Barong Dancer © PJ Croft 2014

I’m feeling considerably warmer and more relaxed at the moment. I’m home again after seeing a haematologist / oncologist at 1.30pm, and the news was yes, you have CLL, but low level, only one swollen lymph node, no need for any treatment, come back and see him in 6-12 months. Meanwhile, like the Alzheimers patient, just go home and fuggeddaboudit. Phew. Seven weeks I’ve been sweating a bit on that. Hey. he bulk bills! No cost to me, see you later Mr Croft. Nice. Same for the CAT scan – bulk billed, no cost. This is good.

Then off to the endocrinologist for diabetes assessment. Long, detailed chat, very nice bloke. He’s taking me off the fast acting Apidra and switching me to Byetta. This is a weight loser, thank goodness. Unfortunately, if you’re on Lantus, which is PBS, but you need Byetta as well, the Byetta is non-PBS, $140/month. If you were on Byetta without the Lantus, it would be PBS $0. Oh well.

Again, come back in three months, so no urgency. That’s good.

He measured my blood pressure – 160/45 ! That’s the lowest diastolic I’ve ever had. Strange. It went up again in the outer office – $330 for his consultation! No bulk billing here.

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I was in the Joondalup parking area. What a schemozzle that place is! Overcrowded and only one pay station for the whole area. Hard to get a parking space for people who are not 100% fit and healthy – great.

Anyway, I was so preoccupied when I went out that I forgot to pay on my ticket. I drove straight to the exit, put my card in and saw a figure of $4 to pay, but there’s nowhere to pay at the exit! But the machine had my card! I couldn’t retrieve it, so I just had to back out — no-one behind me, luckily.

But what to do? I didn’t have a ticket to pay on at the machine. Dammit. I just had to drive to the exit and try to follow someone else under the boom. No luck, so I just drove forward, reached out and forced the boom up over my car and drove forward. Bang, clunk and I was through. Too bad.

I’ve complained to the hospital management in writing before about this parking, but I just got brushed off. OK, guys, I get angry.

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I was napping this morning (recommend it!) and woke to a strong visual memory, which is still in my head at 6pm.

I was in a plane coming in to land at London City Airport, which is in the Docklands area, east of the city. I could see all the runways of the airport, but next to it through thin haze was a huge rail station track area with all its intricate tracks and switching between them, stretching off into the distance to the covered platforms.

Wow. It was a clear strong vision and I still have it. The airport is real, but the rail tracks are not. They’re off in other parts of London and you can’t see much because most of it is under cover. I have an urge to build a model railway like this, though.