Long day and almost completely pointless?

Well, I am so glad today is over and I'm back at home and relaxing after a nice cup of tea.  Today was a day of back-to-back meetings some of which were of questionable value.  

First up was MCC which was chaired by Simon for the first time.  Not a bad meeting overall - a lot was got through and it finished on time - but Simon did make a massive cock-up at the beginning which, hopefully, won't linger for too long.  We had agreed before hand that something needed to be said about clarifying the need for people to speak out in meetings and not mutter about things being stitched up afterwards.  This is a throwback to the August exam board fiasco involving Mark's suggestion that students should be reassessed in all elements of the Professional Development strand regardless of what they had already passed within it.  

However, Simon didn't exactly couch things at all diplomatically.  He started off with a statement that we were in a new era and that everything was going to be transparent and there would be no more stitch-ups.  Following the meeting Mark called Simon aside and I knew that he wasn't going to be congratulating Simon on how well he handled his first meeting.  Simon came to see me about 10 minutes later, visibly upset.  I really felt for him because he realised he had screwed up and he had never seen Mark like that.  I reassured him that Mark would get over it and that although it probably wasn't the best choice of words, it would blow over with time.  Also that it doesn't matter if Mark holds a grudge because a) Mark is the ultimate professional and b) he's more pissed off with higher-ups within the school.  In the end I advised him to send Mark a nice conciliatory email as it would make him (Simon) feel better in the short and long term.  It's a horrible feeling knowing you have done something quite badly wrong, but we've all learned the hard way at some point and he will be all the better for it (I hope).  It might make him think about his "bull in a china shop" approach to things which will ameliorate his management style in the future.

Next up was a pre-team leaders team leaders meeting with Pat, Lizzie and Simon.  This was OK as Pat was able to update us on the application situation (encouraging) for the two vacant posts.  It seems that Maria is considering applying for SL - I'd love to have her back in the clinical team, so I can but hope.

Then there was the team leaders meeting which was basically just a list of instructions given by Nigel over a 60 minute period.  We were all so knackered that none of us present actually made any comments to anything until Nigel asked about the frequency of meetings.  Lizzie and I had been briefed about protesting about having more than one or two a year, but Alan beat us to it and we just agreed.  There was then a bit of a circular discussion about how many meetings there are currently scheduled for us all and the frequency of all of these.  There was a decent conclusion though - we agreed that no more than one team leaders meeting was necessary per year and this one was it.

Finally, I met with Helen Ratcliffe to talk about the project management of the Accreditation process.  I think I'm really going to enjoy working with her - she's very direct and very organised and will chivvy me along like I need to be.  We'll see how it pans out, but I don't think it's going to be a chore with her.

Before I could escape, I was visited by Mark to talk about personal tutor allocations and Jihong about a student appeal.  That's what's so wearing really - everybody wants a piece of me all the time.  The message about Simon being co-leader hasn't really got through to people and so they come to me.  It's flattering (I'm secretly quite pleased) but not useful as I can't get anything else done.  Hopefully it will calm down a bit next week once term starts and we all get back into our routines.

Anyway, now for the good and the bad.

Things that made me go "hurrah" today:

1. Diesel is back to being perky.  He came for a really long walk tonight and has the appetite of a horse.  We'll keep an eye out for an attack of OVD as these seem to come on once he has had a decent run around.
2. Simon made the balls up with Mark, not me.  Sad, and not a nice trait in me, but true.

Things that made me go AAAAAARGH:

1. Four back-to-back meetings
2. The GPhC wanting to cancel my hotel for next Thursday.  Joanne Martin has scheduled the training day for 11 - 4 "to avoid having to try to get there through London rush hour".  Trouble with this is that people who have to travel will have to deal with the rush hour at their end to get to the trains.  Plus the fact I'd already booked my ticket which means that I'm going to be out of pocket.  I left it in their court after making those points and I'll see what they say tomorrow.
3. Just being generally tired.  I've not done any exercise this week and it's starting to show.  I shall try to go for a run tomorrow night at least.

There's probably more about today, but at the moment, I can't really remember it!