Week One Complete in Diary

So I’ve now been self employed for one whole week, and it wasn’t a bad week thruth be told. I had at least two appointments every day and three yesterday. My takings for the week were £132.50 which isn’t at all bad for a first week, I just need to build on that. Every customer I have is either regular or semi-regular and I even learned a new skill; border terrier stripping!

I had no idea that, when a border terrier moults, its fur doesn’t fall out properly so it has to be pulled out by hand. This is a very painstaking process that takes about three hours, or more if the wee doggy won’t sit still for more than two minutes at a time. I spent most of my time chasing him around the yard, pulling chunks of hair out of his bum. An interesting way to spend a Friday afternoon!

This is what he looked like before I started.


And this is him three hours later.


What a difference. He had got sick of me by this point and kept threatening to bite me, so I had to leave him still with a fluffy tummy, chest and legs. But his owner was VERY pleased with how he turned out, said he’d never looked that tidy in his life, gave me a nice tip and said she’d definitely be back. Win!

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So, after weeks of chasing, I finally heard back that I’ve been accepted for this medical trial. They let me know a massive 19 hours before the first admission, and I had loads of plans to rearrange. Thanks for that.

I only managed to get three hours sleep last night as Jay’s cousin was round last night and his voice is LOUD. Then his dad came to pick him up at about midnight, stayed an hour and his voice is also LOUD. Then Jay came to bed and spent most of the night fidgeting and snoring. I had to be up for 6am to drive over to Nottingham so now I’m quite tired.

Luckily there isn’t an awful lot we have to do. We have to only eat the food they give us at the times they give us it (free food!) and we’re only allowed to drink water and nothing else at the times they give us it. Boring way of drinking but at least water is healthy I suppose. I’m going to struggle with the eating thing, though. It’s three meals a day and that’s it. I’m more of a grazer; I normally have three small meals with snacks in between. If I can’t have my snacks, I’m going to be hungry and grumpy. Also, breakfast is cereal....yes Sonja, I had cornflakes for breakfast this morning! I had to eat them; we had to have been fasted for 10 hours before coming in and the next meal is lunch, so I was starving. I ate them as fast as I could while they were still crunchy, but still had to leave some as they’d started to go soggy. bleurgh Luckily there was also a croissant so I saved that for last.

We have to breathe into some tubes, give some blood samples, have our blood pressure taken, that sort of thing. But we’re here for two days and pretty much have the time to ourselves. So I’ve brought my laptop and can do some work and things, books, magazines, knitting. Enough to keep me occupied for the two days I’m here. Altogether there are five sessions of two days. I think I need to bring some headphones next time so I can watch some TV on my laptop.

We’re in a hospital type environment. There are eight beds on my ward, no curtains so little privacy. I’m glad the person in the bed next to me didn’t turn up, as I hate people seeing me sleeping. This way, I’m just facing an empty bed and then the wall.

The only thing is, I had promised Jay’s dad I would look after his dog while him and his wife went for a nice lunch and a night in a hotel next Friday, but it turns out to be one of the days I have to be at this trial. I feel really bad about the fact that I can no longer look after her and can’t convince myself that it isn’t really a big deal. Jay’s cousin can have the dog from Friday evening so they can still have the night in the hotel, and I’ll be back Saturday morning for the rest of the weekend, it’s just the lunch they will need to make arrangements for. Jay keeps pointing out to me that I was doing it as a favour, they weren’t paying me. And I can’t afford to turn down the £1,550 for this trial, just for a favour.

I sent him a message on Facebook last night, delivering the bad news, but he hasn’t replied. I hope he isn’t too annoyed :o(