Week 97 - Relocating & Dragging Out My Birthday

Thursday #98 – as I got out of bed at 7 this Thursday, my phone went off with a text from The Head Optometrist asking me to head into the city instead of Brookvale.  I was irate and made sure I let DTM know while he tried to sleep in having scored an 11.45 start at work.  Not only would my day now be busier, I also was letting down a patient who had rescheduled her appointment once already when I was away and she specifically wanted to see me, AND I had 20 minutes less to get ready and out of the house.  Not cool.

I managed to shower, wash my hair, get dressed and grab some cruskits for the walk in less than half an hour and somehow made it into the city early.  After rushing around and then having to stand on the bus, the last few minutes were particularly stressful as I suddenly felt super hot in my coat and wondered if I might just faint.  I survived the bus and was relieved to step out into the cool outdoors and take my coat off.

My day was looking hectic and I was feeling super unprepared, luckily the first patient cancelled and I had a gap in the appointments after that so I was able to spend an hour or so getting myself ready before my first patient actually turned up.  With some “staff movement” taking place there had been a fair bit of patient shuffling and rescheduling and I found myself stuck with a contact lens patient who insisted on being seen that day and so was only allocated a half hour appointment instead of the usual 45 minutes for contacts.  To make matters worse she had a dental appointment beforehand and would most likely be running late.  To top it all off she was booked in at 12.15 instead of 12.30 so when she rocked up at 12.40, my 12.45 patient had already arrived.  Luckily The Short Smoking Receptionist was able to convince The Saturday Room Stealer to take my 12.45 patient so I was able to spend more than 5 minutes with The Inflexible Contact Lens Patient.

For lunch I got myself a sandwich from the foodcourt and spared a thought for The BH&G Fan who was off in Mykonos with The Scientist, just a couple of weeks after we’d been to that very sandwich shop together on our trip into the city for DIY magnums.  I took it back up to my room to eat and almost instantly realised that was a stupid idea as the 3G internet is inexplicably bad in that HCF building.  With facebook on my phone barely working, I had to resort to old school minesweeper on the PC.

The afternoon went by fairly quickly with only 3 patients after my relatively late lunch break.  Having hit up the shops in the city after work on Wednesday, when 5 o’clock rolled around I was keen to get straight on a bus out of there.  I also had dinner plans in Allambie Heights and not a lot of time to spare given my location switch.  I got home (via a quick trip to Coles so that I would have milk in the morning) and changed before heading to pick up Quit It.  Five and a half months after my birthday and just 2 weeks before her own, we were finally making it out for my birthday dinner.

We headed to We Are Thai where I got myself some Pad Thai and learnt that Quit It is now a vegetarian…and on Jenny Craig…and that Thai was not really the best place for her to be having dinner.  We made do however and she struggled at having to pass up the deep fried icecream on offer for dessert.  I was ok with it since we’d had it last time and I found the whole thing a bit strange.

I got home after dinner to discover DTM had been eating snacks all night and as such would not be eating dinner.  Knowing I occasionally hide food from him (as it is sometimes the only way it will last more than a day) he enquired if I had any snacks to eat while we watched the movie he’d downloaded for me.  As a matter of fact I did have snacks and headed to the kitchen to get my hidden rice crackers.  Not hidden well enough it would seem as I soon discovered that in the 3 days since I had bought them, DTM had not only found them, he had also opened them, relocated them and completely finished them without even offering them to me.  He then spent the next 5 minutes apologising profusely before we started watching The Heat.

After a stressful start to the day and a snackless evening, I headed to bed, content that I had managed to squeeze a fair bit into one day. 

Week 96 - Surprising Cleaners & Surprising Boyfriends

Thursday #97 – I started this day in a bit of a rush with no time for weetbix before work.  Instead I had myself some cruskits in the car on my way.  This week was another busy one at work, starting with a retest for one of The Contact Lens Hater’s patients.  I'm led to believe this isn’t too uncommon and while that’s certainly not great for business, it did make me feel like a good optometrist that I was able to prescribe glasses the patient was actually happy with.  Score 1 for me.

I felt like I spent the day explaining macular degeneration as every second patient seemed to be showing some early signs – even a 51 year old lady which was a difficult one to explain.  Another memorable patient was The Blind Asian whose vision was atrocious but he insisted it was fine.  Trying to explain that he didn’t pass the driving test was surprisingly difficult as he assures me he can see just fine.

At lunch I was about to head to the jeweller with my broken earrings when I realised that somewhere along the way I had lost the stone out of it.  I had managed to transport the earring and loose amethyst from my house to The BH&G Fan’s house and back again on the weekend without drama and now the amethyst had mysteriously disappeared.  I searched my bag and office (and later car) with no luck.  As I would later discover, my earrings had porosity and could not be fixed anyway.

After work I came home to a note on the bench from The Fill-In Cleaner.  The Cabbie and DTM have a cleaner who comes once a fortnight for vacuuming, bathrooms and who knows what else.  She had an operation a couple of months ago and has been sending her daughter-in-law, The Fill-In Cleaner in her place.  I’d spotted The Fill-In Cleaner on Monday at The Armenian Grandmother’s funeral and was certain I had seen her before.  I’d pulled out a year 8 class photo and sure enough there she was.  I had shown it to DTM and The Cabbie and so this Thursday when she had come to clean (which I now find super weird) she’d seen the photo and left a note with her mobile number telling me to get in touch.  How awkward.

I decided to head to Chatswood and surprise DTM by meeting him after work.  I figured he’d wanna do something given it was a Thursday night and if he not would certainly appreciate the lift home.  He was very excited when he called me after work and I was parking the car nearby.  We headed to the Bavarian Bier Café for a drink as DTM had had a hectic day at work and nothing less than a litre of beer was gonna help.  After a mango beer for me and a stein of some sort for him, we headed to The Chelsea for some schnitty.

The buzzer went off and I got up to collect our meals, not realising that despite the buzzer system there was a waiter bringing the schnitzels to us.  As I rounded the corner with my head down I almost wore our two schnittys with mushroom sauce and chips.  DTM was most amused as he observed from the safety of our table.  I was less amused to be the butt of their jokes for the next hour or two everytime the waiter came to our table to collect a glass.  I washed down the meal with a strawberry and lime rekorderlig – still excited by my discovery that this cider tastes like pink zappos.

Eventually we headed home, being designated driver there is only so long I can sit at a bar and watch DTM drink beer.  It gets boring after a while.  Not a bad Thursday all things considered.

Week 95 - Working Hard & Chilling Out

Thursday #96 – much like last week, I was off to the city for work again this Thursday.  I scoffed down some weetbix and headed for the bus, running a little late and yet somehow ending up in the city about 10 minutes before I had intended.

Unlike last week, I was 94% booked this Thursday and not at all impressed by that.  The good thing about being busy however, is that it does make the day go quicker.  I had a couple of amusing patients in the morning and one particular lady who had me laughing quite a bit.  As well as the laughs she complimented me on my posture and eyelashes – two things I never get compliments on so I was feeling pretty good about things.  In fairness, I have had one comment on my posture before and it was from The Other Phys in 2008 who told me I looked like a ballerina I was holding myself so well – in reality I was in such excruciating pain from my displaced rib that I couldn’t move my neck and the posture was just a side effect of this.  As for the eyelashes, I didn’t have the heart to tell her I got extensions 7.5 weeks ago and they were still about 50% fake.

For lunch I headed to a sandwich shop and got myself a very tasty schnitty and salad sandwich before heading back for more patients.  When the clock struck 5 I headed to the shops, determined to make the most of Thursday night shopping and being placed in the city.  After 20 minutes, 1 shop, and 2 pairs of poor-fitting jeans I was already over that idea and ready to head home.  I checked in to see where DTM was at as he’d been training in the city and I thought we could be bus buddies.  He was heading out for some after work drinks so I made my way to the bus stop solo.

When I got home I phoned the local Thai restaurant, placed my order, spelt out my name for the guy on the phone and hopped in the shower quickly while they cooked my pad see ew.  Hair washed, I headed to the shops to pick up my Thai and awkwardly agreed to a name that wasn’t really anything like the one I had spelt out on the phone.  I crossed my fingers there wasn’t some poor lady whose dinner I had just stolen.  I made the most of having the TV to myself and caught up on The Mole and The Time Of Our Lives which DTM refuses to watch.

Another fairly average Thursday as shopping for jeans is something I often find depressing but it’s always nice to chill out with some take away and good TV.

Week 94 - Being Bored & Being Boring

Thursday #95 – after a semi last minute change to the appointment book, I was off to the city this Thursday for work.  When I got there I was 68% booked and pretty happy with that – still a good third of my day to be spent bludging but enough appointments that I wouldn’t be too bored.  Or so I thought…

My first two patients cancelled and before I knew it I was only 50% booked.  With nothing scheduled ‘til 11 AM, I contemplated napping for a couple of hours while I waited.  Instead I sat there bored and remembered how dodgy my phone internet is inside that building.  Facebook and instagram were a bit much for my phone to handle but luckily I managed to make do with Sudoku and Words With Friends.

For lunch I headed to Sumo Salad and once again noticed that the salads at Warringah Mall are far superior to those in the city and Chatswood.  After work I headed to the shops to buy a birthday present for The BH&G Fan who would be turning the big two one in a couple of weeks.  I briefly met up with DTM at the shops before parting ways so that he could meet up a potential business partner and I could head home to catch up on TV.

A fairly uneventful Thursday by all accounts but at least work wasn’t too stressful as it often can be when I get sent to the big smoke.