Nothing much has happened over the last year, so here's a summary.
No dates, but trying to be in roughly chronological order.
- Measles panic started hitting the world. One of the stops on our planned trans-Pacific cruise got rerouted
- COVID-19 corona virus struck another blow, and things really started fall apart.
- Ship, Ruby Princess, we were on for the planned for Apr/May 2020 cruise got quarantined in Australia.
- Lockdown came into full effect in New Zealand. Cruise got cancelled, but could work from home.
- Fun and games with travel refunds.
- The quickest refund was for a non-refundable hotel room. Thanks Accor, & sorry that the hotel we'd have stayed in is now a inbound traveller quarantine facility.
- The cruise refund became messy. It processed as a credit rather than refund. We were told it could take up to 3 months to correct. Accepted the credit as we'd be able to use that on a later cruise.
- The refund for flights is effectively impossible, because of booking through a travel agent. It may be the traveller's names on the ticket, but because they didn't pay the carrier they're not eligible for the direct refund.
- Plodded along working from home until the levels of lockdown became more relaxed. The biggest thing that became available at next level was takeaways. Far better than cooking or reheating at home every night.
- We then got to a more social level, and could actually eat in restaurant & pubs. All very socially distanced and had to be in & out in 2 hours. Still a number of covidiots couldn't comprehend that.
- Yay, we were one of the first countries in the world to "eliminate" community spread of this bug. The doors were more open, & we could hug others again. We could travel internationally out, but coming back you'd have to pay while you sat out 2 weeks of managed isolation.
- Not feeling to well. So went to the doctor. Men, here's the reminder to get the finger. Uncomfortable as it is, it's an indicator of what's going on up there. Got referred to be put on the list for further examination.
- Managed to visit family over Christmas/New Year break. Starting to use the flight credits.
- Went to a retrospective presentation of Van Gogh's work (sat through two sessions to get money's worth), then had an enormous "bottomless" yum char style lunch. Didn't at for nearly a day after.
- Got in to see a specialist, with very quick referral for a deeper inspection.
- Would have been on another cruise to celebrate my sister's birthday, but again that didn't happen. Fortunately only $2 lost on that.
- Had a camera where the sun don't shine. The doctor that performed the procedure couldn't find the appropriate nurse, so blunted it out with "You've got cancer". Thanks Mr medical professional. Stunned. Fortunately the nurse called me a couple of days later to go the results I'd been given. (Let's talk about this in another blog.)
- Used up some more of the flight credit to celebrate sister's birthday closer to home home. Broke the last bullet-point news to Mum & sister. Went as well as can be expected.
So, it's been an eventful time since the last blog entry.
There'll be another entry soon hopefully with the gory details of my diagnosis & upcoming treatment, but just a reminder now that if your body isn't acting as though you normally think it should then do take it to your GP.
