Thursday 3 December 2020

Difficult conversations

I was a bit nervous about going into work today but was glad that Sara would be on hand to help if things became too manic. Sophie went off to the gym as usual but came home to work. She is hoping that she'll be able to go back in one day a week soon, as she really misses being in her office.

I arrived at work early and had a good chat with Sara before logging on. I was joined by Sue, and at 10am, when the phone lines opened, it wasn't too bad, thank goodness! We did have an initial rush but the online bookings system was back to normal so that alleviated some of the pressure!

Although it was busy, it was steady but I had some difficult calls from people whose first language clearly wasn't English. I had one man on the phone four times who couldn't understand me! I also received quite a disturbing call in the afternoon from a man who had received a parking ticket but who had been visiting the surgery. He obviously had mental health issues and was threatening to commit suicide if we didn't help him with the fine. I put him straight through to our centre manager as there was no point at all arguing with him. Luckily, they managed to cancel it for him, but it did cause a few raised eyebrows in the office!

When I emerged from the building at 4pm it was dark and raining. I was shocked at how gloomy it was! I popped to the garage in Moulton to put some petrol in Sophie's car (which I had borrowed) and headed home to see my family.

It was bliss to relax in the conservatory and have a good chat with Keith and Sophie. Keith was in charge of dinner this evening and cooked a delicious chilli con carne. I had the next Gin in the box - a Bramble Gin that was lovely with tonic, although it disappeared very quickly!

After we'd eaten tonight, Keith and I watched an excellent German film called The Balloon about two families in East Germany who escaped to the West in a hot air balloon. It made a nice change from I'm A Celebrity, but we recorded the show instead, and watched the last half hour!

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