Dad and the app...

This is an older tale again from summer 2021…

I’m round at my parents and my Dad told me the app he usually uses for prescriptions is telling him to use something in “the play store” instead, but that he: “doesn’t know if it’s genuine...”

I look, tell him, “Yes, it’s the official NHS app, it might be like what I signed up to for my test results for work.”

Back then, I had been entering Covid test results twice a week…but this wasn’t ANYTHING like I signed up for as I just had to give personal details, job title, location etc. To be fair, that website updated requirements a few times and asked further questions to the point I felt like Big Brother was watching me, but it is still N O T H I N G compared to what I then had to do with Dad!!

Here’s how it went:

I download the app, get him to fill in some personal details (he couldn’t even see his NHS number on a letter sent to him as he’d made notes on it – Mum’s already laughing at him) and there’s me telling him, “Not to write down the number, it’s a one-off security text code that he won’t need again, they’ll send a new one...” etc.

Then, we get to proving who he was. “Over to you,” he says passing me his tablet as it says to take a photo of photo ID and upload. We pick his renewed driving licence and I take the photos and upload. I had to follow rules about how the photo can be presented etc, etc – bit like a passport in terms of background, all bits visible...

THEN, it says (initially I’m impressed in terms of security) to take a photo of ‘yourself’ to verify it’s you. At this point, he’s already starting to get impatient, “I’m not sure I even want my pills if this is what I have to do…”

I assure him it’s a set up process, a one-off.

So, I take the photo and it whirls in a circle and validates then face matches.

THEN...THEN...it says you now need to take a short video saying some numbers!!!!

“Do what?” he says! “Is this a scam or a joke?”

Mum is now splitting her sides laughing and I am not much better! He is getting realllllly annoyed!! 

Mum then decides it’s time to go outside so that she can’t put him off.

I give him the choice of writing the numbers and holding up paper or saying them. He picks the latter.

Well, the numbers 1 2 5 4 will never be the same again (and I have teased him a lot since) as there we were, standing in their kitchen (much lighter than their lounge) filming him saying 1 2 5 4!! It then checked it and came up with a message that he’d hear in 24 hours if he’d passed!!

Thankfully, the full app and verification came through by the time I left to come home! When I did leave, I left behind a bewildered and slightly exhausted Dad, and a Mum who was still laughing but saying “I’m not going on holiday if that’s all what I have to do to get a double-jabbed certificate!” as Dad had noticed it said he could print one. I think he was more pleased about that than the prescriptions.

I am happy to report that he has since used the app without me there and collected pills, phew! AND, that wasn’t what they had to do to get the required Covid pass certificate to go on holiday.

What a process though!!

 

 

Here is another ‘It could only happen to me’ moments...

One Friday, Mum and I went into a nearby town to do a bit of shopping, and then popped into the Asda after.

I went off to get some yoghurt, leaving Mum to peruse the milk for a good date (they were away on the Weds and she wanted a long life with a date for when they were back). 

I return, to find she is stilllll looking at the milk and now talking to some man (with a grey hat, and with a daughter in a buggy) about the dates of milk. 

Now, it’s important to point out that whilst I am not usually ratty, I reallllllly needed a wee (and OCD with germs me would rather not use a public loo)! So, I said something along the lines of “You still looking at the milk?” which was stating the obvious but a polite way of moving her along and stopping the conversation with the man. It didn’t work... Anyway, a minute or so later we were all on our way around the remaining aisles with the man wishing us a “Good day.” Manners do still exist after all...even if mine were hiding in my want to get home and relieve the pressure on my bladder!

 

Anyway, fast forward to me dropping Mum home, getting home and running in for a much needed wee and then – and the timing of this still gets me – deciding to walk down the road to check my friend’s letterbox (I had arrived home to a leaflet hanging out of mine) as she was away and due back that day and I didn’t want her to think I had been slacking on my duty.

 

I COULD have instead opted to unload the shopping first. But, no...off I went. I was going to cut through the garages near her, then round to the door, then back up her alley to do a round trip (my usual route) but something stopped me.

A woman talking to a man...in a grey hat...with shopping (aka milk with a good date)...and a little girl now out of the buggy! No, it couldn’t be?

I decided to cut up the alley instead as this would give me (a) time to decide if I was going mad... or (b) the chance to avoid him as it was surely too odd to see him when I have NEVER before seen him in my life, let alone two minutes from my house...and on the same day!!!!

My plan didn’t work (but I wasn’t going mad) as he said goodbye to who he was chatting to and his little girl mad a beeline for my friend’s grass outside her house and promptly fell on it just as I got there too!

 

This is how the conversation went:

ME: “Wow, this is too weird. Asda...milk!”

HIM: “Oh yes! Is this your house?”

ME: “No, it’s my friend’s. I’m just checking her letterbox...not that I am telling you she’s away. I don’t live far though.”

HIM: “That’s amazing!”

ME: “Yep, although it’s the sort of off thing that often happens to me. Anyway, as you said earlier – have a good rest of the day.”

HIM: “Bye!”

 

So, I either looked like some utter stalker weirdo or he believed me...it was the truth after all! Anyway, I haven’t seen him since...I do think a house near there was sold...but it also happens to be the way I walk to the field behind our road/houses...so we shall see! Typical me!

Better late than never, I suppose!

I thought I would share my first funny story that occurred just yesterday before I go back in time with the adventures that have made me laugh over the past couple of years...

On Sunday, I was food shopping with my Mum as we often go together. She and I separated in the fruit and veg section (we wanted different things) and then met back up. In the meat aisle (I am not sure why then/there) she goes to me: “Look!” and points into her trolley where I see lots of things and I am like, “What am I meant to be looking at?”

She leans down and touches the lemon (which is on top of a bag of oranges) and still I think nothing of it until she grins at me. To which I said, “You do know that pancake day was LAST week?!” She replied that they hadn’t realised so that they were having them this Tuesday instead. Better late than never, I suppose!

This will set the tone for other adventures!

It could only happen to me...

This blog will be dedicated to things that have happened in my life that often make me feel like the (female) modern day version of the Truman Show main character!

In time, it will also contain the things that will (inevitably) happen too!

I hope if you are reading this, that:

1. You enjoy my adventures...

2. You've too had some moments in life where you feel like 'It could only happen to me' - and if you have, feel free to share them!