I wasn't born yesterday

I had one of those scam calls on Easter Monday. When I went to pick up the landline phone, it told me the number was "withheld". Not sure who it was, I picked up the call. An extremely well-spoken man asked me if I was Addy and gave me my address, to which I replied that he was correct. He told me he was from HSBC bank and that they were reopening their branch in my village. It had closed about 2 years ago and has since been turned into a gym. When I asked where they were reopening the branch, he told me it was the old NatWest building (NatWest had also closed 6 months ago).

He asked why I had not replied to their letter about issuing new bank cards. I said I had not received such a letter. He said that funnily enough a lot of people had said that, so he was following it up with a call. I needed to get my debit card changed quickly and I could either get it done at branch A (which is my nearest one, a bus ride away) or he could deliver it personally to me that very day. When I said I could get to Branch A myself, he corrected himself and said Branch A was being refurbished and I would need to get to Branch B which is an even further bus ride away. No problem, I said, I can get to Branch B too. He kept stressing he could save me the bother and deliver it personally that day. I asked what the urgency was and he said the card would expire in 2 days' time. I repeated in that case I would get to Branch B before it expired. He then asked for my date of birth. I told him I do not divulge such information over the phone. At this point I heard a click and he had hung up.

I suppose I should have realised it was a scam, because what bank would ring you on an Easter Monday and personally offer to deliver a new debit card, but to be fair, the call came out of the blue in the late afternoon, when I was a bit weary, and the man was so well-spoken -not like a lot of scam callers where English is not their first language and it is difficult to decipher what they are saying. I was therefore initially thrown into thinking the call was genuine, until it didn't seem to make sense.

I am glad I did not offer any sensitive information, although the man clearly had my name, address and phone number. I reported it when I went into Branch A the next day, although they seemed pretty disinterested in my story. I also reported it to their Fraud Team at Headquarters, who just advised me to keep an eye on my online account. I also reported it on our local Facebook area group and to my surprise two people knew someone it had happened to the week before and one lady said she had had the very same call with the very same details of conversation on the same afternoon as me.

I don't know how these scammers sleep at night. Their parents must be really proud of them.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to one and all. I leave you with a picture of my Easter tree - a tradition I brought back from my time living in Germany. Each year I add more ornaments. The pink and blue one hanging at the bottom I sewed from a kit myself.

Dr Addy will see you now

I have always had a passion for watching medical programmes, be it the real thing in documentaries or dramas. From a small child I was engrossed in watching Dr Kildare, although I rather suspect that it was because Richard Chamberlain was very dishy and the main attraction! Then came Emergency Ward 10, Gray's Anatomy,  Casualty and Holby City. The documentaries such as 24 hours in A&E, Casualty 24/7, GPs Behind Closed Doors and Surgeons at the Edge of Life. I have watched so many I swear I could open my own practice! When watching them, I can usually make the correct diagnosis before the doctor does! 

My closest friends have a dislike of all things medical and any mention of blood or gory operations has them running for the hills and sticking their fingers in their ears, so as not to hear any detail. Me - I can watch a documentary inside the operating theatre showing a complex operation, while I eat a plate of spaghetti bolognaise. It really doesn't bother me one bit, but it does mean I cannot share my interest with my friends. 

I sometimes think I should have chosen this profession as my career, but in reality, at school, I hated chemistry with a passion and veered more to foreign languages than the sciences, so that ruled me out from the start. It was therefore only ever going to be a pastime.

I often wonder whether I had a subliminal influence on Kay choosing medicine as her career, as she was kinda forced to watch these programmes with me, as she grew up. She says, it didn't, but, like water on a stone, it may have had some effect. She is now progressing in leaps and bounds in her career and I am immensely proud of her. 

April Showers

My tooth extraction continues to give me problems and is taking an age to heal. It is 2 weeks now and I still can't eat or chew normal meals or drink hot liquids.  Given that I was half-murdered in the process, I suppose it is not surprising. The good news is I am losing weight, but I yearn for something crunchy rather than the sloppy meals I have been having for the last 2 weeks. I have held back from doing my usual volunteering and going to the gym, but yesterday I decided I would do a shift at the foodbank charity shop on the till. I thought that would be a gentle reintroduction into some semblance of normality. I took a bottle of water with me, as it was a very warm day. On my arrival, the manageress was very kind and offered me a hot drink which I obviously declined. I'd not been there 20 minutes, when I decided to take a sip of water. But because I have not drank directly out of a bottle since the tooth was extracted, I found it difficult to get my mouth round the bottle top and managed in front of a shop full of customers to spill a good deal of it all down my chin and clothes. Thankfully it dried off fairly quickly, so I didn't look a complete idiot for the entire shift. Note to self.....drink out of a glass next time.