Betty never did phone me back today. I was quite upset. After all, it's not every day you get to chat to someone who admits they have no idea what they're doing. I thought we had a bit of a rapport going.

But on the bright side, her colleague Natalie rang me instead, and frankly she was far more entertaining. I told Natalie that I'd successfully located the original box, and had carefully placed the damaged injections into it (which was a bit like placing a few peanuts into Westminster Abbey), before re-addressing the package and leaving it by the door. Natalie thanked me for my efforts... before admitting that she had a bit of a problem. Apparently she'd been on the phone to the courier company - that's the same courier company who, twenty-four hours earlier, had said they wouldn't pick up the injections unless I found the original box - and had told them the good news that I'd located all the required packaging.

They weren't quite as pleased as you might expect. In fact they immediately said that to transport four broken vials in a box made for five hundred would probably breach some kind of health and safety regulation, and they wouldn't do it. But neither would they transport them in anything other than the original box. It's what we in the NHS call a bloody liberty. So Natalie told me to chuck 'em in the bin, and she'd send me out some more. Which would be ok if I hadn't cancelled them off the computer system when Betty told me they'd send us a credit note. You have to laugh.

But in better news, the pharmacy manager told me today that she thinks I'll make a good father. That was shortly after I'd made a paper aeroplane out of a letter from Pfizer, and thrown it at her.

Anyhoo, the more important work-related news of the day is that as of 4pm this afternoon, Lisa is officially retired. A combination of both annual and maternity leave means that she's left work for the last time this year, and possibly forever. With a baby due in six weeks, and her birthday on Monday, Lisa received so many presents from her colleagues that someone had to give her a lift home. At least that's what she claims. Personally I think she was just too embarrassed to walk down the road with a helium balloon...


The only thing stopping it floating away is the cat attached to the string. It's a coincidence though, because Lisa got a balloon for her birthday last year too.