We got our first jabs last weekend, but the whole process is quite confusing.
I try to keep up with the news – it’s my job. So when the whole vaccination programme rollout was first explained, we were asked to register online.
I did so and immediately got an SMS in confirmation, with strict instructions to wait for an SMS telling me when and where to go.
There would be no ‘walk-ins’. So okay, I waited.
Then a friend said she had gone to Moses Mabidha stadium, waited a few hours and got a jab. No SMS and no questions asked.
Another friend went to Lloyds community hall, near Stanger, for instant service.
Mmm, I thought, something’s off here.
Then last Sunday my daughter phoned to tell us to get to Townsend Park as the vaccination station was quiet.
The news had got around a bit, probably on the daughter network, because when we arrived there were maybe 50 people in the little Lions clubhouse.
So in we walked, defying all instructions to the contrary, and were welcomed with open arms by a very friendly staff.
Should I mention that we had registered online?
Naah, I reckoned, that might complicate things, just get in line.
So we did, got the jab, had a little rest period to see if we started barking or talking to Bill Gates, and were out the door within 40 minutes.
All the while, there was another little line that didn’t appear to be moving.
Why not? Oh, they explained, they’d told the lady at reception they’d registered online and had been told to wait for some reason.
I don’t know what happened because we were gone before that line had moved at all. They might still be waiting, for all I know!
An 87-year-old Tongaat reader and his 75-year-old wife told the nurses that they’d registered and were made to re-register and come back the next day.
Can you credit it! Bureaucracy and being difficult is a full-time occupation for some people.
The note we were given says we have to return to Townsend Park on July 18 for a second jab.
I wonder what will happen if that turns out to be inconvenient and we go a week later?
Coming back to where I started, what happened to the second SMS I was supposed to have received?
Did they start out with the best intentions and then just thought what the hell, get the jabs out asap?
It must have cost a bundle setting up the whole computer system to handle the registrations, then it just got trashed. So what’s new, I hear you ask.
We are moving house this week and have elected to pack everything ourselves.
After packing the 55th carton with old school photos and sets of Monopoly, it’s amazing how unsentimental one becomes.
Quite frankly, if something hasn’t been used for a couple of years it goes in the bin.
We even hired a mini-skip for junk and filled that in a morning!
I don’t care how interesting that thingamajig looks, if it’s not essential to life it goes in the skip!
And I resolve in future not to buy anything that I do not absolutely need to stay alive!
Let’s see how long that resolution lasts.
I have a weakness for things that look incredibly useful then turn out later to be junk.
* * *
Here a little something I came across:
What 4 things in life that, once lost, you can never get back?
• A word after it’s said;
• An opportunity after it’s passed;
• Time after it’s gone; and
• Trust after it’s lost.
