People still visit this place

Maybe I will start to use blogger again and post different kinds of things here. I will give it some thought over the weekend!

New Home

For some time I have been thinking about moving my blog, at times blogger can be something of a challenge to manage and at others a down right pain.

Over the next few days I will be moving all my links etc to my new home at word press. I have already moved my archives and some links (just struggling a little with some of the differences Word Press has).

You can find Life in the NHS here from now on.

Hope to see you there!

5 years ago today

I was visiting a patient who was having a flare of her rheumatoid arthritis, so rather than her struggling to clinic I went to her. On the way over there (it was only a matter of crossing town and it was around 1.45pm so traffic was light) it became apparent from that something was happening in New York, but when you turn on the radio in the middle of something confusing, it remains just that, confusing. The patient though had the TV on and while I was at her house, administering a gold injection, I witnessed a plane crash into one of the twin towers. Later back at the hospital many people stood around a ward TV and saw the towers crash to the ground one after the other. Our team secretary was frantically phoning her son, on a years work experience in New York to find out if he was alright (he was thankfully) and we wandered around in shock. The distance to New York became nothing, this might as well have been happening in London, as we all felt the impact, as the shock reverberated around the world.

9/11 was a defining moment in our lives. Much that has happened since in terms of politics, war and world evens has happened in the way it has due to the events of that day. Wars have started, other terrorist events have taken place and we have lost some of the last remaining innocence we perhaps had at that time. Last July when terrorism arrived in London we were shocked and saddened but nothing that happens again will ever have quite the global impact of that day.

For those who lost loved ones, and for those who were there, life was never the same again. The direct fall out on others is much greater than I had realised though. Yesterday I read about young workers who spent 3 years or so of their life clearing up, dismantling the buildings and now are doomed to die and die quite soon of chronic lung disease caused by the dust present in the buildings. Ultimately then the fall out from 9/11 will be felt for a very long time and not just in terms of the families of those who died that day or those who continue to die in war zones, but closer to home.

Those of you who read my blog regularly will have noticed that once, 5 years ago I really did work as a proper nurse. I am wondering about that whole thing, should I go back. My next post is going to be about my career and what I should do next.

Any ideas

Why my Blog doesn't seem to be loading properly? It seems to fail to load on Firefox and has things in odd places on IE, any ideas?

Might be time for a new host? A break from Blogger - comments welcome.

Ok, it is official

I am a rubbish blogger. In the last week I have posted once, well less than once, seeing it is more than a week since I last posted. So what is wrong with me? Good question, and in my defense I will point to the 5000 word essay that I submitted on Tuesday morning and the subsequent fatigue with typing into a computer. Also on Wednesday there was the England match, and Thursday my night out to a Chinese restaurant to stuff my face, and Friday an evening of wine and TV. It is hardly surprising that the weight loss programme has slightly stumbled!

I have in effect been having a bit of a life, not much of one, just a bit! That is not to say that my life outside of blog land is all that interesting or exciting, but it is just carrying on doing usual stuff. Perhaps then that is where my problems lie, my life doesn't feel thrilling enough to write about right now. Having said that, sometimes it is the more mundane things that seem to be more interesting to write about than things that on the surface seem exciting.

Teen son has returned to school, he has started year 11, the last compulsory year of education. Now where did all of that time go to? He also had a sleep over at friends last night, and returned at 8.30am as he couldn't sleep there! In my experience that has always been the problem with staying with friends, it is great to have fun, to chat and generally do stuff together, but at some point sleep is needed, and it is usually in short supply during a sleep over!

So time to get off and shop, clean, wash and iron - no change there, and to yet again make a pack to post something interesting soon!

A sign of age?

I must be getting old, because the months and years seem to be whizzing by. Suddenly it is September, now where did almost 3 quarters of this year disappear off to? What is worse is that I look at my 15 and a half year old, 6 foot tall son and am slightly puzzled as to where my little boy with cute blond hair go? When I look in the mirror I see someone who is looking distinctly middle aged; already I am fed up with dying my hair, yet it is so grey that I feel I have little choice.

On the other hand I am filled with energy (mostly), I have a thirst for knowledge and study, I want to and (mostly) do exercise, I seem to be pretty healthy. So actually what does it matter? People live to a very old age these days and who says I won't be one of them. No my problem with the speed that time passes is less to do with getting old than a feeling that I am not necessarily making the most of the time that does pass. We rush around without experiencing the world around us. One of the things I have noticed is that people overtake more and jump traffic lights more. It is almost like people cannot bear to be held up, they don't want to be at the front of the queue of traffic at the lights, they would rather keep going and jump not just the amber but the red too! Further up the road you catch them up and wonder why? What are they frightened of and how much quicker will they get where they are going?

On Monday we did something that we don't often do on a bank holiday and that is go out somewhere for the day. My hubby is usually obsessed that bad traffic will hold him up as we return and he won't be prepared for the next day at work. I am not sure where the obsession to worry about something that probably won't happen came from, nor to always think ahead to tomorrow. But my parents asked us if we would like to have a day out, teen son came too and we set off to the beautiful cathedral city of Ely. We took time to wander round, to eat a leisurely lunch and would have wandered much more but for the rain complete with thunder and lightening that emerged during the afternoon. We took time to think about the history of the place (Oliver Cromwell lived there) and to imagine life during those times. It didn't make Monday come any quicker than it would have anyway and what's more we had a great time. To hubby's relief the traffic he had imagined wasn't there and anyway he slept in the car on the way home.

I am going to post this now, and later when I have uploaded my photos will put one or two here!

Its is getting crazy

Getting an new job in normal times takes ages. There are advertisements, applications, shortlisting, interviews, various checks, references, that kind of thing. In 2006 in the NHS though, suddenly people get moved around at the drop of a hat. People are leaving, lots of people, it is the uncertainty you know and sometimes those people have been the only one in their organisation who has a particular qualification or does that job. So people can come back from holiday on one day and on the next they are 'asked' if they mind moving to a new department, new job and even a new NHS trust. Yes really. When I say ask, I mean ask in the loosest terms. It is really quite crazy.

Today, I lost my manager, she has a new job starting next week. She is happy as it is closer to home. I am kind of shocked.

Life is really crazy!