It's been a while

Been a while since I rambled on on here, so thought I had better get a few lines down before we go out to see the latest and last Harry Potter as part of Jasmine's birthday celebrations and treats.

So, what has been happening? Well, Jasmine turned 11 today, and has decided to have a family birthday celebration. All my suggestions of having some of her friends round has been met with a nah! Except for one, Laura, who is all the way over in Nottingham, but also with us for part of the day, as they are skyping now as I am typing this all down. Laura has truly been a great friend to Jas, the most loyal and has continued to skype Jasmine regularly, and they have such a ball on skype, laughing, singing shrieking as though the were in the same room, and not separated by the Atlantic Ocean and vast plains of land.

It has been 5 weeks since school ended and summer vacation began... vacation in Canada, holidays in England. The kids have had a very laid back, almost nothing to do holiday apart from the 2 art classes they attend twice a week for 1.5 hours, where they have learned to draw some Manga characters.

I started a new job as a pharmacist's assistant/ technician 2 weeks before the kids broke up from school. The hours were suitable initially, as I only worked when the kids were at school. Then they offered me more hours, as I needed more training and experience, having never worked in a pharmacy/chemists' before.  At this time I was still working for McD's 2-3 nights a week. But my new boss wanted me to give up McD's for more hours at his pharmacy. I said I would consider it if it suited my life work balance.

In short, I did resign from McD's, not in the most pleasant of manners, but I did leave, I am now working 25 hours at the pharmacy and 2 days ago was told they would like me to add another 8 hours on. I have no problems working more apart from the fact my kids are off school for the summer and I am having to leave them for quite a few hours whilst I am at work.  After having nearly 2 years off with the kids, I am having great difficulty adjusting to this. I feel tremendous guilt, I am not spending time with them and they are being left to fend for themselves for hours on end.  They have been to a babysitters' course, where they learned about being safe whilst alone at home and also the principles of childsittiing. I guess this leads on from my previous post, they are now 5 weeks into being alone at home and mostly they have done well, but Jasmine reported that when they got home from art class on Tuesday, the front door of the house was wide open! With no one in. They were late for art class and had rushed out and not shut the door properly and probably locked it without it being shut!

Anyhow, I am also learning a lot at my new workplace. To be honest I am not sure I am up to it. I find the computer software that we have to use to fill prescriptions rather daunting and difficult to get used to. This is not helped by a boss that admitted to not being a good teacher and therefore snaps when mistakes get made. Mistakes that are correctable, but of course, that would be a wasting working time, correcting mistakes you shouldn't have made in the first place. I am not sure why I am finding it so difficult, usually I pick up things pretty quickly, but am struggling to say the least. There is a tension about when the boss is around which doesn't help. It's far too complicated to write here about the systems being used at work for various medications we have to prepare for patients, so I won't try, but I do not think it's the best system, and maybe that is the reason, or maybe it's a case of 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks'.

I go in everyday with a positive attitude, thinking that today will be the day I will not be intimidated by the computer software, or the regular patients that demand we do everything at the speed of sound and my boss who demands me to be faster, faster, like the speed of light! The reason I cannot be quick is I fear making a mistake which will make him mad at me..... Jeeeze, I need out of this mindset.

The patients are also so used to dealing with the boss or the head technician, that only they will do. They think the rest of us are just incompetent and therefore find it no hassle at all to be rude to us. We cannot possibly do anything right for them.......my heart is heavy when I think of work, but the money is proving useful, so until I hear from the college of nurses, I will just do my best, and if my best is not good enough then fire me!