Travel plans in place at last

My Llandaff diocese CRB check certificate arrived in this morning's post and was immediately sent of to the Provincial office for inspection as required. That won't be necessary next time round in five years, as the Church in Wales as well as me will have recourse to the full on-line service by then. It's a shame the Province is that far behind the CofE, which went digital five years ago.

I called the EHIC Plus help-desk after breakfastt and discussed my travel insurance premium. I found out that the standard rate could be applied if my condition awaiting the final operation was exempted from the policy. This seems reasonable to me. I am managing things well, and bearing in mind what happened in Montreux 18 months ago, would rather fly home and go to the nearest A&E, if anything threatened to de-rail my progress than seek surgery abroad. Follow through specialised treatment in situ would be impossible as a temporary resident. I believe the risk of anything going wrong is very low, both surgeons and my GP didn't seem to think so, and I can't be the first and only person to be in this position before. I paid over the phone and within minutes the policy documents arrived by email.

With that done, I set about investigating travel arrangements. The only outbound EasyJet flight to Mallorca from Bristol in the first week of March leaves at seven in the morning, so I'll be obliged to take the 02h30 coach from Cardiff to the airport, something I've done once before, though I can't remember when. When I get to Palma, I'll be able to visit the local branch of the Ministry of the Interior and apply in person for the Spanish police check. This may take a day or so to see though properly, so I'll stay at least one or two nights in a Hostal, and then take the ferry to Ibiza. I may even get to do some sightseeing!

I couldn't find a direct return flight, but there was an 08h40 Vueling flight to Barcelona, and another EasyJet flight to Bristol three hours after landing. I believe (I hope) they use the same terminal. KLM offered possibilities of a flight to Cardiff or Bristol via Schipol, but their website is pretty unfriendly compared to Vueling and to EasyJet, so I soon lost interest. I was amazed at how much time it took to do the research and book the flights. It was late by the time got out for a walk. I set out in the dry but got drenched by a heavy shower toward the end, so I covered the shortest distance of the week.

I am so looking forward to resuming pastoral ministry with one community for a couple of months, as opposed to being on call by the Cardiff Area Deans or our own Team Rector to fill in wherever the need exists. As it's Lent and Eastertide, this measure of continuity is mutually beneficial. I can maybe plan with the church pastoral team how to go about the teaching side of ministry over that period. I'll have an opportunity and time to prepare fresh material to use as well, which I find stimulating. Even so, I can't help but feel nervous about getting started again, and perhaps that nervousness added to the difficulties I had with travel planning. Being stuck at home and so vulnerable for such a long time has left its mark on me, over and above physical injury.

Today, priority booking for the 20-21 WNO season of opera performances opens, so I went down to the Millennium Centre and bought the selection of tickets which Clare and I had decided upon before she went to Arizona. Not only do we get seats in the row we want, but also at a 15% discount. It's one of the special things we enjoy about living in Cardiff, just a short journey away from a world class opera house and performing company.

Monday postal joy

A memorable Monday for me indeed! There were two letters in today's post, one was a cheque from my travel insurers reimbursing my Swiss medical expenses claim in full, apart from the £100 excess. The other gives me an appointment for a pre-op MRI scan on 13th November. Double delight! Two less things to worry about. Also, by the time the post arrived I had already written a sermon ready for next Sunday. Meanwhile, each day sees a slight improvement in my general condition, and that increases my optimism, but not my restlessness, for a change. 

At lunchtime, I went by bus to the Heath Hospital for a follow-up ENT appointment. I didn't leave early enough, and the journey took longer than if I had walked there directly. I was twenty minutes late, which annoyed me, but I found the appointments admin number and asked if they'd pass on the message to ENT that I was going to be late, which they agreed to do, willingly.

I met with the top consultant, Mr Stew. It really was a consultation too. He asked me to describe my nosebleed experiences, and what I was doing to prevent recurrences. Then, after examination, he explained thoroughly that my nose was healthy, so no surgical intervention was required. He observed that the lower part of my nasal septum is just a little crooked. 

This means that air intake through left and right nostrils uneven. The lower section is prone to dry out and lubricate less well, and this is a factor, along with high systolic blood pressure, over exertion and diminished blood supply due to poor sleeping position, which contributes to the occasion capillary rupture. It's the combination of factors which provokes the occasional crisis. His advice was simply to lubricate the entrance to both nostrils with a smidgeon of vaseline before sleep, as this protects and facilitates proper function, even in a slightly crooked nose. Well, you live and learn! It was good to come away with an understanding I can work with, to stay out of trouble. 

I took the bus back as far as Tescos, walked around the store but found nothing I was interested in buying. Then I went over to Office World, and found that the not so super store had closed and relocated to Newport Road Retail park. The quality of the chain's retail offer has diminished since they took over Staples, when it was in financial difficulties. 

I'm not surprised really, as increasingly you can order office goods and services on-line and get them delivered. All part of the contemporary crisis in high street retailing. I hate shopping on-line and avoid doing so, as having to wait in for scheduled deliveries, however well managed the process, ties me down far more than being able to pop into town and hunt for stuff spontaneously when in need.

Walking back home along the Taff Trail and across the Fields under a canopy of leaves unusually green for this time of year in chill air with blue skies and afternoon sun was most pleasant.

This evening the last episode of Strangers. It's been rather slow moving and the story-line lacking in clarity in parts. The social media commentariat have been very scathing about it, and not without justification. In the final few frames a handwritten letter was shown which give the final clue to the final human question viewers had been asking, if they'd not already lost interest. The short was held too briefly, the writing not large enough to be easily legible at a glance. This was poor camera and editorial direction, most annoying. I had to hunt through Twitter to find a punter who had taken and posted a screenshot - very speedily too - in order to find out what was essential to plot closure. And yet, I was wearing my TV viewing specs while I watched! 
    

Claim processing

Another couple of quiet days at home resting, tending my wound, almost willing the body to finish healing this abscess. It's a slow process, yet day by day the period of painful inflammation gets just slightly less. Finally, I was able to put my mind to dealing with the medical insurance claim. I had to do it twice, because the first time, I made mistakes on the form. I'll be lucky to recover half the cost partly because of the policy excess and partly because the outlay on-over-the-counter medication and dressings was more than double what these would have cost here in Britain, and not easy to justify for the period after the doctor had signed me off. 

Anyway, the claim for £500 was mailed, recorded delivery on Saturday morning. It was raining hard and as I was determined to post it, so that it would arrive on Monday, I had to don my old waterproof mountain jacket and trousers, the first time I've used them in years, but still good to use, as long as they can be dried out in between soakings. It's been a dull damp week, and I begin to long for some blue sky and sun.

In the evening, we watched an Australian crime drama series 'Mystery Road' on BBC Four, labelled 'Aussie Noir' by the media commentariat. It's set in the blazing sunshine of the Australian outback, and the characters wear shades and big hats, so I think the hype is a bit silly. It's slow moving and it portrays a cattle ranching environment where aboriginal and immigrant communities live uneasily alongside each other, and racism is a casual and everyday occurrence. 

As is so often the case, crime writing is a medium in which all kinds of social and cultural issues get examined, in the context that produces a crime, or even crimes that are part of the mystery to be solved. I guess that's what I find engages my attention, as I try to figure out what on earth is happening in the world I inhabit, world which changes so rapidly that it's something of an effort to keep up recognising it.