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Officially cancelled
Yesterday I finally got a notice from the airline saying my flight from Perth was totally cancelled. They had previously advised the flight had been shifted but there was no way to cancel online so I waited. This time I was able to do a cancel while on the computer (but not in the app). So my flights have been cancelled all around and hopefully my refund will come through in the next few weeks. Obviously it’s too early to consider rescheduling but I imagine it will be at least six months and quite possibly next year before I travel now.
I must admit it’s quite a relief to have that done now. Not that I had any intention of travelling at this point but I was dreading having to contact the airline directly because I’m sure it would have been a long wait.
I worked yesterday with my client for a few hours. It’s a hard thing for most of us to deal with all the changes but for someone with intellectual disabilities, it’s so much more difficult. I suspect that my work will end up being suspended at some point because he doesn’t require any contact support and activities are quite limited. Plus there are three carers and support happens almost every day. So many people to be coming and going from his parent’s house where is currently staying while this stuff is going on. We ended up going to nearby Whiteman Park for a bit of a walk because I knew the trail wouldn’t be an issue for people. In fact, I almost never see people on the trail. We did get to see quite a few kangaroos along the way and they looked really neat as there were probably dozens of them in the fields we passed.
Today I did what I hope will be the weekly shopping. I tried to get enough things to avoid any other trips to the supermarket for the time being. The shops weren’t too bad when I first went out as schools were just getting out and people were there yet. Thursday night is a late night shopping thing here so it does get busy later in the afternoon. Anyway, I got more things this week than last but not all I needed. Trying to find hand sanitiser or wipes was impossible. The only reason I have any of that is because Lego Lover has such OCD issues that I’d bought some a while back. One pack is in the car and is starting to fall apart after being in the heat so much. I suspect it may dry out before it’s finished. I’m glad to have it so I can wipe down shopping carts and clean thing when I get back to the car.
This evening the Scientist and I went into Perth so he could get his computer from his office. He also got a couple extra monitors to use at home. In the office he uses four but it’s been just one at home and that slows things down a lot. I think the home office is going to be all monitors before long as it’s not a bit room and the monitors are decent sized. When we went to town, we had to wait for a bit for 6pm to roll around so we could park in front of his building. We went over to King’s Park nearby and had a short stroll to kill some time and it was a nice late afternoon sun shining over the city. I took a few photos along the way. And just to reiterate that our days are getting shorter, it was pretty much dark when we started home. I’m going to miss daylight soon. :(
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Strange times
This isn’t the first time I’ve thought this but it is a weird time for us.
As of midday yesterday, the pool and library closed along with all dine-in establishments being forced to do take away or close. I had to go out for a short time yesterday to get something from the markets and I noticed that some people were “dining in”. I’m not sure how all this works in the food court areas and this was sort of in that category. Not a lot of people but there were people.
I had scheduled an appointment with my doctor for last Friday a few weeks ago and then later got an SMS suggesting I could have telephone consults if I needed since I am considered high risk due to my diabetes. Last week I called up and asked for that appointment to be changed to a telephone consult. The lady I spoke to assured me it had been changed after going away a couple of times. So I was waiting on Friday for that call to come through and it didn’t. I normally don’t have to wait long to get in so this seemed unusual. But due to current events I thought maybe things were really behind schedule for some reason. After an hour and a half I finally phoned them to find out what was happening. The first person I spoke to said I didn’t have a telephone consult listed there. She kept putting me on hold and coming back and eventually another staff person got on the phone and abruptly said I had a did not attend on my record for that day’s appointment. I don’t know what she new beforehand but I went on to explain and she practically growled at me to ask who I spoke to and that never got resolved because I didn’t know for sure. Eventually I had to reschedule for today and I asked her to take the notation off my record but it didn’t happen. Today my doctor called me even ahead of time and we got everything sorted out quickly enough. I mentioned this issue to her and she apologised which didn’t happen before. I had to go later to pick up a blood test form and some prescriptions and stopped at the mail box to find a letter from them admonishing me for not attending…even though I spoke to someone soon afterwards. I made a point of having this removed from my record. I was told I wasn’t charged for it but the point was I didn’t want my record to show anything of the sort when I did nothing wrong. I can just hope it finally got done this time.
I ended up going to the pharmacy to get my prescription filled. I accidentally gave more of them to fill than was needed but I guess it doesn’t hurt to get them a bit early. I had to get a higher dose of Nexium as I’ve been having a nighttime cough for a few months now. It sometimes wakes me up so it’s become rather troublesome, especially since it also wakes up the Scientist. I also left my prescriptions at the pharmacy and plan to call ahead the next time so I can avoid having to hang out there for too long in the near future.
It was quite a warm day, maybe even hot at times. But I decided to try to get a bike ride in during the afternoon and that sort of worked out well. I decided on the cycle path along the new highway since it is nice and wide and has a good turning around point when it crosses one of the local roads. It gives me about an hour of riding and that’s exactly what I needed. I started out and all was going well. I had a good speed going and wasn’t struggling too much getting up hills. But when I got close to my turn around point something in the air started messing with my head, literally. I don’t tend to have too much trouble with seasonal allergies in autumn but something was really getting to me and I got that creepy, crawly feeling on my head that I get when I’m affected. I did make it to my turn-around point and took a scheduled break for water and to recover slightly. I still wasn’t feeling too terrible. The ride back went less well. I was okay for a while but by the halfway point I found my heart rate had gotten to 183 without a lot of effort. I took another break, which I planned to drink water but stayed a bit longer so my heart rate would go down a bit. My last stop also lasted a bit long but it was planned to rehydrate again. I was feeling kind of bad by the time I got home. It wasn’t the worst ride but it wasn’t nice either. Anyway, now I’ve got to be wary of pollen going out now. I did take an anti-histamine which seems to have cleared my head for now.
When I got home, the Scientist and I did our tai chi sword and fan routines before doing a tai chi set a the times we’d normally be at our class. The Scientist had organised with our instructor and other classmates to do it together but apart at the same time. It went fairly well aside from the glaring sun when we started. :)
Tomorrow I have to go out again for my job as a carer. I get to take my client to the doctor as he needs a referral letter. I’m hoping that’s sorted out quickly and easily. I’m not sure what I’ll do with him after that but we will work it out later.
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Double Nickels
This is what my cousin called turning 55. I hadn’t thought of this before but maybe it’s because I’ve been away from nickels for too long. :) She is only five months older than me so we reach these milestones close together. Anyway, yesterday was my 55th birthday. I guess I am another year older and wiser. At least I hope so.
It was a low-key kind of day in the end. The Scientist has been working many extra hours the past week for a project that’s about to be demo’ed. Still, he managed to take some time off in the late-afternoon and evening. He made a lovely cake for me, complete with my name and strawberries. It was very yummy. For dinner we had takeout food from an Ethiopian place we hadn’t visited for quite a while. My favorite thing there is a sampler of five different vegetarian foods with two injera pancakes. It was the first thing I’d tried from there and I still get it because it’s just too hard to decide on a single thing.
I spent the day playing Animal Crossing, for the most part. I was really getting into it and have built up quite a bit of my little island now. But I have lots to go. I have heard stories of people fast-forwarding time to get things done more quickly but I honestly don’t see the fun in that at all. I learned my younger brother’s family is also playing so maybe we can connect and visit each others’ islands…
It’s weird to think I’m on the climb towards sixty now.
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Dragging a bit
I’ve had a couple days where I’ve been dragging my heels a bit. The current environment is quite stressful, of course, and life doesn’t go on as usual. On Wednesday I wasn’t able to go to the pool or gym with my client and he had already gone on a bike ride in the morning. I ended up getting no exercise with him since it would have been pointless trying to get him out for a walk. Also trying to get him to understand that we can’t do normal things is a bit tricky right now.
I didn’t exercise at all the past few days, so effectively I missed three days of exercise. I could have gone out on my bike yesterday but I just couldn’t motivate myself to go out. Today, I forced myself to go to the pool and had a good swim in the end. It was really quiet there even though it was a warm-hot day with hot easterly winds. I was the only one doing laps for the first twenty minutes there. There were a few others that came during the hour I was there but only one of us per lane and a family in the non-lap lane.
I had a bit of a boost to mental health yesterday due to a new Animal Crossing game being released on the Nintendo Switch. This series is one of my all-time favorites and it was nice to sit down as a family while I started my new town.
I’ve also been inspired by something my brother did on Facebook where he posted a cover of an album that influenced your musical taste every day for ten days with no other information. I’m thinking of doing that here instead but I plan to write about it instead.
I haven’t done anything about my airline ticket as yet. Since there’s no change I’ll be travelling I guess it doesn’t matter too much right now. My idea is to shift my travel dates to later this year or next year instead. Not sure I really want to travel to the US late in the year with elections going on but I will consider it if it works out, I guess. I also have a sim card for AT&T that won’t be getting used now. I hope I can do something to allow use of it later on but I think these things expire within a few months.
Meanwhile I was rather horrified that the brand new first Costco went ahead with its grand opening on Thursday. People lined up around the store twice and it was a jungle there from what I saw from video footage on the news. And it’s still crazy there today. Even if I were interested, I wouldn’t think of going there at this point. Sigh.
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Life interrupted
It was just a matter of time but I am definitely not travelling now. I discovered by accident that my flight from Perth to Tokyo has been cancelled. Oddly I haven’t had any direct communication about this even though no time was wasted telling me the aircraft had changed not long ago. It’s only that first flight but I’m sure others will follow. The government here has stepped up warnings to advise do not travel. To be sure I’d already pretty much ruled out going anywhere anyway. I feel safer staying here than being back home.
I saw today that the “curve” here in Western Australia is looking pretty good compared to other places. Hopefully that will continue to be the case. Schools here are still open but many activities have been cancelled.
I am still working. My client needs to have regular support. Unfortunately the activities we do will have to be curtailed. I’m trying to figure out how to use that time while avoiding going out too much. The only alternatives I can figure out so far are going for a walk or bike ride (him riding, me walking). Last week we went to the gym and pool but it was a nightmare trying to keep things clean at the gym. The pool wasn’t so bad but it’s too crowded at the time we go so that’s not a practical activity right now. It’s going to be a monumental task getting any understanding of the situation by him. On the other hand, I’m sure it will be better for him that I am not going to be away for five weeks too. One of the other carers was supposed to be going to Europe in late May but those plans have also been wiped out.
Lego Lover and I went to Fremantle to see the cruise liner Queen Mary 2 as it departed. on Saturday. We got there and the quay was pretty empty. Rain was threatening and most of the people there were fishing. We found out about 45 minutes after departure time that Cunard had cancelled the itinerary and about 700 people were stranded here. I assume those passengers had arrangements to get home handled and that the ship was supposed to have left yesterday afternoon. We ended up driving back in the rain that night.
I’m still trying to keep up regular exercise. I went for a walk on Sunday and barely made it back before dark. I’d thought about riding my bike but was a bit worried about getting stuck riding in the rain. I don’t feel too comfortable riding on wet pathways so chose to walk instead. If it started to rain, I could always call the Scientist and ask him to pick me up. I’ve still been swimming a few times a week too. The pool is nearly deserted in early afternoon before schools let out so I can keep away from other people easily. The rains are supposed to have stopped for now so bike riding might be on the cards again, especially if the winds stay reasonably calm.
Grocery shopping has turned into a survival sport. Not that I’ve taken part exactly. I’ve had to get a couple things from the shops this week and saw that lots more shelves were empty. I know this is the case all around. Toilet paper is still quite scarce. The shops introduced an early hour for disabled and seniors but I heard the first day didn’t go well. The customers had to line up for ages and shelves were empty even when they got there. Keep in mind the stores are closed at night around here so the restocking should have been done overnight. Of course our local store doesn’t get toilet paper until 10am so that doesn’t work very well anyway.
The Scientist has been working from home this week. He did have to go in Monday but came home early and brought his fern back so it doesn’t die. The company hasn’t made it official yet but he and the other programmers have already taken that step and can now avoid the bus trip in.
Not a lot else happening at the moment.
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Travel or not
It’s still a month and a day until I’m supposed to travel so lots can happen before then. But as time passes it’s looking more like I will have to reschedule my plans. Even if I go, my ideas of doing a bit of road trip travel to see some of my family and friends may not be feasible either. It’s a bit hard to get excited when plans look like they are being dashed so quickly.
Then there are two scenarios that are worrisome for me. One is that I do go but get stranded there. I’m pretty sure we are handling the virus better here than back home and I think there’s a very strong possibility I could be quarantined there. I love my family but not sure I could cope for many extra weeks there. The other one that is rather firmly in the back of my mind is that I contract the virus myself and end up quarantined even before I go.
It’s still too early to make a decision but it’s not looking good. My hope are that any change to plans turn into a postponement of travel although I’m unsure when that would be. Maybe later in the year? As it is, the exchange rate with the US dollar is really poor right now…of course most of my visits home have been accompanied by this same situation. Maybe it’s a good way to avoid spending money?
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Travel
I’m going home next month for a visit after almost 2.5 years away. I organised my flights back in January, before all the covid-19 stuff began to dominate headlines. Fortunately I got my travel insurance before the cut-off so should be covered for any issues related should they occur. Well, hopefully not. As time goes on, of course, the chances of a change of plans becomes greater. It’s still weeks away so I will watch and wait to see how things go.
I’m travelling via Tokyo on ANA airlines, which now flies to Perth. This nicely breaks my trip into more reasonable flight lengths. I also discovered the seat space is far great with this airline than most others. I’m hoping to be less uncomfortable after flying this time. I have an 8 hour layover in Tokyo, all during the day so I really hope I’m able to sleep on what is essentially a red-eye flight. I’ll be flying in to San Francisco instead of LAX, which I’m hoping is beneficial. At the least it will be a change of scenery for me. On the way back I travel through Houston and end up with 18 hours in Tokyo. I’m planning to stay at a capsule hotel just to see what it’s like. The worst part on this leg of the trip is I have to disembark, collect my luggage then travel from Haneda Airport to Narita on my own. I’m sure it will be fine but I will be glad to get that over with. It will certainly be a different experience for me.
Anyway, now I’ve written this, I wonder if I will have to postpone my plans. Time will tell…
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Exercise
I’m still doing my exercise pretty regularly although I did force myself to take a break for a couple of days. Not so much for a needed break as to break up the perfect run of days on the activity app on my watch. It works really well to encourage me to keep moving but I find it really hard to get long runs and then have them broken.
Last Monday I went to the pool to practice my swimming and it all went terribly wrong. Almost nothing was working for me. I felt sluggish and I couldn’t breathe properly and my arm motions were wrong and I couldn’t make it to the end of the 25m lane without stopping…just a bad day at the pool. Then Tuesday I went for my lesson and it went much better. This week I worked on my breathing and I think I got a lot out of it. The adult classes are tailored to what you want/need to learn that was my goal. And there were only two of us that week so we got a lot of time with the teacher.
Since then I’ve been to the pool three times. Two were at my local pool and I practiced on my own both times, managing to swim a full 1000m for each swim. I did have to stop between each lap but I didn’t tire out so quickly and I seem to be getting the breathing a lot better now. I also was given a couple of tips by another person using the pool about my arm movement, which I think helped. Tomorrow I might work on the arm movement a bit more. My other pool time was as a carer with my client, who goes most Wednesdays. I didn’t swim a whole lot but did get in a few laps that went surprisingly easily. I think that helped me regain the confidence lost on Monday. I don’t count the lesson since I had the teacher there the whole time.
Yesterday I wasn’t able to get to the pool due to other commitments so I went out for a bike ride after dinner. I think it had been well over a week since I’d been on my bike and it was great to get out again for a decent ride. I was worried my muscles would have started to weaken but I seemed to do just fine in the end. It wasn’t my fastest ride but I felt I was pretty steady and I didn’t struggle so much riding up hills this time. Maybe that was due to the swimming?
Last night my gluteal muscles were really feeling the exercise. I wasn’t in pain but I was a bit sore. Even today I’m still a bit sore, mostly on my bottom. I think my gluteal muscles are getting the most benefit from my recent exercise…lol. I’m going to swim this afternoon, hopefully before the pool gets crowded after school time. Maybe I can work out some of the soreness while there.
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Swimming
I’m still doing lots of bike rides although the past couple of weeks has been more limited due to the strong winds blowing. I feel a bit too unsteady when it gusts above 35kph so have done other sorts of exercise.
Our city leisure center was closed for a few months for renovations and reopened last month. Along with that they changed the name of the local recreation programs and relaunched with a special deal of 30 days for $30. This includes pool, spa, gym and fitness classes. Our local center only has the pool and spa but there’s another one not far either. Anyway, I signed up in the middle of the month and started going swimming just about every day for a while. After almost a week I developed a sore next and shoulders and had to take a break from it.
I’m pretty sure this was due to the fact that what I call swimming is definitely not proper form and I think I caused myself a bit of injury after overdoing the wrong methods. So I took a bit of a break and decided that now’s the time I need to learn how to swim properly. I signed up for lessons last week and started on Tuesday.
I have had one forty five minute lesson and already feel a lot more capable although I’m going more slowly than before. I learned how to blow bubbles and do the freestyle stroke properly. Most useful is knowing how to breathe properly which makes a huge difference. The lessons actually give unlimited use of the pool for practice between lessons so once my 30 membership runs out, I’ll still be good. I just won’t have access to the spa. Not that I use it for that long as I find it too hot after a while.
My neck and shoulder were still a bit sore after Tuesday so I took a break on Wednesday. But yesterday I went back and practiced for half an hour. My main thing was trying to get a proper rhythm and to manage to last a full lap. I got in twenty laps of swimming and took in a fair bit of water yesterday. Then today I went back and I already found it easier and my stamina had increased so I could manage a full lap most of the time. Well at least for the first half of my practice. I could feel I was doing it right some of the time and it feel really efficient and much easier on the body. Just that trying to swim continuous laps wasn’t a thing yet. After each lap I’d take a break and try to get my breathing under control. I am getting a bit better at breathing in through my mouth and blowing out bubbles through my nose. But it still feels a bit alien for me. I assume this will get better with time.
So I was taking a break after one of my laps and then a young girl in the next lane said “Excuse me” to get my attention. Then she told me I was a very good swimmer which really took me by surprise. I thanked her and told her I was just learning and then she wished me well and I did the same to her as she is learning too. I was quite touched by this and it really helped my confidence a lot. Of course once I was more self-conscious I started making more mistakes. Although I’m pretty sure that also was due to getting tired. I was trying to reach 750 meters of swimming but then the lane was needed for a real lesson and I decided that must be the warning that I needed to stop and take a break. I’d already been finding it hard to make it all the way through a lap and I wasn’t breathing so well as I had been.
I’m hoping to practice at least two more times before my next lesson but I’m already feeling so much more able than I was. I just wished I’d done this sooner.
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New Year
It’s a new year or at least it is in this blog. I’ve been too silent lately but I’m hoping to change that. I still have a post to write about going to Brisbane in November so that might be one of the next posts I write.
We’re just about at the end of summer now with autumn officially starting on March 1st. Of course it’s still pretty warm here. Unlike much of Australia, we didn’t have so many nasty fires around the Perth area. There was a big one in December but nothing of major note since then. We’ve been quite lucky in that respect. We did have some really hot weather in early December but temperatures this summer were mostly mild to moderate compared to years past. That makes three summer where it’s not been all that terrible.
What has been harsher is the humidity. When we first got our air conditioning back in 2002 or 2003, it worked really well here as the heat was mostly dry and only a few days in the summer caused it to work poorly for us. It’s an evaporative system which had been typical here but the number of humid days is getting a lot higher and so we end up having an ineffective cooling system. We have other issues with the current system we have so have ideas of changing it in the next year or two. I think it’s quite possible we may switch to a different type of system next time.
This week has been a stormy one and we’ve had a lot of rain over the few days. It started on Monday although we didn’t get rain where we live. I’d been expecting rain so avoided watering plants but then we didn’t get any. I finally watered plants on Tuesday morning and sure enough we had a big amount of rain dumped on us that afternoon. Well I think it was a big amount since I wasn’t home when it happened. It definitely was a dumping where the Scientist and I were. The storm cell seemed to weaken a bit before it got here so I think it was just a lot of rain and storminess but nothing too close.
Today the sun has come back out and it’s mostly big fluffy clouds although it’s still possible we’ll get more rain. After that it’s supposed to be dry for at least a few days.
Oh and the other thing that we’ve had trouble with here are the hot nights. Every night lately has been above 20C which is pretty unusual. especially when the daytime temperatures haven’t been super high.