Our flight from Cape Town was delayed a couple of hours which was a good thing really as those two hours were taken away from the five hours we had schedule to wait in the Doha departure lounge between planes. We arrived more or less on time to the usual delight of the queues at Heathrow to get out.
We ran into unexpected challenges at the car hire company as we’ve been away so long we didn’t show up on the UK credit checking system (so couldn’t use our UK credit card to pay) and our US credit card couldn’t be accepted (at first) because we couldn’t prove we had flights booked to the US (which we don’t have of course). It’s all part of the tightening of the credit rules here but it’s frustrating to find ourselves, yet again, a non-entity in a civilized country. After an hour and a £1,000 deposit we had our car.
We drove to Helen’s sister’s (Betty) home where we were warmly welcomed by her and John (who had turned up to welcome us) and stayed the next two nights. Yesterday Helen’s elder sister, Joanna, visited – it was great to see her too.
Since we arrived we’ve been ‘rebooting’ ourselves slowly back into the UK. We’ve taken over our one bedroom rental property in Chesham and are staying there for the next few months while we work everything out. We’ve got a mobile phone number, internet, a TV ordered and food in the fridge. Helen has unpacked a lot of our stuff.
I’ve been to see the doctor as sometime in South Africa my cheek (the face that is) was bitten a few times by an insect and has since become infected. I’m now on antibiotics but have an ugly scab and swelling. We need to take pictures for our driving licences and I’m reluctant to get this done until the swelling has receded and we can apply makeup to hide the scabs. Yach. The doctor also accepted the referral written by the South African specialist for a physio for my shoulder. So this will be set up on the NHS. Yay. As this was a rushed visit it wasn’t with our assigned doctor so another appointment is booked to see him so he can learn my full history.
Looking ahead our goal is to settle here in the UK. Unless I go back to work for a big business, I am uninsurable (health wise) in the US and my current plan only allows us to be covered for six months in the year. If the coin toss on my future lands badly then Helen will need to be near her family.
There are three major streams of thought that are all interrelated that will play out and mutually evolve over the next few months.
First is my full engagement with the health system here in the UK. This gets into gear on the 24th of this month when we visit Prof David Linch who is now in charge of my health with respect to my lymphoma. What transpires on that front and what we learn will affect our decisions elsewhere.
Second is work. We don’t want to sit at home watching the TV so we both imagine some form of outside commitment. This includes the possibility of going back to work. All we’re sure about at this point is we don’t want to make any immediate commitments and when we do we want a lot of flexibility as we still want travel and experience the world, even if we can’t do it on Dignity.
Third is establishing a home. Where, what and how much will be influenced by the other streams as they will be influenced by this one. We can’t put these in any particular order as there is no natural sequence. We just have to let our thinking evolve as we go.
So that means we visit the doctors, we talk about prospects, I have my scans, we evolve with the results. We visit friends, we network for work ideas, we wait for the right thing. We visit towns and house prospects around us, we learn more about the area, we research, we get out and about. Along the way we will settle back into the land life, discover our new needs and hopefully and final settle into a new home by the end of the year.
The things we buy now we try and fit in with our possible futures. For instance, the TV we ordered will do well in our future bedroom, even if not a perfect fit for the flat living room. The first car we will buy will be one fit for a couple touring the UK (and possibly Europe) but be OK for me to commute in.
It’s all kind of fun but there’s a lot of work to do.
In the short term we hope to spend some time with Bao. She’s been a bit unwell recently but we expect to see her later today. We’ve seen video of her and she’s now walking so we’re looking forward to seeing how she’s change since we saw her in South Africa.
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