Doctor and the Medics

Hello? Is anybody there? I don’t blame you if you’ve given up on me, and decamped – I’d almost given up on me too! I can’t believe that it’s nearly two months since I last posted, and I certainly can’t believe what has happened over the past couple of months. As some of you may already know, life’s roller coaster has proven to be an incredibly white-knuckle experience in recent times, and I actually don’t think it’s possible to describe everything that’s gone on in one short post without downplaying the enormity of what John and I have experienced. I think bullet points may help with this.

- I have passed my PhD. I am Dr Fliss, yay!
- I have started a new post *miles* away from where I live, which isn’t actually an issue because of the powers of the internet and the possibility of home-working.
- John’s mum has had cancer. She discovered a lump in her breast, and two months (yes, it took that long for the NHS to get its act together) later had a mastectomy. The mastectomy worked and now she needs tablets for five years. (Obviously, it’s not been as straight forward as this bullet point implies, but in the interests of simplicity…)
- John has just handed his notice in – so long civil service! He’s going to train to be a doctor as salary from said new post is paying for our living costs – for SIX YEARS! Hence the title of the post (Again, this has been a convoluted journey – five years from the inception of the idea, to getting his place and to *finally* being financially able to take it up.)
- We are still selling our house. The housing market is dire and we’ve had to hack money off our asking price in a somewhat scary manner – the phrase ‘monopoly money’ says it all at the moment.
- We have found some properties we like in Sheffield, and would like to buy one asap.

Okay, I feel better for getting all that off my chest! I am sure that over coming posts I will talk a bit more about this all, but I just wanted to get it all out of the way so that I can resume normal blogging, in particular about craftiness and Blythe-iness!

Talking of which, say hello to the latest addition – Bettina Batfink. I’ll tell you more about her in my next post