7th December

Another BIG day.

Well, big for me because it was the first day I have worked (at any job) for an entire day, since my retirement (four years). Lester and I arrived over town by seven o'clock and I had initial decision-making conversations with Steve and Greg before eight. We discussed important things like sound-proofing toilets, waste water outlets, telephone outlets and the fact that we had heard nothing from the building company who were supposed to be fixing the AMP wall.

 However, on the dot of eight, a huge crane backed up the lane, (blocking all the commuters coming to work), followed by a crew of scaffolders who set about unloading and erecting the aluminium scaffolding onto our roof, against the offending wall. I was delighted that there was "action" happening but also a little concerned that no-one had seen hide-nor-hair of the engineer who was apparently going to "sign off" that our roof could support this scaffold. (It turned out that "their" engineer and "our" engineer are the same bloke and he was happy to let it all happen because he knew we, (Greg) had put up those three steel beams on the top floor which, apparently can withhold any amount of weight. So - all good. By about midday everything was in place and I had a chance to slip out and photograph events. The men erecting the scaffold - are they called gangers??- even gave a wave at the sight of a camera.



from the rear - two differeent scaffolds



Front view

Meanwhile, my Big Day continued for many more hours. I "held the fort" at the front desk of the surgery; answering phones, scanning documents and trying to give the appearance that I knew what I was doing. Can't fool these patients. They sussed something was up as their beloved Rosemary and Carol were not there to greet them, as they have done for years. One old chap announced to the waiting room that he has known "Rosemary and Carol for thirty years!!" I could read his thoughts..."and who the heck are you???" All went well-ish until mid-afternoon when one man was so put-out that his verbal abuse over the phone, consisted of something akin to sexual harrassment, which was actually pretty upsetting. I must be getting prudish in my old age but I was shocked (and even a bit crushed) by his implications and language. Got to meet him face-to-face tomorrow. Give me thirty kids any day. They aren't half as scary as one unmedicated adult.

In the middle of all this I held conversations with multiple builders and tradesmen several times, sometimes simultaneously in the waiting room much to the interest of all present.  It is quite advantageous to be on site so that I can liaise between construction workers. One bizarre conversation was about how long scaffolding was staying in place. Now that there are two lots of scaffolding on the same site the conversation became quite skewed - now, which bit of scaffolding are you talking about?

Meanwhile, Rowan and Samantha sent messages about their trip through Vietnam. They were on yet another slow and overcrowded bus heading for Hoi An. Sounded nice.