Loose ends

Witley Court Gardens, May 2021

Vaccination

My last vaccination shift wasn't cancelled, and I discovered a little about what's going on. Because we're not a public vaccination hub our customers are all front-line healthcare workers. Nearly all have had both vaccines by now, so it was decided to close most weekday operations and open only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So all my weekday shifts have been cancelled - the one that I managed to book was a 'late' on Saturday running from 2 to 8 p.m. so I'm guessing not a popular time for many.

The nurse in charge told me that there was an idea that we would try to become a public-facing local vaccination hub which would potentially allow GPs to return to normal business (it's shocking how many GPs have not yet restored their services). But until this happens, each time I look at the online roster system there are no available shifts. It may be that my short-lived vaccination career is about to come to a premature end. Before I even get paid. I was contacted this week to ask for a form that I'd already submitted three weeks ago.

LTRP

In LTRP news, Olf's mate the plumber came on round with his mate to have a look at the stain on the upstairs hall ceiling which is not growing particularly fast but is located underneath the water tank in the loft. They poked about for quite a long time before finding anything that could be the root cause, but eventually found that the overflow for both that tank and the central heating header tank runs uphill. This makes sense, as the stain would only grow in the event of overflow. They cleaned the ball valve nicely and Olf's mate said he would call to talk about a date for the rest of the work, which I chased last week. I haven't heard from him yet.

The builder (Glf) I've engaged to work on the pub wall isn't due to start until the end of June, but in the recent downpour one of the Velux windows over the (tiled) hall started to let it a few drips, and I noticed that the wall which I had thought was no longer damp was actually soaking. So I'm hanging on to see what he can come up with, but it looks like I'll be waiting a while to finish the downstairs decoration.

Parents

I took a trip to the Woodland Cemetery with mum and her friend. The cemetery is fairly new so trees and shrubs are not yet tall enough to shield it much from the noise of the M25 motorway, but I'm sure it will develop into a lovely site. We happened to meet one of the gardeners there. He was a youngish man, maybe in his 30's, and after a quick hello he looked at mum more carefully and asked, "Do I know you?" She was a little taken aback, but then he introduced himself and revealed that she had taught him to read from the Torah scroll for his Bar Mitzvah, presumably more than 20 years ago. 

Pub

The pub has now been allowed to open for customers to sit indoors. When they opened the outdoor area back in April they installed a speaker to pipe music out there, and although this is something that I have always managed to negotiate away with previous pub managers, I felt it was only reasonable to let it go while outdoors was the only place customers could go. When customers could go indoors, the music was still going outside with no customers there. 

I really don't mind voices, not even the worst kind (which for me is the screeching of drunk young women), but I find the 'doof doof doof' of amplified pop music that can be heard most clearly in my kitchen and living room most annoying. So eventually I decided to go round and have a chat, and the manager on duty was really nice about it and said that he was sorry and he had been told to keep the outside music turned down and he turned it off straight away.

Commonwealth Games

While I was in the pub I noticed that one of the most regular customers was in - a local man who is also one of the contacts between residents and the Council over the Commonwealth Games. In 2022 this event is being hosted by the City of Birmingham. Royal Leamington Spa, however, is the chosen spot for the lawn bowling events, which will be happening on my doorstep. Literally, from the sound of it. There is a bit of a fuss because the District Council (which owns and manages the greens) has been working with the relevant Commonwealth Games committee without consulting residents.

So I had a really interesting chat with him - despite there being just three streets and a park involved, there are three different residents organisations, and he's already had to withdraw from one of them due to a difference of opinion - how very British. I found out that the plans involve erecting large spectator stands which will displace at least half the residents' and park visitors' parking spaces, and also presumably block the view so tickets can be sold. There are a few other issues, and I do intend to read all the material online and comment if appropriate, but I haven't done it yet. There is a residents' meeting tonight, which I plan to attend.

What I've been reading

The Talented Mr Ripley
by Patricia Highsmith

narrated by David Menkin

"Tom Ripley is struggling to stay one step ahead of his creditors and the law when an unexpected acquaintance offers him the chance to start over. When his newfound happiness is threatened, his response is as swift as it is shocking."

Another book from the 'Classic' list, which was made into a successful film that I seem to remember I enjoyed. The book doesn't follow the same storyline, and was filled with unpleasant characters and a plot that made me constantly feel uneasy. So not a comfortable experience, although I won't deny that it is a 'good' book.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
by J. K. Rowling

"Back at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for his second year, Harry hears strange whispers echo through empty corridors - and then the attacks start."

Not as good as the first book of the series, and strangely unbalanced - the whole story seems to take place in the last chapter. It does have the bonus of introducing Dobby, who I've decided is my favourite character at the moment.

Solomon Gursky Was Here
by Mordecai Richler

"Since the age of eleven Moses Berger has been obsessed with the Gursky clan, an insanely wealthy, profoundly seductive family of Jewish-Canadian descent. Now a 52-year-old alcoholic biographer, Berger is desperately trying to chronicle the stories of their lives, especially that of the mysterious Solomon Gursky, who may or may not have died in a plane crash."

A strange mess of a book, in which the author seems to have written a quite entertaining family saga then chopped it up into bits, thrown all the bits in the air and reassembled it in a random order. The writing was fine so I didn't mind continuing reading, but even having finished it I have no idea what happened to whom and when, and I don't have the inclination to work it out either.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
by J. K. Rowling

"Harry can't wait to get back to school after the summer holidays. But when Harry gets to Hogwarts, the atmosphere is tense. There's an escaped mass murderer on the loose, and the sinister prison guards of Azkaban have been called in to guard the school."

Definitely the best so far, and many would say the best of the series, but she still spends most of the book setting up the final section when everything happens. And no Dobby.

Getting paid and getting fit

Newbold Comyn, February 2021

Two more of my vaccination shifts were cancelled, and I wondered whether all our customers have had their second jab so the clinic isn't needed any more. But I looked at the online calendar of available shifts and signed up to one that hadn't been cancelled, so we'll see whether that goes ahead. If it does, maybe I'll get a feel for whether I'll be needed in future.

One of the reasons for finding out is because... Big Announcement... I'm leaving the diabetes job. In just two more weeks, I'll be fully unemployed, apart from vaccinating and Mr MXF and helping mum and dad and the LTRP and everything I'm doing for the Buddhists. Leaving the substantive post but carrying on vaccinating has highlighted some 'interesting' aspects of NHS bureaucracy. 

The main thing is that I haven't yet been paid for vaccinating. Because my first shift was right at the end of February I expected the time to be added on to March, so I wasn't altogether surprised when it didn't appear in my payslip at the end of March. But when there was nothing in my April payslip either, I telephoned a nice lady in the payroll department. She checked it out, and agreed that yes, I hadn't been paid, and one reason was that a significant form had not been completed. She sent it to me, I completed it, and sent it back. But then there was another problem - a 'job' had not been created against which I could be paid, and I was directed to the 'Temporary Staff Services' department which is responsible for this.

Another nice lady in the TSS dept took my details and told me that her systems showed that I had been paid and I should check with payroll. When I recited the form of words that I had been given by the payroll lady she checked again, and this time agreed that I needed a job to be created, and sent me another form, which I duly signed and sent back. Then she sent me a different copy of the same form, and then a third version, and encouraged me to give her a call, which I did. No answer. I emailed back and was asked for my mobile number, which I gave with the proviso that I couldn't answer until a later time because of having to talk to patients. At the end of the clinic I saw that I'd had two missed calls during the time I'd given as being unavailable.

Anyway, I finally got hold of someone who explained what all the versions of the form meant, and I signed the one that I think I was supposed to sign and sent that one back. I was told that it might be too late to catch payroll for the end of May, so I might be looking forward to a bumper month in June. And if vaccination is ending, that might be the last of it.

My physical fitness is probably the worst it's been in my adult life. The knee is feeling much better but the hip is still playing up, and I'm certain it's because I'm not moving about enough. I haven't done any badminton for over a year, and I had to stop running in the autumn because of the knee problem, so apart from a bit of walking about once a week I've been doing nothing. So when my friend suggested we go and bat a shuttlecock about in the park I jumped at the chance, and while it couldn't be described as badminton because it was so windy (we were lucky if we could manage a rally lasting three shots) it was nice to feel I'd moved about a bit. We only played for an hour or so but I definitely felt it the next day, which is a good sign, especially as the hip felt so much better.

The same friend also recommended an online yoga class, which I finally tried this week. I could manage about half of the moves, and after an hour I was exhausted. I've never done yoga before but I quite liked it, and there's certainly a lot of scope for improvement.

In other badminton news, we had a message from the school where my Monday club used to play, saying that they were increasing their health and safety measures and before we would be allowed back we would have to show them our risk assessment, our health and safety policy, and evidence of our first aider's training. We wrote back saying that we are a bunch of friends playing badminton and we don't have any of these. I'm still doing the Buddhist class on Mondays so it doesn't affect me at the moment, but if the school where I used to play on Thursday is the same then it's not looking good for badminton.

More tech support

Victoria Park, February 2021

Back in October last year I volunteered to support Lola II with her training course for community mediators, which involved finding out a lot about mediation, a deep dive into Zoom and much stress about Internet access. Well, for the last two weeks I've been doing the same for another course, with very much the same issues arising. Especially the Internet access.

Last time we were in a room in the ancient Town Hall, the sort of old echoey building where pigeons provided noisy interruptions at the windows and despite all the movable partitions it was almost impossible to avoid background noise. That room is now being used for vaccination and a new venue was needed, so we were installed in a less cavernous modern-ish room in a building associated with a church. Lola II and the other two trainers and I all did Lateral Flow Testing for Covid now that flow testing is available to all, so we all felt able to work without masks.

Our host was very welcoming and accommodated all of our requirements - tables, large TV screen, partitions for noise reduction, access to kettle and water, flexible about keys and getting inside in the morning. There have been a few minor issues - the venue also has lots of other activities going on, some of which involve children. The more major issue was with the Internet access.

The Facilities Manager (who by the way does not believe in vaccination or wearing a mask) told us on Day 1 that there had been an intermittent fault with their broadband, it seemed to be working OK at the moment, but they had logged it with the ISP. On Day 2, with no notice at all to us or to him, an engineer came to try and fix it, but obviously this would cause an interruption to the broadband access. Not a chance, we said, this course is run via Zoom and we can't do without continuous Internet. Although we would be having a 40-minute lunch break...

The engineer was actually prepared to come back at lunchtime and try to fix things within those limitations. Which he did, except that we lost our Internet on one PC a few times over those first two days, and you can imagine the disruption this caused. Lola II and her co-trainer were amazing, as I moved them to a different and unfamiliar computer with no notice and they continued to deliver the course without little hint that mayhem had erupted out of sight of the camera.

We also discovered on Day 3 that we should have cleared the room at the end of Day 2 instead of leaving our gear all plugged in and screens etc filling the room, because of the dance class that was supposed to be taking place that evening. We apologised and promised to do better next time. Day 4 started with the information that the Internet had broken the previous day (while we weren't there) causing the Pastor to be rather cross, so we thought about more backup plans, which included running four PCs through a mobile phone data hotspot, or decamping to Lola II's house.

Despite these dire portents of doom, the critical Days 5 and 6 (when the delegates practise the skills they have learned, followed by their assessments) passed with rock solid broadband. Phew. The only slight problem was when a guy turned up with a music centre ready to blast out Music and Movement for fifty children in the room across the hall. I ran over to ask him to turn it down a bit, and luckily he did.

The main lesson I have learned is not to be so ambitiously busy. I had booked a Sunday vaccination shift, followed by two days at the Diabetes Centre, then three days of tech support for mediation training, then home on Saturday via mum and dad. I had two Zoom meetings that weekend, and Sunday afternoon road-testing the pub garden with two friends (a tough job, but somebody has to step up). Then back to the Diabetes Centre for two days before three more days of tech support, another trip to mum and dad (this one being my fault as I had fixed the problem with dad's incoming email but created a new problem with his outgoing email). Then home, at last, with only one online social event on Sunday and a blissfully empty Bank Holiday Monday.

I was similarly overcommitted in the coming week, when I had rashly signed up for a double shift of vaccinating running from 7.30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday. But it has been cancelled, and I can't say I'm sorry.