Samuel Warneford

Another day of the busy variety today!

We left home a bit earlier than previously (about 6.45) to allow a bit more time for travel and to defrost the car. That meant I arrived in town in good time for this morning's lectures at college. I indulged in a quick coffee en route to fortify myself f or the day ahead.

In college we had a session of "housekeeping", sorting out deadlines for assignments and so on (just under three weeks of the course to go now), then talked about conditionals, then literacy, and then did some observation of a videoed lesson.

I then walked back to Scharwenka's, and we set out to the Warneford Hospital, where I was meeting a researcher for a mental health study on bipolar disorder, in which I'm participating. They wanted some blood to analyze!

While we were waiting in reception, we admired this statue of Samuel Warneford. You can see another picture of it, taken from a slightly more flattering angle, here. It's a pretty imposing statue!

In times gone by, the Warneford was referred to not as a hospital, but as a lunatic asylum. I looked it up and found this information about its history. Following the link at the bottom of the page, I'm relieved to report that these days we lunatics aren't treated with creosote (although I could see that an afternoon painting a fence in the sun would actually be very good for the mood, I don't think that was what the creosote was used for in the olden days)!!

I was interested to note that the article about treatments mentioned wine and warm baths - THOSE are treatments I would highly recommend!!!

Anyway, since I wasn't there for some hideous treatment from the dark ages (or even for a glass of wine or a warm bath - those things I do for myself at home), I was taken to a treatment room where a researcher tried to get blood out of my left arm. There was no blood there. Then she tried my right arm. No blood there either apparently. Fortunately, just as I was running out of arms, the right arm decided to produce just enough to send for analysis! Phew!

Then it was back to Scharwenka's, then home, and now I'm just waiting until after supper for my wine and warm bath treatment!!!