Finally after 24 months
No masks at work
We've organised a pub crawl to celebrate
The woman was around 80 I suppose
She had bright orange hair which had been dyed within an inch of its life
And she had been a psychiatric patient for most of her adult life.
Me and my fellow student nurse Paula ( a cheerful scouser with a foul mouth) were student nurses back then and we were on placement with the occupational therapy department at the West Cheshire hospital where the patient with orange hair visited daily.
We were being taught how to shampoo and set hair that day!
Now, even back then, I wasn’t known for my sartorial elegance, but I was game to learn a new skill and so with the equally clueless Paula we set about shampooing and setting the patient’s hair and rolled layer upon layer with curlers that looked like rigid hairy caterpillars. The OT in charge told us to pin the curlers and to treat the lady with a cup of very sweet tea and some Jaffa cakes.
I remember Paula telling me that the hair had to be “wrapped” very tightly around the curler so after a good three quarters of an hour wrapping the patent resembled a German mine and was placed for a long heat under an industrial sized hair dryer.
We knew something had gone slightly awry when the OT angrily called us back after she had finally “unwrapped” the patient an hour later, finding her covered in a bright orange mop of near steel strength red curls
She looked dreadful but the patent grinned widely at everyone as the occupational therapist shrieked at us “look at her !!! …LOOK! What have you got to say about this?”
I just blushed
But Paula with her Liverpudlian wit spread her arms out wide
And sang
“ THE SUN’l COME OUT TOMORROW ! BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR THAT TOMORROW !!!!”
Sunday
It’s a grey morning, and wet.
Even though is almost summer, it feels like Autumn.
It feels like a back-to-school day.
I’m not making my bucket of coffee this morning. I will buy some on the drive through as a treat.
I’m working with new bank staff today.
We are short staffed again
Healthcare feels as though it’s gone tits up following the pandemic
I was talking to Nu about it yesterday
So many nurses have left, retired, resigned, moved on….burnt out and tired.
She worked in the big teaching hospitals in London
She knows.
Dorothy knows I’m going to work and is unhappy .
Thank god for Ewan ( Trendy Carol’s hubby) who will be collecting them soon.
Dorothy loves him too
Dusk
This is my favourite view of one of the roads into Trelawnyd
Cwm Road from the South.
My cottage is the at the end on the left
It’s heading towards dusk but is warm and peaceful
I had a date today.
Just a walk and a coffee along the prom.
There was no spark although Dorothy seemed to like him.
I thought about it all I walked up the lane towards home.
Animal helper Pat, stopped to chat .
So we laughed a bit and I forgot what I was thinking about
Nothing important
Catch Up
Like the meaning of the song Send In The Clowns, I’ve always been baffled of just how untidy my cottage becomes when I am on a run of long shifts.
It looks like a midden.
I’ve just worked two long days and today is my day off between two more.
And so it’s a cleaning day.
Doors and windows open
Music on
Tidying and cleaning is a repetitive, mindless and also mindful chore
Everything ordered
Everything in its place
Albert’s snot marks on his window refuge gone
The sad underpants in the wash
And with the kitchen smelling magnificently of lemons and bleach
60 Some Thoughts
Sixty.
I know it’s such a boring platitude but I have to say the words always said at these times…
Where does the time go?
I’m writing this at 5 am Albert and I are the only ones awake. Dorothy is gently chewing my pj bottoms, she’s dreaming she’s a puppy
Where did the time go?
I couldn’t tell you…I really can’t.
So , I have been reflecting …….like you do .
I’m reflecting until Wednesday when it actually hits me albeit gently ….square in the face
On the 1st , I’m working all day and we are short handed
I won’t have time to feel anything but fucked.
Here are just 20 thoughts, thoughts in the middle of the night just after Dawn
1. Working where I do has made me realise that people who “hate getting old “ are idiots.
You are allowed to hate becoming ill, becoming infirm , becoming depressed ….but don’t hate getting old.
I am lucky reaching 60 , I know that, and I am grateful.
2. Memory is a fickle friend.
3. Strangely as it may seem sex is better now than when I took it for granted ….however it is unfortunately more infrequent
( refer to point 2!)
4. Certain memories last a lifetime and they will never leave you……I dip into a score as I lay in bed….
1968 Janet and I doing Tarzan impersonations out of our bedroom window. 1972 my grandmother smelling of love and cold cream 1973 my first viewing of The Poseidon Adventure 1980 a family party at Ann’s house. 1992 …..getting drunk with Nu in a Galway pub…… Dancing on a Sheffield hospital roof in the dark 1996 seeing New York City from the air
2002 meeting my first dog Finlay…..true love
2015 getting married, 2016 Watching the cor de ballet in Giselle at the Royal Opera house
Salsa dancing in Sheffield
Happiness….a flash of realising I was happy, truly happy .
5. Being a nurse …and seeing people at their very best often when they are experiencing their very worst .
6 Now realising that when someone starts a conversation with “;I’m not being ……”; they always are
7 Actions always speak louder than fucking words
8 I miss not being a dad but I can now be a cool sort of uncle and grandadish …..a couple of weeks ago My “teenage” nephew Leo texted after a date and excitedly told me he’d just had his first kiss.
It made me insanely happy.
9 friends are life …but at 60 they start to leave you…please treasure them
10. The Walking Dead needs a Uk Version, and I soooooo want to be in it
11. I no longer have to pretend to put up with bad behaviour , bad music, bad films or toxic people
12. I Don’t expect good news coverage on breakfast tv. I say what I think more when I deal with any services and I won’t put up with shitty management at work
13. Never talk about politics, gun law or post a seemingly innocuous blog without thinking about it on line. And if I do, expect a load of shitty responses
14 I now recognise that real friends are real in so much that they don’t rationalise affection or praise or support. They just accept you.
15 sleep if you can in an afternoon….every afternoon.
16 what did we ever do without phones and internet ?
17. Don’t be unloyal to yourself . I’ve done it for too many years now. Don’t do things you don’t want to do. Don’t be what you don’t want to be and don’t expect others to do the same
18 Eat a scotch egg , when I bloody well want one
19 if you love someone , tell them . Tell them as often as you can
20 to now move forward into my 61st year by embracing a new skill ( professional counselling ), a new career , and new experiences …..I realise that inkind of deserve it ….
Hey ho, I’m almost sixty
And I’m off to work…….soon……
So wish me a happy birthday next Wednesday , I’m shallow enough , to enjoy every single comment
Tidy Up
In health care masks are still to be worn and it’s playing havoc with my beard which has morphed from being a trimmed goatee to something like Father Christmas would be proud of,
Perhaps I will leave it and wear purple, and shout in the street…..I’m 60 on Wednesday
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