Peterborough & The Peak District

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Peterborough & The Peak District (23rd October - 1st December 2006)

London (13th-22nd October)
It was great to spend 3 weeks in Melbourne catching up with family and friends but it was time for me to head back to London on the 12th of October to start working and travelling again. Such a terribly hard life! I didn’t seem to be able to get a locum position while I was still in Melbourne and it was that fraction easier being over here. I also had an interview on the 16th of October for a chalet hosting position in France over the ski season. I was offered the job and will be working in a chalet down the road from Bern and Elizabeth starting on the 4th of December. A guaranteed white Christmas! It was difficult to be come back over here on my own but I knew it would all be okay once I got here and it was.

It took almost a week to get a locum position which isn’t bad given that there are less positions available now. I spent a few nights at the Generator Hostel in Russell Square (central London) and a few nights with Kendra in south London. During the week I spent time wandering around central London and avoided catching the tube so I could see where I was going. The tube stops in central London are very close together. The colours of Autumn were beautiful especially around Hyde Park. I made it to Westminster Abbey where I hadn’t yet visited and found the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and Peter Pan in Hyde Park. I saw Footloose the musical in the West End and caught up with new and old friends in London.

Peterborough
I moved to Peterborough at the end of the week arriving on a Sunday where I learnt the hard way that there isn’t a supermarket open after 4pm. Peterborough, although a very small city of its own is also part of the county of Cambridgeshire, an hour north of central London if you are on the fast train!
I managed to sprain my ankle for the second time in 4 months partly due to carrying too much luggage up to Peterborough and obviously a weakened ankle. Thankfully I could still walk on it despite a lot of swelling.
I moved in to the Main Nurses Home on the site of the Peterborough District Hospital.
A building built in the 60’s with an interesting array of bathroom facilities. On my floor was a bathroom (containing a bath), a shower room (containing a shower) and then there was the shampoo room with a basin and hand held shower and a very old hair setter!
I started work at Edith Cavell Hospital on two Medicine for the Elderly wards, a good half an hour walk from the District Hospital.
Just something interesting that I hadn't come accross before - military wards. There are specific wards here that are run by military medical staff and all the patients either still are or have been in the military at some time. One morning all the staff were lined up along the corridor of the ward to greet some important military personnel when they arrived. All the military staff wear military uniforms while they are working. An OT from New Zealand who works on this ward said she was frowned upon for not laying a patients medical notes squarely on the desk. They were promptly straightened!

Halloween & Bonfire Night
In the lead up to Halloween (31st Oct) and Bonfire Night (5th Nov) there was literally fireworks going off every night of the week in Peterborough and it was during this time that I read a newspaper headline that said ‘police targeting firework yobs.’ Fireworks can be purchased very easily at stores over this time. There were a few witches (kids trick or treating) wandering the streets of Peterborough on Halloween night and lots of Halloween decorations about. There was a big bonfire in Peterborough and they put on quite a spectacular fireworks display - not the back yard variety that I’d been watching from the nurses home for the past 2 weeks. Bonfire night is celebrated every year to mark when Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London in 1605.


Peak District
I spent two weekends walking in the Peak District around some quaint little English towns including Cromford, Matlock, Matlock Bath, Hayfield and Castleton. I also explored Kinder Scout, Kinder Downfall and the ridge of Mam Tor. There were gale force winds the day I was walking around Kinder Scout and Kinder Downfall was no longer flowing down but the water was blowing very much in an upward direction, a spectacular site. The autumn colours of the Peak District made it a very beautiful sight to see. All the dry stone walls still fascinate me because they are absolutely everywhere in the countryside and they are hundreds of years old.

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