Hal and Dave 005: Irma meets Julia

“Zephie, Jed, can you lay the table for tea? Mum’s home soon.”
“Just watching the end of this programme, Dad, then we’ll do it,” replies Jed.

“OK, just as long as it’s educational,” Dave responds, with a slightly cynical air.
He listens for a reply. Silence. He gets on with preparing the Bolognese.
“One glass of red should be okay. The alcohol boils off anyway. Or am I just looking for an excuse to open a bottle?” he mutters to himself.

The front door opens. Irma’s home.
“Hi love, hi kids.” She pecks Dave on the cheek. How’s things?”
“They’ve been fine. You’re home early.”

“My 4.30 cancelled. He was booked for physio on his left leg. Apparently he’s gone and broken the other one playing football. Shouldn’t laugh, sorry.”
Irma glances across the kitchen.

“Dave, can I just say? - you maintain that you tidy up after yourself but - look at the state of that table! I was going to sit down and update my CPD casework notes. You’ve got papers, books, laptop, keyboard, your empty plate from lunch, an apple core, two mugs half full of cold tea - and a bag of compost! What’s that doing there? If I park myself right on the end, I might just find a few square centimetres to be able to put my phone down!”

“OK, love, good point, well made,” replies Dave sheepishly. “The kids have been pretty busy, and I was going to pot up some basil.”
“Do we get through that much basil then? The kids don’t like it. I prefer oregano.”

Dave hurriedly clears some table space, knocking over one of the mugs and flooding his keyboard. He grimaces and makes a growling noise.
“Drat? And double drat?” asks Irma, her face developing a faint, quizzical smile.

“Something a little stronger,” Dave replies, reaching for the kitchen paper.
“I spoke to Hal earlier. He was telling me about Julia.”
“Not another girlfriend? Judging by the last few, it’ll be over in a week,” says Irma.

“No, it’s not a girl. It’s a new product from Switchplane. It’s in their newsletter. He thought it might interest you.”
“Me? Why, what is it exactly?”

“Well, it’s an app that runs on iPhone or Android, and it’s aimed at health professionals, such as dieticians, physios, occupational therapists, and so on. It helps them with their record keeping and reflections for CPD.”

“Really? Are you serious? That would be amazing! At the moment, I must admit, the way I arrange my CPD is as chaotic as this table. I dread the HCPC getting in touch to say I'm being audited. So I could organise all my notes and evidence in one place?”

“That’s the gist of it, as far as I know. Have a look at the article on Switchplane’s website.”

“I’m going to. Right now! Whew, this is exciting!” she says, opening her laptop.

Dave, relieved, pours Irma a glass of wine. He gives her a slightly flirty glance.

“So you admit to being a bit chaotic as well, then?”

“Maybe,” comes the coy reply.

“Thanks, Julia. Shaping up for a nice evening after all,” thinks Dave, snipping a bit of basil into the bolly.