What an interesting week it has been.
Monday was a pretty normal day. Few phone calls, arranging appointments to try and cram them in a) before Xmas and b) before I hand them all over to a colleague when I quit the Field-based team.
Then Tuesday was a journey down to Stanwell, next to Heathrow (2 ½ hr. journey) for “Fertility Training”. I was intrigued to find out what this was, but in the end it was nothing as exciting as my very vivid imagination led me to hope! LOL
It was at the Head Office of the pharmaceutical company we are contracted to, and was given by a female pharmacist. OMG, I have to say I wasn’t particularly impressed. She started by going through the entire female ovulation cycle like I was a first-year student. Talk about patronising! The rest of it was to do with the medication that the company supply for conception assistance, including IVF. THAT was pretty interesting, but I couldn’t understand what it had to do with us. I found out the next day that apparently the Support Line also supports patients taking these medicines as well! Now they tell me!
From there I went straight to Windsor to spend a night in a hotel. Now if you know England at all, you’ll know Windsor is a fairly posh area. We were booked into the Savill Court Hotel, Windsor Green Park. Sounds posh, doesn’t it? You drive up to a splendid looking Georgian edifice, that has a modern reception done in a fashion that fitted the surroundings. And then I went to my room. Second floor, used the elevator (knees don’t like stairs going up these days) which creaked as if it had been fitted when the place was built. Then down several ( well, 3) corridors to my room. On entering, the first thing that hits you is it’s bloody small. It’s a good job I didn’t have a cat, because it couldn’t have swung round in it! The windows were two small opaque efforts that were fairly high in the wall. I can understand why they were opaque, as when I opened it to get some air (it was bloody hot) all I could see was a huge transformer-type room about 4 foot away from me! There was a net stretched over the roof and I could hear the sounds of pigeons nearby, so guessed why the net was there. Imagine my surprise next morning when I looked out the window straight into the eyes of a bloody pigeon! Where’s my airgun when I need it! There were 5 of my colleagues staying this night too, and apparently their rooms were just the same.
Next day (Wednesday) was the first day of our Team Meeting. It was good to see everyone again, especially as for some it would be the last time we would be seeing them as they moved onto other projects.
That night was our “Christmas” dinner. Written in inverted commas because it was just a normal meal. We spoke to our Project Director the night before and she had been saying that after booking the hotel, our PA had to chase them up to get the menu available, and then they wanted it to be one meal for ALL attendees. This was soon amended, by threats I believe(!), and we had a choice of 3 starters, mains and deserts. I chose Sweet Potato and Red Pepper Soup (lovely), Lamb Shank (Fatty, gristly, rubbery, nearly cold!) followed by Sticky Toffee Pudding (gorgeous). But as a Christmas meal, it was abysmal. The best thing about it was the free wine! All I’ll say is…it was a good night!
Thursday was the second day of our meeting. In it was a session on Change Management. Some would say it’s a month too late! But it was a good session anyway. THEN we had the usual stupid game sessions dressed up as “Coaching Games”, where there where teams of ‘doers’ and teams of ‘coaches’. The facilitator said that she had thought she was going to be confronted by experienced sensible nurses and instead got a load of laughing, joking people too busy enjoying themselves! Well, it is Christmas, what did she expect! Actually, we all really enjoyed the tasks. I admit when I see things like this on the agenda at our meetings I go cold, but it was good fun, we did follow her guidance in ‘coaching systems’ and still had a good time with it.
We finished at 15.30 and I was set for a 2 ½ hr journey home. It actually took me 3 ½ hours because the traffic was so heavy. But I was greeted by three 4-legged friends, two of whom just wouldn’t let me move. The third just went and got a toy to bring me. I eventually made it through to say hello to Dawn!
Daddy’s Home.
Then Friday I was at home for admin. I had been asked to do the mentoring for the other project member. She arrived at 10.30. We went through the systems required and she understood everything easily enough. She said I was the only one who had spent any length of time to actually explain it. She had previous tuition but they had just expected her to take it all in without any problems. Everyone learns in different ways. She was far from stupid, had previously owned her own company, been a nurse for years, etc, etc. She simply hadn’t been given time to assimilate the information required. Apparently her Line Manager is also new in the post and was trying to learn her new role too. Talk about catalogue of errors, coupled with some home based pressures too, this woman was bound to struggle. But she left at 13.30 feeling a lot happier, and thanked me, so that was another good outcome and also would be good feedback for me again!
And now it’s the weekend. As usual, we had one of the grandsprogs. This week it was Jayden, the 8-yr old. Every week Dawn takes them to the local big supermarket to choose their tea and a cake mix or something to make in the kitchen. They love it. Well, Dawn and Jay went out on their trip and within 15 minutes they were back. Dawn came in saying they hadn’t done the shopping as Dawn had hit a car in the car park. As she was turning into a parking space her foot slipped off the brake and hit the accelerator which sent it careering into the front of the thing doing a fair bit of damage. The owner wasn’t in it, but Dawn went in and told the Customer Service and located him. Obviously, he wasn’t too pleased, but it was only an accident, no-one got hurt and metal can be repaired. Jay was fine, a little shook up but soon got over it and the pair of them went our together later and all was well. Dawn’s car suffered a few small scratches to the front bumper but nothing disastrous. His was far worse apparently, so I dare say we will hear from him in the near future for the insurance details.
So as you can see, it has been a really interesting week in all! Next week is looking just as much fun. Monday I’ve got 3 appointments, then Tuesday I have my end of year appraisal, Wednesday I am back down to Reading to our Head Office for training for the telephone support line and to have the relevant software added to my laptop ready for kicking off when we start again on January. Don’t know when my car will be taken off me, but no doubt they’ll collect early in the New Year. I lose that because I am no longer needing it to travel to patients houses. No big deal as we still have 2 cars and my bike for transport.
Well, that’s all for now.
Stay Safe, peeps.
Hugz
RNBiker
Loading comments...