Little things & dreams of Natalie Portman
i'm looking to going back to work on Monday. this is odd for some, after all, working for the third largest organisation on the planet in an urban environment can be uber-stressful, but I've been away for long enough. Now's time to return.
I've been watching this program on C4 on a Thursday night all about different A&E (ER) trauma units around the world. Thursday just gone we were in St. Barts in the Bronx, New York. Wow. Puts the UK in the shade with their efficiency. From the time a gunshot victim came through the doors of the ER to the time he was on the Op table in the theatre was under 30 mins.
I don't know how we'd cope with such time pressure. The closest I've been to such a situation was about 4 years ago when a schoolgirl took a kitchen knife in the gut from a "friend" on account of them fancying the same boy. We got her in, on and open quite quick. but there was no urgency; we all worked at usual English pace of 'Let's wait and see'.
I guess that's why STAT isn't used in England.
What does STAT mean anyway?
Yesterday I went for therapy, worked through stuff for 2 hours, roared back to Bristol, almost getting hit by a truck coming up the motorway - i hate motorway (freeway) driving, top speeds of 70 mph but no one sticks to that and with cones, contraflows, and disappearing/reappearing lanes it does make everything a little hairy as you roar along. if i ever have a blowout on a motorway i'm seriously screwed!
Came back to Bristol and went to gym, had to be quick cos i'm not allowed there after 4pm, that being the "on-peak" time for people who can afford the exorbitant prices of on-peak gym membership.
Then against the rush-hour traffic and over to the Mall to sit out the gridlock in the comfort of Starbucks.
Funny thing was that while i was sipping latte and scribbling there was a lady on the next table to mine sipping latte and typing on a laptop. Thesaurus perched on her bag nearby. She was there before I arrived and there after I left, her husband and son came to visit her while she typed. Guessing she was writing fiction too, though i couldn't see exactly what she was typing it did look fictiony.
Not that i was idle, writing 4 pages of solid stuff.
I still can't decide if i send this off with a pseudonym as an author. I'm not ashamed of my name. though it does bear similarity to the names of two of the characters in the writing, including the protagonist.
Then I get out of the Mall after buying cookies and WHAM.. gridlock is still gridlocked. Apparently all it takes in Bristol is one car to flip on Mueller Road and WHAM! everything grinds to a halt. in the end i switchbacked through the estate, dodging cars and roadworks and came into my complex through the back way. not too much out of my way and saved me crawling down the main road into the city centre.
It has been an interesting week. My first true week of annual leave since the start of financial year.
Saw friends, watched great movies, danced on Abereon's breakwater, bought clothes, sex toys and a BB gun, bought books, played monopoly, wrote, walked and scared sheep.
Had therapy, worked out and now i'm back where I am, like Matt Damon in Rounders, ready to go again on Monday.
Not really rested, but I slept like I was dead last night.
Which is why i'm nursing cup of coffee number two as I write this..
So all i need now is to get through next week to have ANOTHER 3 day weekend (May Day Bank Holiday, one of the few good things about being British) as well as taking 2 days off during the week to go to London to see a consultant. So week after next I'm working for just 2 days!!!!
kewl......
I've been watching this program on C4 on a Thursday night all about different A&E (ER) trauma units around the world. Thursday just gone we were in St. Barts in the Bronx, New York. Wow. Puts the UK in the shade with their efficiency. From the time a gunshot victim came through the doors of the ER to the time he was on the Op table in the theatre was under 30 mins.
I don't know how we'd cope with such time pressure. The closest I've been to such a situation was about 4 years ago when a schoolgirl took a kitchen knife in the gut from a "friend" on account of them fancying the same boy. We got her in, on and open quite quick. but there was no urgency; we all worked at usual English pace of 'Let's wait and see'.
I guess that's why STAT isn't used in England.
What does STAT mean anyway?
Yesterday I went for therapy, worked through stuff for 2 hours, roared back to Bristol, almost getting hit by a truck coming up the motorway - i hate motorway (freeway) driving, top speeds of 70 mph but no one sticks to that and with cones, contraflows, and disappearing/reappearing lanes it does make everything a little hairy as you roar along. if i ever have a blowout on a motorway i'm seriously screwed!
Came back to Bristol and went to gym, had to be quick cos i'm not allowed there after 4pm, that being the "on-peak" time for people who can afford the exorbitant prices of on-peak gym membership.
Then against the rush-hour traffic and over to the Mall to sit out the gridlock in the comfort of Starbucks.
Funny thing was that while i was sipping latte and scribbling there was a lady on the next table to mine sipping latte and typing on a laptop. Thesaurus perched on her bag nearby. She was there before I arrived and there after I left, her husband and son came to visit her while she typed. Guessing she was writing fiction too, though i couldn't see exactly what she was typing it did look fictiony.
Not that i was idle, writing 4 pages of solid stuff.
I still can't decide if i send this off with a pseudonym as an author. I'm not ashamed of my name. though it does bear similarity to the names of two of the characters in the writing, including the protagonist.
Then I get out of the Mall after buying cookies and WHAM.. gridlock is still gridlocked. Apparently all it takes in Bristol is one car to flip on Mueller Road and WHAM! everything grinds to a halt. in the end i switchbacked through the estate, dodging cars and roadworks and came into my complex through the back way. not too much out of my way and saved me crawling down the main road into the city centre.
It has been an interesting week. My first true week of annual leave since the start of financial year.
Saw friends, watched great movies, danced on Abereon's breakwater, bought clothes, sex toys and a BB gun, bought books, played monopoly, wrote, walked and scared sheep.
Had therapy, worked out and now i'm back where I am, like Matt Damon in Rounders, ready to go again on Monday.
Not really rested, but I slept like I was dead last night.
Which is why i'm nursing cup of coffee number two as I write this..
So all i need now is to get through next week to have ANOTHER 3 day weekend (May Day Bank Holiday, one of the few good things about being British) as well as taking 2 days off during the week to go to London to see a consultant. So week after next I'm working for just 2 days!!!!
kewl......