What I've been reading

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

narrated by Stephen Thorne

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

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

Tears of the Giraffe
by Alexander McCall Smith

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

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

Ramble Book
by Adam Buxton

narrated by Adam Buxton

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

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

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

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

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

Morality for Beautiful Girls
by Alexander McCall Smith

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

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

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
by Roddy Doyle

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

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

Lady of Quality
by Georgette Heyer

narrated by Eve Matheson

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

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

The wet room

Flfs 2 and 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Revelation while camping

Beech Estate campsite, July 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Risks Must Be Assessed

Stilt walkers, Munich, December 2019

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Several types of progress

Brompton Cemetery, September 2019

Lockdown is ending, and my drive to work twice a week is clogged again with other traffic going about its business once more. More shops are open although I have no desire whatever to go inside them, nor will I bother with pubs, restaurants, theatres and cinemas. The easing on restriction about meeting other people in real life is quite exciting, so I went for a walk with a friend on the hottest day of the year so far. And camping is about to be possible again...

The main bonus of fewer restrictions has been my ability to get started on the LTRP again. Ilf finished painting the front of the house, garage door and gate - I decided not to bother repainting the other sides of the house, which meant we managed to use up the last of the specially mixed paint from 10 years ago without having to buy more. I've had a couple of plumbers in to have a look at turning the shower room into a wet room and solve some of the associated drainage issues, so I hope that will go ahead soon. My gardener returned, and I even managed to find someone to have a look at the damp at the base of the pub wall. The garden is still as wild as ever, but with fewer weeds, especially in the paving. I took the bags of excess greenery to the tip, which now requires online booking for a time slot. All went smoothly.

There have been all sorts of attractive offers in the last three months for your 'heroes' of the NHS. I feel a little guilty given that I have done none of the heroic jobs; all that's happened is that all our consultations are being done over the phone, which is difficult but by no means heroic. Yet I have succumbed to the lure of 10% off shopping in Morrisons with an NHS ID card, and another offer of £10 off a box of 12 different vegan pot meals from The Soulful Food Company for anyone with an NHS email address.

I've had indifferent experiences with various 'meals in a pot' before, but these ones looked so good on the website that I thought I'd have a go. Because there are 12 different types I decided to note down any that I particularly liked in case I wanted to buy them again. The first was delicious! I decided to give it the full five stars. The next was just as good - also five stars. By the time I'd had six of the meals I'd had to introduce a sixth star, and so far only one has fallen short and even that one was still delicious. I'll be buying them again, even without the £10 discount.

I had a bit of a blip with the weight loss plan when a friend came round and we each got a takeaway wrap from my favourite brunch spot in Leamington. It was delicious, and just proves that without the lockdown I would never have achieved my current status of 4.6kg (10lb) lighter. I'm back on track again, and finding it much easier to plan meals than I did at the start. It's still a pretty restrictive diet though, and I don't see any way round that. But I can fit into clothes that have lurked in the back of the wardrobe for six years.

What I've been reading

Father Brown
by G. K. Chesterton

"This collection contains all the favourite Father Brown stories. They represent the quiet wit and compassion which is so different from his moody and caustic predecessor, Sherlock Holmes. Father Brown solves his mysteries by a mixture of intuition and sympathetic worldliness in a totally believable manner."

Well, I wouldn't describe Father Brown's methods as 'totally believable', but then most of the stories stretch credulity in some way or other. They were written in another era - 1911-1935 - which may have something to do with it. Pleasant reading, but really not as good as Conan Doyle.

The Golden Age of Science Fiction: an anthology
by Kingley Amis (editor)

"When what we think of as science fiction began in the 1920s and '30s, Its themes were relatively few and simple and its approach unsophisticated: it was essentially adventure fiction set in a fantasy world of spaceships, monsters and ray-guns. The stories in this anthology come from the years 1949-62 and offer an astonishingly varied range; far more inventive, more fictional, fictitious, fictive than any other kind of fiction."

These are pretty good short stories - none of my usual criticism about not having structure or not making sense. In fact, it has reminded me that I rather like science fiction, and exploring my bookcases I discover that the only books I possess are two of the Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov - unfortunately the second and third volumes. I'll have to keep a look out for the first book when charity shops open again.

Six Days of War: June 1967 and the making of the modern Middle East
by Michael B. Oren

"Though it lasted for only six tense days in June, the 1967 Arab-Israeli war never really ended. Every crisis that has ripped through this region in the ensuing decades, from the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to the ongoing intifada, is a direct consequence of those six days of fighting."

This was surprisingly readable for so dense a subject, and gave me, someone who has very little interest, experience or knowledge of politics or military strategy, a vivid impression of both. The lasting impression is of Israel being pushed to the limits of its tolerance, not wanting war but knowing it was inevitable. They were pitted against an Arab bloc whose stated aim was to drive the Jews into the sea and had no notion that they could lose, but their solidarity was paper thin and unsupported by military competence. And, in the background, the USA and the USSR on a knife edge, both aware that a mis-step could lead to nuclear escalation if not war. And I am convinced by the author's suggestion that some of the problems we are faced with 50 years later stem from decisions and actions in this war. It is, however, impossible to predict the consequences had anything been done differently.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
by Alexander McCall Smith

"Meet Mma Ramotswe, the endearing, engaging, simply irresistible proprietress of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, the first and only detective agency in Botswana. With persistent observation, gentle intuition, and a keen desire to help people with the problems of their lives, she solves mysteries great and small for friends and strangers alike."

A much lighter book I slotted in between chapters of the much heavier book about War. I picked this off my shelves because I wanted to see if it was still any good. Most times that I've read a book from my past - this would have been in the 2000s - it really hasn't stood up to the test of time, and I've been able to pass it on to the charity shop with a joyous heart at another thing leaving the house. This one still hits the spot, so my de-clutter will have to pass it by - it stays on the shelf.

Stasis

Adhisthana, July 2019

Very little going on again, making it difficult to rustle up blog content. The world continues in its crazy state where there is only one topic of news, and we muse over which politician and which country has got it right in the balance between economic disaster and mortality. Actually, since some police officers murdered a man in America there are briefly two topics of news.

I am still fine. All of a sudden, blood testing for Covid-19 antibodies appeared within the Trust, and even reached the Diabetes Centre. The result came back via text message a few days later to say that my test result was negative - no evidence of exposure. Obviously this makes no difference at all to anything, but the latest government guidelines allow for meetings of up to six people out of doors, so I felt a little reassured having driven down to meet Lola II and Mr M in mum and dad's garden.

The weather was not as warm as in recent weeks but we escaped the rain. We brought our own chairs and lunch and face masks and gloves and hand sanitiser, and wiped down the toilet when we used it. The best part of the day was borrowing dad's clippers and taking my hair down to a gentle fuzz, which delights me.

I have managed to get started on a couple of LTRP jobs. In the pub garden I excavated the footings of my adjoining wall. The pub had installed decking some time ago, and laid down gravel around the perimeter as well as putting up hanging baskets with an irrigation system on my wall. Having explored many other avenues I came to the conclusion that there was a strong possibility that this was attracting damp into my wall, and that now would be a good time to do something about it, given that the pub is not only shut because of lockdown but has no functional landlord or manager at the moment, and therefore could not object to me sorting things out for myself.

I also invited Ilf to start work on painting the roof-level woodwork (I can never remember the proper term for the fancy bits hanging from the gable end roof) and the front brickwork. It was a slight misjudgement to call upon Ilf, because he assumes that if he's asked to do a job then he'll do it badly rather than suggesting it's actually unsuitable and I should find someone prepared to utilise scaffolding. The ridge of the roof is beyond the reach of his ladders, so he has basically painted over whatever state the woodwork was in with a brush on a stick or some such device rather than washing it down and checking for rot etc. It will do for now, but I must remember to choose a different tradesman if I want that particular job done properly next time.

Other than that, there really isn't anything new going on. The doctor continues to bring amusing games with him every fortnight; I play online games with Lola II and other friends; I join in various events with the Buddhists; I observe the world going by on Facebook and the news and in satirical comedy shows on BBC TV and radio; I read and listen to books and podcasts. To be honest I am not occupying my time very productively at the moment, and each week I tell myself things will be different. Perhaps this week really will be different.

Still going to work

Adhisthana, July 2019

You may remember that one of my colleagues from work was stuck in India. She was there for two months all told, but finally managed to get a flight home. The plane was full - no social distancing, although everyone wore a face mask - and although health screening questions were asked at the Indian end, there were no checks or restrictions at all at Heathrow.

So we asked the Trust HR and Occupational Health Departments about self-isolation, given that travelling in a plane is notorious for spreading infections at the best of times. They advised that as long as she didn't have symptoms she could come straight back to work. This is surprising, to say the least, but all I could do was to stay as far away from her as possible - she came back on a Tuesday so we only had one day in the building together before I had the rest of the week at home. Her situation is slightly complicated by the fact that we were advised to record Covid-19 in the personnel system as the reason for her absence, which was taken to mean that she had been ill with the virus, and therefore would now be better... Luckily for all of us, she has experienced no symptoms.

In case anyone was wondering, none of us has been tested for virus or antibodies, nor has anyone suggested that we should be. This is reasonable as we have very little contact with the public, with patients visiting the centre only for the procedures that simply can't be done over the phone. We now keep the front door locked and we have a new doorbell and a perspex screen in front of the reception desk. When any stranger enters the building we all put on face masks and after they leave the receptionist wipes down all the surfaces they may have touched. If we have to be in the same room as the visitor we wear plastic aprons and gloves as well as face masks, and we ought to wear goggles or a visor too but those of us with glasses are omitting that inconvenience. So far we are not requiring the visitor to wear a face mask. We all work in separate rooms, and when we come together for lunch we sit 2 metres apart.

I have somehow escaped the order that has taken all Dietitian back to the main hospital to work on plans for the apocalypse. Fortunately the apocalypse has not come to pass, so there are a lot of Dietitians at a loose end - I have no idea how they are occupying themselves. Every fortnight I have a very busy Monday with the multidisciplinary clinic that used to allow people to see me and a nurse and a doctor all at the same visit. As a stopgap measure we are sharing out the telephone calls to patients between me, the doctor and two nurses, and it's working moderately well.

However, all the outpatient clinics for all the Dietetic services including mine have been cancelled except for one clinic for each service. That single clinic is filled with only the most urgent cases, so I have no means of booking follow ups for patients that I want and have time to see. I have resorted to keeping a separate diary - my own offline booking system - to get round the restriction.

On a Monday when I wasn't involved with the multidisciplinary clinic I was asked to do one of the sole bookable clinics for diabetes, and it was quite a challenge especially as I had one patient whose first language was not English. I worked hard that day, and it was just as hard to work out how to record what I had done and make plans to follow up that patient. There was no point putting them back into the general clinic because then it wouldn't be me following up, and it was too complicated to just pass the patient back and forth between different Dietitians. A little while later I got a call from the admin team querying how to record the follow up for the patient - the answer being "You tell me." It would have been perfectly straightforward if they hadn't cancelled all my clinics.

Most of the time, however, we are working less hard than before.

The local community is supporting their front-line workers by providing food, which has led to a situation becoming known in the Diabetes Centre as Pizzagate. Various local suppliers are sending food to the hospital - sandwiches, snacks, chocolate and pizza. These arrive at the management offices for distribution, but there are loud grumblings of inequity - the managers are accused of creaming the best off for themselves before distributing to the wards, and we in the Diabetes Centre receive nothing. I try hard to keep out of these discussions, not least because there is no way I can fit pizza into 1200 kcal/day, but it is getting as bad as back in the days when everyone was moaning about parking all the time.

The (first) peak in Covid-19 cases seems to have passed, and now the word from the top is all about how we re-start services. We are in a good situation at the moment - wards are so empty in our hospital that the opportunity is being taken to redecorate - and we have the chance to think about how we would like to do things differently. With this in mind I volunteered to send out a call to arms to our Diabetes doctors, asking them to contribute to a discussion. Not one has responded to me, but it seems they are thinking about it. I'm not holding my breath.

Still locked down

Adhisthana, July 2019

Here I am again, in my house, walking or running around Leamington's lovely parks, or at work in the Diabetes Centre. With a weekly excursion to a supermarket, that's it. But I'm thriving. I'm eating sensibly and losing weight very slowly, but unlike previous attempts at weight loss I think I can keep this up. While I hear most people talking about gaining weight at home, it's been relatively easy (after the first couple of weeks) for me to keep to my 1200 kcal limit, and even include chocolate every now and then.

I have mowed the lawn and pruned a load of shrubs, and then with the easing of the lockdown I have been in touch with the Lady Gardener to beg the favour of a visit (scheduled for June). I also contacted Ilf about external painting, and he's going to get back to me with an idea of when he might fit me in. Doors and Windows Ulf can do nothing about my front door at the moment because his suppliers aren't working, but Clf the Roofer may be able to help with my hall windows which he was so scathing about when he renewed the roof six months ago. Which then meant that I would need access to the pub garden, and the pub is most definitely still closed.

A sign in the pub window provided a phone number for the security firm responsible for keeping the site secure, and a helpful man even answered the phone. He disclosed a lot more information about the pub management than I was expecting, including the fact that the previous management is still responsible for the pub, but the interior has been stripped of all valuables and will need tens of thousands of pounds to restore it to a functional state. As well as this dire news he provided the combination for the padlock on the gates of the beer garden and told me that the lock is very stiff. So stiff that I haven't managed to prise it open yet - today I applied a load of penetrating oil and we'll see whether that helps.

Other activity at home includes jigsaws, games and socialising via Zoom, Buddhism three times a week at present (and a fourth time when I joined a thing at the weekend) and I re-started a tiny OU creative writing module online. I first started it about two years ago so had quite forgotten what I had done back then, and re-reading my own work after all this time was a delight.

So all is well for me in my little bubble, hoping for the lifting of restrictions on hairdressers while appreciating that such close proximity means I wouldn't be comfortable going to the salon even if it were allowed. The weather has been glorious with more sunshine to come, and the news reports tell of a reduction in the infection rate and mortality figures while warning of the seriousness of the recession to come. We certainly live in interesting times.

What I've been reading

The Blind Assassin
by Margaret Atwood

"As Iris Chase Griffen, the sole surviving descendant of a once-distinguished Toronto family, recalls the events of her life and the pivotal death of her sister Laura in 1945, we simultaneously read Laura’s posthumously published novel. In that novel within a novel there is yet another narrative."

When I first read this nearly six years ago (how can it be six years!?!) in audiobook format I resolved to get a copy in print so that I could flick back and forth to see the clues to the ending that had been given throughout, but in a way intended to deliberately deceive the reader the first time round. So this time in print I remembered one of the two twists while I was reading, but she still got me with the other. It stands up to a second reading too.

A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3000BC - AD1603
by Simon Schama

narrated by Stephen Thorne

"Change - sometimes gentle and subtle, sometimes shocking and violent - is the dynamic of Schama's unapologetically personal and grippingly written history. At its heart lie questions of compelling importance for Britain's future as well as its past: what makes or breaks a nation?"

History at school was complete waste of time. I don't know whether it was the fault of the teacher(s), but suspect not. I think I just didn't see the relevance of knowing what happened when the Romans were here. I didn't have enough life experience to put ANYTHING into context. So they had great baths - they still looked pretty primitive to me compared with my bathroom, and they built roads and walls - big deal. So what. But now, now I know that history is everything. History is politics and religion and geography and masculinity and patriarchy, and most of all, power. At least, the history in the history books, which is all about the people who were in charge. The ordinary people - well, they worked hard getting food out of the ground and avoided early death if they were lucky. Now I can put history into context, even though it's mostly about subjugation and political strategy. This book ends with the death of Queen Elizabeth I, and I've started the next volume already.

The Poet
by Yi Mun-Yol

"When a governor to the King falls into rebel hands, he switches sides to save his skin. When later he is captured by royal troops, it is not only he that is condemned to death as a traitor but his sons and grandsons too. They survive by subterfuge, but though they keep their lives, they have lost their place in society."

I can't remember where this book came from, but I was interested in reading a Korean book, even though it was about a poet. Well, there's really no need for me to do that again. Not my kind of thing at all, and I know barely anything about Korea or its poetry so I couldn't relate to that side of it either.

Leave it to Psmith
by P. G. Wodehouse

narrated by B. J. Harrison

"The idyll of Blandings Castle is about to be disturbed, for the Hon. Freddie Threepwood is poised to make his debut as a jewel thief. Freddie, however, is not alone: Blandings is simply brimming with criminals and impostors all intent on stealing Aunt Constance's £20,000 diamond necklace."

The third time I've listened to this book - twice in the Jonathan Cecil narration (in 2008 and 2009) and this time in podcast form by my regular US podcast narrator. It's a fine book.