A Long Wait

Today has been somewhat of a day off in some respects. Apart from the two hour seminar this morning that is but that turned out to be more enjoyable than I was expecting. Since handing in the assignment early yesterday, I was somewhat at a loss as to what to do not wanting to start any work which I had now shifted into the ever increasing list of things to do during Easter but thanks to a few timing issues, the day sort of filled itself.

One of this morning's presentations caused some uproar both during the presentation itself and in the time afterwards when the questions were being put forward. A disagreement about the testing problems in safety critical systems stirred some emotions both in the speaker and the questioner which had to be encouraged to end by the lecturer. During the presentation, the speaker decided to show us all the insides of someone's bowels laden with a cluster of tumours, which is just what we all wanted on a Friday morning.

I had planned to go straight from the lecture into town to give blood but found myself arriving at a most inconvenient time. Due to being short staffed, they were due to close for lunch for an hour at 1pm, I arrived at just gone 12:30pm and they had already closed the door to new donors - it would have taken past the start of lunch to be in and out which is fair enough. I now found myself with an hour and a half to kill and so decided to set of for some lunch. The first place I came across was a Gregg's and thinking that was as good a place as any, found a pack of 4 sausage rolls and a ham softie. I then decided to go temporarily blind and couldn't find my wallet in my bag anywhere. After five minutes of embarrassing searching on the floor of the shop, I admitted defeat and decided I must have left it at home. Thankfully I carry emergency money with me and saved myself from any further discomfort that would have arisen had I been unable to pay.

Finding a bench to sit down on in the town centre, I had one more look. To my surprise, staring back at me - at the top of my bag - was my wallet. I was more comforted with the knowledge that I'd remembered to bring it than anything else but I still have no idea how it alluded me so in the shop. Having wasted little more than half an hour and not wanting to trudge home and then straight back again, I headed back to the Union to buy myself a ticket for tomorrow's Rock Tarts (a Pop Tarts rock special). A little more time wasted checking emails and browsing the internet in the IC and I was just about ready to plod back into town to try the door again. I was five minutes early so I wandered round a few of the nearby shops before heading back. The sign was still up on the door but the people who had been waiting outside as I walked past the first time were no longer there and someone in front of me had walked straight in ignoring the sign so I followed.

In some ways, this was the shortest and longest I have ever had to wait to give blood. On the one hand, once I was in I was done and dusted within half an hour and didn't have to wait more than a couple of minutes before being seen. Looking at it from the other point of view, the whole thing actually took more than two hours which is definitely the longest I have ever waited, but then is that my fault for not knowing they would be shut or their fault for not making this fact more well known. Who knows, were it not for that distraction, I may never have bought a ticket for Rock Tarts.

wonder round town, give blood, sport relief, flash, freestyler