Looking across the river at the London Eye. The building to its right with the searchlight beaming into the night is the London Aquarium.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Monday, November 13, 2006
A little summary
Carla left yesterday, after a whirlwind long weekend taking in the sights of London...and beyond. In London, we saw the Changing of the Guard, Parliament and Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, took a London Walks guided tour, did the London Eye, went through Kensington Palace, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Covent Garden, and had afternoon tea at Harrods. We also took a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath on Friday....whew. No wonder I'm so tired! And I didn't have to make the transatlantic flight!!
Thursday was funny-- the new James Bond movie is opening in theatres all over the country this week. At the Changing of the Guard ceremony on Thursday morning, the Queen's Band played the theme song for just about every Bond movie that exists. And then at Harrods, later on that afternoon, the new Bond girl was posing in one of their Bond-themed windows, each of which had a TV with clips from the movie. And during afternoon tea, the piano player decided to entertain us with, you guessed it, Bond theme songs. It's a little 007-crazy over here at the moment. At the Changing of the Guards, several young American guys were standing behind me, commenting on the multitude of 007 songs. They apparently didn't realize that the movie was about to be released, and in some rather vulgar language were proclaiming how ridiculous it was that all the songs were Bond songs. And then one of them exclaimed, "What the ----! This is an American movie!!" I couldn't take it anymore and was about to turn around to put him straight, but one of his friends who knew a little bit more what he was talking about told him to shut up, Bond is a British agent. Oiy...Americans!
Thursday was funny-- the new James Bond movie is opening in theatres all over the country this week. At the Changing of the Guard ceremony on Thursday morning, the Queen's Band played the theme song for just about every Bond movie that exists. And then at Harrods, later on that afternoon, the new Bond girl was posing in one of their Bond-themed windows, each of which had a TV with clips from the movie. And during afternoon tea, the piano player decided to entertain us with, you guessed it, Bond theme songs. It's a little 007-crazy over here at the moment. At the Changing of the Guards, several young American guys were standing behind me, commenting on the multitude of 007 songs. They apparently didn't realize that the movie was about to be released, and in some rather vulgar language were proclaiming how ridiculous it was that all the songs were Bond songs. And then one of them exclaimed, "What the ----! This is an American movie!!" I couldn't take it anymore and was about to turn around to put him straight, but one of his friends who knew a little bit more what he was talking about told him to shut up, Bond is a British agent. Oiy...Americans!
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Physios: OTs in disguise?
Well, blogger is doing its thing again...I posted a few photos early this morning, but have thus far been unable to post the rest tonight.
I am exhausted, but no rest for the weary! I've been cleaning house, because Carla arrives tomorrow morning for her UK-blink-and-you'll-miss-it adventure... we're going to cram as much in as possible, including a day trip to Bath and Stonehenge on Friday so that she gets to see more than just London. Unfortunately, I have to be on the tube at 7am tomorrow to meet her at the airport, so no sleeping in for me. Guess I'll just have to indulge in a nap on Sunday.
Gripe of the day...what's with the physical therapists moving in on our turf?! It used to be that physios were the joint and muscle experts, very straightforward stuff. And OTs, well, we were able to claim that what made us unique was our focus on purposeful, meaningful activity, or functional activities if you prefer. And yet these days, physios are pretty much across the board incorporating functional activity goals in their treatment plans. Professional niche stealers! Get back on your side! We were here first!!
I am exhausted, but no rest for the weary! I've been cleaning house, because Carla arrives tomorrow morning for her UK-blink-and-you'll-miss-it adventure... we're going to cram as much in as possible, including a day trip to Bath and Stonehenge on Friday so that she gets to see more than just London. Unfortunately, I have to be on the tube at 7am tomorrow to meet her at the airport, so no sleeping in for me. Guess I'll just have to indulge in a nap on Sunday.
Gripe of the day...what's with the physical therapists moving in on our turf?! It used to be that physios were the joint and muscle experts, very straightforward stuff. And OTs, well, we were able to claim that what made us unique was our focus on purposeful, meaningful activity, or functional activities if you prefer. And yet these days, physios are pretty much across the board incorporating functional activity goals in their treatment plans. Professional niche stealers! Get back on your side! We were here first!!
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
An emotional drain of a day
Ooh, I just love it when Blogger won't cooperate with uploading photos. Love it, love it, love it.
I've had a crazy day today where everything went wrong with my patients I've actually currently got, plus two patients who had already gone home. "M" was badly handled by a nurse yesterday morning apparently, and now fears retribution from the nurses if he complains-- I heard about it from his wife, and I am now obligated to speak to the matron (essentially Head Nurse)-- unfortunately what happens on the ward with nursing staff has a huge impact on progress in therapy. "F" is scheduled to go home tomorrow, and though I specifically said to the nurse at our multi-discliplinary meeting last week that she would be going home that day and an ambulance needed to be arranged to take her home, today we were told that the nursing staff had no idea "F" was going home, and no ambulance had been booked. "G" is a story of his own, which I will get into when I have the energy for it-- in a nutshell, he's a 52 (or 62, we're not sure which, he's got two different birth dates, I'll explain another time) year old man who's had a stroke, past medical history of heavy smoking and drinking for 30 years (read alcoholic), who still thinks after 12 weeks of rehab that he can go home and be fine on his own. Meanwhile he can't walk, but tries to get up every day and falls, is incontinent, and has absolutely no problem-solving skills, no safety awareness or judgement, and no insight as to capabilities and limitations. But he's very good at covering things up, so the psych has assessed him to have the capacity to make informed decisions. Wheeee. It's a long story, I'll tell it another day. Meanwhile, the son of a patient who was recently discharged was calling me up on the phone, telling me his father is impulsive, aggressive, shouts at everybody, and does things he knows he is not safe to do, now that he is at home. And he wanted me to tell him that eventually his father will be back to normal, and told me he thinks the sleeping pills his father is on are causing the aggressiveness and impulsiveness. The son apparently wasn't listening while his father was a patient, when we talked about the behavioral side effects of having had a stroke, and I don't think he really took it on board when I explained this to him again today. In addition, though our discharge plan specifically called for this patient to be set up for living on the ground floor, and the family agreed, the son told me on the phone today that his father has gotten up at least three times during the night and tried to go downstairs. What?!!! I said to the son, we agreed that your father would be living downstairs, he is not safe on the stairs, we had everything delivered that you needed to have him downstairs. And the son said yes, but we're currently having a toilet and walk-in shower installed downstairs, it's too messy for his bed. And all I could say was please, please, clear a space for him to sleep and for his commode, he cannot be upstairs, his behavior is not going to change, he will do things he knows he is not supposed to do, and all we can do is keep him as safe as possible bykeeping him on the ground floor! For the icing on the cake, though the family insisted on having this man back home, and stated that as long as there were carers to help with personal care, his spouse would always be home with him, and everything would be fine, the son was now saying today he wanted 24-hour supervision for his father. And I had to say I'm sorry, but you either have to pay for that yourself, or if you want social services (i.e. the government) to pay for it, he will have to go to a residential home.
Geez, it was like the hits just kept coming today. That's not everything, but that's enough for now.
I've had a crazy day today where everything went wrong with my patients I've actually currently got, plus two patients who had already gone home. "M" was badly handled by a nurse yesterday morning apparently, and now fears retribution from the nurses if he complains-- I heard about it from his wife, and I am now obligated to speak to the matron (essentially Head Nurse)-- unfortunately what happens on the ward with nursing staff has a huge impact on progress in therapy. "F" is scheduled to go home tomorrow, and though I specifically said to the nurse at our multi-discliplinary meeting last week that she would be going home that day and an ambulance needed to be arranged to take her home, today we were told that the nursing staff had no idea "F" was going home, and no ambulance had been booked. "G" is a story of his own, which I will get into when I have the energy for it-- in a nutshell, he's a 52 (or 62, we're not sure which, he's got two different birth dates, I'll explain another time) year old man who's had a stroke, past medical history of heavy smoking and drinking for 30 years (read alcoholic), who still thinks after 12 weeks of rehab that he can go home and be fine on his own. Meanwhile he can't walk, but tries to get up every day and falls, is incontinent, and has absolutely no problem-solving skills, no safety awareness or judgement, and no insight as to capabilities and limitations. But he's very good at covering things up, so the psych has assessed him to have the capacity to make informed decisions. Wheeee. It's a long story, I'll tell it another day. Meanwhile, the son of a patient who was recently discharged was calling me up on the phone, telling me his father is impulsive, aggressive, shouts at everybody, and does things he knows he is not safe to do, now that he is at home. And he wanted me to tell him that eventually his father will be back to normal, and told me he thinks the sleeping pills his father is on are causing the aggressiveness and impulsiveness. The son apparently wasn't listening while his father was a patient, when we talked about the behavioral side effects of having had a stroke, and I don't think he really took it on board when I explained this to him again today. In addition, though our discharge plan specifically called for this patient to be set up for living on the ground floor, and the family agreed, the son told me on the phone today that his father has gotten up at least three times during the night and tried to go downstairs. What?!!! I said to the son, we agreed that your father would be living downstairs, he is not safe on the stairs, we had everything delivered that you needed to have him downstairs. And the son said yes, but we're currently having a toilet and walk-in shower installed downstairs, it's too messy for his bed. And all I could say was please, please, clear a space for him to sleep and for his commode, he cannot be upstairs, his behavior is not going to change, he will do things he knows he is not supposed to do, and all we can do is keep him as safe as possible bykeeping him on the ground floor! For the icing on the cake, though the family insisted on having this man back home, and stated that as long as there were carers to help with personal care, his spouse would always be home with him, and everything would be fine, the son was now saying today he wanted 24-hour supervision for his father. And I had to say I'm sorry, but you either have to pay for that yourself, or if you want social services (i.e. the government) to pay for it, he will have to go to a residential home.
Geez, it was like the hits just kept coming today. That's not everything, but that's enough for now.
Monday, November 06, 2006
Phrase of the Day
KEEPING YOUR POWDER DRY: To take care of yourself; to be prepared.
This phrase was uttered by Oliver Cromwell in 1642, when his regiment was about to attack the enemy at the battle of Edgehill. "Put your trust in God," he told his troops, "but keep your powder dry." Wet gunpowder was very difficult to ignite, and with it a soldier would in effect be unarmed. (Courtesy of my cousin Andy)
I was too tired to blog about it at the time, and then forgot, but I went to see Guys and Dolls in the West End on Halloween. The big draw here has been Patrick Swayze headlining as Nathan Detroit. It was very very well done, especially since the female lead had been replaced (housemate Nicole saw it at least a month before me and said the original lead was awful). Although I must say, good ole Patrick is not the heartthrob he once was. He was never my type to begin with, I never swooned over him in Dirty Dancing, and now he definitely looks middle-age, and shorter than I expected him to be. However, he did a great job, and the show was fantastic! The actor who played Sky Masterson (no idea who he was), now there was a man to drool over.... ;)
Pics from this weekend still coming, just need to get ahold of Nicole's memory card tomorrow.
This phrase was uttered by Oliver Cromwell in 1642, when his regiment was about to attack the enemy at the battle of Edgehill. "Put your trust in God," he told his troops, "but keep your powder dry." Wet gunpowder was very difficult to ignite, and with it a soldier would in effect be unarmed. (Courtesy of my cousin Andy)
I was too tired to blog about it at the time, and then forgot, but I went to see Guys and Dolls in the West End on Halloween. The big draw here has been Patrick Swayze headlining as Nathan Detroit. It was very very well done, especially since the female lead had been replaced (housemate Nicole saw it at least a month before me and said the original lead was awful). Although I must say, good ole Patrick is not the heartthrob he once was. He was never my type to begin with, I never swooned over him in Dirty Dancing, and now he definitely looks middle-age, and shorter than I expected him to be. However, he did a great job, and the show was fantastic! The actor who played Sky Masterson (no idea who he was), now there was a man to drool over.... ;)
Pics from this weekend still coming, just need to get ahold of Nicole's memory card tomorrow.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
The Fun Never Stops
Boy, have I been busy, and the fun never stops...I still have some stories from last weekend (Halloween weekend) which I hope to get to today, and this weekend I have been partying with housemate Nicole and some friends of hers who are here visiting from the States. On Friday night, we went to the Ice Bar, where literally everything is made of ice-- the tables, the seats, the bar, the glasses you drink from, the walls. You get a heavy parka sort of thing thrown over your head as you go in, and you only get to stay for about 45 minutes-- which I think has less to do with the owners being worried about people getting too cold, and more to do with wanting to get as many people in and out to make as much money as possible! We then went on to a club called Tiger Tiger for a little bit, which is where Nicole and her boyfriend Dave first met, a little over a year ago. And finally, we had reservations at Sugar Reef, a club you often see pictured in the papers with celebrities like Victoria Beckham (Posh Spice) falling out of its doors in the wee hours. We had a fantastic time, and as soon as I get ahold of Nicole's memory card, I'll post some really funny pics on here.
Last night, I joined up with them again at a bar called Porterhouse in Covent Garden. I think it's my new favorite bar. It kind of looks like a brewery inside-- they do have their own draughts and everything-- three different levels, and tons of good-looking men. As a matter of fact, I was sitting at a table chatting to Nicole's friends, when I hear Nicole behind me yelling, "Allison, I found you a cute Irish guy!" Imagine what shade of red I was as I stood up to meet him, or them, as it turned out to be two guys. Very friendly, very funny, both from Belfast originally, and one had spent an exchange year at Beaver College (now known as Arcadia) in PA. Wish I had gotten their numbers, because they were a lot of fun to hang out with, but we somehow lost them in transit to our next and last stop of the night, the Walkabout on Shaftesbury Ave. However, it was probably all for the best, because I had a great time being chatted up (this counts as a "pull"), but they live all the way over on the west side of London. It doesn't take very long living over here to learn that you almost might as well be talking about East Coast versus West Coast when you live on the east side of London and you meet someone from the west side. The tube stops running at about midnight, the night buses can be hard to figure out (even for someone who's sober), and a cab is really expensive. So everyone is usually very reluctant to go for a big night out on the other side of town unless they've got a place to crash. Anywho, we left Porterhouse, and took rickshaws (so fun! think I've got a pic of that too) to the Walkabout, and I think all of us ended up wishing we stayed at the first place. The music they were playing last night at the Walkabout left a lot to be desired, very much on the cheesy side.
So I've got a few days of work now, but then Carla arrives for a quick visit on Thursday morning!! She's taking advantage of Teacher's Conference Weekend in NJ, and will be here from Thursday to Sunday, so I need to get my tourguide act together!
Last night, I joined up with them again at a bar called Porterhouse in Covent Garden. I think it's my new favorite bar. It kind of looks like a brewery inside-- they do have their own draughts and everything-- three different levels, and tons of good-looking men. As a matter of fact, I was sitting at a table chatting to Nicole's friends, when I hear Nicole behind me yelling, "Allison, I found you a cute Irish guy!" Imagine what shade of red I was as I stood up to meet him, or them, as it turned out to be two guys. Very friendly, very funny, both from Belfast originally, and one had spent an exchange year at Beaver College (now known as Arcadia) in PA. Wish I had gotten their numbers, because they were a lot of fun to hang out with, but we somehow lost them in transit to our next and last stop of the night, the Walkabout on Shaftesbury Ave. However, it was probably all for the best, because I had a great time being chatted up (this counts as a "pull"), but they live all the way over on the west side of London. It doesn't take very long living over here to learn that you almost might as well be talking about East Coast versus West Coast when you live on the east side of London and you meet someone from the west side. The tube stops running at about midnight, the night buses can be hard to figure out (even for someone who's sober), and a cab is really expensive. So everyone is usually very reluctant to go for a big night out on the other side of town unless they've got a place to crash. Anywho, we left Porterhouse, and took rickshaws (so fun! think I've got a pic of that too) to the Walkabout, and I think all of us ended up wishing we stayed at the first place. The music they were playing last night at the Walkabout left a lot to be desired, very much on the cheesy side.
So I've got a few days of work now, but then Carla arrives for a quick visit on Thursday morning!! She's taking advantage of Teacher's Conference Weekend in NJ, and will be here from Thursday to Sunday, so I need to get my tourguide act together!
5th of November
Remember, Remember
The Fifth of November
Gunpowder Treason and Plot.
We see no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot!
Today is Bonfire Night, or Guy Fawkes Night, whichever you prefer. It refers to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605...a small group of Catholics had thought that when James I took over as King, he would be more tolerant of Catholicism (having a Catholic mother himself). As it turned out, he was not, and a group of 13 men decided they would blow up Parliament, specifically the House of Lords, at a time when the King was present. They managed to put 36 barrels of gunpowder into the cellar below the House of Lords, but some members of the group had second thoughts when they realized innocent people could be hurt, and someone sent an anonymous letter of warning. Long story short, Guy Fawkes was the only man in the cellar when the King's men came looking for the conspirators. He was tortured and executed. To this day, the English mark the 5th of November with fireworks and bonfires, where they burn effigies of Guy Fawkes. It can be a bit of a gray area, though, as to whether they are celebrating Guy Fawkes' capture and execution, or are honoring him for his attempt to do away with the monarch/government! For a bit more information on the holiday, click here.
The Fifth of November
Gunpowder Treason and Plot.
We see no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot!
Today is Bonfire Night, or Guy Fawkes Night, whichever you prefer. It refers to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605...a small group of Catholics had thought that when James I took over as King, he would be more tolerant of Catholicism (having a Catholic mother himself). As it turned out, he was not, and a group of 13 men decided they would blow up Parliament, specifically the House of Lords, at a time when the King was present. They managed to put 36 barrels of gunpowder into the cellar below the House of Lords, but some members of the group had second thoughts when they realized innocent people could be hurt, and someone sent an anonymous letter of warning. Long story short, Guy Fawkes was the only man in the cellar when the King's men came looking for the conspirators. He was tortured and executed. To this day, the English mark the 5th of November with fireworks and bonfires, where they burn effigies of Guy Fawkes. It can be a bit of a gray area, though, as to whether they are celebrating Guy Fawkes' capture and execution, or are honoring him for his attempt to do away with the monarch/government! For a bit more information on the holiday, click here.
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