Being Nice

People are suddenly being nicer to me,
At work someone brought me a cake and two scotch eggs were put in the nurses' fridge for my break!
and I received hugs from members of staff that won't see me next weekend when I finally complete my last shift.
"I won't see you again!!!!" one menopausal colleague wailed
" I am retiring NOT dying of cancer!" I reminded her.
It just so happens that four of my favourite nurses are leaving roughly when I do. One is going into nurse education, one into Student support and the other is moving to an ophthalmic ward where the hours and the physicality of nursing is better for her back.
We shall have a joint leaving do, which means more people there but increases the chances that someone who does not like you but likes someone else turns up......
What larks Pip!
Even Ursula or Petra might say something nice to me this week! 

So my question to you all this sunny Sunday afternoon is this?

What was the best compliment someone has ever given you?

 I am reminded  of my grandmother here, who was the Queen of the backhanded compliment.....on seeing that I had made an effort to get my unruly hair neat and tidy for a family do, she commented " oh your hair looks lovely.....from the back!" 

Answers on postcards please!

Queen Lumley

The other night I watched a documentary that was so warm and fuzzy and sweet that I totally forgot the ills of the world for an hour or so
Joanna Lumley's India saw the actress revisit the country of her birth and with a whispering, schoolgirl charm we saw her flit through the Calcutta slums, the Himalaya mountains and Elephant jungles like a smiling and very gracious cocktail party host.
Lumley is a delighterful woman for everything she experiences is either " extraordinary" or " magnificent" and with this slightly naive 1950s way of looking at the world she draws in people of all cultures to delight in her charm and politeness.
At one point as she was driving in an open topped sports car, she greeted a passing street woman standing by the side of the road with a beeming smile and a breathless " hello sweetie"
I was totally beguiled by her

Copybook Blot

well after today's once in a lifetime comment by The Prof
I well a truly blotted my copybook by leaving on the car lights and radio when I went to pick him up after his very hard and long day in Cardiff
The car battery failed and we had to wait for an hour and a quarter for a jump!
Earlier I was the best husband since Prince Albert
Now I am a useless burke.......that has a brain the size of an average peanut!

Nursing-Some Final Thoughts

I was twenty when I started to nurse. It was 1983 and I was a gauche unassertive, shy character who looked awkward even in his nursing group photo where he should have felt comfortable amongst his friends and his mentor.

Psychiatric nursing taught me to act as an advocate and to care for the distressed and weak.
Spinal Injury Nursing taught me to nurse holistically and to trust my gut in how to handle people.
Nurse management taught me to believe in myself , voice my own opinions and helped me to develop the skill of taking a deep breath before speaking.
Oh, ...and Intensive care nursing has taught me the power of good team work.
Each area has shaped and sculptured me over the years.

Nurses have not really changed in my thirty five year experience. Most want to care the best way they can. It is the system that has changed and it is this system change that has complicated the issues and practicalities of care giving.
The "forces" discipline has disappeared from the workplace and a more academic/ assertive based training has replaced the old " learning by watching Nellie" approach to development.
Student Nurses are brighter than those of old which only can be a good thing, but boy don't they look sloppy in their badly fitting uniforms and lack of "starch"
That's an age thing!

Policy, protocol, HR, a computer full of e- fucking learning needs and the fear of missing something now replace common sense management and firefighting is par for the course for harassed middle managers who need to sell the corporate message to their peers without ever believing in the message.

Have I any advice for those bright eyed, energetic bods who are just starting out on their careers?
Well yes I have.
Grab every opportunity to see the best!
Move away from home, go to a good teaching hospital trust, soak up the special and learn to recognise good , innovative practice and management, there is plenty of it to see
Don't be afraid to question and to challenge
Be warm and thoughtful
And please PLEASE PLEASE develop a ROBUST sense of humour

Note To Self

I've just spent an exhausing couple of hours knocking on doors selling raffle tickets.
I left William asleep in the back garden
I won't do that again
He peed inside my gardening shoes just before I got home
George was shocked and disgusted

A First!

Now I like a new experience just like the next man, but one would have thought that a Primary School Sports Day may not be high on the list of a middle aged, somewhat cosmopolitan country homosexual with time on his hands! 

strange as it would seem I rather enjoyed myself

For yesterday the affable despot Jason invited me to an alien land full of egg and spoon races, javelin throwing seven year olds and balance-the-bean-bag -on-the-head multitasking! 

Yes it was Liv and Eve's school Sports Day at the village school.

It's rather sweet to be included in such an experience and I must say within minutes I was transported to those old fashioned primary school sunny afternoons of the 1960s where Fat boy Gray came almost last in most races , just beating a hyperventilating lad called Allen who wore a surgical boot

Today, unlike our sports day, the onus is on taking part and obtaining a prized " sticker" rather than just winning a cup or shield although it was nice to see young Liv fist pumping the air when she slaughtered the opposition in everything she took part in......

Today's School Sports are also attended by parents and grandparents who were marshaled with much skill by the wisecracking  head teacher with a megaphone. No photos can be taken which was a shame as it proved to be a rather naive , innocently sweet afternoon which was capped off nicely by a collective " marathon " where the entire school of all ages and both sexes galloped like loons around the racetrack in organised chaos.

I came away smiling and ever slightly melancholy for never having experienced the very individual joy of attending your child's sports day!

I will leave you with some more novelty veg entries

Keep em coming! And please send them as adownloadable attachment

I am having problems with some sent by email

Thank you all for your time and efforts

jgsheffield@hotmail.com

I Shouldn't Be Let Out!

I am pretty good at not snacking between meals.

But occasionally I just need to eat something savoury, just to placate the pangs of hunger when I am out and about.

Yesterday I got my salt fix from a packet of tesco snack a jacks, which for those that don't know,sort of resemble vinegar flavoured  sanitary pads or cavity wound dressings in so much as they are strange    Polystyrene like snacks that fill you but do little else! 

I ate several packs when I was waiting in the queue at the post office  

Not a problem I hear you say

Well I would generally agree, but as I stood third in line, I caught myself in a magnificent sneeze and peppered the  heads of two women in front of me with what could only be described as a food/ sputum confetti. 

Sixth Sense

I didn't take to him immediately.
I had been talking to his partner at the door when he suddenly appeared behind her.
He had one of those hormone filled expressions on his face
It shrieked, ( well bellowed) for me to keep my distance.
I sensed a controlling and overbearing man.
He talked over the woman and didn't smile once when I rattled on

The afternoon had been filled by smalltalk and the selling of raffle tickets
Scottish Margaret is going to celebrate her golden wedding anniversary very soon. Alan Walker bought 20 quids worth without batting an eye and I caught up with Pippa's new herbaceous border as she scoured her purse for change.
Small talk and chat.
That's what village life is about.
That sixth sense that tells you something is off is a powerful feeling. Within a second I felt I had read the relationship that I had no real knowledge of and I walked away from the house uneasy and unsettled.
Behind closed doors eh?