From noon today, for an hour, I was speaking to my four local girl friends on the Houseparty app. It's a regular Friday video get-together, Houseparty being easier to use - and a lot more fun - than, say, Zoom. We got onto having the first of the two Covid-19 jabs. I was starting to get anxious about getting mine, as it seemed that various people we knew had either been invited to make an appointment, or had actually been vaccinated already. And one or two of them were younger than me. Was I going to be overlooked? Had I somehow fallen through a hole in the system?
I need not have worried. While we were talking, a text message from the local doctors' surgery appeared on my phone. It was the eagerly-awaited invitation to make a booking! Hurrah!
After we parted, I got the message up and acted on it. I had to follow a link to a special page on the practice website. The following sequence of screen shots on my phone will reveal how straightforward it was to get a convenient booking fixed up.
So, with this jab under my belt - or rather in my arm - I can expect another message in twelve weeks' time, to have my second vaccination.
Haywards Heath is not far away, and easy to get to. Valerie, one of my friends, who has already had her first vaccination, tells me that there is a large car park at Clair Hall. Excellent. I'll still allow plenty of time to drive there, get parked, and go through any preliminary formalities.
I only vaguely remember Clair Hall from my last previous visit in 2003. That was just before the Iraq War, when I was present to hear impassioned speeches from eloquent peace activists pleading for reason. Activism is not my thing, but friends of M---'s had a connection with one of the speakers, and M--- and I went along in support. I thought they made a very convincing case for staying out of the conflict, and stopping hostilities before it was too late, predicting dire long-term humanitarian catastrophe for the ordinary Iraqis, and general upset in the region. And it all came true. But of course it was too late to stop the inevitable.
As you see, my Covid-19 appointment is only four days ahead. I shall take extra care to avoid other people during that time, so that I survive this last lap before salvation. And I'll have to take extra care for two weeks afterwards too. Never mind. It's genuinely the beginning of the end of all these restrictions. It can't come too soon. I want to set forth with my caravan! Scotland calls!
