AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA WHERE ART THOU?

I should be in Australia now. I should have boarded a 'plane on Christmas morning and returned at the end of the this month. I should have been watching Roger Federer all his sexy glory playing in an exhibition match prior to the Australian Open. I should be reclining on the beach at Mornington Peninsular near Melbourne drinking Pina Coladas.  I should be catching up with friends, maybe even sharing a glass or two with one or more of my Oz-Bus mates.  But I'm not there, I'm here amid floods and gales, refusing to watch "Benefit Street" and Hayley Cropper terminating her life to escape the horrors of cancer in Coronation Street.  Damn. 

So what's the story?  A rare complication of cataract surgery is what.  Well, at least, that's what they think it is, only time will tell.  I had the procedure on 19th November and it went well, until a couple of weeks later when my vision deteriorated.  It swung from "iffy" to not so "iffy".  It was decided that I should err on the side of caution and cancel my trip, which I did. 

Now the insurance company are playing up.   They say the Doctor's Report (which cost me £60!!) differed from the Consultant's comments.  How so?  The Doctor took his information from the Consultant's information !  Well, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck it probably is a duck, and we all know that insurance companies are crooks.

And this morning some wretched woman on TV was berating people for going to Accident & Emergency with critical illnesses too late to be helped because they had neglected to recognise the signs earlier. She said the Great British public need educating.

Excuse me?  Medical help these days consists of doling out pills and potions.  Anyone that is ill enough to actually warrant a Consultancy referral gets batted around the system while they get sicker and sicker.  That's not fair, there are some really dedicated, hardworking individuals working in the National Health Service, it's mainly the processes and procedures that are dire,  Trust me, they couldn't organise a ... well, you know how that one goes.  

The good news is, there is only one way to go now and that is up.  I look forward to a really good year.  My building project is nearly complete, I have friends planning to visit me in the summer, I am off to visit my friend Monica in Switzerland in a couple of weeks, in April we are having another Oz-Bus reunion in Rome and in May my friend Jean and I are going on a road trip to Ireland.  So, after an unpromising start, the year is stacking up to be great.  Happy New Year to you all.