Family and friends

There’s a Maori proverb that goes: “ Ui mai koe ki ahau he aha te mea nui o te ao, Māku e kī atu he tangata, he tangata, he tangata!” Ask me what is the greatest thing in the world, I will reply: It is people, it is people, it is people!

I *really* miss my people right now. Perhaps I feel it more keenly because my whanau  are a lot further away – the expat way of life. Perhaps it is because I am quite an emotionally charged person. Perhaps it is…nope I don’t know the answer why but I do know that I wish I could go home and give Mum and Dad a hug, and the rest of them.

Pondering…

It is well past my bed time and yet the urge to write pervades my attempts to sleep.

It has been a long time since I wrote a proper post. Several times I have considered writing one of those “This is my last post” posts but I know, inevitably, I will be seized by the urge to write again several days later. Thing is, having lived vicariously through others as I got more and more unwell, I took life by the horns [pondering 1 - where did life get horns from] in February this year when I returned to work. It’s been go, go, go ever since. [pondering 2 - how is is that it seems that time speeds up as we get older?]

An open letter to Ocado

[Also sent to ocado@ocado.com]

Dear Ocado,

I’ve been a long-time and loyal customer of Ocado but I’m starting to wonder if it might be time to move to Waitrose Delivery. In the last 6 months we’ve had a few too many broken/squashed goods and far too many late deliveries without notice.

The cake, however, has been taken with our delivery this week (not literally).

Critical Care at UCLH

I stood in the Critical Care Unit (CCU) at University College London Hospital (UCLH) today, for Governor purposes by the grace of God, talking efficiency-savings and cuts with one of the brilliant staff there. In the midst of our talking it suddenly occurred to me that the acronyms we were bandying about would have completely passed me by 6 months ago. What a time it’s been!

Being a Hospital Governor

I was recently interviewed for the UCLH Trust’s quarterly newsletter to members and I thought people might be interested so here’s a copy of the interview, which you can also read in the newsletter itself here.