A burst of enthusiasm

Great Dixter, July 2020

I was on retreat over the New Year. Sometimes these online retreats are fairly short and easy, with perhaps one meditation together and another session with some teaching every day. This one was full speed ahead, three sessions and sometimes four every day for a week, leaving little time for anything else - which is the point, really. It helps to keep you focussed on the Buddhist life.

I did manage a couple of other activities - a second trip to the tip with all the horrible thorny garden cuttings, a walk with a new member of the local Buddhist group and his dog, and a Zoom get-together with all the friends who would have been in the house in Devon if we had been able to go on the planned New Year holiday.

So when the retreat ended and I had a whole week of stuff to catch up with, I felt glad that I'm not at work until next week. I have spent a lot of time on the computer with that New Year enthusiasm that wears off so quickly. But I'll take advantage while it's there...

It's official - Flf the plumber didn't respond to my messages in the timescale I gave him, which leaves me with a usable but not quite finished wet room. New Year enthusiasm stretched to making a series of calls and emails to try and find someone to finish the job. I had the great idea of contacting Olf and asking him for a recommendation, and then while I was at it I thought I'd start on the next idea, which is to rearrange the bedrooms upstairs. 

One of the necessary steps is to make the wardrobe in the smaller room into something more than a clothes rail. Being an organised kind of person I went back to find the paperwork for the company that had installed the wardrobe in the bigger bedroom, which was 15 years ago. Not surprisingly, the phone wasn't answered, but a quick enquiry via Checkatrade produced a response from a different firm.

Then I was notified that my request to set up remote working had been actioned. This is more a precautionary measure in case I have to self-isolate, to allow me to phone patients from home. I need access to three specific systems plus my stored files and email, and it took quite a long time to follow all the instructions, installing an authentication app on my phone, then using that to log into a remote connection, then working out how to launch the systems that I need. Two of them won't work at the moment, one because it requires a keyboard where you insert a smartcard, and another because it doesn't work on Microsoft browsers. But we're halfway there.

I also responded to a call for volunteers to assist the vaccination programme. This has now extended to Allied Health Professionals like Dietitians, but it's unclear whether I'll be trained to actually give the vaccine injections or just support the team at the vaccination hub, perhaps with paperwork or helping patients. Anyway, the first step along the path has been to complete two extra training modules on anaphylaxis and core knowledge for vaccinators, which I've now done.

Another outlet for my enthusiasm this week included a trip to mum and dad who are defined in this third lockdown as my support bubble. Each time I find my time there fully utilised, finding out the progress of our attempt to switch mum's bank account (in summary - a right old mess), helping with all types of computer things, and this time, listening to a number of dad's stories after lunch. These tend to start with plausible memories (the friend with whom dad played violin duets at a school concert, the inspirational English teacher) and then progress to less believable detail (the friend's body was dug from his grave by wild animals). But some of the medical anecdotes remain fascinating all the way through. 

I managed to forget two things, though - one was the shopping that mum had asked for, so not only is she short of the specified items but I am now the proud owner of more margarine and soft cheese than I normally eat in a year. The other, which I have only just remembered, was to change my own email address in their Contacts list. Either that will have to wait for the next visit, or we'll arrange a time to go through it remotely.