New Year, New Variant

Great Dixter, July 2020

It's been an unsocial yet comfortable time at Lola Towers over the Feast Days - I allowed myself quite a lot of chocolate and ended up feeling slightly sick, which is a first. When all the plans made for this time period had to be called off and I wasn't at work I reverted to hibernation mode, broken only by phone and Zoom calls with friends and family. I even made the effort to get dressed, just for these highlights.

Given the long stretch of nothing over several days, I managed to tackle a job that has been waiting literally for years - my Lasting Powers of Attorney for both health and finance. While not all that difficult to create given that the Government website sets it all out in a very straightforward way, the main barrier is with the 'Certificate Provider' (who agrees that I'm sane and not being put under pressure) and the witnessing arrangements, given that we're not supposed to meet indoors and I don't want to involve anyone at work.

Then I got ambitious and embarked upon another long-postponed task - the Advance Decision (or Living Will) which outlines my wishes should I lose mental capacity but need life-prolonging treatment. Alongside that lives the Advance Statement, which gives all my preferences should I reach that state of loss of capacity, so why not do that at the same time? And, since my divorce was finalised in November, why not look at my Will as well?

Since nothing else was going on I knuckled down and printed all the paperwork ready for signing. 

On Monday I'd been so bold as to arrange a socially distanced walk. Surely that couldn't be called off? and no, it wasn't. Three of us wrapped up warm - snow flurries were forecast. A whole lot of other people had the same idea, the paths were two inches deep in mud, and there was quite a lot of dodging around puddles and people and avoiding getting pebbledashed with mud from all the loose dogs. My two companions were also kind enough to sign and witness all the legal documentation, which was no trivial task. And it felt good to go outside even though my knee started to complain towards the end of the walk.

I had been feeling bad from not moving enough - both my body and my mind start to complain when I've been sitting down too much. I've mentioned before that my knee was playing up and I couldn't run any more, so I had the great idea to do a bit of skipping, with the bonus that it can be indoors. It seemed to go well and the knee didn't hurt at all, but it turned out that I was using muscles that hadn't seen much action since badminton stopped ten months ago. I was crippled for nearly a week afterwards.

So that's the end of a pretty bad year, when isolation and solitude (usually my good friends) conspire to turn me into a recluse, relieved only by going to work, seeing mum and dad, and Zoom calls with friends, family and Buddhists. There has certainly never been another year like it, but we will have to wait and see how soon the vaccination programme will make a difference, and what that difference will be.

Bah humbug

Munich Botanical Gardens, December 2019

After I'd been to the bank and the supermarket I shut my front door on Wednesday 23rd December confident that I would not be in the physical presence of another human until Tuesday 29th December. On that day I have to go to work, then I'll go shopping again, and then it will be another period of isolation until, wait for it, Monday 11th January. I might need supplies before then, so my isolation may be broken by an encounter with a supermarket checkout person. And there's just a chance of a socially distanced walk on Monday 28th, or an Amazon delivery of a new umbrella and a floor squeegee for the wet room.

It is looking very likely that Flf has walked away from my wet room without so much as an apology, explanation, or invoice. I have been awarded a free wet room! except for the bits that haven't been done. Once I have found someone new to finish the job I will invite him to submit an invoice, but not yet, I'm still cross. As a celebration for my unfinished wet room Lola II and Mr M dropped by, Santa-style, and gave me one of my two Christmas presents - some shower gel! I now smell quite unlike my usual soap. They also brought trifle to share, and they saw my wet room, and we got quite cold, and it was lovely to see them but not like it should be. Damn you, Coronavirus.

In case you were wondering, the other Christmas present was from Mr MXF, and comprised a large number of different flavours of Chai - he deduced rightly that alcohol would not be all that welcome. Unfortunately they all contain caffeine so it may take me a year or two to get through them - the one I have tried was delicious, though. I suppose I should also mention the gifts I've been getting from generous companies who have donated them to the NHS - mostly toiletries, but on 21st December I received a Lindt chocolate advent calendar (along with Nivea and hand cream). I accepted (invented) the challenge of catching up to align the little window-opening and the calendar date, bearing in mind that the chocolates are incredibly small.

Both of my employers staged Christmas get togethers on the same day. At the Diabetes Centre there was to be a buffet lunch where each of us bring a component such as bread, cheese, fizzy pop etc. Historically I have attended in order to promote team spirit, but this year it was on a day when I don't work there and on the same day as Mr MXF's party, which took place in the evening via Zoom. Earlier in the week Lola Towers had taken delivery of a small bottle of Prosecco via Amazon, and a frozen meal from Wiltshire Farm Food, which we Dietitians tend to recommend mainly to older people who have had upper GI surgery or a brain injury and can no longer chew or swallow safely.

I wasn't going to mention this during the Zoom call, but it turns out the Mr MXF was aware of the situation but he had left the order so late that WFF was the only supplier still offering Christmas dinners for delivery (and it turns out that by the time the orders were placed, these were no longer available). Other employees joining the festivities were the entire MXF family plus a girlfriend, and two young people who do web coding and accounts. Mr MXF had also arranged a quiz where I achieved a score no better than chance, but I contributed to the fun by embarrassing him with ancient pictures of him as a twenty-something shared via Zoom.

My plan to join a three-household Christmas get-together in Nottingham was scuppered only days before it was due to happen. One of the party is more of an introvert than I am, and even she was disappointed that we're now meeting on Zoom instead of in person. All my progress towards welcoming human contact has evaporated, so when we start being able to meet people again I'll have to start at square one. This has certainly been a year like no other. 

More padding

Adhisthana, June 2018

I still haven't managed to get round to writing about the Spanish holiday, so here are some more odds and ends that aren't all that exciting.

Saturday

Music group was on Saturday, and it rained a lot. When I got back home the kitchen roof light was leaking again, so I was on to Ulf in a flash. Doors and Windows Ulf came round on Tuesday while I was in (and while the sun was obstinately shining in a cloudless sky). I was going to impersonate a rainstorm with the hosepipe but discovered that the adaptor to connect the tap to the hose was missing, so we had to resort to a watering can. DaW Ulf failed to find where the water could be getting in, but agreed with me that I couldn't just resign myself to putting out buckets every time it rains, nor could he drop everything and come on over. I plan to get the hosepipe working and do the rain impersonation thing, then take photos or video if I manage to get it leaking again.

Sunday

I finally managed to gather two out of the three of us who are planning a trip to the Christmas Markets in Munich (you may remember last year we went to Dusseldorf), and we booked flights and hotel. Then we went to a comedy gig from German Comedy Ambassador Henning Wehn. The most notable thing about that day was that I served a vegetarian stew that had such an explosive effect on my gastrointestinal tract that I had to apologise to my friend in case she was suffering the same consequences (she said she'd had worse).

Monday

I had a Dietetics final year student with me all day on Monday, on her third and last placement. I was so traumatised by my placements when I was doing my degree that I'm almost useless as a supervisor, as there is no way I will pass any criticism or test the students at all. Unfortunately there was almost nothing going on in my department that day, but we couldn't find anything better anywhere else so I printed out a diabetes tutorial and she was happy to play around with that until the afternoon clinic, when two out of the four scheduled patients didn't turn up. Thankfully the last one was a corker and I went through the A-Z of diabetes with someone who'd had a very poor experience in a nearby hospital, and was very happy with what she received with us. Anyway, the student said she'd enjoyed the day and that's what I was after.

On Monday I also received my flu jab, which was OK at the time but gave me a very tender upper arm for 24 hours. Then in the evening my doubles partner behind me mis-hit a shuttle with tremendous force right into the middle of my back. That night I had trouble finding a comfortable sleeping position.

Tuesday

Apart from the visit from DaW Ulf the most notable event on Tuesday was that while doing a bit of poking about on the Open University website, I came across a free online module all about Greek heroic epic poetry (which is distinct from ordinary epic poetry) focussing specifically on 'The Iliad'. By coincidence I happen to be reading The Iliad at the moment, so I had a look at the module, and it was extremely interesting. Although I did O level Latin at school I don't know a word of Greek, ancient or modern, and this tiny little insight into the rhythms and construction of the first seven lines of the poem as a representative sample of the whole work was absolutely fascinating.

It reminded me slightly of one of the more memorable jokes from Sunday night, when Henning was telling us how his extensive study of English grammar at school taught him to conjugate the verb 'to be' correctly: "I was, you were, he/she was, we were, you were, they were." Now he feels that perhaps he needn't have bothered as common usage suggests: "I was, you was, he/she was, we was, you was, they was."

Wednesday

I realise I've spent quite a lot of time writing this blog post when I could have been writing about the holiday, and I haven't even shared my photos yet. Oh well, I'll get round to it eventually. Probably.

New year, old friends

Krakow Botanical Gardens, July 2016

Now that all the building work is finished with only a few things left on the snagging list for the kitchen people, there really isn't anything much to write. I sent a couple of messages to the kitchen company, but so far they haven't responded. I had a lovely ten days off work, but only three of them at home.

For Christmas I was in Nottingham with very old friends. We had nut roast for Christmas dinner and Boxing Day lunch was at the boating clubhouse by the side of the river. The sun was out, but it was jolly cold.

Between Christmas and New Year I did some more kitchen shopping - lampshades, bar stools, wine glasses - and went to Steve's funeral. It was worse in the anticipation than the reality, and a few light moments helped me to stay composed, especially when the organist and the congregation parted ways for a couple of verses of 'Abide With Me.'

I spent New Year in Cambridge with other old friends. This was a slightly longer trip with activities that included walks, pub lunches, evening dinners, games, shopping and even an interlude to play badminton. Lola II and Mr M were also present (except for the badminton and shopping day), and provided key elements of the games activity. We visited a bird reserve and saw migrating swans, we were prevented from reaching one of our pub choices because of extensive flooding, and I bought saucepans!

Both Lolas and Mr M catered for thirteen at the New Year's Eve dinner. There were supposed to be fifteen, I'd multiplied all the recipes up to sixteen and then two didn't come, and we had so much food that we didn't even serve two of the courses (salad and fruit). And I'd made a mistake with one recipe and doubled the amounts, which didn't help with the surplus food situation. It was most convenient having bought saucepans because we could use them to take away some of the leftovers, which we then had for lunch next day with mum and dad plus enough for my lunches for the rest of the week.

My last day of holiday was Tuesday, when I collected my new spectacles (they are so similar to the previous pair that nobody has noticed so far), and admitted defeat with the weight loss plan and bought new trousers from the charity shop. I treated myself to a trip to Ikea where I bought more useful kitchen stuff including bins for recycling that fit perfectly under the sink, which makes me very happy. I'm planning to restock the freezer with soup over the weekend, and I have a list of things to cook that use the new kitchen facilities - toasted cheese, jacket potato, poached egg - not complicated dishes, just things I've been missing.

Christmas Markets present and past

Königsallee, Düsseldorf, November 2017

In between weeks seven and eight of the LTRP I spent the weekend in Düsseldorf with two friends. They had both previously worked there for a few years as a result of a business relocation, and in the end both had decided not to stay. However, the reason for this trip was to visit the Christmas Market as well as to revisit a few old haunts.

I am not a shopper at the best of times, and I don't get excited about Christmas either, so what was I doing there? It was partly because of my policy to say Yes to more invitations, and I like both these ladies, one of whom (A) I've known (through badminton) for nearly all the time I've spent in the Midlands. We now play for different clubs, which is a shame. A introduced me to S when we were regular quiz team members, long long ago.

Due to the complexity of budget airlines, and the fact that I was out for the day when A and S booked their flights and accommodation, I was on an earlier flight and in Airbnb accommodation rather than in their fancy hotel. On Friday I went exploring on my own, and it was delightful. I found an interesting market stall selling nothing but potatoes, and had a fantastic bowl of soup for lunch. Germans (and Austrians) really know how to make good soup. I bought a salami, and was flattered when the stallholder replied in French to my poor attempt at German. I am generally much too unkempt to be mistaken for a French woman.

I also passed a church which had a sign outside saying (in German) something along the lines of 'You don't have to believe in God, we have a really good cafe'. I was flagging at that point so I went in, and they were right, the cafe was excellent with a pot of Redbush tea for only 1 euro and very good cakes. There was also a notice advertising choral evensong later that evening, and having nothing better to do, with the encouragement that I don't have to believe in God, I went along and it was lovely.

I was up much earlier on Saturday than A and S, partly because their flight was delayed and they didn't arrive until after midnight. On Saturday morning while waiting for them to emerge I found a small botanic garden, and a shopping centre with a sleigh and reindeer that you could sit in to be photographed.

Eventually A emerged, and S followed an hour or two later. We spent the rest of Saturday together, me trailing behind them around market stalls with all manner of twinkly, sparkly, woody, fragrant, jingly, shiny and tasty goods. The tasty goods were all I was interested in buying, and I had a classic German bratwurst for lunch. Actually, I also bought a small ornament that was made of star anise and cinnamon and smelled wonderful. And of course there was Glühwein, and more soup for me. I must remember to keep saying Yes to invitations like this, because it was fun.

Back home I attempted to do a bit of cleaning and thought about the next phase of the LTRP. While looking for lampshades I noticed a bar stool that looked quite good, and made a note for future reference. I also put out a Wanted notice on Freegle for bar stools, and someone offered me one, and it turned out to be the same design that I'd noticed in the shop! Quite a coincidence, and it gives me a bit of a breathing space before deciding what to buy. In return, I posted an Offer notice on Freegle for the indestructible ivy I'd tried so hard to kill with both neglect and weedkiller but which refused to die, and it was collected very promptly.

Then my friend Steve died.

I met him in the 1990's when I was working for RNIB. He was working for Marconi as a programmer, but I met him through the British Computer Association for the Blind (BCAB). I remember only a few experiences from those days, but many of the people I worked with and met through work at that time were so positive, thoughtful and generous, like Steve. When I moved from Manchester to the Midlands I arranged to meet Steve for a pub lunch because he lived here and could perhaps give me a few tips on places to live or to avoid.

Not long after this he was made redundant from what had by then become GEC, and BCAB happened to be funding a new post within RNIB. Steve got the job, so now we were working together in Coventry, before the office moved to central Birmingham. Even after we both left RNIB we kept in touch and met up every so often to see a film or have dinner or to visit the German Christmas Market in Birmingham where he bought panettone, I bought nothing, and we drank glühwein together. He survived several bouts of illness - apart from the retinoblastoma that had taken his sight as a child, he was successfully treated for bladder cancer, and then lung cancer.

But the latest diagnosis of a brain tumour was his last. Surgery was ruled out and eventually chemo and radiotherapy stopped, and in the last month or so he was just managing with pain relief. He went back to live with his mum for a time and then went to a local hospice. I spoke to him on the phone a couple of times when he sounded quite positive about being able to go home once they had got the pain relief right. I did ask whether he might be fit enough to go to the Christmas Market in Birmingham this year, and he laughed. No, that wasn't going to happen.

I had a meeting on the same site as the hospice about a week ago, and dropped in to see him. When I walked in I thought it was the wrong room, and nearly went out again before seeing his name above the bed. He wasn't alert enough to speak. I visited twice more during that week, once speaking to him on the phone beforehand, but each time he couldn't be roused when I was there, and then the news came.

I don't usually dwell on serious or sad topics, but this is the first death of a friend I have experienced. My uncles, aunts and cousins have nearly all died abroad, in the countries where they live. My grandparents were all gone before I was a teenager let alone an adult. I have hardly had to deal with death or grieving, and it is a new and sad experience.

Düsseldorf, November 2017

Speedy, healthy and fishy

There's been too much going on for me to spend much time enjoying my new expanded electrically-lit living space, but I have dipped into the upstairs room most days to turn the lights on and off just for the enjoyment of it. As Lola II pointed out, the downstairs door that was initially so exciting to open and close must be fairly envious now it's getting no particular attention (although I do still experience a slight thrill when I use it). My delight with the upstairs light will no doubt pass into normality eventually, like the door, and the door handles, and the other lights, and the garage, and everything else. But at the moment simply turning a light on and off is a treat. Planning permission for the kitchen has now been granted, so the fact that I've been able to cope with a few other jobs at the same time makes me feel like a superhero.

In the last week at work I managed to implement a development regarding Christmas cards, whereby I let everyone in my local team know that instead of giving them cards I would make a donation to Diabetes UK. I invited them all to do the same, but only two joined me. It worked well for me, and I plan to extend it to include more colleagues next year.

Two weeks ago the evenings were full of mostly badminton - one club night, one match, one tournament and one Christmas meal, and - unusually - we won the match. The other weekday evening disappeared into the longest working day ever. I got caught up in a conversation with the doctors at the end of the day, which was interesting but not particularly important, and gave me no opportunity to extract myself gracefully within a reasonable time.

Our concert went well at the weekend given that I was sight-reading second clarinet because of a player dropping out at short notice with a broken wrist. Playing the tenor saxophone has been pretty good but I'm going back to the baritone sax next term, and looking forward to it. That weekend I also baked a gluten-free lemon drizzle cake and a dairy- and egg-free chocolate cake because Monday was the last club night before Christmas at the other badminton club, and there are players with dietary intolerances.

Tuesday started with a Speed Awareness course. In November I got caught by a mobile speed camera on the way to work doing 37mph in a 30mph zone. That was actually because I was going to work later than usual; at my regular commuting time the traffic is too clogged up to go that fast.

It was an interesting morning in a large group being reminded of speed limits for various types of road and types of vehicle, and spotting hazards in a short video and still photos. Rather than dry figures for stopping distances at various speeds they used the stopping distance at 30mph as the comparator, and told us what speed we would be doing at that point if we were driving at higher speeds, because most of the speed reduction is achieved in the last few seconds of braking. I found out that there are only 35 fixed camera sites in the whole of Warwickshire and not all of them are active at any one time, while there are 60 mobile locations but only three vans (and generally only two out on the roads at a time). I also know now about gateway signs and repeater signs, which are different ways of telling you what the speed limit is.

The key things are that by attending the course I have avoided getting three points on my licence, and I have to avoid getting caught again for three years because in that case prosecution (i.e. points) is unavoidable. Certainly at the moment I'm being much more attentive to speed limits, especially in the spot where I was caught.

That wasn't the only appointment on Tuesday. I followed up with the routine NHS Check that's offered when you're my age in order to estimate your risk of cardiovascular disease. They measure height, weight, BMI, activity, alcohol, smoking, blood pressure and take a blood sample for on-the-spot cholesterol. My results were as I would have expected - very good level of activity, great blood pressure, BMI not bad (borderline overweight, doh! I can't seem to shift this), very little alcohol, no significant family history. My total cholesterol is higher than is desirable but includes a high level of HDL (good cholesterol), so that the ratio of total cholesterol:HDL is well within the ideal range. Overall my risk of having a cardiovascular event (heart attack or stroke) over the next 10 years is 2.7%. The average for my age and sex is 2.6%. I am considering doing something about my cholesterol level. I could certainly cut back a bit on the saturated fat and I haven't been eating much oats, fish, soya or pulses recently - but making up for it over Christmas with fish at least.

There was more to come on Task-based Tuesday - kitchen shops. Now that I have planning permission and an agreed outline plan of the new kitchen, I thought it would be easy to get some help from people whose job it is to design kitchens. How wrong I was. The two shops I visited (one large chain, one small independent) absolutely refuse to do anything for me without detailed architectural plans that define every measurement of the new layout, including location of utilities such as gas and water. They agreed that it was a Catch-22 situation - in order to get help in designing my kitchen I need to give them a detailed design of my kitchen. I have investigated briefly, and there appear to be a number of online tools that may help me.

From Wednesday onwards there were no more appointments and commitments outside work, my evenings were free, and then four days off for Christmas. I planned menus and put in an order at the fishmonger. I actually went for a run on Thursday! and it wasn't bad at all. Work was very quiet as nobody really wants an appointment on the last working day before Christmas, and it gives me a chance to catch up on clearing out the pile of stuff that I've accumulated over the year. Some interesting items in there!

I followed up my Thursday run with Parkrun on Saturday, picked up my order of fishy treats from the fishmonger, then a few jobs in town and then Christmas arrived. The oysters were surprisingly enormous and almost defeated me - they definitely defeated my oyster knife. I was planning to eat half a dozen in each of two meals, but they were so huge that I went with just four at a time and it was plenty.

Now Christmas is almost over and I have to motivate myself into greater activity. I was going to prune the Wisteria but the online gurus seem to be saying February not December, so I'd better wait. I need to get rid of the compost bin and carry on tidying away the various items like flower pots, buckets, planters and such which have seemingly found a permanent home in the garden. There's always something to do, although sitting and reading or watching films has certainly been significant in this household over the last few days.

Fire in the hole

Krakow Botanical Gardens, July 2016

It's always the little things. The big things loom large, and when they are resolved and fade then other big things appear. But the little things - they make me truly happy. I now have electric light in the upstairs spare room.

Electrician Bill brought a trainee sidekick which made things go a little quicker, but even so the baffling history of Lola Towers was resurrected when they found wires that didn't seem to have any purpose, and a switch that ought to have another two-way switch somewhere but no sign of its partner. No wonder Ilf couldn't get to the bottom of it. The pair travelled down a few dead ends before Bill announced 'Fire in the hole' and on came the lights. I ceremonially turned on the radiators and it became a usable room, just a week away from the shortest day of the year. One job crossed off the list, another added - lampshades.

It was a good Tuesday. I love getting things done on a Tuesday. Last Tuesday I went south to visit mum and dad. This Tuesday there was Ilf (finishing the last bit of bathroom painting), Electrician Bill, and a long walk around Leamington to sort out odds and ends and deliver a Christmas card or two, with a badminton match to end the day. Next Tuesday there are three separate appointments already booked in, but you don't get to know about the future, I only write about the past.

The past at this point contains the work Christmas party at a very posh and expensive venue. It was OK. It was the same venue as last year with the same entertainment, which was a DJ 'personality' from Rugby Free Radio breakfast show who is very popular with those of my colleagues who live in Rugby, followed by dancing. The DJ directed a number of activities including the opportunity for one person in the room to win £1000 by answering 10 questions in 1 minute. There were at least 500 people in the room, so it was quite exciting that the one person who won that opportunity was one of our team. Of course she didn't win, partly because of her prior consumption of cocktails and prosecco, and partly because she could barely hear the questions. Then there was sufficient dancing of adequate quality to keep me entertained, although I do miss the old tunes. The only man in our group was also the only doctor and had not joined us on a social event before, but stood up better to the lady-squealing than I did. I'm just not cut out for mixing with actual humans, especially in situations when copious alcohol consumption is the norm.

Lola II also visited at the weekend, and the plan included a visit to the optician, making a start on the huge eBay project, and her home-made Christmas cards. Unfortunately we spent much too much time messing about and given that the upstairs room had no electric light at that point we missed the window of opportunity and it was dark before we were ready to eBay. Never mind - I'm one step nearer with the first box of stuff in the right room, and now I have electric light. What could possibly stop me now?

Lola II and I did travel north to see H+B At Home, but could barely stay for two hours, which is a shame because it was lovely to see people and catch up in person with what's going on. I have other friends in the north-west whom I haven't seen for a few years now, so perhaps next year I'll try to combine two visits and stay a little longer. I have previously offered practical help to clear H+B's basement rooms, and I'm using this public space to confirm that a) this is a serious offer, b) I'm getting quite good at house-emptying, and c) in my experience it really does make a positive difference to have a disinterested party on hand to move matters forward. I know you're reading this. Ask me for some dates.

Lola vs Lola Towers

Photo credit: Hugh

It's been cold - the normal cold of a normal winter, but we were deceived by the mild weather before Christmas into mis-remembering how cold the climate normally is at this time of year. So it felt quite appropriate last week when I went to Badminton Club #2's Christmas dinner, complete with turkey, Christmas pudding and crackers. I much prefer the post-holiday scheduling. So few people signed up to Badminton club #1's traditional pre-Christmas do that we are going out in February, when take-up has been much more enthusiastic.

In the garden, I have spent a protracted and painful time 'pruning' the enormous rose bush. With the bush about 15 feet high and at least 20 feet wide, this effort took up a lot of the weekend and prompted one serious outburst of loud profanity as the horrible thorny branches slashed at my legs through my trousers and threatened to immobilise me by entangling every item of my clothing from above and from below. My legs look as though I have had a violent encounter with an angry cat.

A considerable amount of the foliage landed on the other side of the wall in my neighbour's garden. She is an older woman with some health issues, so I presented myself on her doorstep last Tuesday morning and offered to clear the stuff out - luckily her cousin was staying and offered to help, because it took the two of us at least two hours to get it all into sacks, and two trips to the tip. She now has a great deal more light coming into her living room now that it's not blocked by an enormous rose bush, and she bought me a card and flowers to say thank you - even though it is my rose bush and my neglect that allowed it to get so overgrown. There's a huge pile of the ghastly thorny foliage still on my lawn, but it will have to wait to be bagged and taken to the tip.

The rose bush is just the first skirmish in what is going to be a long campaign of Lola vs The Habitation. For too long have I lived among chaos and disorder, with the garden overgrown and weed-filled, parts of the house in serious disrepair and the garage degenerating and neglected. I have Plans, Big Plans, a Great List of Plans. I hesitate to publish the full list here because I don't want to raise expectations, least of all my own, accustomed as I am to poor outcomes when I have attempted improvements in the past - the appalling airing cupboard is just one example that reminds me of this fact every day. But I am determined, even though at the first sign of some extra holiday I turn my back on the whole mess and plan to go off skiing.

So I arranged for a Man to come on Tuesday to size up the work needed on the garage, with a rival Man scheduled to come another time. The garage is likely to need some remedial brickwork and pointing, repairs to the roof (which is asbestos and therefore challenging), new window frames and windows, attention paid to electrics and lighting, the rot on the side door dealt with, guttering replaced where it has fallen off, and the main garage door either repaired or replaced.

Initially I was going to start my campaign on Lola Towers with the kitchen, because that's actually what I would most like to improve by replacing pretty much everything it contains. But the prospect is so daunting that I thought I'd start with something simpler in the hope that it would give me confidence, and perhaps introduce me to a reliable local builder since Alf has disappeared to jobs I presume are more profitable and/or convenient than mine. Thinking about it, I might even get back in touch with Elf, although I'm not sure he's the right man for the job.

Media binge

Peckover House, August 2014

It's been full steam ahead self-indulgent media binge for days, ever since we were 'sent home' early on Christmas Eve. That's the difference between working in the diabetes service and the dietetic department - in dietetics we had to stay as long as it took in case a tube feeding patient arrived at 4pm on Christmas Eve. Things are more relaxed in diabetes, although there's no reason why they should be, as people are newly diagnosed with diabetes right through Christmas, and need more support than a feeding tube ever did. It's just a different approach.

Anyway, I've done a bit of cooking, a bit of cleaning, a bit of tidying up and admin, and the rest of the time I have been immersed in a sea of entertainment - radio, TV, iPlayer, audio books, real books, podcasts, blogs, DVDs and CDs. Starting with 8 out of 10 Cats (TV), Carols from Kings (CD) followed by Guys and Dolls (CD), then there was a bit of Cabin Pressure (iPlayer radio) - the final two episodes sustain the high quality of the whole series, and I can thoroughly recommend it. Especially the one when they go on their safety training.

What next? I've been reading J. G. Farrell's 'The Siege of Krishnapur' which is a bit heavy going, and listening to all my usual podcasts, including Oscar Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'. I caught up on iPlayer (radio) with David Sedaris 'Santaland' in which he relates his time as an elf at Christmas in Macy's department store in New York, and an episode of 'The Museum of Curiosity' from a few years ago on Radio 4. There was a blast of St Matthew Passion as an interlude, and then I got stuck into TV films: 'Nanny McPhee', 'The Snowman', and then 'White Christmas', which I find I have never seen - I assumed that I had.

In between all of this I managed to nip to the Pub Next Door for a cheeky gin and tonic. And, of all things, I went out for a run. I haven't been running since the clocks changed and it got dark and cold and wet and I started working full time, but a couple of friends somehow managed to get me fired up again, even though they don't run with me and one doesn't even live within 200 miles. The power of the Interwebs, who'd have thought?  I wasn't that much slower than before despite my two months off, but I felt decidedly shaky after the event. Muscles not used for a while, that sort of thing.

The media binge continued on Boxing Day with 'Cool Runnings' and 'Back to the Future 2', followed by media bingeing of a different kind - updating the badminton club website with new pictures from our Christmas do this year. 'Big Fat Quiz of the Year' (TV), a couple of episodes of iPlayer radio 'Concrete Cow', and onwards to Saturday with 'Sunshine on Leith' (DVD), more podcasts, more St Matthew Passion (it's very long). By the end of Saturday my legs were feeling as if they had both been smashed with sledgehammers. Dad always told me exercise is a bad idea. I've also got a feeling that I am coming down with something chesty and headachey, but we'll see what develops.

Saturday finished with an episode of the Italian crime TV series 'Inspector Montalbano' which Mr A has been addicted to for some time. I had nearly had enough of media by Sunday, but I still managed to finish the audio and the real books and squeeze in the movie 'August: Osage Country' (warning to Lola II and Mr M: not only is there Julia Roberts but there's a whole ton of conflict), listen to the rest of the St Matthew Passion (it's really very long indeed), more podcasts (including the Mayo and Kermode film review show on 5 Live), and more 'Concrete Cow' on iPlayer radio. At the time of writing I was thinking of actually leaving the house to go and see 'Paddington' at the real live cinema, but if it is swarming with kids like it was earlier in the day I'll be giving that a miss and perhaps shorten my jeans, which is a non-media job that has been displaced for the whole four day holiday shindig.

And then it will be back to the real world again.

Christmas parties

If you're waiting for the post about SGLT2 inhibition (and I'm not sure why you would be), it's on its way, but things more exciting and noteworthy have been cropping up to postpone the pleasure. The last few days have produced anecdotes that made me think "That would be great for the blog", and I'm writing this when I should really be working on the family calendar, and I've got to go to town in a bit, so time is short.

Short anecdote about a patient first: it was the first appointment of the day, the patient was slightly early, and as we walk from the waiting area to my room I generally ask how things are going in a general, casual everyday manner. The patient said "Pretty good, I've lost a stone [14 lb, about 6.4 kg]."

That's a good start to a consultation. When we're sitting down, I follow up with "So tell me, how did you manage to lose all that weight?" The patient looked at me in an odd way, as if I were a little bit dim, and said "I just did what you told me to do!"

So that was a good start to the day.

Further anecdotes result from the slew of Christmas parties that I've been at - the second and third were on Friday and Saturday nights. The second party was at a large hotel and conference centre, where at least three different events were being held concurrently, parking was being marshalled, and we were met at the entrance by a couple of burly security men asking to look in our handbags.

"What can they be looking for?" I wonder. "Has there been violence with weapons in the past? Do I look like someone who is hiding a knife in her bag? Are they expecting jihadists?" My naive questions are answered as I join our party in the main hall. One of my colleagues greets me with "Did they search your bag? I can't take my coat off yet, I've got a bottle of vodka in my pants" and she showed me the bulge in the front of her dress. Not only was she aware of the measures being taken to safeguard the takings of the hotel bar, but she had gone to great lengths to bypass them. I last saw her as she was being helped from the dance floor.

I am regarded as a mixture between an alien and a prude because I always drive to and from these parties, along with my other non-drinking (usually pregnant) colleagues. A different approach to alcohol applied to the third Christmas party with a different team, who had decided to use the teenage principle of 'pre-loading'. We were invited to pre-party cocktails, where I found a couple of colleagues who had rather overdone it. We all made it to the venue (a Masonic Hall) but they didn't last long enough to have their starters before having to be collected and taken home by a husband - I found out later that they had been pre-pre-loading with wine at another colleague's house even before the cocktails.

With two out of nine of our party already down and out, we enjoyed the meal and waited to see what would happen next. It was entirely organised by and for the hospital staff and was fundraising for dementia care, so I was expecting a live band and a raffle alternating with the disco, as is usual at this type of event. Instead, a tall, flamboyantly dressed woman introduced as 'Sabrina' entered the room and started to dance and mime along to the music. A surprisingly muscular, thick-waisted, slim-hipped woman...

As drag acts go, this was a corker. Not too naughty, very funny, it had me grinning and clapping and laughing until my face hurt. After the first number, one of my colleagues, a lovely chatty lady now wearing party antlers, stage-whispered to her neighbour "I think it's a man dressed as a woman!"

She and I were first on the dance floor when the disco started, and for a change the DJ had adopted the approach of playing music that made people want to dance - surprisingly rare in my experience. I've only got one more Christmas party coming up, and I doubt that it will be better than this last one.

An interlude

Groombridge Place, June 2013

Christmas has come and gone, the New Year celebrations passed, and I have left one job behind and am looking forward to a different one. But in the meantime, it has been by turns restful and hectic.

I was working on the Monday and Tuesday before Christmas Day, and Mr A was in charge of preparations. He did a great job, and we had a delicious seafood medley for Christmas dinner, plenty of sitting on the sofa in front of the fire, watching DVDs, reading some books and even watching a couple of TV programmes. I was back at work on the Monday and Tuesday before New Years Day, but those were my last two days there. I had scheduled patients, but most of them didn't turn up. The most reliable were those with Gestational Diabetes, for obvious reasons. A year ago I enjoyed the predictability of the ante-natal clinic, but ended up tyrannised by the inexorable progress of pregnancy.

We had no plans for New Years Eve until the very last minute. I had anticipated quite a long and busy last day at work, but it wasn't like that at all. The Diabetes Specialist Nurses told me that sometimes it can be crazy busy, but for some reason this year there were few referrals, and we even had time to spend a break together in the hospital coffee shop. I cleared my computer, cleared my drawers, cleared my desk, cleared the room and managed to get away mid-afternoon.

Mr A suggested that we try and gatecrash the party at the Pub Next Door, by pulling rank as Very Important Neighbours. Their ticket-only party had been advertised for a while, but I had thought I would be too tired from the working and the driving, so we hadn't signed up. We found, however, that the party wasn't happening after all, and it was to be a fairly normal night at the pub, so there was no need to call in any favours, we could just go next door as normal customers.

Of course, Smurf couldn't let an opportunity pass for some sort of mischief, so he was dressed as Elvis, in a white shiny outfit and big wig that must have been awfully sweaty at the end of the night. He and the other bar staff were downing shots at a rate that made me wonder how they could still stand up by the end of the evening. Towards midnight they turned the music up and Mr A and I were first on the dancefloor, the traditional countdown to New Year took place, there was a bit more opportunity for dancing and then Mr A and I went home. We have managed to avoid the staid married couple story of 'can't be bothered to stay up until midnight' for several years now, in various interesting and enjoyable settings.

My new job starts in a couple of weeks, and I have Plans of all sorts for the intervening time. I started with planning a trip to London and another trip north, but mentioned to Mr A that it would be a perfect opportunity for a snow holiday. He took up the challenge with gusto.

Mr A has now admitted defeat with both the skiing and the snowboarding. His legs, both broken in his mid-20s, were poorly set and his feet and shins cannot be comfortably accommodated in ski or snowboard boots with any success, even in the boots that were ludicrously expensive because they were moulded to the shape of his legs. But always optimistic, he started looking into the possibility of renting a type of ski bike that we had seen on the slopes during our last snow holiday.

With less than a week's notice, we are now booked for a week in Austria. Since I have a day or two at leisure, I spent a couple of hours practising at our 'local' SnowDome, which was a very good idea indeed. I progressed from just about remembering how to snowplough right through to parallel turns in the space of two hours, which has made me a million times more confident, and means I'm looking forward to our holiday a great deal more.

So I will be absent from this blog for a while, but with any luck Lola II may fill the hiatus. She was planning a blog post a while ago, and she has been on holiday as well, so maybe she will surprise us!

No idea why this is in one of the hospital corridors - the caption is 'Negev'

Nearing the end

The Assembly, Leamington Spa

As a parting gift to my current department, I have thrown together a draft of another new patient information leaflet, this one about Exercise and Type 1 Diabetes, which I will no doubt share on this blog in the fullness of time. I can tell you now, though, of all the difficult things you have to do to stay healthy if you have Type 1 Diabetes, managing activity and exercise is one of the most difficult. I'm not even talking about competitive sports, it might just be walking about for an afternoon.

I was inadequately prepared for Christmas in a multi-disciplinary team, which is what the Diabetes Team turns out to be. There was I, thinking it was a collection of individuals with little in common except a passion for diabetes and incessant complaining, and I was hoping that Christmas would be over soon so that the endless supply of cakes and chocolate would cease. (I have maintained my weight, which I consider to be a significant achievement, by dint of eating nothing at all in the evenings.)

So I was surprised when I was given presents (in order of physical size and weight) by the diabetes consultants, by the Diabetes Unit (which I think comprises the nurses and admin, but I got quite a vague answer when I asked), by my team leader, by RSB, and by my other Diabetes Dietitian colleague. I did not anticipate this, and had prepared no presents at all, although I did have the multiple cakes and vine leaves to contribute to departmental catering. I am the Scrooge of Diabetes, but it can't be helped, it's too late now.

My leaving buffet after work on Thursday was delightful. Colleagues had brought in two slow cookers full of vegetarian lasagne and chilli con carne, and there was rice, bread, tortilla chips and rather a lot of stuffed vine leaves, plus cake. As a leaving present I was given more than I felt I deserved in M&S vouchers, and made a short speech that I don't think was too awful. It all ended at a reasonable time too, and instead of going home to pack like I should have given that I was moving out the next day, I went to badminton instead, and packed up on Friday night.

So now I am no longer a resident of two different towns, and my possessions were spread over a large surface area of the house on Friday because I was too tired to put anything away. On Friday night I was in bed by 9.30 p.m. and didn't get up in the morning until nearly 11 a.m, and on Saturday I managed a trip to do final bits of Christmas shopping but that's about it. Sunday was better, with a good deal of tidying up, wrapping presents and a trip to the supermarket with Mr A for things he considers essential for satisfactory celebration of the winter festival season.

With only four working days spread over two weeks, I am looking forward to finishing, and have a few exciting plans for the nearly three weeks I will have without work. Mr A has been doing all the Christmas-related card-writing, and I have done absolutely none this year. I may possibly manage some emailed greetings, but even that is looking unlikely. I have received actual physical cards from four known readers of this blog, so thank you very much H&B, CERNoise, Landrover Man/Bee Lady and Lola II/Mr M. And season's greetings to everyone else who knows me.

Commissioning diabetes services

Cotswold Falconry Centre, April 2013

At this very moment, right now this instant, I should be getting on with my admin. After a triumph last weekend when I finally, FINALLY managed to switch energy companies, I thought I would keep up the momentum and finish the deal with sorting all the bits of paper heaped up in an enormous pile.

So far this weekend, I have been obliged to go to two, count 'em, TWO Christmas dinners, as well as having my hair cut and going to the greengrocer and making two cakes. Because I am leaving work and there is only one weekend left before my leaving 'party' and I want to stuff vine leaves next weekend and that takes ages. So cakes must be baked this weekend, but I can't do another one because I have run out of cinnamon, so I have to do my admin. Except for the small matter of blogging.

Christmas dinners: one was on Friday night in a local pub/restaurant with my home badminton club that I haven't played with for six months, and the other was on Saturday night in a posh hotel with the Dietitians from the hospital where I used to work a year ago. On balance I probably liked the second one better, because there was a live band and lots of dancing. But the first was very good too.

Cakes: one spiced with fruit, one lemon drizzle.

My leaving 'party': this is taking place after work in a couple of weeks, when a modest buffet will celebrate two people leaving and one going on maternity leave.

Work is a bit strange because I will be leaving in less than a month, so I have much less patience for all the annoying things that happen on a daily basis. Colleagues are constantly complaining about all sorts of things, some of which are genuinely troublesome, but a lot of which are just giving them the pleasurable sensation of feeling put upon. Nothing much has changed in my world, except that I have at last finished the Carbohydrate Reference Tables and sent them for approval by the Trust communications police via the approved route, and have heard nothing at all for two weeks.

The main complaint at the moment concerns a plan by the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to improve the service given to people with stable Type 1 diabetes who are registered with City GPs. The CCG is the official body now authorised to commission services and spend the NHS's money, and it wishes to discharge these patients from care within the city hospitals to be seen in an 'intermediate' service in the community instead. The advantage to the patients is that clinics should be easier to get to and there will be some evening and weekend appointments. There is no change planned for patients who live further afield in the catchment area served by the Trust. People with Type 2 diabetes under the care of the City CCG have already been discharged in this way, but they are back under the care of their GPs rather than being seen in a specialist diabetes service.

In itself, this plan is a good thing. The difficulty lies with the bitter internecine conflict between staff in the Diabetes service based in the two hospitals within the Trust. I may have written long ago about the attempts being made to bring the two locations together somehow, but we have not only remained as two separate units, but the divisions between the two seem to have increased. All this is helped not at all by feuding Consultants and an extreme lack of nurses that is due to become worse when three nurses reduce their hours and one goes on maternity leave in January. Despite the lack of consensus and the lack of staffing, the CCG continues to press forward with the plan.

Some of the difficulty was brought into the open recently because we offer two completely different types of Structured Education, which NICE says should be offered to people diagnosed with diabetes soon after diagnosis. Quite a lot of information, knowledge and skill is needed to manage diabetes in the best possible way, and there are many courses available, some of which are based on a national curriculum and others developed locally. Suitable courses must be evidence-based, and must demonstrate that participants have better outcomes in their diabetes management after they have been on the course.

The two hospitals in the Trust currently offer different Structured Education packages, one developed locally and one licensed nationally. The CCG wishes to offer just one type of Structured Education in the new service, and it is proving difficult and divisive to decide which one this will be. Emotions are running high, as various people have a deep commitment to one or other of the courses, and not only seem unable to decide which to choose, but also seem unable to settle upon a method by which the choice should be made.

The decision to discharge these patients into the intermediate service has also been made seemingly without adequate consideration of the practicalities. How will appointments be made, and by whom? Who exactly will be seeing the patients, and what level of qualifications should they have? Where will they be seeing the patients? What data will need to be recorded, and where and how will it be kept and made available to people who need to see it? How will patients contact the key doctors, nurses and dietitians? A date has been circulated for when the new service will start, without any reassurance that these questions have been considered.

The more forcefully that the new service is pushed, the more resistance is developing, and where I sit and have my lunch all goodwill has evaporated towards the instigators and supporters of the scheme. It is unusual for a day to go by without someone starting up some sort of complaint about the whole situation, and all and sundry chime in, and my pleasant relaxing lunch break is over.

I am very much looking forward to the new job, and it was very useful chatting at the Dietitians' Christmas do. A colleague asked how many days I would be working, and I was able to turn to the manager (who was sitting next to me) and ask, "How many days a week will I be working?" Her answer was "At least four," so that's a bit clearer now. I'm not exactly sure what I will be doing, but another colleague said that she had trained my predecessor for a renal clinic (kidney damage is one of the complications of poorly-controlled diabetes). I was also told that the Diabetes Dietitians in the Trust who are based in a couple of other locations have regular meetings as a team, so I should be able to draw on the expertise of more experienced colleagues for support and for clinical supervision.

Stop Press: my Carbohydrate Reference Tables have been returned by the official people who approve such publications, and who now want us to get written feedback from five service users before approval will be given. And so it goes on...

Festive seasoning

Thank you, Judging Covers!

The run-up to Christmas has been in turn stressful, enjoyable, frustrating and, at last, relaxing.

At work, there's been a lot to do, and fewer people than usual to do it. Last week was busy, and I was working with a student, which made it quite difficult to keep track of what had and hadn't been done, and what needed doing next. I was out on Tuesday at a study day (more about this in a future post), then on Thursday my clinic was relatively quiet, allowing me to enjoy a social Christmas lunch in the canteen. It was proposed as a leaving party for me and a colleague who is going on maternity leave, but my departure had become a little uncertain. I do now have a confirmed start date in the new job, towards the end of January, but both my current and future managers were fighting over me for a day or two! It was a little disconcerting, and not at all welcome.

I was at work yesterday (Monday), and was interested to find that nothing special was happening on the wards, although I spotted a tired-looking man in a Santa outfit reading some medical notes, who might have been one of the junior doctors. Otherwise, there were a few nurses wearing antlers or halos, but patients' stories today were so sad that it was difficult to spread any festive cheer, because who would choose to be in hospital over Christmas unless they were so unwell that they were forced to?

I'm told that some years there's very little to do in the hospital on Christmas Eve. That wasn't the case this year - there were more referrals than usual. We blitzed it in the morning, only to find that more had come in by lunchtime. Some were, frankly, taking the mickey, like the patient who just wanted a cooked breakfast, and another referred because they had been transferred from another hospital on supplements and the nurse didn't want them to become 'lost in the system'. An admirable sentiment, but not today. Diabetics struggling with blood sugar control and patients who had lost a bit too much weight had to give way to patients not able to swallow who needed tube feeding or textured diet and thickened fluids.

I am having nearly two weeks off work, so I also need to ensure all the information about my current patients and their priorities is made available to the Dietitians who'll be looking after my caseload while I'm away. I feel lucky that I was only 30 minutes late leaving the hospital after work.

At home, the build-up to Christmas has been steady, with some notable highlights. We thought we would like to spend our TV watching points on a tablet PC, so we went to review the options at the only high street electronics retailer that allows our points to be converted to vouchers. The experience was underwhelming, but never mind, we ordered the vouchers and returned to the shop at the weekend - the last weekend before Christmas. We were prepared for crowds, but there were none - neither were there any shop assistants. When we finally found one, and indicated what we'd like to buy, we were told: "There aren't any. We're sold out."

On the weekend before Christmas? The busiest shopping weekend there's likely to be in the year? Not only were they sold out, they refused to accept our money against an advance order, because this is impossible if there are no products in the warehouse, or some other nonsense. So we took our vouchers home, and thought about it.

A similar high street electronics retailer has recently gone bust. If this large retailer is unable to take our money at this critical time of year, we were very reluctant to hang on to the vouchers, which would turn to dust should the retailer join its close competitor in liquidation. So we considered our options.

Mr A's mother is now in a nursing home, and his dad asked our advice on a basic DVD player that she could have. Our DVD player is a suitable one, so we thought we would give her that one and upgrade our own system - but we had more money in vouchers than the cost of a new and better DVD player.

I've never had a printer of my own, and although I've been able to connect to Mr A's printer some of the time, his setup changes so frequently that mostly I have to go up and ask him to print stuff for me (or print personal things at work). So as well as the DVD player, I now have a lovely all-in-one printer and scanner - and there was some money left for a new toner cartridge for Mr A's printer too.

Unfortunately, now that we've had time to look at installing the new DVD player, our TV is such an ancient model that the all-powerful new DVD player doesn't have the ancient connectors that are needed to connect it up. Mr A has spent some time looking at various options, including buying a new TV, but we're most likely to buy just a SCART-HDMI converter and wait until the ancient TV breaks down before replacing it.

Lastly, I know it's a little vulgar to boast about one's Christmas presents, but... I WON ANOTHER BLOG PRIZE! On one of the book review blogs I read, a prize of 12 books for Christmas was on offer. I thought twice about entering, because despite reading every post on the blog, very few books that they review are ones that I think I might read. But I entered anyway, and not long ago a very large box arrived containing my prize. I put it under the Christmas camera-tree to await the big day, and this morning Mr A and I opened it, only to find that the wonderful people at Judging Covers had wrapped each book individually!

I'm looking forward to a completely different type of reading for a few weeks - much less weighty than my usual selections. And in the New Year I'll be driving far more miles every week, so I might at last start to get through more audio books in the car. Happy holidays to everyone, and lots of good reading for 2013!

Procrastination

Brixham, August 2012

Each time I post a blog, I think "That was fun, but I wish I had more time to write. Why don't I start the next one straight away?" And then I don't.

This year, and last year, I was the nominated family member to produce the family calendar. This means collecting photos and uploading them and inserting them into the online calendar template and then ordering the resulting calendar for four households. It's quite a lot of work. This year, I thought "I have some pictures left over - why don't I start next year's calendar straight away?" Of course, I haven't.

The car is a filthy mess, and with the occasional early morning horizontal sunshine, I need to clean the windscreen properly on the inside. A job that will take, maximum, 15 minutes. I can't even remember how long I've been meaning to do this. And the interior needs hoovering, but that hardly features on the list.

I stupidly volunteered to be the Secretary of the Monday badminton club, where the only real duty is to get the members of the club registered with Badminton England in October. I finally managed to get it done last week, only to have them come back with an additional job because I'd registered the two under-18's that we have under the wrong code (they are junior club members, not members of a junior club. Doh). I'm not going to predict when that correction will be done.

Thankfully, things that have immovable deadlines tend to get done, like job applications and cleaning when we have visitors. It helps that we have very few visitors. But even things that you might imagine having immovable deadlines don't get done, like Christmas greetings. I would like to wish all who know me a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, because you probably won't be getting cards this year. Postage is extortionate nowadays, anyway.

Things I do spend my time on include watching films with Mr A on the sofa. Last weekend we watched two: The Band Wagon (with Fred Astaire) and Marathon Man (with Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Oliver). Also: reading books, as you will know, and reading the magazines that come from my various subscriptions to professional, charitable and academic institutions. Oh yes, I spend quite a bit of time reading a variety of blogs, and dealing with email. But we all do that, don't we?

At work, we are gearing up for Christmas, with the cardiac wards well ahead of any others in getting their decorations out of storage. There is now tinsel a-plenty in the Dietetic office, shedding shiny strands all over carpets and clothing. We have the office party on Saturday with dinner and dancing, and then a special lunch the following week in honour of two of us who are leaving: one to have a baby, and me.

I have been juggling all these employment options for what seems like months, although looking back it has only been about six weeks. The interview for the nearest job was this morning, and if I had been successful, I might not have had to leave my current job, because there was a possibility of doing both old and new jobs part time. But they were admirably quick in feeding back that I wasn't successful. With near-perfect timing, the HR department from the first job contacted me yesterday to say that all the pre-employment checks had been done and do I still want the job? So I will be contacting them again tomorrow to let them know that I do. So the lunch in honour of two of us who are leaving can actually celebrate two of us leaving, rather than just one.

There has been talk of a buffet lunch in the office as well, and a 'Secret Santa' event where gifts for no more than £5 are bought and randomly allocated among us. There has been some confusion over these ideas, partly because we are running out of dates to hold events. I have, unusually, managed to purchase a Secret Santa gift, but now am slightly concerned that it will not be distributed as planned. The only other time I agreed to take part in a Secret Santa event was when I was working in Birmingham, and I spent a very unhappy lunchtime in shops in the city centre, being jostled by other shoppers, wholly unable to find anything suitable, and getting crosser by the minute.

Work on the wards continues as usual, with the added lottery of odd wards being closed due to norovirus. So far none of my wards have succumbed, but I expect it will happen before the end of the winter. I am quite looking forward to seeing how Christmas is celebrated in a large hospital, especially as I am led to believe that as many patients as possible are turfed out and admissions tend to be few, so there may not be all that much to do. Of course people will continue to have accidents and emergencies, but if we're lucky, not too many will involve malnutrition.