The end of 2012

December 2012

As you might imagine, the middle of December was not an easy time for any of us. We were knocked sideways by my cousin's murder, and the circumstances were particularly awful. I was not at all well, and I had by this time passed my bronchitis on to Paul, so both of us were lying in bed, hardly able to raise our heads from the pillow. I don't think making long trips up to London to talk to the medical team on what were some of the coldest days of the year did my bronchitis any good, and I couldn't help thinking, as I sat coughing and retching in the relatives' room in Intensive Care, that I sounded a whole lot worse than most of those occupying beds there! At least nobody was expecting me to do anything - Douglas' partner and another close friend are his executors.

On Tuesday 18th I declared myself well again and went to work! I had already made an arrangement to do my consultation bit - visiting a couple of the many hospitals that the University Medical School where I used to work send students on placement. The hospitals are supposed to meet a certain standard for computers available to the medical students so that they can complete their academic work. They need special software so the students can access their own University desktop; they need to access medical journals for which the university pays and the NHS doesn't, and as access is usually by IP address rather than by password, they need first to attach to a university desktop. They also need access to their limited university storage space - and as the  specially encrypted NHS USB keys they would have to use for personal file storage are very expensive, most of them don't seem to buy them. 

The computers I had to inspect are incredibly spread out - a group in the library, a small group in the doctors' residence, some more in a room off a ward, two outside Casualty and so on, so miles needed to be walked. And one needs an NHS student login to access some of them, and a library login to access others, and most are in areas which are card access only, so one can't go alone. I needed to go round with a member of staff. 

I visited two different hospitals north of London, about a 30 minute drive apart, so it was reasonably complicated - not to mention incredibly tedious. Many computers have to be tested individually - can they print, does the sound work, can students access their e-learning materials, is the special software present, does it work, is there an appropriately configured shortcut on the desktop or if not, can one be downloaded from my web page? (Some desktops have been locked, so no downloads of shortcuts are possible). A detailed report is necessary on the state of individual computers. It's nothing at all difficult and quite tedious, but it is vital. I have a lot more hospitals to visit, after the Christmas break is over and once I am back from France.

I still didn't feel great, so wasn't inclined for much Christmas shopping. So most of Christmas was delivered in a van - thank goodness for the Internet! I did manage a quick visit to London to one of the Christmas markets, but I found I hadn't much stamina, so it was a very short visit.

Christmas itself was quite busy. My son and daughter-in-law and my grandson arrived on Sunday 23rd. On Christmas Eve my sister and my elder son arrived. He arrived minus his wife, who had gone to somewhere in the Midlands to consult with her family about her aunt's funeral - the aunt had died a couple of days before Christmas. My elder son was only able to stay one night, as there was nobody to look after his cats, and he went home late on Christmas Day to pacify his lonely moggies. We had invited the cats for Christmas too, but apparently they don't like to travel and yowl loudly in protest.

We had hoped to be able to get out of the house over the holiday and do a bit of walking, or at least run about in the garden, but mostly it was too wet even to do that. The rain descended in torrents almost every day, with very few breaks. At least we had been able to go out on Christmas Eve and buy my grandson some Wellington boots so he could run about on the grass in the garden without getting his shoes wet - if it ever stopped raining for more than a few minutes. Still, we had a nice family Christmas, though for some reason I forgot to take any photos at all. Mind you, I probably couldn't post any here, with such a poor connection.

The rest of our guests stayed until Sunday 30th. Both my son and my sister needed to work on New Year's Eve, so they all needed to be home by then. My son and family left before lunch, and my sister in the afternoon.

Once they had all gone, I was able to fill my house with wet washing. The rules of this apartment forbid the hanging of washing outside, so wet sheets and duvet covers can be a bit of a problem. Experience has taught me that I only have space for drying one machine load at a time, so washing 'day' is rather a spread-out experience. We have a washer-dryer, but as far as I can see, it might more properly be called a washer-wetter. It just gulps electricity and things never seem to come out dry.

Our own New Year was quiet - Paul even went to bed early, as he wasn't feeling too great - and I just watched television. Then we had to get ready for our ski holiday in France. Paul was convinced he WAS ready, so left everything until the last minute.  It was a bit of a mad rush at the end and he left several vital things behind. One tedious consequence of all the unpacking and re-packing and moving from place to place is that some of my clothing has completely disappeared, notably my ski anorak and ski trousers. I have to use Paul's, as he fortunately has spares of both.