BASKETTCASE

The summer is over.  Norfolk has been bathed in sunshine for weeks, to such an extent that we were truly thankful for the prolonged and hard rain that finally blessed us yesterday.  I am hoping the runner beans will start flowering and 'beaning' again, because in spite of my attempts to keep them watered they have not done well.  They seem to go straight from thin and short to long and bulgy.  The raspberries were huge and succulent to start with, but haven't liked tapwater and are getting smaller with each picking.

Not that we want the weather to deteriorate permanently.  We have booked a long weekend in the caravan at Weybourne at the end of the month.  It is one of the things we always thought we could do on the spur of the moment when we were retired and independent, but it is amazing how events break up weekends, with various things happening on Fridays, and on Sundays at church, and in the end I had to turn down a day's work on the Thursday to make it worth getting the awning set up.

I am having to get my head in gear to do some study.  My last appraisal was postponed because Mum died when I should have had it, and the next one has to be done before the end of Feb.  Everything is changing because revalidation is looming.  It was due to start next year, but will now be 2011 at the earliest.  I confess I rather hope they will keep postponing it so I can retire before it starts.  I see the point of it, but I also think to make a two session/week semi-retired GP do the same amount of meetings, reading, audits, reflection and so on as a full-time partner is over the top.  I feel I am at the stage of my career where I should be able to focus on the areas that really interest me and that I know I am good at.  I am trying hard to get something up and running for dementia patients and carers that builds on my own experiences with Mum.  Everything is centred on care - keeping fed, clean, safe, occupied - but there is nothing I have come across that acknowledges the problem of maintaining a relationship and communication except the SPECAL method pioneered in Burford.  I would like the set-up of a SPECAL service to be my swan song, but it is very hard to get anything moving.  I keep nibbling away at it, and perhaps something will come of the Stakeholders meeting I am going to attend next week.  I can use these experiences for my revalidation, but you are not allowed to put all your efforts into one basket.  I find it hard to learn and retain new stuff now.  There are new guidelines, restrictions, targets, and ways of recording these on the computer every week.  I doubt if anyone could keep it all in their heads, and so much depends on retrieval of dimly remembered information when required.  I certainly couldn't practice without the internet.

Well, talking about it won't get anything done.  Wednesday is my study morning, so best get stuck in.