Heart attack

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

From Bad To Worse

We went to Asda early this morning to do a bit of shopping and then Carol went to work. I had an appointment booked at the doctors' surgery in Beanhill at 8 and got there with plenty of time to spare; a good 15 minutes in fact. One lady ahead of me had even bought a shooting stick thing to sit on. Seemed a good idea to me. Then the doors opened and we went inside the surgery. The computerised check-in system is still not working. It's been inoperative for a good week or two now. Rather defeats the point of having this elaborate system if it doesn't work, but I managed to check in with one of the two receptionists. I sat down to wait as my appointment was at 8 and by now it was around 10 minutes past so I had expected to go in (having my ears syringed as I have been having real problems hearing. See earlier posts as this has developed into something of a long-running soap opera or saga.) Then I got called over to the desk by the receptionist to be told that she had made a mistake when she made the appointment. The nurse I was supposed to have seen couldn't do the precedure so another appointment was made for 11.15. A bit of an inconvenience, but no problem. Just as well I wasn't planning to do anything else of any consequence this morning. So I went home. By now the traffic was backed up from the Standing Way roundabout well past the entrance into the road in which the surgery is, but some kind van driver let me in. I drove to Eaglestone shops as I needed to top up our gas and electricity cards. Went into the shop and did exactly that, but when I got back to the car it wouldn't start. A repetition of the old problem. On a further attempt it still would not spark into life so I decided to walk home through the estate. There was some shopping in the car from the Asda shopping trip so I took a couple of bags with me except for a large pack of toilet rolls and tins of dog food. I decided to come back a later after my doctor's surgery appointment and take the trolley I used to deliver the IKEA catalogues last summer.
I got to the surgery for the second time this morning at around 11.00, having walked. It's not such a bad walk as the weather has been pleasant for the past couple of days and it generally takes no more than 20 minutes. I checked in and waited. And waited. And waited. You know the sort of thing. You get to your appointment well on time and then you see people being called in before you. It got to around 11.40 and I was still not seen. I suppose I went into the nurses room about 11.45, a good 30  minutes after the time I was booked for. I now have my hearing back but I just hope it doesn't get all woolly again. Walked home and watched Bargain Hunt (one of my favourite shows and the only daytime television show I watch, by  the way.) I decided to walk to the Eaglestone shops to see whether the car would start and took the trolley with me just in case, to bring the remaining shopping. The car wouldn't start the first time I tried. I loaded some of the things into the trolley from the boot, but fortunately I tried it again and on the third attempt it started so I loaded the trolley back into the car and went home. The car is becoming something of a nuisance as it works when it wants to and then doesn't start. So unreliable.

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