Holidays are the talk of the month.

Generally there are two types of people in nuclear medicine. Those with school age children or school age grandchildren to whom August means a couple of weeks away from work and hopefully a chance to relax or do something new. Then there is the rest of us. For this group August is when everyone else is away and depending on staffing may mean extra work or covering colleagues. Sometimes this can give us a very annoying air of moral superiority. It is easy to picture the scene. It is a Monday morning in August. One of our younger staff members staggers in slightly sunburnt from that incident when they confused the toothpaste for sun cream after a night of just a little too much sangria. Of course they have had almost no sleep, the hotel was lovely but sadly the club next door only opened at midnight and there was then 6 hours of heavy technobeat music till 6am. Daytime did not bring relief as there was 12 hours of child care ahead and unlike adults children do not see the need to siesta especially when there is a pool available. The journey home on the day before coming back to work started with promise only to be cruelly dashed by the inevitable delayed flight by 6 hours due to an air traffic strike over France and technical issues. No one tells you what those technical issues are but you always suspect it was something major not helped by those suspicious black streaks on one of the engine covers you spot as you finally take your place on the aircraft seat. When this story is regaled to your stay at work colleagues do you get sympathy? Of course not all you get is a comment that only the mad go away in school holiday time; maybe, true but not helpful.

For those of us who stay behind and work we enjoy an air of moral superiority because without us the service would not run. We see ourselves as the essential members of staff we are the rocks on which the department is built. Well this is what we try to impress on our colleagues but in reality of course we are just jealous. After all Cromer* is a great place for a holiday in November? At least the seagulls won’t steal your chips. No self-respecting bird would fly in that wind and rain!

However, August is not all loss it is in many ways a great month, for those who drive to work the roads are less crowded. For those who travel by underground or train you can have a free sauna twice a day. For those who walk or cycle it can be glorious give or take the odd thunder storm.  The greatest pleasure however is that in mass our managers take the whole month off. This means the normal flood of emails about everything that has nothing to do with you stops as well. Even that annoying person from CT who seems to lose their coffee cup twice a week, and insists on asking all the hospital staff if they have seen it, seems to be away.

Seriously though I hope that if you went on holiday you had a good rest this August and if you stayed at work you enjoyed the manager free time and easier travel.

*This is not anti-Cromer, which as Alan Partridge tells us, is the greatest sea side town in Norfolk. Feel free to substitute any British sea side town of your choice here

Dr John Buscombe

BNMS President