What I've been reading

A History of Britain: The Wars of the British 1603-1776
by Simon Schama

narrated by Stephen Thorne

"The beginning of the 17th century promised that England's golden age would long outlast its Elizabethan namesake. Within a few years, that promise would end in civil war, political unrest, and international conflict, a period of strife that would last for two centuries, but produce the modern British nation."

The second volume of this comprehensive history, and I learned a lot that I suspect most students who were interested in history learned at school. Charles I and II and the English Civil War, the loss of America to independence, the slave trade and colonial India all within the space of just over a century. I'm lining up the third volume after I've had a bit of a break with some lighter fare.

Tears of the Giraffe
by Alexander McCall Smith

"Mma Ramotswe's impending marriage to that most gentlemanly of men, Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni, the promotion of her secretary to the dizzy heights of Assistant Detective and new additions to the Matekoni family, all brew up the most humorous and charmingly entertaining of tales."

Another light read to break up the heaviness of the other books under way. I find that as well as enjoying the stories I am impressed by the author's ability to structure the book, interweaving different parallel strands but keeping up the momentum of the narration.

Ramble Book
by Adam Buxton

narrated by Adam Buxton

"A very funny and at times incredibly poignant memoir, taking in Adam’s burgeoning love of pop culture as a teenager, his feelings about childhood and parenthood, coming to terms with the death of his father and lots more besides."

I've been listening to Adam Buxton's output for a long time, from when he had a radio show with Joe Cornish on BBC 6 Music, and more recently his podcasts where he interviews interesting people, some of them his friends. He is a tortured soul, full of insecurities, but funny and personable and always doing his best to do the right thing, even if he doesn't always succeed (arguments with railway officials being an outstanding example). Immediately after I had finished this book and mourned the death of his father with him, I listened to his latest podcast in which he talks to his close friend Joe about the unexpected and sudden death of his mother.

Fox & Cameron's Food Science, Nutrition & Health
by Michael E. J. Lean

"The book deals with a wide range of topics, from food microbiology and technology to healthy eating and clinical nutrition. It also tackles the more difficult area of biochemistry and makes the chemical nature of all the important food groups accessible."

I found this book at work during a clear-out and it's the sort of thing that I find interesting - well, it was OK. It suffered from poor editing so I was frequently distracted by wording that didn't flow or mistakes in the text - surprising in a 7th edition. I expect it's a key textbook for some course somewhere though.

Morality for Beautiful Girls
by Alexander McCall Smith

"With her detective agency in financial difficulty, Mma Ramotswe takes the hard decision to share offices to her husband-to-be, Mr J. L. B. Matekoni. But even through Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors could do with a little help, it is Mr Matekoni himself who requires her attention."

What can I say, the next in the series, and a very pleasant read. He beautifully evokes the cadences of African speech and a love of Botswana.

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
by Roddy Doyle

"Paddy rampages through Barrytown streets with like-minded hooligans, playing cowboys, etching names in wet concrete, setting fires. The gang are not bad boys, just restless."

Another book that really lets you hear the voices of Irish lads making mischief, as well as the pain of being helpless in the face of events that are bigger than you. Children are very cruel, but so are adults in this book - some on purpose, some not.

Lady of Quality
by Georgette Heyer

narrated by Eve Matheson

"When spirited, independent Miss Annis Wychwood embroils herself in the affairs of a runaway heiress, she is destined to see a good deal of her fugitive's uncivil and high-handed guardian, Mr Oliver Carleton. And, chafing at the restrictions of Bath society, Annis has to admit that at least Mr Carleton is never boring."

Another from the Queen of the Regency Romance, the only sort of chick-lit I can tolerate. I think it's because Georgette Heyer makes her female characters such strong, sensible heroines, and so sure of themselves, even though this one did seem to give up a bit of that feisty independent spirit when the swain proposed.

The wet room

Flfs 2 and 1

This is turning out to be a classic example of the Lola Towers Renovation Project genre. You open the lid on a bit of house that hasn't been touched for 20 years or more, and the job turns into something a whole lot bigger than expected.

I had an inkling that all was not well in the corner of the house where the shower room is. My idea was to replace the shower and all the tiling on the walls and floor and create a wet room. When I estimated the job budget in order to find a contractor, the firm that got the job told me they expected it to be less than I'd suggested. At the end of the first day's work Flf admitted that I might have been nearer the mark.

Flfs 1 and 2 arrived in the morning to start ripping out the contents of the shower room, and in no time the toilet and sink were out in the hall and nothing remained of the shower enclosure. However, at the base of the wall the bricks had turned to sand. Wet sand. And when Flf had chipped off all the tiles and some of the render, there was quite a lot more brick missing.

Just the previous day I had arranged a visit from Dlf, a damp expert, who turned out to live in the next road. He had come up with a plan to treat another separate patch of damp on the same wall in the porch, so I phoned the company to see if he would be available to drop in and see this extra bit of work, which he did, and agreed to include it in the quote. Which was pretty enormous.

Flf 2 continued the work of destruction: the wall tiles disappeared, then the floor tiles too. When it came to ripping out the shower, Flf 1 conveyed the bad news that the electrical supply was wholly inadequate and a new cable would need to be run from the fuse box. He showed me where the current cable showed signs of heat damage, and didn't say what he was probably thinking about fire and electrocution. Meanwhile, the other Flf had been pondering the pattern of the damp and traced it back to a possible cause on the outside of the wall. There was discussion, sucking of teeth, poking of fingers into gaps between crumbling bricks, and a plan was devised for the following day, given that the main project is held up until the damp issue is addressed.

[While all this was going on, I had a Zoom call with Mr MXF to try and establish what I might be doing as part of the employment Revelation. There were many complex notions which I had to grapple with, and it was not helped by being called away two or three times to have a look at the latest finding in the ex-shower room. I got to grips with the task a little better in the evening, and although I understand only about a quarter of the work that Mr MXF has scoped out for me, I have a good feeling.]

Next day the electrician turned up to have a look at the electrical issues: extractor fan, shaver point and now the power to the shower itself, and he will bring back a quote for the extra not included in the original plan. The Flfs returned to work on the outside of the wall in the pub 'garden', where they are installing a gully and repairing a bit of render as well as chopping down a coping stone. I got in touch with the pub management company again to make sure they were aware that we would be on their territory for a few days, and made some not-so-subtle enquiries about the future of the pub. While the guy wouldn't tell me exactly what was going on, he did suggest that if current legal processes are completed satisfactorily, a new tenant would be opening up the pub for business by the end of August.

So the outside work continues, the damp treatment is scheduled, so is the electrical work and the shower refurbishment last of all. I'll be washing using the shower attachment in the bath for at least a month, but as with everything involving the LTRP, it will be worth it in the end.

A Revelation while camping

Beech Estate campsite, July 2020

So I gave you all the news from work last time, now here's the rest of it.

I went to the dentist, routine appointment, but nothing is routine at the moment. The door's closed, ring the bell, my temperature is checked before I come in, I have to wear a face covering and so does everyone there, all possessions put in a plastic tub, no magazines or water in the waiting room, perspex screen in front of reception. Once I'm in the chair and the hygienist and assistant are fully covered up I can take my face covering off. My usual hygienist has had a baby so I've got one who's never met me before, and I get the usual furrowed brows at the state of my gums with some new proposal about how things might be improved - non-surgical suggestions this time. Many things have been tried and failed to help, but it's nice of them to keep coming up with new ideas.

On Saturday morning there was a very exciting incident at home, when I heard crashing and thumping noises in the house, suggestive of an intruder. With hindsight I didn't treat this with the degree of wariness that perhaps I should, but luckily for me it turned out to be a burly woodpigeon in the living room which must have entered via the chimney as all the doors and windows were shut. Again, luckily for me, the chimney hadn't been used much since it was last swept so there wasn't much soot, and the crash was due to an ornamental pot knocked off the windowsill onto the floor. I opened the French doors and burly pigeon exited without any fuss, and hadn't left all that much mess behind it, and I set up the shards of the shattered pot in an artistic manner and reflected on the impermanence of all things.

Last thing before going on holiday was that as I was driving away, I noticed that the pub door was open and there seemed to be some work going on. The workmen were not all that forthcoming about who was ultimately in charge, but it's encouraging to know that the building won't become derelict. It's a very attractive location and I'm sure someone will see the potential, so I just hope it will be a sympathetic operator.

There! We've made it as far as the holiday, which was camping in Sussex near Battle, with Lola II and Mr M, via mum and dad, who are well (all things considered). It was a woodland campsite, some of the indoor facilities were closed but there were flush toilets as well as compost toilets, outdoor bucket showers if you were interested, and lots of hand sanitiser and disinfectant sprays. Lola II and Mr M like a nice fire so they cooked on that while I stuck to the less exciting camping stove for what I consider to be more appetising results. And I saw my first glow worm! I had no idea we had glow worms in this country.

The next day was a bit wet and windy but we went to see what Battle was like, and ended up inside the Abbey, wandering about and listening to a talk all about the years leading up to the famous Battle of Hastings. Then, for the first time in many months, we went INSIDE a cafe and had lunch. There was hand sanitiser, contact details had to be given, there were screens, and there was also... cheese. I haven't bought proper cheese since starting the diet because it simply has too many calories to be worth it, but this was a holiday and the portion wasn't too big and it was truly delicious. We went inside a cafe on the next day too, and I had more cheese.

We also went to Great Dixter gardens, which was beautiful and will provide flower portraits for the blog for a few months. But the significant event of the camping trip was when I went for a walk with Mr M, and he asked about work, and I said that on the whole it wasn't brilliant, and in that moment I had a Revelation: I decided that I didn't have to keep doing the same job, and I could probably find something else for two days a week that would use more of my brain and require me to spend no more time with my current colleagues.

My plan was to ask all my friends in different walks of life whether they were aware of any jobs at all, and follow leads, and generally take a few months to see if anything useful came up. It wasn't going to be much fun but if I could cobble together something that worked it would be worth it, and I felt vaguely optimistic as I headed off for the next bit of holiday, which was to stay with friends in Surrey: Mr MXF and Bee Lady 2 (BL2), for now I have another friend with a hive. And the name sounds better than Chicken Lady or Mrs MXF.

Mr MXF and BL2 and their two grown-up children are always full of schemes and activities: running, swimming, cycling, tending their small woodland, ecology and sustainability, village activities such as the huge November 5th village bonfire, keeping chickens and now bees, and hosting the 'Run Forest Run' annual running and obstacle course event. My friendship with Mr MXF goes back to university days; BL2 was my companion in 2016 when we went skiing in Bulgaria.

Their acquisition of a small patch of woodland has brought about much wood-related activity and consequent machinery. As a result of a too-tall eucalypt in their garden being taken out during the week there was a vast amount of wood to be cleared, but many neighbours willing to wield an axe and take a barrow-full. A three-meter length of trunk with a diameter of about a meter lay in the garden, and the plan was to use an enormous chainsaw in a rig to cut slabs of it which would be dried and seasoned and eventually turned into table tops. I mostly watched and photographed, but also had a go on the rig for one cut, just because I'll try anything once.

But as I arrived I was still full of the Revelation, and as I described to Mr MXF my idea about finding something else to do for two days a week, his eyes kind of opened wide, and lit up, and he said "You could work for me!" So that's what we're going to explore, and it might not work - my brain might not be right for the sort of work he is thinking of - but it might work and that is really very exciting. But it has made it much more difficult for me to face my current two days at the Diabetes Centre, imagining how I might not have to do it for much longer.

Risks Must Be Assessed

Stilt walkers, Munich, December 2019

I've been on holiday again, and when I go away, blog continuity suffers. I'll do my best to remember what happened before my holiday and see how we go. This post is about work, and there ought to be another blog at some point about what happened outside work and on my holiday, which was significant.

There were two students. After a lull when students were withdrawn, they're back with a vengeance - we have four, but they can't all be accommodated in the dietetic office over at the main hospital. In fact the dietetic office at the main hospital has been transformed by the introduction of screens, a one-way traffic system and all sorts of other efforts to allow safe distancing without everyone having to wear masks in the office all of the time. I haven't been there, and I hope not to have to go there (ever), but I read the emails that come round. Anyway, students. I had a different one with me for two Mondays in a row.

What with my patients as always being on the complex end of the spectrum, there is never much opportunity for a student to do much more than observe. Now we've got no patients coming in person for face to face consultations either, so all they can do is listen. We use a telephone with two handsets that's designed to be used for the telephone interpreting service. To make it a bit more interesting I asked the other team members (Doctor, Nurse) if they would mind having the students spend a bit of time listening to their consultations as well as mine, and asked the student to write a piece about multidisciplinary working, or diabetes, or really whatever they like, I don't care (I didn't tell them the last bit). It's hard work, though.

Then along with all this there was a meeting - online, with my new headset and camera - to talk about Structured Education. The Clinical Commissioning Group and DSNs and Dietitians from three NHS Trusts are working together under the leadership of a Dietetic Manager (not from my Trust) to sort out the mess that is our Diabetes Education. Actually, our Trust is not in a mess, in fact the consensus has been to pretty much adopt all of our admin processes, educational materials and methods of delivery, which a) is flattering and b) means I don't have to worry about checking through everything to make sure that I agree with it. Although I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have done that anyway, not now. I might have done a few years ago.

The meeting took two and a half hours, plus the time afterwards for me to do a few things I'd been volunteered to do, and then we had to arrange a smaller follow up meeting to tidy things up, all of which used up an enormous proportion of my two-day week and put me well behind with the 'talking to patients' work that I like to do. There were a number of other frustrations too, but I did manage to make the point to the Commissioners that it is all very well coming up with amazing ideas for delivering education, but we don't actually have the staff to deliver it (particularly Dietitians and admin). I've made the same point up my management chain and will just leave it there.

Since then I've managed to catch up with most of my clinical work, until today when I made the mistake of opening my mouth instead of keeping it firmly shut. Last week in the multidisciplinary clinic, the doctor was quite keen to talk about bringing some people in to the Centre to be seen in person, and we came up with a possible plan for the following fortnight. My mistake was to mention this to my Team Leader, who thought it would be fine until she mentioned it to her Manager, who said, "What about the Risk Assessment?"

So in order for me to see patients face to face, the risks have to be assessed and there are Procedures That Must Be Documented and Carried Out, I gather mainly around cleaning and PPE. Of course none of these risks has been assessed nor procedures documented or carried out, so I don't know what I'm supposed to do. If we all come down with Covid-19 and sue the Trust somebody will end up in trouble, but it would have been a great deal easier if I'd said nothing and just got on with it. Anyway, I told the DSN in charge that my Manager wants a Risk Assessment and Procedures, there was much rolling of eyes and then thankfully it was the end of my working week and I went home.

For the record, our Trust has two Covid-19 cases at present, both of them in the other hospital, and neither one in Intensive Care. We have to wear face coverings when patients are in the building (which they increasingly are), and add gloves and plastic aprons when patients are in the same room, and use hand sanitiser and/or wash hands a lot, and keep socially distanced from one another. When I finish on Tuesday I wipe down all the surfaces in my room as it's used by other people when I'm not there. There are many official signs up now with 2m markings on the floor and a perspex screen for reception, and some kind of classification of Green and Blue Zones which I confess I don't understand. Luckily the Diabetes Centre is a building in the car park so we don't get mixed up in the zoning and restrictions that are in place within the main hospital building.

So that's work. I'll try not to leave it so long before writing about Not Work.