This week seems to have gone on forever. It started on Sunday I drove slightly North to pick up my parents.

I then drove South to pub in the middle of the west country. Screaming spine and bubbling bladder kept me alert on the road.

Funeral Monday one of my Dad’s relatives…96 anaesthetist pioneer of pain management, unwitting benefactor is me.

The coffin came in to Colonel Bogey March. The wonderful chaplain opened proceedings by explaining he had to stop his prayer recitation on account of his chuckles.

My cousin’s eulogy magnificent honest account of the geyser that was his father…bubbling away…erupt…then calm…[ from the dictionary: a hot spring in which water intermittently boils, sending a tall column of water and steam into the air]

In the quiet bits my brain wandered to bladder…please don’t leak…please don’t spasm… just til I get the parents back home then blow. I like the geyser analogy.

Well we made it. Geyser bladder, driving through pelting rain, spinal patches everywhere. My brother ever supportive rang in from Canada. To his credit he organised the west country pub barman to make a special cocktail for my mother. Erm two cocktails later and the uninhibited talk, I could not possibly here repeat!

My  bar bill on check out seemed very liquid.

Got the parents home,returned in the morning to take my mother for oncology check …’carry on as’…and back to a week of tutoring and teacher researching and bladder.

Bladder threatening to burble at any moment my thoughts turned to NHS> the BBC programme I watched with daughter 2. She knows most of the staff having worked on the the wards there. She is now at a an other hospital but reports the same. Her white faced arrival for a night at home she tearfully explains her schedule….working in outpatients for 5 days…day 6 ie Saturday she’s working across the whole hospital, Sunday she tries to sleep eat and wash.  Then back to work Monday to find she’s been rota’d for longer days…no discussion. This weekend she’s been sent on a course…will be back to work Monday…I was close to tears myself as I listened…I offered log fire,  gin, supper and laundry..which seemed to help. This really cannot be right .Watching #Hospital  that poor man patiently waiting for his operation… goodness knows how many clinicians timetabled to be there for his op…only to find it was cancelled…for lack of a bed. This is as nutty as Trump. Wake up world this is all out of control.