It’s me at the Heartlands Hospital!

I’m the one reflected in the window. It’s an unwitting selfie. Or a self-unawarie.

Anyhoo, the good news is that I arrived safely in Birmingham yesterday afternoon. The bad news is that the bodies are clearly piling up in Oxford now that Inspector Morse has popped his clogs. My train between Guildford and Birmingham ended up being delayed outside Oxford for half an hour due to what the announcer described as "a fatality on the line". I’ve never seen so many people try to subtly look out of the window without appearing voyeuristic.

Fortunately, in a remarkable act of resurrection, the driver then updated that diagnosis five minutes later, to "flooding on the line". So at worst it was a case of drowning.

Either way, we made it through, and by 5:30pm, I was here...

That’s my room in the Moor Street Travelodge. I had to take the photo on arrival, as it hasn’t been that tidy since.

I have to say, I’m quite impressed with what you can get for £21 a night. Like the Travelodge I stayed at in Liverpool, this one has a built-in Tesco Express, and it’s right in the city centre, which in addition to being handy for the shops, has one major, and unexpected bonus...

I can pick up Marks & Spencer’s free wifi. My room is right at the front at the hotel, directly opposite M&S, and they clearly have their customer wifi turned on 24 hours a day, regardless of whether or not the shop’s open. The signal’s good, even from across the street, so I’ve been making use of that since I arrived. After all, this is not just wifi, it’s M&S free wifi.

Just as handy is that the bus stop for the hospital is virtually right outside, and they run every few minutes, so I can fall out of bed, roll onto a bus, and get delivered straight to my training course. And it’s going well so far. I’ve drunk a lot of free coffee, had some discussions with a trainee diabetologist, looked an ophthalmologist in the eye, and learned a lot from a professor.

But the highlight of my day was the discovery that in Birmingham they have a medical unit for hypochondriacs who like to badger their GP...

It's next to the orthopaedic/fracture clinic in case the doctors get bent out of shape and pushed to breaking point.