Salad Days

Now the dogs don't "do" early mornings. They get up with the dawn to perform their "needs" on the lane, after which I sleepily scoop up their "items" with the obligatory plastic bag before they troupe back to bed for a lie in!
Presently we are all heaped together on and under the eiderdown, they farting happily in slumber, me on my blog (with proper coffee in hand!) It is too early to let the birds out and the cottage is silent
Now, last night I noticed that I had 111 "friends" on FACEBOOK ! A feat which I think is pretty amazing as I seldom log onto the site...However I did notice that an old colleague from 1986 had posted a somewhat obscure photo of me and herself on "my photos"
The photo was taken in a tiny bistro in York.....The hair styles were all very 80's and a very youthful and rather geeky me, can just be seen to the very right of the photo border. I was a newly qualified psychiatric nurse when the photo was taken, and seeing it again after so long got me to thinking about my salad days back in Yorkshire in the 1980's
Some aspects of your life, you can amazingly forget about when older, wiser and just that little fatter! I know I tend to wax lyrical about my happy "mid life" experiences in Sheffield, but I seldom recall those early nursing days in the beautiful city of York.

I qualified as a RMN (Registered Psychiatric Nurse) in 1886. None of our group of 8 students planned to staff in our training hospital in Chester, so it seemed perfectly reasonable to move to a city with similar sensibilities!.
I was lucky to get a job in York, I had no idea of what to expect, or indeed what my role would be, I just went for the interview as all the others did and got the job! My placement was at the prestigious Bootham Park Hospital (below), which was the showcase for the Health authority at the time. The hospital was small, comprising of only 6 wards as I recall, and I secured a job on ward 1 which was an acute admission ward for around 18 general patients and up to 6 mother and babies.
I was given fairly basic accommodation at the nurses residence at Clifton Hospital which was the old asylum two miles away.I was 24, but a young and gauche 24, so a new job in a new city,was pretty tough for me at first....but on reflection I had a blast of a time!
My allocation to the nurses home gave me contact with a huge group of new starters! 20 or so student nurses, all nervous of the challenges ahead provided me with a ready made group of friends and that coupled with a young and bright set of work colleagues which were also "on tap", meant that the 2 years I was a staff nurse was one big social experience!.

In York I had a steady stream of girlfriends (Gay realisation was sadly yet to dawn!!!), an introduction to other cultures and races (which never happened in Wales or indeed the very conservative Chester) and intellectual stimulation by open minded bright people. It was also where I started my Love affair with Yorkshire and the straight talking Yorkshire people, with their wonderful flat, warm way of talking and deadpan sense of humour.
On reflection I loved my time there and I learnt so much. Professionally, the ward was run sympathetically and with great thought. The ward manager (an obese jolly ex community nurse--who incidentally had been run over by her own car months before I started and therefore was transferred to the inpatient facility!) had, as I recall a big heart and a knack of developing her staff with time and care,On reflection I blossomed under her guidance.
I also teamed up with another staff nurse called Tracy Birkin ( I am on a memory roll now!!! ) who provided me with big sister-ish support. Fearless and insightful, she became my professional hero, and with a personality as big as a bus, helped me develop from shy Welsh geek into a more sociable more rounded friend. (she was also famous at being able to run 1000 yards in high heels to catch any absconding patient before they reached the hospital gates!)
So this morning I have had a memory "romp" about the people I used to know in that faraway part of my life....I wonder where they are now....Tracey married and moved to Goole I think, but the others such as Linda Mapplebeck, Cathy Audin (who looked like Dennis the menace) Sue Kirton, Mandy Moore, Jim Cooper, David Griffith, Pete Curry, Barry Ford,Boy next door-Martin Kirby ( who, on reflection I secretly fancied ) have all disappeared from view when I moved to Sheffield to start life in "spinal injuries "....
Two friends I do keep in touch with, Cheryl and Gill still write occasionally in Christmas cards and in brief e mails......I am not sad......on reflection........like I said.,......York was a blast!