So at the moment work is a place that I go to each week day because that it what I am meant to do, but lets fact it after what might have been the longest ever spring. Of course it has been summer all along, but no one had told the British weather that. This week though we have been blessed with much improved weather and so while I have given work as much attention as has been necessary it is a fact of life that half the NHS appears to be holidaying so therefore my blog today and likely quite a bit in the next few weeks is going to reflect other stuff. It is also quite hard to blog about work right now, because the things that would be interesting to blog about are actually quite contentious and difficult to make anonymous enough. This is unlikely to change, and is something I am thinking about. That is not to say I am about to stop blogging about work, it just means I need to think a bit about how I am going to write about certain things without either breaking confidentiality (management / organizational rather than patient that is). But rest assured, I am on the case.

So yesterday for the first time in my life I went to the races. We are talking horse racing here and this was an event that we have been planning for quite a while, and is part of the celebrations for my birthday (Monday) and my mum’s birthday (tomorrow). This was an evening meeting, consisting of 6 races and then a concert performed by Jools Holland, Lulu and Ruby Turner. I am not the kind of person who is generally interested in horse racing and betting and I have always thought of events like Ascot and the Derby as a bit on the pretentious side (women dressed up to the nines and men in top hats). But this was much more relaxed, and even in the poshest section of the course there were few hats and all of those were worn by women. We started off with a wonderful picnic in the field that was being used as a car park and then went into the course itself. My first few attempts at betting were not so successful, but I found the whole thing quite exciting, I can see how people get hooked. It was also fun to watch other people milling around, I also went to the most up market portaloo I have ever seen. The last 2 races were the most successful for us all, and hubby and I ended up going home with more money than we had arrived even taking account of the exorbitant prices for drinks. At about 9pm the concert began. Jools Holland is a great musician and is accompanied by a wonderful band, he plays kind of jazzy, rhythm and blues kind of stuff and provided great entertainment even without the 2 solo artists that joined him on stage. I have to say that Lulu is looking and sounding as great as ever.

This morning it was back to reality with a bump as I have set about cleaning the bedroom of my darling teenage son who returns from France on Tuesday. If I say dust you will get the picture! I also found a large number of pennies and 2 pence pieces all around the room which suggests that he doesn’t think that this is real money, how things change! Still nothing is going to stop me having that summer feeling for the moment and long may it continue!