we bought our first ever house in the UK in August 2018. As you all know it’s very expensive to live in England. Especially the rent, it’s around £ 1000 – £1300 / month to live in a 3 bedroom house. There is a lot of things to do before moving into a new house including finding a mortgage adviser, choosing the right house, home survey, paperwork with solicitor and saving money for the deposit.
Finally hurraaaayyyyy 🎉
HOW TO SEE THE TULIP FIELDS WITHOUT GOING TO KEUKENHOF
First some practical information: The tulips are in bloom from late march to early may. Check websites when planning your visit but peak time is usually the second to third week in April. Of course, due to weather this is different every year.
Visiting the tulip fields outside of Amsterdam is one of the main reasons millions visit Amsterdam every year. This means including Keukenhof and even random tulip fields on the side of the road to be pretty busy.
Visiting the tulips is not as easy as it seems since the tulip fields change every year and can also be heavily guarded. Don’t be afraid to drive around and ask for help!
These fields are located in the small town of Lisse, about 35 km from Amsterdam. Because it is so close to Amsterdam, and has many buses that conveniently run from Amsterdam’s Centraal Station, Keukenhof is the easiest way to experience tulips in the Netherlands. Also remember that this makes it the busiest and most crowded way to experience the tulips.
1) Either rent a car, then drive in and around Lissie to enjoy the beautiful sceneries of Tulips Fields.
2) Get a train from Amsterdam to Harlem or Lissie, then join in some walking tour or bike tour.
3) Rent a bike from near Harlem railway station and then drive to Keukenhof region or near by tulip fields.
4) Get a bus to Keukenhof from Amsterdam airport. After reaching Keukenhof, rent a bike outside of Keukenhof garden. Then drive around Keukenhof gardens to see some beautiful Tulip Fields.
The tulips stretch for 20 miles between Haarlem and Leiden. A popular route to drive (or bike if you get good weather) to see tons of flower fields and of course tulips. It is sometimes called the bollenstreek, blomen route or flower strip. If you get good weather, cycling is a popular thing to do on the route. Take a train from Amsterdam to Haarlem and enjoy the views. If it is a bit cold, or rainy, rent a car!
Would like to share some beautiful places I have visited
Try to find out these places lol 😂 😂
Not too early Not too late to achieve many things in your life. But, Try hard until you achieve it. Here is another day to be remembered in my calendar when Noyal and myself reached the by crossing all hurdles. Now it’s all a memory when we started this journey of “Mumbai to London” together. All credit goes to Noyal for his hard work and support. I am really proud to say that both of us started our new career as RN’s here in 🇬🇧 UK 🇬🇧
After clearing IELTS,CBT and the whole NMC registration process, my next hurdle was to clear OSCE exam after reaching the UK. I called some of them who cleared OSCE and searched the whole Northampton site. It was really hard to get some idea about this exam. Moreover I was in real stress to get all study material by myself without much training from the hospital where I currently practice. Because the passing rate is just between 48%-53% of those who appear the exam. And you have just 2 attempts, if you fail in the second attempt you need to go back to your country. They have got a strict evaluation process. It is not basically a difficult exam. But the only thing is to remember each steps of procedure in a sequence. I am sharing some helpful notes and tips here to support those who are planning to write OSCE. I don’t want you all to wander in dark without any idea about this exam. Be ready to face any circumstances before you come to the UK.
There are 6 stations for the exam, that even divided as assessment station and skill station again. The 4 stations come under assessment, which is Assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation. The other 2 skill stations can be either BLS, wound dressing, IM or subcutaneous injection. But learn all skills and they can ask any two out of these for skill stations.
The exam centre is planned exactly as a U.K. NHS hospital. All stations will be in different rooms. So it’s good to work few days in any NHS hospitals before appearing the exam. We need to follow all waste disposal protocols and infection control policies as NHS.
Each station is 15 minute. Read all instructions written on the door before going inside each room.
First step is Assessment. It will be an actor acting a condition. All you need to do in this station is environmental safety for patient, comforting the patient, checking NEWS or Neurological observation, and asking questions related to Activities of daily living. All the observation charts and ADL’s paper can download from Northampton site after booking the exam.
In planning- it is a writing station. You are asked to write two condition related care plans with interventions and self care elements. Try to put signatures and dates wherever asked.
In implementation- you are asked to give oral medication. You will be given a full filled medication chart with patient details including Stat drugs, PRN drugs, antibiotics, and other routine drugs. You will be failed in this station if you overdose or underdose the patient, giving allergic drugs, and not checking expiry of drug. You will get a sample drug chart from Northampton site. Practice using that filled chart.
Evaluation- it is a writing station. you will be asked to write a transfer of care letter. Download template paper from site and practice writing.
Skill stations are two. Here they check your skills in practicing procedures
BLS- follow U.K. NHS guidelines of CPR. DRABC method of CPR. here they are not checking carotid pulse like AHA. Practice compressions by using metronome app and set the rate as 110 and practice. Poor depth and rate is a direct fail.
Dressing- you can see a dressing OSCE video in YouTube where a Philippine nurse in blue scrub is showing wound dressing. Learn that exact steps. There is also a video in Northampton site but the practice is not so perfect. I found the YouTube video better than the other. Always gel your hands after each step for safety.
Injection- IM or insulin follow royal marsden text book
Follow these steps exactly as it is. Make your own procedure by mixing the preparation and administration steps. The technique should be correct or else you will fail. Use safety needles always. Activate the safety device each time after use. Or else use scooping to recap the needle.
Always check patient ID, explain procedure and gain consent, check allergy, ask pain and rate it before starting procedure. Always gel hands. Document correctly after each procedure. You can dawnload even all skill station papers from their site.
Wish you all the best
There are several life situations that I have come across, all that could even make me mad not only sad.
No one can live the whole life and learn lessons. It’s better to live the way how you are and make a change in others life. That can even positive or sometimes negative.
Its really hard to lead a free life as a woman in a country where I live. But I just understood this when I started my life as a teenage girl. I born and brought up in a family where all of us including my three little younger sisters, given with a freedom to talk and express ourselves. But,when i was 13, I started to ask myself; Is it right or wrong to be like this in this world. Because in many situations where I needed to be protected from danger or abuse and said by others that, “its life… and take things in its way…”
No. But i don’t want to be one out of many ordinary girls who always suffer forgive and forget things. I have been asked to react, raise my voice and revenge againt the hands that pulled me back. And all that has happened just because I had a great Father and Mother who supported me the way I wanted to be in my life.
They taught me who a woman is.
They told me how should I raise my voice againt danger or abuse.
They encouraged me to react to the hands which shadows me.
They inspired me how to fight for the values in my life.
Now i am a woman and I can draw a boundary for myself and keep a wise and healthy personal space within others.
So teach your children to react, report and revenge their life NOT to rest, regret, or revert from life.
Get up, stand on your feet, live your life and conquer the world.
You are powerful. You are born to be successful. And the victory is yours. 👍🏻
This is the post excerpt.
This is my very first post. I don’t want to be so formal. I am Elizabeth from god’s own country Kerala. I am an artist (but not by profession; I lived and even living my life with full freedom to express my ideas, to take challenges, to commit mistakes and learn from it, to make my own choices…. and to enjoy this journey of life. I love to write, paint, design, cook, talk, listen and even to argue 😆😆. I am not a feminist but proud to born as a woman 😎 and a Nurse by profession
It's My Life 