Can you believe that I have now been qualified a full two years? I can’t! It has been almost two years to the day since I donned the scary title of ‘Staff Nurse’, with all its responsibilities and rewards and I can honestly say that I wouldn’t want to be anything else. I’ve had so many adventures (not to mention the near-miss disasters) in that time and my life has taken such a positive direction. I’d like to say I planned it that way, but I think it’s more default than design! Carla reminded me last week that I will need to revalidate next year and I nearly choked on my Gregg’s sausage roll. I’m pretty good at keeping my portfolio up to date (thanks to the RCN website and Matt’s OCD) so I’m not worrying about it. I’m more worried about the time flying past and not doing everything that I want to do! I had a proper heart to heart with Carla about career progression and what my aspirations are – I honestly couldn’t hope for a better mentor and she said the best thing I could ...

This has been a fortnight of ‘firsts’ for me! First grown-up holiday for me and Matt, first mortgage application and first time I have properly stood up to and defied the Dragon-Mother (and consequently the first time I have actually pooed my pants). Oh, and the first time I have been almost run over by bloody Big Bird from Sesame Street riding a pink moped (no, I’m not inebriated – more of that later). Me and Matt both decided that we needed some time off. He’s been having a bit of a rough time at work of late and I had the manic preparation period for the Band 6 job, so we booked some time off and looked for a cheap holiday. Cheap was the main criteria with the fairy-tale wedding coming up in August so we ended up at a caravan park in Wales. Now I’ve got nothing against kids, but in true Florence style, I managed to book the half-term holiday week so it didn’t turn out to be quite the tranquil break we were looking for. One little boy in the caravan next door attac...