Hi, welcome to another weekly instalment of what’s on my plate: health updates and smile-provoking experiences. This is a late post I’m afraid – I’m a week behind (again) – I’ll will get caught up…
Staff Wellbeing Hub Admin: Week Two
My second week at work disappeared too quickly to learn everything I wanted to learn. I was only onsite one day, so I still need to complete my understanding of the different Counselling referral processes. On my other day, I completed loads of online training from home – I passed all the assessments (phew):
Histamine Reaction – Elbow Rash
I’ll be working from home for the admin job, so Dad kindly helped me increase my desk space. We’d purchased a wooden top from Ikea, which Dad secured neatly onto my current desk (there’s a photo in my What Made Watson Smile section). Within an hour of sitting at my desk, I noticed my elbow was itching – the skin reacted to whatever chemical was on the wood even after a good clean with soapy water. I’m annoyingly sensitive to what feels like everything at the moment. Thankfully, the rash cleared when I stopped leaning my elbow on the desk (a bad habit anyway):
Positive Thinking: What Made Watson Smile
And, of course, here’s a few smiles for you – the last one somewhat unexpected…
My new working from home desk:
I used to spend a lot of time studying from home – the lack of desk space was always a nuisance. Dad suggested securing a top to my current desk, making it longer and wider – a simple £15 fix. We had an amusing visit to Ikea: Dad drove around the car park for ages looking for a space, refusing to go up a level, I took us on an unnecessary walk around the shop trying to find the lifts and we got stuck in the car park, creating a queue of cars when we were trying to leave – we did chuckle afterwards though. Dad attached the desktop while I was at work and as a bonus, fixed my filing cabinet drawer so that I no longer need to use a doorstop to keep the drawer shut:
A lovely leaving card:
I had my last day of work at the Covid vaccine centre – I will miss that buzzing atmosphere. The amazing Admin Shift Leads pulled together a lovely leaving card for me, despite only finding out that morning that it was my last day. I’m eternally grateful for my job at the vaccine centre – it was the doorway into my new dream job as an NHS Health and Wellbeing Coach:
The 100 club:
I received a WordPress notification informing me that I’d reached 100 posts – it took me a while (21 months of blogging), but I got there eventually – go me:
A family get together (under sad circumstances):
We went to my cousin’s funeral. Understandably, you might ask why a funeral made me smile. The situation and funeral itself didn’t make me happy at all, but it was nice to see family I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic started. The Wake was in the countryside, in my cousin’s garden. We were fortunate it was a gorgeous warm and sunny day, making outside socialising particularly pleasant. Also, this was the furthest I’d travelled since before the pandemic started – it was lovely to see all the pretty countryside whizzing by on our journey there and back again. A bittersweet day, one might say:
I hope you enjoyed this week’s ‘What’s on Watson’s Plate’. Please feel free to follow my bite-sized updates on Instagram or Facebook. See you next week for another catch up.
What's on Watson's Plate 
Whoot! Congratulations on your 100th post! 😀
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Thank you 🙂
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IKEA is the best!!! Apparently…so is your dad for fixing you a better work station. I…also…have been moving into a new part of our apartment so that when I write I can now look out into the courtyard directly. It’s working but I bet I have spent hours trying to get my chair height/feel right!! Can’t tell from the news…but are you guys able to freely visit the pub, grocery shop etc. now? We are in the heat of Delta now and our “brilliant” governor says we are now in an “en-demic”…don’t I wish. It seems like yesterday when you were starting that job…and now you’re leaving…
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Oh wow, having a courtyard view sounds like an amazing writing setting (although, I’d probably end up losing loads of time just staring outside)
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Oh, I pressed return by mistake – I hadn’t finished! Where was I?… I know what you mean about trying to get the chair height right. I bought a new office chair, but now I’m thinking it isn’t quite right for me, so I’ll need a different one. I’m trying to avoid shops as much as possible though and buying online is awkward for things like office chairs. The UK is pretty much acting back to normal now, except shops and public transport ask that you wear masks, although many don’t (I do). There have been crowds at music festivals and soccer matches as a return to normal. I haven’t sat inside a pub or restaurant yet and I probably won’t until next year (or perhaps after my next covid booster). As I work in healthcare, we still wear masks and distance from each other in offices. I was only in the vaccine centre job for a few months (since end of April) – it was great though and opened up my opportunites – I’ll always be grateful for that. I’m looking forward to reading more of your writings soon (I really need to catch up with everyone’s posts).
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