Kates Journal

it’s 7.34. Which would be fine, but I’ve been roughly awake since 6:30. I then singularly failed to get back to sleep; despite my best attempts.

At the moment every muscle in my body aches; I remember this feeling the first time I started working full time at a hospital. It felt like each shift was killing me until, of course, I got fitter and started to *manage* just fine; but for the first few weeks it left me exhausted.

And I’m exhausted now.

It doesn’t help that 1000 miles of trecking over the country at the weekend, lugging engines (and transmission parts) about means that this is really my 7th day on the go. Read the rest of this entry »

So, it’s going to be my second shift on A&E today. I’m shattered. I didn’t get home ’til quarter past 10 (having left in the pissing rain).

So the shift was cool, I started off terrified, but by the end was starting to feel that I at least had a vague notion where things were and the kind of order of things. I’ve just twigged how the cases are sorted… I think… which I didn’t realise yesterday.

And I kept doing half-arsed jobs of things, because I’d not used the documentatino before I was entirely unsure of where things went in it, which bits I needed to do, but by the end I was getting the hang of that a bit too.

I was knackered though, by finishing time. When they sent me home….

….and I wandered out to my motorcycle…

you know when you do something odd for no obvious reason and it turns out to be fantastically lucky? Well, instead of riding home the usual way I decided to come back the long-more-well-lit way.

And about halfway though brizzy my gearlever fell off. I realised this as I came up to the next set of traffic lights, in 4th, and went “ring-ning-ning-ning………CLUTCH IN! FUCK! Where’s my gearlever!”

I then had to do a U-turn, in 4th, on a hill, get to near the top and find that the lights were at red. Whimper. Do a hill start in 4th. Trundle (as much as is possible on a two stroke) in 4th searching the road surface for my gearlever.

Hop off at the last place I remembered changing gear; turn the bike round [clutch in]; waddle astride bike to get it going enough to pull away; ride back towards home.

Just at that stage inbetween quitting and actually stopping looking, there it was, in the centre of the lane. So I braked and indicated that I was pulling over, aimed a hefty kick at it and pulled over. Whereupon an arsehole in a BMW drove over it, beeping at me at the same time.

Having retrieved it from the road (and obviously stalled the bike) I did a little dance on it to bend it into a shape where I could use it, re-attached it and headed home. I could have done without that really!

Nyah.

So, in ten minutes time I’m going to get changed into my rapidly-slightly-waterproofed bike gear; I’m going to get on my little motorcycle, and I’m going to head into my first ever shift at A&E.

I’m scared!

Not only because it’s A&E, but also because they seem really together about students. Everywhere else has kinda let me learn my own way and in a kinda relaxed, chilled out, doing it all but it not always bein visible ’til the end, kinda way.

This time I’ve got to get my act together. That combined with the Regolith disaster area and needing to get my car ready for pride… well. Lets just say there’s lots to do. I’ve still not sorted out the folder from my last placement and the house is chaos. There’s engine bits, piles of paper, unhoovered carpet, dirt, junk, everywhere.

On the other hand I’ve done the letter to my Doctor saying “this is what should be on my repeat prescription” and I’ve voted (by post, for the Lib Dems), oh and I’ve read the placement manual. See I am getting my act together, ever so slowly. So, uh, go me. I think :-)

This weekend we did 1000 miles.

We drove 1000 miles in a transit van collecting engines (and other assorted transmission parts).

I’ve got a 1275cc A+ ital engine sat in my garage (and a gearbox too!).

It turns over. This is good.

I am very, very tired.

Spent my first (induction) day in A&E.

Now I’m going to collapse somewhere, and attempt to read the uh, stuff, about stuff. Or something.

So.

We rented a van. Or more accurately, we said “we want a pickup this weekend”, they said okay, and reserved one for us.

Then when Nikki went to pick it up, no pickup, would we like a seven-seater foldy-downy-seats big car. Uh, “no”, not unless they want it back all nicely greased.

Then…. after much complaining they sourced a brand spanking new shiny van.

Only…. we’re not allowed to get the back of it dirty?!

What kind of fucking van is this? A feather transporter? Who are these people?

Gaaaaah.