2020: Some Stuff Happened.

I officially left my contracted post as a nurse in December 2019. I had beautiful plans to really ramp up freelancing throughout 2020, staying on the staff bank for nursing shifts which I would gradually taper off in line with my earning more – enough, anyway – from writing. I was going to sit in

New Year, Same Resolutions as Every Other New Year

The year is 2020. I should be writing that I’m living in a flying car-partment on the moon, or that we’ve achieved world peace or nuclear standoff or are living under cockroach rule. We might not be so far from the nuclear standoff. Instead, I’m trying to get back to work, in my normal non-flying

How to Work From Home

It’s easy to get on with it when you’re stuck into a job, when you’ve done the reading and you know what your references are going to be and you’ve given yourself a bit of time to develop a reasonably deep understanding of a subject so that you can just write what need to be

After The End

It was my last day – and last drugs round – yesterday. My colleagues secretly teamed up to put on a vegan buffet in The Big Cupboard (don’t tell the matron), and gave me flowers and gin and other lovely things. I forgot to take the flowers home as I’d put them in some water

Two Days To Go

I have not blogged recently; I have been too busy. Too busy! Busy with real, paid, reasonably consistent writing work! Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! I have two days left at my job as a proper nurse, and so more hugs have been forthcoming. People have started wishing me luck in my new job, and I have

Seven Shifts Left

I’ve got seven shifts left, or eighteen meds rounds until I stop measuring time in terms of number of drugs rounds. Shift patterns mean that I’ve reached a stage where I’ve started working with people for the last time. If you work somewhere that does thirteen hour shifts, a lot of the staff might just

10 Shifts… but TWENTY-SEVEN DRUGS ROUNDS left.

Ten shifts doesn’t sound like much, does it? Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Sounds too soon and like I don’t really know if I want to leave, doesn’t it? Sounds like, actually, I’m leaving work really soon and it hasn’t sunk in and I don’t know if I’ve really thought it through? I’ve found it helps

Friday Night’s Alright For Procrastinating

I’m working early tomorrow so ‘Friday night’ (wo0o0o) is a largely academic proposal. Literally so tonight, as I battle to explain in 1000 well-evidenced yet articulate and accessible words why kiwi fruit are just so damn good for you. I don’t know that it’s even true; they’re currently making me question all my decisions –

Eleven Shifts Left!

Eleven shifts to go. Still mixing excitement and dread. I’m finding it tricky trying to build up more freelance clients while I’m still working; I feel a little bit overwhelmed by my schedule at the minute. I’ve got a few things I need to do, but I’ve got shifts to fit in, it’s half term

Week… Three? Thursday?

I might have to pay to remove ads from this blog. There was an ad for some kind of magic weight loss which I’d hate to pop up on something I’d written about radical self-acceptance. Urgh. That interview I had last week… I’ve got to the next stage where they’ve asked me to write a