Precious Minutes, Life on Hold

Earlier in the week I attended the local Mental Health Forum and unexpectedly found myself taking the minutes. I may have mentioned previously having volunteered to become the Minutes Secretary for another group - the local Mental Health Stakeholders Group. The networks and contacts link into each other. Anyway, I took notes at the Forum and transcribed them today. It's interesting how the cancer thing is making me re-evaluate how I spend my time. That, and a presentation on 'Grace' I found on the www.Dabmin.org site, which suggests even doing good works might be wrong in some circumstances.

Meanwhile the desk grows daily more untidy as I add further paperwork to the heaps with little inclination to do anything to clear the backlog. It's not that I don't have time ... just perhaps not using that time as wisely as I could. Have you ever put life on 'hold' - putting things off until a certain event? Today I found myself reading through some old notes, including a plan I'd drawn up for a session on curing procrastination which for some reason was never delivered to the intended target group. All good stuff ... but did I leap into action and put it into practice? Well, what do you think?

Had the final session with the Family Therapy counsellor today - she's very nice. She asked me to keep her informed on how I get on.

Nice - now there's an undervalued adjective. I notice I've been using it a lot lately. I can remember an English teacher (whether one of mine or one of the children's I can't quite recall) banning the use of 'nice' in any piece of creative writing, and demanding 20 suitable alternative adjectives.

At yesterday's appointment the Consultant wanted some blood tests but by the time he got to see me, the haematology department had closed for the day, so I had to arrange to have it done at my GP surgery. I rang at 6 pm yesterday and was offered an appointment a week hence. I explained why it was urgent and was put on hold for a few minutes then offered an appointment this morning at 8.40 am, which was great. The nurse was nice to me Later the Breast Care Nurse rang to give me an appointment for Ultrasound scan. She anticipates being in a position to give me a date for the operation next Tuesday (once the surgeon has had a look at the Ultrasound scan and the blood test results).

The weather was nice today - if I'm totally honest, I think I would have preferred being over the allotment to transcribing notes from a dull Forum. Or better still, dancing! Last night's lesson in the intermediate class was very enjoyable, putting a bit of elegance into the Waltz.