OMG I'm a student again!

In July I began the process of going back to studying.  I left school in 1983 after doing my CSE exams and joined a Youth Training Scheme to study to be a secretary and that's what I've done in one form or another ever since.

4 years ago I had to give up my job at a local nursing home due to ill health and to say I was gutted would be an understatement, I loved working there and it broke my heart to leave.

Now, four years on from that and with those health problems which robbed me of my working life, independence and confidence now sorted and having gained a new knee just for good measure, I decided the time had come for me to return to the work place.
I needed to get my independence back after relying on Hari so much for the past few years and also my confidence had suffered greatly from spending so much time at home on my own.  I found that all government agencies which are supposedly there to help disabled people who are out of work as much use as chocolate teapots and after realising that I could only depend on myself to find me work I set about it with enthusiasm.

However, on applying for a few admin jobs I discovered that things had changed considerably in those short 4 years and that although I've always worked in admin so had a steady working history, I was no longer suitable for most jobs as the role of the secretary/admin had evolved into a much more managerial based role.
Once upon a time in an office you would have had an Office Manager/Senior Secretary, then under her there would have been one or more middle-of-the-range secretaries and then at the bottom the Office Junior.  Now it seemed that all those job titles had been rolled in to one all encompassing title of Office Administrator.

So I had a think about it and thought 'what would I really like to do, what sector would I like to work in if I could choose any?'.
I decided a medical environment would be an interesting & challenging place to work and ideal for me as hospital environments don't scare me, hell I've been in and out of hospital so much in my 46 years that they feel quite safe & homely to me. When I go for my out-patient appointments at various departments we pass little rooms in corridors with their doors propped open and those rooms contain lots of women all sat tap-tapping away at keyboards, deep in concentration and there are piles and piles of paper and medical files and everything exciting to a filing & organisation freak like myself and THAT is the kind of place I would like to work!

So, as applying for jobs & attending interviews wasn't doing the trick, I decided to look for a college course in medical administration and found a City & Guilds Level 2 course with an AMSPAR qualification - which stands for The Association of Medical Secretaries, Practice Managers, Administrators and Receptionists - and it seems thats what you need to get a foot in the door.
I applied, was interviewed, got my text books, sorted funding and soon 12th September came.

Nervous doesn't even begin to describe how I felt last Thursday morning.  I was beyond nervous, and considered backing out quite a few times but desperately wanted to kick start my life off so despite the sick feeling, the nerves and the thousands of butterflies going bonkers in my stomach I arrived at the college around 9am.  Hari, bless him, came with me and we had a cuppa together in the canteen then he wished me luck and off I went in the lift (this college is completely wheelchair accessible) to the 3rd floor and into my class. 

Thursday - the first day flew by in a whirl of induction information, slide show presentations, meeting 16 other students and the lovely tutor.  There was a good mix of nationalities and ages and to my delight, I wasn't the oldest there as I'd feared - woohoo.
There was an exercise in getting to know each other and chance to mingle when we went on a tea break and lunch.  It's mostly women on this course, which I guess is to be expected although there are 2 blokes.
Friday - the second day found us downstairs on the ground floor in a room with no pc's.

Today we got our id badges which double as cards for using library & college facilities.  We learned bones of the body, pharmaceutical abbreviations and were given the phonetic alphabet to take home and learn.

So, in conclusion at the end of my first week I arrived home absolutely knackered, so tired I could barely keep my eyes open.  But above all I was excited about the future and what else I could learn.  Those first 2 days had been fun, we'd had lots of laughs as the tutor has lots of tales to tell, most of which had us laughing and I actually enjoyed mixing with people although I was still having a major problem with confidence and on the two occasions the tutor had tried to get me to stand in front of the class to recite something I was mortified and wanted the ground to open and swallow me!  But I am sure I'll get past that.  Most importantly I can't wait for Thursday to go back!!

Time for a motability car **gulp**

In the words of the God which is Neil Diamond... Hellooooooo again, hello.


After MUCH, much and even more discussion lately brought on by the breaking down of my car we decided to bite the bullet and get a motability car.  I get DLA (Disability Living Allowance) for mobility, in fact I get the highest rate of the mobility component but as I'd always had a working car we had opted to have the monthly DLA payment as a cash amount.
We had always said that the time would eventually come to exchange the cash for the car deal and after being totally lost for a fortnight without my car recently, the peace of mind I would get from having a motability car outweighed everything else for me.

So last Wednesday we headed off to the Ford dealership for our appointment with the motability man.  Hari had done a lot more homework than me, the technical stuff goes "whooosh" right over my head; in one ear and out the other, I'm much more of an 'ooooh that colour is nice' so I was lucky Hari had some interest.
He'd searched the motability site and read review after review and found that the Fiesta Zetec was more or less what I wanted.  Me?  My only criteria was it must be automatic, it mustn't be too long or wide (a bit like my current car which is also a fiesta), and it absolutely must not be dual control like my current car.

We looked at a Zetec in the showroom, it looked a bit sporty & a bit long for me but as there was one at this showroom we took it for a test drive.  I have to say I was very nervous at driving a car that wasn't mine; I haven't driven any other car (I had a go on a mobility scooter a couple of times) since my rover 8 years ago and this was a shiny, brand new car.  However, as soon as that handbrake went down and I gently accelerated out of the showroom I was comfortable and at home.  We went on a test drive of about 10 minutes round Trafford Park with Hari asked me manly, testosterone loaded questions from the back seat like "how's it handling?" & "how's the acceleration?" and I answered in a typically girly way "Oh it's lovely!" and it was.

The main things I liked about it were I felt quite high up in my seat, in my current car I sometimes feel like I'm sitting on the actual road it's so low but in this car the seat height can be adjusted.  Also because I can't use my right foot to drive I have to cross my left foot over my right to get to the accelerator pedal and in my car this is quite a stretch, in this one it felt much easier.  The gears had gone a bit crap in my fiesta too following an MOT a couple of years ago which meant I had to change up from 3rd to 4th & 4th to 5th, it was nice to be in a car with gears which changed themselves, as they should in an automatic.  And most importantly the boot was big enough to get the wheelchair in.

We had a chat when we got back to the showroom and decided to go for it *gulp* so with paperwork all completed and copies of driving licences made we left the showroom in my lil blue fiesta.  Maybe I should have had test drives in other cars, but truth be told there was only the Volkswagon Polo that I was interested in and I thought why not go for the Zetec as it's everything I need, I'm not very good with too much choice that's usually when I start to dither!

2 days later Kurt rang me to say all the DLA checks had been done and everything was groovy and I should have the car in about 2 weeks time.
I'm a little nervous I have to say, A) about driving a brand new sparkly car.  All 3 of my cars have been second hand and B) about not having the cash amount coming in every month but then again I won't have any car expenses to worry about. 
However, as I said above the advantages of having a reliable car again, one where the gears all work, that is comfortable to drive, that I know any expenses connected with it are covered is such a weight off my mind meaning my independence is secured for the time being.  With this awful government and its insistence to penalise disabled people for being disabled my award, despite it being 'for life' as my disability is also for life, can be reviewed at any time.

The mobility man rang again this morning, we're collecting the new car next Wednesday.  Excitement levels are very high!!