Oh I can’t tell you how good it was to be back at work today. I feel as if I’ve been away for 6 months, not 6 weeks, and it was lovely to catch up with folk. It seemed appropriate to be going back at the beginning of term, as it were. (Mind you I did forget to take my correct uniform with me in all the excitement so I’m afraid the lacy alb was worn when it should have been plain. But I think I got away with it so sshhh!)

The candle was lit.

The child knew what to do.

O Come, O Come and Lo, he comes.

No 3 microphone wailed.

A little Bach Chorale to soothe the soul.

From the step a toddler solemnly watched.

Our Father who art in heaven, Harold is thy name…

Deep, deep purple satisfied.

The Body of Christ – and one was missed.

Dawn and evening celebrate your glory…

Music and muttering

Oh its good to be home.

And in all the excitement what I didn’t do was thank Bishop Alan and Fr Alex for looking after my little flock so well. It made such a difference to know they were in safe hands. Thank you boys. Put your feet up now, why don’t you? Mother’s back in charge!!

And tonight the group who were doing the Adventures in Faith course have put together a service of Darkness into Light at 6.30pm.  It is strange for me to go to something I’ve not had a hand in but I’m looking forward to it. (I don’t mind not being in control, really!)

‘The best yet!’ was the response to this year’s Advent Fair. We raised a magnificent £1600 and a big thanks to Nicola for all her organisation. There were the usual Christmas crafts and nearly new, books and DVDs, cakes, jams and chutneys and a wonderful cake to raffle.

This year we also had a chocolate fountain, tile painting and snowboarding on the Wii. Yes, your Priest took part but did not win. Let it be known she is a Wii virgin.

A big thanks to all who took part, who prepared the church and put it back together again, and those who worked and those who bought. We couldn’t have done it without you all. I am so proud of you, little flock.

Our new magazine is out now in pdf format. Pop over to St Mark’s website to download.

Advent approaches and you may be looking for something to read or ponder during these dark days.  Why not put love blooms bright into your Favourites or Reader and I’m sure you will find something to mull over?

I spent about 6 hours yesterday sitting in A&E of the Royal Infirmary with my dad from 6am to 12noon.

Not once did anyone use the antibacterial handwash in his bay. Not once. But then it was empty so they wouldn’t have had much joy anyway. I did ask a few folk if they’d give me a new one but no joy.

Dad was hooked up to 15 minute blood pressure which was taken automatically, along with his oxygen level and resps. From time to time a nurse had to come in and write these figures down. Most of the time they didn’t say a word to my Dad. No “How are you?” No “I’m just taking a note of this for your file.” No “Everything is looking fine, don’t worry.” No “Can you get you anything?” No nursing. Just note-taking.

At around 8am Dad decided it was breakfast time.  I asked a nurse if it was okay to get him a coffee from the machine in the waiting room. “No,” she replied, “we’ll get it. Just give me a minute.”  An hour later I asked the same nurse if he could get a drink as he suffers from dehydration occasionally and is diabetic.  ”Here’s a cup of water.”  At 10am I asked a nurse who had come to write things down again if they ever got breakfast in this place.  (For I’m pretty sure all the nurses did.) “Only if they are well enough to eat and drink,” was the reply.  ”Well, he is,” I said. “<Sigh> Alright, I’ll get someone to get it for him. Toast ok? Coffee?”  A young smiley nurse brought it to us 10 minutes later. I didn’t see anyone else being offered anything and not all of them were on death’s door. Far from it, as far as I could see. No wonder they are ill.

The doctor was called away 3 times in the course of speaking to us. I have no complaint about that. There were other sick people. He always came back, sometimes after an hour, and apologised. (Dad thought he was too young to be a consultant!)

Dad was to be kept in for observation for it may have been a heart attack but there were no beds.  We were told we’d just have to wait.  But then someone came in who was quite poorly so dad was put out of his cubicle and parked beside the nurses bay in the corridor.  He was meant to be on oxygen but the nurse who was going to get some portable oxygen never returned.

In the course of our time there I watched nurses deal with a drug overdose patient hand-cuffed to 2 policemen. They wore gloves while dealing with her but then would come out and answer the phone while wearing the gloves. What about the next person who picks up with phone without gloves?

I saw lots of things. What I didn’t see was nursing. What I didn’t see was caring.

Is that too harsh?  Were they busy? Yes, I’d say they were kept pretty busy.  But how much longer would it have taken to talk while doing the blood-taking, or the ECG, or pillow plumping – oh sorry, I forgot, there were no pillows. A shortage.  I didn’t see hand-holding, reassuring arms round shoulders, listening. Too busy to listen perhaps? A listening shortage.  I saw nurses deal with a patient and go back to the computer screens and stand and click the mouse until the next task. Filling in on-line forms? Possibly. But most of the time they didn’t type anything, just stood and swirled the mouse around while looking about – but never catching a relative’s eye.

I realise that emergency medicine is different from ward nursing. But I don’t accept that they are too busy to talk and reassure. And I don’t accept that a system can’t be put in place that someone makes breakfast for those in the emergency ward. For they were not all emergencies, as far as I could see.

Bring back Matron. Not to swish around checking the nurses are all working. No, a Matron who walks round the beds asking the patients if everything is okay.

We have a rather lovely and fancy TV. If you want technical information I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong place, but it is black and shiny and has a flat screen.  The picture is jolly good too and that might be because it is digital?  I think. When it arrived we had a bit of bother setting it up so only have channels when the Cable is plugged in. Which is such a pity now that the Cable is not working.  If we had taken the time while we had the instruction booklet to sort out the 5 major channels as well as the Cable thingummy then we wouldn’t be reduced to watching TV on a small purple portable now, would we?

Of course I did phone the Fault Department when it all went tits up at 10pm last night. Strangely enough the same thing happened last Monday at 10pm but that time it re-booted itself and merrily went on its way showing all the channels. This time it re-booted and then flickered off and on and off an on and off and … you get the picture. Well, lucky you because we didn’t.

The Fault Department appears to be somewhere in India and my contact there was charming, if a little distant. He suggested we re-boot it. It did it itself, says me. Try checking the cable is in properly. Yes, that was the first thing I thought of too. Hold on, he said. A long pause ensued while I listened to disco music. When he returned it was to say that someone would try and fix it at their end in the next 24 hours and if that doesn’t work I’ve to phone back and they’ll get someone out.  So far, no joy.  Looks like we’ll be huddled round the 12 incher tonight whilst hunting for those blasted instructions.

Does this mean we can have a gay Bishop then?  Hurrah!

I see that some Italians have invented a Holy Water electronic dispenser so that we are not all spreading germs by dipping our fingers in the Holy Water stoup at the door.  Don’t they know that Holy Water is germ-free by virtue of it being holy?

Thanks Ship of Fools. It has been a while since I dropped in but as ever you had me smiling.

Edinburgh continues to be a driving nightmare as routes change from day to day.  Bus stops disappear just to keep us on our toes. However I read that Princes Street will be open again to traffic from the first Sunday in Advent. We’ll see.

On the subject of the tram, I also read that

On-street, the trams can travel up to 30mph, reaching a maximum of 50mph off-street.

Off-street? What’s that? The pavement?

Mass: We pray the video game

Now this is what I could have been doing while off work/church.