Yesterday started well. We were both up in good time, we had breakfast before work started, and we were both pretty much at our desks in good time.
The first job I did was finish writing yesterday’s blog post, which mainly consisted of adding in what we got up to at the weekend. I already had the image for the post, as it was publication day, and I’d already written most of the post. Once it was finished, I published it and shared it.
At around 11am, the poet went into a mammoth Teams meeting that was scheduled to last 4½ hours. I know, that’s a rubbish idea. BUT…it apparently saved them all travelling a long distance for just one meeting. So they did it via Teams. I started work on The Secret of Whitehorse Farm and at 12:50-ish, I was dead proud of myself for starting our dinner in good time to eat it, watch a video, get ready and go to my hospital appointment.
Ho, ho, ho. I’d completely forgotten that the appointment was at 2pm. I was convinced it was a whole hour later. I’d just settled down to eat my dinner and watch the video when the poet tapped me on the shoulder and said, “We have around 10 minutes for me to get in the car and continue this Teams meeting via the phone.”
Eh? I looked at him blankly for a good few seconds while he waited for the penny to drop. Then it was Benny Hill time, getting changed and ready and finishing dinner to be on our way on time.
We did it, and he reconnected before we’d even set off, although the signal was rubbish until we got out of the village.
He’d arranged to take me to the hospital when my car broke down last week, and even though we’d fixed it, I’d forgotten to insure it. So we couldn’t go anywhere in it other than to the mechanic’s and back. Good job we didn’t go to get my coat on Thursday night! Also, daytime parking at the hospital is so dreadful, it really is best to be dropped off at the main door and let the driver try and park the car without rushing.
As it was, he reckons he drove around the car park about 10 times before finding a spot, and he’d been through the barrier twice, without a ticket, as the barrier was up.
My appointment lasted probably around 30 minutes. And then I had to go to Pharmacy to wait for my prescription. And wait. And wait. And wait. And even then when I got my prescription, there was something missing.
(This bit’s important…) The woman on the desk recited how I was supposed to take the anti-histamine pills, and she said I could use the cream as both a body wash and a moisturiser. But when I asked where the steroid cream was, she said they hadn’t sent that down. I said there were 4 items but she said they’d only received 3 items. I asked her again about the steroid cream, and she said no.
So I had to go back and ask him to send it again.
By this time, the poet had finished his Teams meeting and had come to find me. I’d told him I was at Pharmacy, and then I had to tell him I was back in Dermatology. Dermatology said they’d check the prescription and send the missing item again. So we walked back to Pharmacy and waited again. And waited. And waited. And waited…
They finally looked and said they’d still not received the missing item, so I had to go BACK to Dermatology AGAIN. This time with the poet in tow. Dermatology had checked, and they’d sent everything to Pharmacy, so we opened the bag to see what I’d actually got.
I’d got one moisturiser and one steroid cream. No anti-histamine tablets, and no body wash. And there was an ‘owing’ label taped to one side of the bag. I said the pharmacy woman had said I could use the moisturiser as a body wash too, and the nurse said that didn’t matter. The doc had asked for 2 items and it wasn’t up to Pharmacy to decided to give me only 1.
So back we pootled and I said there are no tablets and no body wash. (Remember she’d told me how to take the tablets.) She started to argue, so I emptied the bag. One steroid cream. One moisturiser. “And by the way,” I added, “There’s an ‘owing’ label there too.”
“Ah,” she replied. “That’s the anti-histamines. They didn’t tell me the anti-histamines were owing.” And she tore the owing label off the bag. (Blame someone else #1.)
“And there’s no body wash,” I said.
“You can use this for a body wash.” she replied, pointing at the pot of moisturiser.
“Yes, but I’m supposed to have two,” I replied.
“But we only give out one—”
“Doctor asked for two,” interjected the poet.
She huffed and puffed and said, “They’re only supposed to prescribe one at a time.” (Blame someone else #2.) And she snatched it off us and took it to the back. Then she came back and said, “You said there were four items but there were only three, that’s why I got confused.” (Blame someone else #3.)
Another lady brought the revised prescription to us and we headed home. Fortunately the car park barrier was still up or we would have been very angry at having to pay for an extended stay in the car park as well.
When we got home, I checked the prescription again to find that not only were there no anti-histamines, but there was also no owing slip. So I set about ringing the number on the labels to make sure they were still going to let me know when they came in. It took me 4 attempts. the first time it rang and rang and rang and rang and then cut me off. The second time it was engaged. The third time it redirected to a different mailbox number that informed me it was full. But the fourth time someone did indeed answer. I was so relieved it wasn’t the woman we’d been speaking to.
She assured me that the anti-histamines were still down as owing, and that they’d call me when they come in. So I was at least happy about that, or they would have got an edited scathing review added to my existing scathing review that is apparently romping up the review table on Google Maps. There are so many bad reviews about this pharmacy.
Anyway, I finally went back to work on the novella while the poet set about making a flan for our tea. It was meat-free-Monday, so he was making a broccoli quiche. And it looked blummin’ luvverly when he got it out of the oven.
We both spent another hour or so in the office, trying to catch up before running out of steam. And anyway, it was tea time.
May today be much more betterer.
