Yesterday, my good friend Simon and I braved the weather to visit Castlerigg stone circle in Keswick, the Lake District. The weather consisted of bitterly cold winds with regular spells of rain, but despite the weather, we still had a good time.
Here is a video I took of Castlerigg Stone Circle:
I have to say that although Nando’s didn’t live up to the hype, it filled a hole. From Nando’s we walked to Liverpool Guild of Students’ the venue for Sloss’ show.
Taking photos were not allowed, so you’ll have to settle for this pre-performance stage photo.
If you’ve not seen any of Sloss’ stand-up before, I highly recommended that you check out his two shows on Netflix: Dark & Jigsaw. Both are hilariously funny, cheeky and finish with a poignant point.
Sloss’ latest live show was even better than the Netflix shows, probably because Sloss wasn’t being filmed and was more at ease with the audience.
Indeed Sloss owned the stage throughout the performance that was well over an hour long. In the show he covered his love of children, toxic masculinity and the things nobody taught him about vaginas and sanitary products.
My friend and I laughed, more than I can’t remember either of us laughing for quite some time. It was definitely a good shout, buying these tickets for my friend’s birthday.
Sloss ended the show with an experience he shares about his friend being raped by another one of his friends. The part was done sensitively and with some appropriate humor. Sloss did recount statistics one too many times, sounding like a public service announcement. I think this was Sloss’ way of demonstrating that he had really looked into the issue.
Overall my friend and I thoroughly enjoyed the show and would definitely see Sloss again. We would probably just opt for a different venue due to the difficulty at times in seeing Sloss and the lack of comfort provided by the chairs. Perhaps when Sloss is planning his next show he should consider the Apollo in Manchester.
My tramp stamp to allow me to use the loo and get back into the gig.
Comedian Adam Kay hasn’t always been a Comedian. In a former life he was a Doctor in the National Health Service (NHS). At the time he dutifully kept a reflective diary, as he was encouraged to do so as best practice.
In the best-selling This Is Going To Hurt Kay shares this secret junior Doctor diary with the world. As a junior Doctor Kay mainly worked in maternity. Kay tells true stories with a humorous flare. Obviously patient’s details have been changed to ensure anonymity.
In this book Kay is completely honest and because of this honesty it really does tell you what it’s like to be a junior Doctor in the NHS. Along with what it’s really like behind the scenes in the NHS.Throughout the book there are brilliant footnotes that explain the medical terminology in an easy to understand way.
All of the stories are interesting, made so by Kay’s constant use of humor. Writing humor in a book is difficult, so Kay should be highly commended for pulling this off as well as he did. A couple of the stories were so so funny that I laughed out loud reading the book.
Kay’s diary is dated and at each change of job, he explains his mental state and shares his thoughts around topics including: commenting on Politician’s meddling in the NHS; under funding and under resourcing; the staff often working for nothing because they feel morally obligated and want to do the best for their patients; the NHS relying too much on the goodwill of staff (in all roles) to the point were the goodwill is almost gone and staff morale is non-existent; the sneaking privatization and what it will mean for all; that our expectation of Doctors and Nurses to be super-human are unrealistic.
Kay wraps up the thoroughly enjoyable This Is Going To Hurt by telling the story of a patient that made him decide to leave the medical profession. It is deeply tragic, as is Kay’s loss to the profession. Kay describes receiving a letter after 4 years of quitting from the General Medical Council (GMC) removing him from active registration due to lack of required practice hours. The ending of the book caused me to cry.
This book reminded me that every person has and is their own story. We whom work in the NHS should always remember this, along with the fact that patient’s like to share their stories whether good or bad of contact with NHS services. Staff in the NHS generally work there to make a positive difference to people’s lives. We certainly don’t go into it for the money!
The success of This Is Going To Hurt has led Kay to recently publish a follow up book Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas, in time to be a stocking-filler for Christmas. I just hope that this follow up book has new diary entries in, rather than a reprint of stories from the first.
June has been all about my book Mental Health Wisdom. Yesterday marked four months since its release. Over 70 copies have been sold, mostly in the UK. However the book has gone international, with a couple of copies sold in Germany & Australia.
The feedback from the book has been awesome. People have described it as: excellent, educational, informative, entertaining. Many have said that they have passed it on to their husband/wife/son/daughter/friends who are struggling with their mental health. Many have opened up and told me their stories of struggling, or their stories of their mental illnesses.
Before I published the book, I thought: if this book helps one person, or one person finds it useful, then all the effort, energy and time I put into the book will have been worth it. I’m proud to tell you that it has already helped more than one person.
So what have I actually done?
Local Book Club Talk – I did my first ever local book club talk. All the people at the book club were awesome, lovely and kind. Unexpectedly, everyone at the book club bought a copy of the book, meaning I sold out of my stock. I have since ordered more stock and it has been delivered.
Guest Blogger on NeedToLive – I was invited to be a Guest Blogger on NeedToLive. NeedToLive is a website aimed at supporting students around careers, education, enterprise, finance, lifestyle and well-being. I recycled some old, but still some of my favorite blog posts and sent them over. They published them all, all at once. Here are the articles they published:
Wigan & Leigh College Keynote Speaker – I was invited to be the Keynote Speaker at Wigan & Leigh College’s annual Student Conference. The presentation was titled How to Survive & Thrive.
I entertained, educated and even got a couple of laughs from the audience. I’m still awaiting formal feedback from the presentation, but informal feedback has included the presentation being described as “brilliant.” They even talked about inviting me to speak at next year’s conference. They are also going to do some publicity to tell my student journey (me being a former student), which should also help promote the book.
That’s pretty much it. But I’ll leave you with a request: If you’ve already bought a copy of Mental Health Wisdom, I’d be grateful for review on Amazon or Goodreads, even if it’s just a star rating:
An Amazon review would be really appreciated. Amazon lists books with reviews higher than those without. You can leave a review in the UK here: https://amzn.to/2NRPz07
