Well, we can’t expect every day to be good and this one was rather fragmented. I took Françoise to catch the direct bus to Bristol for a specialist appointment at Southmead hospital because the indirect one takes an extra half hour which is tedious. I then went to complete the garden job we started yesterday and had the pleasure of tidying up a front garden and having the customer praise me for my work.

I then had a fairly difficult call with a lady for whom I’d been working. Her son keeps on interfering and he asked his mother to ask me how much I worked for per hour. I already told her I don’t work by the hour but by the job. it really annoys me that people who are not gardeners, and have never hired a gardener in their life, think they know what the hourly cost is or should be. if I worked for £10 an hour I would be working for less than the minimum wage taking into account costs of running the company, petrol etc.  What I cannot explain to people is that we work hard and we work fast so we do jobs in half the time.  I have already decided not to take part in jobs where the person that I’m talking to is not the person who pays, and when they cannot review the job and sign it off when it is finished.

I rescued Françoise who was upset because the specialist did not show any particular interest or knowledge of her allergy conditions. He did a couple of tests with her that he felt at the time would not lead to anything and sure enough the result was negative. Because she has no obvious symptoms, dizziness etc he was not interested in pursuing the matter further and I suppose there is a limit to what you can do in 20 min. He recommended a dietician which might not be a bad idea.

I am making arrangements for my meeting next Wednesday. I am chairing it as well as leading it and wonder what proportion of the ideas I have will be taken. There are basically two parties; the ex-patients of a trauma situation in a hospital, and the team that are responsible for discharging them and offering continual support. I decided to give quite deep into the theory of trauma and discuss its implications for overview and support by the medical profession. I am volunteering to represent the patients. It is great fun to put a website together. I am at my best when I’m doing something completely new that no one else has done.

Today I found a designer via People Per Hour. The architecture of the site is getting worse and worse but it’s still just about delivers people and they normally do the job quite well in fact very well for a good price. She’s going to get on with it tomorrow morning and by coincidence she lives in Bristol, which is in the area served by the hospitals concerned.