This week I found myself speaking on three separate occasions to groups of people about the mortuary. On Tuesday it was a very large group, Thursday only four people and then on Friday I stood in a lecture hall with about 15. I didn’t count the exact number of the group on Tuesday but I... Continue Reading →
Cleanliness Is Next To Excellence… Part 4
Warning: Talk of wee beasties and creepy crawlies may not be everyone's cup of tea and may leave you with an itchy sensation! While every day we receive a number of deceased patients in the mortuary, in terms of living organisms you might think we would be quite limited. You would be wrong. On any... Continue Reading →
Cleanliness Is Next To Excellence…. Part 3
It seemed very apt that on the day where I was struggling to settle on what to write about, I was tasked with helping clean out a fridge. Yep, today I climbed inside a fridge with all the trays removed and cleaned the back wall plus the back half including the rollers. Such a very... Continue Reading →
Everlasting January Strikes Again
Everyone seems to be in agreement that last week was the longest in living memory. I think from Tuesday it felt like it should have been the weekend already! The mortuary has been busy with various different things which has kept me on my toes all week and made for one very tired MG. I... Continue Reading →
Cleanliness Is Next To Excellence…. Part 2
A huge misconception around mortuary work is that we do makeup and embalming. Some mortuary technicians do but they work at funeral directors or independently and it’s a lot more complicated than it sounds. I would love to learn how to do these things but they are very different to my day to day activities.... Continue Reading →
Easing Into The Roaring Twenties
With Christmas now a long, distant memory it’s time I got back into the swing of my ‘factual’ midweek and ‘update’ weekend posts. I might be setting myself up for a fail but I’m also willing to at least try to get back into old habits. Christmas was eventful with Christmas Day being my only... Continue Reading →
Cleanliness Is Next To…. Excellence – Part One
Prior to starting my mortuary work I had no idea how much cleaning there would be. Nearly every task has some element of cleaning involved. We clean people, areas, tools, floors, if we use it then we clean it. I had a thought in the car the other week that even though it may seem... Continue Reading →
Difficult But Lovely
Around two weeks ago I had the most emotional day I have had in the 27 months of having my job. I cried at work, on and off all day. I fought tears on the bus home, until it terminated about five stops from mine and it was pouring with rain. I walked those last... Continue Reading →
Not Such a Wonderful Christmas Time
I am all too aware that Christmas can be a time when the pressure to be having a great time can be overwhelming. I know a large number of people who don’t find this time of year exciting or fun, for a number of reasons that can include a bereavement in the past around this... Continue Reading →
Nikolai-Kirche: Skull Appreciation Post
The same cold and wet day in Berlin I visited the Charité, we also sought shelter at one point in a church by the smallest Christmas market we attended. The church is that of St. Nicholas, or Nikolaikirche, and the inside was splendid. This is largely a post with lots of photos of monuments from... Continue Reading →