The Best-Laid Plans ...

... "gang aft awry", I believe that ends.  I can even kind of do the Scottish accent when I say it.

However you pronounce it, my plans seem to be going awry more often than not lately.  I had decided upon an alternative plan while I waited for my appointment with the orthopaedic specialist about my broken wrist:  instead of traipsing off to India immediately, I decided I'd take a few weeks and head off to roam around Scotland and Ireland, ancestral homes on both paternal and maternal sides of my family.  Seemed like a reasonable idea -- I'd still get to travel somewhere I really wanted to go (I haven't been to either since 1997, and hardly at all to Northern Ireland), and the going wouldn't be too difficult so even with one hand mostly out of commission I could manage.  And I'd be close enough to home to get back in time for my follow-up appointment, whenever it finally materialized.

So great, I thought, I'll find a cheap flight and take off next Monday or thereabouts -- little planning required beyond throwing some rain gear in a backpack and buying a plane ticket, so easy to get organized quickly.  And, even if now's not the perfect time of year to go, weather-wise ... still, it's the time I have, it's better than going in January, and, well, you're never guaranteed sun in either place so July wouldn't necessarily have been any better.  Oh, and there'd be a lot fewer tourists around so I wouldn't be overrun by Americans.

Well, now I'm second-guessing that plan again.  I got a call from my doctor's office today, to tell me that they'd gotten a call from the ortho's office to say I'd been a no-show for my appointment YESTERDAY.  Since it's a little hard to show up for an appointment that they'd never bothered to tell me (or my doctor's office) about, I didn't feel bad about it.  The secretary promised to harass them today to get me another appointment and to let me know by the end of the day.

The day's now ended, and I don't know anything more.  So now I'm wondering what the best plan is -- do I stick around till I have a date for the appointment, since it seems it may be much earlier than I'd been warned?  Do I jet off to the UK anyway, and take my chances that timing is going to work out?

I'm tired of sitting around in Toronto.  I've been entertaining myself for the last few days by running around playing tourist in my own city (stay tuned for the Toronto photo album), but even though I love the city, it wouldn't be my first choice of places to see right now.  I don't know yet if I will get the OK on another three months off, so I don't know if I'm going to have any more time after December.  If I don't ... well, I'd like to be making much better use of the time I have, instead of sitting around in limbo.

Grrrrrrr.  I hate waiting.  Hoping that someone can give me an appointment date finally tomorrow (I'll be on the phone all day trying), and make my planning easy.  Otherwise I'll be having trouble deciding what the hell to do.