Posh.

.

Soknown:

Thanks, i am trying to keep it up. I will try to throw in pictures where i know it will make positive impact. ( the fact is i do not have many pictures)
Is the Moniker feminine ? because everyone assumes that i am a Lady. I am afraid you are all wrong. Soknown is a Man.

Ok.I think that will be great.
Yea ,i thought you were a female but sorry for my ignorance i have taken corrections already.

Pls post help pictures of hospital environs,it will help to fuel my passion .
Thank you.

Soknown:
Thank you all. on a lighter note. I wrote the ielts a couple of times before i got the desired band score

Fascinating and captivating write-up.
Please could you help me with the ielts materials.
Thanks: ofoeduchukwuma@gmail.com

I had three different alarm to wake me each morning, When i was working in Victoria Island, i had to leave home at 0530Hr. So i have an Alarm to wake me by 0500hr, another alarm at 0520Hr in case i slept on the first one. and the final alarm at 0530Hr when i should be leaving home. So on this very day i slept like a baby, none of the three alarms woke me up. I finally got up at 0830Hr, attended to my hygiene and i prepared to go to church. I was confident that i will be able to get a church nearby, i picked up my phone and searched for RCCG near me, cool right? I said hi, to my housemate and jetted out only to get out of the apartment and was met with serious windy rain, since i did not have an umbrella. i had to go back to my flat and join an online service.
The rest of the day was calm, i tried to put my documents together preparatory to resumption on Monday. I made sure i slept early on Sunday night, there was nothing much to do anyway. I could watch television but it was only BBC and BBC on the menu, there was BBC 1,BBC 2, BBC News, BBC Sport, BBC Entertainment, if you are not up for BBC duplicity you have to subscribe to Sky or ITV. I got to bed after speaking with my family on phone.
Monday, was the big day. My resumption day at work along with other colleagues that were recruited at the same time. We were 14 in the cohort.
5 of us were living in this building, we had agreed that we would meet at the lounge by 0830hr. So 25 minutes on the hour i made my way to the lounge with my housemate and waited for the other 3 colleagues, all ladies. It took just 5 minutes to walk from te apartment to the Redhill Bus station, on Brighton road. On our way we passed the big departmental store Sainsbury, pound shops - Savers and Poundland, Then Mcdonalds.
The bus station has an oval design( i am not so good at location description, color and shapes) so that the buses could drive into the three loading bays to pick or drop passengers. There is a central shelter to protect from the ever abundant rain, the shelter has chairs for sitting and a big screen to display the buses arrival and departure. Buses and their route are bodly displayed on pillars and boards. All the buses going outside Redhill have to pass through East Surrey Hospital. The next bus is five minutes away and the commute is about 5 minutes drive. The bus came on time and everyone on the route queued up to pay and board.
Me - Good morning, East Surrey Please,
Driver - £2.50 please.
I paid with cash and the ticket was printed out for me. At 0845Hr we negotiated the bend on three arches road and behold the majestic hospital in its clinical outstanding splendor, Welcome to East Surrey Hospital, Canada Avenue. Redhill. We entered through the main entrance into the reception and were received by one of the practice development team member. We waited for two more colleagues. On the Stroke of 0900hr, She ushered us into the clinical demonstration room, which was to become our classroom for the next 7 weeks.
Inside the room were other members of the practice development team, we were given few minutes to organise ourselves and settle into the already arranged chairs. So the head of the team ( Matron in charge of practice development) started her address, welcomed us officially and introduced the team to us. Midway into her speech, another lady came in who was introduced to us as the Chief Nurse for the trust, a member of the board of directors. She welcomed us and encouraged do our best in preparation for the OSCE. We introduced ourselves and our countries. We had Nigerians, Ghanians, Filipinos, Indians, Nepalese, Latin american and a Zimbabwean.
The first day was about filling forms, for the workforce group, recruitment team, occupational health team and payroll. We were introduced to the lay out of training program. We had 15 minutes tea break in the morning and 45 minutes lunch break. Earlier on we were given a £150 free meal ticket to be used at the restaurant. The rest of the day was uneventful as we closed at 1600hr, We found our way to the bus stop and waited for Bus 100 going to Redhill. we wanted to explore the town center so we visited sainsbury, we were suprised to see beggars at the entrance of Sainsbury pleading, ' spare a coin' it was shocking to see a 'white man' begging like some Almajiri children. I later found out that those guys are homeless and UK has a sizable population of homeless people.

NiklauseFred:



Ok.I think that will be great.
Yea ,i thought you were a female but sorry for my ignorance i have taken corrections already.

Pls post help pictures of hospital environs,it will help to fuel my passion .
Thank you.

Okay.

chuksze:


Fascinating and captivating write-up.
Please could you help me with the ielts materials.
Thanks: ofoeduchukwuma@gmail.com

As odd as it might sound, i used Youtube for my ielts preparations. Check out ielts Lizzy, Emma and E2 English Language. If you study the contents and follow the guidelines especially E2, you will get the required score band.

Soknown:

Thanks, i am trying to keep it up. I will try to throw in pictures where i know it will make positive impact. ( the fact is i do not have many pictures)
Is the Moniker feminine ? because everyone assumes that i am a Lady. I am afraid you are all wrong. Soknown is a Man.

OMG

How many of us have been wrong and assumed OP has been a female all along?

Olalekank:

OMG

How many of us have been wrong and assumed OP has been a female all along?

hi

Op thanks for the narration.
Immediately I saw the pic of that hospital began salivating

NiklauseFred:
Op thanks for the narration.
Immediately I saw the pic of that hospital began salivating

There is ethical limitation on the type of pictures i can upload.
I want us to put things in historical context, when the colonial men came, everything was documented, ( their journey, means of transportation, the people they met, how they met them etc) despite the limitation of resources to do so, now that we have all the resources to make documentation in whatever way or form that we want, we should put things down not for vain glory but simply for the record.

Soknown:

There is ethical limitation on the type of pictures i can upload.
I want us to put things in historical context, when the colonial men came, everything was documented, ( their journey, means of transportation, the people they met, how they met them etc) despite the limitation of resources to do so, now that we have all the resources to make documentation in whatever way or form that we want, we should put things down not for vain glory but simply for the record.

Yea,nice words.

The second day in class was more fun and activity packed, we all converged at the classroom, code named Brickfield house at 0900hr. We arranged the seats and settled for the days business. Apart from the Tutors we had some volunteers that came around to help. The tutors and the volunteers started the role playing and attending. The Core of the OSCE is role playing as you are faced with a pseudo patient who has been programed to behave in a particular manner suggestive of disease conditions the examiner wants to test each student on, for competency assessment and quality assurance, the procedures have been broken down to successive steps that must be followed. All the procedures were role played and then we sat back to discuss the nitty gritty of each procedure to rein-force the role playing.
After the lunch break, we had a go at nursing care plan, a scientific nursing tool. We were feeling heavy possibly because of the heavy lunch or tiredness but we were jolted back to reality by a sharp loud noise from the alarm, there was a little panic before the instructors informed us that it was a fire drill and that the fire wardens would come to deliver fire orientation later in the afternoon. We were taught on the types of alarm, the fire controlled doors, Fire map, responsibilities of the fire wardens, responsibility of each person when there is fire. Fire exit doors etc.
The rest of the week was routine exercise preparation for the OSCE, then our second week-end was upon us. On Friday we ( the Redhill 5) decided to walk to our house from the hospital, the cash was running low so we must device means of cutting cost of living. It took about 28 minutes of continuos walk to get to our house. we were so tired we could not climb the stairs.On Saturday, we gathered together in my flat to revise the week's activities, we finished late in the afternoon, it became boring afterwards so we decided to contribute the £2.50 saved by walking on Fiday, we had a total of £12.50 to entertain ourselves. We thought of buying pop corn and visiting the cinema, There was Harlequin Cinema on yhe first floor of Sainsbury. When we saw the movie posters and the prices, we decided there were better things we can do with that morning. £9 pounds to see a movie, outrageous. We had a very big screen television in the flat so we decided to jointly fund a netflix account, we bought noodles, vegetables and chicken from our contributions. When we got back home, the unthinkable happened. I put on the television and pressed the Netflix button to register a new account, Netflix just came on live to the Home page. The last nurse that used the Flat before my cohort did not log out on her account and she did not know because she had multiple access. She was known to my Flat mate, he called to tell her what we discovered and to our surprise, she had no problems with us using it, that she would come over to watch with us, if she does not want to watch alone. so we had a free Netflix to use.
Redhill is a relatively small town, but enjoyed so much patronage because of its proximity to London, It is part of the Greater London. So we do have the London Red buses coming to town in regular schedule. It also enjoy regular train schedules to diffrent part of London and the rest of the country. There are established taxi service such Blue Arrow, Road Runners, Belfry Cars, and online hailing like uber. Popular road include Brighton road, High street, Station road, Linkfield street. Popular neighborhood include Earlswood, which has Earlswood royal park a gigantic royal castle that used to host one of the royal family but has been converted to apartments for public usage. Holmesthorpe industrial avenue, which is like Oba Akran Avenue playing host to industrial companies. Situated on the high street are, Sainsbury, Spec-savers, Wilko, Poundland, Savers, British Heart foundation, British Red cross, Boots pharmacy and The Belfry, which is a shopping mall that houses O2, Vodafone, H-Samuels The jewellers, H&M, Clarkes etc. The nearest town is Reigate, which is a posh developed area that has shopping malls interspersed with houses and apartment. In Redhill, the roads are usually deserted by 2200hr, you should be in your home or in the pub by that time. Talking about Pubs, there is one just opposite the Sainsbury, it is always full three times a day. The english love their tea, their ladies and their spirit.
Sunday was a very restful day for us, there was no revision, each person was getting ready for our second week in class.

Hello all, I saw the notification on nairaland about mails sent to me. I am sorry I don't access to that mail address again.
Long before now, I have created a thread about wanting to change my email address but I got no response. If anyone can help me with that please.
Alternatively, if you can drop your email address here, then I will copy it and mail you with my functional address.

I was confused....i assumed femal but when he spoke of time spent offshore, then a male flat mate...my confusion increased. OP writes well

Olalekank:

OMG

How many of us have been wrong and assumed OP has been a female all along?

Iruosonobrugwhe:
I was confused....i assumed femal but when he spoke of time spent offshore, then a male flat mate...my confusion increased. OP writes well

Thank you.

I am too tired to write today, Let us fill the gap with pictures. I posted a picture of St Matthew Anglican church on Station road taken in 1919, Same church today, March the 3rd. 2020. The church was built Circa 1867

Then, the high street in 1906, and same high street today.

Permit me to use the word 'Audio Sun'

Soknown:
Permit me to use the word 'Audio Sun'

LMAO, audio sun

"Sun that is there but has 0 effect"

Soknown:
Permit me to use the word 'Audio Sun'

Lol... Thanks for writing this piece..

Olalekank:

LMAO, audio sun

"Sun that is there but has 0 effect"

Yes, the sun came up 0700hr, blasting and blaring bright full ahead yet the temperature was 0°c. 0 effect as u put it.

During last week I had taken time off to go to the post office to collect my Biometric Resident permit, which is the official staying document. On this day I got on the Bus 100 going to Crawley high street in the company of my friend that we flew into UK together. I discovered that this particular Bus stopped at every Bus stop and plied all the inner streets of Horley, Gatwick and then Crawley Business district. The commute should take 20 minutes by taxi or 28 minutes by other Bus lines like 420, 400 and 460 but for Bus 100 it took a whole 60 minutes. I ' tagged the Bus 100 a never again Bus'.
Eventually we got to the Crawley high street and the beautiful shops and Malls. The Post Office was adjacent to the Bus Stop. There is always queue everywhere in this country, So we joined. The attendant official asked for my letter which I presented, she also asked for my post code. Goodness me, I didn't know. I asked my colleague, she had no clue, I put a call through some of our colleagues and finally we got the post code for our house. Another lesson learnt, never forget your post code, it is important than the physical address. She checked her record, confirmed the card was available for collection. 10 minutes later we walked out of the Post office with our cards. We also used the opportunity to open bank account, the trust has given us letters for same purpose. A lot of forms to fill, but we got it done.

The days rolled into weeks, we were in Mid October already. We were looking up to two events, our OSCE and secondly our pay day. We were not paid in September because we arrived after the salary has been computed. That usually happens between 15 and 17th of each month. After computation, it will be sent to the payroll company which work hand in hand with hmrc ie. Her Majesty revenue and customs for tax deductions. Obviously a lot goes into salary payment. Preparing it based on number of hours worked, tax leave allowance, how many hours worked above the mandated hours. For international nurses on pbs tier 2 Visa, you can only work 22 hours above the regular hours.

Third week into October, we had a date for our examination at last. November 14 and 15. Everything was falling in place. We started having weekly mocks to really get in the mood so on Friday everyone usually go home with red eyes, we kept pushing ourselves and the mistakes were disappearing little by little.
29th October was a big day, big pay day. We got the alerts, September and October were paid together. But there was a mix up with some of my colleagues pay as they got far less than others, Obviously the pay roll company used wrong tax code and a large chunk of their salary was carved off as tax. They complained to workforce and their concerns were escalated to the pay roll with promise that it will be resolved before next pay and over deductions would be remitted back.We were broke before the salary, salary was paid and we remained broke. We could not touch the money because of the forthcoming examination. We reckoned if one fails, he/she has to pay about £1000 for the resit, though the fee was brought down to half before we sat for the exam.

12th of November, we were given our train ticket to the examination location, we were responsible for our hotels reservation which we have booked ahead. 13th was work free for everyone, the first batch of the cohort having their examination on 14th travelled to Oxford Brookes university one of the three centers, the other two centres were Nottingham and Brighton universities.
My examination was on 15th so I travelled on 14th. I walked to the university in the evening just to be sure of the distance. Dinner at the hotel was £28 so I declined, bought McDonald's fish burger and made tea in the hotel.

That fateful day, the 14th November. I was up early, attended my hygiene. Made a cup of tea. I got to the examination centre and got registered. Followed by documents verification by NMC officials. Prior to this time I made a very big mistake that could caused me a lot. When I was still in Nigeria processing my application with MMC, I got a police character certificate as far back as February. Not knowing that it usually expire after six month, so when I wanted to apply for my Visa, I was informed that I need a new police character certificate which I obtained again. When I was about to travel, I did a bit of house cleaning, I crushed the old police character certificate with other documents, invoices and receipts that are no longer valid. I told my wife to burn them after I have travelled.
Two weeks to the examination, our instructor was going through our certificates and she mentioned, we have to show or submit the original documents used for the NMC application even if the documents have expired or become invalid, I nearly collapsed. I slouched into my seat thinking what would I do. Anyway I sneaked out to make that call. My wife picked up, I asked when did she burnt the documents I asked to be burnt, to my utter amazement and admiration, she said 'I thought you might need them later so i did not burn them' .she had straightened the crushed documents and file them. I jumped up with joy. I told her the reason for asking for the documents. The following day, the blessed woman sent the documents through DHL, It got to me same week. I love my woman.
I finished up with document verification, then waiting to be called in for the examination. The examination is rhythmic in itself mimicking patient flow in the hospital. It took about 90 - 100 minutes and it was a wrap. I got out of the hall, did the final handwashing, collected my valuables. I went straight to the hotel.

collinschigozirimuchendu@gmail.com

Soknown:
Hello all, I saw the notification on nairaland about mails sent to me. I am sorry I don't access to that mail address again.
Long before now, I have created a thread about wanting to change my email address but I got no response. If anyone can help me with that please.
Alternatively, if you can drop your email address here, then I will copy it and mail you with my functional address.

SaintHilary:


Another season film, hope I'm not too late.

You are just in time boss
Enjoy

I am back from spambot ban. It pained me that the write up that I posted before the ban disappeared. I will try to rewrite it tomorrow. Life goes on.

Soknown:
I am back from spambot ban. It pained me that the write up that I posted before the ban disappeared. I will try to rewrite it tomorrow. Life goes on.

Take heart bro

Apologies for the late update, I moved house. I'll get to it later on.

The days rolled onto weeks and before we knew it we were in the middle of October. Then we were looking forward to two big events, October pay day and our OSCE day confirmation. We were not paid for September because we resumed after salary has been computed. This usually happen between 15 and 17th of each month. It involves various departments-The unit manager, workforce, payroll and hmrc.
Unit managers will calculate the shifts, workforce will translate the number of hours done to money using the pay rate, then sent it to the pay roll company. Pay roll company will work with hmrc to determine tax deductions. hmrc will also look into the number of hours worked, to check if one has worked more than the required hours. For most international nurses, the regular hours or contractual hours are 37.5 or 40 hours/week. With a Visa restriction that you cannot work more than 20 - 22 hours above the contractual hours. It was said there is usually 40% tax on any hours done above the restricted hours.
Earlier on, I had gotten leave to go to the Post office in Crawley for my Biometric Resident Permit otherwise called BRP card, that's the official staying document. That morning, I got on the Bus 100 going to Crawley high street with my friend that we flew into UK together. We made a mistake of boarding Bus 100, this bus line operates like a Molue, it stops at every Bus stop and plied all the inner streets of Redhill, Horley and Crawley Business district before finally dropping us off on Crawley high street. It took 60 minutes while other Bus lines like Bus 400, 420 and 460 usually make the journey in less than 30 minutes. When we dropped on the high street, I told myself not to use Bus 100 ever again.

The Post Office is adjacent to the high street, we walked in to join a long queue, a regular feature in UK public spaces, you will queue up to buy burger, queue to pay or use the atm. It's called orderliness. It got to my turn to be attended, I informed the official about my mission, she asked for my name and checked her record before confirming that the card is available for my collection then she asked for my post code and I blanked out. I have never taken time to ask or learn about my post code, I asked my friend, she didn't have a clue either, so i called another person within the Redhill 5. She told me and i was able to complete the collection from. Obviously the post code is more important than the physical address. 30 minutes later, we walked out of the Post Office with our new BRP. Just beside the Post Office is a bank, we decided to use the opportunity to open an account, SASH has given us an introduction for the same purpose which we carried around but have not had the opportunity to visit a bank, anyways with a lot of forms filled, several terms and conditions read and signed off. We got a new bank account, expectant of the big pay day.

The weeks kept rolling, we were becoming confident in the procedures and mistakes kept reducing. We got a date for our OSCE examination finally, Mid November. We got two days because we were 14 in the cohort, 7 candidates on 14th and the rest on15th. I was slated for 15th November. We were given our train tickets to Oxford Brookes University Campus in Swindon. There were 3 Universities approved by the NMC to conduct OSCE for international nurses, Brighton University, Oxford and i think Nottingham Universities. We booked our hotel reservations by ourselves.

The big day came finally, the big pay day. 29th November. Our trust pay monthly salary and weekly pay for bank shifts. Some of us were short changed because they got far less money than others, all because wrong tax code was used by the pay roll company and hmrc carved out a large chunk of their salary as tax. They lodged complaints with workforce, who escalated same to the payroll company. They promised to refund the excess deductions in the next month salary and also change the tax code to the right one. We were broke before and after the pay day. We did not spend much because of the forthcoming examination, no one have the time to shop. We must pass the examination or we would be responsible for the resit, about £970. Before the recent review, if one fails an aspect of the examination, he/she has to register and resit the whole examination. We were also saving money for two things, the Black Friday sales and our first house rent.
November crept in unnoticed, we were still perfecting our skills. The first group having their examination on 14th November travelled to Swindon, on 13th. 13th was work free for all. I travelled with my group on 14th. We took a train from Redhill to London Bridge, then another one to Reading and finally Swindon. We got to our hotel in the evening, checked in and hungry. The hotel menu was very expensive, dinner was £28.I went to the university to check it out on my way coming back I got KFC big bucket for £4, made tea in the room and dinner was set.
I went to bed very early, wanted to wake early and revise my books. I woke up but too tired to absorb anything, I went back to sleep. I woke up and attended to my hygiene. 0730hr I was ready to go out.
I got to the centre, registered and waited to be called for certificate verification, then I remembered my wife and rendered some prayers for her because she did something that saved me from embarrassment. I did a bit of house keeping before I left Nigeria. I gathered all invalid documents, invoices, papers and crushed them, I packed them in a container with an instruction for my wife to burn them after I have left.
Two weeks to OSCE, our instructors asked us to put our documents together, to be sure we have everything. We were told we need all the original documents submitted to the NMC for application. In my case I used two police character certificate, I obtained the first one around January when I started the application with NMC, but because my application took some time. The police character reference expired before I could apply for my Visa. So I needed a new character certificate for my Visa, I had no qualms getting into Alagbon close to get another one. So while tidying up, I crushed the expired police report with other documents to be burnt because it was expired and no longer useful in my own judgement. So when the instructor mentioned the original documents, I slouched on my chair in desperation knowing i have shot myself in the leg. I sneaked out of the class to make that call to my wife, she picked up, and I asked if she has burnt those documents, to my utmost surprise and admiration, she said , she had thought I might need them again, so she has straightened them and put them in a file. I jumped up in excitement. I told her, her actions have saved me from troubles. She sent the documents through DHL the following day, I got them same week. My wife rock, I love my woman.

I presented the documents for verification, the NMC official was very jovial. After documents clearance. I was issued an identification, then went to the final wait up area. Waiting to be called for the examination.
The examination itself is rhythmic, mimicking patient flow in a hospital and nursing care plan. I was called in, introduced to the examination area, offered a cup shown where the water jug was.
I went through the process with confidence knowing I have done enough preparation. It was over in about 1 hour 45 minutes. I thanked the examiner. Did final handwashing and collected my belongings. I went back to check out of the hotel.
I got back home through Reading, Clapham junction in London, finally Redhill. Then the waiting game started, ideally we should have the result after 24 hours, I was checking my email every hour, inbox, junk mail, spam folders every hour. The following day after the OSCE was work free to allow is to rest from the journey.
In the evening of the second day, results started coming out, mine took 48 hours. Some had resit and had to book for the examination using their money and they all passed the resit. We paid for the pin and by first week in December, each person has a pin. So OSCE was a wrap.

Someone should help me out here. I have been banned like three times by anti spam bot, no reason was stated for the bans. Is there anything that i am doing wrongly ?
Thanks.

Hi Soknown. Apologies for that.

Do you get banned after posting somethngor just randomly before posting?

DisGuy:
Hi Soknown. Apologies for that.

Do you get banned after posting somethngor just randomly before posting?

The first ban was after I posted on my thread. The other two were random.