Depressing Day in Room J.

Lillian was fed up today.One of the student nurses had told her she was being discharged today but it was a mistake.She was all ready to just walk out anyway...."'I'll stay though..." She resigned herself to her lot. She has been in there nearly 1o weeks she says and she still doesn't know what is wrong with her.She is worried they are keeping her in there for experiments."I don't think they are keeping you here for that," we said.Celia is leaving though. At first she told us it was on Saturday but tonight we found out that it is next Wednesday. She is not going home. She is being taken somewhere else. We said we would try and find out where then we could pop in and see her there.We went over to Centrelink this afternoon to try and get me registered as a carer. Bojan took our details and asked us to take a seat. About 1o minutes later he called us up to his desk."Have you any identification? A passport?"I didn't....there was nothing he could do...he apologised for not checking sooner if we had identification. He gave us a number to ring at home.I rang it when we got back."Please can you give us your registration number?" said the automated voice.I didn't have one so stayed quiet."Please can we have your registration number and if you don't have one say 'I don't have one.'""I don't have one.""It sounded like you said you don't have one....if this is correct say yes.""Yes.""Your registration number can be found on all documentation sent from Centrelink, please say your your registration number or if you don't have one say 'I don't have one'""I don't have one.""It sounded like you said you don't have one, if this is correct say yes.""Yes" . I said through gritted teeth!"Please can you tell us something about why you are calling today.""Um......er........I want to talk to someone about ....er....being a carer.""Could you please say a little more about why you are ringing today for example 'I am enquiring about pensions', 'I have a disability'"(You will have if I get hold of you!!!!!!!!...I thought.)"I want to register as a carer.""Thank you, please hold. Your call will be answered by our next available assistant. Please be advised that your call may be recorded for training purposes. We are currently receiving a high number of calls and the current waiting time is more than 25 minutes......"I slammed the phone down in disgust.When I had calmed down....I accepted that I needed to ring them so I had to go through the whole rigmarole again and yes, we did indeed wait for more than 25 minutes, listening to Handel's Water Music until we got a very helpful chap who took my name, address, date of birth and said he would send out some forms for me to fill in.Did he ask for any identification?.....like a passport?........did he *$%£!We are escaping tomorrow.We are going down to stay with Trace and Jen at Ashby on the banks of the Clarence River.It will be soooooo nice to get away and have a change of scene.