My Second Job in London

For my second job in London, I worked as a locum (temp) rehabilitation assistant for a community therapy team made up of physiotherapists (physical therapists) and occupational therapists. Although I was employed by an agency, I was actually working within the National Health Service (NHS). The job was in Haringey, which is in north London. Haringey is a very interesting mix of very rich and very poor. I started part time (three days) in January 2008, still doing two to three days at Cherrycroft in Peckham (see previous blog entry).

The job was actually pretty cool. I was working with homebound clients, just like home care in the states. It was much more clinically based than working as an activities organiser, and it was great being out in the community. The vast majority of work was assisting with physiotherapy. I would say there was about one occupational therapy referral for every ten physical therapy referrals. So I learned a bit of physio… But this opportunity came up that sounded too good to let slip by, so I took a chance… (future blog), and I left in Haringey in March 2008.

I have two pictures from my Haringey days. One is of the entrance of the home base office for the community therapy team. The other is of me proudly sporting my NHS badge.

A little bit more

Well, it happened again. Snow: but this time, it actually accumulated. Well, in a few spots.

Also on a continuation of my previous Shakespeare entry, last night I got to see the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) preform at the Roundhouse. This experience was cool on many fronts. One was I got to see the pinnacle of modern Shakespeare performance for only five pounds (restricted view, but not really!). The second is that the venue is a converted railway roundhouse where they stored train engines. The RSC actually built a mini-metallic Globe-like theatre inside the roundhouse that included the seats (amazing!). And I got to be a part of their running of all the history plays, which is quite a rare event (last done thirty years ago). The play was Henry IV, part 2. It is unfortunately sandwiched between two rather action packed plays in the series Henry IV, part 1 and Henry V (which is probably why I was able to get a seat at all... yes, Shakespeare venues sell out here...) but it still has the grand themes coarsing through it and in some ways is enjoyable for lack of a big battle scene... (again, my untrained opinion). Anyway, it was well worth 5 pounds...