Several weeks ago, I received a message from a cousin, who is a medical practitioner. He’s a recognised and very experienced specialist in his field, and has always been a smart fellow. In fact, he’s the smartest fellow in the family, if not the community I grew up in. He has been practicing as a specialist in his field in Singapore, for a few decades.
In that message, he asked if I was getting the vaccine. I said we’d be in line for the AstraZaneca vaccine. We exchanged a few messages and the upshot of them all was that he suggested I (and Tress) should sit it out. Unless there was an outbreak, I (we) should wait, maybe for the NovaVax to be approved later in the year.
I took that advice on board and so I didn’t hurry in getting an appointment for the vaccine. However, there was an outbreak of sorts here in Melbourne, and my peers have mostly gotten their AZ jabs done, first dose, that is. So the pressure to get mine was building up, so Tress and I fell in line and scheduled our shots.
We were meant to get our shots, the AstraZaneca vaccine, today.
Yesterday arvo however, news started filtering through that the AZ vaccine would only be available to over 60 year olds. I wondered then if we should ring to confirm our appointments for today but alas, the clinic rang us – albeit late in the day – to say they will cancel our appointments as we are no longer eligible for the AZ vaccines.
I said to Tress, that I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, there is a bit of a sense of relief, as I had been uncomfortable with proceeding with the AZ. I thought there must have been good reasons why my cousin from Singapore reached out to me with his advice. We don’t chat very much at all – in fact, that message from him was probably the only one I had received in a very long time. I only proceeded against that advice from him, in the circumstances created by recent events in Melbourne/Victoria.
On the other hand however, I wondered if that was a missed opportunity to be vaccinated. We just only missed this chance, and I wonder if such a close call should be characterized as a close shave or close miss. Mini (?) bend #1…
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For several months now, the legal team I’m in have been working on a transition. My employer was being bought by an American entity. The transaction was signed in Jan and the imprimaturs from shareholders and the court were given a few weeks ago. That deal will now close today. So after today, we’d be part of a larger, American owned group.
Yesterday, I got an invitation from Rebecca, the Group General Counsel of the acquiring company, for a 1:1 zoom call. She will be my new boss of sorts I guess, so I promptly accepted that invitation. Soon after, I got a call from my boss, to say he would be staying on. That is great news as that would likely mean much of what I’d been doing would remain unchanged. The zoom call with Rebecca would probably flesh that out a bit more.
I had that call with Rebecca, which pretty much confirmed what my boss said to me in terms of me continuing on with my work with little/no change. That is good news to me. Things would be very different on a whole range of matters but by and large, disruption to my work life would be minimal. This mini (?) bend, #2, is less ephemeral, and I am certainly in no schizophrenic state of mind about it. It’s not a bad thing.
Changes in life are always inevitable. Tacks, bends, turns – they happen. Two in one day, however, will be memorable. Even if they’re only mini (?) bends.
Ante 