Tuesday

Spain, November 2016

It's getting ridiculous how I spend my Tuesday off running around like a mad thing Getting Stuff Done rather than enjoying some time to myself with a book and a cup of tea. Not that there aren't plentiful cups of tea, but usually accompanying at least one other activity. Unlike Saturdays, when I try to have at least a bit of a break.

Last Tuesday felt particularly hectic:

• Set the alarm to wake up, because...
• Dropped the car off for an oil change and service, highlighting problem with tracking and/or steering
• Bought some milk and posted a letter on the way home
• Cooked mushroom and egg on toast for breakfast (this is a treat for a day off)
• Made four lunches for the rest of the week from interesting buckwheat pasta bought on holiday
• Contacted AEG customer support to enquire about certain operations of new microwave oven - did it over the web but should have phoned because response has not been forthcoming
• Phoned chimney sweeps and then realised this would have to wait because...
• Planning how to buy ski boots and this is more urgent than chimney sweeping
• Arranged to meet friend in Birmingham for lunch (less urgent than ski boots)
• Ordered ski helmet for collection at the weekend
• Lunch consisting of leftover soup and salads
• Garage called to inform me that one tyre was damaged to the point that I was fortunate it hadn't exploded
• Three more phone calls for various enquiries and appointments
• Started writing blog about insulin pump training day
• Cleared utility room ready for disassembly of cupboard in order to enable fitting of stopcock push-button valve
• Changed keysafe combination for kitchen fitters (I have a different combination when I'm expecting tradesmen)
• Scheduled future plans for replacing bathroom radiator
• Shopped for plastic tubs on the way to collect the car
• Came home and organised more kitchen stuff into new plastic tubs
• Drove to B&Q to buy a shelf for the kitchen
• Drove on to work in order to attend meeting for patients on insulin pumps who are not achieving their aims, but the time had been changed so I missed the first two hours
• Drove on to meditation with Buddhists. We are looking at the archetypes who comprise the Mandala of the Five Buddhas, and to be honest the discussion is not doing much for me, but the meditation is good and it's nice to have company for some of the day.

Not every Tuesday is this busy, but most of them are. I used to wonder how I managed to work full time, but I must have done all this stuff at the weekends. Since that Tuesday I've had a whole week followed by another Tuesday. Plumber Ulf came to sort out the stop tap business and while he was here he changed my bathroom taps and pipes so that it now takes less than a day to fill the bath. There's been badminton, I collected the ski helmet, and I've also done a lot of floor waxing and polishing so the living room is lethal when wearing socks. And at the weekend the soul of the television was stolen with a quiet 'pop' and faint smell of burning. It was about 15 years old, so fair enough.

In between all this I've still been going to work, but there's very little new to report on that front. Patients continue to be interesting but impossible to write about, I enjoy delivering the group education as well as the one-to-one consultations, but I'm always happy to go home at the end of the day.

In which very little indeed happens

Pharmacy museum, Krakow

A bonus early blog post today, because I know the weekend's going to be full of stuff so I'd better do this now. However, there is nothing of any particular note to report, just the usual saxophone and clarinet choir on the first Saturday of the month, more slogging in the garden to tame the wisteria, meditation on Tuesdays, Thursday night badminton starting again after the summer, and what is turning into a near-regular Wednesday night pub quiz. And the Great British Bake Off for a few more weeks.

There's been a bit of excitement with postal services - I've agreed to make Lola II another dress and the fabric failed to arrive for ages despite much chasing. I ordered a hard case and a stand for the new baritone saxophone, and there were some difficulties with delivering both of those as well. Luckily I've got helpful neighbours who will accept stupidly large packages, although I had to haul one of the neighbours out in his slippers to move his car from in front of my garage - yes, the car is still going into the garage and I haven't stopped being just a little bit excited every time.

Slightly more interesting were the visit from the architect to draw up plans for the house preparatory to designing the new kitchen, and a Barn Dance. I can't remember having been to a Barn Dance before, but I was almost too tired to enjoy it. It was in a marquee in a field with a fish and chip supper included, and six of us Stripped the Willow and Gay Gordoned along with the natives of Old Milverton until a very late hour.

I've finally started the big Ebay project, which is intended to monetise dad's eclectic collection of postal mechanisation ephemera. Contrarily, I have started with some other random items from the loft so that I get the hang of how it all works and get into the groove of putting things up for auction on a pretty regular basis. It's a project that will probably run for a year at least, so you can expect occasional updates.

At work I have had a slight disagreement with a colleague about what exactly my priorities should be - I was asked to cover a clinic for a colleague at very short notice, which meant I wasn't available for the regular clinic also taking place. The benefit of this contretemps is that there's a chance that my priorities will be assigned formally at last, rather than me having to make my own choices based on nothing more than what I think is the right thing to do.

It's not entirely surprising that my blog audience is not growing given this poor quality of content, although strangely the day after I wrote this my blog audience did indeed increase by one individual - welcome to medusarog! And today there may be another - Parkrun Simon! I like to name check each known reader - I think everyone's had a mention now. If you're reading and I don't know about you (or have forgotten), I'd be delighted to say hello. Welcome to the place where, really, nothing much happens at all, and join the few regular readers in my small circle of family and friends.

Pharmacy museum, Krakow

I have a social life

Paris, April 2016

The trouble with socialising is that it makes me tired. That's pretty much the only disadvantage, so I'm trying to do it a bit more. Matters beyond my control meant that last week I had three evening events on three consecutive days, which was more than I would have liked, but I have survived.

First there was a delayed birthday party for two of us at work, held at the house of the other birthday girl which contains a fully equipped games room with pinball, pool, space invaders, a boxing machine and goodness knows what else. It isn't actually her house; it belongs to her daughter and son-in-law and their three children, but she and her husband live in the annexe. The rest of the family was away on holiday, so we used the games room, ate takeaway curry, and I even had a tour of the house. I can't begin to describe the contents - bling, glamour, expense, and Things Everywhere You Look. Artifacts. Pictures. Murals. It was enormous, extravagant, over-the-top. I can barely manage to maintain Lola Towers; thinking of all the work that would have to go into keeping this mansion in good condition made me slightly faint. It was extraordinary.

The second event was the badminton club BBQ which had been planned for about six months, but on the scheduled day everyone was on holiday or busy and only four players plus one partner were available. So we ditched the BBQ idea and the five of us played pool instead, which was actually great fun. I haven't played pool for many years, but I wasn't too bad at it. All but one of the games I played ended with a foul shot, so I wouldn't say any of us was particularly skillful.

Last was a birthday party held by old friends whom I hadn't seen for some time, with a pirate theme. For a change I put in a bit of effort to create a pirate costume. It was a good do, although I think they suffered from everyone being on holiday in the same way as we did for the BBQ. The live band was tremendous - as the third evening out in a row I would have left well before the end if it hadn't been for the music.

The LTRP has paused briefly, although I'm still trying to make the garden look a bit better. I ordered some perennials (6 random plants of 4 different types for £5) which turned out to be foxglove, lavender, aquilegia and echinacea. They came as tiny plugs and before they all died I've managed to pot them up, They're on the windowsill to see which survive, then they're going into the garden and if they die, they die. It's survival of the fittest out there. [Subsequent note - all the lavender plants seem to have died already.]

The other project I've embarked on is to try and manage the amount of food I'm eating, which has drifted into 'out of control' territory. I spend all day helping other people to manage their intake, coming up with all sorts of plans and ideas, but I can't seem to implement anything sensible for myself. I may or may not write more about this, but it will depend on how successful I am.

That reminds me - I've been working on a website to support people who want to cut their carbohydrate intake to almost nothing (less than 40g carb a day), and it's going really well so far. I've been lucky to have had a bit of time recently to spend on it (because everyone is away on holiday) but I've still got a few more ideas. A few people at work have seen it and they haven't ordered me to take it down, so that's good. There was talk of incorporating it into the main hospital website, but when I initially asked the IT department if they would help they said 'no' so I'm reluctant to relinquish control now that I've done all the work.

Brief car update - since the main dealer pronounced the air conditioning unit to be a terminal case due to stone chip damage, it has been working perfectly. I took it to my usual garage anyway as arranged, and they agreed with me. We concluded that the affair made no sense, commented in a British fashion on the relative uselessness of air conditioning with only one or two warm days a year (although that day happened to be one of them) and I took myself and the car off home.

Moûtiers town square, April 2016

I am absurdly delighted about a car in a garage

Compton Verney, July 2016

A few events stand out over the past couple of weeks - my birthday has been and gone without too much fuss, although the presents I was given by Lola II and Mr M are outstanding. I received six different packets of Polish soup, four different nut butters, decaffeinated Darjeeling tea, the piano music for the song 'Let It Go' from the film 'Frozen', and a pack of letters that I wrote to my family in the early 1990's. I've read about half of them, and it's been quite a tense experience. I'm hoping that there might be some suitable material to reproduce in a blog post, but not so far.

Lola II came to visit (and to deliver my presents) and we wandered around Leamington and tried a new lunch venue - a pub called The Drawing Board recently taken over by the same manager who used to run the Red Lion at Hunningham. I'd go again. Lola II went to the optician and we browsed in various shops and ate large slabs of cake before coming back and watching a DVD.

On Sunday we visited Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park and enjoyed most of the collection. We were guided through the Folk Objects and Folk Art, which I think I liked the most - objects and art created by ordinary people rather than professional artists. I am most scornful of a 'sculpture' on the lawn entitled 'Untitled Boulder' which is... a boulder. It isn't even a very interesting-looking boulder. The most that the 'artist' contributed to this 'art' was to decide which way up it should go; he couldn't even be bothered to give it a name. But the rest of the visit was fine.

Compton Verney Folk Objects collection

After Lola departed I mowed the lawn and chopped down even more of the garden, and managed to take some of the debris to the tip on Tuesday. And Olf (the garage man) finally completed the work on the garage! The door to the street now has a working lock, and I can now use it as a practical garage. In fact, I have now put the car in it! This is seriously exciting. There is a yellow sign that suggests the road is going to be dug up and resurfaced next week, so parking is likely to be disrupted and having a working garage may be handy.

I cannot begin to explain how exciting this is

Since that happened I've had a bit of a busy spell, not least when I forgot about some patient education I was supposed to be delivering and received a phone call asking where I was. Very embarrassing, and not an experience that I care to repeat. Entirely my fault, too, because it was clearly in my diary. I was only a quarter of an hour late, but still.

And then I went to Carlisle via Manchester where I visited H+B who are as well as can be expected (and thank you very much for lunch and hospitality). I was hosted in Carlisle by H+G whose converted barn is being re-thatched, so I have learned a bit about what that entails (4 weeks, 4 Polish workers, a LOT of money).

Thankfully the weekend weather was glorious, and we walked dogs and went into town to eat at a new Italian restaurant which had been recommended as 'authentic' by a number of people. It was not what we were expecting - in the basement of a converted church, it was a surprise to find it carpeted, with waitresses in smart black outfits and white gloves to deliver the food, which was very tasty. But still, white gloves? Then we danced the night away to Alabama 3 at the most sweaty gig I can remember - Carlisle not being known for its sultry summer weather, the venue really had no way of making things any cooler.

We'd both walked quite a long way

Then back home via Tebay motorway services (the best in the country) where I bought far too much artisanal goods (meat pie, cheese, crackers, sausage, brownie) and then to Ikea to have a look at their kitchens. And finally on Tuesday a trip to the car dealership so they could diagnose the problem with the air conditioning in my car, which they declared to be terminal. I have made an appointment to get a second opinion from my local garage, but it's not looking good. Thank goodness we only get one or two hot days a year in this country.

Vroom beep beep

The car-buying ordeal is over. I have a car. It is a SEAT Ibiza, and it is white. At this point, I should include a stylish photo of me and the car, but for some reason I have not been taking many photos lately and I keep forgetting to do it during the daytime. So instead, I bring you a scarecrow dressed as a chef with a sheep under one arm.

Harrogate, July 2015

It only took about six weeks to buy the car, and a lot of that was waiting because the most suitable was one being returned by a customer who replaces their car every year. I cannot believe that some people go through this every year, but maybe it's easier if all you have to do is choose the colour and accessories and hand over the cash on a monthly basis.

I got through three different salesmen in the week before taking delivery of my white car. I liked the first chap best, but he suddenly disappeared without trace (they weren't telling me where he went) and I got his manager next. He then delegated to a third salesman, who actually warned me in advance that he was leaving - he said it wasn't my fault when I asked. He told me that before this job he'd played rugby to a pretty high level, so he was moving to a job where he'd only have to work normal hours 5 days a week. Car salesmen work ridiculously long hours.

Cars, then. I'm not really interested in cars, I just want them to start up reliably when I turn the key, drive where I want to go without breaking down, and play my ipod through their speakers. So my total requirements included 5 doors, petrol engine, ipod connection. One reaches a compromise on age, mileage and cost. Fact: new SEAT Ibiza cars come in red unless you pay extra for another colour. Whoever first bought mine paid a premium for it to be white, and added mudflaps. I think the rest is standard.

Despite being standard specification, this car is more technologically advanced than anything I have in my house, including the laptop computer I'm typing on. I needed help to set it up and a lesson in how to use it before I drove it away. I will have to practise using the various features, especially the satnav thingy that also controls the music system and even lets me use my phone handsfree. There is a manual for the car, a manual for the satnav and a manual for the radio. I will be doing some more reading this weekend, except it is a bit boring so it may take a few weeks before I am competent to Bluetooth successfully. Whatever that entails.

The particular surprises I discovered when eventually I was shown 'my' car were not only the fancy shmancy satnav (which I'd been told about), but it also has parking proximity beeping sensors, and cruise control! This is a basic small car - cruise control used to be the domain of the travelling salesman doing 50,000 miles a year on motorways, not commuting up the road or the odd trip to Sainsburys. I have a proper long motorway journey coming up soon, so I'll give it a try then.

Update a few days later: I have now used the satnav thingy in earnest to find the location of my most recent badminton match, and it was rather good, unlike the match which we lost fairly comprehensively. Another good thing is that I have discovered one of the numbers on the fascia display tells me how many miles it will be before my fuel runs out (I don't yet know how accurate it is). More good news: the rear windscreen wiper works and all the interior controls light up with the headlights - these things are good because they are things that the previous car had stopped doing. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a beep if I open the door before I've turned the headlights off - I haven't tried it yet, but the Golf stopped doing that years ago.

A slightly less good thing is that as soon as the car is put in reverse the audio is muted in favour of the beepy parking proximity sensors. This is fine when you're listening to music or the radio, but I don't want to miss bits of my latest audio book just because I'm going backwards, so now I have to stop the ipod before putting the car in reverse gear. But maybe it will stop me hitting things when going backwards. I have never hit anything going backwards before, but you never know.

I very much doubt that in just under a week I have discovered all the things that this miracle of modern engineering can do. In future posts I may be moved to add footnotes of this variety: "You know my new car, well you'll never guess what it did yesterday..."

Getting things done

Peckover House, August 2014

The garden has been in need of attention for months now. It's not work that I particularly enjoy, although after everything has been cut back to within an inch of its life I take satisfaction in the brief period of orderliness before everything gets out of control again or the weather turns nasty and I don't go into the back garden for six months. It's a blessing that I don't have a front garden. Anyway, this was the weekend when I made a start, and managed about a quarter of the work needed. I could imagine making a resolution to do just an hour a day to keep things ticking over, but it's the sort of resolution that I know is worthless.

Not much else that is blog-worthy has happened. I have continued to do too much in the way of exercise, but have curbed my worst excesses and even left badminton much earlier than usual on Thursday. It occurred to me that I have been playing competitive badminton for about 25 years, first in Manchester and then here, and it isn't until now that I have regularly been picked for the 1st team. And it isn't because I have improved compared with my peers, it's more a reflection of the decline in popularity of badminton, and perhaps also my choice of club which contains rather a lot of 'veteran' players. Anyway, we won our first match despite my partner and I having met only a week ago.

At last I have returned to four-day working, and I have a long list of things that are awaiting my attention because I can't get round to them at the weekend. For my first day I took the garden waste to the tip, spent a long time continuing the process of buying a car (at least one further instalment will be forthcoming in this saga), spent an age on the hideous process of sorting out car insurance, did some cooking, some paperwork and that's all there was time for. Not many things get crossed off a long list in a single day, but it felt good.

On the list of other things going on: an update on the clarinet group. We had a bit of a hiatus after the hugely successful open air summer concert we put on in the rectory garden together with the flute and the saxophone group. First week back, and some new music (including top Christmas hits), with some parts specially written for me! It was lovely to play something a little bit challenging, and I may even try to fit in some practice, which I didn't need for any of the previous pieces. It's such good fun that I even imagined one day I might find time to source a new mouthpiece for my mothballed saxophone and join that group as well. Maybe one day.

Sun + rain = camping + walking

Sudeley Castle, August 2015

It's been a rainy Bank Holiday weekend, although to be fair, some of Saturday wasn't bad. As I write, I hear muffled clapping, cheering and shouts of encouragement or triumph from the bowling greens, where we are reaching the end of a month of National Bowling action. Our period of exclusive entry to our little trio of streets guarded by high-vis-vest-clad doormen is nearly over.

In the past couple of weeks I've had quite a few evening appointments, including appearing on a panel for a different Diabetes UK local group from the one I used to attend until I'd had enough of their rudeness. The demographic was very similar - nobody under 50, a couple of opinionated and outspoken members, polite attention and some interesting questions. The panel consisted of two podiatrists, an optometrist, me, and a retired local GP who is fairly eminent in the Diabetes professional world. People were very interested in what the podiatrists had to say and much less interested in my contribution. I expect it's because someone's always banging on at them about food, whereas they have few opportunities to raise questions about feet.

I also enjoyed a weekend away camping with Lola II. The campsite was fine, including excellent hot showers but with fields mostly on a slope. I managed to find a relatively flat bit to pitch the tent before collecting Lola II from the station. We did a bit of campsite cooking and some eating out, but I'd brought quite a lot of salad ingredients, because a) that's what I had in the fridge, b) it's supposed to be summer and c) Lola II and I are both grappling with weight management.

We visited an old prison and a castle. The prison also contained a Cotswolds information centre, and Sudeley Castle (and Gardens) was staging an event including re-enactment of the period of Richard III, including costumes, armour, archery and music. The castle was home to Henry VIII's last wife, Katherine Parr, and she is buried there too - the only Queen of England to be buried in the grounds of a private home. There are gardens as well as the castle, and exhibitions on all sorts of aspects of historical interest. We were there for hours and didn't see everything - there was plenty to keep us occupied, and it was really hot.

On Sunday we met up with Landrover Man and Bee Lady for a lovely walk in the countryside. LRM can always be relied on to plan a route and guide us around it, thus saving endless hours of getting lost which would happen if I were in charge.

The Weather Gods had a hand in the loveliness of the countryside, providing torrential rain halfway through when we were in the middle of a field, far from shelter. I had been too lazy to bother wearing proper boots so I was in trainers, and could wring my socks out at the end, but it was worth it - not cold, and good to catch up with bees, farmyard machinery, sheep and septic tanks. I can vouch for the impressive improvement to the vista chez LRM and BL because we were sent 'before' and 'after' pictures of the septic tank cover.

So that was a good weekend away. For the Bank Holiday weekend I decided I had procrastinated long enough and it was time to put in a bit of effort into choosing and buying a car. So early on Saturday I got up and did a Parkrun instead. I find that buying a car (or in fact buying anything except food and charity shop clothes) is really difficult and fairly unpleasant, but I found one in the end and it's probable that the ordeal will be over in a month or so. The dreadful experience is too fresh to write about now, but I'm sure I'll manage to bring further vehicular news at some point.

Sudeley Castle again

Locknuts

Peckover House, August 2014

It took me a week to publish the last blog post; the whole week after my holiday was a bit too busy with badminton and work and other stuff, and the state of Lola Towers had deteriorated to the extent that when a friend dropped round briefly on Wednesday night (by the way, this NEVER happens) I was very glad indeed that she didn't need to visit the bathroom.

On Thursday I played in a badminton match and I was unexpectedly offered two tickets to the international badminton in Birmingham on Friday night. Having had such a busy time during the week I did think twice about accepting, but couldn't resist in the end. It started at 5 p.m. and I got there at about 5.30, and it went on for ever. I left at 11.30 p.m. before the last match had even started.

The weekend was supposed to be quieter but that didn't happen either. I thought I would have a lie in, but my body clock had other ideas, and because I was awake early I decided to do a Parkrun, followed by house cleaning and a bit of necessary food shopping in town. As I came back from shopping, I glanced at the car, and my heart sank as I saw it had one completely flat tyre. Another job to do - not a difficult one, but it just added to the list of work for the weekend.

It almost turned into the stuff of nightmares. Let me tell you about locknuts. If you haven't changed a car wheel lately, you may not have come across them - one nut on each wheel (the locknut) does not have the usual hexagonal format but is a non-standard shape, and you have an adaptor that converts the special shape into a hexagon so it will fit the wheel spanner. It's intended to prevent the theft of wheels, but I hadn't ever given this much thought in all the time I've owned the car.

I went ahead with changing the flat for the spare wheel and driving up to a tyre repair place in town. As I was discussing the job with the chap there, I realised that I didn't remember storing the locknut adaptor in the car anywhere. I had driven away with it still attached to the wheel, and it had fallen off somewhere along the way.

Have you ever had that sinking feeling when all joy drains out of your heart and an awful doom hovers just over the horizon? Maybe you think you have lost something valuable and essential: a handbag, or a wallet, or the only set of keys to your house or your car, or you realise as you arrive at the airport to check in for a long-haul flight that your passport is at home 3 hours away. It is something that is quite easily misplaced, but maybe you have just looked for it in the wrong place, and if you look in the right place there it will be and everything will be all right, but if you really have lost it or left it at home then you face huge expense and so, so much annoyance and recrimination and disruption to your life.

The man in the tyre place explained what would happen if I really had lost the locknut adaptor. Of course it could be replaced, it is only about £40 for a new adaptor and the four matching wheel nuts, but without the correct adaptor for my current locknuts it wouldn't be possible to take off any of the wheels. He didn't go into detail about how much that job would cost. I just said I was going home to look for it.

It was there, lying in the middle of the road, only a few yards from where I had changed the wheel. When I picked it up, I actually kissed it.

After that the puncture repair proceeded without further incident. By the time I got home and fired up the computer for the first time that day and it reminded me about the monthly clarinet choir rehearsal, it was too late and I'd missed it. Saturday was not a good day. Sunday was better.

I was going to continue with work news of my annual review, very low carb and conference news, but I've run out of time - it will have to wait.

Wet walls and Not Very Well

Hall wall, February 2015

It's been busy, but when is it ever not busy? There was the 3rd Annual Gulloebl Film Festival (Random Chairs in a Darkened Room) - 1 screen, in 1 venue, across Europe. There has been badminton club, a badminton match, three different health-related issues, car stuff, a trip to the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham to look at tents, and an evening out with work people. And work, of course, except I had the day off on Thursday for the NEC tent thing and to sit on the sofa feeling poorly watching Seven Psychopaths on DVD (confusing, odd, violent, but ultimately a film worth watching).

Health issue no. 1 is tennis elbow, which is new to me but many badminton players and the Interwebs gave me advice and suggestions which seem to have worked - ibuprofen, strapping, a bigger grip on my racquet, changing my computer mouse to the other hand, and resting the arm (guess which one I didn't do?) I'm about to have a week off badminton, so that may give it a chance to improve some more.

Health issue no. 2 is a small cold or flu which seems to be going around - it was quite bad for about 24 hours but is now just niggling in the background. I thought I was going to be proper ill for my skiing holiday, but with luck it will be gone in a couple of days.

Health issue no. 3 happened at the restaurant where we celebrated a work colleague's 65th birthday. The chair I sat on was broken, and when I pulled it towards the table I found the seat wasn't attached to the frame. I trapped my little finger which is now going purple and giving me problems typing the letter a (and q and z but I don't use them as much. I haven't been to any quizzes. Ouch).

On the bright side, Lola II and Mr M's film festival was a hit - I attended four screenings this time, and the previews, trailers and adverts before each film were of the usual high standard. I even helped to create several of the Chinema classics featured on the two 'Now That's What I Call Chinema' albums. My few moments of stardom are showcased here and here.

Most of the rest of the week was a bit less delightful, what with the elbow, and we lost the badminton match quite convincingly, and the cold/flu, and the finger, and I had to have the car windscreen replaced because of a long and growing crack, and the car is making a new rattling noise, and the burglar alarm has gone wrong so we can't turn it on, and the NEC show wasn't as good as I'd hoped. The show occupied 5 halls of the massive venue, but only one was showing tents and it was geared at the large family and glamping market so there was hardly anything in the smaller scale I was looking for. Sprayway Hood River 3 and Vango Aura 300 are the most likely contenders from the companies that were represented, but I'm going to have to do much more research because there's a lot more out there that wasn't at the show.

And my biggest achievement of the week - I've had the hall roof fixed! The blessed Alf is busy elsewhere, so I have found a substitute whom I shall call Elf. He came and had a look and diagnosed rotten felt, which he has replaced with a rubber membrane. He even provided pictures:

I think that Elf has done a good job, and there is plenty more for him to get stuck into. One of the ideas I have is for him to spend a day as my personal slave, fixing all the indoor things that are wrong, like re-hanging a door, fitting a pane of glass, that sort of thing.

Now it's time for me to get packing - I'll be back in about a week!

Tradesmen, employment and growing old

Peckover House, August 2014 (photo credit: Lola II)

Tradesmen update: I have finally got hold of the electrician and we have agreed a date for the fuse box to be replaced, which will mean a day and a half without power. I have booked the day off work, and had some pleasant thoughts about doing some fun things like perhaps going off for a quick ski in the Snowdome to keep my ski legs trim - my ski holiday is now booked for February. Then I realised that this would be the perfect time to get the car serviced as I need it to get to work every other day. The car is up for a long service medal, as it has now completed more than 200,000 miles.

Employment update: Mr A has scored a full time permanent job and has now been employed for a week; so far he is enjoying it. Meanwhile, I have delivered half of my first DESMOND course for people newly diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, and the first day of my third course for people with Type 1 Diabetes. DESMOND is a national programme with quality assessment and a requirement to adopt a particular delivery style which includes much questioning of participants and withholding of answers unless they really can't work it out for themselves. The Type 1 course is not quality assessed or peer reviewed, which means that I am only really getting into my stride third time round.

Update on growing old: I have new glasses! and new (trial) contact lenses! I love the glasses, they are varifocals and it has taken me no time at all to get used to them. The contact lenses, on the other hand, are proving more challenging. What the optician suggested was to have two different prescriptions, so my dominant eye would have the lens set up for distance and the lens in my other eye would be for near sight and reading. They provided me with five pairs of two sorts of lenses so I could try them out for comfort. I've had a go at one type for a week, and I don't like it at all - instead of having clear sight for distance and near viewing my eyes seem to confuse the focus and I can't see clearly at any distance. So that's not such a success - but I'll try the other brand in case the problem is with the lenses rather than the prescription.

More growing old news - happy birthday mum! She and dad kindly hosted a very small celebration attended by Lola II, Mr M, myself and another friend during which we watched a film that was made for my school's 60th birthday in 1979. See the odd children! and their antiquated school uniform! Laugh at the teachers' 70s cars, outfits and hairstyles! The undisputed highlight was the orchestra, featuring your very own Lola I and Sister D, with me wearing the biggest specciest specs you can imagine. It was the 70s! Big specs were the fashion item! I still have the massive specs in a drawer, and they are so heavy that I'm surprised my teenage ears weren't pulled completely off.

Brief update on not growing old - badminton club no. 2 have suffered an early retirement by one of their veteran ladies, and asked me very nicely if I could play in a match, so I said yes. Then I found out it was for their 1st mixed team in Division 1 of the league. It wasn't as bad as I expected; I was only made to look like an amateur by their first pair and we managed to scrape wins in the other two sets, mostly because my partner ran around like a maniac picking up everything while I fannied about near the net doing very little. Good fun.

In other news, I combined the trip to London with a bit of time with Lola II and Mr M. They took me to Southall and fed me a delicious authentic Punjabi meal, and I was supposed to help with some household jobs, but I don't remember contributing very much at all. I have a load of jobs for them to help with when they pay a return visit, and I wonder if they will manage to get away with doing as little as I did?

She flies like a bird...

Gliding, September 2014

The last two weeks have been frankly, ridiculous. I don't know why everything had to happen all at once, but it did, and if I hadn't had a blog post about my reading in the pipeline last week you wouldn't have heard a peep out of me.

So, first, my glider flight. This was a birthday present from the lovely Mr M and Lola II, and replaced the one that had to be cancelled in Lincolnshire because of the high winds. Lola II and Mr M took me to a nearby airfield, and we were welcomed at the Clubhouse by all sorts of friendly people willing to share their stories while they addressed some sort of problem with the glider. There was another visitor ahead of me in the schedule, so we had to wait quite a while, but the weather was pleasant and warm and we could have a bit of a chat and watch the launching and landing procedures.

The gliders at this club are launched by a winch rather than being towed up by a plane, and it is quite spectacular to watch. In just a few seconds you go up at a 40 degree angle from zero to sixty miles an hour at 1200 feet. Barry gave me the safety talk and went through the instrument panel before I strapped on the parachute and climbed into the tiny cockpit in the front. It was all dual control, and the flight was designated a 'trial lesson' so in theory I would be given some flying to do, but Barry did ask me to keep my hands away from the controls while we took off.

So far, so good. From this point onwards, however, it didn't go so well. I was rather looking forward to the take off, as I have no problem with acceleration in normal planes or on motorbikes. Unfortunately, as we were thrown up into the air, my stomach somehow didn't go with us, and within just a few seconds after being launched I started to feel very sick. As we circled on a thermal, Barry talked a bit about what he was doing and I directed the fresh air blower into my face and tried very hard to think about something other than the nausea.

The scenery was pleasant but the sensation was not. Barry let me have a go at driving for a second or two, but very soon it was time to land, and to be honest, I wasn't sorry. With nowhere to throw up except on my own lap, I was really glad to have avoided that outcome. Barry marked up my log book - we had been in the air for 13 minutes, although it felt much longer. Lola II was ready to protest at the short duration of the experience, but I reassured her that it was fine, and please don't make me go up again...

I couldn't eat anything for the rest of the day. Advice via Facebook and from friends suggests I could have a go at using the very effective motion sickness treatments available over the counter, because the package includes a second flight within two months. We'll see.

Then the two weeks of mayhem started. Within these two weeks: I went to the Diabetes Education Club at Warwick University, where my colleagues gave a talk to a group of interested health professionals (Doctors, GPs, Nurses in GP practices and Dietitians) about the very low carb diet options that we offer patients; I spent two days in London being trained as a DESMOND educator; my oldest friends from school came to visit; I participated in a public meeting organised by the local Clinical Commissioning Group and Diabetes UK to consult service users about what they want from their Diabetes Services; I went to a comedy gig to see Marcus Brigstocke at Warwick Arts Centre; I attended a branch meeting of the West Midlands British Dietetic Association all about the gastrointestinal tract and various disorders that can arise; another friend came to stay before going to a show at the NEC up the road; I have played in a badminton match (we won!); I have been to see a film and done two runs of about 30 minutes each. I have also renewed the car insurance, and been to the optician. The car has also celebrated the milestone of reaching 200,000 miles by starting to act a bit flaky if it's left without being used for a day or two.

All of these things were worthwhile, satisfying and mostly enjoyable (except for renewing the car insurance, which is one of the most painful and frustrating tasks in the whole world). The one I was looking forward to the most was the optician, and over the next week or two I shall be trying out different contact lenses, followed by receiving my new, varifocal glasses. As an indicator of advancing age this step is unwelcome, but in terms of being able to read comfortably again, I am looking forward to it immensely.

Married

I have been quite exhausted. Everyday life has been taking its toll, plus assorted incompetencies and disorganisation, plus unnecessary enthusiasm for things that are just tiring but seem to be Worthy. Where to start?

Lola II and Mr M iz Married. This occurred at the end of a three-day period of celebration in which Mr A and I were given Too Many Things To Think About, which addled our brains to the extent that we were almost unable to remember our own names (even though we had multiple lists). In chronological order, Mr A left his suit at home and we had to go back and get it, we forgot two mackerels and a jumper at Lola II's house and had to go back and get them, I forgot my outfit at home and had to go back and get it (but we were a LOT further away than when we went back to get Mr A's suit), Mr A backed the car into a tree making a dent in the tailgate and breaking the rear window, we spent a BBQ variously phoning insurance and auto glass companies, I left my fleece at Lola II's house, we borrowed mum and dad's car while ours was being fixed, and Mr A and I were each entrusted with a secret thing from each of Lola II and Mr M that we were supposed to not tell the other until they were about to go off on honeymoon. Collecting wedding gift pledges was also my responsibility, but has been a trivial amount of effort compared to the rest of it.

But it was lovely really. There was a party for friends and family on the Saturday, we had a Dim Sum lunch before the ceremony and tea and cake afterwards, Sister D briefly played the piano in St Pancras station, there was a highly entertaining photographer, but the bit that made me laugh the most was the impossibly rude assistant Registrar who completely messed up the start of the ceremony itself by not being able to work the CD player. Mr M chose the music at the start, which was provided by a recording of some of Lola II's friends playing a string/piano piece, and Lola II chose the music at the end, which was 'Bring Me Sunshine' and we all had a little dance. Well, those of us with little or no dignity, anyway.

Enough wedding. The car survived. We survived. We got back a bit later than planned because of the car window repair, next day I had a diabetes meeting to go to in the evening (all about Insulin Pump Therapy), the next evening was the badminton association AGM, the next evening we had to go to meet friends that we're going on holiday with, and then it was Friday and I went to bed at 9 p.m. Which meant that when I woke up on Saturday it was early, and I could get to the start of the local Parkrun by 9 a.m. So I did, and it rained fairly hard throughout the event, but I only walked for about a minute on the steepest bit of hill and finished in 39 minutes and I wasn't last! Apparently, I came 11th in my category (Veteran Women aged 40-49 with dark curly hair wearing black socks). I haven't yet decided whether to nominate the primary endpoint as running 5 km, in which case I can stop now, or continue until I can do it in 30 minutes, or give up when I'm not improving my time any more. It was more fun running on a course with people about than in the park on my own. I'll probably do one more, especially if it isn't raining next week.

Which reminds me (how could I have forgotten) that my ipod has packed up, and it's the end of my world. I use that thing every single day, and I am feeling its loss acutely. My laptop has been pretty unwell for a while (its latest trick is to decide that it doesn't have a second monitor attached and just turn it off), and then the ipod started to skip tracks and parts of tracks so I tried to reset it, at which point it decided to successfully wipe its contents but refused to start up again. I have found a set of instructions to help me troubleshoot, but I might just go and get another one because I literally can't manage without it. Really, I might die.

New job

Munich Viktualienmarkt, March 2013

All the different employment options have finally coalesced into a nearly certain situation. I have a leaving date and a start date that are very nearly three weeks apart; I will be in a permanent job for nearly three days a week and there will be temporary work for definitely one other day and possibly two, all with the same employer. I got in touch with the other employer that was offering one day of Type 2 education, and they said extremely nice things and even suggested that they keep the post open until I start the new job, because the extra days cannot be put in writing (it's complicated) and may disappear into thin air.

The new job is probably very similar to my current job except without the pregnant women, which is fine by me. It is in a much smaller hospital than my current one or the previous one, with a much smaller team where I will be the only Diabetes Specialist Dietitian. I'm guessing the journey time will be about half an hour, compared with the current time of nearly two hours due to ongoing 'improvements' to motorway junctions.

I met my future boss (who is also my previous boss) at a Coeliac UK meeting on Saturday and had a nice chat. In the line for tea and cake I stood next to a lady who recognised me, and thanked me for giving her a recipe for gluten-free lemon drizzle cake three years ago. I thanked her for complimenting me on my gluten-free lemon drizzle cake three years ago in front of the Dietitian who I was hoping would give me a job - and who eventually did become my boss.

In other news: the heating company phoned Mr A and postponed the boiler replacement for another week - we are thinking of going away next weekend just in case it doesn't last that long. The car really does need more attention on the brakes, which I had been trying to ignore. I finished the module for the Masters degree with days to spare, by dint of working in the library every night until 8 p.m. last week. It was painful, but worth it, because I didn't have to work all through this weekend. But when I finally got round to attacking the task of switching gas and electricity suppliers, the website containing all my bills was closed for maintenance so I couldn't get started after all.

After the last mammoth blog post, I think this will do for the time being!

Holiday in Yorkshire

Memorial garden, Hornsea, September 2013

Day 1

HOT:
Lovely long walk to local town along well-marked footpath.
Delicious smoked salmon and scrambled egg lunch in cafe that doubles as craft shop and haberdashery.
NOT:
Getting rained on quite a lot during long walk back.
Water not hot enough for restorative bath.

Day 2

HOT:
Firing up the wood burning stove for a toasty day indoors (and lashings of hot water).
Finally finished the sleeves on Lola II's dress, and tacked the hem ready for trying on.
NOT:
Hole in the toe one of my favourite pairs of socks.
Excruciatingly slow Wifi access at rented cottage.

Day 3

HOT:
Lovely long walk to (different) local town along beach.
Interesting local museum and even more interesting owner of local fish shop.
NOT:
Getting even more soaked than on Day 1 during long walk back.
Turns out what I thought was a footpath was, on closer examination very much later on, a contour line.

Day 4

HOT:
Indoor day and wood burning stove again.
Getting notified of invitation to interview for job.
NOT:
Worked on another job application (different job, also part time).
Nice but very ordinary local restaurant for dinner. Should have returned to local pub.

Day 5

HOT:
Another interesting local museum and 900-year-old church.
Mr A's fish and chips - perfect.
NOT:
Drizzle. Lots of it.
My fish and chips - greasy.

Day 6

HOT:
Lovely breakfast at local cafe due to running out of milk at home.
Another fine walk, in the sunshine for a change.
NOT:
Having to get the car fixed - very nasty noise from front wheel bearing.
Going home tomorrow.


The week brought some unfortunate car maintenance and quite a lot of rain, but at least we weren't camping this time. The rented cottage was extremely comfortable, and we both got some work done, given Mr A's looming exam and my job applications, but managed to eat and drink in handsome style as well as reading, listening to the radio and watching a number of DVDs. Overall, a successful holiday.

Ramblings

Munich Stadtmuseum, March 2013

It's been a while, peeps. It feels like I'm always starting with the same line: "It's been busy... I haven't had time..." like Garrison Keillor does when he says "It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, my home town" and you know you'll be listening to something ordinary for a few minutes, in the mellow marshmallow voice that could make a shopping list sound interesting.

Anyway, it's been busy, and I haven't had time. Work, more work, and my MSc module is taking up a lot of spare time. Badminton is available two evenings a week now, which is good for my health and should be good for my waistline. Cycling was going well (three days a week and getting up that hill regularly one time out of three) except this week the garage door has broken, so I can't get the bike out at all.

Yesterday I had a flat tyre, which loomed over me all day alongside dark hatred of car mechanics. But in the end there were silver linings to this black cloud: firstly RSB showed considerable enthusiasm in the idea of helping me change the wheel, which turned out to be because he hadn't ever done it before, leading to the second silver lining - he did all the work while I just stood and directed operations. And the third benefit - when I mentioned my predicament, one of the doctors recommended a garage where there were friendly and helpful people, who I hope will not do as much damage to the old and venerable car as the last garage did. (She's still not right even after all the messing around with the brakes.) I left the wheel there and arranged to pick it up today.

When I went back to the garage today, it was the work of a few moments to replace the repaired wheel. It occurred to me that one of the other tyres looked a bit soft, and behold! when they checked it, it was in much the same state as the one that had just been fixed. So the spare wheel is now on a different corner of the car, and I will return to the garage again tomorrow, and with luck that will be all the garage visits for a while. Except that the car's really not right yet, so maybe there will be more.

So that's where some of the time went. Of course much of my time is spent actually doing work, and I had a more than usually successful clinic recently. I managed to work out why one patient had recently started having daily hypos (she was on a reducing dose of steroids) and I was very pleased with that, because it's something I might once have missed. I have also taken over the ante-natal clinic from RSB, so now I see a few women with Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes as well as all those with Gestational Diabetes.

Since attending the third and last training session on Care Planning I have been trying hard to follow through with my resolution to try not to give advice. It seemed to work very well indeed for a patient who wants to lose weight. In the 'not giving advice' endeavour I am inspired by Lola II who does a job in which it is absolutely forbidden to give advice no matter how much you want to, even if you know exactly what everyone should do. I think that would kill me.

Not all my consultations have gone so well. I had to deal with a couple who had been having an immense row immediately before I entered the room, and I'm not sure whether I handled it well or not. Sometimes I feel at the end of a consultation that I haven't contributed anything positive to a person's situation. And the DNAs keep (not) coming, and now that I am more established, I wonder if it was something I said.

I have nearly finished my induction - a recent mandatory training session on CPR was more enjoyable than I expected; I passed the online assessment for Consent procedures, and there's only Manual Handling left to do. I was asked to feed back my thoughts on induction, and I welcomed the opportunity to let off a bit of steam. When the induction process is completed just two weeks from the end of the original nine-month contract, it cannot be considered fit for purpose.

Outside work I am also struggling with time, as I am very behind with home admin because of being away all week. When I get back, Friday night is very much a rest night with Mr A, and then it's usually a trip to the famous veg shop on Saturday, sometimes a supermarket trip as well, house cleaning, laundry, and anything else that's going on. Two weeks ago there was the first Warwickshire Pride festival in the Pump Room Gardens; last weekend Lola II and Mr M visited so we could all go to the Leamington Food and Drink Festival. And I've submitted a job application.

Yes, after more than six months without any sort of vacancies for adult diabetes dietitians (there have been loads of paediatric diabetes vacancies due to a quirk of NHS funding), a job has been advertised, in the same Trust where I worked before but a different site. It is a permanent post - hooray - but only 20 hours a week. After a good deal of vacillation and discussion with Mr A and with previous, current and potential future employers, I decided to apply. And you know how much time that takes (perhaps you don't? It is A Lot Of Time). And there are two other part-time opportunities on the horizon, although they are both in the region where I work now, far from home.

There was also a night out with the Dietitians. Not a big one - we all meet after work, have a very early dinner and then it's all over by about 7pm, which suits me perfectly because I'm starting to feel the pressure of not enough silent time on my own. [Silent time on my own is all that keeps me sane.] I'm having some silent time on my own tonight, because today I have decided that it is more necessary than badminton. This is rare and unusual, but it is the right decision. I maintain my sanity, and you get a long and rambling blog post. We are all winners.

Presents and a prize

Rented bicycle in Berlin, March 2013

It's been present-tastic at Lola Towers, partly due to my birthday and Mr A's birthday being less than a week apart, and partly because I've won another blog prize - this time, a box full of gluten-free snacks from Veronica's Snacks via The Happy Coeliac blog, and a tote bag to carry my snacks in. All I had to do was to suggest a new flavour for their crisps.

It's been a while since I gave you a social update, so in brief:

• Mr A and I have done a lot of 'gardening', which consists of pruning, hacking, bagging and dumping vast amounts of shrubbery, and in Mr A's case, sawing down and then digging out the roots of our sadly deceased ceanothus.
• We have had another posh dinner at Queans to celebrate our birthdays.
• I have had ongoing car trouble involving the brakes, ever since the service in March. The car has done over 180,000 miles and (apart from the brakes) is still in perfect working order, but will unfortunately need further attention from the garage. They are being very reasonable about it, acknowledging the fault and trying to remedy it without charge, but so far without success.
• I have a new Nexus 7 tablet, which I am still getting used to. Unfortunately, it is not quite as good as a laptop for Facebook and blogging (which is mostly what I do), and complains that it isn't compatible with BBC iPlayer or the Carbs & Cals app. It does run Skype, which my laptop has stopped doing, so that's one benefit I suppose, but I'm hoping to mend my laptop as soon as I find the MS Office CD.
• I have been out for pizza twice with work colleagues - once with the new lot and once with the ones from my previous job. I like the old lot better, and there may be a Diabetes job advertised there soon, but it is likely to be part time and temporary, and therefore not as good as the job I have now.
• I tried to do some homework on my case study, but my housemates came home and turned on the TV. My room is too small to work effectively, and at work they won't allow wireless access for personal laptops. I have put in a request for an update to the browser on the office PC, because at the moment the technology they're using is so rubbish that I can't use it properly for academic research.
• I have been cycling to work a bit, which has been a great deal easier since Dr Bike adjusted my saddle. The Trust is very supportive of cycling, and will fund half an hour for free basic servicing with Dr Bike up to once a month for staff. I also have a locker in a changing room with showers and free use of towels.

There will probably be more cycling news soon, because I have taken some photos of my route to work on a sunny day this week. I can also announce that, for the first time, I managed to cycle all the way up the steep hill to my weekday lodging. My legs subsequently turned to jelly and I felt sick, but I'm hoping it will get easier!

Prizes!

A post that very nearly isn't about diabetes

Sculpture in Austrian monastery garden, October 2012

Anyone would think that the only things I get up to are work, reading and blogging. But there are a few other aspects to life, although I have to admit, they are mainly based around badminton and commuting.

I played in a one-off Ladies doubles handicapped competition, which means that there were teams of all standards playing one another with an attempt to even things up by giving one side lots of points to start with. We were given a head start of 12 (out of 21) and didn't do too badly, although we didn't win any prizes. Then there was the local badminton League dinner dance, which is a social evening that includes presentation of all the trophies for teams that have come first in their divisions and in competitions. Our club has won nothing this year, not even the plate for the friendliest club, but we occupied more than one table and more than our fair share of the dance floor. And just to follow up this enthusiastic participation, the club actually held an AGM this year (primarily because I am the club Secretary at the moment), and people were keen enough to attend, and even vote! And, even better, there are volunteers to attend the League AGM, which I would probably have had to do if nobody had volunteered, and which I hate.

Moving on to life that is not badminton, we have started to take steps towards resumption of house preservation and restoration. Not the most enthusiastic pair when it comes to DIY, Mr A and I have reviewed the battleground and made progress in attempting certain tasks ourselves while delegating others to the reliable Alf and a badminton-playing friend who has business cards calling herself 'Lady Decorator', which I find most amusing. Mr A is hoping to build a new door for the airing cupboard, while I will permanently shorten the curtains that I tacked up temporarily ten years ago, and attempt to descale all the bathroom fixtures and fittings. We have also performed some DIY support to Lola II and Mr M, who are similarly disinclined to do it themselves, and who also lack some essential skills. Mr A provided sawing, screwing and wood shaping support, while I made Lola II strip the wallpaper that was coming away from the wall rather than painting over it. Mr A made things look much better, and I made things look much worse, but I am confident they will be better in the long run.

In relation to work, I am finding the commute to be long but tolerable, especially when I have a good book to listen to, although the car is wheezing a little at the moment and will need some attention this week. I attended a talk given by our specialist obesity dietitian, which confirmed much of what I already know. The consensus of evidence seems to be that it doesn't much matter how one loses weight (as long as nutritional balance is not compromised), but the focus must always be how that weight loss can be maintained. And that it is almost impossible for most people to use exercise and activity alone to lose weight, because we simply don't have the time - but activity is highly effective in supporting weight loss that is achieved by eating fewer calories.

That's about it when it comes to stuff that isn't about diabetes. I can report that I attended another local Diabetes UK meeting, and Mr M has kindly donated some insulin pump supplies for me to stab into my fleshier parts as an experiment, because he is getting a new pump. I have commissioned a blog post from him and Lola II about the new pump, and some photos were taken at the weekend, but we'll have to wait and see whether they can find enough time to fulfil the commission.

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.