9.25pm, Tuesday night. And a week since my partner (ok, husband lol) was operated on for a hip replacement.
He was in Fitzwilliam Hospital, Peterborough, for two nights before being released and sent home.
‘Florence Nightingale Elworthy’ became a reality.
Alongside my ‘lite touch’ caring (yes, I did wash his feet but only once since his resilient nature soon got into the swing of things) and being woken up at night to ensure he could return from the loo and get back into bed, it’s not been too bad.
I’ve rather enjoyed it, discovering qualities (I dare call them that) I am pleased to know I possessed.
He’s doing amazingly well, although its early days, but we’ve been overwhelmed by the kindness of friends and some hilarious conversations with the visitors who’ve popped in.
Alongside this I had to get used to being quasi retired (or if you prefer made redundant) by Newsquest who seemingly couldn’t get me out of the door fast enough.
The way they achieved it will amuse me for years to come but their actions will remain with me for ever.
But, and thanks to their haste in making me redundant after 20 years with Archant (remember Newsquest only bought out Archant a few months ago), I had some spare cash.
And not being of the retiring nature (thank you Cllr Steve Count for describing me as ‘unemployed’ – a tweet I took exception to as someone of 71 who could be described as many things but never unemployed!) it was decision time.
It took 48 hours from being axed by Newsquest, the decision was made. I wasn’t ready to leave the stage.
And so, with the extraordinary talent and commitment of my friend and new colleague Terry Harris, we’ve launched CambsNews.
I have absolutely no idea how to monetise it, or even if we ever want to.
I simply want to do what I’ve done and to write about Cambridgeshire.
And that’s what I’m going to do.
