Yesterday evening I was anxiously reading through my notes from the St John Ambulance Vaccination Training three months ago. This morning I could barely concentrate on anything. This afternoon I cycled through rain to the first shift on which I might have been asked to vaccinate. For the first three hours I was checking names and appointments as people came in, then I was asked if I wanted my first real-life vaccination training. 

I needn't have fretted. Apart from anything else the rapport was so much easier with a real human than with a dummy. My third vaccinee told me she had needle phobia. Quick eye-contact with Kirsty, my trainer, then I moved a step back, she moved a step forward and I was able to witness a skilled vaccinator deliver a vaccine in a millisecond. 'Is it done?' asked the bemused needle phobe. 

Kirsty watched me do one more, a gloriously tattooed shoulder that couldn't possibly have been needle phobic, then she left me to it. My seventh vaccinee said, 'Is that it? You have a lovely hand.' So kind!

I lost count of how many more real people I vaccinated after that. A brilliant afternoon and of course the sun was shining when I came out. But I was so tired when I got home that I fell asleep over my cup of tea.