If you want something done, start sooner

I've managed to book my jabs, finally. I nearly had to assault the receptionist at my doctor's so she'd understand me, but we got there. I should have thought of all this long ago, but obviously, I just didn't. I only started to closely read the teachers' guide from Saxoncourt once my departure date was confirmed. Careless, yes, but also very me.

Had I foreseen what a chore it would have been, I would have started a earlier. Firstly, I had to register at the surgery, then have blood sent off to get tested to check I hadn't already had the Hepatitis B vaccine (junkies must always be rolling up with £60 for the Drakewood Surgery 3-for-2 travel vaccine special) and couldn't get started until I got the results.

Now I've decided to get things done, I've become impatient and so provisionally booked three appointments for the jabs, but the stupid, stupid receptionist made it a very frustrating procedure... I need one jab the day I get back from Tallinn (I almost wish I wasn't going, but I'm going to need a holiday after all this), but the nurse doesn't work on Friday afternoons and I was told the doctors won't give jabs in any circumstances (I am sure they would, but nothing was explained to them). I was repeatedly offered a morning appointment, the words 'I won't be in the country until 1 o'clock' somehow not registering (I think I have a speech impediment that makes stupid people deaf to what I'm saying). Eventually, I managed to just book something and restrained from hanging up - if it wasn't the NHS, I wouldn't have tempered myself down.

The nurse then called me with my results: I wasn't trying to trick them into giving me a second dose of the Hep B vaccine, so I'm allowed to have it. The doctor can also inject me on the nurse's behalf on her day off, so it's all sorted. I do now have the stress of getting from Stanstead to Streatham on time, but it's better than not having them at all - what if those little blighters in Japan bite and infect me?

Tomorrow I go to the chemist for my Japanese Encephalitis, Monday is Roisin's leaving do (she's heading off to TEFL in Berlin and maybe moonlight at the Kit Kat Klub) and Sunday I'm meeting my family to celebrate Charlie's GCSE results and his finding God and to have one of my final Sunday roasts. I will also be quietly fretting about the four-week countdown. One month to go...

Now things are finally getting sorted, I can only look forward to the big upheaval. In four weeks on Sunday, I'll be boarding a plane for Japan.