You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2008.
It’s been a hot, sticky week with high temperatures and uncomfortably high levels of humidity. Clammy, muggy, oppressive, sultry . . . the adjectives are almost endless. It has definitely not been the best time to be in hospital.
We have felt for those hospital patients to whom we have been sending presents over the past few days. We run a website sending gifts to people in hospital on behalf of friends and family who can’t visit the patient in person. We try to make sure the range of gifts on the site is fairly extensive – cuddly toys, puzzles, silk flower arrangements, for example – but what we can’t unfortunately do is devise a present that makes the Summer any less muggy.
Probably the best we can offer is toiletries to help overcome the effects!
This week we need to order some more cuddly toys from our wholesaler as our stock has dwindled. We run a website sending gifts to people in hospital on behalf of friends and family who can’t visit the patient in person, and – as you might imagine – cuddly toys are always among the most popular gifts that people buy from us online.
The trouble is our wholesaler has so much variety it’s difficult to choose which particular toys we should stock. Not lust teddy bears, but dogs, cats, giraffes, elephants, monkeys – even frogs. And all in the most astonishing range of colours.
It’s going to take some thinking about, though as usual I suspect we’re probably going to major on the old favourite, teddy bears. Still, if anyone has any views on what type of cuddly toys a hospital patient is likely to get the most comfort from, we’d be delighted to hear from you.
This weekend we attended our local Village Day, which is held every summer in the village where we live, Wheathampstead. It’s always a super event, but somehow it seemed especially good this year. The wonderful weather helped, and there was a fabulous atmosphere.
Events like this where various local traders display their wares is of interest to us in a professional way too, as we’re perpetually on the look-out for new ideas for gifts. We run a website sending gifts to people in hospital on behalf of friends and family who can’t visit the patient in person. We already have a fairly extensive range of hospital gifts on the website, but there’s always room for new ideas, particularly if they’re slightly unusual.
I have to say, however, that –great an event though our Village Day was – we failed to come away with any stunning new ideas. In truth, an event held in the middle of summer – when people are thinking mostly of the great outdoors – is probably not the best place to look for gifts for anyone unfortunate enough to be a hospital patient.
But it was still a great day!
Like most people, I’m sure, I was surprised and fascinated to hear the news about Bernadine Coady. She is the hospital patient in Peterborough who recently underwent knee surgery without any kind of anaesthetic. Instead, she hypnotised herself so that she would not feel the pain of the operation. She explained afterwards that all she had felt was a little tugging and pulling. It was a true case of mind over matter.
If only we were all capable of this level of self-hypnosis and relieve ourselves of all physical pain!
It made me wonder too how patients’ requirements would change if they were never at risk of feeling pain. It would presumably reduce the needs for certain types of drug. Patients’ recreational needs might change too. We run a business sending gifts to people in hospital on behalf of friends and family who can’t visit the patient in person, and the range of gifts we’d be asked to supply via the website might well extend in all sorts of unexpected directions.
But somehow I think Bernadine Coady is a one-off – even though she assures us that anyone is capable of using the self-hypnosis techniques she has perfected.
In the A Friend in Need team we’ve just held our annual Garden Party. It’s something we do each summer, and in effect it’s instead of a Christmas Party. Luckily the weather was good and I think everyone had a really great time.
The business we’re in is running a website sending gifts and greeting cards to people in hospital on behalf of friends and family who can’t visit the patient in person. Not surprisingly, with more people unfortunately taken ill in winter than in summer, the website tends to be busy around Christmas and we have a little more time in summer for partying!
Anyway, midsummer seems to us like something worth celebrating!
Recent Comments