Kates Journal

So, I’ve got two days off midweek, I did this to myself so that my ‘working 50% of weekends’ actually comes out right; although I’m told some people never roster themselves to do an entire weekend. It’s okay though; I don’t want to not spend the weekend with Kathryn, but at least I get to spend evenings with her.

At the moment I need that, because when I’m at work I don’t think about money and when I’m with Kathryn I don’t think about money. When I’m sat here on my own I think about money.

I owe my mum 2k for Rebecca, and she’s not finished yet.
The boiler’s another 1,300 quid (going by the first quote which seems about right based on my research), unless the second quote is mysteriously much cheaper then that’s about what I can expect.
The new AM cd is out and it’s 6 quid, I’m winding myself up by listening to the samples on cdbaby and the two downloaded tracks from the website. It sounds good, gaaah. ;)

I have realised that I am going to have to join a nursing agency if I’m going to have a hope in hell of ‘catching up’ on my finances. So along with the 300 quids worth of gas and electric bills (that’s half of the nearly 600 quid total); there’s a fair amount of ‘catching up’ to do. The application form is here by me, so that’s todays job, find all my training dates, find all my documentation and stick it back in the post to them.

House work is kinda stalled, mostly because I can’t do anything much until the second quote for the boiler is in. Once that’s in and they’re booked to come in, well, then we’re into a different ball game. I should be scrubbing at tiles, but I’ve realised something; I’m exhausted. I’ve been working on the house, or working at work almost solidly for over a year. It’s occasionally okay to rest. :)

It’d've been nice if it was a nice day for me to rest on, maybe get my camera out, but for the minute I’ll go with just trying not to be exhausted.

I have to mention that we had a great weekend; Lauren and Chrissy came down and visited and we all piled into town to watch Sweeny Todd, which turned out to be very dark, gory, and really, really good. Lots of blood though. Which turned into a discussion in the car on the way back on the accuracy of film representation of blood… One of the joys of being (or knowing) a nurse…

Lauren and Chrissy headed off the next day after a trip to Windsor, which is, it must be said, much prettier than Slough. We kinda window shopped (they actually shopped) and we generally behaved much as we always do when faced with a maze. Shortly after they headed off, as scheduled, my mother arrived. We then had a nice long evening with my mom, before I took her to the Airport in the Morning. Kathryn and I had an incredibly lazy morning and then headed off to Windsor/Eton Wick again – this time to wander down by the river (again with the pretty). There’s a bit of an oddity there, in so far as there appears to be a colony of some kind of parakeet (sp.) or parroty thing there. That’s definately *not* a native bird…

 

  

It was all very pretty though, and relaxing, and just a joy to relax and spend time out of the house with Kathryn.

 

 

You know, for those of you who read my journal (and thank you for doing so; although I post mainly for myself, it’s nice to get the odd comment) this post may be somewhat of a repeat. But, quite frankly, I care not.

Every year since the dawn of time, or at least since I started journaling, come sickness or wellness, drunken debauchery or sophisticated soiree, as soon as I physically can I’ll do an journal-summary of the past year. It’s something of a progress meter, a way for me to look back at where I was and where I am now and go “ah, that’s how I got here”. Ironically, the here in this case is in many respects not dissimilar from the here I was at last year. But, there are several huge and important differences, so while if you look at just the simple facts, and even some of the smaller things, my life isn’t that different; if you take in the whole and take account of the biggest and most important change in my life, my life has become a whole other kettle of fish. One I’m actively enjoying (if not right at this moment, riddled with cold as I am).

Last year in Kate’s Life. Read the rest of this entry »

That 2k7 review; coming. I promise.

So I got an e-mail from Pandora Radio, I’ve not used it as much as I should’ve (in fact, I’d forgotten about it) prompting me to go look – again. And I’m reminded why I’d put it on my list to play with. It is, in fact, awesome. By giving it one recommendation it’s managed to play 2 songs by groups I’d never heard of which – if the examples played are anything like the rest of their stuff, well, I’d happily buy their album. And when I played with it a couple of days ago it played a bunch of stuff (again off one recommendation) which I happen to own but think is awesome.

I find the record industry increasingly short sighted and at times just outright bizzare. Cutting off Pandora outside the US seems, well, like cutting off your nose to spite your face. I’ve lied and given a US zipcode, as usual, but I’m not sure if they’ll be blocking accounts or blocking by ip. If it’s the latter, well, we’ll have to be a little more inventive to continue listening; if it’s the former, then hopefully the lie of the zipcode should be enough.

Anyhow. 

The world has been it’s usual self, and work has been incredibly busy. The basic fact seems to be that hospitals in the UK are not big enough. We simply cannot accomodate the number of patients we have in. I remember being on the wards and being pushed to discharge patients even though I felt it was too early. And you’d see them back a few days later because they weren’t able to cope at home. I’m not sure to what extent that’s going on up on the wards, but the beds patients are going in to are still warm from the previous patient.

And the department is barely functioning most evenings, as streams and streams of patients come in. People who need full and thorough assessment are lost in the melee, people are stressed and tired and each and every day I worry for my registration which, well, I don’t feel I’m doing my job properly. I do the most I can for each patient, but quite often that’s the minimum we can do to get them ‘treated’ and admitted. My documentation is almost non-existent; often consisting of minimal obs and signing for drugs. There just isn’t time to do anymore.

Anyway, so that’s my world
 

This should, by rights, be my review of last year. But it’s not. That is coming (so hold your metaphorical horses), but instead I bring you breaking news from the family. My mother’s got engaged.

And a happy new year to you all.

There endeth this broadcast.