Vaccination Day!!
Welcome to my nightmare...
I'm pretty sure I haven't had tuberculosis, but soon enough I will know for sure. Though, I think I'd notice if my lungs had secretly been disintegrating on me.
I am ranting about TB because I had the mantoux test out at the Monash Peninsula health and well being hub today. For those who've not had one, the mantoux test checks for TB exposure. The nurse or doctor gently pulls a little patch of skin on your forearm quite taught and injects a teeny amount of (5 Tuberculin units) purified protein derivative Tuberculin (the glycerol component of the TB bacteria). The injection is literally just below the skin, so the liquid makes a little bump that looks like a nasty mozzie bite on the surface of your skin. If you have been exposed to TB it turns into an ugly sweaty welt (and you panic like crazy). If you don't it just bruises a little and flattens out, which is what mine looks like =D.
I also had a plain old standard blood test which will screen for Hep A & B immunity (just because you've had the vaccinations as a baby does not mean you're necessarily immune for life), chicken pox immunity (again, you can have chicken pox but not everyone becomes immune as a result) and HIV. When I was telling my brother about it he said in a very serious voice, "I would be pretty shattered if you had HIV." (He's about as lovely as 16 year old boys get, my brother.) I think I'd be shattered too. I'm not terribly worried about that one, though. The nurse who took my blood was seriously skilled, I barely felt a thing.
To my surprise, I did not have to have any vaccines today. Bit of a let down for a "vaccination appointment". I had to hunt down all my childhood vaccination records records to bring along. Being born child to very organised parents, that wasn't terribly difficult. Once I get the blood test results back I'll have another appointment where I'll get jabbed with whatever I'm not immune to.
I didn't faint for either test, I was pretty proud of that.
After surviving vaccination appointment installment one, Mum and I headed about halfway back home to the golf club. Each time we drive in their I can't quite believe that I'm a member of a golf club. I thought I'd be at least 40 before my inner Patsy made that happen. Mum and I had another golf lesson with coaching extraordinaire, Ben.
Ben is great at working out what we each need to think about in order to strike the ball better. In sport, a coach will give you an instruction it's hard to tell whether you actually are doing what they ask. You might think you're doing what is asked but what feels like following instructions is often not right at all. That's why when I was doing gymnastics and aerobics we trained using mirrors. It feels like your legs are straight but they're not at full extension, you think you're hitting full split in your leap but sometimes you're off, you think you're team is in perfect sync but there will be moments where each of you moves slightly differently.
Mum was ripping it up yet again, her swing is incredibly consistent. I had a really good day too. Ben gave me some really handy pointers and cues to think about that really helped me hit the ball well. Hitting the ball cleanly feels fantastic and makes the coolest little "thwack" noise. Ben also mixed and matched a driver from the fitting bag for me that worked like a charm. My current driver is about 5-6 degrees out from what I should have, apparently. That pesky 21st birthday might come in handy after all...
At this point Mum and I were both very much happy and alive. It was the drive to the supermarket which proved almost fatal. I had been doing all the driving all day supervised by Mum. I was about to turn right at the traffic lights to enter the underground supermarket car park. I did a quick mirror check before I made the turn. The next thing I realised that I was mounting the middle island, breaking the front left headlight on the right hand side of a 'keep left' side. I HAD TURNED ONTO THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!!!!
Thankfully, there were no cars on the wrong side of the road, so I was able to do a quick u-turn. Mum stayed really calm and directed me back to where I needed to be without even raising her voice. I was so confused as to how I got into the position I ended up in. After I did my mirror check I think I must have refocused my attention onto the wrong side of right hand turn line painted on the road. Because there were no cars on the other side of the road I just followed the inside of the arc onto the wrong side of the road instead of following the top side of the line to end up on the left.
Mum got me to drive into a hardware shop car park nearby so that we could both try and get our heart rates down before I attempted to drive us any further! It was only once we stopped that I realised I'd been holding my breath the entire time. Talk about shock.
That was my first incident as a learner driver and how I could have easily got Mum and myself killed today. I still can't believe it happened.
Please tell me about mistakes you made as a young driver in the comments, I'll feel less like a complete menace to society.
Here's an incident I had as a learner driver that might make you feel a little bit better. Being a little bit of a 'late learner' myself, my boyfriend was fully licenced whilst I was on my learners and he would often take me out for lessons. One such day I was driving on the Ring Road and was about to take an exit when an idiot decided that a learner with their indicator on actually wasn't 1. doing the speed limit; 2. really wanting to turn; and 3. going to create a problem. Unfortunately, I may not have done a proper head check before getting into the lane, or maybe the other driver was going too fast or maybe it was just dumb luck, however I went to get into the lane to take the exit got half in the other lane when I noticed there was already a car there and quickly had to move back into my lane. Scared me. My boyfriend spent the rest of the drive telling just how important proper head checks are. I always do a head check now, and check whilst I'm changing lanes too. Don't stress, I've had a close encounter on a country road when the person has stepped out in front of the car without checking the traffic. This was in an eighty zone (I think, or it might have been 100 zone). Anyway, lucky I was doing under the speed limit. I slammed on the brakes and managed to miss him. That was no fun. I think I just about collapsed once I got out from the car with that one. Best of luck and happy driving.
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