Newcastle university

A bit of a downer of a day so move swiftly on to avoid a load of first world problem moaning.

Explore advised malaria tablets for our next trip so I booked appointments at Superdrug travel clinic in Newcastle. They couldn’t take us both at the same time or one after the other so I had the noon appointment and Mr C 1.30. The nurse said the risk was so low we didn’t need any so I used the appointment to check up on our February trip. Also too low risk to bother. That’s £20 please. ( I Cancelled Mr C’s appointment).

I popped over to Fenwicks to book the Greggs champagne bar for our 57th wedding anniversary treat. It was a struggle as they are pretty well booked up, even 6 weeks hence. I had to take the last 11-12 am slot and you only get an hour. I suppose it doesn’t take long to slug a glass of fizz and eat a sausage roll.

We are struggling with the phone so called into the Three shop while in town and were told a special number to call would be in the box theSIM came in. She also gave us a phone number we could talk to a real person on. I was getting access to Email, WhatsApp etc on the road into town but no phone calls in or out. We still have a week to get out of the contract - if we can get to anyone to cancel it! Then only a week to find another supplier before I’m tied to EE for another year. So stressful and frustration. Mr C is in the office trying to deal with it - when we got home we found there was no special number in the box. While is busy on that I bake a gingerbread for the WI naked calendar launch event tomorrow as I won’t be attending. (The cake looks like it will fall to bits so another annoyance as I have no time to do another. I could do a fridge tray bake in the morning maybe).

Our next disappointment was as a result of our visit to Trailfinders. It turned out Exodus had not reserved us a place on the trip with the big discount and now the offer has run out. However the chap gave us some good ideas and other options which we have plenty time to consider and there may be a Black Friday with some companies sale though we are away then and may not have a secure network.

Then I had my glaucoma check at RVI. My pressure levels are up and I did very badly in the peripheral vision test as she made me do each eye separately even though I told her I had one eye for reading and one for distance since my cataracts were done. I use both eyes and not one at a time separately. I expect they’ll tell me to contact DVLA (I’m still waiting to hear their decision on whether I’m fit to drive after my appointment at the DVLA designated optician, though they said it could be a while and I can drive till I hear otherwise).

So a stressful day! I hope yours is better. The blip is the Uni as I walked through to reach the RVI. There seem more and more building each year. The city is heaving with students - there was a stall selling house plants on the campus. I suppose there must be green-fingered 18 year olds who’ll prioritise spending £15 on a plant over time in the union bar.