Nostalgia

Right now, I am so into nostalgic TV.

It all started with an innocent conversation with my good buddies Laura and Travis over an extremely suspect Chinese buffet.

(Ginger fried cat, anyone?!)

Heaven only knows how it turned to the television shows of our childhood, but I think I managed to avoid mentioning my long succession of extremely dodgy celebrity crushes, starting with Adam from "You Can't Do That On Television", followed by a brief obsession with Jonathan from New Kids On The Block (remember him? No? No-one does. That's because he was the ugly one whom no one fancied except me because I was a strikingly odd child). There may have been more but the only other one I can remember is PJ Phil from YTV. Remember they used to have those presenters in-between the shows who would make crafts and things? I didn't even watch YTV but I used to tune in with the hope of catching Phil. I think he may have been in a Crunchie commercial too. Can't beat a Canadian-lad-done-good.

But I digress. Back to the Chinese.

We reminisced about Today's Special. What a great show! I had forgotten about the computer that spit out answers and about the mime lady. Hilarious. Can you imagine being a TV producer and sitting around thinking, "You know what would be a GREAT idea? Let's set a show in a department store after-hours, and make it about a security guard, a mouse and a mannequin that comes to life. And, hell, chuck in a mime and a talking computer."

If you are extremely sad like me, or just need a nostalgic boost, go to

http://todays-special.schuminweb.com/main-page.asp and click on the multimedia bit, to watch the opening sequence.

My good buddies then reminded me about Square One. This one is slightly hazy (hatred of math from an early age I guess) but I do remember MATHMAN. Remember this takeoff of PacMan who used to eat numbers or get eaten by a tornado?

Then there was the Canadian Sesame Street with Louis the polar bear and his friend the orange cat (bear?) who used to fly a plane and speak French. There was also a shrieky Grandma and a girl in a wheelchair.

And, judging by this photo, they used to invite Canadian celebrities to join in the fun. Well done, Kurt Browning. If I was a Canadian celebrity (and I use that term loosely) I would have loved to be on Sesame Street!!

A few years after that malarkey came what I would consider the best show of my childhood, Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego? I remember as the opening credits started and they would say, "Hit it Rockapella!" And the winner of the game had to earn his prize by standing on a huge map and marking each country that was called out with a big flashing lights. If I remember correctly, it was really unfair, as one week they would have a relatively easy map of say, North America, and then the next week they would have to mark African countries or something.

I can't leave without mentioning KidStreet, filmed in our very own Calgary with the lovely Kevin hosting. Kids used to sit in little go-karts with their siblings and answer such brainteasers as, "How many telephones are in your house?" It was great. Their trademark was a huge cavern filled with toys that the winners used to go play in, and that the kids had to clap with their hands over their heads after every commercial break. I have the great privilege of knowing two girls who were on the show in its prime and they let me know (exclusively!) that this was because if they clapped at chest level, it would have been right into the microphone, and any higher up would have obscured their face, so above their head was the only option. Not having any siblings of an appropriate age to join me, my best friend Allison Cuppen and I used to plot how we could sneak onto the show by pretending to be siblings. I'm sure this would REALLY have fooled the producers, not least because we were about 4 months apart in age.

Thanks for joining me down Memory Lane, guys. Please please submit any other ones you can think of, I am enjoying this!!

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Soundtrack for this blogging session:

Radio 1, with Jo Whiley. She is OK but definitely my least favourite host.

Success

I seem to have fixed my blog. But I'm not too sure how.

Well, hello again, my little bloglets.
How are YOU today? I don't ask you enough!

I'm killing time before my last EVER shift as a permanent employee at Birmingham Children's. It will, however, be anticlimactic, as I return on shift the very next day (we are paid extra to cover any unfilled shifts). Woo hoo :(

I don't think we've really chatted since I went to Wales to visit Claire. May I draw you a mental image of what a perfect few days it was?

The journey:
I set off up the Hagely Road, one of the big vessels through Birmingham. I am stuck in traffic. It is grey outside. The trees have shed their orange and yellow leaves and they gather on the road and in the drains. The rain slooshes as my wipers lazily wipe it away. I have the heat cranked and I am warm and toasty. As brake and indicator lights blink at me through the haze, and it gets almost imperceptably darker and darker, I watch everyone on the streets around me, dashing through the rain, rushing with black umbrellas raised, stopping to chat with newspapers raised above their heads. On the radio: Damien Rice, 9 Crimes. Could there BE a more perfect soundtrack for being cozy and people watching? If you are unscrupulous like le moi, download it and listen while you read this. You will see what I mean.




Down the motorway:
I am cruising at 80mph down the motorway, my little Micra Jessie May huming happily like a mosquito to be out and on the road again. I am accompanying Amy Winehouse to her fab new song, Rehab. I can't stop bopping as I drive along. Diva, moi.

The arrival:

It is dark as I stop in Abergavenny for gas and to grab a bottle of nice red wine and some flowers for Claire. For my non-British readers, you may not have heard a mid-Wales accent, but it just grabs you and pulls you into a big welcoming hug! As I wait to pay for my stuff, the locals around me are making idle chit-chat and I wish desperately that I could be one of them, living in their beautiful town in one of their cozy grey houses, gathering with them in their local pub for a beer near the fire every evening.

(Though, in retrospect, away from the welcoming glow, I suppose that would mean having grown up in mid-Wales which is certainly far down below even Calgary on the list of exciting places to be reared!)

I pull up outside the farm where she is staying, having turned off the main road long ago and followed an endless two-tire track for miles and miles. This place could be a in a movie. A rambling stone farm house, surrounded by fields and field of sheep and a barn with 6 fluffy grey dogs, snouts through the crack in the barn door to, woofing for all they're worth to herald my arrival.

She welcomes me inside with a big hug - we haven't seen each other in a long time. For those who don't know, Claire was my flatmate at University. She is amazing. I lived with two Claires, BrownHair Claire and Crazy Clare. This is not Crazy Clare.

I will spare you the details of our in-depth girly chats but we sat by a HUGE hearth, drinking wine, eating steak, a cat curled up on a pillow next to us and some of the fluffy grey dogs snoozing at our feet. At bedtime, we mounted stone stairs, through this mansion with tapestries on the wall and lofty balcolnies teeming with every book imaginable, and I crept into a four poster bed and snuggled down, listening to the wind howling and lashing the windows as I fell asleep. Bliss.

Who says winter sucks?

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Soundtrack for this blogging session:
Damien Rice - 9 Crimes

Amy Winehouse - Rehab

Lily Allen - Little Things

All Saints - Rock Steady

Oh Dear

What has happened to my blog?!?!?! My whole layout has moved around and I don't know how to fix it!

ME

This website scans your blog and makes a word cloud. I think it's nifty, though I wish I could make it bigger. You can also choose to change the words.

www.Snapshirts.com

Should I be considering a career change?

I just love this -

Found in REAL magazine, which I bought on my lunch break the other day for just a pound. Sample headlines: "My pregnant daughter was murdered by her ex" "A slice of pizza could kill me" "I found love on my XBox". So you know we're talking classy!!

"Dear REAL,
Reading My other job is porn films (Issue 19) I never would have guessed that although Lisa is a dedicated student nurse caring for sick patients, her other job is a porn star! Lisa has no need to feel ashamed. Unfortunately, it seems she needs the money porn brings in, because nurses are not paid very well. This is a shame as they do such wonderful work and help so many. Maybe this article will be the boost needed so that nurses can finally be paid what they deserve!"

Hands up who thinks the powers that be, whilst reading REAL in the back of their chauffeur driven limo, or perhaps while eating their 100pound steak lunch at the exclusive Ivy restaurant, are going to think, "Good heavens!! We know they have one of the highest suicide and burnout rates, longest hours and one of the lowest salaries in the country - but we didn't realize they were turning to porn. We must up their salaries immediately."

Call me cynical.

And thanks, Lisa, for lowering the profile of nursing. Ever heard of working behind a bar to get yourself through university, like the rest of us did?

Unbelievably, the well thought out piece above was not even the star letter of the month - that honour went to a woman who was outraged at the article, "Are you a sex kitten or a librarian", because she is a librarian, and demands to know why those at the 'forefront of knowledge and information management' (ha!!) cannot be sexy too. Some people are obviously taking their lunchhour reading a little too seriously.

I think I feel my brain shrinking!

In other mind-numbing news, Britney getting a divorce. Whoda thunk it! It is very sad really, but there must be a slight tinge of we told you so. 24, 2 babies and twice divorced - who wants fame?! Not I!!

I'm off to Wales now to visit my wonderful friend Claire. I may be putting myself out on a limb here, but I know I have a couple of regular visitors. Can I ask a huge favour. This Saturday, the 18th, can I create a prayer web for her? She is having a tough patch, and I really feel she could use it. Thank God for making her the truly amazing person she is and ask Him for his hand and guidance over her life. Would you spread the word on your blogs, and if you will take a few minutes to remember her on Saturday, would you leave me a comment and let me know you're doing this, so I can encourage her. What better use for a blog!!!

12 days to go until I am an ex-parrot. Sorry, an ex-employee. 6 shifts and counting!

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Soundtrack for this blogging session:

Nothing. Just the sounds of my keys clickety clacking

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**DISCLAIMER - Not for a second do I wish to suggest that librarians are not at the forefront of knowledge and information management. I laugh merely because I would have thought that, as such, they would not feel the need to big up their role with such inflated prose. Call yourself what you are and be proud, I say. Why call a gas pumper a petroleum management engineer? Librarians - I salute you (especially my lovely librarian from St Catherines Elementary School - she read to us and was very nice**

No more Miss Nice Nurse

Yesterday, I handed in my formal notice of resignation. In 28 days I will no longer be employed! (Aghhh). Can't believe I made it for 18 months with no-one noticing that I never went to university and my qualification was written on grease-proof paper!!

Seriously though. It is a scary prospect and I can't believe how much shock, upset and support I have had from everyone there. If you need an ego boost, quit your job! :)

I look back to my first day of hospital training at university, when I had literally only been inside a hospital twice before, and I spent the whole first day delighting in being able to walk through all those mysterious doors that say NO ADMITTANCE STAFF ONLY. My only task that day was to dress and feed a baby and I was terrified as I couldn't remember being allowed to hold a baby before (I KNOW what you're all thinking, with good reason right! Well, I have never dropped one so far!)

Then after slogging through university, my first day as a 'real' nurse, actually wearing the uniform, having people ask me questions, thinking I HAVE NO IDEA! It is important to note here that doors came into it again as I was delighted that my new hospital has automatic doors throughout and I took great pleasure in pretending to open them with a wave of my hand a la Harry Potter - shall I say here that I did this for the benefit of entertaining my kiddy patients, but I won't admit that I also do it when I'm walking around on my own!! (Whoops...)

So it's been a long journey. I truly cannot believe how much I have learned, the experiences of an emergency department that are now just normal to me, sometimes listening to myself answer questions, give advice, teach, or in a trauma or resus call and thinking, wow, is this me?

I remember leaving work on a high the first week and being called over by a parent standing outside smoking. He started off asking calmly why he had to wait to see a doctor and ended by screaming and yelling at me, kicking over the garbage can and saying if his child died it was my fault. I remember walking calmly back into the hospital and bursting into tears. The nurse in charge must have thought, "They're gonna eat this one alive!!" I am proud of my ability to now (mostly) take it in my stride, answer calmly, ignore threats and give them the finger when they're not looking

(haha!) (just kidding)

It has been uplifting and also completely soul-destroying. I have looked forward so much to going into work and also been more stressed out than I thought possible. I have been yelled at, threatened verbally and physically, I have been so tired, so hyper, laughed with my colleagues til my stomach hurt, bitched about them until I wondered if it was worth it. I love my job and hate it at the same time, I wonder every day why am doing it and can still not see myself doing anything else.

Anyways, still got a month to go, sorry for another reflective piece! I am now going to be late for work again. I should not be allowed to log on to blogger!

Soundtrack for this blogging session:
Garth Brooks - Greatest Hits (feeling nostalgic I guess!)