Hmmm....something I picked up on from the NHS Blog Doctor. I would call it a cafe but see what you think. It raises an interesting point...could muslims drink alcohol free beer? Although I'd question why?
As per usual, a week off and the heavens open with a biblical style deluge yet my eyes are itching from hay fever.


















Mind you, after weeding and cutting the grass during the brief spell of dry weather perhaps that explains why the symptoms feel worse than usual. A trawl of the net reveals a multitude of 'natural' cures including honey, apple cider, pineapple and licking the back of a colourful Amazonian toad. I'll keep to my ongoing experiment of ingesting hops in its natural liquid state.
TTFN.

Something quiet for today as I had a few beers and the craic last night...




I had never heard this version before today. Rather good.
See if you can make the link from the first video to the second video.



TTFN.

It never rains but it pours.
An adage once favoured by housewives and little old ladies in queues the length and breadth of the country. But how true it is. I have applied for another job and one that not only offers to train me in a specialist therapy, keeps me in nursing clinical practice but will promote me at the end of the training and is local...ish. It not only offers an excellent package with knobs on, but those knobs are shiny and buffed to a fine golden gleam. Mrs C was surprised by my excitement but the training is one which I have been hankering after for many years and was never available unless I invested time, travel and lots of money to gain it with no guarantee of a job at the end. Now it is being offered on a plate: just the interview to pass and it could all be mine. Better still, the application completed on line and emailed off already. Don't ya just love technology.

I also arranged to have a full week off, primarily because I could do with some me time, dog time, watch the daisies grow between the raindrops time. Too much human misery and time to slough off some of that misery with reminders that some people do have enjoyable lives.

A little later on this evening I shall attend my own group therapy, one which I have been rather remiss in with my irregular attendance. I can recommend some beer therapy so long as it's real ale and in moderation (Pop. 325).









TTFN.

Phew!
It's been busy at work with far too many people off sick and the few left to carry the increasing workload. Yesterday we approached meltdown and yet again more unpaid 'overtime'. I have four days off over the coming weekend and I have every intention of enjoying some well earned R&R although Mrs C has a couple of jobs lined up for me. That'll be Friday taken care of so as to allow me to enjoy the Tap Friday evening and maybe some walking over the weekend. We have also been told that management are to conduct 'time and motion studies' of our team over the next two months. Undoubtedly to gather the evidence so as to push through the latest management theories. Inevitably changes will be the result of this exercise. It does not bode well.

Here's one for you:
If an infinite number of rednecks riding in an infinite number of pickup trucks fire an infinite number of shotgun rounds at an infinite number of highway signs, they will eventually produce all the world's great literary works in Braille.
TTFN.

I didn't get the new job.
I can make excuses but I did not do a good interview. I suspect I put a lot of effort into the presentation and I gave little thought to what was wanted overall, both in the interview and the actual job itself. I learnt a salutary lesson: go in and think/act like a manager, not a nurse. C'est la vie.
It means I will be staying in my current job for the forseeable future but I can comfort myself with the thought that happily I do still enjoy my work. I also have regular paid employment and, sadly, the recession may put many others on the dole. So I have no reason to complain about my lot.
However, the whole process of applying for a new job and the interview has given me food for thought about career planning for the next few years. I now realise that I should concentrate next year on finishing my degree and look at carving out a specialist niche in mental health nursing. Time to badger my manager for those specialist courses and to brush up my IT presentation skills. So the interview was useful as part of the learning curve.
TTFN.

I've just been handed a coconut!*

(This bit added later)
It's said bad luck comes in threes:
1. Would be car thief threatens me with a screwdriver.
2. Toothache and abcess necessitating extraction...ouch!
What could number three be....
Cue phone call from bank asking have I been to Italy recently. I reply no and ask have I won a holiday there. Sadly, bad luck no.3 is that someone using my card details tried to buy something in Torino. Perhaps a little mini. Or the time travelling machine I have because at the time the transaction was attempted I was in the dentists chair back here in Blighty.
So card now stopped and a new one to be sent to me. If I need any money over the next week I have to call to my local branch in person with extra ID. I think I shall pull this large soft duvet over my head for the next week and hide away from the world. That won't stop the asteroid hitting me....
TTFN.

* True: No.1 son handed me a coconut.

I'd like to say the dental surgery was Dickensian but it was ultra modern with brusque but efficient staff. After the previous 24 hours the visit was quick and, courtesy of four injections, relatively painless.













The offending tooth was removed fairly quickly but lots of swelling and the amount of 'gunk' from the abcess was copious. Yuck! We'll move on and this morning my face feels less swollen but sore. I have to nip out for antibiotics because the infection is still there; no chemists open on a Sunday evening.

Enough of that. I have to prepare for a presentation at the job interview and I have written out the basics. I feel a bit like Lee from 'The Apprentice' and I am working out how to brush up my presentation skills. [memo] I must not swear.
It's only ten minutes but that makes it harder especially since I haven't worn a watch for the past two years and I need to time myself. Oddly enough I am looking forward to it and I will give it my best shot. Is there a dictionary for the latest buzz words and jargon to impress? The best advice I ever had is to keep it simple and avoid bullshit. I have certainly heard enough of that in the NHS and not just from managers. Academics certainly excell at the latter.
I'm off for a luke warm tea and, much as I would like a bacon roll with warm crusty bread, thin gruel it'll be until I can eat properly again.
TTFN.

Arrghhh!!!!













Have you guessed where I'll be later children?

Little sleep last night and the painkillers take the edge off, but little more than that. From reading the NHS direct website it appears I may have an abcess as my right jaw, eye and ear all hurt.
Despite the promise last year that I would have an NHS dentist by the summer, I am still somewhere on that oh so long waiting list. Hence another visit to the emergency dentist after ringing around the various 0845 numbers and GP out of hours service telling me to go bother a dentist. The website suggested the GP OOH and requesting antibiotics but the computer says no. I guess two hours on the phone is character building....
Only another six hours of pain to go.
TTFN.

After the excitement of yesterday evening today has been mainly like this.
Exciting things such as the car's first MOT...curb your excitement missus, that seat'll never dry now! I asked them to check out the brakes because after 34k miles and three years there must be some wear....nope. All's well with the stopping one hitting things system. A clean bill of health. I have to hand the baby lease car back in three weeks time (sob!). We've been through a lot together...weather and insects mainly plus the odd bout of vandalism. We hit a cat last week...luckily only a glancing blow as the moggie fled and I had kittens and the screaming abdabs. The vegan animal loving student nurse I had with me has also recovered now. But I can't yet order another lease car because I have the job interview coming up and I may have a new job. It may be within walking distance as well so no need for a lease car, or any car for that matter. However, I may get an oldish secondhand banger for short journeys.









No excuses then for avoiding exercise as I'll have the choice of walking or bicycle.Who mentioned taxi?

TTFN.

Bad language alert. If you are easily offended by the following strong language, go away and watch sanitised television such as 'Murder She Wrote'. For everyone else in the real world read on...


















I am furious.
I have just arrived from work and as I am parking up I notice a suspicious character hanging around outside, trying to hide on his bike next to the bushes. I go in and let the dog out for a few minutes. Character doesn't move so I go in to ask Mrs C how long he's been there when she shouts out "He's breaking into that car!"
I rush out, shout out and the twat threatens me with a screwdriver shouting "Fuck off you cunt"
I suggest he leaves as I move towards him and he does so.
Twenty minutes of discussion with the police and the adrenalin still has me shaking. I won't have any cunt threaten me with a screwdriver. Druggie scumbag.
Worryingly, he knows our house and scum like him are apt to visit in the early hours of the morning to put windows in.
Tea and a Jaffa Cake are required.
TTFN.

Desirable objects spotted on MSN. I do like gadgets and I usually avoid them because I am a sucker for anything like the following...


















Radio controlled 'Jump Jet'.


















Car stereo DAB converter.


















Flip video.
Fathers day is coming so I'll expect the usual Toblerone but I can drool over the above and continue to pay the dream taxes.
I have yet another toothache so painkillers and no chocolate are the order of this evening following a busy day, no lunch* and finishing an hour late (again). Still no news about the job application. I'm off for my dinner (soft diet) and some barley based refreshment.
TTFN.

* Two bananas instead.

The hangover is long gone and I have been busy.
Mutt walked and run ragged; mutt bathed; grass mown; weeding; fence panels bought (I must measure next time!); bread baked; curry cooked; emails, etc attended to. The sun shone as well and I am heading back to the garden with a long cold drink in a few minutes. No news regarding the job application which is a bit worrying because the interviews are in less than a week.
Anyhow, time to chill....














TTFN.

Scuse me....hungover.
I hada few bottles of..no, wait a minute, it'll come to me.
Kelham Island 'Pale Rider' No headache or nausea, just a strange sense of dislocation from reality.


















A hot shower and several mugs of tea should sort me out. The day looks vaguely 'warmish', well dry at least. So a jaunt out with the mutt to somewhere green and leafy is required. Before any of that I'll enter this competition to win a camper van. Wish me luck.
TTFN.

'Bwainwave....'


Last week our collective complaints about 'State of the Ark' computers finally got through and IT installed a couple of new PC's and removed the noisy boxes what didn't go. A smooth transition from old to new finally (fingers crossed) emerged today after five days of swearing at the new machines which were not configured.We suggested that in future IT changes take place on a Monday and not a Friday afternoon. There is a generally held belief that all dodgy cars(ahem cough..Citroen...cough) were built on the Friday late shift following being paid, a liquid lunch and the prospect of the weekend ahead. We suggested this applied in this case because the company techs who appeared last Friday were in a hurry to finish up. We could play music, solitaire, surf the net...but to do any paperwork, use the work systems, input...bugger all. Apart from one exception...I'm not technically minded but perseverance (bloody mindedness) and creative thinking worked for me. I don't think I deserved to be called a nerd 'though....bloody Luddites.
After the last few days on call and thus unable to imbibe, a cool beer awaits me (Marston's 'Old Empire').
TTFN.