PHP At Leisure

by Linda

When you work in this profession, you are very aware of the intensity of the job.  The life and death decisions which need to be made on a daily basis and the concentration the vets and nurses need to apply to their jobs.

To balance this very serious side of their lives, the hobbies and interests are also very important to everybody. 

People who visit our premises often remark on our bird feeding station and like to watch the variety of wild birds that come to feed; blue and long tailed tits, chaffinches, green and goldfinches, sparrows, robins……and we constantly top up their peanuts, sunflower seeds and meal worms.  This was Annabel, our Practice Manager’s idea initially and it has been such a success.

Nature is a very big interest to us all and Emily, one of our nurses, takes the most beautiful photographs of forna and flora, taking detailed studies of red squirrels, deer, field mice and many wild birds.  Emily now has acquired a zoom lens and is constantly visiting the local RSPB premises to take pictures.

One drizzly, grey Sunday in January, eight of us, including Emily, set off on a bird watching boat trip from Poole Harbour, the quest to see the massive white tailed eagle, egrets, guillemots etc and although the weather was less than clement, proved to be the most, wonderful, exhilarating trip.  The RSPB guides were extremely enthusiastic and so knowledgeable, constantly spotting interesting wildlife and giving us directions to zoom in on our binocculars for…..”at 10.00 you will notice some egrets, at 2.00 on the mainland you can see a guillemot…….” These clock instructions proved to be very helpful.

Independently, my husband and I often buy ourselves a sandwich in M&S  in Blandford and sit by the River Stour, to see if we can see the kingfishers;  little darts of iridescent blue flashing past like elusive fairies and once we even were lucky enough to see the otters under the bridge, leaping and spiralling into the current after the fish.

Another way we let our hair down is the annual Christmas party.  This is always an experience!  Lots of effort goes into planning our extravaganza and we have shared our festivities with “Freddie Mercury”, “Elton John”, “Rod Stewart”…..and sometimes even “Kate Bush”…….One year, we organised a PHP Oscars ceremony, with staff voting for all the categories, and then golden Oscars were presented to the winners!  Over the years, the stories of our exploits have become PHP legends and we all enjoy reminiscing and recounting the stories.

One of our highlights last year, was when our very effervescent head nurse, Ellie decided we were going to play PHP Traitors.  Our staffroom was transformed into the Traitors HQ, complete with a Rogues’  Gallery of all staff members….all awaiting the fatal red cross when they got murdered or banished.  Ellie, or Claude-ellie as we dubbed  her,  had organised a Group Chat on our phones for us to discuss our theories our suspicions and the three traitors were to have their own WhatsApp Group for plotting.  

The fun we had watching as the game unfolded; the subterfuge, double bluffs and “murders”.  We, on the reception, were the three duplicitous traitors and we had the best time, murdering and banishing our colleagues, at one point it looked like a serial killer after all our vets!  Each time a person was nominated to be banished, they had to create a video professing their innocence or guilt, along the same lines as the television series and we had a sub competition producing the best video.

When it was my turn to be banished, I definitely got the inkling the previous evening that my traitorous ways would be coming to an end……..one of our nurses was very convinced I had a secret and this had become very apparent on the previous night’s group chat.  I told my husband to bring me back some black gloves and rope from work ……

That evening, I had rehearsed my script, and I had my props set out on the kitchen table, rope and carving knife and donned my husband’s black gloves.  I said to my husband, film me and then when I stop speaking, cut the lights!

With great glee I uploaded the video to our Messenger chat room and enjoyed all the laughter;  the video had gone down well!
The next evening our pretty nurse Emily, my accuser from the previous night,  was banished and she produced a very good video, wearing the Traitors cloak and looking very tragic and beautiful as she protested her genuine innocence.

It was with great delight at last year’s Christmas party, that there was a scheduled Prize-Giving for our foray into Traitors, and along with the two deserved winners our cool headed receptionists, Nicky and Jo, that Emily and I got two little awards for our creative videos!  

As you can probably imagine, Claud- Ellie has now set a precedent and we are all very anxious to make this an annual event!

As a team, we all work very hard but as you can see we all enjoy playing hard too.