pandering to popularity

Wandering along a corridor in one of the busiest general hospitals in the country. First I met a colleague who works there - I told her about my mother - and she generously offered to pop in to see her. I did warn her "she'll talk your ears off"! "I'm from Glasgow", she said, "I can handle that!"

A little further on I met a panda, just popping out of a standing of bamboo shoots. My goodness, when I worked in hospital day and night (1966-72), there was none of this nonsense. Matron would not have approved of a panda - she didn't even approve of patients, I suspect.

The panda is all about creating friendly and accessible hospitals. I'm not against that on principle. And, in fact, if a child was walking along - a bit upset because a parent or grandparent was an in-patient - I could imagine that this would be a welcome diversion and lift the mood.

Anyway, the mother is not really much better! Hope tomorrow sees a bit of improvement. The rest of the day was a terrible hotch-potch. Every task I started had to be abandoned for lack of having the right resources to hand. Tomorrow looks not much better - starts well and descends from there I think.