Last Weekend in June

Friday was an interesting day.

We were supposed to be transferring from one medical management system to another over the weekend. We had been preparing for weeks. We had arranged to close the clinic at lunchtime so everyone had a chance to ensure that everything was as ready as it could be and for us all to have a play on the incoming system.

In the meantime, one of the management team had found a cheap-ish second hand fridge on one of the medical Facebook Groups. The Practice Manager there wanted it picked up either on Thursday or Friday. Thursday wasn't possible, so Friday it had to be.

On top of that, Emily, Andre and the babies were supposed to be coming in for lunch. Emily, you may remember, works with us when she is in Melbourne and people were keen to see her and (especially!) the babies.

By Friday morning, it was clear that the transfer to the new system was not going to happen, for logistical reasons outside our control. There was much discussion about whether to call it a day after lunch, and for everyone to go home, or whether to open up the diaries and see what happened.  In the meantime, Reception Alex and I trundled out to Balwyn, in the wilds of the eastern suburbs, to collect the fridge.

We could not find the medical centre and ended up in the wrong one. They were slightly surprised to hear that we had come to take away their fridge. They thought they might like to keep it! They did give us directions to the right clinic. But even then, it was difficult to find. It did not help that their address is on the main road, while their location is on a side street and is not visible from the main road.

We collected the fridge.  Disaster! We had not brought any money with us (I had assumed the fridge was already paid for). They couldn't take a card payment (I had a card I could have used), only cash or a bank transfer. Fortunately, a means of payment was sorted out, after I rang our surgery and asked what they expected us to do. Then we tried to put the fridge into Lindsey's car. It didn't fit! We juggled and jiggled and wiggled and wobbled. Eventually we managed JUST to get it in the car.  But where to put Alex???? I really didn't want to leave him in the wilds of Balwyn. We jiggled and juggled and wobbled and wiggled a bit more and managed to get the passenger seat far enough back that there was JUST enough room for Alex.

Then we drove carefully and cautiously back to the surgery.

Alex, folded up very carefully
and implanted into the car

We got back to find everyone getting ready for lunch. Pizza. Chicken. Chips. Salad. We did try opening the afternoon diaries, but we had been advertising for some time that we would be closed on Friday afternoon, so weren't gathering much interest. So we closed the books again and people ambled off, one by one, into the weekend.

The Sunday training session for the new system was cancelled

Dr Emily, Dr Lindsey and our
two newest recruits, 
complete with their stethoscopes

For me, the weekend was very quiet. It hasn't been as cold as it was earlier in June, but it is not by any stretch of the imagination warm. It's been drizzly and dreary and gloomy. I have long imagined that when I no longer had to go to the care home each afternoon that I would get lots done in the garden. The weather is not conducive to gardening! I am merely nibbling away at the edges of the things that need to be done. But really, there is no hurry. Things will happen as they do.

I have, though, found the missing trowel. It was, of course, exactly where I had left it, waiting for me to come and carry on with what I had been doing. Although, I hadn't stopped in the middle of something. I had finished weeding one little bed and planted some broad bean seeds. The trowel was waiting for me to come back and start on the next bed. But I think that might be a mid to late August job. I have put the trowel away, next to its new friend. Now there are two trowels in the garden tool stand.

I have also been prepping food. A Farmers' Pick box arrived on Friday. I have made stuffed baked zucchini, stuffed baked tomatoes and a selection of steamed veg. I have prepped most of the rest of the veg ready to be used. I am planning a traybake at some point. And Lindsey has taken some of the prepped veg for tonight's Steak Night in Melbourne. We are not going to starve in the foreseeable future