Today I returned to Stafford town, where I did my pre-nursing training in 2001-2, as a friend of mine who studied Horticulture at university was showing some flowers and it was an opportunity to catch up and fondly remember the trial and tribulations of being a pre-nurse at the now infamous Stafford Hospital. Unlike most of my colleagues, I began my career with a first placement at St George’s psychiatric hospital.
Flowers are not generally my thing, but there was much to look at:
Afterwards myself and some former pre-nurses made a pilgrimage to Stafford’s premier diner:
On the way we passed the College whose corridors we once graced (although, some more frequently absent than others!):
There was generalised scandal to discover that the Whiteley Bulding (which was then our common room/pool room/bar, and basically the only building that I attended with any degree of regularity, to my shame), has been converted into some sort of trendy “arts centre”:
We then paid a visit to the Bird in Hand, where the landlord claimed to remember me:
Afterwards I wandered alone around Victoria Park and its environs:
