Get It Right

Knocked off early and went to give blood at the scout hut after work. The admissions lady raised an eyebrow and mentioned that I was an hour early (the vagaries of the recently introduced new bus timetable) but she found me an earlier slot and I got seen within a few minutes. Once again my pin-prick sample floated instead of sinking, and two follow-ups did the same so it was out with the haemoglobin count machine. Thankfully this time I was 137, in by two points. The carer told me to clench my legs, thighs and buttocks while sitting waiting, to get my circulation going. My call came quickly: as my nurse said, "You didn't get to do much reading". Today we were sat on plastic dentist's-shape chairs, which tipped back to horizontal for the actual donating process. The nurse didn't have much trouble locating a vein, and my donation was done in under four minutes - a new nurse had to disconnect the needle as my original one was attending to someone else. She smiled "Have you got somewhere you want to be?", levered the chair back upright and helped me off by the arm - "to stop you leaning on it". Over to the tea table for a cup of water and a bag of crisps. Made the bus home comfortably.