Last week was like a Christmas
tin of Quality Streets. There were some parts I enjoyed, and other parts that
you wished you hadn’t picked. The week started off well. After some 20 years of
cooking Christmas dinner for an ever growing and changing extended family, (often
more than once in a year), I decided this year would be different. So last
Sunday 19 of our family met up at a local restaurant and we had a super meal,
crackers, party hats and maybe the odd glass of wine. Not all the family could
be there (some live in New Zealand), but for those who could, all seemed to enjoy
the time spent together. I know I did and it was wonderful not to worry about
cooking the food or having to do the washing up and re-arranging the house
after everyone had left. Sunday was absolutely like my favourite Quality
Street, a hazelnut and caramel (purple wrapper) kind of day!
Monday was another day of packing
and moving house contents either to storage, the children or the tip. The fact
that it rained all day didn’t make for a great time, but it was one more thing
ticked off on what feels like, at times, to be a long list of things to do
before the sale is completed. Surprisingly, moving to a new house does not
feature in the Holmes and Rache top ten list of the most stressful life events.
Unsurprisingly, many reasons for moving to a new house do, such as death of a
partner, job loss, divorce and retirement. In any event, Monday felt like an
orange crème (orange wrapper) kind of day.
Tuesday was a day of two halves –
the first part was spent starting to put pen to paper and getting on with a
slightly (read ‘massively’) overdue chapter (see previous blog post). Whilst I
made some headway, it didn’t flow as well as I had hoped, and progress was
probably best described as a toffee finger (gold wrapper) experience. Tuesday
afternoon was very different. I went to see one of my grandsons take the role
of Emperor Caesar Augustus in the School nativity play. In this traditional production
there were no lobsters, aliens, and Spiderman didn’t make an appearance. It was
a wonderful experience and as such a definite green triangle hazelnut noisette
(green foil wrapper) afternoon. Tuesday evening should have seen me at a community
‘Friends’ meeting, but was actually spent in near exhaustion, lying on the sofa
watching a film on NetFlix – best described as a fudge (pink wrapper) evening.
Wednesday started early for what
was a milk chocolate block (green wrapper) full day of Board meetings at
Wrightinton, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust. Each meeting had full agendas and
required a great deal of concentration on everyone’s part. Half way through the
day, we broke for lunch, which was a selection taken from the patients’ menu
for that day. I had a vegetarian lasagne and fresh beetroot – both of which
were delicious. At the last meeting of the day we had representatives attending
from the Care Quality Commission and Ernst Young. I found it quite amusing that
had we not been introduced to them it would have been impossible to say who was
from which organisation. I think they must share the same dress code, and
certainly the same managerial lexicon and approach to never answering a
question directly. It was a coconut eclair (blue wrapper) end to the day.
Thursday got off to a toffee
deluxe (brown wrapper) start as I was able to spend a little time playing catch
up on my reading. One of the stories I read was the suggestion that the NHS was
considering paying £5,000 to mature students (considered to be those over the
age of 25!) to become mental health and/or learning disability nurses. The
payment was described as an ‘earn and learn incentive’. I had to smile at this.
When I started my mental health nurses training in 1975, we were paid an ‘earn
and learn bonus’ at the end of year one. It was just £50, equivalent to £407.37
in today’s money – a toffee penny (gold wrapper) reward methinks!
Thursday afternoon, saw me
sipping champagne (a Christmas tradition) with my long term best friend and
fellow writer Professor Sue McAndrew. We exchanged presents, and swapped
stories and news. Her Christmas story was of the mink that had decided to take
up residence in the roof space above her kitchen. She and the rat catcher from
the local council came face to face with it when they opened the hatch to the
loft space. Whilst he didn’t do mink (only rats, mice and squirrels), he knew a
man who did. The mink has moved on to another part of the river now. All in
all, it was a honeycomb crunch (golden brown wrapper) afternoon.
Friday arrived, and the morning
was spent at a funeral of one of my fellow NEDs, Carole Hudson, who died
suddenly just a few weeks ago. She was on holiday in the US at the time. She was
a wonderful person, and someone who used her talents and skill to help so many
others. Her last job before she retired was as Chief Executive of St Helens
Council. When she was first appointed she was one of only two female CEOs. She
brought much wisdom, fun and kindness to our Board meetings and we all miss her
tremendously. Although it was a sad occasion, I think Carole would have said
the Requiem Mass was a strawberry delight (red wrapper).
Yesterday, (Saturday) was made up
of lots of last minute chores and things to do that ranged from cleaning the
chicken house, fresh vegetable shopping, eye testing, storage sorting and
generally trying to remember what we might have forgot in our Christmas
preparations. It rained incessantly which made most things more difficult. It
was an orange crunch (orange foil wrapper) sort of occasion.
The evening
highlight was a community carol concert around the Christmas tree on the village
green. The rain stopped, there was mulled wine and warm mince pies. Some 200
people turned up, most of whom were local families – it was a caramel swirl (yellow
foil wrapper) end to the week. I hope you all enjoy a wonderful Christmas and I
hope to see you in the New Year.
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