5 "when you..."'s from this week

When you assign work and then leave...😄 but not bad when 2 months ago they knew no French

 

When you don't want to take no for the answer...

you end up spending a lot of time and money on health care. This week Grace and Mom have been to a chiropractor, Mom to a physiotherapist, Jasmin and Grace to a dentist. These took up roughly 6 hours our our time this week, and unfortunately also broke up our days oddly so it felt like it took much more time than that. But, hopefully we are now on track for eliminating some troubling hip pain for Grace, discovering better habits/routines/movement for Mom to avoid further spine degeneration, and another year of healthy teeth. It seems like a sudden unusual load of health related outings, but the alternative of learning to live with things as is isn't an acceptable option. And now is a good time as healthcare here is no linger overrun with Covid cases, reliable, and not too expensive. Next on the list is some x-rays for Grace to aid the chiropractor during our next visit, and an expedition to the nearest vaccination center (which isn't that close). 

When you confidently try out a new hiking trail with no guide...

you switch to simply trying to find a trail that doesn't dwindle to nothing, you head for the waterfall sound (because who doesn't like waterfalls?), and you end up on the wrong side of the fence at a water treatment/catchment place.

Thankfully the gate was only wired shut not padlocked so we didn't have to climb the fence or fight our way back through the jungle.

When you book a flight after nearly two years of pandemic...

you have to be willing to navigate the ever changing rules on health procedures and an overburdened call center for when a flight is summarily canceled. Since we booked our flights a week ago, the Covid mitigation rules have changed for the airline, public transport to the airport, and for our destination at least once each, and there is little certainty over what some of the rules mean. Also, we received an email yesterday informing us our flight home had been canceled for "operational reasons" and if we wanted to do anything other than swallow the loss and rearrange different transport, we had to "talk to" the airline's chatbot. That was an exercise in patience!

 

After entering our details carefully three times, Mom was informed "she" couldn't help me and I'd have to wait in line for a live person chat. No problem, as that would be preferred anyhow. Except that there were 284 people waiting in line ahead of Mom... and the chatbot politely informed Mom she had to keep watch because there is no advanced warning that it is your turn. Over an hour later (but with only 150 people ahead in line), without warning, chatbot informs Mom what the live chat opening hours are and gives options to send an email about the request. As this was slap-dab in the middle of the stated opening hours, this was rather ambiguous if Mom was still in line or not. With some hesitation, she decides to send the email. After being asked again for our account and flight details  - twice (couldn't it remember?) -along comes more ambiguous instructions and questions. Again account and flight info has to be painstakingly entered. And then at the end of the sequence.... did anything happen? There is no indication at all if it worked or not, so Mom scraps that session and tries again. But still chatbot cannot verify our account or flight and can't help. A few more exasperated yet tenacious tries later, the chatbot did work as it was supposed to and it was a fairly painless process of rebooking. Lessons to apply elsewhere: one person's clarity is not everyone's - there were so many ambiguous choices, questions, instructions! - and don't try an automated system directly after a flight cancellation - a whole plane load of people are doing the same thing. And two bonuses: we now have a 1 day longer holiday, and after having entered our booking details over 6 times, we now have them memorized...

When you book a holiday in November...

you have to get ahead in work so as to not come home and have to catch up. And that calls for some pretty heavy work days for everyone! Dad is hardly to be seen except at supper time, and even then his mind is still more than half on the work projects he's trying to finish before we go. The girls are seemingly constantly at their computers typing away at some school project or paper. Aiden is not getting off to play until 3pm most days. And Mom is juggling the faster flow of work to be evaluated, math to be corrected, to do lists to be reviewed. What with the uptick in outings for healthcare this week and the extra holiday planning and preparation tasks, it's been rather a challenge to keep up and manage to run the household too.