Down by 5%

30 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , ,

This weeks weigh-in at fat club was much better than last week. I lost 2 and a half pounds which means I have lost 10 pounds in total.

I’ve reached my first target of 5% weight loss and now I’ve got my next target of 10% in my sights. After that I can set my final goal weight.

 

Also we have a new group leader who seems determined to whip us up into a Weight Watchers weight loss frenzy! She is much more dynamic than the last one and full of energy and good ideas.  She focused this week on tracking our Propoints consumption so that we don’t eat too much without realising it. I am a bit anal about writing down what I eat and I also have a note book fetish, so it’s win win for me.

So this week I’m a much happier bunny and feeling very proud of myself.

One step forward and no steps back

27 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , ,

Good news on my quest to get an honorary contract to do my nurse practice. My contract offer arrived in the post 2 days ago and today I went to the recruitment centre to hand in my completed paperwork to set the CRB checking machine in motion.

Hopefully it won’t take too long for them to check, for the second time in 4 months, that I don’t have a criminal record.

I don’t understand why recent CRB disclosures aren’t transferable between different organisations. It’s so frustrating for employers and employees to have to do the checks and wait for weeks for the results, even if the applicant has a valid recent CRB disclosure done elsewhere.

I learnt today that there is a part on the form that allows the applicant to get a personal number so they can be tracked in the system, negating the need for repeated checks. Apparently this part of the form is ignored by the CRB agency because the system is not active and never has been activated. One theory is that the agency has cottoned on that they will be missing out on the £43 it costs every time a check is done.

Great eh?

Fingers crossed I won’t wait too long to confirm what I already know.

 

S.W.A.L.K

23 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , ,

Being away from my hubby Hasan is very hard and I miss him terribly. We talk everyday on Facetime and on the phone, but it’ll never be the same as being together in the same place.

So when my next door neighbours daughter, Rhianne, went on holiday to Kusadasi I took the opportunity to send a present and a hand written card to Hasan, something for him to keep and read whenever he needs to. I think a hand written note is very special especially when the message is personal and written with love.

Hasan also used Rhianne to send a present back to me, he bought me a lovely bracelet and a new link for my Pandora bracelet. He didn’t send me a hand written note, but I know that he took his time to find me a gift that he knew I would love.

This time apart is so difficult, especially as the contract seems to be taking forever to arrange at the hospital, preventing me from progressing on the course as quickly as I would like. If I were busier with the course maybe I could cope better with not having Hasan with me. But until I’m working on the unit I can’t get stuck into my reflective assignment, because I need to reflect on something I experience during my nurse practice.

I have to keep reminding myself that I’m here away from Hasan to make a better life for us, so that he can have more opportunities than he does in Turkey.

I remind myself that everyday when I need a hug and a kiss from him and I miss him so much it hurts.

We knew it wouldn’t be easy, but we know our marriage is strong and we love each other very much.

So no matter how much harder it gets I just need to stay positive and carry on.

Not a happy bunny

23 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , ,

The weekly weigh-in was not good for me this week.

I stayed the same weight again, even though I followed the damn diet to the letter.

I will continue however, partly because I’ve already paid for next months pass and partly because I don’t like to throw in the towel on anything.

Hopefully I’ll have better results next week to report.

Well done to my friend Debbie again, she lost 2 and a half pounds this week.

Just on my doorstep

20 Jul 2012 3 Comments

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , ,

About 5 minutes drive away from my home is a brand spanking new hospital called South Bristol Community Hospital. It’s part of a new complex built on old waste land and shares the space with a new leisure centre and the City of Bristol College Skills Academy.

The hospital was opened in March of this year and it’s departments include dental, day surgery, day assessment, physio and occupational therapy, radiology and outpatients. There are 2 inpatient wards specialising in the treatment of strokes and rehabilitation. The Walk-in centre has moved there from it’s Knowle West home and it’s now named the Urgent Care department.

I found myself there today for a job interview to work on the nurse bank as a healthcare assistant until I finish my course and can work as a qualified staff nurse. I don’t think I have ever been in such a quiet hospital. There wasn’t hoards of staff noisily milling around or patients hanging around in corridors waiting to be seen or to be taken somewhere. The hospital is well designed and tastefully decorated in grey, white and chrome, making it a pleasing and restful place to be.

My interview went very well and as long as my references are up to scratch, I have the job. I am a hospital nurse at heart and quite honestly I don’t really want to work in nursing and residential homes, so the agency I joined a few months ago didn’t work out for me.

I think it’ll be good for me to work at this hospital because it’s so close to home, this is important so that I won’t be exhausted by travelling to and from work, especially when I first return to working after not being able to for so long.

Also it’s so exciting to be part of something new, to work in a beautiful purpose built facility that is clean and well equipped.

I’m sure that if I’m offered the job I’ll be very happy there and will choose to stay there as a qualified nurse when I’ve finished the Return to nursing course.

 

The waiting game

18 Jul 2012 2 Comments

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

I’m having  a really frustrating time at the moment. Although I’ve started the Return to nurse practice course at university, I’m still waiting for my honorary contract to be organised by the hospital trust where I’ll be doing my nurse practice hours. Without the contract I can’t start on the unit and I’m conscious time is creeping on and I’ll run out of time to get my minimum amount of hours done.

What I’m worried about is I’m not used to working and I want to ease myself into it and complete the hours without getting exhausted. But as more time goes by I fear I will have to cram in the hours to get them done by the end of the course.

I rang the recruitment department of the trust today to check on the progress so far, as I filled in the preliminary paperwork over a month ago. Having being on hold for so long that I listened to all of Lionel Ritchie’s greatest hits, I finally got through to someone with some answers. My paperwork had only just arrived in their department this morning, so God only knows where it has been for the last few weeks.

I still have a bit of a wait as I need to have a CRB check, occupational health assessment and mandatory training to be done. I’m trying to remain positive and hope that it’ll all be sorted soon.

My Silver seven

16 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , ,

I’ve had a much more satisfactory week at fat club this week. At the weigh-in I lost another 1 and half pounds, making that a 7 and half pound weight loss in 5 weeks and I’ve gained a silver seven award for losing half a stone.

At the meeting our leader asked us to share our long term goals for weight loss. I said that I just wanted to get back into size 12 clothes again, I’m sure then I’d be happier with my body.

This week I feel a lot more positive about reaching my goal, especially after last weeks disappointment at staying the same weight as the week before.

My lovely friend next door, Debbie, who is also my fat club buddy lost 3 and a half pounds, so very well done to her as well.

Ahoy me hearties

11 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , ,

On Saturday night I went out with some of the staff from where I worked before I got ill. One of the nurses was leaving to start a new job and we all went on a trip around Bristol docks on the Matthew.

The Matthew is the boat that John Cabot sailed in when he discovered America before Columbus. He was an Italian but made his home England, he set off from Bristol in 1497 originally heading for Asia to search for traders. But navigation was obviously not his strongest skill as he ended up at the Americas on the coast of what is now known as Newfoundland.

The replica that we sailed around the docks in was built in 1996 ready for the 500 year anniversary of the voyage and on May 26th 1997 the new Matthew made the same journey as John Cabot did.

The theme of the evening was pirates, so we all stepped out in our best fancy dress. It’s not an unusual sight to see pirates in Bristol there is a long history of piracy in the West country. One of the most famous pirates, Blackbeard, was a Bristolian. His real name was Edward Teach, was born in 1680 and married over a dozen women bigamously. He captained the Queen Anne’s Revenge, a captured slave ship, with a 500 strong gang. They terrorised the American coast and the West Indies for years and were responsible for over 2000 deaths. He eventually died in a bloody battle with pirate hunters, he was shot 5 times and had multiple sword cuts.

In my neck of the woods we take the annual International talk like a pirate day on 19th September very seriously and to help all of you who want to join in, here are some well known pirate phrases for you to practice:

Ahoy – Hello

Arast – Stop and give attention or Check it out or No way!

Aye – Yes

Arrrr! – I agree

Shiver me timbers – exclamation of surprise

Me hearties – My friends

Landlubber – someone who stays on dry land and is rubbish at being a pirate!

 

Murray mania but what about Marray?

10 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I watched most of Wimbledon this year following the progress of Britain’s only hope of a grand slam victory, Andy Murray, even though I don’t really like him. In my opinion he is an arrogant man with no personality.

It’s only natural that the papers were full of pictures and news of Murray, especially as he was the first man to reach the Wimbledon final in 76 years. He put up a good fight against Roger Federer and gave him a good run for his money, but he lost the match.

For fellow Brit Jonathan Marray along with his Danish partner Frederik Nielsen it was a very different story. Marray, who got into Wimbledon on a wild card, was also the first British man to reach a final for a long time, since 1936. But the big difference between him and Murray is that Marray won his game.

So one would expect to see equal newspaper coverage for him, but not so, at least not in my paper. There was nothing in the Sunday paper about his win, but plenty of pages dedicated to Murray’s forthcoming game. On Monday again there were pages about Murray’s defeat and subsequent crying and just 2 columns with a small picture about the man that actually won his final.

So I would like to pay tribute to this fantastic achievement myself, it was a very gutsy and entertaining match and they deserved to win the title.

Not such a good week

09 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

This weeks weigh-in at fat club was a bit disappointing for me, I stayed the same weight as last week.

I don’t understand it as I have followed the diet and I’ve had only one just one transgression, an Indian takeaway,(only ate half), at my brother’s house.

My group leader has tried to reassure me that this is not a big deal and I’ll probably lose weight again next week, but at the moment I don’t believe her.

I’ll just try to keep positive and carry on counting the points and see what next weeks weigh-in brings.

 

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