Thins Happen in Threes

I was going to write this post on a different situation, but now it has altered and I am juggling three things at the moment, each of which was meant to have been a blog on their own.

Firstly there is puppy.  Originally he was meant to fly over when he was 12 weeks old, but then it changed because MAF (Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries) here changed their regulations for blood tests that need to be done before he came over.  New regulations were meant to come in on 01 June which meant he would need two blood tests instead of one and they are only carried out in Perth Australia on a Thursday.  Wendye his breeder decided that if we could get his booking done before the 01 June then he would only require the one blood test.  So we changed our days off and took extra leave so that we had plenty of time to get up there to pick him up and get back, because it is winter and we have had frost and snow already.  We live on the coast but have to get over two hills to head inland and get out of town.  In winter the highway out of Dunedin can be closed so we gave ourselves two days to get there and two days to get back.  This was for his pick up on 07 June.  Then the poor wee fellow got Kennel Cough off some of the dogs that had been to a show and according to the breeder Sydney is riff with Kennel Cough so she did not want to fly him until he was over it otherwise flying him with it I could end up with a very sick puppy to pick up.  The e-mails have been flying backwards and forwards.  Now MAF is sticking to the old guidelines, so we only need one blood test.  Wendy reckoned that he would be all right to fly the following week, but that would mean a lot of swapping of shifts, so we settled on the 21 June.  That worked out that 13 June Monday is a public holiday is Australia and we could not get the blood taken and be sure that it would reach them in time so that we would have the results back.  Gee their Courier Post must be worse than ours as I can get something from Auckland overnight and that means two different planes and a van to drop it off.  So the Dogtainers said that even getting the blood taken on the Sunday it could not be guaranteed to get it there on time, even if there was a vet open on the Sunday of a long weekend.  At the moment it seems as though we are back to square one and he will be arriving on the 21 June when I am on holiday as planned for his arrival then and Mr O has to see if he can get more time off work to go with me and he is not sure that he will because there are other people on holiday at the same time.  The e-mailing has stopped for today.

Secondly there is Breast Screening.  In New Zealand 1,900 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and 635 women die.  It is the leading cause of cancer deaths for women.  It may not sound large numbers to you but it is when our population is just over 4 million.  Over the age of 45 women in New Zealand are offered a free bi-annual mammogram.  I went for mine three weeks ago and it is no longer like slamming your breast in the fridge door, the machinery has improved and it is no only uncomfortable.  I was at work the following Thursday night when I got a phone call saying that they had found something in my right breast and could I come back for a follow up on the Saturday.  It was a busy time at work and it was like a bolt out of the blue so I said no as we had planned grandchildren things before we went to work on Saturday.  I love the fact that they keep reinforcing DO NOT WORRY.  Anyone able to give me pill or whatever that makes you NOT WORRY.        You try and tell yourself that it will be all right but the idea that it may not keeps creeping back into you mind and it carries on from there to all the things that you wanted to be around for and do.  Talked it over with Mr O when we got home and he decided that it would be best to have the appointment on the Saturday and not to wait until 30 May.  He rings in the morning and finds out that they still have an appointment open and we take it.  To be considerate of work I ring and say that I want to take an alternate stat day as I do not know what the results will be and what state I will be in.  You would think I had asked for the keys to the board room.  Whether I get paid for that day is still up in the air, but at least the results showed that the lump is benign, and even with that found I was totally exhausted and would not have been able to work.

And then there is number three, the meeting with management over the days I have requested to work.  I went to work on Friday night, doing good old night shift again, when I was confronted by the Team Leader who insisted that I have a meeting with her then.  Even pointing out to her that I had agreed to the meeting on Wednesday did not make any difference, so I was exposed to a tirade from her.  I was told in an angry tone that she was the one that put out the roster and what she puts out goes and did I understand that!!!  I was accused of spitting the dummy because I did not get what I wanted.  I was accused of doing it so that I could pick Mr O up from work.  Up until now he has been able to get himself to or from work when we don’t start or finish at the same time.  Why had I not talked to her about this before I put my preferences down on the roster?  I didn’t know that we had to, we have been told put down what we would like and she would go from there.  It continued on but I don’t have an accurate memory of what happened.  From this I worked out that this was not going to be a friendly meeting, have got in touch with the union, informed them of what is happening and told the Team Leader that I have contacted the union.  And that is where we stand at the moment.

Some good news would do wonders to counteract the negative.  But it still brings me back to the question “Why do things tend to happen in threes”?