And the third person tests positive

 Marta, the lovely mother of our grandsons has also tested positive now in Scotland. Fortunately she is fully vaccinated so we have our fingers crossed that she too will only be slightly affected.

Marta said she had thought it was inevitable that she would get it - after all, she is looking after 2 infected kids. And as we know here in NZ, many of our infections are household contacts.

One piece of good news is that Karol has now returned a negative test - yay!!

Here in Waikanae, David and I are coping well with lockdown. 

David is busy working on the thing we don't talk about (his travel insurance claim for his eye treatment when we were in the UK back in 2019). He finally sent in his claim about a couple of months ago and was convinced they would agree to settle because he thought his case was compelling. I thought his case was watertight too, and his arguments for the claim being valid were right, but I didn't think they would agree - they are an insurance company after all. And sure enough, we had a letter back about 3 weeks ago saying (using the same paragraphs from their first letter, just copied and pasted) that they were disallowing the claim. Quelle surprise - not!

The reason this is a subject we don't talk about is because we argue about our different approaches - it stresses me so much that he chooses to go through the process rigidly and I use the prescribed process until I think it's just not practicable anymore - I am a project manager, after all, and progress towards deadlines is critical so a project can be finished! Given the travel agent we bought our tickets through suggested that we mention seeking recourse through the Insurance Ombudsman in the first letter as that often results in the company settling with an ex gratia payment, that is what I would have done. But the insurance company's process says that's the last step, not the first or second so what's your guess about whether that suggestion was taken up?... AAARRRGGGHHH!!!

So, since the claim was disallowed, we have agreed that he should/could do it his way and we just wouldn't discuss it. From my perspective, the money we spent back in 2019 is gone, and if we don't get any of it back, I have already kissed it off anyway. So I have no real investment in the outcome, and we each find our different approaches very stressful/impossible to accept. And to be honest, the dishonesty and lack of integrity of the insurance company drive me nuts, so best I stay well away!

Change of subject to what I am doing in lockdown: I am still going walking Monday, Wednesday and Friday with Ann, me in Waikanae and her in Nelson chatting all the while on WhatsApp; and 3 times a week, we play 5 Crowns with Ann and Salvi on WhatsApp too (video). 

I am also writing feedback to RNZ when I read their articles and see them selecting a small going off portion of a fact and then opining on it as if they are reporting factually. I'm calling out the behaviour rather than debating the issue or opinion. I'm also describing their writing as blogging (where opinion is fine and there is no requirement to have even a remote relationship with facts - apart from my blogposts of course. As we all know, my posts are full of facts and my opinion is always right ... 😇😁😎) And of course, when RNZ staff report factually, I also give them positive feedback and thank them.

Change of subject to what is due this afternoon: Today we find out whether there will be any change in Alert Levels. Late last week (Thursday or Friday, cannot be sure which it was) our wonderful PM presaged that Auckland and Northland would be staying in Alert Level 4 and the remainder of the country would go down to Alert Level 3. The decision whether to proceed to this change will be made in Cabinet today and will be based on case numbers and spread of the infection - if the additional cases are all household contacts or picked up at places of interest, then we (those of us south of the Auckland regional border) will be able to go down to AL3. If however the spread is outside those, we will probably have AL4 continue for a period.

AL3 has been described as AL4 with takeaways 😁😁, so it won't be any different for us as we rarely partakeaway... 

But when we get down to AL2 we will be able to take the motorhome away - planning is afoot with timing being the only variable!