A breather at last!
Finally I have time to update.
Since I went on full time agency work in October I have been too busy to post here much - or anywhere else. I love the work and freedom from 'office' politics. I can just go to work 'wash my hands' and do the job I like. I am getting a good range of specialities and hospitals. Mainly in Manchester but some work in Bolton and Ormskirk too. I have been offered permanent posts at Hope hospital and BUPA Manchester and a private hosp. in Preston. I have declined them all because I love my new found independence, and the thrill of that call from the agency asking me to go somewhere I have to buy another map for! Though multimap is now my friend. After a slow start, once the units got to know me a little the work came flooding in and I am averaging 50 - 60 hours a week. Long hours, especially with around 3 hours travelling each day, but I don't have that bone numbing exhaustion. Just a quiet satisfaction and pleasant anticipation of payday. I have been given an ongoing placement at BUPA Manchester. It is a highly professional place where I feel proud of the work done. It has closed over Christmas for refurbishment, so now I'm overdrawn at the bank again.
In October my mum fell backwards downstairs and hurt herself badly. She fractured a vertebra in her spine and also ribs and ended up with a partially collapsed lung. She somehow crawled to the phone and I went over and called an ambulance for her. After some time in hospital she was sent home with a walking frame wheelchair and several other aids. I had to move into her house to look after her until she recovered somewhat. She was just doing well untill she caught a cold in early december. Against all advice she took herself off to bed and refused to get out of it. The consequent chest infection worsened until I ended up calling an ambulance and she was admitted to hospital with a new diagnosis of COPD. She is still in hospital so we have been able to move back to my house for the last few days. She will have to come home with an oxygen cylinder and I will have to move back in with her soon. She still refuses to come and live with me. I don't know how much longer I will be able keep on moving back and forth. Hopefully she will improve enough after this acute illness to be somewhat independent again, but I'm not really confident.
We only just made it back to my place after visiting the hosp. on Christmas day. The snow started on Christmas eve here and the lane to my house is treacherous in bad weather. It was practically a blizzard by the time we reached home. Boxing day was a wonderful day - absolutely silent with several inches of hard frozen snow and clear blue skies. So very, very pretty and crisp. It was all washed away by torrential rain yesterday and viscious gale force winds. Brr!
Terrible, terrible news about the tsunami in so many asian countries. I have been to all those places in the news - they were our diving haunts in days of yore. It makes it all so much more real and horrifying to see those places I have stayed at devastated in such a shocking way.
So, no matter how bad things seem, they can always be worse.
Since I went on full time agency work in October I have been too busy to post here much - or anywhere else. I love the work and freedom from 'office' politics. I can just go to work 'wash my hands' and do the job I like. I am getting a good range of specialities and hospitals. Mainly in Manchester but some work in Bolton and Ormskirk too. I have been offered permanent posts at Hope hospital and BUPA Manchester and a private hosp. in Preston. I have declined them all because I love my new found independence, and the thrill of that call from the agency asking me to go somewhere I have to buy another map for! Though multimap is now my friend. After a slow start, once the units got to know me a little the work came flooding in and I am averaging 50 - 60 hours a week. Long hours, especially with around 3 hours travelling each day, but I don't have that bone numbing exhaustion. Just a quiet satisfaction and pleasant anticipation of payday. I have been given an ongoing placement at BUPA Manchester. It is a highly professional place where I feel proud of the work done. It has closed over Christmas for refurbishment, so now I'm overdrawn at the bank again.
In October my mum fell backwards downstairs and hurt herself badly. She fractured a vertebra in her spine and also ribs and ended up with a partially collapsed lung. She somehow crawled to the phone and I went over and called an ambulance for her. After some time in hospital she was sent home with a walking frame wheelchair and several other aids. I had to move into her house to look after her until she recovered somewhat. She was just doing well untill she caught a cold in early december. Against all advice she took herself off to bed and refused to get out of it. The consequent chest infection worsened until I ended up calling an ambulance and she was admitted to hospital with a new diagnosis of COPD. She is still in hospital so we have been able to move back to my house for the last few days. She will have to come home with an oxygen cylinder and I will have to move back in with her soon. She still refuses to come and live with me. I don't know how much longer I will be able keep on moving back and forth. Hopefully she will improve enough after this acute illness to be somewhat independent again, but I'm not really confident.
We only just made it back to my place after visiting the hosp. on Christmas day. The snow started on Christmas eve here and the lane to my house is treacherous in bad weather. It was practically a blizzard by the time we reached home. Boxing day was a wonderful day - absolutely silent with several inches of hard frozen snow and clear blue skies. So very, very pretty and crisp. It was all washed away by torrential rain yesterday and viscious gale force winds. Brr!
Terrible, terrible news about the tsunami in so many asian countries. I have been to all those places in the news - they were our diving haunts in days of yore. It makes it all so much more real and horrifying to see those places I have stayed at devastated in such a shocking way.
So, no matter how bad things seem, they can always be worse.