Confused seasons

It was quite bizarre to see thick flakes of snow falling against a backdrop of autumn trees on Tuesday evening – such a shame I didn’t have my camera to hand as it would have made a beautiful picture. Having had a white Easter earlier this year, I was beginning to wonder if we would have a white Hallowe’en – but today’s weather is lovely and sunny and so this doesn’t look like it will be the case. I couldn’t ever recall it snowing in October before – not too surprisingly though as the last October snowfall happened sometime before I was born!

Hooray for annual leave!

Being on call 24 hours a day, 6 days a week can be incredibly draining, particularly when there is a long gap between holidays. My last holiday was back in June so it came as quite a relief to be able to turn the pager off this evening and look forward to three weeks without being on call! Over the last couple of weeks, I have been feeling quite exhausted so it will be good to finally be able to recharge my batteries again. I’ve got quite a lot planned, but at least knowing I can sleep undisturbed will help!

Musical challenges

I’ve only had my flute for about five months and have barely reached Grade 1 standard so playing for worship during the weekend was a bit of a baptism of fire for me! Fortunately most of the time, it was to accompany Michael on the piano, but yesterday’s service was held in the room without a piano and being the only person who had brought a musical instrument on the weekend, I was asked to play. I think I managed reasonably well after a somewhat shaky start and on the plus side, I got a lot of extra practice in!

Church weekend

I’ve had a great time at the church weekend. It has been refreshing to spend the time focusing on what Christmas is really all about. Even though the story of the Nativity is so familiar, somehow by focusing so much on it, new things have jumped out. There was a manger at one of the prayer stations, with a card saying that for one night, a stable became “God’s throne room”. The reality of God loving us so much that he came to be amongst us and save us hit me anew at that point. It’s such an amazing thought.

The three Wise Men

We've been thinking about the three Wise Men in our Bible study this morning. One of the things that came up during the discussion was about how their visit to Herod indirectly caused the massacre of the baby boys in Bethlehem, which is something I never considered before. We also discussed that sometimes by trying to be clever and complicated, we miss the obvious and make things more difficult for ourselves. Of course, it has to be said that if there had been three Wise Women, they'd have arrived on time, delivered the baby, brought food and cleaned the stable!

Off to the church weekend

Michael and I are off to the church weekend this evening. Neither of us have been before and I’m really looking forward to it, particularly as I’m starting to feel a little frazzled work-wise and in need of some time out, The theme for the weekend is “Journey to Bethlehem” – looking at faith-filled preparations for Christmas. There’ll be some Bible study, craft workshops and a new carols workshop. Michael and I are leading morning prayer tomorrow and helping out with teaching new carols tomorrow evening. I think there is a piano available but I’ve packed my flute just in case.

Perhaps I should stick to the day job...

I have come to the conclusion that public speaking really isn’t my forte. The talk last night went reasonably well, in terms of content at least, although I wasn’t very good at speaking to the whole room and didn’t realise that I was directing my talk more to one corner until one old lady pointed it out mid-talk. Things got a bit better once we got to the questions, although it always seems to be the men that ask all the questions! Still, I survived the experience, but I think on the whole I would prefer not to repeat it.

Talking shop - again!

I’m due to be giving a talk on midwifery at church this evening. Despite being able to talk about my job with people almost endlessly, I find the thought of getting up and doing so to a roomful of people (even though I know them all fairly well and they are very friendly) quite nerve-racking. However, I think I am better prepared than I was last time I talked about midwifery at church which makes me feel a little better, but still I find myself wondering how I manage to get talked into doing these things in the first place!

The Dads' Birthday

Today is the Dads' Birthday (both my dad, who is 75, and Michael's, who is 61). Despite still being on call, I managed to get home for a couple of hours (all the while praying that I wouldn't get called!) to see my dad, and most of my siblings who had also popped in. I don't get to see my family as often as I would like (whereas Michael's family live locally) so it was great to see them. We are out tonight for Michael's dad's birthday as the blues band they do technical support for is doing a gig.

Reasons to be thankful for men...

I discovered yesterday that I have been trying to mow the lawn all summer with a lawnmower that has no blades! No wonder it was such hard work!! To be honest, I had noticed it had no blades but had thought maybe it didn’t need them as it was still managing to cut the grass somehow. Michael noticed it when he went to mow the lawn and has ordered new parts to repair it. He also mended the fence and gate and found out why half the sockets in my flat aren’t earthed (they are now!). Aren’t men great sometimes!

Insomnia and sleep deprivation

I still feel like I am a little sleep-deprived from last week’s marathon labours so having had insomnia for two nights in a row has been really quite frustrating and has left me somewhat grouchy. I can blame Tuesday’s sleeplessness on the ridiculous amounts of caffeine consumed at the coffee afternoon but despite staying off the caffeine yesterday, I still seemed to spend more of the night awake than asleep. Fingers crossed that I managed to get a good night’s sleep tonight – might just have to resort to a cup of hot milk (and Nytol if I get really desperate).

Feeling loved and appreciated

Sometimes, it is really nice to know that you are appreciated. We had our team meeting today and it was a really lovely surprise in the tea break when my boss walked in with a cake and thank you cards because I have been working for the practice for three years now. Admittedly this is something of a record (I’m now the longest serving midwife in the team other than my boss) but it was still very nice all the same. Plus I also had a very nice thank you card from a client which added to the feel-good feeling.

Coffee, chat and cuddles

I’ve spent a lovely afternoon drinking tea, chatting and cuddling lots of babies again as we had another coffee afternoon at work for mums and mums-to-be. I bumped into one of my previous clients whose birth was one of the first I attended as a fully-fledged midwife – unfortunately her little boy was at nursery so I didn’t get to see him, but it was still nice to catch up. It was a complete coincidence that she was there – she wasn’t actually there for the coffee afternoon, but just happened to be at the same café having lunch with a friend.

Sightseeing

I’ve been enjoying a much-needed day off today doing some sightseeing. I went to the Tower of London this morning and spent a few hours there, going on a guided tour led by one of the Beefeaters and then having a lovely leisurely wander around the various towers on my own. I then visited the Museum of Childhood, which I last went to as a very little girl. Have to say I felt quite old, and perhaps I should have borrowed a child to give me an excuse to be there as I seemed to be the only unaccompanied adult!

Relaxing weekend

I’ve been a bit lazy on the blogging front over the weekend. It has been great to finally spend some time with Michael without either of us feeling guilty about taking away time from the PhD. Today is our “anniversary” (8 years since we started dating) so we went out for dinner last night which was lovely. We also spent a lovely afternoon in London catching up with friends – my friend Rob, who has been living in America for the last five years, was over so it was great to catch up with him and some other friends from university.

Another step closer to the end of the PhD

It’s been a somewhat exhausting 48 hours with another marathon labour so am keeping my fingers very firmly crossed that none of my clients will have a baby tonight. Michael has finally handed in his PhD thesis – at the moment, both of us are almost too tired to even feel relieved about this. Hopefully we can forget about it for a little while and be able to enjoy spending some time together again for a while. I’m also hoping that the corrections and amendments will be fairly minor so that the PhD will be completely over sooner rather than later!

Craziness on the roads

On my travels into work, I often seem to see quite a few people doing crazy things. People talking on their mobile phones whilst driving is one of my pet peeves but yesterday I saw a crazy cyclist (without a cycle helmet) on a busy road who was listening to his iPod and texting on his phone, which made me think that perhaps he had a death wish. I’ve also seen somebody drive around a roundabout the wrong way, although, given most other countries drive on the right, perhaps that could just be due to a momentary lapse of concentration.

Christmas lights

It’s the beginning of October and already I have seen a couple of houses covered in Christmas lights which is quite surprising given the huge increase in energy bills (even my brother-in-law who normally goes mad with the external lights is giving it a rest this year) and the fact that Christmas is still well over two months away!. It seems crazy to be starting the Christmas countdown in early October. Still, I’ve yet to have any other reminders of how many days until Christmas and if the shops have started their Christmas displays already I’ve managed to remain oblivious.

Sleepy day

I’m having a sleepy day after another marathon stint (really must stop trying to beat my record of longest time spent at a labour!) so haven’t really done very much today other than sleep. Michael and I seem to be competing on who can manage the longest without sleep at the moment (current plan is to hand in the thesis tomorrow or perhaps Wednesday) which means that our conversations are becoming less and less coherent! Fortunately we have three weekends away coming up from the end of this month which I am finding myself looking forward to more and more.

Through the dreaded double doors

As a midwife, there are times when I look after women in labour and everything they wished to avoid in their birth plan ends up happening. We end up in a cascade of intervention which ultimately leads through the double doors into theatre. Sometimes I feel that I have somehow failed a labouring woman when the labour ends in a caesarean section. The reality is that whilst I’d love everyone to have the most beautiful birth experience possible; there are times when caesareans are needed and it is nothing to do with failure, it is just one of those things.

Learning classical guitar

My guitar has been mostly gathering dust in the corner of my bedroom for the last three years, so I thought it was about time I dusted it off, and started playing again. It was my substitute instrument at university when I didn’t have regular access to a piano but other than being able to play a few chords and read a bit of tab, I never really learnt to play properly. So I’ve gone back to basics, dug out a beginner book for classical guitar and started again. All I need to do now is remember to practice regularly…

Concert in the church

I’ve been singing in a concert this evening at a local church with some other people in my am-dram group. It was a bit disconcerting singing in a very brightly lit room with the audience very visible and very close (some of them were sitting about a foot away) on a stage about the size of a stamp but somehow we managed it! We had to change in the main church building which was absolutely freezing. Still, it was a fun evening and I was very thankful that the phone stayed quiet given that I was still on call throughout!

Bingo

My mum loves her bingo nights. For several years now, she has gone twice a week – Wednesdays and Fridays. It’s her chance to socialise, see her twin sister and have a night out. My dad also goes on Friday but can’t keep up with the numbers any more so doesn’t play. They don’t often get lucky, but my mum seems to be having a very lucky streak at the moment – having won three weeks in a row. Last night she won the regional prize on the national bingo game so came home feeling very chuffed and about £3500 better off.

Musings on music

Music can be very evocative. Certain songs can bring up vivid memories, good or bad; well-chosen music on certain occasions can move people to tears. Some memories attached to music are funny (one piece of music for a scene change in the show “Crazy For You” always reminds me of being on the revolving stage in a costume trunk waiting to play a practical joke on a cast member); others may be painful, or very mixed (whilst the memory of my niece’s birth is beautiful, the memory of the 6 hours of Celine Dion playing in the background is not!!).