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We have an amazing team and I am full of pride and gratitude. Once again they did what RocknRollPharmacists do, and had a great time. We had good festival weather today. Dry with lots of sunshine. It’s my day off but of course, when you live ‘on the premises’ you still end up doing a bit. Sales today still revolved around tummy upsets and urinary infections, but James arrived back on site this morning with lots more stock of everything. Some people still wanted eyedrops, for hayfever and infections but Friday's rain settled much of the dust and pollen down so we didn’t get anything like Thursday's sales of these products.
We served the proud owner of “Professor Jephcott’s Flea Circus”. The circus has been passed from father to son for three generations now and he was proud to become ringmaster. (Un)fortunately we didn’t have any flea spray in stock.
I enjoyed lunch in the Avalon Café to the country and western sound of The Johnsons, then joined team member Sally with her family, Trog and Billie, to listen to her nephew Charly’s band, The Fluffy Rawr, play their gig on the Mandela Stage. I thought of “Love Actually” as I watched young Charly play drums behind a confident teenage girl rock band. Of course they were brilliant! I saw some Scouting For Girls but abandoned them to see Neil Diamond on the main stage, singing along with all the songs I knew from the 70’s. The power was lost from the stage at one point but the crowd around me carried on singing his songs without him until power was restored.
After eating to the sound of local bluegrass band “Three Kinds of Grass”, I met family for a good position to hear Katie Melua’s first performance at Glastonbury. Her vocals didn’t falter and it was great to hear the distinctive sound of her guitar played live on stage. I was joined at Avalon by another friend to listen to Blazing Fiddles. A Scottish band comprising one keyboard player, one guitarist and five brilliant fiddle players. The pace and energy had the crowd dancing, clapping and cheering.
After a gentle walk past Manu Chau on the Jazz World Stage, with fireworks high above the festival, I made my way back to my tent. It may have been many hours before the music quietened down. I don’t know. I was asleep shortly after my head hit the pillow.
This Glastonbury Festival has passed very quickly. I did put my wellies on to go for a cold wash and shave, but the sun was shining and the mud was already starting to dry up. If you do wash at
Cystitis medications increased and so did requests for haemorrhoid creams. This year we even had a couple of requests for suppositories. Despite stocking and recommending them for years, I’ve never managed to sell any in the past. Usually at Our team of pharmacists, and the customers, became really frustrated at the things we didn’t stock or had run out of. Our normal system of predicting and stocking up in advance has prevented this happening before. Since the Medicine Man cabin simply isn’t big enough for our regular stock, I’ve suggested to James that he’d need secure storage facilities attached if he operates this site again. When we were down to our last box of ranitidine today, two customers decided to share the cost. We supplied the Patient Information Leaflet, going through it with both patients, but have no information on who actually took the leaflet back to their tent! The medical services asked some of our pharmacists to leave the site and go to do shifts in the pharmacy they’d given their work to, including nightshifts. Surprisingly (to me) some of the team agreed to some work but were not willing to provide full cover. They had volunteered to work as pharmacists at the Glastonbury Festival, not in a nearby village. On the main stage, Crowded House had the
After Amy Winehouse, I introduced Thelma and Louise to the very Scottish sound of The Proclaimers on the Avalon Stage. They are a great festival band and full of energy, but Louise still couldn’t understand them. More work to do, I think! My eldest son sent me a text saying he hoped we’d been in the audience for the stunning, televised set by Jay-Z who was performing at the same time. I guess I’m just not cool enough! A late night, but no work in the morning.
Although it rained intermittently, we had a busy morning. I was frustrated by having to turn down customers for some items Arena would have had in stock, but no one suffered any hardship and people were quite happy to return in the afternoon after James’s delivery arrived.
For Arena, we usually stock up in advance because of the unpredictability of getting stock onsite and into the pharmacy. My worries proved unfounded today when James’s courier was allowed to deliver the stock as far as the medical centre at Ivy Meads at the top of the Festival site. We still had the problem of how to get all the boxes through the festival to the pharmacy when our cars were banned from the pedestrian areas. I appealed to the market team for help, and
I spent the rest of the day catching up with family, friends and the Glastonbury Festival. Although it rained heavily during KT Tunstall’s great performance on the Pyramid stage, it got lighter as the day went on. By the time I came out from The Blockheads, the weather finally seemed to be settling. The thrill of being face to face again with my Festival customers, seeing my T-shirts being worn proudly and the enjoyment of the Glastonbury Festival. Reasons to be Cheerful. 1, 2, 3. What a day. Despite a major diversion, I was finally directed along a country road which brought me safely back onto the blue route and into the festival.
I believe some of our pharmacists are doing some pharmacy work in the medical centre, under a protocol agreed with the Pharmaceutical Inspector. They are taking in scripts and faxing them to the Pharmacy in nearby Evercreech. They are able to give advice to medical staff, but not to patients. Our team have been great. They come here to combine pharmacy with the Glastonbury experience and are still determined to do that this year. We need to remember that they are all volunteers though, and although they are working on this occasion, I think it unlikely that they would volunteer every year if it was simply to benefit commercial enterprises such as Medicine Man and Evercreech Pharmacy. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for commercial success and have a good track record. I just don’t think you’d get 40 pharmacists working for nothing each year to help you get it! Today's dry, sunny weather meant we did huge sales of antihistamines and eyedrops. We don’t know what tomorrow holds, but the famous Glastonbury Rain started this evening! I got my wellies on at 11.30pm and wandered along to see the pre-festival gig by The Levellers. I bounced about with everyone else singing "What a beautiful day", but I’ve had better. Bedtime. Glastonbury Festival starts tomorrow, and I’m on the first shift! 1 Day til Things have not gone to plan. This is only my own impression of events. About a week ago, we realised there could be a problem with our wholesale partner which could threaten medicine supply to Festival and Arena pharmacies and, therefore, jeopardise our whole operation. Regretfully, that is exactly what has happened. I can’t really go into the details but the last week has been very difficult as we tried – and continue to try – to negotiate some kind of resolution ahead of the gates opening today. Tony entered into partnership talks with James Powell of Medicine Man Pharmacy in an attempt to resolve the supply issue. James has huge experience working in other festivals and we have the best Despite Festival Pharmacy being registered and the team ready to go, the medical services management wish to use a different set up for their pharmacy services, which will now involve scripts being fulfilled outside the James has arranged his own license for Medicine Man Pharmacy to operate at the Arena Pharmacy site in the market area and at the minute, it seems that this will be the only operational onsite pharmacy at the Glastonbury Festival this year. James will mostly run Medicine Man with his own pharmacy assistants but we are making all of our information and experience available to James to maximise its potential. Members of our team are already volunteering to help once they have completed their commitments to medical services. He has worked with some team members in the past at other festivals, but is thrilled with the number of pharmacists who are calling in to introduce themselves. Tony continues to negotiate an appropriate role for the team, with the medical services. Our management team are aware that festival goers have stopped bringing important things, knowing there would be a pharmacy in the market place. We are keen that the public do not have their pharmacy service compromised and our priority is still to work towards providing the best provision of pharmacy services at the As I said earlier, medical services declared early that they would no longer support Arena Pharmacy as part of their contract. Its success making profit was inappropriate for them as a charity, even though that profit financed the whole pharmacy operation. Since my official role has been with Arena Pharmacy, I requested a Market Traders pass and camping permission in the market area, and I am now unconnected to the medical services. To quote Tony: “I do feel sure that none of us would do what we do with pharmacy at The Pharmacy is in place. Staff have started turning up. The punters will start turning up soon too. This isn’t just Pharmacy. This is RocknRoll. Stock orders? Check. Passes? Check. Orders for stock are prepared. These include dispensing stock, medicine sales stock and also the stock for the Emergency Medical Teams who operate in the ‘pits’ under the main stages. 9 Days until Glastonbury Festival. 6 Days until pharmacies open. Arena Pharmacy ‘almost’ in place The festival site is now fully fenced and security is already on the gates. Tents and stages are beginning to be erected and the famous Glastonbury toilets are the cleanest they will ever be.
Most importantly, the 7.3 by 3.2 metre, steel containers have arrived. Two of these will be made into pharmacies and Arena Pharmacy has now been put in the correct position where the market will be built around us. Unfortunately, the cabin has been lowered into position with the door facing away from the passing trade!
We are assured that exact positioning has still to be made, but time has started to take on a strange telescoping quality, which we experience every year in the final stages of preparation.
Hopefully, changes can be made before Tony Guest arrives on site in preparation for the shopfitters to start turning empty metal cabins into pharmacies.
Wearing staff t-shirts has become part of our tradition. It provides workwear, extra identity to customers and a souvenir to take home from each festival.
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