My shopping trip down town and medication review.

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Today (well, yesterday again now, because it's way past midnight where I am again!) I went for my medication review (at last!) and afterwards I did some shopping. I got up at 7:15am (much too early for me!) After having my pills and my breakfast I managed to leave the house at 9:15am. My medication review was at 10:10am. I tried to walk as slowly as possible today, because otherwise I knew I'd be too early! It didn't work! It took me just 20 minutes to get from my house to the Aldi by the big Tesco! I was thinking of going to the toilet when I was in the health centre, but I didn't think there'd be room for the trolley and if you want the disabled toilet you have to ask for the key. So I thought to myself, I know what I'll do! I'll go to the toilet in the big Tesco, then I won't be so early and I will have relieved myself! So I crossed the road to get to the Tesco using the crossing. You have to press a button on this thing and there's a red man sanding lit up, you have to wait till the red man goes off and a man who's pictured walking lights up in green. They have something similar in America I think. Walk, Don't Walk. Anyway, you cross half the road, then you have to do the same thing to cross the next half of the road. I got to the Tesco and went to the lift. There was only one lift working again. There was a little old lady and a little old man with their trolleys waiting for the lift. The little old lady said to the little old man, With all this technology we've got these days you'd think they'd be able to make two lifts work! We went up on the lift and I headed straight for the disabled toilet. There was a note on the toilet saying:- SORRY Due to unforseen circumstances these toilets are not in use! (Or words to that effect!) I thought, Oh, no! What am I going to do? I went into the ordinary ladies toilets and found to my relief that the door to the cubicles open outwards so I could get the trolley in and close the door. And there was plenty of room for the trolley. This was our shopping trolley that we brought from home ofcause, not one of the Tesco trolleys. They wouldn't have fit in these loos! So then when I came out of the loo I had to go back out through the entrance. They have these low swinging door things but they only open when you're coming in not going out, so it was a good job someone was coming in at that moment so I could sneak out when the swinging door things opened for him to go in! Then I went back down on the lift, on my own this time, and headed to the health centre. I had to wait for some little green men to light up (twice) to cross from the Tesco to the health centre aswell. I was still 15 minutes early then! So on Monday I was 15 minutes late, and today I was 15 minutes early! I went straight in and up to the check in machine. I never liked these machines and didn't want to use it. But I found it was really easy! You just press on the bar that says "Check in" and it asks you for the day you were born (the number, not the actual weekday, although I think I was born on a Friday! ) so you press on that. Then it asks you what month you were born in, and you press on that, then it asks you the first letter of your surname, so for me that's obviously E so I pressed on that! And then a message came on which said, Welcome Miss Sharon Elton. You have checked in. Your appointment is at 10:10am with Sr Esther Hunt. Please go and wait in the green waiting room. Then you have to press "done" for it to go back to the first screen again ready for the next person! And that was it! Simply! I'm not going to worry about using it again now! So I went and sat in the green waiting room. It was very hot, so I got my fan out and started fanning myself. When one of the nurses came to call someone she looked st me and said, Are you hot? I said, Yeah, but inside I was thinking What do you think? There was a lady sitting at one side of the waiting room, a man sitting on the other side, and another lady sitting at the back when I got in. Both the lady and the man at the sides looked like they were going to sleep! Then some more people started arriving. Eventually my name was called and I went with the nurse. She asked me if they usually found it easy to find a vein, and I said, No! Then she asked me if I was a fainter! I said, no, but I don't like it! I gave her my blood pressure results which I'd taken at home. She checked to see which arm would be best and then she said, Small scratch! OW! I said! I thought, If that was a small scratch I don't want to know what a big one would be like! She put cotton wool over it and said, Keep that on for about 10 minutes. My eyes were watering! So I left the health centre and headed down town, which is the opposite way than I'd come! I had to cross over with a few more of those green men! When I got near to the end of Tamworth Street I saw a St Giles Hospice shop with one of the small elephants in the window. But I couldn't take a picture of it yet because I'd already got 15 photos selected on my tablet for printing. If I took a photo it would unselect all the photos so I made a mental note to come back later and take a picture. I wanted to see if I could get some elephant merch anyway for my Mum's birthday. So I went to the photo shop and got my 15 photos printed. 12 of them were mostly pictures of my brothers dog Impy and some of them holding Impy. The other 3 were pictures of Cardiff. My Mum was going to buy the pictures of Impy and my nephews at cost price (if I'd been paying for them!) 50p each. After I'd got my pictures printed, and got my card marked off, I went up to the Tesco down town and got some strawberries and a bottle of schoel or whatever it's called (non-alcoholic wine) for Mum's birthday. Then I got an Amazon gift card. I paid for those and put £100 on the Amazon gift card. Then I went back to the St Giles Hospice shop on Tamworth Street and I photographed the small elephant in the window from outside and I photographed the description of the elephant that was on the window. Then I went inside to photograph the other side of the elephant and see if they had any elephant merch but they didn't. They did have a trail map which shows you where all the elephants are. It was a suggested donation of at least £1 for that so I got that. Then I decided to go back up to the other St Giles shop up Wade Street near the Garrick Theatre where Nellie the elephant is and see if they'd got any elephant merch. But I decided to go up Tudor Row rather than The Three Spires Shopping centre because I thought it would be quicker that way. As soon as I walked in I saw another of the small elephants inside the shop. This one looked sporty. He looked like he'd got a sporty T-shirt on or something, with lettering. I took a picture of that elephant but I couldn't see a description of it anywhere. So I started looking round for some elephant merch, and I found some right at the back of the store. They had 4 knitted elephants in 2 styles. There was a blue elephant, and my Mum's favourite colour is blue, so I got that for my Mum, and I got a pink one for me and a grey one of a different style. The pink and blue ones were £7.50 and the grey one of a different style was £5. Then I saw a paint your own elephant kit. It's got a small ceramic elephant in it, plus paints and a paint pot, and it's got a paper wrap around around the box and on the back of that is an elephant drawing you can design your pattern on before you paint the actual ceramic elephant. That was £14.50 and I got one of those for myself. After I'd paid for that I noticed another small elephant by the till that I hadn't seen before. So I photographed that one from both sides, but it was a bit hard to do because to photograph one side you had to be almost behind the till and to photograph the other side you had to be basically in a rack of clothes! After I came out of that shop I thought about where I could get some wrapping paper to wrap my presents up for my Mum. So I went to the card shop next to The Works. The wrapping paper was right at the back of the shop. There were quite few rolls for £2.50 or something, but very few sheets. They were mostly for other occasions than birthdays, like Weddings and Engagements or they had numbers on like 18, 70 and 80. Well, my Mum's 79 today actually because of it being passed midnight, so they wouldn't do. The only ones suitable were a pink one which said "A LOVELY PRESENT INSIDE" on it and another blue one with parcels and wine bottles on so I got 2 of the pink and 1 of the blue and 3 pink talleys. The sheets were only 49p each and the talleys 29p I think. After I'd paid for those I went to Iceland (the shop not the country!) and I got some sweet and sour chicken, some Chinese style chicken curry, a paella and 3 lots of sea bass for me. Then I treated myself to an aero and got another Amazon gift card. I put £50 on this Amazon gift card. (I really wanted a £150 Amazon gift card, but they only went up to £100 so I put £100 on one and £50 on the other!) When I'd paid for those I went to the toilet by the Cathedral. There was one of those orange barricade things that workmen put round when they're doing road works at the corner of the path as you go round, where part of the wall is crumbling, so I has to go on the road, go round, and then get back on the path again afterwards. There was a lady there looking at the elephant by the Cathedral. She was talking to someone and she said, They're everywhere, I think they're to do with cancer. So I said to her, It's St Giles Hospice. There's about 13 of them, and small ones aswell! And she said, Oh, thank you for that. So I went to the toilet by the Cathedral and then I went home. When I went in my Mum gave me such a strange look! She said, I wasn't expecting you yet! It's only 12:15pm! So I gave her her change, club card and shopping list. Then I unpacked the groceries and put them away. I told my Mum about my day, and I told her about seeing the elephant in the window of the Tamworth Street St Giles Hospice shop, but nothing else because it might spoil the surprise of the blue elephant! So I had my lunch and watched some telly. Later I went in my bedroom and made some videos for YouTube. I now don't know which Amazon gift card is which! I haven't redeemed them yet, I haven't had time. Then I packed Mum's presents. I had my dinner and watched some more telly. Tonight I made sure Mum went to bed so that I could play what I like to call "Birthday Santa" and put her presents on the seat where she usually sits! So, that was my day. What have you lot been getting up to today? I hope you are all well. Have a great night.