My original intention for today’s episode was that it would be an exploration of the kinds of questions we ask ourselves as we get older, questions like:
- Should I be leaping out of planes?
- Should I get a tattoo?
- Should I send off a swab to a lab somewhere to check my propensity for horrible diseases?
And then I took a routine trip to the hospital and found myself profoundly grateful that I’m in such good health.
iPhone and early signs of ageing
We begin though, with me trying (and failing) to set up my new phone as despite the fact that I’ve written an award entry for one of the UK’s largest mobile operators, I’ve got absolutely no clue that you still need to ‘order’ an eSIM if you want to keep your number when you get a new phone. Surely they just send you a QR code? Turns out if you’re on Tesco Mobile, it’s a no…
The tension between my 18-y/o daughter and I as I failed miserably to activate my new phone properly was almost as solid as when I was helping her learn to drive. Her frustration at watching me tentatively tap away at a phone that she swipes through with ease was palpable. More than once I could have sworn I heard her say “Why are you so OLD?”.
Anyway, come Monday, I’ll be (hopefully) fully functioning in the present on a phone which my children promise will help me to remain relevant in everyday life.
Getting the hump with the hospital
Whilst my own hospital appointment today was on-time, efficient and came with the desired outcome, things were not quite the same for a woman I met in the car park who had just spent close to 45 minutes trying to locate a wheelchair as her mother couldn’t make it from the car park to the hospital doors.
Despite the fact that said hospital has invested much money in whopping great ‘Welcome Desks’ which play home to an endless supply of volunteer ‘Welcomers’, not one person had been able to help. Turns out they thought an acceptable way to welcome people to the hospital is by saying “Well, people don’t return the wheelchairs” when faced by someone who is exasperated at having to leave their 90-y/o mother sat on a chair, in a cold carpark, for an indeterminate amount of time.
And don’t get me started on the old boy gleefully driving around the inside of the hospital on a buggy who is so absorbed in being “the man allowed to drive those less mobile” that he couldn’t possibly have thought about how to solve a serious issue because it wasn’t happening within the immediate confines of the hospital. That the carpark is attached to. ARGH!
And so, whilst marvelling at how this woman wasn’t swearing and turning the Welcome Desk over with her mother’s walking stick, I helped her walk her mother to the inside of the hospital. Where no doubt she got a ‘warm welcome’ and finally a set of wheels. And I thanked my lucky stars I wasn’t ill.
Want to listen to me swear liberally at how this poor lady was treated?
