'Flu Jabs and Shopping

We both have 'flu jabs each autumn. Having had a heart attack, I am what's called 'vulnerable' in that a bad dose of 'flu could be dangerous. I have had one, free on the N.H.S. each autumn, for around the last 10 years or thereabouts. As Carol has been diagnosed as diabetic, she is also covered by the 'free 'flu jab' system.  They do give the staff at Milton Keynes Academy 'flu vaccine jabs, but they don't have them until much too late,  in November, which means that she would be vulnerable to getting a dose of 'flu well before then. It takes around two weeks to be effective, apparently. She had booked this  few weeks ago to be done at Sainsbury's pharmacy but she came along with me this morning to Ashfield Medical Centre because they had run their 'flu clinic this morning as they do each year. It was today and then on the 22nd October (actually my birthday.) We arrived outside the surgery at 7.45 to find quite a considerable queue forming. Rather than sit in the car it seemed better to join the queue and by 7.58 this has stretched across the carpark. Once the doors had opened we had to be signed in at reception and people were being called in to be 'jabbed' by the staff more or less immediately. My name eventually came up on the digital display and I went into the nurse's room along the corridor. I had to sit down and have my blood pressure take (which is showing quite normal along with my heart rate.) The nurse gave me the 'flu vaccine, done very efficiently and I never felt anything. I walked out to wait near the car for Carol to appear a minute or two later. She had been given a prescription for more eye ointment, as given to her by the nurse who gave her the 'flu vaccine jab. 

From the doctor's surgery we drove directly to Sainsbury's to do our usual weekly shop. It has to be the earliest we've ever done the shopping and was around 8.30 when we eventually got there. As the supermarket was virtually empty of other shoppers it meant we could get in and out exceptionally fast, avoiding the queues at the checkout.