Anyone for tea?

One of the "things you do" in a UK office is make tea for each other. I'd say it's about 2-3 times per day where someone stands up and says "anyone for tea" (not spot of tea, or fancy a tea). It's ok to say no, but most of the time people will say yes if they don't already have some. Yesterday, I was sitting with a group of folks that I don't normally sit with, and I jumped up to make my round of tea. (I'll post some other time about all the tricks for making it.) I came back with the drinks and one person said "where's my ladder". I had no idea what that meant, so I just smiled and nodded. She said, no really, and then someone else looked in her cup and said "oh, low tide". Finally I got it, I hadn't put enough hot water in there. Live and learn :)

I'll probably say too much on this next topic, but here goes. I've been working for a few months on a knowledge strategy for one of our businesses. I presented a draft to some of the leadership team last week, and if I'm honest, the work got beat up. It wasn't what they were expecting and it turned into a debate. I was pretty disheartened after the call, so having a good relationship with each of them, I called or emailed each of them afterwards. Bottom line, I had to learn my own km lesson of "working out loud". I had gone too much into a black hole, and didn't check in with them enough, so as the effort morphed, it didn't go the best way. It's turning out to be a good way to practice resilience too. I sent an update today and I think it might already be turning around.

While I'm sharing too much, let me go a personal route. I've been having a lot of headaches lately, really bad ones. After having two in one day, I decided to checkout the healthcare system here. It's known as NHS (National Health Services), and each person has their own opinion of it, quite a few extremes of like and dislike. I looked up doctors and hospitals and knowing the costs are covered by social medicine, I decided to walk to a hospital. Took about 10 minutes to get there and when I walked in, they said sorry, we're not an A&E, you'll have to go across town. So I walked home and drove to the A&E. I paid £3 to park and walked in. The woman at the reception desk was very nice but she basically said "is it an emergency", I said "well it's happening too much and I'd like to figure out why". She said they don't conduct investigations, she'd recommend a general physician for that, but she was more than willing to treat any symptoms right now. By the way, its currently a 4 hour wait. It was about 10pm, so I decided to drive home and sleep it off. I think the health system is fine, I think I just had to go and see it one time before I could understand it better. To end on a happy note, today was headache free and hopefully lots more of those days are ahead!