Belated Christmas Wishes and an early happy new year! I am still alive and not kicking, just had a mountain on my mind and it’s not been in me to start writing again until now. I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, despite everything going awry. Hopefully one of these days we will begin to see good news on the tv that we are on the way out of this crisis. This year has been a hard one for a lot of people for a lot of reasons, and I think we will all be glad to see the back of it.

So, where have I been? Well. Between my new job, adjusting to a new shift pattern, planning a wedding and dealing with the restrictions of Covid, it’s been a bit hectic. The job has far and away been the biggest thing to try and process. There has been a huge amount to learn, and with my poor memory that has meant a lot of studying and revising. Thankfully my tutors were fantastic and got me to the point where I can keep my head above water. I love my job, and every shift brings lots of new challenges and things to learn, but it’s all good and I’m happy with what’s going on.

I completely underestimated the toll that 12 hour days and nights would take. The shifts themselves are fine, but the time between them is seriously cut by my specific conditions. What I mean is that where others can walk out, go home and go to bed, all of that takes me much longer. Getting my chair in and out of the car, changing to my shower chair, even getting dressed all takes much longer than it would should I be able to walk. That’s not a sob story looking for sympathy, it’s just a fact. It all adds up, which means by the time I come off a night shift into my first day off, I’m completely wiped. I’m sure it will get better as I continue to get used to it.

Christmas was a lovely time, it worked really well as my days off meant that I was due to go back in Boxing Day but managed to get a holiday in and go back on the 27th. Amelia had great fun all through December with her elf who most certainly was not on a shelf. Between building a tin can drum kit and wrapping the Christmas tree, they certainly caused mischief. The big day itself was fantastic; Sarah cooked us a beautiful dinner, and we were all spoilt rotten (me and Amelia were definitely the winners there). Sarah wanted a puppy and was not amused when she unwrapped a stuffed one, so watch this space for when I simply relent and let her get one.

Other than the above, there’s not a great deal to report! We’re all feeling the effects of the middle of winter coupled with the latest lockdown, but that deserves a post all to itself.