Cherry takes the reins

Cherryfudge

Entry for 28/10/21 - as you can see I'm running late tonight! I think I've got a bit less late over the last few months though.

I managed to sort out union membership yesterday and also paid DS1 his sponsorship money from a colleague. There was also a second phone call from work to ask if I could cover a shift at the weekend as I'd not done Wednesday. I pointed out that Wednesday had been an extra, meaning they don't have the right to ask me to work elsewhere instead, but I could see things were pretty desperate so I've agreed to late on Saturday.

I was supposed to go for my flu jab this morning and realised about ten minutes after it was due. As I'd booked it through work I got back on the website and found a couple of appointments still free so I booked one and had an early lunch before walking across town to get it done. When I got there - before my booked time - I found the vaccination team had already packed up and left! This despite there being five bookings after they'd gone. I don't know what happened to the other people but I was annoyed - it had used up half my morning. This evening I've emailed the training department, through whom the booking was made, to suggest that when delegate lists are sent off to trainers (that being the format in which the bookings were organised), the list is then closed to new entrants.

I called in at the chemist to book independently and was initially told they have no appointments till December but someone called through from the back of the pharmacy that there was one vacancy tomorrow. I've booked it, and this time I've got to be sure to remember in time!

I did manage a little bit of Christmas shopping on my way home.

Work was a bit frantic to start with as we had all the setting up to do that would normally be done by the morning shift, but there was no morning shift due to the closure. The temporary manager and her boss were ensconced in the office trying to sort out rotas. They have tomorrow evening covered by me plus an excellent member of relief staff who can only do half the shift and someone from another team who I've never met before. My experience of that team is that they're very good but of course she won't know the clients at all. Then over the weekend we have another from that team - met him once or twice and he's great. The member of staff who went off with an emergency is hoping to be back and somehow there are enough people to patch together a service. I've put forward my idea of closing on Sunday nights while the staff team is so stretched, allowing weekend clients 2/3rds of their stay but freeing up several staff to work other shifts, but I got the feeling it fell on deaf ears as pressure is on to keep open and not cancel visits.

I came home thinking 'where have all the workers gone?' It's not just social care of course: the Post Office in our town has gone from being a normal service with a main branch and two sub-branches, two years ago, to being open part time for lack of staff, and a volunteer-run branch in a village for about three hours a week. Post arrives in batches rather than the usual one or two items at once. Shops have signs up about staff shortages, bars and restaurants are advertising on social media. Where did they all go? Is it all Brexit? I don't know but I'm sure that's part of it. Social care might also have lost people to the pandemic, both literally as lives lost and effectively as people were overstretched or isolated from their families, and of course there are other jobs to be had.

Anyway, enough of this as I really need to go to bed and first of all I have to slow down a bit. Tomorrow I have that flu jab, then DS1 unexpectedly asked me if I'd like a lunchtime walk (I hope it's drier than this evening!) then I have an afternoon shift followed by a sleep in.

This evening I'm thankful for an uneventful shift, client wise. For a few gifts bought for Christmas. For being able to book my flu jab so soon. For another two rows worked on the knitting!

Sun_Addict

We have the same problem with staff shortages where I work. Not caused by Brexit but people deciding to retire reluctant to go back to commuting post pandemic. Recruitment is taking place and there are plenty of applicants but it takes forever to get bums on seats. I would imagine quite a few people employed in the hospitality industry will have found alternative employment during the pandemic and staying put. Plus we’ve lost EU nationals who’ve returned home because of Brexit. Hopefully it will right itself in time.

Cherryfudge

I hadn't thought about people retiring early, @Sun_Addict, but I can see people get a taste of life without the commute and realise there's a lot to be said for it. It's one of the reasons I'm reluctant to look for a different job: there's next to no journey involved and any journey would take away from my down time.

I've also heard of people upskilling during lockdown though I don't know if there are statistics, and I imagine in social care people saw the nightmare stories in the news and just don't want to get involved. However, in social care its also brought people back into the sector who had left years ago, so we have some very knowledgeable, experienced people back.

The good news from my workplace is we have another support worker and some relief workers lined up, just waiting for the paperwork. Because our clients are complex, it will take a while for new staff to get up to speed but they'll get there.

I had my flu jab yesterday, all went to plan though today I think I can feel some side effects as I'm a bit stuffed up and 'cold-y'.

I had my walk with A yesterday lunchtime: so nice to spend time together. His health issues have improved but aren't out of the way yet. H is doing well apparently, which is a relief as she had such a bad time last winter.

Work wasn't so good yesterday: I was shift lead with a worker from another team on for the whole shift and a relief member of staff for the core hours. The temporary person was very good, spending time with clients and helping out where she could see things needed doing, but I only had time for the briefest of handovers as I had medication to book in and administer. As it was, it's a good job the medicines weren't time critical as I was half an hour behind by the time I gave them (only an hour into the shift!). It's as well the preceding shift had prepped the paperwork, or it would have been longer. The relief member of staff is solid as a rock when it comes to client-facing work and ended up staying on ten minutes to finish a two-person job with me. Then things were quiet and I had a good chat with the temporary member of staff. By the time night staff arrived the clients needed two-person care (a lot don't like to go to bed without seeing the night shift) and that was delayed because I had to ask her to double check the medication totals. We finally finished client care at eleven, then we did an admin job that I'd offered to try to complete as our admin lady is infectious. (That was reasonably entertaining: I now know how to work the book binder. It also gave me time to sit down and unwind. Definitely not a shift to repeat if possible. I think the morning staff had had similar as someone was taken ill and there were two other people to look after as well.

Anyway, enough of that. I have some small spends to report as I had a quick mooch round the shops between the flu jab and seeing A. I'm trying not to add to clothing in landfill so was happy to spot a couple of tops I liked in charity shops (this after passing a few on to charity as realistically I don't need many 'smart' blouses).

Spending:
28th: housekeeping £1.49
Pets £7.50
Gifts £12.10
Toiletries £1
29th: housekeeping £5.48
Clothing £7.89

And I'm thankful for the shift staying safe yesterday, walk with A, time to make marmalade in the morning (moneysaving as well as benefitting DH), good coffee, plenty of toiletries (too many as we get given them, but that's okay because we will work our way through them and not need to buy).

Cherryfudge

My colleague is back so I’ve been able to have all my weekend off. Yesterday was restful but DH wanted some sunshine after work so I joined him and we ended up walking for nearly two hours.

Here’s some of our beautiful autumn light:

Sun_Addict

That looks beautiful.

Cherryfudge

Actually the photo above doesn't pick up the hint of red in the trees.

I've done some knitting and watched 'Strictly' then sat up playing on the computer so I didn't get the benefit of the extra hour. This morning we woke up to torrential rain. The gutter at the front of the house has withstood it nicely but the back seems to be blocked again as there's a waterfall over the back porch. I put buckets to catch water for the houseplants and compost heap and also to ease pressure on the back door sill as I think a small amount of run-off gets under the house. The buckets were a good two thirds full even though they were just catching what splashed off the gutter and happened to fall their way.

I stayed in for online church and DH went to the building. 

A turned up at lunchtime: he plays in a local football team and had been to his first game in a while, and could he borrow a laundry tablet? Nice to see him, if under slightly odd circumstances! He had texted this morning suggesting going for a walk but obviously the weather was awful. As it was we met up with him and H in the afternoon and all is well with them. We also bumped into my former manager and our neighbour so it was quite a sociable afternoon.

Cherryfudge

Another work day... a little bit of progress in the house too. I've been avoiding the boxes from the old house but DH decided to rebox the ones in the lounge which are videos my dad made. He's slowly looking through them to find the ones with people in, then the plan is to put these onto DVD and perhaps copy some for my sister as they are family memories.

Anyway, he pulled out a box that didn't sound like videos: turned out to be glassware I'd boxed for the charity shop run but had slipped through the net, so that's back in the car and he will take it this afternoon. Meanwhile I found a random carrier bag that turned out to have a bottle of water, an old book and some diary pages from my Old House journal (which I'll add to the folder). A couple of easy wins.

The knitting, well... last night I finished the front of the blue jumper and have put it away to concentrate on the grey one which has about 10 rows of the back, one sleeve, the neck and the sewing up still to go. It's slow work as it's intarsia.

I need to get down to the chemist before work: I ordered my repeat prescription some time last week and ran out of two things this morning. I've a doctor's appointment later this week as it's become evident that what I experience as thirst isn't thirst but could be acid damage at the back of my tongue/upper throat. It's not so evident when I'm on omeprazole but possibly the dose isn't high enough. There's been a long history of this but it's not getting any better.

I didn't list the things to be thankful for yesterday but the morning talk at church was plenty of food for thought, and the afternoon walk with A and H was great, like being back to how things were a couple of years ago. It's also great to have a sound front gutter that doesn't let even such heavy rain in. And then there are the little things: DS2's goldfish is now probably too big for his tank but we haven't room for a bigger tank so he benefits from a little extra TLC and yesterday I found he seems to like banana! Only a tiny bit in case the potassium affects him. (His favourite food seems to be pear cores... but he gets 'proper' food regularly to ensure a balanced diet). He's also very, very beautiful.  

Honeysucklelou2

Lovely photo Cherryfudge!  I had no idea that goldfish liked fruit...

Seasidegal58

Cherryfudge said:

Seasidegal58 said:

You have made me think of going back to Duolingo. Trouble is I get so far then stop for a while, then find myself having to start again at the beginning!😂

I have several such experiences to my name! I tell myself I've started, not that I've given up.

What language(s) are you learning?

I'm learning (or trying to learn) French Cherry. The reason being that I thought it would be an easier learn as it was what I was taught at secondary school - although I only did it for four years and really bunked off a lot of my last year at school. I never picked it up again going forward. To be honest I think I would rather be learning Italian on Duolingo as I prefer Italy to France and have visited Italy a lot more than France - maybe I should change language!

I have loads of books on kindle too Cherry. I always buy novels on there now - so much easier to read on a kindle and I can also read them through my iPad or phone. 

Cherryfudge

Honeysucklelou2 said:

Lovely photo Cherryfudge!  I had no idea that goldfish liked fruit...

They like cooked peas, too, but you have to squash the peas as the skin can choke them apparently.