I was doing a clinic on the other side of town today, and they were training a young student nurse in the consulting room opposite. She kept leaving the door open (which prompted a short lecture on patient confidentiality), but at least it gave me the chance to witness her bedside manner, which was very entertaining. It's not every day you see an elderly white man being asked if he's related to Beyoncé. When he looked blank, she added "Her surname's Knowles too, did you know that?". He didn't. I also sensed he'd never heard of Beyoncé, but hey, at least she was was making conversation.

On the subject of the sick and confused, when I said that Lisa and Amelie aren't causing their usual mayhem, I was only half right...


To be fair, it is 2009, and I should probably be moving on to Blu-ray discs. They're a lot lighter, and do less damage when she drops them on Chloe's head. It's interesting, however, to note the effect that my firm "No" had on Amelie about twenty seconds into the video. I even followed Supernanny's advice and used a low-toned voice. Possibly so low that she couldn't hear it. She certainly didn't take a blind bit of notice. We've tried introducing a naughty step too, but she just uses it to climb onto the table.

The three of us were actually due to pop over to Lorraine's for an hour or two this evening, but Lisa's decided to cancel, partly due to ill health, but mainly because the vase that Amelie broke last time she visited was part of a matching pair, and we don't want to be charged for the second one.

In the meantime, I've shown Amelie the video above, in an attempt to point out the error of her ways, and allow the girl to learn from her own mistakes...


That's not really the lesson I was trying to teach, but it's important to be able to laugh at yourself.