Tales of Christmas #6/7/8

 How much?

 

With train strikes etc messing up my normal return dates, I didn't buy my return ticket before Christmas, but left it until over a week into the New Year. I was planning to travel on the 12th, but when I popped into the local station on the 10th I found out the ticket would cost me literally twice what I normally pay because of the shorter notice. So I checked the price for the 17th (midweek is cheaper, weekends can be cheaper still, but prone to rail-replacement-bus journeys from hell) and that was still £20 more than usual, but £30 cheaper than the 10th. On top of which, the guy I was dealing with told me they can't book passenger assistance on the Darlington to London service any more, even though they could a year ago ("LNER've taken that off us, we've no idea why, but we can give you their number."). So I went for the 17th, because not only was it cheaper, but it would give me more time to sort out any issues with passenger assistance, especially as I'd run out of data on my phone and couldn't get the confirmation emails until I'd sorted that out.

My mother's comment when I got home and explained about the later departure and the cheaper price: "It'll cost me that much to feed you".

 

Odd that.

 

Getting extra data on my phone, the first time I've needed it, was complicated by not being able to log into their app because I was never told my username and password for it (I didn't bother downloading the app initially and didn't realise it could be useful 'til months later). My sister has the same phone and the same problem. So we popped up to where we bought them and I explained what my problem was "and my sister has exactly the same issue". "Oh, that's simple to fix," says the guy, "Your username is your email address, and you just tell the system you've forgotten your password to get it to let you set your first one" (That's obvious, not). "I'll just need to get the system to send you an unlock code seeing as you didn't do it straight away."

 

So I go first, first he needs my name to find me on their system, then he needs to check my security question, so "What's your mother's maiden name?" And the unlock code is on my phone almost before I've finished.
 

Then it's my sister, and he asks her name and then "And what's your mother's maiden name?" And facepalms when he realises "Oh, of course it's the same!"
 

Me, being a smart ass: "Odd that!"

 

Getting to the point

 

My family were slightly horrified when they found out I hadn't had this winter's Covid and Flu jabs yet, even though I pointed out I'd had a continuous sinus bug from being told I was eligible to heading North and had barely been out of the house, never mind in a fit state to book appointments for vaccinations. Having put off my trip back South, I got a call from my sister later that evening. "I've booked your Covid vaccination for tomorrow morning, you should just have got a confirmation text, and you should see if you can get flu done at the same time."

Me: "Oh, right".

 

So she ran me down to the local chemists at 10AM with the rain absolutely chucking it down, and I headed in while she tried to find somewhere to park. One person being seen, one person waiting, and me. "Can I get flu done as well?" "Of course". I was in and out in ten minutes, far more quickly than my other covid jabs, and quick enough I didn't notice she'd texted me. Which was just as well as my phone had scrambled the order of the two texts she'd sent and I was spared the confusion of being told: "Sorry, no, look right" followed by "Look left for the car when you come out"
 

So I'm glad they're done and initially I felt fine, but I came over rather feverish during the afternoon and had to go to bed for a couple of hours. The day after I was back to fine. The next day I thought I was fine, until I tried to lift my left arm, and everything on the inside of my arm from elbow to bottom of my ribs protested. Guess that mRNA's set up housekeeping in my lymph nodes.

Post Script: The irony of this story is my sister rang me this morning, she has Covid.