I have noo shoos, and for the 1st time in my adult life I am wearing R**boks rather than Nik*s.
My group of girlfriends in my early 20’s were swoosh wearers. The swoosh, the whole swoosh and nothing but the swoosh! We sported black bumper stickers with white text and a red swoosh all the way through a number of cars, there were even swoosh key rings for the lucky. Yes, we were a sad act to be sure.
So, when I was back in NZ in April imagine my surprise to see Panda in R**boks… It was the biggest surprise of the holiday.
And now I am in them too…
My how things change…
Life the Universe and Thursday
[Nod’s once again to Douglas Adams]
So, the conversation goes like this…
Bring Bring… “Local Radiology, Scary Nurse Speaking”
Moi… “Hello Scary Nurse, this is Dee, How are you doing?”
SN… “Good thanks” (Ok, so she’s not exactly scary, more, sort of represents a universal scariness given she’s in charge of this darn mammogram)
Moi…”I’d like to make an appointment for a mammogram please, I have a referral from Dr Ticket”
SN… “Certainly, what’s your name please?”
Moi… “Deeleea B Deeleea”
SN…”Well, I can see your referral in the system, you’ve had it since January haven’t you?”
Moi… “*blushes* Yes”
SN… “I’m afraid I can’t make an appointment for you. Because you are below the governnmentally intstituted regulation screening age you need to have a referral that demonstrates an existing pathology (a lump or some such anomaly) or a serious family history before we can book you in under Medicare”
Moi… “Well, I have a serious family history (see prev post)”
SN… ” am afraid that Dr Ticket is going to have to write that on the referral”
Moi…”well, can I just book in as a private patient and pay you rather than faff about with Medicare (bearing in mind Mrs Brick gave me the cash).
SN…”No, I’m sorry you’ll need to ring Dr Ticket and ask him to rewrite the referral and then call us for an appointment”
Moi…[hangs up with her flabber totally ghasted]
So, what I want to know is if Kylie had to put up with all this rubbish… I guess she had an existing pathology. Me I’ve just got a couple of dead relatives?
I will have to make another appointment to see another doctor because I didn’t actually bond with Dr Ticket the last time I was there and I want a nicer doctor to give me the referral, one who actually takes me seriously. I hardly ever have to go to the docs so when I do I go with a shopping list… please check out this mole, can I have my blood results, and can you book me a mammogram? I would not have thought that strange behaviour, surely general physicals include such things, but Dr Ticket clearly thinks I am an hypochondriac.
So, as you can see I did Try and book the procedure but got stonewalled. I promise I won’t leave it 2 months to try again…
On a lighter note I am somewhat heavier due to certain pancakes consumed at the latest Aussie wibmeet. Me, Ian, Semele and Miss Lisa hooked up in the city for dinner and what turned out to be an hilarious evening!!! Thanks for making the effort guys! It was great to meet you Semele and to catch up Ian! And Miss Lisa? Always a pleasure!!
I have brain fade and can’t remember any of the things we said we’d blog when we got home… except the sugar spilling and the shoe and hardware fetish… Loses something in translation I think!
I guess you just had to be there…
Check it Out
It is by no quirk of fate that I am here. and don’t mean in Australia, or in my bed blogging this post (yes the Dell has moved back to bed, it’s where ’tis warmest), I mean Here, In Existence.
My life is, because of one extraordinary woman. My grandmother. Edna.
As a mother of 4, 2 of them twins, she was diagnosed in 1945 with both breast cancer, and with pregnancy. In 1945 treatment was dangerous, unpleasant and experimental. Drugs to treat one would no doubt finish the other and to her this was untenable. Advised to terminate, to save herself for the sake of the children; she opted instead to do nothing. Nothing; for the sake of the child. Nothing; not even once she delivered, Nothing; till the infant was weaned.
That’s Courage.
She died when my mother was 3.
Jaq and Jill; twins who shared everything, a womb, a room, a birthday, a diagnosis, scars, prostheses and treatment stories. They shared also the same courageous mother as mine did and now it has been 4 years since Jill died too, that same hideous death 54 years later.
And so here I am, staring down the barrell of a mammogram, with a referral that is 2 months old burning a whole in my diary. And now, thanks to Mrs Brick I am without the excuse of the price for the procedure. She overpaid me enough for a mammogram when I babysat last week. To make sure that I was without that excuse. And it’s been 10 days and her cheque is still burning a hole in my wallet.
Don’t admonish me please, it’s tough enough without being nagged. Just nod and smile as I am making myself accountable to you… Tomorrow I will call the clinic. Admonish me not, for waiting this long, pick up the phone and go and get yourself checked out too.
Candy Girl
It sits on the shelf above the tv.
My sugar jar. The one that used to hold a kilo or two of common or garden variety white sugar.
Until Flick got her hands on it…
Now? Sugar of a different kind…2 kilos (4.8lb) of Gummi Skittles. Sigh… you know how hard it is to just look at it right??
Sheesh…
You can tell who’s been eating em by the top layer… as it stands at the moment the top layer are all red and purple. That means the green, orange and yellow ones have been consumed by someone…
Which serves to illustrate my candy theory, one I have subscribed to for a long time now and is backed up by extensive research and observation of human behaviour.
It’s actually more of a jelly bean theory really as it started by observing that people tended to veer towards a particular color when putting their hand in the bean bowl. You see it seems to me one is either primarily green motivated or red motivated.
One chooses tart v sweet, citrus v berry, green versus red.
Me? Yeah, I’m the green freak… green, then yellow then orange. So you can guess who’s been in the Skittle jar. Flick? happily she’s the red head… so we are mfeo, she’ll happily clear the top layer for me so I can get to the bottom of the jar where the rest of the green ones are.
Happily it’s not jelly beans, because the black ones would still be there.. They’re in a class of their own.