€25 to get armour against a killer disease is not to be sneezed at

IT WAS an impulse purchase, let’s be honest. The man in my life became briefly insufferable about all the diseases he could not get because of all the vaccinations he’d had, so I decided to take a prescription out of his book, so to speak, and get the flu jab.

When I rang the pharmacy in Baldoyle, where I’d been told a sign in the window announced the availability of the flu jab, they said no bother, you just arrive at twelve and bring your PPS number.

So I duly arrived at twelve. “PPS number?” Conor the pharmacist asked, pen poised over a form. Rather than tell him I’d forgotten it, I did the privacy bristle.