All last week the days were dim and I would have just hibernated, but now I have the answer. It's a bright LED therapy light. I put it on one side of my desk and I am not looking at it but I am very conscious of it. The idea is that you have it on for about 2 hours a day in the morning, but I just put it on when I need it because the day is dull. So far it has helped a lot with my sleep patterns.
Last week we volunteered every morning at the Woking vaccination centre. On the second day (Wednesday) we had to do lateral flow tests (putting a stick up our nostrils and twirling -ugh!) and they were negative, but as we all know the tests are only 75% reliable. The first day we were there was extremely busy and we were quite overwhelmed with trying to manage the flow of patients. No one took much of a break for the 4 hours we were there. (8am -12noon) It was strange to get up so early - still dark when we got up. One of our fellow volunteers was a guy called Alex we liked a lot as he was so willing to clean everything - and so good with wheelchair-users. There were 4 wheelchairs that had been supplied from here and there and must have been in a dusty cupboard. So the wheelchair users had to go in at the exit, which was a ramp, and someone inside has to sign to the exit volunteer that someone is coming up the ramp. On the third day, we got the jab ourselves because there was some terrible glitch in the bookings system and we just didn't have enough oldies coming. Our administrator got in touch with the Bustler drivers (very jolly people) and NHS receptionists and schools that could send teachers in the evening - also staff from Sainsbury's - anyone who would benefit rather than throw away the precious fluid - it was the Pfizer vaccine which apparently only keeps for three days out of the freezer. Eventually, more oldies started to come and in the evening, apparently, it was a pile-up with a long queue out of the door.
After the four mornings, we were beginning to feel like a team, and the doctors/nurses/administrators were all treating us like regulars, which of course we were. But the jobs are quite boring and we were ready for a break, so the next week we signed up to one shift each, and mine was at Walton.
At Walton we had a shift lead, Rachel K whom we know well because of rowing, there to brief all the new people about what to do, how to keep the flow of people organised. I felt quite sorry for the vaccinators - three at Walton, as we sent along one patient after the other with no respite for hours. At Woking, there were four vaccinators and they took turns to go into a side kitchen and make hot drinks, which they had at their desks. The slowest part is having the patients wait for 15 minutes after their injections to see if they have a funny turn. We got quite a pile-up of people, and their chairs (we had a good supply of chairs) got steadily closer together. I tried hard to keep them 1 metre apart.
I was not able to sanitise the chairs of the 15-minute waiters as they were taken so quickly but I was busy sanitising other chairs and they could see I was doing my best. The guidance has changed a bit. Now we are only supposed to sanitise the chairs after every fifth bottom or thereabouts. This because we were running out of virus-killing wipes. This will stop the volunteers from cleaning like mad as there was quite a competition to see who could be the most fastidious cleaner of chairs.
At Walton, where there is plenty of space upstairs for the volunteers to have time out, there is also a competition to see who can be the most benevolent volunteer. One volunteer brought in a cake. Another brought in a coffee machine. Another retaliated with a microwave oven. Rachel K went and got a discount from a coffee shop for all the volunteers. And so it goes on. They have What's App groups for both venues so I know what's going on, and it makes me smile, but today I thought, in these awful times when we have so little in the way of a community, people are desperate to form a community, a sisterhood even. But what I didn't much like about Walton was the other volunteers being young and rather superior women. One of them took my Hi-Viz gilet off me although I had brought it with me. These young women are very forceful and I just have to do what they tell me. But, in revenge, I don't like them.
All this is being done through the NHS and they are doing it really well, unlike the private companies which did Test and Trace and basically didn’t Trace anyone. £18 billion to Serco, apparently, for f. all.
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