The pleasures of a garden office

Now that spring has decided to arrive, I am loving being in my office. It was fine during the cold because the heater works really well but there’s no comparison when it comes to warm spring days.

The door is open, the breeze wafts in, the daffodils waving gently, the poodles asleep on the rug. The first time you hear a crow or a magpie land on the roof is a bit disconcerting but you soon get used to their thud, scratch, scratch across the cedar tiles. Truly a wonderful place to work.

Mind you, I didn’t get a lot of time in my office today. There was a lovely phone call with mum (dad being in hospital sharing a ward with the mad), a trip to the shops for essential birthday present buying and the hospital.

I finally managed to get a doctor’s appointment to check on the results of my blood test in February. The problem with getting an appointment has, basically, been the crazy Easter break.

For some reason, and for what seems like weeks, the medical practice we go to decided to not have proper appointments. Instead, if you want to see a (random) doctor, you have to ring at 8:30 on the day and try for a time. Given the problem with my ankle has been seen by my regular doctor and she ordered the blood test, I wanted to see her. The random system would be fine if I just had a one-off complaint but this is not the case.

Added to the weird scheduling arrangements before, during and after Easter, my doctor had been on annual leave for a fortnight. Anyway, leaving all that griping behind, I finally had an appointment with her for today. And while I was only in with her for about 20 minutes, I managed to spend about half the day at the hospital.

I passed all the blood tests (there was a lot of them) but she realised she’d missed one so I had to give another small vial of blood to have tested. Of course, this takes AGES. I then had to get a series of x-rays. Of course, this also takes AGES.

Anyway, she doesn’t know what’s wrong and if the x-ray and final blood test are just as inconclusive, she’s going to refer me to a higher power for some expert doctoring.

I was quite happy to get back to my office. I sat and looked out over the garden and watched a squirrel, carefully make its way to the cherry blossom and the floating table. It was constantly on alert for the poodles but they were fast asleep.

I see no poodles!