My life these days revolves around appointments.

I get a regular stream of letters from the various hospitals announcing new appointments or occasionally cancelling them. I like the latter.

To keep track of this mess I keep all the letters and also fill in the calendar on my phone.

I have an appointment this afternoon at half two. Bugger! There is the marker on my phone leering at me with a task I would really not undertake. I’m tired of hospitals and the traffic and the crap parking and the hours of sitting, waiting on hard plastic seats.

I was rooting through the pile of letters that list all the dates as far ahead as next April. I came across today’s one. There it was in black and white – Meeting with the Professor at 2:30 on 14/03/25.

Hold on!

This is 14/01/25.

It’s only a little number of little consequence in the normal course of things. In this case though it’s a difference of two months! I had misread the letter or had just not noticed the month’s discrepancy when updating my little system. It also means I am free this afternoon. The journey I wasn’t particularly looking forward to is now defunct.

I am very careful when updating the calendar. I check and recheck every entry, but this one snuck through somehow.

My afternoon is now free. In fact this whole week is free [a very rare occurrence], I have all the spare time in the world.

I think I’ll nip down to the village to celebrate.

ADDENDUM:

Just got a phonecall. New appointment on Friday. The bastards must have read this.

Fuck!