I have a confession. I did go a bit mad on day 10. I bought this for my impending Tesla.
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After a wee bit of noodling and geeky things, I have managed to acquire a voucher for Managed Isolation.
I have never indulged in ticket scalping or the like but I guess this is the same sort of elation.
I can’t help thinking that the system is flawed but with such flaws, people will exploit them.
Turns out a Wizard will arrive home on the 24th of April.
Currently en route to Mexico, I felt it would be wise to investigate returning home. Working on board a boat is a terribly fluid experience so return dates often change. I felt with an itinerary of sorts formed it would make things easy.
Turns out it isn’t.
Removing oneself from Social Media and abandoning most news sources had rendered me blissfully unaware of the Managed Isolation system changes and the almighty voucher. My first couple of times in MIQ were quite easy logistically. My boat booked me a flight. I arrived in New Zealand. I was bused to a hotel for a two week confinement period where I gradually went crazy and then was set free into the wild, COVID free.
The voucher system that was brought in to control a Christmas egress of United Kingdom expats has remained and COVID back home has exacerbated things. Compounding this problem are people.
Any IT system is ruined by people.
We currently have people using isolation in NZ as a backdoor to Australia. If they left New Zealand before August 2020 they do not have to pay for isolation in NZ. Everybody has to pay when they isolate in Australia.
We also have business people who are booking return multiple vouchers.
We also can’t trust people to isolate by themselves. Something that would be quite easy for me in my new abode.
Which leaves people like me in a bit of a pickle.
I still have faith however and am reminded of one of my favorite LOTR quotes.
“A Wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.”
With very few air travellers the good Security staff at Auckland International were a bit more chatty than usual.
I was asked where I was going.
“The USA.”
Business or Pleasure?
At this point, I smirked 😏.
What kind of an S&M reprobate do you take me for?
That’s quite a kink.
“Yeah I’ve got this fetish for wearing masks and leaving a relatively safe country and entering one with a raging pandemic and a very unstable political system so I can sit relatively safely in a hotel room gorging myself on overly processed food and subsequently annoying all of my internet friends for 2 weeks”
Oh and I have my Birthday on Monday.
I should have just said I was going to a birthday party. Fewer words but less of a tale.
I have been doing my yearly scrying and surprise it is a lucky year for Dragons although we must stay away from Angry dogs and mind our health.
Despite last year I still managed to travel a fair wad.
I don’t see a quick exit from the new normal but I will make the most of it. Dog or no Dog.
In one week I will fly to the USA and a two-week Isolation and work. It feels a little like when I left during the first outbreak with the gears changed.
I am also going to be flying into what appears to be an increasingly unstable USA.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at home. The longest stint since 2008. It has been a very special half summer to remember.
But I must do my job whilst I can and enjoy each day as it comes.
A happy new year and stuff.
I had a very interesting and insightful one.
With less than 20 days to depart, I have a lot of invitations on my plate but I am being careful to manage my time and energy.
I have been able to invest a lot of time in my friends and family this time at home. It turns out I am mildly addictive.
No sooner have I departed then another invitation arrives or I get asked back.
I visited some friends on the 30th and I commented as much. K said it must be difficult being so popular.
It is my pleasure.
I am a big fan of enabling flight mode when I am asleep. My meditation teacher turns his entire wifi off when we do a check-in. There is research to suggest WIFI has an effect on the way your brain operates. This weekend past I did something truly radical.
I used flight mode for a whole day.
My rationale was this. It was large friends and family bbq. Everyone that was important to me was right in front of my face. Cataloguing the gathering would only serve me to take me away from it. The only problem I struck was only taking one phone but I did crowd source some from some of the attendees.
Like their cancer-producing cousins’ Cigarettes, I would hope cell phone use becomes like going outside for a cigarette. Germany has some interesting labour laws which make it impossible to receive work-related emails outside of work hours. Being instantly accessible does alter your immediate cognizance.
If you are worried about missing an important call you could get the same result by disabling mobile data and wifi. You will still get phone calls.
I have a wedding to attend this Friday and I shall be doing the same.
Early into 2019 I really felt like I had clocked life. Then like all good movies something went wrong.
In the process of things going wrong, I learned a lot about life and myself in general.
I had my DNA sequenced. Sadly there were no strands of Alien DNA but I can categorically say I am 51% Western European this explains my affinity with parts of Europe I thought I had no connection with but could feel something. I am also 49% UK, Irish/Scottish/Welsh. No English, this explains why I find it *interesting* serving underneath them.
Anyway, during my spectacular birthday month, I was given some nail polish.
I used to wear nail polish about 20 years ago.
I got thinking could I get away with it at work if it matched the uniform.
Then I remembered if you want to boil frogs you do it slowly they dont even notice they are boiling alive.
On a Monday I painted my thumbs.
The next Wednesday I painted my little fingers.
And on the Friday I painted all my fingers.
Nobody said a word.
There is nothing wrong about feeling different. How you express this is up to you. I have some good stories.
I have new living arrangements. I believe I have told all people close to me what has happened. If you have to know more you can email me.
I am certainly enjoying having my own space. I guess I felt like a visitor at my old place.
Also, it is a sad fact that not many scientific discoveries have been found in a marriage.
2020 has made me very aware of time and how I best use it.
Stay subscribed.
I am my Magnum Opus.
One of my more favourite part of my daily rounds onboard is somewhat sarcastically and self deprecatingly tell people these simple words.
That one still has a job in such perilous times is no mean feat.
If I am talking to you. You probably have some experience in my cavalier disregard to most ordinances and social norms.
If you are reading this it is probably doubly so
You are doing a good job.
There is no user manual for life. Research and write your own.