Bits and Baubles

The nice thing about going home for a visit is that if you forget something, or many things, it's not that big of a deal. That's my current philosophy at any rate ;) And since I left the majority of my summer things at home (rather shortsighted of me), I'm just going to let that train of thought ride. My bikinis, my swimsuit coverups, my coolio waterskiing sunglasses, shorts, and capris are pretty much all in NJ.

I have worked myself up into a bit of a tizzy tonight, though, because I can't find one of my favorite necklaces, silver flower choker thing. Rarrggh! I'm going to have to start thinking of places I may have taken it I guess, since I'm not finding it in my room.

Jargon explained

Sorry! Since most of you are not OTs, to make sense of what I wrote below: Dyspraxia is a disorder of the execution of skilled, learned movements and tasks, which cannot be accounted for by muscle weakness, sensory loss, poor comprehension or inattention. Ideational dyspraxia means that the concept of the action related to the object is impaired. So a patient may stare at a toothbrush, and not have the concept of the toothbrushing action. Ideomotor dyspraxia is a disorder in the initiation and execution of planned sequences of movement. So the patient may stare at the toothbrush and know the concept of toothbrushing in their head, but is unable to initiate the actions needed to achieve the goal of brushing their teeth.

How the time does fly

Funny how big things you've been looking forward to for a long time can creep up on you...it's Thursday night, and I'm wondering where the time has gone. It can't possibly be time already for my trip home- but it is! And as usual, I haven't gotten to half the things I wanted to do before leaving.

Second day of the course was pretty good. We tackled praxia today- the two different types of dyspraxia or apraxia are still not completely clear in my head, but I suppose I'd have to be working with patients with those types of problems for that to happen. I got it backwards from a video we watched today, thinking the guy had ideomotor dyspraxia when he actually had ideational dyspraxia. But I think I'm getting closer to understanding it. We went over standardized testing for cognitive and perceptual dysfunctions, which are a bit problematic I think, beginning with the fact that you'd have to work at a facility that had invested in these expensive tests for their therapists' use. What we're learning about assessing patients through clinical observations will most likely prove to be more useful in the long run.

I think my cold is winding down, since I am no longer feeling like I've been run over by a truck. Good news since I'll be playing hard in Vermont within a couple of days now! "Wasted away again in Margaritaville, searching for my lost shaker of salt..."

Decisions, decisions...

Man, neuroanatomy was hard enough the first time around, without the medicine head I had today from trying to alleviate my cold symptoms! Although I must say, I'm rather impressed with myself for the stuff I do remember. So far the training course is pretty good, with two good lecturers, and there are five of us there from Whipps. Unfortunately, I figured out today that Lizzie thinks the stroke unit is the only rotation left worth doing, so it's pretty certain I won't get it. Now it's just a matter of deciding whether to stay on for the adult inpatient rehab unit which gets the occasional stroke patient, try to find a job working with stroke patients at a different UK hospital that will sponsor me for a work visa, or just go home since I can do rehab there anyway at triple the salary. Won't make that decision until early September, but I'm not looking forward to it.

Good news- Maja and I have narrowed our August trip down to Bodrum on the Turkish coast. We're now choosing between four or five hotels, top of the line, with all inclusive packages (flight, hotel, food and drink). Sadly, I am limited by budget. And because our current plan calls for me to fly to Sarajevo so she can show me around her first and only love before we go to Turkey, the coast is all we can do. I can't afford the round trip flight to Sarajevo, plus go to Istanbul, plus hang out on the Turkish coast. Huh. Well, there's nothing for it but to do Istanbul on a separate trip! Maybe in October or something. Although I'm toying with going back to Italy then since that is wine-making season and the Florys will be back... decisions, decisions. Life is tough. (And in case it's not clear, that's sarcastic, I am so kidding.)

Here's some more pics from Paris. Eventually I'll have some to share from Jo's camera, I think she has all the ones of us together, but that won't be for awhile, not until after I'm back.

This is a double-decker metro...never seen anything like it underground before. In addition, on many of the metro lines, the wheels were big fat tires like you see on buses.  

"The Crooners"...great singers, great guys, we had the pleasure of hanging out with them for a while in one of the Latin Quarter's bars after their set. Check out Anton, in the middle, plucking away at an overturned washtub (sorry, mostly hidden by their Crooners sign).

There were a lot of houseboats along the river 

We couldn't decide if these tents more likely belonged to backpackers, or homeless people. 

Hangin' out on the Batobus. Although you wouldn't guess it from this picture, Jo commented when she first saw me this weekend on how "brown" I am, from time in the sun. 

A view of Notre Dame from the Seine. 

The Eiffel Tower early Sunday afternoon, through the window of the Batobus... 

And this was later on in the evening, when the rain had stopped for a bit, and the tower had been lit up for the night (you can kind of see the orange glow in this picture). 

I hate colds

I do have more pics for y'all but you have to wait til tomorrow! I've been busily running around this evening...laundry, packing, cooking, cleaning, forcing myself really since this cold just has me wiped out, but I'll be damned if I'm going to miss my 3-day training course on Assessment of Cognitive and Perceptual Dysfunctions for sick time. So I have to get everything else done these last couple of nights by the time Friday morning rolls around. Should be interesting, carting off two suitcases to Mile End Hospital, and then to Heathrow on the tube during rush hour. Haha, I never seem to do things the easy way. That would be too boring ;)

Since several people have asked, I am hoping to pick up a pay-as-you go Tmobile SIM card. In that case, I'll try to send out an email with the number- come to think of it, a new temporary number may be more of a pain in the butt than it's worth. Well, even if I don't have a mobile, I do promise I'll give each and every one of you a call, someway somehow while I'm in the States. Will do my best anyway.

Right, still have a few things to do before I can allow myself the luxury of sleep, love to all, allison.

One of the fire dancers outside Notre Dame. 

The piece de resistance of the Da Vinci Code, the inverted pyramid, or symbol of the sacred feminine, the chalice. 

Some pillars lit up in another section of the medieval Louvre. 

Standing near a section of the original medieval Louvre palace/castle. 

Jo, standing under the big glass pyramid that serves as the main entrance for the Louvre.

This is how light it was around 9pm in the plaza in front of Notre Dame. The fire dancers didn't even start to set up and try to attract a crowd until it was going on 10pm and finally getting dusky.

Looking out over Paris toward the Sacre Coeur, from the highest level at the Pompidou Center. 

The obelisk at St. Sulpice with the infamous brass "Rose Line"- it is a huge and gorgeous church, not at all like the small chapel described in the Da Vinci Code. 

On the grass in the Jardin du Luxembourg, in front of the palace...nap time! 

Avenue Q

Absolutely bloody brilliant!!!! I meant to see this show on Broadway, actually from as far back as when I returned to the US from my term in Oxford. The show hasn't "officially" opened here yet, so I was able to get tickets for 10 pounds, and I was almost rolling on the floor with laughter. It's Sesame Street for adults really, with puppets and humans interacting on stage, and songs on the themes of sex (including but not limited to "The Internet's for Porn"), racism, homosexuality, laughing at others' misfortunes, etc. It was completely politically incorrect, very tongue in cheek (blowing raspberries, actually), and therefore a fabulous breath of fresh air! I highly highly recommend it, it's the best thing I've seen in a long time. Oh and yes, there's a character meant to be the child actor Gary Cole grown up, whose almost sole purpose throughout the show is to take the mickey out of Gary Cole.

I'll post some pictures from Paris tonight, I hope.

My eyes are puffy from the cold, so I've been wearing my glasses today...also post haircut. 

Not the greatest pic, but this is from my free haircut today. 

I'm Baaack!

And home this afternoon unfortunately, as I've got some sort of nasty cold thing going on and needed to get some rest. We'll still go to Avenue Q this evening, but after the whirlwind weekend we've had, I couldn't face a day trooping around London as well. We had an absolutely wonderful time in Paris, and it went by in a flash. I'll tell you about it, do my best to keep it short, and I promise pictures will be forthcoming in the future. I need to get mine loaded onto the computer, and get some from Jo as well.

So we caught the Eurostar first thing Saturday morning, our train was at the obscene hour of 7:09am. But as always, I can't sleep on moving objects, so when I wasn't reading, I was drinking in the landscape. It is true what they say- the train moves one heck of a lot faster in France than in Blighty. They do have passport control and xray your luggage and all that jazz, but all in all it was much easier than a flight. So we arrived in Paris, figured out how to buy tickets for "le metro" and made our way toward our hotel. But we stopped off at Jardin de Luxembourg, which has a grand palace in the middle of it, and tons more...lots of sculptures, people doing martial arts, running, stretching, playing chess, playing boules on courts specially designed (bocce ball again), kiddie wading pools, with sand pits right next to them, and tons and tons of chairs for anyone to use. It is probably the best park I have ever seen. I felt so relaxed I even had a nap before we decided to move on. Since we were so close to the church of St. Sulpice (which features prominently in the Da Vinci Code), we had to take that detour, and see the Rose Line. It was a gorgeous, huge old church, and had the brass "Rose Line" running right through the middle of it, but there were signs everywhere denying that it ever had anything to do with anything other than science and astronomy, and certainly never had anything to do with the time line that now runs through Greenwich. Right, consider that bit of artistic license debunked. We continued on to our hotel, which for being a two star, was very decent. And the concierge spoke English, and was happy to help us...which would morph into a theme I'll talk about in bits and pieces as I go through our trip. Our experience with Parisians was sweet and sour, but more sweet than sour, and I think that had a lot to do with two blondes and gorgeous smiles ;)

We decided to spend our first afternoon at the Pompidou Center, famous for its exterior design, and for being the second largest exhibition of modern art, behind the MOMA in New York City. There were tons of street performers in the plaza surrounding the building, including musicians and magicians. As for the Pompidou itself, well, let's just say Jo and I decided that with certain exhibits, there's a fine line between being an artist, and being unwell (read sick, even).

We tried to get some pictures out over Paris from the top of the building, and then as we left, decided to head toward the river and find a nice sidewalk cafe for dinner. Only we got a little turned around, and ended up with our heads buried in a map, as tourists do. And amazingly enough, a French woman stopped to ask if she could help us find something...I have never, ever had anyone offer to help me in London when I'm looking at a map, and certainly had not expected it from a Parisian, but there you go. At dinner, our waiter fawned all over us, dubbing us "green eyes and blue eyes" and endeavored to make us laugh, and flirted with us until the meal was done. Alas, we had things to do...it was almost 9pm, but still very light out, so we headed to Notre Dame. At the plaza there, we listened to a classical guitar player who unbelievably enough at one point started to play Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (remember I was singing that drunkenly with Nicole last weekend in Guildford because we heard it playing in bar?!), and watched two young people swing fire torches about in intricate patterns and movements. We walked into Notre Dame during the middle of a service, with gorgeous singing, and were beset later on by a couple of French men at different times while sitting down outside the church, who would blatantly stare, and then try to get a conversation going.

We moved on to the Latin Quarter, which was vibrant and addictively fun. We heard a lot of English being spoken, a lot of American English actually, all over Paris, but the Latin Quarter was a hodge-podge of international young people, and I was glad I'd thrown a pair of dancing shoes into my suitcase at the last minute when I packed Friday morning. What a night!

On Sunday, we had brunch at a small cafe near our hotel, where the waiter was rude, and a guy stared at me through the whole meal, even though his girlfriend was right next to him- I've never seen anything like the staring that French men do. It's unnerving. Maybe it's just in Paris, who knows. Anyway, even though it rained pretty much all day, we took the Batobus as planned (pronounced batobooos), because it let us hop on and hop off at sites like the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, etc all day long, and it's so much more fun to see Paris from cruising along the Seine than using the Metro...even when it's raining. We got the same boat guide our first couple of times, who paid us a lot of special attention, giving us free pens (which he then refused to give to the guy next to us, when he asked for one!), and advice at every stop that he was not sharing over the microphone with everyone else on the boat. The boat guide we had later on was even cuter, and we had to forgive him for staring, he had such a great smile! At the Louvre, Jo stopped to ask a male employee of the museum if he spoke English because she wanted to find the inverted pyramid. At first he told her he spoke very little, but then she smiled at him, and suddenly he was fluent in English, trying to draw her out in conversation about the Da Vinci Code movie, and how everything in the film had been changed and didn't look like they actually do in the Louvre. We only spent a couple of hours in the Louvre, searching out specific things (Mona Lisa- with a very rude guard, Venus de Milo, the medieval foundations of the original Louvre building, etc)...both because I'd warned Jo you could easily spend days in the Louvre, and because we wanted to get to the Latin Quarter to watch England take on Ecuador!!

The waiters at the bar were fascinated by the English girls (I was cheering for England, so I had to be English apparently) getting all excited and yelling at the widescreen TV. Although I was not happy when one of them seated a couple in front of us, banging a chair back into me to make room for them, and forcing me to move to see the screen because the guy he'd put in front of me was too tall. We met Colombians who were there to cheer on Ecuador, French guys trying to talk us out of cheering for England, Americans and more. I met more people in Paris in general, and in the Latin Quarter that day particularly, than I have in London. We ventured outside after the game to listen to some street musicians called the Crooners, who had a Southern American jugband style take on modern songs...and hung out with them for a bit after their show, before we moved on to other bars! We stopped for dinner at one point, but just couldn't get enough of the Latin Quarter vibe!

Made it difficult to get up this morning to catch the Eurostar back, but as consolation, I got a free haircut at Toni and Guy...Jo had made the appointments for us, and it was supposed to be 5 pounds. Jo paid for hers while I was signing in, and I stood there waiting with a 10 pound note in my hands, but when the lady looked up at me, she just shooed me over the elevator, so I never actually paid. And I got a great haircut in the end. So now I'm going to sleep for an hour or two, take some meds for my chest/head cold, and drag my butt back out the door for the show later on tonight.

Let's see, Jo and my overall impression of Paris- with it's great big wide streets, most of which are tree-lined, its sidewalk cafes, and all the Parisians who were helpful to us, it just somehow came across as more open and inviting of a city than London, which is actually referred to as the "Lonely City" (London, I mean, not Paris). Jo called Paris less hostile than London in fact. I'll share some more anecdotes along with the photos, once I'm ready to post them. For now, au revoir!

Fishbowl

We had a woman in this afternoon where the doctor is querying myasthenia gravis. This woman is having difficulty with swallowing, but always in the afternoon. She can eat in the morning, but can't get anything down in the afternoon. So at the day hospital today they did some sort of test using medication to relax the heart, and then gave her a "lumpy lunch" to see if she could eat. Meanwhile, they had brought over the crash cart, in case she went into cardiac arrest as a result of this testing, and 3 consultants, 1 SHO, and 2 nurses were all crowded around watching her. Amazingly enough for what must have felt like being in a fishbowl, this woman was incredibly calm. I think I would have been a nervous wreck to have a medical test done where the crash cart is right next to me on standby and everyone's staring at me!

POMEs

I've been meaning to write about this for some time, and just haven't, for one reason or another. A little bit of history for you, and how language and perspective changes over time. Australians call the English pomes. There are a lot of terms floating around here, and you can't really keep up with asking about the origins of all of them. And half the time when you do ask, people don't know. The answer is along the lines of "That's just what we call it."

Anywho, originally, England shipped her criminals off to Australia, and that is when the term was initally coined, except it was spelled POHM. And it was stamped across the tops that all the prisoners wore. Meaning: Prisoner of His Majesty. These days, however, the Australians have turned the term around, cheeky monkeys, and refer to the English as POMEs. Meaning: Prisoners of Mother England. And though we've had good weather this summer for Britain, you can understand why the Australians think that in the end, the joke is on England rather than them, and that the criminals shipped off to Australia got a pretty good deal ;)

Battered

Or to spell it out plainly without British slang, I'm drunk. For a lightweight, two pints of cider on an empty stomach = fuzzy head. After work tonight, I ended up back at the pub which is quote unquote not a sports bar. Funnily enough, they had the USA - Ghana game on their nice big widescreen TV. I was indignant at first, but realized there's a method to their madness. No doubt because a game like this doesn't draw the obnoxiously loud England fans (no offense intended, but there is a huge difference between being in a pub during an England game, and being in a pub during any other game).

Let's have a moment of silence for the US....it was fun while it lasted.

I guess I need to think about packing for Paris, if I can just concentrate. Waheyyyyyy!

It's almost Friday, it's almost Friday, it's almost Friday

I think I'm going to get my butt kicked tomorrow...there will be one OT to cover all the acute medical wards, and two to cover the acute care of the elderly wards. Everyone else has been given the day off. Yes, I know, bad planning by the Head OT, but apparently she does this a lot. So I'm debating between just not answering the phone at all tomorrow, or taking the bull by the horns, and getting over to the main dept as soon as possible during the day to see how many wards urgently need OT services. Today has been really stressful with family members getting extremely involved and basically questioning my judgement and clinical skills, so I'm glad it's over.

I will just need to get through the day tomorrow, because then I'm off for Paris this weekend with Jo. We are taking the Eurostar rather than flying, which should be an adventure in itself. I've been told there's a huge difference between the rate of speed the train travels in Britain and in France. Something to do with the poor condition of the rails in Britain if I remember correctly? We're back Monday midday, but as we both took the day off, we'll probably do touristy stuff in London, and I've just now booked £10 tickets to see Avenue Q on Monday night! It's way up in the balcony, but I've wanted to see this show forever. The official opening isn't until Wednesday, which is why I was able to get the cheap tickets. I promise to have lots more pictures to entertain and delight next week.

Speaking of next week, I'm off Monday, will be at work on Tuesday, but then have a training course I'm attending Wednesday-Friday. Woohoo, only one day of work! And I fly home on Friday night, never to return...just kidding, but it's true, I won't be back in the UK until mid-July. I am really really really looking forward to Vermont and Hawaii. It's cheering me up at the moment as I've just checked the USA-Ghana score and the Americans are behind 2-1 :( Come on the red, white and blue, we're looking at elimination here!

wrong day

Man, I have been a day ahead of myself all week! It's only Wednesday! So no US game today, it's tomorrow. Aaaannnnnd I still have two days of work left. Bugger.

I did my first home visit for a patient on the acute ward today. It was scheduled for 10:45am. At 10:20am the head nurse from the ward called me to ask when the visit was (she knew very well), and to say that the patient did not have any clothes, and the ward did not have any for her to borrow... They're telling me this now?! Thank God for Annette who happened to overhear the conversation, and told me the OT dept had some, not to worry, we'd just go get the patient right away and take her to outpatients to find her something to wear. Then we got to the patient's house, and I had another mini panic attack as I realized I didn't know if the patient had her own keys- she did- but these are things I just never thought of since the visits I've been doing from the day hospital happen when the patient is already home. This was my first time taking a patient with me from the hospital to their locked up home. Live and learn.

I have also come away with the lesson that when I don't think a home visit is necessary, I should get a concrete reason from the family member requesting it as to why. This lady I took today was very functional, and could easily have been discharged from the hospital, with a follow up visit from an OT assistant after she was home to determine what equipment she might need- she doesn't need anything urgently in place before she goes. To backtrack, when I did my functional assessment on the ward, her son was there, and saw how well she was doing, and agreed with me that there were no concerns. But the following day, I got a message via the nurses that he wanted a home visit done. I tried to reach him several times by phone, which was always engaged, and finally just left a message about when we were going to do it. He came to the visit this morning, and had no particular concerns! Aggggh. So next time, unless the family has a specific problem they can tell me they want me to check out, I'll just explain that since the patient is doing so well, we will schedule someone to come out and see how the patient is managing just after they've come back home from the hospital. Lovely day to be out and about, though.

I got to talk to most of the Aveyards late last night, who were all at my parents' house for a BBQ, having flown out to NJ for a wedding. (They are very good family friends). It was odd, really, hearing all the hubbub happening in the background and not being there. On both sides I think, it was odd for them too with me not there. But it was really good to hear their voices, and get updates on all the various happenings in their lives. And I had to laugh to hear little Kai (ok, not so little according to his mum, 45 pounts at 3) going "Kitty! Kiiiittttyyy!" throughout the entire conversation, even though Gerry had apparently shot off into hiding at the first sight of him coming after her. LOL.

21 June

It's the summer solstice today, the longest day of the year, and though it has felt like summer for awhile already, it is now officially summer. So happy summer everyone! May it not go by so quickly this year. On the news this morning, they were showing the crowds who had gathered at Stonehenge last night- it looked like thousands of people- must have been quite the party! And there was a beautiful orange sunrise this morning over the stones. I'm starting to dream about Hawaiian sunrises and sunsets at this point, which are only a little over two weeks away for me!

As for England last night- oops. They had what looked like a decent start to the game, but seemed to fall apart after Sweden scored their first goal, and the game ended in a 2-2 tie. So they've still not beaten Sweden since the 1960s, they lost a key player (Owen) to injury, and they still have a lot to answer for to the fans and to themselves.

Primetime Footie

So tonight, England takes on Sweden! Evidently (I hear tell), England has not beaten Sweden in a World Cup game since 1960-something... and that's A-ok by most England fans. The English have not been playing well, and if they lose tonight, they will play Ecuador in Round 2, rather than Germany. And I think the general feeling is that the way England has been playing, their fans would rather they not have to take on Germany just yet.

Tomorrow, the US will play Ghana. It's an afternoon game, so it will most likely be just about over by the time I get to leave the hospital, but I so hope they win! I'd love for them to squeak on through to the next round...if they continue to play as they did against Italy, they could be a real threat.

Daydreaming about the great outdoors

You have a vague sense of guilt when you've been out the night before, because you realize you probably aren't going to give your patients 100%. Ok, maybe more than vague. I don't know if this is more so when you're working in healthcare, or if it's about the same as everyone else in other kinds of jobs, but hey, we're only human, and it's worth it so long as the night was good ;)

I've been thinking about the English countryside this morning. Largely because I spent so much time out in it this weekend, and now I'm stuck in the hospital for another week. We have not had all that much rain in the past couple of weeks, it's been hot and sticky at times, but mainly gorgeous! There is nothing like the English countryside anywhere else in the world, with its greenness, rivers, country cottages (many with thatched roofs, which I love), glorious tangles of gardens (some meticulously groomed, others an organized wildness), open fields, footpaths that wander through farms and bring you face to face with sheep or horses or cows, forests...I could go on and on. I feel very lucky to be here this summer, with the weather as good as it has been, and good friends to enjoy the country with.

Guildford, from the window in Rob and Nicole's home office. The tallest building on the left side of the photo is the cathedral. 

A vista from our hike on Sunday- we met a lot of dogs this weekend, and this fella looked pretty hot and tired.  

One of the Tudor-style cottages I referred to in my post yesterday. 

Nicole thought this shot looks like a postcard. We stopped in front of this muddy pond for snacks, mid-hike on Sunday. 

A view of one of the gates at the castle in Aruyndel.  

Two of the many many people bowling in their crisp white uniforms (yes, that is what we call bocce ball).