When you are a nurse, or some other kind of professional person; doctor, teacher, lawyer or whatever there are rules which you must keep to, there are professional boundaries. Part of the theoretical training of a nurse must include professional issues, things like making the needs of your patient paramount to your actions, like conducting yourself in a way that is appropriate for example not stealing from your patients or as it says in our code of conduct even borrowing from your patients. What’s more you must not accept gifts if it might be construed that you would offer preferential treatment.

But what about getting emotionally involved with a patient / student / client? How do you identify before it is too late, what is right and what is wrong in this regard? When I was a student and young and naive (approximately 19 years old) and also not bound by a code of conduct I went out with an ex patient. I had never been asked for my phone number by a patient before, and had never thought about offering it to anyone myself. But this patient had been essentially well (surgery to arm following motorcycle accident) and I had been left to cope with a very sick patient in his bay (who nearly bled to death) at night, which had led to my sitting on his bed afterwards chatting that and subsequent nights. Afterwards it transpired that he had asked out half the nurses and physios on the ward and had been out with several. I only went out with him once, decided he was not for me, avoided his calls for a while and off he went.

I was young, hadn’t yet learned professional boundaries, and I guess in the end no harm came of the situation. But I am not sure it is something I would go out of my way to repeat, in fact, I would consider myself very sad if such a thing happened now. So it is with sadness that I find that an experienced nurse has let herself get very close to a patient who is dying and who is currently residing at her majesty’s pleasure (if you don’t know what I mean you will need to google it). To the point that she believed no other nurse would be good enough to deal with the patient and to the extent that many senior members of staff became concerned that this person seemed unaware of appropriate boundaries. I do not know what the outcome will be, but here is a professional who should know better and now has her career on the line.

I have never been involved with this kind of work before, but it is a real eye opener and one I could not be doing without being an experienced nurse myself. As far as I can see I am still using my nursing skills daily and I will challenge anyone who says otherwise.

So no NHS for me today, we are having our second bank holiday for may; aptly called ’spring’ formerly also known as Whitsun. With it being the school half term, I am also only working 2 days this week, which can’t be bad.

The weather still doesn’t realised that this is late may, it hasn’t worked out that we need more than 20 minutes of consecutive sun breaking through the clouds and preferably we want more than 2 rain free days in a row. I would also like to request the temperature to be at least 70f (20c), but it looks like someone up there is not listening to my particular requests. Still, yesterday wasn’t too bad, and we used the opportunity of a dry and sunnyish day to go to the local plant nursery and buy ourselves some very nice plants. Good progress has been made on my posts and hanging baskets but more work is needed in the area of bedding plants. Trouble was, and I will let you into a secret here, yesterday I had a hang over that should make me give up alcohol for ever. I am not sure what happened on Saturday night, perhaps a fairy threw great quantities of wine down my throat while I wasn’t looking, or maybe at age 43 I should just know better. Consequently I felt a little unwell yesterday and this feeling of nausea and indigestion lasted well into the afternoon, it was particularly bad when bending over to dig or plant stuff. So action is needed here, or perhaps inaction because I am fully aware of the joy of abstinence!

Now that I am fully recovered, I am faced with a bank holiday conundrum which is further blogging or ironing? The clothes are ready, the iron and ironing board is ready, but here I am typing this. Now what would you choose? Ok the ironing has it, but I won’t be doing the extreme ironing in the picture; I wonder where he plugs in his iron?

Teen son injured his ankle playing football after school last night. Who can blame him for heading off to the nearest park with his friends on a day that freakishly turned warm and sunny and do you know what? There was no rain. Hubby rang in to tell me he was delayed by a traffic jam on the motorway, so I helped myself to a glass of wine and started to browse through some Thursday thirteen’s.

So no sooner am I half way down the glass than the phone begins to ring, it is teen son with the injured ankle. Assessment of said injury makes me doubt a fracture, so I apply ice and administer paracetamol and put him to rest. Hubby arrives home in reasonable spirits despite everything. We watch the England friendly, which is inexplicably lost to some country called Belarus, roll on the world cup!

So this morning, it is obvious that teen son will not be up to school, and it is the last day before half term anyway. So when he proclaims great pain, I begin to doubt my diagnosis, as I am after all only a nurse, a non practicing one at that and no type of quacktitioner! So off we go to Hospital. I have forgotten about the children’s Accident and Emergency so we are seen in a room full of toys and a picture of Wallace (of Wallace and grommit) amongst others. The xray confirms my diagnosis so off to work I go (relieved that I can leave him to his playstation without guilt, who said being a mother of a teen was any easier than being the mother of a small child?).

I am interviewing people for an investigation about someone suspended for unprofessional behaviour; a whole can of worms begins to emerge! More next week! Next back to the office, for emails, when one of my team calls in to offer her sudden and unexpected resignation. We haven’t always seen eye to eye, but she is a reasonable worker and I am not quite sure how we will cope for the next couple of months. Also not sure we can fill her post, what with vacancy controls (new word now the freeze is off). So seeing that it is 4pm, I decide to call the shortened day to an end and head home. Hubby is off for male bonding, so teen son and I decide to go for pizza which I accompany with a beer.

So here we are at the Big Brother first eviction night, I am not sure what I am doing here as I think I am getting past it. But sad person that I am, it is beginning to grow more interesting by the hour. Obviously there is little hope for me now; bring me coffee and chocolate please!

Thirteen Things Julie is thinking about this week

1. The weather: about 2 weeks ago we had a couple of hot, sunny, dry days and we were lured into the idea that summer was pretty much here (even though it is still technically spring). Since then the weather can only be described as DRAB, cloudy, miserable, rainy, just yuk. I need warmth, please.
2. Traffic: Generally I seem to be spending too much time sitting in traffic jams. A combination of road works around the area and accidents happening at rush hour time have caused me to become only too acquainted with the inside of my car.
3. Petrol: (gas if you are in the US): If you are not careful you can now spend almost £1.00 per litre on pertrol. Heaven only knows how much that is per gallon. Luckily we have some big petrol companies / supermarkets near work which mean I am currently paying only £0.92 at the moment!
4. Payday: which is today. I have turned over a new financial leaf and am living to my meansthat’sts the plan), therefore I have little in my purse in the lead up to payday. It has made me take my lunch into work this week, something I should actually be doing every day.
5. Bank Holiday Weekend: We have one this weekend. We aren’t doing anything special but I would like to do some gardening and for that please see number 1. I am also looking forward to staying in bed later for 3 consecutive days!
6. Moving: with work that is yet again. Looks like we are moving to another office on 14th June, and this is just 3 months since the last move. In my book this is looking like bad organisation on the part of someone in my primary care trust.
7. Big Brother: I have to admit to being disappointed by the housemates this year. Still, it is early days (1 week in) and I guess there is still time. A weekend to watch some of the live feed might do it. That or turn me off completely.
8. My Hair: I haven’t coloured my hair since new years eve because I wanted to see just how grey it is. For the record it is more grey than I particularly like (and not in a silvery way), so I will be colouring it very soon. I now know the colour of my hair and I don’t like it!
9. Football: The world cup is just two weeks away and we are getting hourly updates on the progress of Wayne Rooney’s broken toe. There is an England friendly tonight, so I guess it all begins today.
10. Holidays: I feel very sorry for my mum and dad today, they were meant to be flying to Romania this morning to stay with dad’s cousin who lives their with her Romanian husband. Sadly the cousin’s mum who is frail, elderly and in England has become very ill so the holiday is off and Gill has flown to England. I wish Gill’s mum well, though I believe she may not recover.
11. Shopping: Due to number 4, I need to stock up tonight so it is off to the supermarket for me after work today.
12. Walking: I bought myself a book of fun and interesting walks to do in the area in which I live but since I got it the weather has been rubbish (see number 1). Hoping for the chance of a long walk at the weekend though.
13. Work: That is where I am off to now!

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I have to say NO. My manager is concerned that I am over committing myself at work, and what’s more, over committing myself to things I shouldn’t be doing at all. She is right, and to be honest I find myself feeling a bit like a naughty child who has been found out! Of course this isn’t just about my welfare, but about her desire to give me more stuff to do. But I am paid to do a job of work, and I guess I have to pay some attention to that agenda. One of the main things I guess I haven’t been doing well, it the education plan, as she said, too much of it is in my head, and the executive team are nervous of something that isn’t visible enough. Again, naughty school girl time, as actually yes she is right. I tend to take the information from personal development plans and service plans, and formulate it in one go into a education and training plan. In fact at the end of the last financial year, I actually wrote the education plan retrospectively (this was worryingly for the auditors), and while no one by I knew this had happened, actually I know it is wrong.

So proper education planning is going to take place and to allow me time to do that, I will have to give up the infection control committee (no bad thing in my opinion) and will have to delegate more delivery of education plans to others rather than doing it myself just because I like doing it.

I guess that is the challenge between making work enjoyable and actually getting the job we are paid to do done. Having said that, I actually still enjoy that particular job and feel some how unburdened in being able to do that.

I have also been thinking about how it is that I have moved from being the young nurse who wanted to spend her career at the bedside, to the person I am today, who is unlikely to see a patient even by accident. I know that good nurses are in short supply, but it is apparent to me, that I want to remember being a good nurse, one who really cared about her patients rather than the one I would have become. A nurse who really didn’t want to do that any more. While we need nurses at the bedside, we also need nurses who understand healthcare working in areas such as mine. So this is official too, I am proud to call myself a nurse, but I am not about to go and start seeing any patients any days soon and that is how it is going to be.

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Generally speaking, I try not to use too many acronyms on this website. I know how frustrating it is to go to a blog / website and not be able to understand what the heck is going on there. But for us who live in the United Kingdom, the NHS means something, I don’t have to explain what it is, because we all experience it to a greater or lesser degree. I have had a couple of comments on various postings asking what the NHS is, so as it is now 9 months since I started this blog with introductions to what the NHS means, I thought I had better take some time to explain myself.

NHS means National Health Service. It means that people living here in the UK have access to a health care system which is centrally directed and is free at the point of its delivery. I say free, but that doesn’t mean we don’t contribute towards it through taxation and it doesn’t mean every part of it is free to access. But essentially if you need to see a general practitioner or attend hospital you can do so, if you need dental or optical treatment then it is subsidised or perhaps free (depending on your personal circumstances). It doesn’t mean that you can access all medical care as soon as you think you need it, or in the place you want to access it, or indeed always see the person you think you would like to see. There is a lot of debate about how it is possible to offer the kind of healthcare people think they need when there is no bottomless pit of money from which to buy it. There are issues about whether nurses or doctors should provide certain aspects of care, and there are as I mentioned yesterday, issues about what healthcare should take place in hospital and what should happen in the community.

The NHS is complex, it is a tradition, it is part of our way of life. We are facing some difficult choices about what it will mean in the future. But, even though I sometimes have more than enough to say about working within it, actually I am proud to be part of our national health service.

Having said that, I do wish my own organisation would do something about its IT systems and the people operating them. I have had more problems today and am just a little weary of the whole thing!

In the midst of the water shortage we have rain and plenty of it. Hubby is moaning, there are no opportunities for going out and digging the garden (when does he do that in dry weather?). For me though, it means time to sit and read the Sunday paper. I don’t know about anywhere else in the world, but on Sunday the newspapers are big. What I mean by that is that for your £1.60 (or whatever you are paying out) you get a newspaper, a couple of magazines, a sports paper, a review thing, a travel paper (today trips to Germany, something to do with the world cup) and much much more!

The thing that caught my eye today in an NHS / healthcare way, was an article about the whole hospital / community care debate, which is something we have been discussing at work. All the time we are being told of the need to keep people out of hospital (something I mentioned the other day). But who has told the great British Public of the plan that they will be treated for their illnesses either in a place that is not a hospital, or else if they start off in hospital that they will be kicked out double quick to be cared for at home?

I completely agree with the idea that hospitals are for thetrulyy sick. That where possible people should be cared for out of hospital and that includes dying at home. But how will we make sure that the money currently pumped into our large acute hospitals will ever be released into primary care and how will we tell people that it isn’t about giving them second rate cheap treatment and instead about giving them the best?

As a former district nurse, I have cared for many people at home during the terminal stages of their illness. But the lack of 24 hour care, the inability to offer the kind of support people (including the staff) can receive in hospital, makes it unsurprising that so many people end up dying in hospital. There is a feeling that peoples lives can be saved (no matter what they are suffering from), if your relative is sent home and is cared for by the GP and district nurses, then the message is loud and clear. Perhaps people want to think that they are only a new drug or miracle cure away from being well again. This is not to say that people with terminal illnesses don’t value going home to die, but the people who write in the media and those that read it are in the main not those who are ill at the moment. They are those who fear the big C word, or some other incurable illness. People call for a national debate on such things, but who will lead it? Where will it be held? Are we talking about a BBC, Question Time debate introduced by a Dimbleby?

We all know we have to die at some time, but generally this death is in our sleep at age 85 with our family close by. The trouble is, those of us who are not yet 85 want those that are to get the best possible chance of the best possible treatment and we don’t think that this will be found at home with a district nurse, even if she does have the title community matron.

Far be it for me to suggest that IT, its systems and staff are in anyway inferior to other places where computers and those that deal with them exist. But, at times I do wonder. In the 4 years I have worked in PCT land I have been ‘migrated’ several times. Migrate? What exactly does that mean? In my dreams it means heading to some kind of new promised land, a place of sea, sand, fit men; Australia perhaps. Not a land of lost emails, printers that you can no longer send your 24 page PDF documents to and a computer that tells you that you have no permission to remove your memory stick.

So on Wednesday, I arrive from my 3 meeting mission, with an hour to meeting number 4. I think, yipee, an hour to get emails and ’stuff’ done. Wrong. There is a man from IT in my seat, doing migrating.

Yesterday, I am fully migrated, but my emails bounce and the network printer can’t be printed from. Today I am not allowed to access the printer folder and I cannot remove my own memory stick. I place a call to the ‘Help desk’. A new boy tells me to ‘bear with him’ approximately 20 times in 5 minutes, he tells me, I have 2 types of problem belonging to 2 departments. As I tell him, that may be the case, but the problems were made by two migration men in identical lilac shirts (IT uniform perhaps?)

Just as I am about to head home when suddenly, without warning, my inbox begins to refill with emails I already received yesterday and today. I hit delete, close down and leave. There’s only so much a girl can take!

Thirteen Things about Julie’s week

1. This was going to be a really happy and fun Thursday Thirteen, but sadly, Arsenal did not win the Champions League final last night. It might have had something to do with our goal keeper being sent off after 17 minutes, it could have been due to some of the other decisions the referee made. Ultimately though, if you score less goals than the other side, you lose.
2. Teen son was as close to tears as I have seen him in a long time, at 6 foot tall and aged 15 he was slightly reluctant to cuddle his mum, though he clearly wanted to. He did hold my hand though (something he used to do a lot when little).
3. We have a drought in this area, and are not allowed to use hosepipes to water our gardens. I would have looked weird watering my garden this week - it has rained most days!
4. Rain makes the country lanes I use to travel to work and back, flooded. Trouble is there seems to be road works on all the more major routes, so flooded roads it is.
5. The political positioning at work has increased at the news there are to be 2 Primary Care Trusts in the county rather than the one recommended by the Strategic Health Authority. Fun to watch!
6. We now await the appointment of CEOs. Apparently the existing incumbents have to go to an assessment centre to see if they match up to requirements. Would love to be a fly on the wall with some of them!
7. A meeting with colleagues from other parts of the country about education initiatives showed we are streets ahead of some in the work we are doing; quite gratifying!
8. My diary has become extremely busy all of a sudden. I would think it had happened while I wasn’t watching, but I seem to have written the appointments in!
9. Still waiting for teen son’s dermatology appointment, apparently he must be seen by the end of June (Tony’s rules on waiting times), but that’s still a few weeks.
10. This week someone went to court because they had waited 4 months for a joint replacement before going to France for surgery. How long is it ok to wait for something in pain? A day? A week? A month? We forget that you used to wait 18 months for such surgery, so massive progress has happened. But is it enough?
11. Big brother starts tonight. I have been dismayed that so much apparent information about housemates has been in the paper in advance. Still looking forward to the launch though!
12. Next weeks’ 13 will probably be a BB special!
13. I want to see the Da Vinci code, but the critics are saying it is not very good, still might be good to cheer myself up over the weekend?

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Is the reason I put 4 meetings in my diary for both today and tomorrow because I am rubbish at organising my diary? Perhaps the skill I had been developing which essentially involved the use of the word NO, has recently been lost. Perhaps I am just too nice. Well what ever reason I decided to pack the work in to my day like this, I have set myself one hell of a challenge.

So today I am starting off with a meeting about NVQs. These are qualifications people working in our organisations can do via a portfolio approach, to show they meet certain criteria around their jobs. They are for people in support positions or managers who don’t have an alternative qualification. This year we have no allocation of money for this education, therefore we are meeting to discuss where to look for some (money that is). Second I am off to an infection control committee meeting, but just wondering why I go to this, as really I am only there to contribute about training in this area and probably it is not my remit otherwise. The chair is quite scary to challenge though, and was my manager when I started attending. Third, a meeting about equality and diversity training, probably just an hour and probably not a problem. Lastly a team meeting, unavoidable, and I didn’t set the date.

I think one of the most important things for any busy manager, or anyone for that matter, is to plan their day and plan it well. So I think some better planning and a re-establishment of the ability to say no has got to be the order of this day for this manager!

Tonight, it is football. Tonight Arsenal meet their destiny in the final of the champions league final. There is only one entry in tonight’s diary!

One of the latest fads being rolled out by our wonderful government as the answer to all ills in community health care today. This morning, I found myself at a ‘frequent flyer operational group’, catchy title I thought to myself. Frequent flyer for those of you wondering has nothing to do with building up air miles and getting that free trip to Paris (I wish it was), but is about those patients who spend their lives yoyoing between home and hospital as their condition exacerbates and improves. These might be people with heart disease, chronic lung disease, diabetes or perhaps all three and in this picture they are the people at the top of the pyramid. The idea is, that if some souped up district nurse could patrol around the area visiting these people before they get ill enough to fly frequently to Accident and Emergency then the health service will be saved a good deal of money and the world will be a happier place.

Actually I think the idea of skilled district nurses managing the care of people with this kind of long term condition in conjunction with their GPs so that they stay out of hospital is quite a good one. It is just the way in which such a thing is being done in an attempt to save money. I predict that the community matron will discover many patients whose health care needs are not currently being met, but that the people left doing the rest of the work will still be doing just that. There will likely not be more nurses to care for the rest of the caseload, and those that are left behind will be the less skillful, less qualified. Still I am here to be convinced, and if I was still a District Nurse I might fancy this particular job.

This afternoon I went to find out a new post graduate course for the new community matrons, which I must say is as heavy on practice as it is theory so should be pretty good. As far as I see it, if we are going to get people to do this job, then we best skill them up properly for it.

No, not a reference to a meal taken in church. I have to admit that I am not a frequent visitor for purposes of worship, though that is not to say I don’t have religious beliefs. But that is not what this post, number 201, is about. No yesterday the elder of my two brothers moved with his family into a house that has been converted from what was a chapel. I personally think it is a shame that such buildings are being lived in these days, but then it is better than knocking them down I guess. The building is, as you might guess, quite imposing, and the rooms are interestingly shaped and in some cases (e.g. the living room) huge.

So yesterday, having escaped work and discussions of education facilitators in palliative care and wound care training (what fun for a Friday), I collected teen son from school and we headed off to lend a hand with the move. Hubby had gone over earlier in the morning to assist with furniture and box moving. The house can be found across the fenlands of Cambridgeshire / Huntingdonshire . In essence this means rural flat countryside, quite pleasant to the eye. At half past four when we arrived there was still unloading to be done, so teen son got stuck in while I helped with box unpacking. By 7pm everyone had had enough, and given that it was a warm sunny evening and there is a pub about 5 doors along, we headed off to sample the local liquid wears. Back from the pub, and hubby seeming a little more merry than 2 pints should have made him (wonder why that was?) and we ordered a curry.

Teen son, who is most impressed that his cousins have a “den” for their computers, music, perhaps homework (who knows) suggested that he needed to stay over for further more indepth exploration. He also asked me when we were getting a big house like this! I suggested he just stay there more often, I have enough trouble keeping on top of the housework in our house let alone one with 3 floors, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, dens and study. So hubby and I headed home without him and surprise surprise, hubby slept almost the entire journey, leaving me to sing along to the radio to keep myself awake.

Tomorrow we are going back to collect teen son, will take my camera and get some shots. I tried to look on google for something similar but couldn’t find anything, but will post something soon to show what it is like.

So today, housework, shopping, FA cup final; usual fun weekend!

Thirteen Things about Julie’s Blog

1. This is the 200th entry on my blog
2. I started on 27 August last year, and have blogged at least 3 or 4 times a week since, sometimes every day
3. I started off blogging mainly about work and what it was like to work in the NHS (that’s why I chose the name, I guess)
4. At times I have found the technical stuff mystifying, but am slowly getting the hang of it.
5. I work 25 miles from home, but sometimes it might as well be 100 for the time it takes to get there!
6. I am firstly a nurse, and even though I have had an office job for nearly 4 years still find some of the office stuff frustrating.
7. In October I started an MSc in Strategic Leadership, and have blogged quite a bit about the stresses and strains of juggling course, work and home.
8. One of the greatest things is having people from around the world visit and comment on my site, and for me to have found some great blogs to read. This is a great thing to do when you should be doing something else.
9. occasionally I do little quizzes and tests and post them here, just because they are fun and I like a bit of fun sometimes
10. Times like Christmas are brilliant fun, but there is lots to be done. Hubby finished work a few days before me last year, and boy did he let me know how busy he was!
11. I have blogged a lot this year about the changes to the NHS currently taking place, and my role in helping people come to terms with them, and move towards the brave new world (if that is what it is!)
12. In January I gave you my first Thursday 13, I have been producing one most Thursdays since.
13. Since I started this blog over 9200 people have visited my blog. Ok so many of them have glanced in, as I am a glutton for sites that you get reciprocal visits from. But a few people do stop by of their own free will, and I thank you for that. Please keep stopping by!

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I, like most people with blogs, I would suspect, like to know someone reads the rubbish I write. So I do tend to look most days to see who has been mad enough to visit, of course most people stay a relatively short time, and who can blame them. But sometimes I am glad to say people stay and read more. This is my 199th blog entry, so tomorrow when I write my Thursday Thirteen ( I am hooked on that whole thing) I will be reviewing my 200 posts. But for today, I find that my blog has been read by people looking for the following via a google search:

• Dart hole wall! Now forgive me, but why? Anyway, some months ago I mentioned that my dear teen son had a dart board in his room and there are rather a lot of holes surrounding said dart board. I hope that the person searching found the post interesting

• What is it like being a doctor? Well, I have to come clean and admit that I am not a doctor, have never in my life pretended to be a doctor and what’s more, much as I admire those pursuing the medical way of life, I do not want to be one. Therefore who ever it was came to the wrong place. Lets hope he or she went to visit Dr Crippen as he gives a very good account of the life of a doctor.

As far as I know, very few people who actually know me visit my blog. Part of me wants others to read it, but then again that makes it restrictive. I am careful about what I write about the NHS. Sometimes, keeping my own opinions closer to my chest than I would like. Perhaps this is a good thing, as someone from the Health Service Journal recently emailed me about using a quote from my blog. A lot of people I know read the HSJ and while they might not recognise the NHS bits some might know my family bits a bit more and it is those postings that let me blog for real pleasure. I have been blogging since last August though and whatever happens I am hooked to it and am not about to stop now!

Arsenal’s rivals in North London, Tottenham Hotspurs (Spurs) apparently want their match on Sunday replayed!

10 of their players apparently contracted food poisoning from a Lasagne and so couldn’t play as well as they should have. Firstly it is the end of the season, secondly West Ham (the winning opponents) have the FA cup final on Saturday. Thirdly, what a bunch of losers!

Sorry, just caught out by the BBC website there. So here we are in post essay euphoria, enjoying a reasonably dry and warm afternoon /evening. What am I doing with my time? Choose from the list below:

1. Doing the housework that I have left for the last week or two?
2. Starting to cook dinner (shall we have lasagne?)
3. Cutting the grass and generally pulling weeds (thats the rain / sun compo for you)
4. Blogging?

Well, obviously number one is a consideration, I am thinking about it, planning the order of chores, but not underway yet. Dinner? Well yes soon. Grass? Hardly, I have hayfever you know. Blogging, well obviously I have been neglecting my blog duties and need to catch up and get my fix.

Life in the NHS is going fine thanks. I still have a job, haven’t spent much of my budget (though it has been cut), haven’t seen too many disillusioned folks today, haven’t spent all day getting to meetings, haven’t been bombarded with emails. So actually not bad.

It is life outside that is occupying me. My car has been to the hospital, last week I knocked a hole in its wing and it has been for repair. I collected it today and all I can say is it is an extreme way of getting a valet on your car, but it is extremely clean! Other key events, well we are waiting for a dermatology appointment for teen son, who has quite severe acne. I can’t explain how much I hate to look at the terrible time my beautiful boy is having. Someone said they hardly notice the spots any more, well actually both he and I notice them very much. The antibiotic treatments are not working well enough, but how long should I wait before jumping up and down, and should I ask for a private appointment. Comments from any medical folk who might read this please.

My older brother is moving house on Friday, hubby is taking the day off and we are heading over after school. They have let themselves get into the state that their house is going to be repossessed, but on the plus side, the house they are renting is apparently a really great place, a converted chapel. Will let you know what I think after Friday.

So, normal blogging is back, just need to start dinner and I can pick up that novel I’ve been reading since Christmas! Long may it take for the next semester to start!