The COVID-19 diaries: flu jab
The medical system is a weird paradox – filled with deeply compassionate people who have put aside their squeamishness in order to care for others – as well as being alienating, with all the sterile spaces and the hang ups from the olden days, in which the doctor knew best and the patients were kept in the dark and treated like children. This pandemic has increased our sense of alienation – the doctor’s office is no longer a place where you come to get better, but a place of great danger, which you enter only if strictly necessary. My doctor is offering skype consultations so you can be seen from across the suburb, in the dubious safety of your own home.
Anyway, I have done my civic duty and got my flu jab so I won’t be taking up valuable real estate in hospital for that anyway. I have been vaguely wondering if I could melt down my Whitaker’s chocolate and blow and egg and transfer it into there if I can’t get chocolate eggs tomorrow… after all, Jacinda declared Easter Bunny an essential worker so they will still be on their rounds and the kids will expect an egg hunt!
As a bonus, because it was shared on Twitter yesterday, I am including a comic I did for the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, as part of a series of NZ women doctors. This woman looked after patients during the Spanish ‘flu epidemic, so should be remembered!
LET ME BE FRANK 
Your comic about Dr Margaret Cruikshank made me cry (in a good way). xx Meliors ᐧ
Thanks, Meliors – she was quite a woman. I had forgotten that she’d died in the epidemic.
Gosh, both wonderful stories for us. It was so sad to read about Margaret Cruicshank. She seemed like a wonderful woman, but I bet she had to face a lot of prejudice. You can make Jonathan Hot Cross Buns. 3 cups of flour I cup of water or warmed milk and 1 sachet of yeast. The secret is in the spices and a little honey or sugar. If there is a spare egg throw that in when you are mixing and maybe a tbs of oil. Also throw in some currants or raisins. Kneed for 10 minutes by hand or 8 mins in a mixer. Hopefully you got some flour in the shopping frenzy.
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Oops I just realised that it was the nurse who was wanting the Hot Cross Buns.
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Or you could construct a chocolate egg “shot tower”, the type that was used to make lead shot in the days of muskets. Molten lead/chocolate at the top, falls down through the shaft in droplets, starts to harden during descent, lands in water to complete process. Worth a try, but you might need a lot of Whittakers and a very tall tower.
Or you could construct a chocolate egg “shot tower”, the type that was used to make lead shot in the days of muskets. Molten lead/chocolate at the top, falls down through the shaft in droplets, starts to harden during descent, lands in water to complete process. Worth a try, but you might need a lot of Whittakers and a very tall tower.
Sounds like a good activity… but I think we only have one block of chocolate! Oh, and that 100% bar I bought 2 years ago and never ate…
That’s exactly our experience yesterday when my mother had to go for a flu shot. Slightly dislocating because it was sort of normal but not at all normal.
I’m catching up on emails and have binge-read your last ten – a great way to spend Friday evening! Thanks for helping us through this weird time.
Loved hearing about Margaret Cruikshank and your flu jab experience. They phoned me to come and get mine and said you just come to the outside of the med centre. No need to wait afterwards but best to spend 10 mins in your car. Hmm I thought, no actual instructions about not coming by bike so I will leave my bike behind the hedge and risk being told off. No prob they had it set up outside and it was another bike outing opportunity for the elderly isolated!
I should’ve followed your lead, Barbara!