Merry Christmas!

I am on my way for the coldest Christmas.
Sweden does sound cold but it will be a
'brown' one as my friend put it!

On your bike

Year 2011 has been good year, full of interesting

encounters from start to the very end feeling very
fortunate and blessed. I have learnt alot and
realised some of my weaknesses but overall
I am very pleased.

I wish you a very happy Christmas and an exciting start!

Last one for 2011

It is a bit boring but a new design.

ECG

Electrocardiography (ECG)

This is how an electric activity of a normal heart looks like.
I went for ECG this morning as I have been experiencing some
tight chest for the last few weeks and my GP referred me for it.
I guess the GP took a cautious approach given my medical history.
I was very pleased to know that nothing was found and my heart
is healthy and cycling will keep it well too!

Bromptoneer!!

Yes, I am back on the roads with my two wheels.
I collected my new brompton this morning
and it is beautiful! Brooks leather saddle is
pretty hard but just have to give it a good ride
to mould into my bum!

.

Gerhard Richter-Panorama

@ Tate Modern

6 oct 2011- 8 jan 2012

This is the first exhibition to inspire my desire
to paint. I really did not have much expectations
of his exhibition but it was good. Some were quite
random but many of his works made me feel liberated.

Triple Bill

Asphodel Meadows

Enigma Variations

Gloria

by The Royal Ballet

@ Royal Opera House 



Asphodel Meadows





A view from the balcony



I had a bit of a difficult day but it was so uplifting.

It really gave me a delightful evening,

what a fantastic show!

Random

Perhaps I should have got red for winter and

green for summer...hummmm...

Guess where the light is in the flat!

Waiting Waiting.....

I did not share the very sad news about my stolen brompton
as I was so upset that I could not bring myself to write about it
which meant I had to think about the situation again!
Well, it got stolen in a very doggy area of south London in June
just after my birthday and I said to myself that I will not cycle again.

After few months of compromising with the public transport and time.
I had to cycle again and of course I would not cycle any other bicycle
but a brompton! It was really when I borrowed my manager's brompton
to get to a meeting and it just felt so right! So off I went and
ordered a new baby early this month. It will look totally different.
I had a hard(!) time deciding on the colour! I was going for the same
colour as it is the best colour BUT they had a couple of new colours out
which got me so indecisive but all the decision are made and I only have to wait.

I ordered my bike lights two weeks ago which arrived but it was not working! Dame it!
I received as I was leaving for work in the morning so I checked very quickly.
I went to hardware store for the battery today as it requires lithium cell but I was not
sure of the size so I said I will come back and opened the back to discover
that each, front and rear, of them needs two! Then I found that there was a paper
inbetween the batterys...yes...it was to stop it from being used?! 
I felt a bit silly but very happy that they are working!!!! hhh

I had Knog lights last time too which are very effective and sexy!
They are a bit expensive but good value for money.

Yes, please tell me I am obsessive with my bicycle but with bromptons
you have to be! And often they are passionate cyclists too :)
I am extremely excited to be cycling again despite the crazy drivers!

                       ***************************
In general, I am pretty good in waiting for something I really want
whether that is an item, plans, future or even with people.
Of course, with people it is not easy but I do wait for some people sometimes....

Nublu-London Jazz Festival

The band has just started!

Queen Elizabath Hall

Southbank Centre

Front Room

It was like a club night with a live gig,

well that was what it was.

Wrist band was given at the door too.

I was a bit tired so we just seat at the back and

enjoyed watching others dancing away

which is a very rare thing for me as I would be out on the floor!



The band was a very good a cross over between rock and jazz,

plus some Turkish touch!

A view of the Thames and the reflection of the lights from the room.

I did not get to go to many gigs and concerts as I would have liked to but

I did enjoy the two I have been to this year.

I think I will go to more live Jazz jams which I have not been for the

last two years...not sure why but I just did not bother with live Jazz

but continued with various classical concerts though.

A Friday Laugh!

"A grapefruit is a lemon that had a chance
and took advantage of it. "
Oscar Wilde


Hahaha a very Oscar Wilde quote!
I am looking forward to seeing some nice seaside in Hove tomorrow.

Oh...... Dear......

I am a bit early for a meeting.
It is good that I am not in the office this afternoon
as I had such a stressful morning that I could have
lost myself. Well, I nearly did loss myself on the telephone
with a wife of a client.

Yes, it is one of those days but I just feel more and more
that I am not coping and is it worth just pushing
myself to try and work if maybe I cannot deal with
certain aspect of some people.
It has been a question that I have been asking
myself over and over again.... Am I fit for the job?

..........2012

We are trying to go paperless but we are not there yet
so we still have the luxury of keeping a paper diary.
I use the outlook calendar too for easy acces for other
team members. I was given a 2012 diary and it feels
quite scary to know that 2011 is coming to an end so soon!!!

Absent Minded

I have been on duty for the last three days which have been so hectic!
I am so pleased my three days slot is over for this year and just odd
days here and there till mid December.

I had nearly 20 cases to work on but managed to get down to 4 cases today,
I hope my next duty social worker will be happy to have a small pile of files.
It has been a challenge as my team is the pilot to go paperless when the system
is not fully set up to support us just yet! But it was ok to manage duty.
I just had to concentrate and not loose the chain of thoughts on one case when
telephone calls were transferred half way through a case.

However, I am not sure how many letters I wrote today, quite a few, and the
team admin worker asked who wrote a letter without writing an address on the
envelope at around 16.45 and I just happend to pass by and said we will have to
open and have a look. Well....yes... you might have guessed!
It was one of my letters!!!! We stood by the cabinets laughing so hard.
This shows how busy I was on duty, but it is over and I should get on with my
own cases tomorrow...so many emails to follow up though I have followed up half
of them whilst I was on an hour lunch breaks, I work through my lunch most of the days.

Just one more day and the weekend! Nearly there!!!

Old & New

I have been allocated a case, that I worked
with more than a year ago, for a review.
This does not happen often but it makes it
easier as I already know my service user
and the family.

The husband said it was nice to know
that I am allocated again. It was a nice
feeling to be appreciated at times of what
you have done for them. I must have done
something right!

She has deterioriated and now has
a feeding tube, PEG, in situ.
Well, MS.... It is a progressive neurological
condition so I will just have to see
how it develops and assist when required.

Another loss....

What a week!
First news I had this morning as I walked into the office,
a note on my desk stating a death of a service user.....yesterday afternoon.
This is my second deceased notificiation this week.

One was a cancer service user
and the other was a motor neurone disease service user.
I worked with the latter service user for nearly 2 years and there was
a lot of work required at the beginning. She had 24 hours care at home in the end.
I did not feel ready to ring her son today, but will drop him a call early
next week. I bought a card to send to the family signed by
all the professionals who worked with her, an occupational therapist,
a physiotherapist and palliative care team.
I little warm touch won't be too unprofessional I guess.

I heard about the death of my close friend's father after a bitter battle with cancer
at the weekend too. I was not surprised as his cancer was at such an advance stage.
Whatever the reason, loss of a love one is a really sad news....

May everyone rest in peace.........

John Waterhouse...2009

John William Waterhouse

@ Royal Academy of Arts

27 Jun- 13 Sept 2009



Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus, 1891



Waterhouse was not really one of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood

but adopted their style to some extend and painted after their time.

The Lady of Shalott, 1888

The Mermaid, 1901

Mariamne,1887

Psyche Opening the Golden Box, 1903



I was meaning to upload this for ages...in fact for the last two years!

I went to the exhibition with Laura who also loves the Pre-Raphaelite paintings.

That summer was an interesting and a painful one if I remember right....

I can still remember the day being very sunny and nice but

my feelings did not match up to the bright day.

I think I might have found another friend who likes the Pre-Raphaelite paintings.

Hope you enjoy these paintings if you are visiting my blog!

(photos are from scanned leaflet and postcards)

Intuition

I was allocated a cancer service user in September.
My gut feelings were telling me that we might have lost her.....I do not know why....

She was suffering from an advance stage of ovarian cancer
who was waiting for a major surgery. I followed up to the point
that her surgery was a few days delayed and requested the palliative
care nurse to contact me for discharge plans. I contacted the nurse twice and
left messages and sent emails for an update but did not receive any form of
contacts from the nurse.

I picked up the phone and dialed the service user's mobile number then had a feeling
that this was a wrong move. So I rang the GP instead and I was informed
that she has passed away two weeks ago....as I thought.
I was glad that I did not ring her phone or any of the family members as I have not met
them and it would have been so distressing for them if I had rang to arrange a visit
when the person has passed away.

How interesting that I had the feeling that she might have passed away?
Yes, I think you need sharp observation skills, a cold head, a warm heart and
the ability to trust your intuitions as a social worker.

May she rest in peace.....

Short Trip to Berlin 1

I wanted to capture some quirkiness of Berlin.

I cannot remember which district we were walking...

I think the idea was to leave what you want and take what you need.
Quite a sweet idea.

Berghain....
The coolest club I have experienced so far!
Sex, Drugs & Hardcore Techno
Sheer Madness!!!!

Tadshikische Teeslube
A very interesting and tasty Russian Tea Room

And Me!

21-24th Oct

Short Trip to Berlin 2

I went to meet a friend in Berlin last weekend.

Autumn was well into the city and there were lovely

coloured trees all around.

Me, Jella (who I went to meet), Laura

We went to Ai Weiwei's photography Exhibition, which was
curated by the man himself by hand picking the 200 works of his own.

The trip could not have been the same without Jella and her friends
which gave me so much pleasure. As I did not know what to expect
and it was the same feeling when I first meet Jella in March
through Ruben in the naked sauna in the middle of Provence.
I love to NOT plan on trips and holidays and just to go with the flow.
What a connection...encounters encounters!

21-24th Oct

Volumetric exercise

Is that going to justify what I do on a daily basis?
I, we, was given an excel spreadsheet will lots of colums and drop down options
to select what I do for this whole week. I did it for today and I must say it was rather
irritating to clink to the rigid options to fit into what I do
e.g. number, nature and length of telephone calls, case discussions, report writing etc.
....and I do tasks that were outside the given options.

Why?
The re-structuring has started and the council is trying to get their heads
around on the number of social workers required for adult services.
As we are moving to the new office space around summer next year to
quite south of the borough and the ulitmate reason, cost savings to be made!
I know some boroughs have started the re-structuring sooner than us and
mistakes were made in terms of dismantling the specialist teams, like mine.
I hope lessons are learnt to keep it but we will have to see what happens after
this volumetric exercise has been analysed. I am sure the number will be reduced.
Watch the space!

Berlin...

Yes, I do not have to be online blogging on my short trip
but I had a free wi-fi option and an iPhone so why not.
Well, just very quickly to note how much a break was
needed, only realised that I was very tired.
Sometimes you have to come away from your comfort zone.

I am by Humboldt university waiting for my friend for lunch,
with a cuppuccino and oat cookie under the sun.

Most importantly reading 'tinker tailor soldier spy' as all my friends
have somehow cancalled when we have arranged to see
the film on a Monday for the last three weeks!!!
Maybe it is not a Monday film...
Should really see the film next week and the BBC drama
should be good too, 6 hours. Anyone fancy watching the
drama with me, I will bake sweet some cakes to go with
the hard story. Anyone?

John Martin- Apocalypse

I had a free entry to this special exhibition at Tate Britain through a friend.
We did not have much time so we scanned two exhibitions super quickly.
I was there today to see J. Waterhouse's 'Ophelia' after seeing
Melancholia yesterday.

Scanned cover

                 

                   21 sept 11- 15 jan 12

However, I have to say it was a new discovery of John Martin
which I did not really like his paintings but it was more so the content
of his paintings that has grabbed my attention.

My friend was in front of  'The great day of his wrath, 1851' (below)

Scanned

and pointed at the people on the ground nearly dying said
'......evil, faithless, corrupt.....'
Don't all human beings have these elements but at a different degree?

...................Inspiration inspiration inspiration.................................
I would be most happy if I could be an inspiration in whatever area one
need to be inspired in.

Mental health tribunal

I was granted what i went for.
A little too drunk to write about it now.
Will follow up soon

Health and social care bill

Still waiting for the outcome from Parliament.

Choice > Quality???
Health: traded commodity- sounds familiar being a Korean!
Health is not a public utility.- what do you think?

We should think about this issue, it concerns you and
is how your tax is used!

Guardianship Report

Mental Health Tribunal has been arranged for this Friday
which is not my preferred day as I have not completed the
Guardianship report yet but one of the tribunal panel member
could only attend on the 14th so I had to re-arrange my diary.
I am applying for a Guardianship under the Mental Health Act 1983.

Work at present is pretty busy and this piece of work is an
additional to what I have already so finding time to complete this
long report has been a fight. Furthermore, the panel requiring to
see the report prior to Friday has really pushed for time.
So here I am nearly 12pm today working at home after a long day
as I want to pass the report to the senior who is overseeing the work
first thing in the morning for him to add his part. It is not my direct manager
but a different manager who is a specialist in mental health assessments.

I have not brought work home for a long time but sometimes it is just
inevitable, but should not really do it though. I have to say despite the
pressure, I did enjoy writing the report bring my memories back from
my training time at Goldsmiths College. Also, I am looking forward to
presenting the case at the Tribunal with the manager on Friday as
it would be a new experience. I hope I do not get grilled too heavily!

Stirling, Scotland

My second night was in Stirling the old capital of Scotland.
Below are views taken from Stirling Castle, I did not go into the castle
but I found the cemetery very interesting! Maybe I am a bit odd......

Looks familiar, right?

Weather was so bad yesterday... It rained all day but I insisted on

going for a country walk and I did, in the rain alone.

At this point, rain became heavier and I was quite scared that I was alone and
I did not have any reception on my phone!

I must say it was very pleasant when i really needed the time
for myself to reflect on a number of things.
However, I didn't get to do much thinking and I was not thinking
at all which is a more difficult thing to do!