A little boring catch-up... (a post that should have been posted but was sat there as a draft - so rather out of synch as this is really from October 2013!)

So I have officially left the nursing course - this was hard to do but I'd known for months that this really wasn't going to be happening. I was/am happy with this, I don't look backwards that much (or at least I don't believe regrets are much use in life), it's not that I am wonderfully forward looking, endlessly planning my direction or anything I just prefer to move on but it was still hard... Why? I think that while I don't need a strong direction I'm very aware that I am squatting in the middle of a crossroads at the moment and that rather than moving on, choosing a path to follow, I am, for a while, just camped out here. This is what feels strange, to leave the old behind but not actually move on to the new.

Current things that are keeping me at a crossroads:

• We are half-way (ish) through buying a house, exchange of contracts should have taken place every day for the past two weeks
• I have a place on a Masters in Public Health course that I can't take up due to the ridiculous way they set the fees: £4,500 for full time, £9,000 for part time. So that is deferred for at least a year whilst they come to their senses or I win the lottery!
• I've been looking for part-time (very part-time) jobs, but ones where I feel I am using my brain and are on a new path (see I just hate following old paths).
• Oli is still suffering with his CFS, but at least we have had no big set-backs since the weather became cooler (the hot summer was hell for him).

New paths or at least ones I am peering down to see if I like the view:

• Oli has now started attending The Stables Project part-time and this is going well. After his first full teaching day he came home nearly bouncing. Mainly excited about the Gold Arts Award and how it was "just brilliant" for him.
• I start a (very) part-time job on Friday; pharmacy trainee - a slightly random direction but that's nothing new for me! Just Friday afternoons and some Saturday mornings to begin with, in Knaresborough.

What a fortnight....

Well not the best start to year two of nursing. Need to take a month off, which will probably turn into a year :(
CFS strikes down Oli again (not that it gave up) and my health isn't it's best with return of the anaemia.

So what happens now....?

Helping Oli get to school on a regular but limited basis is one aim, supporting him at home in the time that he isn't able to go to school, possibly looking at doing some student support work, helping the Steiner School with their computer systems, hopefully continued involvement in a uni maths project. So plenty to be going on with.

Oddly having done well in the first year of my nursing makes it easier to take a break (last exam mark was 92%, last essay was 87% and my placement went really well). I think if it had been more of a fight it would feel like giving up - it doesn't feel like that at all. It is a positive and necessary choice for me and I can feel confident about returning later.

You're in safe hands.....

Oh dear, give me a few days of lectures and I utterly fail to post...

We have been practicing CPR, choking procedure and inserting nasogastric tubes into little babies! No babies were harmed in the practicing of these procedures. Here is one of our patients:

I can't find a picture of Tommy the child mannequin but he is positively scary with gaping mouth and wide-eyes with rubber eyelashes though you can move the pupils to a wonderful cross-eyed stare!

What's bloggable and what's not?

I'm training to be a nurse so it's possible I might write something the squeamish might not like. So if I get tempted (!) I'll try and warn people at the top of a post! This is not one of those occasions it could have been but somethings maybe don't belong on this blog so the audience (if there is one) is safe this time!

Home thoughts from ... well home actually!

Finished a 12 week nursing practice placement - so sad to finish, I have loved it. Now I am worried (a little) about having chosen child nursing. This last placement was on an elderly orthopedic ward - hip fractures. I LOVE working with the elderly - I have found I have endless patience for their care. I think I feel the same about caring for children (well I know I do for my own) but have yet to put this into practice. Child practice starts mid October...... watch this space.

On an different subject, entirely, my 16 year old daughter went to London with a friend today: afternoon in London and then train to friends house north of London. They went to Hyde Park to attempt to see Tobuscus - a YouTube 'celebrity'. 'YouTube celebrity' is an idea that is rather new to me and I thought I was fairly 'with it'. Anyway, a little scary checking out twitter feeds about a near riot at this 'meet-up', demanded immediate reassuring txt message from daughter and luckily got one!

I have met, in person, quite a few people that I originally got to know on the internet and find that to be quite a normal process, so it is maybe odd that I haven't really taken in the whole media revolution - probably why it has taken me 25 years of internet usage to get round to writing a blog!