Dance Off

Shiatsu Massage
I don't really have time to be writing, but I'm missing my blog. I've just been so jam-packed, unbelievably busy...Today, in a little while, I'm going to go and try out some Shiatsu massage. I discovered by accident that students at the Shiatsu school need people to massage for their exams, so I can have a third year work on me for an hour for £15. Well it would be rude not to. I'll let you know how I get on. I thought this was kind of interesting so I said to my colleague Karen yesterday "I'm going for a Shiat...." Before I could say "su massage tomorrow" she said "Mary Hunter! TMI!"
How we all laughed when I explained.

In Praise of Running
Among the things I haven't had much time to do has been running. I squeezed in a 40 minute run before work yesterday which meant getting up at 5am instead of 6am - still I was hardly really there in body or spirit. It was dark and cold and I was still more than half asleep. I've had a burning conflict in my head since Wednesday. This is often the case in nursing and therapy world. It throws up dilemmas and I've never been very good at just letting stuff go. My mind grinds over and over things when I'm conflicted about them. So, despite my best efforts, whenever I've had time to reflect over the last few days my mind has started going back over this ground...on and on...
I didn't really want to go out running today. I was tired and the grey sky and icy wind weren't inviting. As soon as I set off all this stuff bubbled up into my brain again, continual argumentation, back and fore...Before I left the house I felt like today's run was just going to be a grind and that I'd left it too long since breakfast, and I wouldn't have any energy - but once I was out I found  I had run the quickest mile up the road in quite some time, and the next mile, which is up a long hill, was even quicker! Then half way through my run, without even trying, I suddenly realised that I was thinking about something else. Hallelujah! Praise be! And everything no longer looked so unappealing. Instead it looked subtle. I liked the shaggy brown and white cattle in the small field at the side of Arthur's Seat, blending in with the brown scrubby grass and reeds and black rocks and bleached grass. I was quite enjoying that icy wind on my bare legs and even the feel of it in my gummed up lungs. (I've had this cold that's been going around. The one that Peter calls 'bird flu'.)

Dance Off
And finally, for today, I want to say how lucky I am that I have landed up (for now) where I have at work. After several years, which were quite all right, of working with colleagues who were either much older or much younger than me, I have landed in a place where we are all much the same age and can easily get each other's cultural references. I mean "culture" such as Sid James, Shari Lewis and lambchop, Paul Evans and "Hello This is Joanie", Petrocelli...all the odd things that were a back-drop to our 70s childhoods. So when, on Thursday, I suggested for some reason that we should have an Ian Curtis dance off on Friday, just to let off some steam, this suggestion was not only understood but was immediately adopted and held to be a good idea! Before I knew it I had been tasked with bringing in a Joy Division CD. Ann on reception, who wasn't very sure what we were talking about, was selected to be a judge.
We couldn't set an exact time, but about 3pm, after my last patient for the day had left, seemed naturally to be the right time. (Can I just say that according to our contracts we are allowed a 15 minute break in the afternoon.)
And what followed was indescribable, and it has been a long time since I laughed so hard. If I've ever laughed so hard. As with all these things, you probably had to be there.


For those who don't know what I'm talking about, but would like to.