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| Somewhere in Rugby, May 2015 |
This is my last month of full-time work. From October I am reverting to either 27 or 30 hours a week (I don't yet know which it will be - either way, not more than 4 days) and I am looking forward to it immensely. They are certainly getting value for money out of me this final month. An extra clinic has started, we are still short of one Dietitian who has left and a replacement not yet recruited, one of the remaining Dietitians is on holiday, but a new service is due to start shortly after she gets back and needs a load of preparation, which I'm not sure is being done. Two of the Diabetes Nurses are now off sick and another is about to have an operation on her foot that will keep her at home for six weeks.
On top of all that, a couple of weeks ago I committed the most heinous crime that it is possible to commit - I didn't turn up for a clinic which I was supposed to be covering. I got confused with where I was supposed to be and whose clinic I was standing in for. Luckily there were only three patients and apparently they didn't get too angry, although they were entitled to be cross because their previous appointments had been moved to this new date at short notice because one of the remaining Dietitians not previously off sick had been put out of action with a bad back, due to being made to work in a room with a coffee table instead of a desk (thankfully she's back at work now). I felt bad about missing that clinic for days. Actually, I still feel bad about it. I hope the feeling will wear off soon.
It's all been a bit much, and now that my age has exceeded the half-century I am starting to appreciate that I am no longer a bright young thing who can just pack as much as I like into my days. Playing badminton makes me much more tired than it ever did before - not that I'm about to stop playing, but I used to start early and finish late at club nights and now I'm much more inclined to start late and finish early. I am significantly tired the day after any vigorous activity, where in the past I wasn't. Of course as well as the badminton I'm doing the running that leads up to the event in November, so that makes for extra tiredness. Perhaps I'm overdoing things.
[Nostalgia note: When I was a child, my grandmother used to say that I was always overdoing things. "Do not overdo," is one of the few phrases I remember her saying, along with "Speak more slowly," the numbers in German and a rhyme that started "Hoppe hoppe Reiter" which I still remember word for word.]
This has turned into a bit of a whine - it's interesting what manifests itself when I sit with a blank screen and write whatever comes into my head. Things are fine. I am essentially fit and healthy and most of my complaining is about activity that I have chosen to do of my own free will and could stop at any time - in fact, I have missed a badminton opportunity tonight. I have completed some significant and difficult tasks and am optimistic that I will manage a few more by the end of the year. Work is essentially fine too, although there are and always will be annoyances and inefficiencies and personalities and conflict, as well as satisfaction and success and achievement and progress.
Outside work I've already mentioned badminton and running - there are also films on DVD, the usual reading in print and audio, food shopping and cooking, watching the one TV programme of the year that I like (The Great British Bake Off), cleaning the house, a massage, and welcoming Lola II and Mr M for the annual Leamington Food and Drink Festival. As usual I made sure I examined every stall in the arena over the two days of the Festival, and this year purchased three packs of sausages, a sachet of curry paste, a mushroom and garlic vegetarian Scotch Egg, three different cheese scones, a chocolate and cherry brownie, a Thai curry with cashew nuts and rice, and a pastrami and cheese toasted sandwich. I have already eaten all of them except one pack of sausages, but not necessarily in that order.
My ongoing plan for this evening is to go to sleep quite soon. I'm looking forward to recovering at the weekend before starting my penultimate week of full time work.
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