staying flexible

In an attempt to retain my peace, I’ve decided that I’m taking an absence from Facebook and Instagram (and I don’t Tweet, so leaving Twitter is a non-issue). Between local online groups arguing about the vaccine, American friends arguing about politics and the 25th amendment, and the world arguing about covid, I need a safe space from all that discord. So I’m limiting myself to only reading Mumsnet, where the arguments over whether it’s classless and grim to have a toilet brush in the bathroom are a lot less personal. (Yes, that’s a real example.)

The final straw for me was this new vaccine mandate for public sector workers and for the service industry here. People are arguing over whether it’s fair or legal to force individuals into a vaccine by making their job dependent upon it. (It’s not fair, but it’s definitely legal here.) For example, the vaccine “isn’t mandatory,” but at least one major company has said you can’t come onto the premises to work unless you’ve been vaccinated. And in most cases here, leaving your job means leaving the country as your residence visa is tied to your employer. I’ve decided it’s not healthy for me to read all the back and forth and try to figure out when the rules will creep my way (into private schools — Josh thinks it will be soon) or into Josh’s place of business. They are still working from home, but if he’s not allowed to enter the military bases or meet with other government entities without the vaccine, then he can’t do his job.

Anyway, I’ve decided I can’t control it and I don’t need to feed my “what ifs” so I’m cutting myself off from all that. As things change so fast here and flip back and forth, I’m better off waiting until all of this has been ultimately decided and then we can figure out what we will do.

My latest local adventure/hassle has been trying to get a package delivered to my house. I ordered some yarn from the UK and it came into the country. It has my address on it, but someone always calls to ask for my address and set up a time for delivery. And they usually want me to send their driver a pin so they can locate my address. And if there’s no phone number on the package? They send it back without even trying (been there, done that 3 times over).

So, I had a missed call a week before New Years and I called right back, but it’s an automated system and supposedly they would return my call in a few hours when they weren’t so busy “because of Covid,” but nothing ever happened. When I finally filed a complaint online someone called me back and said my package had been transferred to the local postal system and I would have to call them to schedule delivery. Of course she had to give me a reference number to the package and I was out in public in a noisy space so our conversation went like this:

“ay bee eight three seven vee vee”

Wait, ay bee eight three seven vee vee?

“No, ay bee eight three seven vee vee“

What? Ay bee?

“No, ay VEE“

And continue like that for eight more painful digits. And the last two letters were “zee, zee” which I figured out after process of elimination ruled out vee and cee . . . I hate talking on the phone here.

So I’ve called — operators are busy, “because of Covid,” and I’ve logged multiple requests on the website which have been received and will be followed up within “3 business days,” but nada. How difficult is it to deliver a package with an address on it? But it won’t happen until I confirm that the address they have is correct and I can’t do that if I can’t talk to a human. I’ll be so annoyed if they send my package back to the UK without contacting me . . . #YarnWatch2020 has become #YarnWatch2021