I had an appointment for an MRI at Prince of Wales will this afternoon. I must admit that I’m not really sure what the MRI is for. Doctors seem to require a battery of tests – last month I had a cat scan. After a while you tend to go along with the flow although I do think it would be wiser of me to have a better grip on what it is all for. My wife suggested the MRI was to make sure there was no tumours around the screws in my neck. She may be right, we shall see.
In any event, I left home at 1:10 PM and returned home at 4:30 PM having gone nowhere. For those of you familiar with the Sydney train system, I caught the train from Ingleburn intending to alight at Central only for the train to stop at East Hills. After waiting for about half an hour we were informed that a train further along the line had broken down. We were told that a bus would be replacing the train but after waiting for another half an hour it became clear I would never make my appointment. So, I asked the stationmaster how to get back to Ingleburn and he informed me to catch the next train south. Taking his advice I was helped on to the Silver rattler ( Sydney still has 50-year-old trains in service) which, it turned out, only travelled to Glenfield (two stops short of Ingleburn). Glenfield, however, is a station without handicap facilities (lifts or ramps) and the platform on which I had landed was not the one for the southbound train. so, what to do Mr stationmaster? Head back to East Hills of course!. Having taken that trip I waited for another train that did, eventually, get me home – catheter near to burst.
all in all about 3 1/2 hours going in circles to travel nowhere – and a rebooked MRI that could not be done until 30 April. in case you were wondering I was mostly polite to the rail staff (it’s not their fault) although I was pointlessly rude to the stationmaster who informed me that I had to return to East Hills for a second time.
Is there a lesson in all this? no. Just another pointless story that I am dumping into cyberspace.