Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas to anyone who calls in to check up on me here.  It's been a relatively quiet one Chez Harrow.  My Mum came to stay for a couple of days which was lovely even if I stressed over getting things just so.  I know she loves me whatever.  Made her up a Christmas Stocking just like the ones we used to get when my brother and I were kids - piece of fruit in the tip, chocolate (Lindor balls in this case - adult chocolate!), a book (kept us amused until the adults work up).  She didn't open it all until we were all up though. We had a lovely dinner Christmas Eve - barbecued prawns, salads and nice wine with Christmas chocolate brownies for dessert.

Christmas lunch was a rerun with the leftover prawns and salad, sitting outside on a very pleasant day with a sparkling malbec.  Dinner was hmmm, how shall I put it, a bit fraught with disaster.  The barbecue ran out of gas just as we put the fish in to cook, the potatoes wouldn't brown, nothing seemed to work - it was a late meal as are all Christmas dinners.  The fish was delicious.  The potatoes never really came out the way I had hoped but everyone said that it was all good.  Pavlova with fresh raspberries and nectarines followed.



I'm still destashing and getting rid of dross but things are starting to improve - from my perspective.  The house is still overly cluttered and I am still stressing every time I take a trip to give away clothes.  The Scrooge in me wants to sell everything and make a buck but that wold involve opening a shop!  Seriously won't happen if I do things that way and I have so much crap that I need to make this happen yesterday.  This will be the continuing story into 2017.

I've yet to make the decision on whether I go back into the workforce on whatever level but there's still plenty of time for that yet!

Restarting and restructuring

"We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization."

I had always thought this was a quote by some Roman Gaius Petronius Arbiter however it seems that isn't the case.  Whatever and whoever wrote this, the quote rings true in any case.  Being totally over all the restructuring and re-jigging that happens in the West Australian Health Department, I have finally chosen a way out.  Voluntarily leaving and they are paying me to go so a win-win from my perspective.  

My next task will be to discover what I want or need to do with the rest of my life.  Will this just be a paid Gap Year as I have jokingly told some of my friends, or will it lead to something else.  I will be taking a little time either way to think on things and the story of my life so far and I hope to chronicle some of this here as I think it will help to document the process.

I'm hoping to do more than a little of this with my friends away from this place.  Hopefully my health will remain good and allow me to do this well.Bottom line, the hospital where I have spent some truly amazing work time, is not the place I am currently employed in.  While leaving now could be seen as an easy solution by some, going out into the great unknown is more than a little scary.  Will I still be a pharmacist in another year's time?  I have skills learned in this profession that may fit doing something else but would that be a waste of the education my parents paid for?

Another quote I just found about Pharmacy and medicine - “Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.” – Lord Byron, 19^th-century English romantic poet. 

I'm hoping to do more than a little of this with my friends away from this place.  Hopefully my health will remain good and allow me to do this well.