New challenges

Ah, it’s good to be back at work, battling the roadhogs, white van men and bus drivers with attitude problems. Or maybe not… However, it is good to be back with my colleagues again – catching up with them at today’s team meeting and as usual I ended up laughing so much that it hurt. I am so lucky to work with such a fabulous team. I arrived back to lots of changes – new midwives, a new team, a new way of working – now working in two separate teams – one doing shifts, the other (the team I’m in) doing on-call caseloading.

3 weeks well spent

Three weeks of annual leave have now come to an end and I’m back on call once again. I almost felt as if I wasted three weeks by not going anywhere exciting (i.e. abroad) but I’ve performed in a show, attended a couple of craft days at church (and had the time to practice the skills learnt afterwards), spent some time at home catching up with my family, had some pampering time, done a bit more research into my family history plus managed to spend quality time with my lovely hubby so on reflection, it hasn’t been wasted after all.

Car care

My little car has had to make another trip to the garage for a faulty airbag. It’s just as well it happened whilst on holiday- trying to manage without my car when on call is a nightmare; although with Michael’s parents being away, he can borrow their car and I could have used his for work (although I’m not a fan of driving his car – it’s a bit of a tank compared to mine and I’m always nervous about misjudging my corners!) Fortunately, my car was ready to pick up today – just in time to be back to work tomorrow.

Ruby wedding celebrations

Today was Michael’s parents’ ruby wedding anniversary and so we went out for a very yummy meal at a Nepalese restaurant to celebrate with them. Our anniversary present to them was a glass vase and a pair of wine glasses which I had painted especially to mark the occasion (all those craft days at church have certainly come in useful recently and they really liked the glasses and vase which was good!) They will be heading off tomorrow for a five-week holiday to New Zealand followed by St Lucia so we will be on cat-sitting duties whilst they are away.

Concerts and cameras

Michael and I have been helping out again with another concert at church – this time featuring a swing band from a local school who were very good. Michael has been playing with the lighting this time – trying to make a feature of the pyramid roof and make the lighting more interesting, whereas I was enjoying getting to grips with my new camera – having finally made the jump from compact to D-SLR and trying to work out what all the settings do! I think I got a few decent photos – they’re certainly a lot better than the ones from previous concerts.

Cinema night

Michael and I hardly ever go to the cinema (I’m not the biggest film fan in the world, it has to be said – trying to maintain concentration during a long film is almost impossible at times) but decided to have a rare cinema trip this evening to see Alice in Wonderland. I quite enjoyed the film, although found the 3D quite disconcerting at first (it made me feel a bit dizzy initially) which meant that I spent the first 15 minutes of the film peeking over the 3D glasses every couple of minutes until I finally got used to it.

A busy day

It’s been a bit of a busy day – spending the morning at home with my mum and catching up with two of my sisters, then heading back home for a craft afternoon at church to do some more work on the crazy patchwork bag that is one of my latest craft projects (nearly finished it now) followed by going out to the pub for a meal with some people from church and finishing off with a church council meeting where I seem to have agreed to take on a few too many tasks yet again – note to self, stop volunteering!

A night at the bingo

Another lovely day – another great thing about being on holiday means being able to go home and spend time with my family without having to worry about having to rush back due to being back on the pager. I have had a lovely night out at bingo with my mum (haven’t been for ages – we used to go every week when I was living at home) – my mum had a little win on a line early on, but as far as I was concerned the caller was calling out all the wrong numbers but it was a good night anyway!

Massages and manicures

I’m enjoying being a lady of leisure at the moment (back to work next week though!) and so took time out to indulge myself with an Indian head massage and manicure this morning (thanks to my in-laws who had bought me spa vouchers for my birthday last year). I’ve tried several different types of massage – most of which I didn’t actually enjoy – mainly because I hate having the knots in my shoulders massaged as it makes me feel sick. Fortunately the masseuse didn’t spend too much time on my shoulders and having my head massaged was just blissful – very relaxing!

Family history frustrations

Researching family history can be very frustrating sometimes. Every so often you hit brick walls in your research – particularly the further back you go when records aren’t as detailed and names often become repeated and so it is almost impossible to be sure whether the name in the records is actually your ancestor or someone else all together. It’s particularly frustrating when the brick wall is hit very early on – as is the case with one great-grandfather called John Smith who simply put his father’s name as “deceased” on his marriage certificate making it virtually impossible to trace further back.

Finishing Fiddler

Another show over, and for once my primary feeling is relief rather than sadness. It has been quite a tough show for me – mostly due to riding the emotional rollercoaster throughout most of it. The two performances yesterday both seemed to go pretty well and it was good to have family there to support me at both performances. At the moment I’ve agreed to do the summer concert (although still not completely sure about it!) I’m looking forward to three weeks of having no rehearsals and hopefully being able to recharge my batteries before the next round of rehearsals start.

Fiddler frights

I thought I’d get into character ahead of this afternoon’s performance of Fiddler on the Roof and start the practical jokes a little early. Whilst hubby was still asleep, I got up, put on my Fruma Sarah make-up, put on a white dressing gown, threw a white towel over my head and then proceeded to wake hubby with a ghostly wail. It was hilarious – he nearly jumped out of his skin! I wish I’d set up my video camera and videoed it for YouTube! Fortunately, he has a sense of humour and saw the funny side after his initial fright.

Ladies wot lunch

Having time off work for the show means also having the time to be able to catch up with friends – particularly if they are having time off work too (as is the case for half of the cast of Fiddler). For the last three days, I have been enjoying catching up with friends over lunch and enjoying the feeling of being “a lady wot lunches”. Life gets so busy sometimes and I find I don’t spend as much time with friends as I would like to normally, so I have been making the most of the opportunity to see them.

Fiddler - opening night

Fortunately, the old adage about bad dress rehearsals worked its magic once again and opening night turned out okay after all. The opening number was a bit messy but once we got past that, on the whole it was fine. The biggest worry had been over the scene changes which had taken far too long during the dress/tech rehearsal but managed to get done within a reasonable amount of time last night. Much to everyone’s surprise, we finished the show on time and without too many mistakes. Let’s hope the rest of the week is as good if not better.

Fiddler dress rehearsal

I think it would be fair to say that last night’s dress rehearsal was not the best. Actually, it was a bit more of a second tech rehearsal rather than a real dress rehearsal. We have a rather complicated set which requires several people to move it (being low on crew numbers means relying on male cast members to help – getting some of them out of the dressing room in time seems to be proving a challenge!) Set changes have been sluggish to say the least. Still, hopefully the old saying about bad dress rehearsals will prove to be true.

Pre-show tasks

Being on holiday during show week should, in theory, mean enjoying a leisurely day before heading off to the theatre in the evening ready to rehearse/perform. Being married to the stage manager, however, means getting roped in to help with all sorts of tasks, particularly as he is not on holiday this week and so can’t get much done on the show during the day. Most of my days (and half of my nights!) over the last few days have been spent putting together the radio mic plot which seems to have been much more complicated than for previous shows.

Fiddler tech run

Tonight’s tech rehearsal has been a bit chaotic to say the least. There were a few lighting issues that needing sorting out before we could actually start rehearsing on the stage so it was 9pm by the time the cast were ready to start onstage. Some of the scene changes seem to be taking a little more time than anticipated but I suspect after they’ve been done a few times, they’ll be much faster. We were supposed to be out of the theatre by 11pm but managed to extend the rehearsal so we could at least get through Act 1.

Fiddler get-in

Most of today has been spent at the theatre preparing for this week’s production of Fiddler on the Roof. We had a band call this afternoon plus Michael has been busy all day ensuring all the set and the technical side of things was being set up. As usual, the get-in feels like a bit of a mad rush trying to get as much done as possible. I have been spending most of this evening trying to put together the radio mic plot ready for tomorrow’s technical rehearsal (current halfway through so looks like it will be a late night).

Church craft day

We had another craft day at church today which has been great fun. There were various sessions on offer – appliqué, decoupage, glass painting, bead-making and various card-making techniques (teabag folding, iris folding and parchment). I spent the morning doing glass painting, decorating a vase for myself and a sherry glass as a Mother’s Day present for my mum, and then the afternoon was spent doing making cards using the technique of iris folding. We used the insides of envelopes as decorative paper (there’s recycling for you!) which looked surprisingly pretty and there was a surprising choice of designs to use.

Permission to start house-hunting

It looks like house-hunting is finally on the agenda for real. We had a meeting this morning with our financial advisor/mortgage broker which has helped to confirm what our budget is for buying a house and so we can now start looking around. We did have a brief look around last year but as we had no idea of what we could afford, it felt somewhat pointless. I suspect we won’t be making a start on the house-hunting in the next few days though – with a show on next week, there won’t be much time available for looking at properties.

Barriers

Many people have some kind of barrier which they hide themselves behind. There are professional barriers – where we can hide our real selves behind our workday persona. Then there are online barriers – communicating with friends via Facebook, Twitter and email – communication stripped down to just words on a screen. Sometimes we are afraid to let the barrier down, even a little, afraid to let the mask slip, afraid to let our real selves be seen, afraid that we will be rejected. And so we push others away, becoming increasingly isolated and end up wondering why we are so lonely sometimes.

Last pre-theatre rehearsal

Having a stand-in pianist for the last pre-theatre rehearsal made this evening’s rehearsal completely pointless. It wasn’t the pianist’s fault – he was reasonably good – but had never been to a rehearsal and therefore wasn’t familiar with the tempo of various numbers so there were several moments when we were a couple of bars ahead of the piano which was very off-putting. Needless to say, performances have been a little lacklustre this evening. After seven months of rehearsing for this show, I think we’re all in need of that little shot of adrenaline that comes with finally being in the theatre.

Happy birthday, Mum

I’m off the pager for three weeks’ annual leave from 5pm this evening which sounds blissful! It’s my mum’s birthday today and so I am heading home to spend this evening with my family. My brothers and sisters and I are all taking Mum out for a birthday meal. It’s a big birthday this year (she is 70 today) but it is also the first birthday since losing Dad and so whilst we will enjoy spending time together to celebrate Mum’s birthday, we will also be feeling sad too. If only Dad could still be here to celebrate with us.

Cleaning out the card shop

I have rather a large family which means that there are an awful lot of birthdays to have to keep track of. I’m fairly good at remembering most of the birthdays (although sometimes do have to rely on my diary to remind me!) to the extent that Michael relies on me to remember his family’s birthdays as well! Having a lot of birthdays means having to buy lots of cards and I usually end up doing about two months’ worth in bulk. It’s a lot of cards to buy. I’d make my own but I just don’t have the time!

Final run-through

This afternoon’s Fiddler rehearsal was the final run-through of the show before we get in to the theatre. We have one more rehearsal on Wednesday but that will just be doing bits and pieces rather than a run-through. The stage crew have been busy building the set in a warehouse and so we were able to rehearse in the warehouse this afternoon actually using the set which has been quite useful (although everyone has suddenly realised that the stage is actually somewhat smaller than we’d been allowing for in rehearsal!) By this time next week, we’ll be in the theatre.

Captured moments

The final copies of our wedding DVD have arrived – all the requested editing has been done and I’m very happy with the end result. Having a DVD done of our wedding was something I wasn’t sure I wanted at first – and then my twin sister talked me into it as she had been so pleased with her own DVD. I’m so glad now that I did have it done – it’s become one of the most precious reminders of our wedding day – and of my dad. His speech has become one of the most watched sections of the DVD for me.

The start of spring

It’s amazing what a difference a little sunshine can make. Since the calendar page turned to March, the world seems to have woken up to the fact that spring is just around the corner and we have had a week of beautiful sunshine. Suddenly, the world seems a chirpier place, people seem to be smiling more and even the ugly grey buildings in the city seem to have lost a little of their ugliness. I wake up in the morning with the birds singing and find it less of an effort to drag myself out of the arms of Morpheus.

Repeat clients

Having a smaller caseload nowadays means that a larger proportion of my caseload now seems to be previous clients returning to have another baby which is lovely. In fact, all my visits today were with women that I’d looked after with their first baby and were now having (or recently had) their second baby with the practice. I look at these toddlers whom I last saw as tiny babies and think “can it really be two years or more since I was welcoming you into the world?” Clichéd as it sounds, it really does seem like it was only yesterday.

Paper mountain

I seem to be swapped by paperwork at the moment, both at work and outside work! Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been working hard to finish off the new guidelines ready for when the new midwives start next week. It’s taken a lot of work but they seem to be done at last and on the plus side, I now feel pretty up-to-date with the research and have managed to get my CPD hours in for the next few years! The next projects are finishing off the programme for Fiddler on the Roof and this month’s church magazine.

Cutting car use

I’ve kept seeing signs along the roads recently encouraging drivers to reduce their mileage by 5 miles a week to help the environment. As a result I have been giving up unnecessary car journeys for Lent, albeit with a rather loose definition of what I consider “unnecessary” (basically if I can do the journey almost as easily by public transport, then I should avoid using the car where possible). It’s helped not having any babies due until April which has meant I can use the tube when I’m having an office day (it’s not really practical when I’m doing visits).

Clearing the air

Sunday dinner with my in-laws and the discussion about the difficulties we’d been having recently went fairly well overall. I finally told them how hurt I had felt over their lack of communication in the first few days after my dad died and that, combined with a couple of smaller incidences which had followed had caused me to push them away. They, of course, had had no idea why I’d suddenly become so unresponsive. It made me realise that a lot of hurt and anger could have been avoided if I’d just talked about my feelings in the first place.