OCTOBER 2021

Tuesday 5 October 2021

More than 10 miles walked today and now I'm off to a 'Boogie Bounce' class tonight. Life was so much simpler in lock down, when I did the dog walk, came home and started drinking wine at 4pm because there was nothing else to do. Can't believe I've just said that. Lol! Obviously I much prefer my life as it is now, but I'm exhausted!!

Since I came back to Cornwall, I've been taking Trixie, the Collie pup, to agility classes and I've been doing a photography course every week, plus an evening Kangoo Jumps class and a Boogie Bounce class. In Edinburgh it seems like everything has got to be done online (including going into a pub/restaurant and having to order via the app). It will be very interesting to see if anything has changed when I go back. I doubt it?!

Thursday 7 October 2021

Today I experienced the first thing I wanted to do in Cornwall that I wasn't allowed to do................... Walk across the causeway and wander around St Michaels Mount. The causeway was actually quite busy with lots of people heading to and from the mount. I vaguely thought it was a bit odd that there were hardly any other people with pooches, but I didn't dwell on the fact.

However, when I got to the end of the causeway there was a big blackboard that stated that no one was allowed in the house or gardens unless they had pre-booked. And then a very lovely National Trust man told me that dogs weren't allowed on the mount. I wasn't really that bothered so I just turned around and walked back, but not before I'd heard someone else moaning about it and asking when that rule had come into force. Apparently it was two years ago. So may be it wasn't anything to do with lock down then, though I'm sure the booking thing wasn't in operation before lock down.

Monday 11 October 2021

Just watching the news. Apparently dog rescue centres are being inundated with lock down dogs being abandoned due to life going back to normal. This makes me so mad. What did people think would happen when they got their cute little bundle of fluff that they paid thousands of pounds for? Why does no one actually think that if they get a dog they have to commit themselves to approximately 15 years of looking after it?  Grrrr.......

Wednesday 13 October 2021

Only three more days left in St Ives. Booohooo. I've been here almost 6 weeks and every single day, I've been out and about either doing an activity or socialising with friends. I've had the bestest time ever.

It's amazing how much my perspective on life has changed since 23 March 2020. Pre-lock down I had made Edinburgh my permanent home because I had a much better social life there and there was so much more going on in a city.

I've been googling and googling and I still can't find any agility classes for Trixie, the Collie pup to do in Edinburgh. Nor can I find any Boogie Bounce or Kangoo Jump classes for me to do. It's going to be cold and dark and I know I'm going to slip back into my lock down habit of drinking wine from 4pm in the evening because I won't be going out anywhere and no one will be coming to visit.

It's really difficult to know what to do. Life is never going to go back to what it was pre-lock down, but life in a small sea side town (ie St Ives) is most definitely a lot more normal than life was in the capital city of Scotland before I left. Even the fact that mask wearing is still mandatory in Scotland is a massive difference.

Sunday 17 October 2021

Goodbye St Ives. See you in January.

Monday 18 October 2021

Back in Edinburgh. It's been a long, long, day. I'm getting too old to do this drive.

Wednesday 20 October 2021

Managed to register with a NHS dentist today and have got an appointment for a check up tomorrow. Now I'm in major panic mode because I'm wondering what is wrong with the dentist to be taking on new patients when nobody else is? You have no idea how many dentists I tried phoning yesterday. At least most of them answered the phones. A few weeks ago all you got when you phoned a dentist was a message saying that they couldn't deal with any enquiries. Maybe things are getting back to normal.

In other news, it looks like the Covid booster jab is being pushed back even further for the 60-65 year old age group in Scotland. To be honest, I don't really care. I've been double jabbed and it's not like I'm going to mega busy places like concerts or football matches so I don't feel as if I'm putting myself at risk.

The most risky place I go is on buses. I went on one yesterday and it was mega busy but in Scotland, masks are still mandatory so I didn't really feel unsafe at all.

Sunday 24 October 2021

It's taken me more than an hour to work out how to do it; but I now have a Scottish Covid passport. I can now go to football/rugby matches, concerts and any events with hundreds of people. To be honest, I don't want to go to any events like that and I don't understand what difference scanning a QR code would do if I did. But hey ho, I've done it so I now have the option should I want to.

Wednesday 27 October 2021

Got an appointment yesterday for my flu vaccination for the beginning of November, but I want to delay it so that I can get my Covid vaccine at the same time. I also want to change it so that I can get it done in Edinburgh and don't have to trek all the way out to the Royal Highland Show Centre at Ingliston. What an absolute shambles?!!!

Tried phoning the NHS to re-arrange it. Tried to do this online but it wouldn't let me and tried to phone yesterday but I couldn't because I got an automated message saying that their systems were down and to try again today.

After being on hold for 11 mins 44 secs, and listening to an automated message saying that the average wait time was 3.5 mins and everything could be done on line (no it couldn't, that was why I was phoning), I eventually got through to a real life person. I think it must have been their first day because they didn't have a clue about anything. All I wanted o do was reschedule my appointment for a couple of weeks later so that I could have the Covid vaccine at the same time and change the venue so that I didn't have to go out of town. Call centre person sounded Scottish but she obviously had no idea of the geography of Edinburgh or where any of the vaccine centres in Edinburgh actually were. She ended the call by saying she couldn't help because there were no appointments anywhere, so the best thing I could do was keep the out of town appointment for a flu vaccine and wait for my appointment for a Covid vaccine to come through.

I immediately just phoned back in the hope that I'd get a more competent call centre person. After being on hold for 9 mins 17 secs, listening to an automated message saying that the average wait time was 3.5 mins and everything could be done on line (no it couldn't, that was why I was phoning), I spoke to a very nice lady who said it had been really busy today because their systems were down yesterday. She couldn't find any alternative appointments for me either but at least she was clever enough to check all the medical centres in Edinburgh. She said to phone back tomorrow because the systems will have been updated by then.

It all just seems like an absolute shambles. Most of my friends have already had their flu vaccines but they just went into the local chemists to get it. Everyone seems absolutely paranoid about getting flu vaccines and Covid boosters. Obviously I don't want to get flu or Covid, but I didn't have my first flu vaccine until the middle of December last year and I got my second vaccine on the 17^th May. Apparently I've got to leave 6 months between my last vaccine and the booster jab, but surely data bases these days are sophisticated enough to be able to cope with that? Surely it would have been more sensible to wait until after the 17^th November and then give me an appointment to have the flu and Covid vaccine at the same time??? As I say; what a shambles?!!

Friday 29 October 2021

This evening I did a Meet & Greet. I was due at the property at 6pm to do my checks (check cleaning, switch heating on, check wifi is working, etc). Visitor was due at 6.30pm but he was waiting on the doorstep. Property had not been cleaned. Duh!!! I've been doing this job for three years and pre-lock down there was an Edinburgh office who sorted out local problems. Now everything is done via 'Whatsapp' from somewhere in Malaysia. There is just no personal service anymore. I had a problem a couple of months ago with a boiler and after 'whatsapping' the powers that be, they sent me a link to a Youtube video so that I could re-pressurise it. Ehhhh no, I wasn't going to do that. I'm not a gas engineer.

Anyway after reassuring the visitor that the cleaners would be arriving soon, I had to wait while whoever was in Malaysia whatsapped them and asked them to come to clean. They also asked me to ask the visitor to go out for a couple of hours. Visitor didn't want to go out for a couple of hours because he had a lot of work to do. He said he would just sit at the desk and ignore the cleaners. Don't think the cleaners were too happy about that, but hey ho it wasn't my problem. I just left them to it.

I love my job, I really do, but I am the only real life person that the visitor sees and to be honest, I don't think I'm offering them a very good service. Also since lock down, I'm not doing anything like the number of Meet & Greets that I did pre-lock down. Most properties now have key boxes so the visitors just let themselves in by themselves, so never, ever have any contact with a real life person.

Before lock down I was doing about 10 Meet & Greets a week. Now I'm lucky if I do five. I could really do with finding myself another job, but nobody seems to want an aging 61 year old.