't even know how long I was there, but I knew that I wasn't leaving until I had finished every page and read every word. There was an old man who chose the armchair next to the one that I was occupying on my left. There was also a man, who about half way through my patronage of Starbucks, took the table directly to my right. I tell you this to set the scene for what's about to happen.

I'm reading, and I'm about 4 pages from being finished the book. I realise what's going to happen. I start to well up. The only book that's ever made me tear up and it has to be in public, and when I'm sandwiched between two men who didn't look like they'd understand why a young man as myself would be crying because of a book. So I take a moment and will myself to not start, not here, not now. I kept reading.

I'm completely speachless over this book. I really have no words to decribe the mastery of the prose, the subtle use of language and expression. Wonderfully researched.
My rating out of ten would be a 9.5. The reason for the point five deduction is because I didn't enjoy how the chapters were set up. There didn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to it. The English would call it quite an Irish way to set up a book.

You Gaum, are we straight?