The Computer Ate My Homework

I have now half written this post 3 times, but every time I go to finish it it has disappeared! So I will now chuck the shits, condense what I have to say into 10 lines and hit post!

I have a stalker who has followed me around, stolen my mail and invaded every one of my internet 'sanctuaries'. So to cut a long story short, I have been hiding, both physically and in cyberspace. It all seems to be under control again now, but I must say it completely unnerved me.

I have moved my blog and shut down some of my other sites. My mail is a big issue though as I expected to have my University Offer by now, so I will call tomorrow and ask them. I am really hoping they have not sent it! My Federal Police Clearance was posted out 4 weeks ago and several other letters have never arrived, so I will also have to get a PO Box and get everything redirected! Grrrrr!

But on a more positive note, everything else is moving along nicely. I have been given a new opportunity at the Nursing Home shadowing one of the RNs for a few shifts a weeks, so that is really cool.

Anyway, thats about it for now! Thanks for listening!

Legs Eleven

I turned up for my shift this morning to be greeted by a Rec Centre full of LOL's and our token bloke Reg all of whom were looking rather anxious. "There's no-one here!" was the chorus. What the? As nobody had turned up to run bingo they had raided the cupboard and set up themselves and were now starting to panic, but apparently I was their saviour! I was expected to call bingo, me, the one who learned how to play a week or so ago from a demented lady! Holy crap! The microphone was promptly jammed into my hand and that was that! Only two options available - call the damn bingo or run away and let the riot begin! So I sucked it up and away we went! "legs eleven" "and lovely legs they are!" "Zipp it, Reg, or I'll call security" Apparently he has a thing for the fiesty ones. Well I made it through without too many complaints, but call me Chicken, it is never going to be something I put my hand up for!
So now I have destressed and I'm off for the afternoon shift and whatever suprises that may bring!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone.]

Trolley Dolly

What did I learn today?

• Never skip Kevin's room with the Canteen Trolley - He doesn't move fast but he will track you down.
• The trolley run consists of 1 hour ambling up and down corridors, 1/2 hour standing in corridors trying to figure out which way we were heading, 1 hour searching for lost wallets and purses (daughters seem to steal a lot of them) and 1 hour calculating and recalculating and recalculating the price of the two items you are calculating. (Thinking I should be able to shorten the trolley run by about 1.5 hours simply by walking at a reasonable pace, remembering which direction I am heading in and knowing how to calculate change in my head quickly.)
• Your Bingo Partner will always remember you and be in a great mood on the day you don't work with her!
• Everyone wants chocolate!
• Those with a sense of humour will be waiting in the lounge every Mon in the hope that you will roll the trolley getting it out of the lift!
• Most of the Auxiliary Ladies have worse memories than most of the Patients.
• If you get your toes run over by the trolley it really hurts!
• Putting your feet up with a coffee and a smoke in the staff garden at the end of a shift is really quite therapeutic.

I love this job! What a hoot!

My Big Bingo Win

"You will be helping 'Hilda' with Bingo today. She has dementia and is rather ummm... difficult. Just go along with anything she says."

Shit! Firstly, I have never played Bingo! Secondly, I know nothing about dementia! So I am left standing there trying to wrestle the querulous old so & so into her chair while she mutters about not knowing how to play either and the blind leading the blind. So I plant her in her seat and steal her stick just in case she decides to whack me with it and firmly tell her 'We will figure it out. How hard can it be.'
Seems that you don't have to remember that you play every week, the instinct just kicks in. Well we didn't win a thing!!!! Damn it, not sure who was more pissed off! We watched everyone else's piles of chocolate bars and talcum powder get bigger and bigger and never even got close! So, every 10 mins or so she would start to sulk and tell me that she wasn't going to play any more and that I would have to do it, but she would soon take over again as soon as I got a few numbers. Somehow we got through it and I found that I had quite enjoyed myself, between dealing with 'Hilda' and placing markers on numbers for the lady on the other side of me during her very frequent micro-naps I had been quite busy and time had flown.
My only concern was that 'Hilda' had not enjoyed herself. But as I was leaving the woman in charge pulled me aside and said 'That was great! We told you she was difficult but you handled her really well. That is the first time she has stayed for a full round of Bingo.' Wow! Must admit that then I felt great! Didn't really do much for my first shift, but I left feeling like I had had a big win!