Shoes..

I have today changed my shoes. Metaphorically speaking. I completed my journey of 40 years full time work in the NHS & will tomorrow put on another pair of shoes to begin the next leg of my journey. The journey which I will begin tomorrow has no recognised map nor route plan unlike the career I surrendered willingly today with its policies & forms.
I am currently holding & embracing feelings of disbelief. Asking myself "Is that it?" I feel emotionally & physically tired, wondering how I will fell tomorrow.
I went to Mass this evening & gave thanks for the years I have spent & to place my & mine loved ones future in the hands of the creator of the universe. Then I lit a candle to invite Gods light into that future.
I gaze at the many gifts that have been showered upon me from all those I have worked with. I am still in a state of shock, especially when I look at the gifts that my team colleagues gave me. Yet I feel honoured & appreciate the thought(s) expressed in the offerings.
Next week I plan to spend the week in Cornwall with Kathleen.(God alone knows what state the house will be in on our return! (though I can hazard a pretty good guess!!) Hopefully the weather will improve cos its only 2*C outside at the moment.

Here's to the future... with a glass of Jameson!!

Is this for real??!

ACGMC & CPS

I held my last 2 Friday surgeries yesterday & very moving & meaningful they were to.
I was told by someone that my being at 1 surgery marked "a lovely beginning to their weekend". I don't recall anyone saying such a heartfelt compliment as that to me before & I will do my best to allow it to find a place in my heart throughout my years of retirement. Then should I once again ever sink into that the dark place called depression, I will use the sentiment/comment as a instrument to lift me out.

Then, I was genuinely surprised when I went to my final surgery on Friday afternoon. I received cards, a crate of red wine & an expensive designer label watch, speeches of gratitude for my work &...an offer of a job!
I really didn't think that I was liked or valued so much by anyone, so moved was I that I'm afraid that I cried.
What a day, what milestones.
O...& the job? ....I took it!

Leaving ACGMC

its fragile, those lazy ovals
you're walking
shuffling turmoil within
pacing rhythms
that allow ones entire self
to be absorbed.
once tipped to the left
right at the edge
of indecision and confusion
there's no recollection
of arrivals or departures

x

Are they having a laugh!??

I read this item on the BBC web just now & I felt moved to share & comment on it. I'll even post (or try baring in mind my level of technological knowledge!)....


'Nine year' backlog of potholes in West Midlands.....
"Many councils have a pothole "hotline" encouraging drivers to report them
Motorists have been warned it could take councils nine years to mend potholes in the West Midlands, the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) says.
Almost £100m was spent on repairs in England last year but after the severe winter weather, thousands more potholes have appeared.
When temperatures plunge, water that has penetrated the asphalt freezes and expands causing the surface to rupture.

Each pothole costs an average of £99 to fix, the organisation said.

Chancellor Alistair Darling announced in his Budget on Wednesday a £100m fund to repair local roads following the bad weather.

Earlier this year, the AA reported that pothole-related claims had increased by 400%"

Now reading this I wondering where my bloody road tax payment goes??? It certainly ain't filling in the bloody craters in the roads in Kings Heath & the environs.

The rot has begun to set in!!

It has y'know!!
I'm still coughing like an evacuee from the 1st Battle of Ypres,much to the annoyance of the younger & grossly intolerant members of the Woolley family, & I am struggling with trying to (& I believe the term is....)'burn' some John Lee Hooker tracts to a MP3 player that I brought the other day. Yes people it IS rocket science ...at least to me, & lets face it, rocket science is all relative & proportionate to the amount of knowledge that the scientist has.
I'm gonna have to take the mocking & ask the young ones for their help.
Yes,the rot is setting in, the body is failing the brain is slowing & damn it I ain't due to quit work til the 31st March!
Speaking of which, I was given a gift of a 10 yr old bottle of a decent single malt from one of my surgeries today. Very welcome, hey!! Maybe I can open it tonight...purely for medicinal purposes of course!

Anti climax

Nothing to do with sex! But to do with my retirement.
I had the final letter from the NHS pension people today which told me how much my lump sum would be, how much money I'd be receiving each 1st of the month & how much my wife would receive should I die.
So that's it. The sum total(s) of 40 odd years work in the NHS. So many experiences, people, relationships, shifts, injections, forms signed & filed(!) time spent persuading people to do & things think things they didn't want to do or think.
All these things are not stated. Only an envelope with bland 'clincial' words of numerical information.
The emotional 'build up' that I'd felt for the last 18 or so months now feels the one of the biggest anti-climaxes I ever experienced.
The past 40 years of my full time employment is sitting there in a plain white envelope on the arm of the chair.
The next 40 years are shortly to begin.