Oh, and...

...my appraisal went fine. As much as I dislike the idea of having to document the ways in which I go about keeping up to date (using all the appropriate jargon and buzz words) just so that someone can pat me on the head for it and tell me what a good little doctor I am, the appraisal itself is a rather nice chance just to sit and chat about stuff.

There was one moment that I will reiterate here, as it so encapsulates what I hate about appraisal. (That and having to faff around getting the paperwork ready, but at least the latter is just something I hate as a time-consuming nuisance, rather than something I hate on principle.) I'd mentioned to the appraiser that one of the things I really liked about this practice was that there were other GPs here of about my own age and experience level. At the place I previously worked for three years, both the partners were men of around 50, and we didn't have a lot in common beyond all being doctors at the same practice. I got on perfectly well with them, there were no problems, but we didn't exactly sit around and chat about things. Although it wasn't something I'd dwelt on, I did miss the kind of cameraderie that I remembered from my hospital days - just having other juniors around doing the same job that you could chat to, have lunch with, get together for an evening out with. (We haven't managed the last one yet, but we're working on it.)

So, when we got to the end of the appraisal and started filling out the form on which I was supposed to list my objectives for accomplishment before next year's appraisal, she suggested that in view of what I'd said, I could put down 'building a social support network' as one of my goals for next year.

The hell I will, sunshine. Making friends and getting a bit of a social life is something I'm doing for fun, not because I feel I ought to. I'm buggered if I'm going to put it on the to-do list of things I have to tick off to keep government bureaucrats happy that I'm giving full attention to my Personal And Professional Development. Let's keep that as Professional Development, thank you, and let's keep my personal development as my own business.

I found a polite way of saying this that didn't involve obscenities or predictions of sodomy (in fact, I think I said something dreadfully middle class and twee about how I 'rather loathed' the idea), and we left it at that.

Oh, well. That's that over with for another year, then.