On Monday I had a great day out with Mum and Dad, we went to London to see the Terracotta army. Joe and I would love to go to China to see the army in all its vastness but for now this is all we can do. The British Museum had about 12 whole figures, some horses and a few extra bits. Every face different it must be amazing to see the whole army. The display showed you how the First Emperor of China took over the nation and then prepared for his death by building his temple for his tomb and organising his protection. Not only did the army contain warriors but also civil servants to keep the paper work in the after life and some entertainment was also organised in heavy weight men and aerobatic artists. The man thought of everything no surprise he became the first emperor.
the queues were huge and it took ages to get round, and that was having booked the tickets in the Summer. It was well worth it though and I would love to have the opportunity to travel to China and see it for real.
I have been involved in a new project at work over the last few weeks. Its a quality improvement project where by we are using techniques from Toyota and bringing them in the NHS. Hmmm you may be thinking, well so was I. We have spent the last couple of weeks learning all about lean techniques , which is basically to eliminate waste and to poka-yoke (mistake proof) a system. Apply Lean to the NHS and it will, while using no more resources:
- Improve the quality of patient care
- Improve safety
- Eliminate delays
- Reduce length of stay
Sounds far to good to be true, the project will last six months so only time will tell.
The first thing we have been doing is using the 5 S approach to sort ourselves out.
Sort - remove unnecessary items from the workplace
Straighten - locate everything at the point of use
Sweep - Clean and eliminate sources of filth
Standardise - Make routine and standard for what good looks like
Self - discipline - make 5S second nature.
The first thing we attacked was the drug cupboard as it was organised chaos. We have now split the cupboards in two, one for stock and one for dispensing with one packet of each drug in use at a time. It is now a beautiful cupboard and lets just hope we can roll it out across the whole room.
We then move on to complicated things like process mapping, it took us two days to map a patient journey with right upper quadrant pain. The trouble with trying to apply processes used to build cars in to the NHS is the healing people is not as simple as making cars. everyone is different. We spent the whole days saying things like 'well that depends' and we have so much that depends on external departments that we can not control like theatres and radiology.
I hope we see improvement and are able to met the aims of the project to increase safety and give nurses more time to nurse instead of answering the phone or searching for equipment etc.
I am now very tempted to apply the 5S approach to our new house and get rid of all the stuff we don't need and find an appropriate place for everything that would be bliss.
A couple of years ago Joe came across a website of a photographic family chronology. Each year the family gather and take a photo and catalogue it on this site. We decided this was a pretty cool idea so have started ourselves.
We set the date to 1st October as this is the date we met. The project began last year in Cameroon and continued in a rainy car park. We set on a head shot of each of us and a full length of the family together.
The Talbot photo chronology
I have lived in Oxford for 10 years now and it that 10 years I never visited the Oxford Story. The Oxford story is a ride along thing telling the history of Oxford. How it grew as a University city and telling stories of all the famous alumni. From the literature from Oxford - Lewis Carroll, C S Lewis and T R R Tolkien to name a few. To the 25 Prime ministers and the first use of Penicillin.
The attraction has had to close after being open for 20 years as it needs so much renovation. I could choose to have commentary from Timmy Mallet or Magnus Magnerson as we rode through the back streets of historic Oxford. It was fun and I can see that every school child in Oxfordshire must have gone on a school trip there at some point. It is quite sad it is closing really, not that I ever went until the last day but at least I knew it was there!
I have been very lapse at blogging recently. Life has been busy. I have been on a stinking long stretch at work so had no days off for ages. Then all my spare time in the last few weeks has been spent house shopping. Last weekend we accepted a offer on our house meaning it was all systems go. Today we have had an offer accepted on a house for us to buy.
We were a little worried as this house was a little out of our price range, also a little over priced if you ask me, so we put in a low offer. But after a bit of haggling an agreement was made which suited both parties and the plan is to complete in the new year. It is all so exciting :-)
What an absolutely amazing book. This is the first book in a long time to really get my emotions going. It is just so gripping and so gut wrenching. At times it is certainly not pleasant to read but blows any other book out of the water.
The story of two boys living in Afghanistan who are friends but from very different back grounds. One very well to do with a good upbringing and the other the son of his father's Hazara servant. The story is set in the time of the fall of Afghanistan with mass exodus and Taliban rule. The main character after ending up in America is forced to return to Afghanistan to clear up a long lived guilt. It is very well written and whatever I read next will have a hard act to follow. Must read his next book - on the Christmas list me thinks!
