{"id":114,"date":"2018-11-02T17:03:32","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T17:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/?p=114"},"modified":"2018-11-02T17:03:32","modified_gmt":"2018-11-02T17:03:32","slug":"marking-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/?p=114","title":{"rendered":"Marking Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, the 1st\u00a0<\/sup>of November, was a significant date, and its being so came to mind while we were out for a meal with friends, talking about my future plans and how long I had left in the Practice.<\/p>\n

Sylvia has been keeping an eye on the number of months, then weeks, and now working days that are left\u00a0before my upcoming retirement, but when people ask me if I am counting the days, my reply is along these lines: I remember when, as I child, the more I looked forward to Christmas, the longer it seemed to take to arrive; so, no, I am not counting the days!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Time is indeed a funny thing.\u00a0 When we are looking forward to some future event, time seems to slow, but when we are dreading an event, time speeds up.\u00a0 When work is busy, time rushes by; when work is (rarely) quiet, or the time to switch the phones to the out-of-hours service is drawing near, then time drags oh so slow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As we get older, time seems to speed up. \u2018Hasn\u2019t this year gone quickly?\u2019 we say.\u00a0 \u00a0Andy Rooney, the American radio and TV writer and broadcaster, once said: \u201cI’ve learned that life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We mark time in many ways, and one of these is the taking note of anniversaries.\u00a0 We gather more and more of these through our lives, as additions to the family increase the number of birthdays and wedding anniversaries; and the loss of loved ones add anniversaries of their death to those of their birth. \u00a0From personal, family and professional experience, I have seen how, following the death of a close loved one, the first anniversary of their birthday, their death, the first Christmas, are especially poignant, though these dates will be marked by the bereaved for many, many years.\u00a0 Some happy anniversaries, particularly birthdays and wedding anniversaries are somehow increased in their importance by reaching a significant number \u2013 so a 50th\u00a0<\/sup>wedding anniversary is inordinately more notable than the 49th<\/sup>! \u00a0Thus, when Haslar Immigration Removal Centre closed in 2015, I felt cheated by it closing just nine months before I would have celebrated 25 years of service there.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yesterday, was the 28th<\/sup>anniversary of my joining the Practice, and snippets of memory of those earliest days came back to me.\u00a0 Of being introduced to patients by the Senior Partner \u2026 of finding my feet in a new job \u2026 of the welcome and kindness I received \u2026 of people telling me I looked far too young!\u00a0 I had hoped and planned to reach 30 years \u2013 a nice round number \u2013 but staying on to reach that arbitrary figure is not a realistic proposition and, surely, 28 years of work is not devalued by being two short of thirty. \u00a0Rather, I count myself lucky to have enjoyed so much of my career, to have worked with some really super people, and to have looked after and got to know my patients for such a long period of time. \u00a0Yes, I fully agree with one of the superb aphorisms in Margaret McCartney\u2019s recent \u2018A Summary of four and a half years of columns in one column\u2019\u00a0https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/362\/bmj.k3745<\/a>\u00a0\u201cMedicine is an absolutely brilliant job, and having long term relationships with patients and families is one of the most joyous and fulfilling aspects of work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, the 1st\u00a0of November, was a significant date, and its being so came to mind while we were out for a meal with friends, talking about my future plans and how long I had left in the Practice. Sylvia has been keeping an eye on the number of months, then weeks, and now working days…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.talesfromtheboatshed.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}