All was going well until the light went out!

I slept in this morning until 10.30, which was just what I needed after the busy day yesterday. Then tackled some of the jobs that have been side lined for months, but have to be done for the trip to Worcester this week.

There are 11 boxes of someone else’s slides (circa 1960’s – 1990’s) which I’m checking, in the hope there will be relevant pictures of the old hospital building and departments. The owner of the slides worked in the sexual health clinic, in the days when it was a hidden away building, behind a wooden door set into the old hospital perimeter wall. In the 60’s & 70’s it was known to us junior nurses as the “clap clinic”, no political correctness in those days and a great deal of stigma attached to the people who attended. Not that we ever saw anyone entering or exiting the door in the wall!!

I was doing well (3 boxes done) with the bit of kit which allowed me to save the relevant slides, but then the light went out!!!! I’ve worked through several more boxes by holding the slide up to the day light (not very efficient) and I have seen: floods, swans paddling in the water in the hospital grounds, staff drinking coffee, people playing conkers, ferrets, various slides of “bugs”, new equipment as it arrives in the department (the excitement of having a computer or microscope) and most interestingly a slide labelled “Dr R….. 1943 VD lecture”. It shows servicemen sitting on the deck of a ship, at sea, listening to the said lecture I assume!!

I now have to work out how I copy and save the small number of relevant slides!!

I must say that confidentiality is respected in these slides and no patients / clients appear.

Not the most interesting of jobs, but one that could not be delayed any longer, as the slides will have to be be returned to their owner on Friday.