So before I start browsing through my emails and get distracted for the next six hours, let me deposit my current reflection.
I went to Speising Orthopaedic Hospital. It was my original first choice for my knee operation. Then my local orthopaedic surgeon suggested Baumgartner Hoehe where I got in faster and had the left knee done in July. Now, almost a year later I have the offer from Speising while actually expecting a second appointment at Baumgartner Hoehe. I even paid a hundred euros for a private session with the operating surgeon, hoping he can fulfil my original expectation of a speedy second knee operation.
So I am now booked in to be operated in Speising tomorrow morning at 11:15. Well at least that is my check-in time to the hospital. They tend to make all the appointments tight to avoid long waiting periods with patients hanging around and having contact with one another, potential Covid 19 pandemic spreaders.
I spent more than five hours there. I had to be there at seven this morning. Josef came with me. We took public transport. I got up at five, cycled for twenty minutes, showered, then we said pledge and left. Josef asked whether I wanted a coffee to go. I declined and had nothing till I got back home around one-thirty in the afternoon. Josef had his coffee, a muesli bar and his kindle with him. It took us an hour, taking two trams, one to Westbahnhof and from there the number sixty.
I left Josef at the door and he even came back again but then went home when I still had no idea how long I would need. He sent me a link to the Bolt private taxi service. I could not download it nor even call him up because the mobile phone connection was practically non-existent in the hospital. They told me the corner around the reception was better, where I went at the very end, after I was finished, to order a Bolt. The app enters the location automatically, but unfortunately there was no exit to Riedelgasse 64, so I had to walk through the whole building back to the original entry point and then message the driver that I was not at number 64 but 56. Anyhow, the ride home was less than half an hour, so I was glad, even though Josef said the trams were empty and the assistant said it would be okay to take public transport home. See my Gory Details.
Finally, after a fifteen-minute wait I was released and eventually found a spot near the official admissions office where I could reach Josef on the phone and download the Bolt App.
Whew. Now I am at home, getting ready. Well, actually I’m trying to chill. I’m basically ready. I started packing my trolley over the weekend. They gave me a bottle of sterilising wash which I have to use on my whole body and hair and then I have to wear freshly washed clothes. So, I thought I might do a load of washing before I leave. I also want to water the plants as that sometimes gets forgotten when I’m gone.
I had my lunch after Josef left for work. Then I sat and continued watching my series.
I had so many invitations to seminars and courses which I could not keep up to last week. I was happy to support the UPF meeting on the Vienna Terror Attack last Tuesday, after the Toastmasters meeting. Then I wrote up a report which I sent to Peter Haider on Saturday. Now, even though still curious about the other course I was doing with Julia Bock last week, having not managed to attend and participate in the daily challenges, I’d just like to check them out. After all, my project 2020 is my health. I’ll get into my business challenge next year.
Having fun just discovering my true self. Isn’t it funny? I’ve done so much and still beat myself up for not posting a blog article every week? By the way the course was about setting up a FaceBook business. Now actually I always skip the sponsored articles on FaceBook. I do not like how it has become so commercial. I like the contact aspect. Yet it is clear to me that exactly that contact aspect can even be my business strength. But not now. Next year. Now I just want to set up a few good habits. I’m laying the groundwork. I’m learning by doing. And I think I may even be motivating or at least inspiring a few people. What do you think?
Oh, by the way, I also popped into the MoniQa conference. Roland Poms, my former boss at ICC gave me a reference as being instrumental in realizing the MoniQa project. I remember well. It was approved and received EU funding, but the allocated funds could only be used to employ new people and could not be applied for current employees. So even though I had been downscaled due to lack of funds, reduced to part-time, despite my family obligations for all seven of us, I was not eligible for EU sponsorship. Anyhow, even though my departure at the time felt tragic, I probably would never have entered the UN had I not taken that leap of faith. I felt proud just knowing I had done my little bit. Even though I was “only admin staff”, not a scientist.
Then I also made an educational video for the WiN-IAEA group as I have set up a YouTube channel for them and it seems nobody knows how to manage it. Hopefully things will develop there. Another goal of mine to optimize my YouTube talents and help others to communicate globally.
Wow how times have changed. I just have to think back to when I left Australia in 1986 and arrived on the West Coast of the USA. The Newspaper USA Today had a tiny bit of Australian news. There was no internet. No skype, No WhatsApp, no Email. I was an Australian in America. I’ll have to dig up my diary entries from that time. How I longed to connect again to Australia. Just as after my first Europe trip I longed to connect. My, my, my. That’s a future article.
I don’t know if I’ll have internet in hospital. I don’t know how long I’ll be stationed. I look forward to some sedentary activities when I come back home, whenever that may be.
And remember, I’ll be back.