They are doing my head in!!!!!
A couple of days ago I wrote about my current paper warfare! Chasing up a medical appointment and it seems somewhere something went awry.
Having heard nothing, despite the promise to call me back, today I followed up the situation.
The conversation went like this.
First I explained the WHOLE situation yet again!
Then the young lady said, “Oh it is all sorted, you have an appointment on May 17.”
I mentally rolled my eyes and replied, “Today is May 17.”
“Oh”, followed by a moment’s silence, “I’ll reschedule that for you.”
The first date offered was not good as I have a speaking engagement that day for the book.
So we eventually agreed on a date in June. *Sigh*
To be confirmed in writing. I’ll keep my eye out for the letter!
Do you remember the 8 inch ones?
My kids have never seen one. They haven’t even seen a 3.5 inch one. Actually, I’ve never seen an 8 inch one either and was quite surprised to find they ever existed!
Of course, I am talking about floppies.
The data storage floppies, you evil minded one!
Today at work we were reminiscing about the “old days”. Then we wondered just how long ago were the “old days”! My guess for the arrival of the 3.5 inch was mid-’80s as I distinctly remember a staff member having trouble reading a 5.25 – no wonder, as he had, judging by the ring on the cover, been using it as a coffee cup coaster.
We did what everyone does to answer the unknown, we Googled. Lo and behold, I was right!
Around the same time, in fact a little earlier I believe, I had an actual hard drive sitting on my desk, connected to my PC by, I think, a serial cable. Hey, come on, it is YEARS ago! Anyway, this wonderful invention was LARGE. No, I am not referring to the storage capacity, which was a whole 20 Megabytes, I am referring to the physical size! Had a footprint the size of about two of today’s PCs sitting side-by-side. Read more 
The joys of medical appointments
Fish Tank – ED Waiting Room, Royal Children’s Hospital
Before I launch into my current interesting situation, I must say up front I think our public health system is a wonderful thing and we must protect it at all costs!
However, there are times when I wish I was just “going private” and this is one of them! Yes, we do have private health insurance but right now the gap would be a bit beyond the budget, besides we’d probably end up at the RCH anyway.
Mr O Jnr 2 has a bit of a problem with his feet and/or lower legs. He tends to fall over his feet and walks with both feet at almost 45 degree angles (inwards). Dad says “But he was born like that”. I think we can improve the situation. When he was playing soccer, he would be limping badly by the end of the game. He denies he is in pain, but he must be to be limping, I think. If he has lived with this all his life, he would know no different, I guess.
Anyway, I consulted our GP (general practitioner) who suggested he be assessed by an orthopaedic specialist at the Royal Children’s Hospital. I asked whether we needed a referral. No, was the response, so I called the RCH. No, I needed a referral. OK, back to the GP. Got the referral and some x-rays!
On February 22 I faxed the referral to the RCH and hoped I wouldn’t lose the x-rays before we got an appointment. 
On March 8 I received a text message telling me I would be advised when we were allocated an appointment.
By today, May 15, I was starting to wonder if we had been lost in the system. Well, that wouldn’t be unusual for us, would it? 
I was prompted to follow up as the patient mentioned to me his lower back was hurting. THAT may have more to do with school bags and books, but it did remind me to follow up.
I called the hospital. They advised they had rejected the referral, sending it back to the GP for more clinical information – on March 8! The same day I received the text message. OK, seemed odd, but I then called the GP, wondering why I hadn’t been notified. The GP’s office advised the only letter they have is dated March 6 and advises the referral is being processed. Now, I think a perhaps an 8 could look like a 6 on a scanned copy (they scan all correspondence onto the patient’s file), but never mind.
As I was saying…..
There are some past articles that I’ve not really closed off. I really should! 
Each heading below links to the appropriate original article.
This was finally satisfactorily resolved. YAY! The electricity company removed the default after receiving the letter from the Red Cross outlining the events of 2010 and DIAC reimbursed most, but not all, of the $208. A good result!
Unfortunately, this has not been resolved quite as satisfactorily. In fact, it has not been resolved AT ALL. The offending website still has my work up there. I have reported the problem again – that makes five times now. I don’t expect a quick remedy any time soon. I wouldn’t be quite so offended if the original was not a very, very serious article that has been used to advertise travel. Clearly the thief never actually read the content, they just grabbed the text.
We are seeing some action. I’ve had lengthy discussions with English Co-ordinators and we have various people working towards finding some solutions to things like applying for special consideration for Miss 18 given the short time she has had available to her in our education system. This is ongoing for each child, but we are making progress.
Fourteen eggs for lunch
Lunch for six needed but Mum wants something quick. Luckily a favourite with my lot is bread and eggs.
This starts with frying up some taste enhancers. Onion, red capsicum and tomato.
Taste Enhancers
Writing a memoir when memories are fresh
Love versus Goliath
Memoirs are usually of a time in one’s life that was long ago. A period of childhood, perhaps, or a time migrating to a new land ten or twenty years ago.
Love versus Goliath is a different kind of memoir. Recent. I am not the only person mentioned in this memoir, in fact in many ways I am not even the central character. How do the rest of my family feel about all this?
Each of my family have different reactions and I’m not sure all of them even know how they feel, really.
Mr O Jnr 2 thinks it is “sick”! He has probably been the most “into” it right from the start. He was keen to be in the media photos, the others were not so keen. He wants to be an actor (engineering seems to have lost favour as the career of choice); I think he believes any publicity is good publicity for his future portfolio! He is also the one who comes home and tells me the newspaper articles are on the noticeboard at school.
Mr O Jnr 1 is more involved in his part-time job, his budding football career and his studies. He doesn’t say much at all. Besides, he is 15. As any parent of teenagers knows, that says it all!
Miss O 2 just wants the book to sell “lots and lots” so she can have a mini-iPad for her birthday. She does tell me her teacher has read it. Or one of the teachers has read it. I’m not sure who specifically, Miss O 2 is not into the finer details of such things when there is television calling!
Miss O 1 has read some parts, but avoided any publicity shot opportunities. When she saw the actual book I think it finally became real for her and she said it is “really cool, Mum”. 
I guess for the kids it could be embarrassing. I hope not and I haven’t received any negative feedback. Before I published I made the schools aware, as a precautionary measure.
Follow-up on education funding
This is an update to yesterday’s article Did someone mention education funding?
I received another call today from the woman I had spoken to earlier in the week, let’s call her Ms J, who is helping us sort out the issue. Another long conversation, which I will try to summarise.
Basically, it appears we may have not been assessed correctly in June 2011. How did that happen? My GUESS is a couple of things. Firstly, like Miss O 1 not being able to do ESL as her English VCE subject based on “computer says no” (i.e. computer says Nigeria is an English speaking country, end of story), the assessors probably did the same thing. The two younger ones weren’t assessed at all, and it seems the people looking at Miss O 2′s English skills now believe that both the younger ones should have been assessed and NOT put in mainstream schools, but sent for intensive English classes. I am assuming the older two probably should have been as well. Secondly, lack of funding would have been an issue. More specific testing takes more time, more resources. That requires funding.
The access to the intensive English classes is only available for a period of time after arrival, technically the kids have now missed out and even if they hadn’t it would mean removing Miss O 2 from school for six months and placing her in classes in another (distant) suburb. The logistics of this would be impossible, as we would not be able to get here there and collect her as well as go to work ourselves. She is way too young to travel that distance by herself.
