A 7 for me this morning and I had a plan for the morning.....
Breakfast.... brew while checking stuff on computer.....shower .....dress....Out for 8:00 to nip into Aldi....get to blood clinic before it opens at 8:30....enough time allowed to catch the 9:30 bus into Preston....Carers coffee and chat 10:00 til 11:30....bus back to car......back home for lunch.
All went well (you can rely on our Aldi) until I turned up at the blood clinic. Doors are not yet open but the queue went round the side of the building. I estimated about 100 people. Now, it takes about 5 mins for the vampire to do their stuff, about a dozen per hour. Lets be generous and say they get a move on and do 20 an hour. This means there was about 5 vampire/hours of work waiting. Normally there is only one vampire....and the clinic is on for 3.5 hours. Even if there are two vampires its going to be a 21/2 hours wait so no chance of making coffee and chat.
So knock the idea of the blood test on the head as long as I get it done in the next month, thats OK. Drive home to park up, look at the forum and then head for the village bus stop to catch the 9:32 bus into Preston. 9:40, no bus. Check Preston Bus app. No bus showing although there is one about half an hour away. Wait for that and I will get to coffee and chat as it is breaking up.
Back home, get car, drive into Longridge to catch bus into town. Get parked and as leaving car park bus trundles by. If I wait for the next then I will get to coffee and chat as it is breaking up.
No option, if I want my much needed coffee and chat outing then, I'll have to drive into Preston. This is something best avoided. Crawl my way to the bus station car park (one I rarely use) and thankfully there is plenty of space on the second floor. The reason why it is empty is that you can only pay for a ticket with cash or if you have some app or other and its empty because anybody in the know avoids it. I had some change but not enough to buy a ticket. Nobody about to change a note. Can't risk leaving car without ticket. Too late to drive across Preston to a car park with a ticket machine that reads cards, so call it a day and go home. No coffee and chat and a chance to catch up with fellow carers.
As the poet wrote
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
Too right.