My beloved and I just saw Dr Parente for my regular 6 weekly check-in. Executive summary: the PSA is still undetectable.

Getting the news was almost comically protracted this morning. First there were no parking spots in the car parks at the practice.  So my beloved had to drop me off and go and hunt for a spot outside. She found one, but didn’t have many coins to put into the meter. (Some meters accept credit card, but not those in the City of Whitehorse.)  When I went in, the waiting room was almost empty.  This made the lack of parking somewhat peculiar. There are, admittedly, other doctors’ practices in the building; it is unusual, though, that none of the cars in the carparks should belong to Dr Parente’s patients.

Because of my beloved not having many coins, we didn’t have long to go on the meter. This wouldn’t have mattered had Dr P been on time, but — doubtless for excellent reasons — he was running late. We were chatting to the other patient in the waiting room when I arrived — his chauffeur had had to drop him off, too. And he had an appointment booked at the same time as me! Who would get to go in first? He did, of course. The time ticked away on the waiting room clock.

My turn came. Dr P had to connect his laptop to the practice’s wifi (or something). It was slow to load up with the results of the blood test I’d had on Monday. At least your name’s not in red, he said encouragingly, peering at his screen. Still, the news, when we finally got it, was good. McFate had obviously read the famous advice to writers: make ’em laugh — make ’em cry — make ’em wait.

(PS: I had always thought this advice to have been the work of Wilkie Collins. When checking this, I found that it is now attributed to Charles Reade. Warning — this link points to a Guardian article.)