Well, if blood glucose monitoring is going to be in my OSCE (which I bet it will be), I won’t have any problems, and I’ll be a real, live international nurse working in London. I’ve been working in a diabetes clinic for the last couple of days (under supervision, of course, as I’m yet to get my full registration), so it’s been an endless round of finger prickers and HbA1C readings, checking feet and asking people what they had for breakfast. The brands of injectable insulin they use over here in the UK are the same as the ones they use in New Zealand, so that’s one handy thing – I don’t have to learn a bunch of new product names and which type of insulin is fast-acting and which sort is slow-acting.

My supervisor was happy enough with me, so I was able to handle the lifestyle advice and questions with quite a few of the patients. That’s another good thing about being a travel nurse from New Zealand working in the UK – the same sorts of problems and questions come up. I had one younger patient recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes asking about body piercing and whether it would be OK to get a lip piercing. Out comes the standard speech about this being OK as long as his blood sugar levels were OK, as this isn’t usually used as an injection site for insulin.

I’ve also had to do the standard speech about lifestyle issues, especially with the ones turning up to the clinic with Type 2 diabetes. After about a day of giving patients the advice that they ought to watch the amount of carbohydrates and sugar they’re eating and the importance of doing regular exercise, I felt a little guilty. My morning walk to the nearby bakery for coffee and something yummy on the way to catch the bus probably isn’t going to be enough exercise to really avoid the dreaded Heathrow Injection: those 5–10 kg that every second New Zealander coming to work in England (as a nurse or otherwise) seems to pick up. My patients in the diabetes clinic probably would feel a bit cantankerous about being told to cut the carbs and go for a run by a nurse who pretty obviously doesn’t. And I don’t want to have to buy a complete set of new clothes while I’m over here.

Taking My Own Diet Advice

So I decided that it was time to practice what I preach and give myself some good lifestyle advice about diet and exercise. Looks like the daily trip to the bakery for a coffee and one of their excellent croissants might have to become a weekly one – or else I’ll have to just get the coffee. Thinking about it more, it’s probably wisest to make my coffee at home rather than pick it up from the bakery, as that’s how I got seduced by those delicious sweet treats in the first place. There are plenty of things that are familiar, such as cupcakes, shortbread and scones – and a scone in the UK is the same as a scone in New Zealand. One of the other international nurses working in London in the same NHS trust as me is from Canada, and she was more used to calling them biscuits like the Americans do. Then there are all those things that we don’t get in New Zealand, like jammy dodgers, Bakewell tarts, parkin and Battenburg cake. I really like the Battenburg cake, as it’s got something of the familiarity of lamingtons but with that extra hit of apricotty goodness, not to mention the prettiness of the pink and white sponge cake inside. And thinking about it is not going to help me cut down and avoid the Heathrow Injection. I swear that my knickers are a little bit tighter already!

Anyway, it’s time to make coffee at home before I set out for my daily ride on the Tube. I’ll also have to make my own breakfast, so it’s a good thing that they let you eat on the Tube, unlike public transport back in New Zealand. However, this will mean that sloppy porridge won’t do the trick. A smoothie on the go could work, but then I’d have to manage my coffee cup as well as my smoothie, which could be tricky. Looks like sandwiches will be the way to go.

I don’t think I’ll go to the extent of catching my train from the next stop on so I get an extra walk-in – I’m not quite familiar enough with the route and with all the stations for that yet. I might try it on the way home one day, but for now, I’ll have to try another way to get my daily exercise.

More Of My Own Advice: Knees Up!

(A bit later) I went for a walk around the block to do some thinking and to get some exercise in. I didn’t run, as I don’t have a pair of sneakers – oops, trainers – to give me the cushioning I need (I’ve seen a few dodgy ankles and knees in keen runners over my time working as a nurse, here in London already as well as back home. Getting a good pair brand new will have to wait until my next pay cheque, as it’s worth spending for a good pair that will look after my legs. It’s good that I’ve got this overseas nursing contract to work in London, as it means that I can buy this sort of thing. In the meantime, I set myself the challenge of wondering what I would tell one of my patients in the same situation, giving myself some good lifestyle advice. Taking the stairs at work as well as at home in my flat is going to be one simple thing to increase my daily exercise – as long as I’m not having to bring along a patient in a wheelchair or cart along a blood pressure monitoring machine, as those would be a bit awkward to get up and down the stairs.

Naturally, when I went for my walk, it poured rain. I was half expecting it this time and had brought my umbrella with me. However, I’d rather not have to take an umbrella with me every time if I want to go for a more intensive walk. A good jacket may be called for, so I’ve got a shopping trip coming up. Probably not to one of the chain stores – I think I’d like to try one of those famous flea markets they have in the middle of the city, and I’ll get my jacket second-hand, even though I wouldn’t do that for sneakers – trainers!

The traffic may also be an issue if I want to get my knees up (and down) on a regular basis. Everything seems so much more crowded and busy here in London – it’s like trying to go for a run in the middle of Auckland or Wellington, in spite of not being anywhere near the middle of London. I have been thinking about one of the parks nearby as a good place, to walk, but as it gets pretty dark quite early here – a lot earlier in the evening even though it’s still autumn compared with even the deep south of New Zealand in the middle of winter. I have it very deeply ingrained into me to not run or walk alone in a park at night, even though my head says that the area is well-lit and there are a few people walking dogs there at the time I’d be most likely to go for a regular run. Might have to find a gym nearby, or talk to one of the physiotherapists working at the same NHS trust as me about where I can find somewhere good. That will give me a good chance to talk to some of the other staff apart from the other nurses as well.

And in the meantime, there are always Pilates and bodyweight exercises I can do at home in my bedroom!…

Well, I’m more or less over my jet lag, and my refresher course starts next week, so I’m all set to become a real live travel nurse working in London! However, as I had a few more days up my sleeve before the work began, I decided to go on an adventure and explore some more of London. After all, I know how hard you have to work as a nurse – I guess that’s not going to be too different between one country’s health system and another – so I knew I’d better make the most of it and do some good old-fashioned sightseeing. Got to let the people back home that I really am in London and doing all those London things!

Of course, the first question was how I was going to get to all the good spots from Bromley. London, unsurprisingly, is a lot bigger than the cities in New Zealand, especially in terms of population. It also has a lot more hills than Christchurch, where I come from, not counting the Port Hills in Christchurch. I showed a picture of the Port Hills to a few of the local nurses in my flat (the London nurse recruitment agency was good at setting me up with like-minded people), and it turns out that what we call hills in New Zealand are considered mountains over here. In my mind, mountains are pointy and tend to get a lot more snow in winter, so it seems funny calling the Port Hills mountains. All the same, biking and walking around London all the way from Bromley probably wasn’t an option. This meant that I’d have to try public transport.

London has some iconic forms of public transport. You’ve got the classic black London taxis, the double-decker buses and the trains. Although the taxis would have been fun in a way and would have got me exactly where I wanted to go, a quick bit of homework revealed that taking a traditional black cab taxi would have been a bit expensive for my budget – though I’ll have to give them a try one day, just to say that I’ve done it. This meant that buses and trains were the way to go.

In fact, I had half planned to take a train at some point during my time in London working as an international travel nurse. After all, my sister is nuts about Harry Potter, and she’d never forgive me if I didn’t get a photo at Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross. So, I decided to try getting about London using the trains.

Underground, Overground – And The World’s Your Oyster Card

The first thing that I learned – before I set out, fortunately – is that there is more to London’s train services than just the Tube. It pays to do one’s homework before diving in, so I’m glad I did. There’s the Underground (the Tube proper), the Overground, the Elizabeth line and a couple of others. I also learned that most of them can be paid for with an Oyster card. I guess the idea is that the world’s your oyster (or the train system is your oyster) if you have an Oyster card. So that was handy to know – and I made sure that I got one of these first things.

As it was all pretty confusing, I downloaded a good map of the train lines and services (these aren’t hard to find) and worked out (a) where I was, (b) where I wanted to go, and (c) what time a train would get me from A to B. Most of what I wanted to see was in the middle of London – Central London, I think they call it – and I wanted to visit King’s Cross station. So I found my nearest station that would get me there… and off I went.

I suspected that the trip would take up most of the day, so I stopped at my favourite bakery (yes, I have a favourite bakery already!) for a coffee in a travel mug and a few goodies to keep me going. I justified this by the fact that the walk would probably burn enough calories! I wondered where would be the best place actually to eat while on my little jaunt. After all, in New Zealand, they’re pretty strict about not eating or drinking on buses and other types of public transport (I remember those signs on the bus when I was going through my nursing training and trying to sneakily munch a muesli bar at the end of a long day). However, I figured that I’d be able to eat a bit while waiting.

Minding Your Pees and Queues

Finding the station to start out from was easy enough, although it did involve a bit of a walk to get there, and I had finished my coffee and started nibbling by the time I made it. You can bet that I made a very careful note of all the details of the station so I could find my way back again. I did all the necessary transactions to get the right ticket (the officials are very helpful for a newcomer to London like me). It’s going to take me a while to wrap my head around all the different zones and times. At least it wasn’t rush hour when I started out – the official I talked to said that things go absolutely crazy.

Even though it wasn’t rush hour, there were still quite a few people waiting on the platform, all neatly lined up behind a yellow line. I had a fair bit of time before the train was supposed to arrive, so I found the toilets – another queue of women told me where that was. After all, as a travel nurse in London, I know all too well that it’s important not to hold on for too long. I’ve handled enough urine samples from people with urinary tract infections to make that mistake – although there have been some particularly hectic shifts in emergency wards where I’ve had to hold it for ages. That’s another story, but I didn’t want to repeat the performance.

After visiting the loos, it was back to the queue of people waiting for the train to the middle of London. Even though it wasn’t rush hour, there still seemed to be a lot of people (I was going to say heaps of people). That was the moment when it hit me: London is huge. Really huge. It’s a metropolis. It’s got a population of nine million people. That’s just about double the population of all of New Zealand in just one city. No wonder there were so many people on the platform, making it look crowded to my New Zealand eyes. No wonder the recruitment agency was looking for international nurses to work in London – when you’ve got that many people in one small area, there’s a big demand for the healthcare system. I was certain then that I’d made the right choice for working overseas.

These thoughts were still running through my head when the train roared in, shaking the ground like I was back in the Christchurch earthquakes again. The train stopped with a screech of metal, and the doors swung open. I followed the others on the platform through those big doors and got on the train (remembering to do the right thing with my ticket, of course – I was a bit nervous about that). The train was rather full, so I found a place to stand. I’ll admit that I was paranoid enough to take my backpack off my back and put it where I could see it. Yes, I had chosen to do my overseas nursing work in London rather than some dodgy developing country, but I wasn’t stupid.

The train moved off again, and I looked around me. My fellow passengers were of all ages, sorts and ethnicities. Some were on their devices, some were reading the newspaper, and some were eating (on the train – yes, you’re allowed to!), but it didn’t take me long to notice one thing: they didn’t make eye contact with me, and nobody was talking. It was like being in a funeral parlour, and it felt a bit weird.

The combination of the lack of talking and the sense of being in such a big city emphasised that I was in a new world, rather like Harry Potter being taken to Hogwarts… and I hadn’t even got to King’s Cross yet.

But that’s another story……

When I decided to get a nursing job in London as a travelling nurse, I knew that I would have to be sure to catch some of the sights and experiences that London is famous for. Yes, the simple experience of living and working as a nurse in London would give me some good experience of a culture that’s different but not too different, but I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to tick off some of those bucket list items.

I had my backpack with some snacks, my phone (with plenty of data) and my credit card (with plenty of credit), and I was ready to go.

King’s Cross Station

King’s Cross station was my first spot to visit. For one thing, public transport is a good way to get around London, and I found it pretty easy to catch the train from where I was staying. One of the reasons why King’s Cross was on my list is because I’d promised my sister (the biggest Potterhead that I know) I would get a photo with the iconic “Platform 9¾” trolley. I really enjoyed those books and movies, too, so I just had to do this one first.

There was a queue for the trolley photo opportunity. There’s always a queue – I’m starting to realize that. I wasn’t the only person travelling alone who wanted to get a photo with the famous trolley without having to pay a professional (it’s free if you take your own photo). This meant that I was able to make eye contact with another woman who looked like a fellow tourist, and we agreed to take each other’s photos. My fellow traveller was reasonable at taking photos, so I soon had something to share on social media. I knew my sister back in New Zealand wouldn’t see the photo straight away because of the difference in the time zone. However, I soon collected a few likes from some of my nursing friends in New Zealand, who must have been taking a break during a night shift.

I also popped into the Harry Potter shop at King’s Cross station so I could get a souvenir for my sister. The prices looked amazing at first, but then I did the mental conversion from British pounds to NZ dollars. The prices were still OK even after that, so I got my sister a few things (and something for myself!) before heading out to see the rest of London.

The British Museum

After my little indulgence, I thought my best course would be to head towards the Thames, as this is where a lot of the iconic sights and buildings are. I didn’t want to blow the budget straight away, but I wanted to get plenty of interesting photos to show the people back home. It was rather fun reading the map and seeing all those names I had only known from the traditional old Monopoly board (St Pancras, Euston, Pentonville, The Angel Islington, etc.) and staring at all the tall buildings. However, wouldn’t you know it? We’ve always heard about the rainy climate of the UK, and I got a taste of it. Of course, I had forgotten to bring an umbrella, but at least I had a jacket. I needed to find somewhere to wait out the shower of rain that wasn’t going to soak up all of my money – once I had started working, thanks to the contract offered by the London travel nurse recruitment agency, I’d be able to do a little more shopping and sightseeing. The famous Fortnum and Mason shop was near the train station, so I pretended to be shopping there (which was fairly fun, I have to say!) while checking on my phone for what was available nearby.

I soon realised that the British Museum wasn’t too far away, and I should be able to find some sort of shelter on my walk there, so I didn’t get too wet. I booked the free ticket online (yes, this is a thing – it’s to make sure that the place doesn’t get too crowded). Once the email confirming my ticket came through, I headed out. It was still raining, but not as heavily as it could have been, and my jacket coped. In the middle of such a big city, London has quite a few big trees. Even though it was autumn and the leaves were starting to fall, they still kept some of the rain off, so I wasn’t too wet by the time I reached the museum.

The museum was… stupendous. I spent the rest of the morning in there, going from exhibit to exhibit, and I still feel like I haven’t scratched the surface or seen everything there is to see – and that’s just the free exhibitions. One I found particularly interesting, as a trained nurse, was the Living and Dying gallery, which featured ways that different cultures (including the Māori – very familiar!) at different times have tried to look after health and wellbeing, including a display of all the medications taken by a typical person throughout their lifetime. All very familiar stuff, apart from a few brands of medication that are different here in the UK – so I’m glad that I ended up visiting! It was eye-opening seeing all those blister packs and pills in one big collection. I overheard some other visitors to the museum shuddering over some of the syringes and saying how much they disliked needles, despite having multiple piercings and tattoos. I’ve seen that a few times in my nursing work, and it never fails to give me a bit of a chuckle.

All The Classic Photos…

The need for lunch was what moved me on out of the British Museum, as I wanted to eat somewhere other than the museum’s cafes and restaurants (there are several of these). I got a good photo of the façade of the museum before I left, then started walking again. I realised that there are so many great things to see (and get photos of) around the middle of London that I wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to get around them all in one day on foot. I decided to make a list of all the classic landmarks so I can tick them off once I’ve visited them and taken a photo (note to self: buy an umbrella and take it on outings in case of further downpours – remember that you’re a nurse in London now!).

So, here’s my list of photos I’m going to have to make sure I get during my time here as a New Zealand nurse in London:

• Big Ben and the other parliament buildings (Westminster Palace)
• Buckingham Palace – especially a photo of one of those guards with the big fuzzy hats that just have to stand there without reacting no matter what
• Westminster Abbey (you might have to book a ticket to go inside; however, even a photo from the outside will be amazing)
• Tower Bridge
• The Tower of London – again, even just getting a photo of the outside would be impressive, but buying tickets and going in would be fascinating as well
• St Paul’s cathedral. I remember my grandad telling me about some photos taken during World War 2 that became really famous, so I’ll have to see if I can take one from the same angle
• The London Eye (I won’t get tickets for this one, as heights unsettle me)
• The Gherkin
• The Shard
• Trafalgar Square (must get a shot of those famous lion statues)

And I’m sure I’ll add some more!

I managed to tick a couple of them off, namely St Paul’s Cathedral (several shots of this from the outside), the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and the Gherkin. I was pretty tired, so I made my way slowly back to King’s Cross station (more queues and waiting) and caught the train back to where I was going to be home during the duration of this nursing contract in London. Felt so tired that I could have fallen asleep on the train, but I was too nervous about missing my stop actually to nod off. I’ll sleep well tonight!…