Wednesday. 9.20 a.m. The weather is currently extremely mild and not wintery. Usually, at this time of year, we get snow and ice and freezing conditions.
There are daffodils beginning to show green shoots in various parts of Oldbrook, and at the front of Dexter House, there is a hedge with signs of green.
Friday. 9.45 a.m. I had a letter from the D.V.L.A. (Driver's and Vehicle Licensing Agency. You know the sort of thing I mean; they come in a buff envelope with an address window. The letter inside informed me that I had an 'untaxed vehicle.' My car, because it has very low emissions, doesn't have to be taxed, although I should inform the D.V..L.A. that it is still on the road and being driven. If the car wasn't licenced and I didn't register it, the car was likely to be scrapped, which I didn't want to happen, for obvious reasons. As a result, I went on the D.V.L.A. website and had hoped to be able to sort this problem out without speaking to a person, but it didn't seem as if this was possible. I then went on the 'chat' facility, but that wasn't much help and was given a phone number to ring. I needed a document, I think it was the paper part of the actual licence and to deal with the registration, I needed the VSC number off that piece of paper, but I couldn't get it from this chat facility. I then rang the number, I had to go through many menus and then the long wait, with that dreary music, until a human actually answered. When I was eventually able to speak to a human (who had a lovely Welsh accent, making me think of the character played by Ruth Madoc in 'Hi De Hi', Gladys Pugh.) I was told that I would need the chassis number of the car to continue. So, I went out to the car and searched for this elusive number. I'm not sure if I actually found it, and I had to go back indoors and phone that wretched number again.
This time, after the long wait for someone to answer (and that confounded repetitive music!) I spoke to another person and this time I was told I didn't need that VSC number. I couldn't remember if I'd received the letter from the D.V.L.A. which reminded me about registering the car and that I didn't need to pay for the annual road fund licence. I had to pay £25 for the document that I didn't have (I must have had it somewhere. But where it was I have no idea. So, I paid the £25, using the keypad of my phone and that was the end of the matter, thank goodness.
Monday. 10.10 a.m. I had a text message a couple of weeks ago, asking me to take my blood pressure twice a day, for a week. As I didn't have a blood pressure device, I would have found this very difficult, so I bought one from Amazon and it arrived very quickly.
I had a problem getting it to work, but after some fiddling with it (for want of a better way of describing it!) I got it to work. Unfortunately, when I couldn't get it to work, my blood pressure went up and so the reading was high. I was supposed to use a link in the original text message to send the blood pressure readings to the surgery, but when I came to use it, I got a message telling me that it had expired, which was somewhat annoying. What on earth was the point of it, if it had expired? I rang the surgery, to be told that the link could not be opened. I thought that I was going to have to ring the surgery to give them the readings, but after some thought, I decided to write each reading down and take the completed week's readings to the surgery, which is what I did on the final Monday.
A couple of days later I got another text message from the surgery. Could I make an appointment to have my blood pressure taken? I did this through the text message and thought no more about it, until I got another a few days later, telling me I would need to make another appointment as the practise nurse wasn't going to be available on the original date I'd booked. I got another date and time, which was last Tuesday at 11.10. I arrived there in plenty of time and the computer system, which has a touch-screen on the surgery wall, wasn't working, so I went to the reception desk to report that I had arrived. I then sat down in the waiting area. The time I was due for my appointment came and went. Many people came in and some went for their appointments, which came up on the digital screen. It got to 11.30, and I was still sitting and waiting, so I went to the reception desk and told the receptionist. She couldn't see my name in the system, and it turned out that it hadn't been keyed in, so I had to make a new appointment, for the next day, 21st February, at 11 a.m.
I went to the surgery and the practise nurse took my blood pressure. It was quite normal, thankfully. I am going to get a doctor's appointment soon, either face-to-face or via telephone, because I'm still not feeling 100%, certainly not since I had that blackout and ended up on the floor and not knowing why I was there when I came round and then having to go to hospital. I am now on Sertraline, which might explain why I'm not feeling myself. But generally I feel better than I have done in quite a while.
No comments:
Post a Comment