You might think, from the last post, that I have been off dreaming. You would be partly right, but that post alone would not give you the full picture of my morning. If you saw The Great British Sewing Bee earlier in the week you may have noticed that several of the sewers made regency style dresses with lace overdresses. I don’t know if this is the correct term, but imagine a dress with a second lacy dress (possibly garishly-patterned) over the top.

Gregg’s Vegan Sausage Roll

The last post was the lacy overdress with the floaty, filmy bits of my life. This one, with the NHS emails, struggles with the car, and the broken pen (and ink-stained fingers) is the sensible, and substantial, main garment.

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, I won’t mention the result, but I will give my opinion that justice was done and the sewing room feels a better place.

The NHS has messed up my repeat prescriptions, has decided to review some of my drugs and so I spent a little time on emails to them. They have replied to the drug review – I am to expect a phone call some time after 9.00 on Wednesday. If I told their appointment service I would be down at some convenient point after 9.00 you can imagine the lecture, stern tones and condescending manner that would ensue.#

The more difficult one, the one where they have cocked up the repeat prescription has had no answer yet.

The review is for Warfarin, and I am also in correspondence with the Anticoagulant Service. Apparently I am behind with my tests. This is true. However, it’s true because the GP Practice is making me wait three weeks for the test when I should be able to get one at three or four day’s notice. I will quote them on the subject of the test (they have sent me three messages about it so far). It is “an essential component of safe anticoagulation for patients on Warfarin therapy. It must be monitored closely as improper control may cause potentially life threatening complications.”

Quite clearly, the GP surgery doesn’t see the urgency in quite the same way. I don’t either, to be fair. And, in summing up, the Anticoagulant Service sent me an email telling me they were short of staff and would be getting back to patients in order of importance. I, it seems, am not at the top of the list.

Afternoon tea at Bettys at Harlow Carr in 2019

There’s another NHS problem, which I’ve been trying to sort out for over two months.

My phone isn’t working properly, which makes everything worse.

I’m having trouble getting a slot booked for my upcoming MOT, which is not being helped by the faulty phone.

And when I opened my new pen the nib assembly wasn’t properly seated. It is now, but I have inky fingers and a pictorial record of how many times I must have touched my face as I was fixing it.

So there you have it – the lacy stuff here, and the dark underbelly of real life aggravation here.

I don’t actually have a major problem at the moment – I just have dozens of small ones and it’s amazing how much time they take up.

The lightbulb in my office just blew . . .

A nice cup of tea

Pictures were selected to show the highs and lows of March 2019