The way of the resolutions...

Like many New Year’s resolutions, mine haven’t really managed to last until the end of January, let alone the year. My resolution to eat more fruit and veg hasn’t stopped me having pizza for dinner two days in a row (although if I have vegetable toppings, does that make it healthy?) As for exercise, well I cycled to the station once and got a little freaked out by a couple of passing lorries that were a little too close for comfort and haven’t felt inclined to try again. Maybe when the weather is better. Although that won’t stop the lorries...

In need of social interaction

One of the things I find I have been missing about my old job is the weekly team meetings. Working on-call, going out and doing visits on your own can be quite lonely sometimes and it was always good to be able to catch up with the other midwives each week. Those of us that are still working together do meet up of course, but not as often as we did before. Plus now that I no longer work in the office, I also miss the social interaction there. Something tells me I need to get out more and socialise!

Date night

With Michael so busy at work at the moment, it doesn’t seem as though I get to see very much of him so it was really good to finally be able to spend some time together and go out on a “date night” to the cinema. We went to see The Kings Speech, which we had heard was a good film (although the fact that Colin Firth as in it was enough to tempt me!) It definitely lived up to expectations – really good acting, very funny in places and one of the best films I have seen for a while.

Paperback pluses

I heard on today’s news that e-book sales have overtaken paperback sales on Amazon’s US website. For the last couple of years, Michael has kept asking me in the run-up to Christmas or my birthday whether I want an e-book reader. So far the answer is no, and I still can’t see me changing my mind. I do read some (free) books on the iPad but it’s not the same. I also resent paying the same for an e-book as a paperback that I can always keep reading even if technologies change. And using the local library costs me nothing.

Procrastination

I started off this week with good intentions. There are so many things around the house that I intended to do and my diary hadn’t seemed all that full so there seemed to be plenty of time for me to be productive. And here is Thursday already and somehow all I have managed to do is keep up with the normal day-to-day things that need doing and have hardly managed to do any of the other things I intended to do. Somehow, other things have provided distractions – books that I’ve gotten absorbed in or an afternoon spent playing the piano.

Church craft club

We now have a regular craft group meeting at the church twice a month. The current plan is that one session per month will be spent focusing on a particular craft technique (various card-making techniques, appliqué, glass painting and hardanger embroidery are amongst the current suggestions) and making something for ourselves and then the other session will be focusing on a longer-term project to make something for the church. Today’s session has focused on using silk and paper flowers in card-making and then in two weeks’ time, we are going to start making a new banner for inside the church.

Back to tap

Back to tap tonight after a bit of an extended Christmas break – lessons actually started back two weeks ago but I didn’t realise this until last week! After a six week break from classes, it was quite surprising how many steps have actually stayed in my brain – I had a few blank moments but on the whole it wasn’t too bad. Which is just as well really, as it is looking fairly likely that the next tap exam will be sometime in March. There’s still a lot of work needed between now and then but hopefully I will get there!

Flat for sale

Our old flat is up for sale and it made me feel a little bit sad looking through photos of it on the rightmove website. It is described as “immaculate” and “in excellent decorative order” (we must have done a reasonable job on the repainting!) and the photos look really good – I almost want to move back (although I know the lack of space would drive me insane!) I love our new house, it’s just that we haven’t had time to build up many memories here yet and we have so many lovely memories from our time in the flat.

Too well hidden

I’m usually fairly good at hiding things, like presents, around the house so that Michael won’t find them (apart from one time when I hid something on the top shelf of a cupboard before I realised that whilst I couldn’t see it, it was almost at eye level for Michael!) In the run-up to Christmas last year, I was obviously a bit better at it than usual because I’ve now found two more presents for Michael that I hid and then must have forgotten about. Maybe I should save them for his birthday but I’ll probably forget about them again!

Aladdin

Had a lovely trip home to see my sister, niece and nephew performing in the local panto, Aladdin. It seemed most of my family had also decided to come to see the same performance so we took up most of the back row. Unfortunately, the sound wasn’t great and whilst we could hear the principals, we couldn’t hear a word of any of the chorus’ songs. It was a shame as we could see everyone was putting lots of effort in – if only there had been a few float mics on the stage, it would have been so much better!

Lost... and found

I once made the mistake of not realising my contact lens had fallen out and spent half an hour trying to remove what was actually my cornea (not recommended!) So yesterday after a couple of moments of gentle prodding, I decided to assume that my lens must have fallen out without me realising and the irritation in my eye was purely due to irritation from me prodding it. I think it must have got wedged under my eyelid – finally managed to find and remove it this morning covered in gunk. Think I shall stick to glasses for a few days...

Visual disturbances

Contact lenses are great – except when you manage to lose one in the middle of the day and realise that (a) you don’t have your glasses with you and (b) you don’t have any spare contact lenses with you either. It’s a very weird sensation trying to function with crystal clear vision in one eye and very blurry vision in the other. Plus it makes distances much harder to judge – thank goodness I was using public transport and not driving. It was such a relief to finally get home, put my glasses on and be able to see properly again.

Adjusting to change

Whilst a lot of aspects of my new job are very similar to the way I used to work (being on call, doing home visits, getting to know my clients etc.), there are a few things that have changed. Being on call seven days a week rather than six is one of them (although my colleagues are willing to cover me occasionally if needed). Not having a pager is another. I still have moments of feeling like I’ve forgotten something when I’m driving off to visits in the morning until I remember that I don’t have a pager any more!

Time with friends

Tuesday nights used to be spent at the pub quiz which a group of friends. Gradually over the last year or so, attendance at the quiz has dwindled to the point that it has become a rare event. One of the things I miss most is catching up with that particular group of friends whom we see much less often these days. It was good to spend a Tuesday night catching up with them all again – not at the quiz, but over a curry at a local restaurant. It made me realise I need to make more time for friends.

Good intentions

It doesn’t matter how many times I resolve to be more organised with paperwork and filing and deal with it as it arrives rather than leaving it to pile up and then having to spend hours going through it, my good intentions never quite manage to last longer than a couple of days. Now that I’ve also got business paperwork to deal with on top of all the personal stuff, I’ve realised that I do need to be more organised and that I need to set aside time at least once a week to keep on top of it all.

Youth participation

The feedback from my Junior Church group about the short sketch that we filmed for the carol service has been fairly positive and has opened up a discussion about ways in which they can be more involved within the church (which so far has seemed to be mostly confined to “would you like to bring the banner in?”) Now that we have a worship planning group involved in leading services, this seems a fantastic opportunity to try and encourage the younger people in our church to participate – trying to think of ideas we can use for the Mother’s Day service.

In need of quality time...

Whilst it’s great that Michael is so busy at the moment, I’m now getting to the stage of wishing this current project would hurry up and finish so I can actually get to spend some proper time with my lovely hubby. I shouldn’t really grumble – most other projects which last this long involve him having to be away for the duration of the project – at least this time I get to see something of him, even if it is just a few minutes at either end of the day. Oh well, it will be finished in a few more days!

Job satisfaction

Now that I’m slowly getting to grips with my paperwork and everything else that goes with being self-employed and also have a few clients booked, I’m really enjoying independent practice. I’m working with a fabulous group of midwives and feeling like we are all really supporting each other in this new venture, enjoying being more in control of my diary (I used to feel guilty if I had a visit-free day and didn’t go into the office) and somehow there’s just a little more job satisfaction now that I’m having to put the effort into getting my clients to book.

Ditzy day

Today is one of those days when my brain seems to have turned into a giant ball of fuzz and is refusing to work properly. I think it is probably just tiredness after a bit of a wakeful night but it is still annoying. For instance, it would have been good for my brain to wake up and realise that emptying the pan full of boiling water and pasta into the colander is best done when the colander is over the sink and not en route to the sink. Messy. I think perhaps I need to catch up on sleep!

Updates from my tweetheart

Michael is busy working on a big event this week and so it is one of those times when we see very little of each other. On the plus side, at least this particular event is nearby so I at least get to see him when he comes home at night rather than him having to stay in a hotel for a few days. It does also mean that I’m getting updates on how things are going via his posts on Twitter. Social networking is all very well, but it probably isn’t the best form of communication within a marriage!

Royal Mail rubbishness

It's my niece's 7th birthday today. I wasn't able to go and see her today. Being the organised type, I made sure I sent her birthday present on Saturday so it would arrive on time although just to make sure would definitely arrive today, I sent it by Special Delivery. Except despite Royal Mail's guarantee that it would arrive by 1pm, it hasn't shown up. I'm not impressed. What's the point of having a service to guarantee delivery if it doesn't actually guarantee delivery? Yes, sometimes in really bad weather conditions it can't be guaranteed, but this wasn't the case.

Wanting to go into hibernation

I seem to have reverted back to my favourite winter activity of trying to hibernate. Being cold and rainy outside is never going to make me want to get out of my warm comfy bed and face the day. But unfortunately, sleeping all day will not get me new bookings, pay the bills or get the housework done and so reluctantly I drag myself out of my warm comfy bed and get on with all the jobs that need doing. But now it’s night and my bed is calling me again. Can someone wake me up when spring arrives please?

Dear diary...

When I was eight years old, my sister Maxine bought me a diary. Twenty-three years and many diaries later, I still enjoy writing down my thoughts and documenting life events regularly (although not usually on a daily basis). I’ve always found in quite therapeutic to write down my thoughts about things, particularly when I’ve had a very stressful day, or something exciting has happened. I found my old diaries from ages eight to seventeen in one of the boxes – I’ve had a quick flick through and some of the entries made me smile, bringing back lots of memories – some half-forgotten.

Freecycling

Freecycle is a wonderful thing. You have stuff you don’t want so you offer to give it to other people who not only want it, but will come and collect it from you. Plus they won’t leave you negative feedback if their judgment of ‘used – very good’ is different from yours (unlike eBay). You don’t have to try and find a parking space outside the charity shop or lug boxes of stuff halfway up the High Street (books are very heavy!). Plus you know that you’re helping the environment by reducing the amount of stuff you send off to landfill.

New venture nervousness

Over the last couple of weeks I have been veering between excitement, optimism and fear about venturing forth into the world of independent midwifery. It has helped having several colleagues who are making the jump as well but it is still quite nerve-racking all the same. At the moment I have two definite clients on board plus a few potential ones whom I have done consultations for this week. There’s just quite a lot to think about that I didn’t have to worry about before (contracts, payments, getting stock ordered, renting Entonox) and sometimes I just feel a little overwhelmed.

Old books

I’m slowly working my way through the boxes that have come from the loft. Most of them are boxes of books – I have always been a bit of a bookworm. Some of them are books I must have only read once – I can barely remember much about the plot and even reading the back cover doesn’t really jog the memory. These ones go straight into the charity shop box. There are so many though that I remember reading over and over again – the books that I loved and these are the ones I can’t quite bring myself to part with.

End of the festive season

The festive season is now over and the Christmas tree and decorations have all been taken down and packed away for another year. Just need the loft boarded so we can put them away properly but with all the boxes piled high in the spare room another one doesn’t really make much difference! I always feel a little bit sad when the festive season comes to an end – probably because the house suddenly looks very bare without all the decorations – perhaps I need to find the box containing photos and pictures and start putting something else on the walls instead.

Sketches of the past

Amongst all the boxes collected from my sister’s loft is one containing my writing journals from my late teens. Piles of notebooks containing character sketches, plot outlines, scenes from various stories (colour coded as I was working on several at the time), poems filled with teenage angst (which made for quite amusing reading but also brought back some less happy memories from school days when I felt very much on the outside of things) and my first novel. A quick skim over it made me smile – it may not be very good but I’m still proud of having written it.

New beginnings

Survived my first day as an independent midwife. I have had a couple of consultations with potential new clients and then a lovely lunch meeting with the other lovely ladies from work who are also taking the plunge into independent practice. Plus I got to catch up with a former colleague whom I hadn’t seen for a couple of years. Plus another evening spent trying to finish producing my new notes. It still feels like I’ve been thrown in at the deep end and am frantically trying to swim but at least I am not alone in feeling this way.

Embarking on a new venture

Today marks the start of my new venture into independent midwifery. I’ve spent several joyous hours in front of the computer this evening ploughing through all the paperwork that I need to put together before I go out and actually start meeting some potential clients tomorrow (eek!) Even though it won’t be all that different to the way I worked before, I’m still feeling very nervous about starting work. It’s a bit like when I first qualified – even though I wasn’t all that much different from the last few weeks as a student, being on my own felt very scary.

New Year's resolutions

Happy New Year everyone! Had a lovely night out with two of my sisters and several of my lovely nieces and nephews seeing in the New Year. For once, I am actually going to make some New Year’s resolutions. The first one is to start eating a little more healthily. Not that my diet is particularly bad, but I definitely should eat more fruit and veg than I currently do. A little more exercise wouldn’t go amiss either. It’s just as well Michael’s bought me a bike for Christmas – now all I need to do is actually start using it...