Long time no see

Day two of the bathroom project. I am fascinated at the subterranean world that has been revealed by stripping us back to brick, exposing pipes and pulling out cables. Richard the Polish plumber worked at a furious pace again, pausing only to thank me for more coffee and to tell me that the Volkswagen Passat is a very fine car that will get you from Woking to Warsaw without any trouble. This conversation piece came out of nowhere.  But he is clearly a fan of German engineering.

So Mariella Frostrup was hosting a discussion on Times Radio about Covid and Strider not only messages in and gets his question read out, he then rubs it in by messaging again saying that I am jealous and could she read my name out on the radio? She duly obliged, and like most men of a certain age I went a little weak at the knees. Mariella Frostrup spoke my name! 

Otherwise an uneventful day, although I bumped into a friend today who lives around the corner and was a former colleague.  He gave some sad news about one of the doctors we used to work with who had died earlier this year; a lovely guy, he and I used to walk around the lake behind our office when we had a knotty issue to resolve and talk it over. This was many years ago when I was in charge of children’s services locally. 

I did have to work this afternoon - our monthly team meeting. Good although everyone seemed a little jaded at the thought of yet more organisational change. I think I have spent half my career trying to keep people motivated through difficult periods in the NHS...