[The Life of Shaun #587] NNQN

My course comes to an end next week; I have three shifts left, and then that's it.  I still have to do 500 hours of additional healthcare-related work experience over the Summer (I'll be picking up HCA shifts), but the education and training are coming to a close.  

This last placement has been a bear, but I've enjoyed it.  I'm in oncology, and it's tough.  By the nature of the area, the patients can be very 'heavy' in the (frowned-upon, but universally-used) vernacular: complex problems, requiring frequent and time-consuming nursing interventions, at high risk of deterioration, and often bedbound.  When the ward is understaffed - and it almost always is - you feel it.  Each week I get it a little bit more, though, and I like working with cancer patients, so I have accepted a position to work in oncology once I qualify.  It's nice to know where I will be.

I'm ready to be done.  I can't say I feel adequately prepared to take on patients independently, but I am ready not to be a student nurse anymore.  All nurses say you'll never feel confident until you've been doing it yourself for some time, and every ward has a training and mentorship programme for their newly-qualified nurses, so I won't be freely unleashed on an unsuspecting NHS population just yet.  I am looking forward to more independence and developing my place in a team - and starting to get paid won't be so bad either.

With the end of the course will also come a covid-delayed holiday; Sushil and I will be going to Chile, Peru and Bolivia.  New countries for both of us, and we know very little about any of them, so it feels like we're going very far away.  I am looking forward to the mental distance from the everyday that foreignness and a long flight bring, and putting my Duolingo Spanish into use.

Also on the homefront, Sushil finally got covid.  Very mild, and he feels 100% now, even though he's still testing positive.  I've somehow fended it off this time (at least enough not to test positive myself).  Hopefully this means our antibodies will be primed and at the ready to keep us healthy for the holidays.

Yo como manzanas,

Shaun

Sushil went back to India in April to see his family for the first time in three years.  His grandma and her cat were particularly excited to see him.

I joined Natasha and Chris for a few days in Weymouth, Dorset, where Chris's parents have retired.

Chester has become a regular at our favourite local, The Horatia.

Shaun H. Coley ~ Holloway ~ Islington ~ London N7 ~ UK ~ shaunism.blogspot.co.uk

[The Life of Shaun #586] Freedom is their religion 🇺🇦

Sitting here at my desk, watching alerts on my phone about Russian troops getting ever closer to Kyiv, I am disheartened.  I keep thinking back to my trip there five years ago, and how I felt by the time I left.  You could tell that Ukraine was proud to have a chance to showcase itself to the world, to show that it's part of Europe, and that it wants to be part of the West.  I've watched the sign-off to Eurovision several times over the past two days, and it makes me ache for what the Ukrainian people are going through.

I also feel angry.  Angry that neither of my countries, nor the EU, are doing anything meaningful to help Ukraine.  The self-styled global protectors of democracy and freedom are standing aside, watching a modern-day Sudetenland, impotent.  Our neighbour in Europe, which we pledged to protect, is being invaded and Balkanised, having its democratically-elected government toppled, and we move a football match and freeze a portion of the fortunes of a few dozen kleptocrats.  Pathetic.

Not that America and Britain have much of a leg to stand on after our own false-flag war in Iraq.  But that's certainly no excuse for inaction; if anything, it's a chance for redemption.  But, like a century ago, the West is tired of war and Putin's accomplished a de facto Munich Agreement.  Poland must be hoping that history won't rhyme too closely this century.  And I expect China and Tawain are watching our inaction with equal levels of glee and horror.  Leaders of the free world indeed.

The Maidan, Kyiv, 2017.

Shaun H. Coley ~ Holloway ~ Islington ~ London N7 ~ UK ~ shaunism.blogspot.co.uk

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Two Ports, One Trip

With university done for the year, and Sushil's company closed for the holidays, we decided to visit Porto, Portugal's second city.  What this northern port city lacks in eponymous creativity, it makes up for in charm.  The city is beautiful but scruffy, and, other than the Luís I Bridge, which you can't help but come across, there are no real must-sees, so you can take your time.  We spent most of our visit just picking a part of the map and wandering about.

Oddly, given its geography, Porto reminded both Sushil and me of Venice.  There's a similarity in the faded glory aesthetic and the way the buildings hug the roads.  Porto has been on my radar for some time, and it's popping up in media more and more.  But, for now, it hasn't been hyperdeveloped or had its charm glossed away for the benefit of the perfect Instagram shot.  There are still boarded up buildings metres from the River Douro, and prices away from the riverfront quickly descend from tourist to local levels.

I've read that Lisbon has adopted the London model since I was there in 2007, becoming an investment haven, squeezing out locals in favour of newbuild flats for overseas investors.  Fortunately, from January 2022, Porto has been excluded from Portugal's golden visa scheme, so that might relieve some of the pressure.  Still, there was enough scaffolding around town to imply that change was coming.

The streetscape outside our lovely hotel.

The riverfront Ribeira neighbourhood.

Sushil at the Igreja de Santo Ildefonso.

Night in Ribeira.

The Ribeira and Luís I Bridge from Miradouro da Serra do Pilar.

Miradouro da Serra do Pilar

    What €1.75 will buy you in Porto.

Based on the description, we took a daytrip to Braga, expecting a quaint town in the countryside.  Instead we found a drab, postwar bedroom suburb with a small preserved centre.  The only real notable sight was the Bom Jesus do Monte, some way out of the centre.  Braga will not make the revisit list.

From Porto we flew to Bremen, Germany.  Pops is living there with Lara and her family currently, and Lisa and Danai flew over so we could have a family Christmas.  Bremen was part of the Hanseatic League and has solid, wealthy bones as a result.  Its port has been eclipsed by nearby Hamburg's, and most visitors to Northern Germany have Berlin firmly in their sights, so Bremen mostly flies beneath the radar, and seems content with that.  It is a nice, but unexciting city.  

However, I can see what keeps my sister's family there (besides Alberto's job), as my niece and nephew seem to be thriving.  Bremen is big enough to have all the things teenagers are interested in, like dance studios, bars, clubs, shopping, along with an excellent public transportation system.  The kids are able to have the independence and freedom to experiment and be their best teenage selves, without Lara and Alberto having to worry unduly about their safety or them falling in with the worst elements.

The visit was mostly lovely, but Pops was unwell (not covid, per several antigen tests) the whole time we were there.  He was diagnosed with dementia in Summer 2020, so there was a natural cognitive decline, but it was exacerbated by whatever virus he had going on.  Lara said he was much more forgetful and out of it than normal, and Pops missed a couple of the evenings as he was wiped out.  He returned to health a couple of days after we left, so it was just rubbish timing.  I'll be looking to go back in Spring for a redo, presuming Germany starts letting us in again.

Even staid Bremen has its rebellious side!

The Coley+ family.

(Danai, Lisa, Sushil, me, Emilio, Alberto, Lara, Chiara; Pops up front with the newest addition, Toby.)

Ten in Tirana

04 December was the ten-year anniversary of Sushil and me meeting in Mumbai, and we decided to mark the date with a weekend getaway.  Sushil searched for the best price-versus-points destinations and gave me three options: Bucharest, Sofia and Tirana.  As I'd been to the first two, the capital of Albania won.

Albania has a prevailing reputation for corruption and crime, with an Americanesque reverence of guns.  But this aspect of Albanian culture is hidden deeply enough to be of little note to the average traveller, and our weekend passed without incident.  I was fond of Tirana; despite what the EU might say, it’s quite obviously European, with a very heavy Italian streak.  Juxtaposing this are moments when you look around at the architecture and infrastructure and think 'I could be in India'.  A beguiling mix.

Albania is also known for its conservative views on homosexuality.  It is progressing, and we did see some PDA between a couple inside one of the nicer restaurants, but the lack of any gay bars and little openly-queer life makes it unappealing as a frequent destination.

Tirana itself is small, and almost everything of note is walkable from the central Skanderbeg Square.  We saw everything we wanted to over a few hours, and spent the rest of the time in cafés, bars and restaurants.  Tirana definitely has a Mediterranean café culture, with outdoor seating almost everywhere, hosting happy smokers sitting and chatting for hours with nothing more than a cappuccino.  Technically smoking indoors is illegal, but this is very loosely enforced, and we actually had to leave one restaurant as it was just too much.  But we found some absolute gems, notably Era and Noor, and had a much more sophisticated weekend than we expected heading into it.  It turned out to be a very lovely anniversary weekend.

Cheers,
Shaun

The city from our hotel room.

Mural on Skanderbeg Square.  I am unsure if it is meant to be comforting or menacing.

The one mural I wanted to see was the very Soviet façade of the National History Museum.  Unfortunately, it was covered for renovations, so I only got to see the cover mock-up.

Forever Green Tower

During the Cold War, Albania built tens of thousands of bunkers.  Most are disused, but some have been refashioned into museums, art galleries and the like.

The Tanners' Bridge is described as a "well-preserved 18th century Ottoman stone footbridge".  Fair enough, but as it is included in almost every 'what to do in Tirana' list, I expected its surroundings to have been a bit more charming.  The tourist board has missed a trick here.

When I read about the Pyramid of Tirana (An Albanian monument to the Communism that nearly crushed the country is now a crumbling wreck), it of course became #1 on my list.  I knew it was slated for redevelopment, but I hadn't realised how far along it already was.  I expected less efficiency from an ex-Stalinist Mediterranean government, but unfortunately we were too late to see the pyramid in its glory.

"One Balkan, Stonger Balkans".  Commendable, but still very optimistic at this point (see: n. balkanization).

I was quite taken by this bit of civic action.  Tirana used to be much greyer and drabber than it is today.  In the 00s, former mayor (and current PM) Edi Rama started painting many of the buildings across the city.  Though he received some criticism for giving focus to aesthetics when there are many pressing needs across the city, it has greatly improved the feel of the city, and crime and littering reportedly decreased notably in districts that had been improved.

One of the endless cafés in Blloku, Tirana's hipster neighbourhood.  Once walled off and accessible only to high-ranking Communist officials (hence 'The Block'), it is now the trendiest and liveliest area of the capital.

Shaun H. Coley ~ Holloway ~ Islington ~ London N7 ~ UK ~ shaunism.blogspot.co.uk

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Shops at Cæsars

I had a surprising new sensation on this trip to America; it all felt a little bit foreign.  

This is a case where the English language fails.  A lot of other languages have two ways to say "I know", one that means to understand something as a fact, and another that means to be familiar with something.  I know America, but it doesn't feel familiar anymore.  I don't know if it's because I have been away for over 16 years now, or that I haven't made contact with the mothership in several years due to covid, but from the way people spoke, to the news coverage, the ads on TV,  the neverending incessant need to get into a car to do almost everything, it all felt a bit a world apart.  Other than the car dependency*, I don't mean this negatively.  There's nothing wrong with the way people speak or the ads on TV per se (though I do take exception with pharma promoting directly to consumers), I just noticed things in a different way than I had before.  Or more precisely, I noticed them; they never stood out before.  I felt a bit like a stranger in my own homeland.

But that did not detract from the intent of the trip, to see family and friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in decades.  It was great to see them in their local contexts, to understand a bit better what their lives were.  It's one thing to know someone's moved to Memphis, El Paso or Albuquerque, another to see their homes and favourite haunts in their new cities.  I got to kick back at Rachel's new beach house, be part of Natasha and Chris's rewedding, and see Russ's Summer retreat in Lake Tahoe.  Surprisingly, the one regret I have was not spending more time in LA; that was truncated due to complicated reasons, and I didn't get enough time with my friends there.

Still, by the end, I was ready to come home.  Ready to be back in our flat, walk to the store, wear a jumper in September, and ready to get back onto my course.  My next placement starts on Monday; I will have four weeks at a hospice in East London, followed by three weeks in a same-day emergency care unit.  It's good to be back to my London life.

Cheers,

Shaun

*The need to drive for everything started to feel oppressive by the end.  As my friend Kimb'uh, who was also on a long return to America at the same time, remarked, "Feels strange walking amongst all the cars in an American parking lot - kept wondering where the people were meant to go.  There’s no place for me."

Going native at Maruca's, Seaside Heights, NJ.

With Todd and Lady at Pieces in the Village, NYC.

Outside the Breakers, Palm Beach, FL.  A lot of wedding history here in the Coley/Rankow/Watkinson circle.

With cousins Sara, Jodi and Tommy at the family-famous Poncho's, Dade City, FL.

Spanish moss and brick roads Savannah, GA.  Now that it’s in a blue state, it's a definite must-visit.

Charleston, SC - nice, but seemed poorer and less charming than Savannah.  It’s also much more heavily-touristed - and overrun with hen parties - it’s the (prettier) Newcastle of America.

A happy unscheduled stop, Asheville, NC.  This town is like catnip to me: up in the hills, walkable, midcentury architecture, craft beer, localvore dining, and gay bars absent of hen parties.

Sushil picking out a souvenir in Memphis, TN.  A lot of hurt in this city, still.  It’s missed the urban renaissance of the coasts and interior cities like Austin, Chicago and Nashville, but that’s left the perverse upside of some really great city-centre space - rich in history - that’s neither been demolished nor hyper-developed.  I wonder if Memphis might be the city that gets it right.  It’ll be a tough ride either way.  My cousin has built a very nice life for herself here, however - just outside of Shelby County.

"Sister Cities", El Paso-Juárez, TX-Chihuahua, Mexico.  This city pleasantly surprised us.  From the negative press on Juárez (across the Rio Grande), I’d inferred the worst for El Paso.  While it’s not gleaming rich, it’s certainly not poor.  It’s a nice little city, with a generous microbrewery and food culture, a visible artistic streak, and a strong sense of community and civic pride.

Breaking bad, in Albuquerque, NM.  As a child of the desert whose firmest desire was to leave it, I’ll never quite get the appeal, but our friends have a very nice life here, and it was great to see that.  It was also the very successful climax to our Mexican/Southwest foodie tour.

Bollywood meets Hollywood, CA.

We're all born naked and the rest is drag, right down to the facemask.  San Diego, CA.

Art in Santa Ynez, CA.

On the pedestrian- / accessibility-friendly streets of Reno, NV.  Lesson (re)learnt: there’s tragedy, and then there’s Reno.

Sun through the smoke in Tahoe City, CA.  The smoke waxed and waned depending on the winds, and 3/4 Lake Tahoe was under an evacuation notice of one sort or another while we were there.  Thankfully our little corner was not, and it often felt like we had the North Shore all to ourselves.

Mr. Lee died while I was in Las Vegas, NV.  I am pretty sure Russ, Mike and I put several of his children through university.

And in local news, Sushil became British this week!

[The Life of Shaun #582] Down the Shore

I am officially halfway through my nursing course, but I feel very far from halfway to becoming a nurse.  Judging by the upswing from part one to part two of the course, I expect next year will be a doozy.  For now, though, I am enjoying the view over Rachel Beach on the New Jersey Shore.

My original plan for this Summer was to use the time between academic years to rack up some extra placement hours to hasten my graduation date next year.  But this isn't allowed per university policy, so, for the first time since my first university, I have a Summer off.  I am using the time to do an extended version of the holiday I had planned for two Aprils ago, seeing friends and family across the (mostly) South of the US: Jersey Shore; West Palm Beach and Dade City, FL; Savannah, GA; Charleston and Greenville, SC; Memphis, TN; El Paso, TX; Albuquerque, NM; Los Angeles, then a whirl around CA, ending in Tahoe, before closing out the trip in Vegas in September.

One week in, with six to go, I am feeling good and relaxed.  The last two weeks of uni were full-on, with three exams and two essays submitted, and I really needed to get away from the UK for a while.  All the Brexit malarkey and the UK's ever-accelerating journey down the road to American-style nationalism and political discord are disheartening and exhausting; I need a break.  With apps and global news, it's impossible to be totally disengaged from what's going on, but it feels good not to be in it for a while.  I just hope seven weeks is enough...

Wishing everyone a Summer of zen,

Shaun

Sunset from Rachel's patio.

My version of sunbathing.  I didn't last 15 minutes.

"30 YEARS! (+1) but we missed the actual anniversary because of COVID restrictions last year. In 1990, @shauncoley and I met at Eldorado High School, playing clarinet in the marching band. A lifelong friendship was born built on our mutual love of sarcasm, Tchaikovsky, and cheese sandwiches. We've expanded our tastes and the friendship continues! Happy friendaversary, Schnookums!"

  -klemify

Shaun H. Coley ~ Holloway ~ Islington ~ London N7 ~ UK ~ shaunism.blogspot.co.uk

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[The Life of Shaun #581] Life on T8

I've just finished my penultimate week of my first nursing placement; one week left and then it's back to academic life.  I'm looking forward to the (relative) lie-ins and no night shifts, but as I was leaving yesterday morning, I realised I was going to miss being on the ward.  It certainly hasn't been easy, and of course some days were better than others, but I've loved it.

I landed in quite an interesting spot for a first placement, a covid ward.  The ward is actually infectious diseases, but part of the floor was sectioned off for non-critical-care covid cases, and that's where I worked most of my shifts.  We had straight covid cases, but also, if someone came to the hospital for something else, and they were found to be covid-positive, they were moved to our ward.  Great, varied exposure for a first placement.

We had a three-week break for Christmas in the middle of the placement, and when I returned, I learned that our ward had been 'upgraded' from a standard covid ward to a high-dependency respiratory unit (HDRU).  This meant a whole new experience, as these patients were much more unwell and mostly on CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) ventilators, an aerosol-generating procedure, which requires a higher level of PPE.

The PPE is hot.  I'm more used to it now, but by the time breaks come along, I am still often dripping through my scrubs.  The work is more physically challenging, as the patients tend to have lower mobility, and I've had my first patient deaths on the HDRU.  But from a student perspective, it's been positive.  It's almost like having two placements in one, but without having to start from square one, and the nurse:patient ratio is lower, allowing for more in-depth care and learning.

And the people!  The people on the ward are phenomenal.  What they are doing, how they are handling it, how they are supporting patients and each other, it's genuinely uplifting.  There is such a unity of purpose, from the cleaners to the doctors, to take care of the patients and one another.  It's incredible to be a part of.

This won't be news to anyone, but coming from the corporate world into healthcare, I can confirm that healthcare workers are significantly underpaid.  The skills I see on the floor every day - not just from the hands-on staff, but from management as well - have so impressed me.  I see what people are having to deal with, how much they are taking on, and I can't believe they do it all, consistently and professionally, for so little.  

And thank goodness they do.  Without healthcare assistants, for example, our ward would collapse - they literally and figuratively do a lot of the heavy lifting.  If you knew everything they were doing for your loved ones while in hospital, you'd think they deserved all the money in the world, but they start on £18,005.  Outrageous.

Of course, I have not made this change for money, and one placement in, I am still very happy with the decision.  I am looking forward to the pace of academic life for a bit, but I can't wait to find out what my next placement will be and see what's coming next.

Cheers,

Shaun

The Guardian visited my trust recently and wrote the following.  T8 is my ward:

'I cry a lot on the train home': London medics fight to save Covid patients

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jan/15/i-cry-a-lot-on-the-train-home-london-medics

Shaun H. Coley ~ Holloway ~ Islington ~ London N7 ~ UK ~ shaunism.blogspot.co.uk

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[The Life of Shaun #580] It's a Sin

If I had been born ten years earlier, I'd be dead.  So too would most of my peer group.  But we were lucky; we mostly came of age hearing stories about friends dying, rather than losing our own.  But if I had moved to San Francisco in 1984 instead of 1994, I have little doubt my story would have been a lot different - and a lot shorter.

Out of nowhere, the celluloid chatter in the UK this week has been about one thing: Channel 4's It's a Sin.  It's about a group of friends who escape from the provinces to London in the early 80s to be gay, and it's brilliant.  It captures so well the joy of finally being able to live freely, of finding your people.  It also captures the fear, paranoia, and indifference as disease decimated a stigmatised minority.  It's hard to remember now, with the Warp Speed of covid, just how slowly information (and worse, treatment) came out about HIV, the decades-long sense of a noose slowly tightening.

Watching the series, it's very easy to see myself in the plotline and which role I would have played.  How lucky I am to be sitting here today.  It's a bit of a rollercoaster, but well worth the ride. 

La!

Shaun

To my Jills, thank you.

"So much artistic and intellectual capital was lost to us.  America turned away from their suffering for so long.  It must have been awful."  -Natasha Watkinson

The original must-see film about the early years of AIDS.

Shaun H. Coley ~ Holloway ~ Islington ~ London N7 ~ UK ~ shaunism.blogspot.co.uk

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