Tulips and beards and nurses





 I went out to lunch with my sister in law today. Tonight I’d planned to meet Chic Eleanor for supper. 
Lots of foody things today. 
Eleanor messaged me that she couldn’t come as her mother was poorly…very poorly as it turned out and I’ve just dropped some cheerful tulips off at her house on the other side of the village.
Her house was deserted, it’s going to be a tough 24 hours for her.

I’m scruffy as I’ve grown a full beard, a friend in the village who I haven’t seen in a long time commented on it today.
He called me a hipster.
I told him I’m too old 

I will have to make a decision to temper it soon 
I’ve had a beard most of my adult life, but never one as unruly 

In the supermarket I overheard two women complaining about the nurses’ strike.
They said nurses were putting people at risk now, and that they shouldn’t complain 

Now it starts , I said to myself.
And I wish everyone would watch this American medical soap’s nurse speech 
It sort of captures some of the essence that I think a lot of nurses feel





68 comments:

  1. The beard suits you, John. Especially this fuller beard. As for ladies complaining about the nurses' strike, it seems to me that the past 6 or 7 years have been all about complaining over one thing or another. Soon there'll be complaints about something else. Gratitude really ought to make a comeback, don't you think? We're all more blessed than we know. --Elise

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    1. It’s a time of uncertainty , especially as the pandemic has had much more psychological damage that we initially thought or expected

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  2. Barbara Anne4:38 pm

    Good speech but I know it's a delicate subject.
    Love your current beard and recommend you keep in for the rest of the winter as it's warmer. You'd make a nice, merry Santa, too!

    Hugs!

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    1. It’s coming off before Monday …I’m in London with Janet

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  3. It's easy to complain about nurses until you desperately need nursing care yourself, that's what I think. After that, people should just STFU.

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    1. Beautifully put debra , you are such a delight

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  4. Traveller4:51 pm

    A good speech. It is an actor but that doesn’t make it any less powerful.

    I am fed up with people who have no first hand experience complaining about the strikes. Listen to some of the first hand accounts of nurses, teachers and junior doctors instead of relying on the Daily Mail.

    People trust teachers with their children everyday but don’t believe them when they talk about the stress, long hours and work load. Ditto for the nurses.

    Don’t compare things to how you remember they were 40 years ago. Things have changed.

    PS rather like the busy beard.

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    1. Thank you for that comment , good points well made

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  5. Traveller4:52 pm

    Bushy! Fat thumbs!

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  6. Anonymous5:09 pm

    I love the beard and I love nurses.they are the ones who do all the work.I prefer nurses to doctors and never get enough credit. Lini from Petaluma

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  7. The person upstairs has decided to grow his hair long - as in his hippy days apparently - I thought it would be just a phase until a friend said she liked it and that she thought he looked like a musician x 🎸🎷

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  8. I am jealous. I, too, have been growing my beard out full but it is nowhere near as neat as yours is. And your friend: perhaps he should have called you an ageing hipster. :)

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    1. I’d love to be called a youthful hipster, just once x

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  9. I think the trimmed goatee looks younger and more stylish [if that matters to you], like you take care of yourself---but then I am not a fan of beards in general.
    My extensive hospital stays have left me with a less than favorable opinion of nurses, and medical personnel in general. US, big city, rude and impatient etc. I am sure that is not you at the hospice though.
    Wind chills tonight 20 below 0* F, off topic.

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    1. There are bad nurses everywhere and luckily ones that that I’m proud to stand alongside

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  10. I love the beard. I'm also letting mine get more bushy then usual -- until it's long enough sculpt into something interesting. And you are never too old to be a hipster.

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    1. Some of me can’t be arsed
      At work it’s hidden behind a mask

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  11. Anonymous5:33 pm


    As you're blogging about your appearance I hope you won't be offended by any not so favourable comments.
    I was shocked when I saw the photo of you - yes you do look scruffy, very scruffy and unkempt. "Let yourself go" comes to mind. The unkempt beard ages you considerably.
    If you want to keep the beard then a very close crop would look much cleaner and smarter, right now you look as if you're not taking care of yourself, for whatever reason. Not a good look and not attractive. Properly groomed you would look more attractive and approachable. Close cropped facial hair all over without the grey tufty effect on your chin.
    Hope you're not offended, it's only my opinion but as I said I was shocked to see your photo, to see how scruffy you looked. You're a lovely man John, look after yourself. I'm commenting as anonymous this time.

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    1. Well that’s me told

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    2. Anonymous7:56 pm

      From the third anonymous to the first

      You’re a miserable old cow.

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    3. Lol , now that made me laugh

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  12. Anonymous5:35 pm

    I love beards but they have to be neat and tidy.
    Barbarax

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  13. Ah- I love your beard. But I do love beards and my husband has one. And hey- in the winter it is nice to have that extra warmth, I would imagine.
    That nurse speech has it exactly right. Doctors get the credit but nurses will save your life.

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    1. Well they work together ….but I liked when she said they are ours

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  14. Nurses and ambulance personnel, are striking, yes for increased pay, but also for better working conditions. Every day they face awful decisions. I doubt if there's a nurse or paramedic who doesn't go home feeling guilty that they haven't been able to give their best care because they are stretched so thinly.
    As for the beard, I love it. It's not scruffy, it looks cuddly! xx

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    1. Forgot to add, love to Eleanor. xx

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    2. Traveller6:47 pm

      Agree completely HH. it is awful for nurses, or teachers, to go home knowing that they didn’t have enough time or resources to do the job they wanted to do

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    3. I am lucky I work in an area that allows me to give the care I need and want to give. Many of my hospital colleagues and well past that

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  15. When I was admitted to hospital feeling very weak - apparently overlooked appendicitis - the Nurses were very gentle and I didn' t worry anymore and so let them take over my care - I have gratitude for all they do x

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    1. Not all are angels but thank you for that flis

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  16. After thirty plus years in the classroom, now retired for half those years, I feel that most of those care giving professions lack the respect deserved. My two granddaughters seeing their mother, aunt and granny work in education, decided to go into healthcare. One is a nurse practitioner midwife and the other a RN working in labor and delivery. I feel that they opted for the fire instead of the frying pan.

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    1. Would it have been the same in a male dominated profession ?

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  17. Oh for heaven's sake, John. You're all bundled up in your coat and dressed for cold weather, in your car with your seat belt buckled! How else could you look except a little scruffy? The beard isn't that long anyway. Tell "Anonymous" to take a hike. By the way, the face in the photo has gorgeous eyes that always seem to see the best of the world around them. As to being called a "hipster", take it as a compliment, means you're still young at heart. Take care, John. A friend in Kentucky in the U.S.

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    1. I’ve always been somewhat unkempt at times.it used to drive my husband bananas

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    2. Grandma Sandy summed things up perfectly!

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  18. Anonymous7:04 pm

    I agree, nurses do an amazing job and deserve to be paid commensurately.
    Myself, I'm an civil servant with 15-year's service - in April my employer, the government, will have to give me (and many others at my salary grade) an increase otherwise my salary will be below the National Living Wage, which is set by the government... it's a crazy world we live in.

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    1. At fifteen pounds an hour , I could and did work for one hour ,looking after a critically ill patient on a ventilator who was chemically sedated and paralysed . Had four infusions running, 2 x 50 mls syringes of nor adrenaline, one of insulin, potassium infusion, antibiotics, all running too. Bloods that had to be taken and interpreted hourly, family that had to be supported , X-rays that had to be taken ,

      15 pounds an hour

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    2. Anonymous7:40 pm

      Game set and match John .
      Nurses Rock

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    3. Traveller7:51 pm

      Exactly! £15 an hour…that is ridiculous.

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  19. Anonymous7:25 pm

    Let's face it unless nurses get paid what they deserve then there will always be a shortage.

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    1. The problem that many in the profession think we get paid enough

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    2. Anonymous1:06 am

      Seriously? I never hear that from medical personnel in the US!

      ceci

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    3. Here in Scotland I was eating in a pub with an NHS nurse friend this week (his specialty is mental health nursing). When I asked about the strike he said he wasn't striking as he thought he got paid enough. It felt strange that it was me suggesting he didn't get paid enough, not him.

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  20. In preparation for future frolics you may wish to smooth a small amount of coconut oil through your beard x πŸ‚

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  21. I'm glad I've retired from the medical profession, I can't fathom why anyone would be in the field in this climate. Nurses were my backup, my watchdogs, my monitors and friends for over 50 years. Can't imagine my past life without them.
    As to the beard, I've tried the trimmed and the untrimmed. I prefer the trimmed, as do my kids.

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    1. You are right , it gets trimmed on Sunday

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  22. It's not nurses who're putting people at risk, it's a diehard government that's allowing the NHS to fall to bits.

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    Replies
    1. It’s a monster of a service that’s not been tamed

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  23. Anonymous9:25 pm

    I’m a retired nurse. It made me very angry when people were clapping nurses during Covid as I knew the real reward would be a living wage, to reflect their training,responsibilities and front line care. It makes me very angry that, as an example, you can get paid more walking on the catwalk than working as a team to save someone’s life. Anyway rant over. Love you John gray. Love your blog and true feelings on what life is like. You give me the courage to keep going. Thank you. You’re handsome as you’re internal goodness shines through.

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    1. That’s kind of you, and your comments were needed tonight ,

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    2. Anonymous5:04 pm

      I'm sorry that clapping the nurses "made you angry" but personally I clapped them in appreciation for what they do. I don't have the means or the power to give them a raise in pay but it was within my means to clap and I believede at the time they were appreciative of ordinary peoples efforts to do that. Your words belittle my standing on the doorstep every week doing the only thing I could. I'm in my 70's and disabled but did what others were doing to show my gratitude.

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  24. My husband's cousin (Sandra) trained as a nurse/midwife in England. She worked as a nurse in England and then decided to work in the US under a contract agreement. She started in Florida and loved it. She never returned to England and has been in the US working as a nurse for 30 years. She says, comparably, US nurses are treated well and highly paid. Sandra visits family in England regularly but chooses to live and work in the US.

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  25. Anonymous10:03 pm

    Have you watched the beardbrand videos on Youtube John, they're mesmerising!
    Pauline B

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  26. Anonymous10:18 pm

    I like your beard, but perhaps just a slight trim-up along with mustache! It becomes you, though. Video spot-on. I left the medical profession after 30 yrs because state mandated data, EMR, computer documentation *became* more important than actual patient care. Not what I signed up for.....and had to bow out, sadly, 7 yrs. ago. I am a nurturer by heart and that won't change, thankfully.
    Susan M/ Calif.

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  27. Too many times in my life it's been an excellent nurse who's come to the rescue and made things right. I have nothing but respect and admiration for the jobs they do and the care they give. And I might add, never paid enough nor given enough credit. I like the beard John. X

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  28. I actually think that your full beard looks very nice. I think you should always be scruffy. I have never heard the phrase 'licking his banjo', and truth be told, I'm afraid to ask questions.

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  29. You look like a Cornish (why Cornish?) fisherman in that photo. Or maybe a sub-mariner.

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  30. I thought of a fisherman too. Nice photo - warm and friendly.

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  31. Anonymous10:29 am

    As my brothers life has been put at risk and he has nearly died several times due to the appalling treatment he has received from the NHS for the last 16 years - and if he had been treated correctly 16 years ago, under a labour government, would not have caused his ongoing issues - and the fact that he was referred 2 years ago for an urgent appointment, to be seen within 2 weeks and some jobsworth decided that he wasn't urgent without reading his notes or seeing him, and has only just been seen, but told to go away because he will just die anyway, I am afraid I have no sympathy with nurses at all. My father in law died at the hand of appalling nursing as well, with the nurses being more interested in running races in the corridor to see who could get the most steps on their fitbit rather than treating patients. Sorry John, I am sure that you are personally a great nurse and that there are other great nurses too, but they are not all automatically wonderful and people need to remember that, and so do some of these nurses.

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    1. No I get that, and I’m talking generally here

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  32. The two women in the supermarket have sucked up the shite put out by Tory newspapers and Tory spokespeople. Nurses, teachers and the like have been driven to strike action by the Tory government - they are the ones who deserve a forest of fingers to be pointed at them not at the nurses.

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  33. Anonymous3:59 pm

    Scruffy is a good look on you.:)

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  34. I like your beard, you remind me of Oliver
    Sacks.

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  35. Frankly I can't understand why someone wouldn't support the nurses strikes! Putting their lives at risk at the front lines of a pandemic is just the tip of the iceberg in what they do to care for people. Clapping isn't enough, nurses, paramedics, ambulance drivers, physios and the rest need to be paid a decent wage. They need to eat, pay rent or mortgages, heat their homes, buy clothes and pay for children. They need to be able to afford not just the basics but the things that make life worth living like books, wine, flowers and holidays. They carry the burden of care for a nation, they shouldn't have to carry the burden of worrying how they can afford to live as well.

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I love all comments Except abusive ones from arseholes