HAVING MY COVID-19 VACCINATION AT MILLENNIUM POINT, BIRMINGHAM, 3RD FEBRUARY 2021...

 Having My Vaccination, 3rd February 2021…

So, due to the fact that we are receiving rare deliveries of post  in my road, the letter asking me to book a vaccination slot arrived two weeks after it was presumably posted. Shirley’s sorting office has been suffering quite a malfunction recently. In fact on the day of the vaccination, a delivery was actually made which included Private Eye issue 1539 which was two weeks late and ironically arrived on the day that issue 1540 should have been delivered… Badly done, Royal Mail, badly done… 

However, I made the appointment with no difficulty online and chose to travel to Millennium Point in Birmingham for my jab, near the huge transformation being made around Curzon Street to cater for HS2. It was unrecognisable, especially as I had worked at Birmingham Museum for so long and also at the old Science Museum in Newhall Street before it closed and a new building had been constructed in that very same Curzon Street: the ‘Think Tank Science Museum’. We in the Schools Liaison teaching team had staff meetings there sometimes but I was astounded at the changes made to the locality when I was driven there for my vaccination…

WHERE HS2 IS TAKING SHAPE...

I had told myself that I wanted to remember comedian Tony Hancock during this jaunt and so I took along a bag of Fruit Gums, with every intention of keeping the black ones to myself. I munched one in the multi-storey car-park. More about Tony Hancock later, a man born in Hall Green, Birmingham, an area which I had travelled through to reach Millennium Point, oddly…

CURZON STREET...

Upon entry, the young guy who welcomed me was rather taken by my FC Barcelona mask and we chatted about soccer for a while. He was a Villa fan and so he was in a remarkably cheerful mood, for his team is perhaps eight points or so from safety in the Premier League. I wished then that I had worn my smiling badger mask, although maybe that would have been a trifle inappropriate for a vaccination centre… 

I was directed to a lift, in which I dropped to the ground floor and was seated, then ushered towards a chap sitting at a computer, where I was checked in. Three ladies then passed me along the edge of the large room like I was an untouchable baton in a human relay race. I was seated upon a chair which had been sprayed and wiped by another member of staff, whose back was likely to be sore the following morning. I mentioned this to her, as she was continually bending forth with spray and cloth…

It then became rather like a slow game of musical chairs, during which nobody ever won anything. I wanted to see what happened if I sat on the wrong chair but once again, that would have been inappropriate. Gradually, I was shifted along the line of freshly and back-achingly sprayed and wiped chairs towards the ‘Lanes’.These were small cubicles in which one person sat at a laptop and a ‘needler’ prepared one’s vaccine. Of course, this vast area I had dropped down to on the lift had a very high ceiling too, making it suitably airy. 

My identity was checked by a pleasant guy with eyes drawn to the screen and I asked him if I could be impregnated in my right arm, as I was left-handed. That was agreed and then the laptop malfunctioned. Twice.  

The computer was finally restarted and just as the Oxford vaccination was poised in the hand of the ‘jabber’ to stab my revealed upper arm, the laptop malfunctioned again. However, the Lane was one of two, almost connected and because the other Lane was empty at that moment, the fellow was told to use its available laptop and we tried again. This time we were successful and my arm was pierced, with barely ‘a sharp scratch’.…

The staff were remarkably friendly, helpful and full of energy, helping to make a difficult situation for some folks really acceptable. High praise from me to all at Millennium Point…

ALONG CURZON STREET TO THE WOOMAN PUB', WHICH SURVIVES ALONGSIDE THE OLD CURZON STREET STATION ENTRANCE.
IN THE BACKGROUND IS THE SPIRE FROM ST MARTIN'S CHURCH AND ALSO THE NEW BULL RING SHOPPING MALL...

The car-park ticket was validated for me and after staring in disbelief at the changes being made to the environs for HS2, I walked back to the parking-lot. 

THE OLD CURZON STREET STATION ENTRANCE...

Before leaving the multi-storey, I rescued my bag from the trunk, in which I had hidden a flask of tea and some custard creams… It’s what you do…

NO, I WASN'T JOKING...

Tony Hancock, the TV star of ‘The Blood Donor’ episode might just have flickered a smile. But then again, he might not have done…   

The following morning, I was not feeling any real discomfort and so walked to the local Nisa store to buy milk, crumpets and a newspaper. As I arrived, a car pulled up rather quickly, its registration including three 5s… A biggish young chap climbed out of the driver’s seat wearing a white top, white shorts and trainers, someone obviously either en route to a gym, or returning from one.

I donned my face-mask and because I reached the door first, I pulled it open using my cloth bag and allowed him to enter in front of me. He thanked me but was not wearing a mask. I was shocked. I saw him wandering along an aisle, picking up food and inspecting what was on offer. No mask? What the hell is wrong with people?

And I had held the door open for him… 

Should I have dropped my mask and forced a cough towards him? 

Or would that have been inappropriate?