Thursday, May 19, 2011

The new things in life

A new doctor who doesn't bulk bill for a double first consultation equals $95 but I got $67 back from Medicare.
He seems to know what he's talking about even with me confusing him every five seconds. I'm so used to telling doctors about Mum that I forget important stuff about me. You'd think with all the pain I went through, I would remember when I had both knees crushed and replaced.
So I have new medication, one of which is so tiny, if I drop it I'll never find it.

Now I have a real bitch about pharma companies now. Once apon a time, in the good old days, you got your pills with a nice long screed telling you all the rotten things that might happen, what was in the pills, when to take the pills but now all you get is a notice telling you to look online. It doesn't even say on the bottle what the damn things are for but it's easy for the cholesterol, $70 a box, everything else is cheap.
I go back on Monday to get results of blood tests. Blood taken by a nurse who seemed to be more used to handling a bazooka instead of a quaint little needle.

Another new thing, a purse. It's a proper bastard and I'd have been really annoyed if I had paid full price for it. Italian Leather on the box, made in China inside the purse. And all I can say is that Chinese money must be a lot smaller than ours. But it was the closest to the one I already had and the worse thing a woman can do is completely change the style of her purse. You'll lose everything including your mind. Every purse I picked up had very little space for actual money but 30 different places for credit cards. I still hate the purse.

Finally a new thought dawns in my mouldy brain. Call after call from charities have blighted my life these past weeks. No I can't sell your raffle tickets, I don't have any friends and I can't afford them. I'm beginning to get very inventive with my lies (if there's a Hell, I have a place booked) but I've realized it's getting near to the end of the financial year and every little contribution counts towards a tax refund. Applause please, it's taken me years to figure that out. I don't earn enough to pay tax unless you include that stinking GST especially on cat food, pardon me, so piss off charities. In this country, charities shouldn't have to beg for money. So if you're thinking of ringing me for money, nick off I have a chocolate habit to support.

21 comments:

River said...

I think it's a bad move for so many things now to have only online information. Lots of people, especially older people, don't have access or know how to use it. And what about blind people?
Your purse may very well have Italian leather, but the Italians sent it to China because manufacturing is cheaper there.
I'm annoyed too at so many credit card slots. It takes some people forever at the checkout to find the one card that might have enough dollars left on it to pay for their groceries.
Forget for a minute the multiple cards and accounts. Focus instead of card positioning.
Why not keep the cards you use for groceries always in the same slot, yes, I said it, KEEP THE CARDS IN THE SAME SLOTS, and while you're at it, keep the flybuys card right next to the groceries cards.
Even better? Carry enough cash.

Elephant's Child said...

Fingers crossed that the doctor continues to live up to his early promise.
And I am with you big time on charities. Amnesty takes money out of my bank account each month, but yesterday they sent me a request for an additional donation of (wait for it) $600, $1000, $1500 or my choice. WTF. So I sent them my choice and a terse note. Get real. I believe in the work they do but ....

antikva said...

You can't afford friends? Oh, and btw, the other one I mentioned is cheaper than that.

We never used to get the screed with pills in Qld, so I never noticed they stopped it. The only time I've ever gotten it without asking was when I did the chemo and reading that was terrifying.

LOL @ the new purse, I have the same problem. I told Priceline instead of a card they should give people a keyring version but then everyone would do it and we'd have nothing but stupid discount keys :D

Ann ODyne said...

all those card slots are for Seniors Card, Myki card, library card and medicare and drivers licence and videoEzy, Blood Bank donor card and Golden Chain frequent customer discount card ... no CREDIT in that lot. and Antikva is right about a keyring thingy accumulating too.

what we need is a barcode tattoo. one set of numbers for every damn thing.
Good luck with your quack project.
Today I had vaccine against Ross River Fever. now I can laugh at all those bloody mosquitos.

tracy said...

Sometimes I think we'd better off if they let us take our own blood. Those of us who wouldn't faint I mean. Which I don't think I would.

Anonymous said...

Ask the chemist for a printout for meds.

Jayne said...

Hope the gp works out ok, like DrewAn said ask for a print out at the chemist.
Loved Mentmore, very more-ish.

R.H. said...

I've been to a play: 'Dusty'.

Staged by: Williamstown Musical Theatre Company.

Venue: Williamstown Mechanics Institute.

Verdict: We left at interval.

-Robert.
Kick me.

Marie said...

It's taken me forever to find a doctor that I like (and we get almost no choice here in the land of socialised medicine) and I'm almost prepared to move house if he moves just to keep on seeing him. It makes a huge difference if they are interested, involved, on the ball and on your side, so I hope it turns out he's all of those things.

Our meds still come with the 97 pages of tiny print in 300 different languages (all except for English). My eyesight is so bad that they are next to useless, so I have to read them online anyway. I usually ask at the chemist about side effects and any potential clashes with the meds I take regularly, so I'd recommend asking them as well.

Ahh... purses... they are so individual and I think I'll pine away and die once my dear "genuine imitation" Fendi wallet gives up the ghost. I've had it for 15 years now and it's still looking as good as when I bought it at a crappy Singapore market (to replace the genuine one some bastard low-life nicked from my trolley at Foodland, Frewville). It does have a few slots for cards, but I only have things like library card, person ID card, debit card and our equivalent of Frequent Flyers card in it. I love it. But all of my friends with their micropurses that fit only cards in them think that it's big and bulky. Much like me I guess, so it must be right.

The Editor said...

I share River's concern about information now being "online only".

There are many reasons why the internet can "go dark" in vast areas of the planet in an instant.

MedicatedMoo said...

Your 'Italian' purse is like our 'Italian' lounge. Designed by Italians yes; consisting of Italian leather yes; actually manufactured in China *sigh*.

Charities via telephone have been a recent blight for me, too and clearly I'm as slow as you in figuring out that the increase has been due to the end of financial year - d'oh!

Helen said...

I hear you JT. My wallet looks exactly like a lump of poo as it's so ancient and lumpy. Inside it is all flaking, you know the way ye olde wallets flake. But I can't. find. another just like it. And the prices. Wallets used to hover around $40 for a decent enough one as I recall, now for a similar lump of leather I need about 80 upwards. Bah.

The last lot of charity people who rang me was the Salvos and I said they weren't getting anything from me as I disapproved of their homophobic attitudes. Woman on the phone sounded quite... taken aback.

R.H. said...

It must be odd considering its history to find fashionable men and ladies posing about in an old Mechanics Institute. Sipping little glasses of wine too, and spouting the usual claptrap. But I don't mind them at all. And I don't mind poofs, although not minding isn't enough for them.

Dusty wasn't a great show, but it could have been okay if they hadn't included two women onstage kissing. I'd have nothing to complain about if this was a revue in a gay pub or somewhere, I'd know what to expect, but it was put on for the general public with no warning at all. I think Dusty herself would be horrified at this part of her life being magnified with very little of her struggle to become a star mentioned. That's what I expected to see.
In the foyer before the show my consort asked me to hold her bag while she went to the loo, just as it was beginning to dawn on me that many in the crowd were of a certain in-and-out preference. So there I was, holding a bright red handbag in a room full of poofs.

Oh.

JahTeh said...

River, I gave up on flybys but I always have the delivery card on hand. Shopping fortnightly can mean an age waiting behind me so I always let little old ladies in before me and I'm always stunned to see them hand over a flyby card.

EC, I see him again on Monday and the clinic has already rung to say he wants a lot more blood tests done. I'll have none left at this rate.

Antikav, the silly thing is sitting beside me and I'm sure it's smirking.

Annie O, I also have mum's atm card, village movie card, stamps, blood group, organ donor and bandaids for blisters and papercuts. Also a owl pendant watch hanging off the zip so I don't have to go deep diving for the mobile phone. I swear the thing weighs 2kgs.

Tracy, I'm supposed to get one of those finger prick machines but I doubt I could do it. My finger tips are so sensitive and it still hurts doing it on the sides of the fingers.
Skin is surprisingly tough when you go to jab a needle in it, takes practice and this bird needs more.

Andrew, it's not just that, I'm not sure when to take them, If I can take everything in the morning, great so I'll remember to ask next time.

Listen to Jayne, her happy pills are working just fine.

Rh, it's a play that needs good singers, maybe a bit too ambitious.

Marie, I just hate change, purses and doctors and pills. I spend all the money I have but I like to see it first, not just hand over a card.
It must have been hell finding a doctor in a new country.

Gerry, even online, it's hard to understand as there as so many generic names for the same medication. Loved that little old lady in Russia (?) that knocked out the net. It's a wonder they didn't shoot first and ask questions later.

Kath, just think of the shopping for wallets and bags in Paris when you can haul yourself out of Belgium's chocolate shops.

Helen, mine is still with me and I look at it and wonder if I could possibly get another 6 months out of it.
Salvos rang me to do their door knocking for them in my street, that got a very big no. And I don't like their homophobic attitude either.

Robbert, 1. Consort? Surely that should have been escort?
2. Red has always been your colour but were you admired from afar or up close and personal?

R.H. said...

The singing was okay, and they've got a good sound system there, but the production itself wasn't good, I was waiting for interval so I could leave. One of the main characters was a mincing homo: "Cilla wasn't black and Marvin wasn't gay," he yelled, getting a huge laugh as he flounced offstage.
Well darlings I've always supported WMTC, and they do try hard, but they'll have to do better than this.

R.H. said...

The Salvation Army are swine.

JahTeh said...

Robbert, I'm shocked to the core, the Salvos are Christians.

R.H. said...

They're capitalists, bigger than General Motors. Halfwits, in silly hats. All they care about is money.
They're bastards. Talk to old boys from their orphanage in Bayswater where they were forced into church twice on Sunday and booted up the arse the rest of the week. They'll tell you that the moment they reached fourteen they were transferred to Lyndon Lodge and thrown into factories.
None of these crazy 'Colonels' and 'Majors' ever thought some of these kids might want to become professors.
My experience of the salvation army -I was at Lyndon Lodge two years- is they considered us all doomed and not worth any effort. They fed us, that's all, gave us meals, changed the sheets, took all out wages and gave us fifteen bob a week.
Lyndon Lodge was run by Captain Broadstock and Leftenant May. Broadstock was reasonably intelligent but May was an imbecile. He gave me a little lecture then wanted me to pray, I prayed alright, that the bastard would drop dead.
The salvation army hate everyone. They are not good, they are not kind. But they are expert con artists. No one in the world is better at public relations. At bullshit, in other words. They are in truth a mean vicious organisation.

JahTeh said...

Robbert, Congratulations on a brilliant comment. You have put voice to things I have heard from various people of our age about their childhood. Okay so they turn up after bushfires and floods and other disasters but along the line the publicity is gold for them.

R.H. said...

They've been running a radio advert asking people to leave them their assets. That's all anyone is worth to them.
The salvation army have immmense wealth, the real estate alone in this country is worth billions. Anyone who goes to their op shops will know the prices on goods they get for nothing are higher than anywhere else.
Aside from all that, they're a grim crowd, believe me; they hate sin, but they hate humanity more.

R.H. said...

When I was living in Footscray in holy matrimony the salvation army band would arrive in our little street at eight am and kick up an enormous racket, trumpets and base drum. Then they'd knock on doors wanting to get paid for it. What cheek.
Next time you see a salvo take a good look at him, none of them seem the full two bob. The average IQ would be around 34, even less than Hobsons Bay Council.

Salvation army,
Full of sin,
All went to heaven,
In a kerosine tin.*

-Robert.

*Sung by the boys at Bayswater Orphanage, circa 1964.