Up The Farway Tree

Hurrah for sunshine!!

What lovely weather we had over the weekend and it makes such a difference to how you feel :-) I had a quiet Saturday spent sitting in the garden sifting through a box of old letters and keepsakes which I had left at mum and dads (and they are redecorating my old room!) It was lovely looking back at different parts of my life - letters from pen pals, cards from mum and dad sent to me during difficult times at university, funny letters from my best friend and lot's of cards and letters from Frances Ann, most of which are hilarious. I also had a few diaries written about specific experiences - one of these being the week I spent shadowing my paediatric consultant as a form of work experience needed to apply for medicine. It was interesting looking back at what I had written all those years ago. There were lots of detailed accounts of people we had seen and their medical issues which fascinated me at the time. However there was also a lot of reflection on how the patients were feeling, how their life was affected and how I felt about medicine. I was worried that I would not be able to physically cope but that I thought it was better to try and fail than to never try at all. I think that has been the ethos of my life and it is such a simple concept that I hope to continue to live by! I felt exhausted by the end of the day with all the emotions that memories bring to the fore. It is difficult looking back at letters from Frances Ann but they do also bring much joy. There was one particular card that simply said 'you are my best friend' and this simple phrase speaks volumes.

On a lighter note, we joined a few friends on Sunday to visit our friend who had a baby girl, Aiyla, a few weeks ago. She is a wee cutey and was so well behaved all afternoon allowing us to all have a wee cuddle without any fuss. It was also my cousins wee boy, Lewis' 3rd birthday so we managed to catch up with them briefly. Lewis is hilarious and has a completely wild imagination - he was telling me about giant monsters he had fought off and explained this all with a straight face. His mum was telling me that at a children's group they were reading a story about alligators and Lewis announced loudly "an alligator bit my head off once". I predict he is going to be a handful ;-)

I have had some fantastic news about my job. The clinical director has fought my corner with enthusiasm and I have been given a permanent contract - so my job is safe!! My contract had been due to finish in August and I was very concerned it would not be renewed due to the budget cuts. I still don't know whether I would like to move back to old age psychiatry in the long term but at least for now I can relax.

We have applied for our building warrant and have made some progress in finding a builder. We had a recommendation and viewed some extensions he had recently done - they were really similar to our plans and the customers couldn't have been more complementary. We have not seen the quote yet though and obviously we still need some other quotes to compare, but our first impressions were extremely positive. It's all rather exciting :-)

On a final note, my friend Victoria is doing very well following her transplant. I think pain is still a big issue but she is otherwise progressing well and hopefully will continue to do so!