A mix-up with our cases!

Friday 5 June.

 

Our house in 'Tweni

 

Moira wasn't good during the night with continual coughing. She moved through to the sofa in the lounge about 4 am to give me a chance to get some sleep. She brought me through a cup of tea this morning and I had it in bed before getting up. I was feeling a bit better but my throat was still sore. Moira went off to the doctor for her 8 am appointment and I waited until she got back before making the breakfast. The doctor gave her a thorough examination and prescribed a load of medicines including antibiotics. We were going out to the supermarket and the specialists at the hospital to make appointments for me and would call at the pharmacy to pick up the medicines for Moira on the way.

 

Before we left Moira phoned the King Shaka airport about the mix up with the cases. They had our case and we would have to go there to collect it, they also gave her the telephone number for the people who's case we had. She phoned the number and it was one of the 'Sun' hotels on the front at Durban. The man she contacted was quite laid-back about it and she said we would bring the case to his hotel, probably this afternoon.

 

The first stop after getting Moira's prescription at the pharmacy in 'Tweni was the consulting rooms for the specialists attached to the Hibiscus Hospital in Port Shepstone. I got an appointment with the urologist for next week but the ENT doctor was booked until the end of the month. I told the receptionist that the last time I saw the doctor she said I would need an operation to enlarge the ear canal in my left ear and to just call in on a Friday when she does her clinic. The receptionist was extremely helpful and said that the doctor was off until Monday but she would provisionally book me in at the hospital for an operation next Wednesday (she also does a mid-week surgery) and check with the doctor on Monday if that was in order then confirm by phone later on Monday. This is the sort of service and help that we should get from the NHS then maybe there wouldn't be so many complaints.

 

After the hospital we went to the shopping centre to stock up from the Pick-n-Pay supermarket but first we went to the bank. There we enquired about transferring my pension on a monthly basis to the UK. The teller told me that it would require an application form sent in every month and that neither copies of the form or electronically transmitted facsimiles were acceptable, it had to be an original. He said the best way was to get a Gold bank card which I could use each month to draw cash from an ATM in the UK. There was a 2% charge on each transaction. We had to apply for this card at the enquiries desk but there was a long queue, so we did our shopping first.

 

We had a lot of basics to get along with the weekly shop at the supermarket and our trolley was very full when we arrived at the checkout. The bill wasn't so bad, just under R800 about £40. Once the shopping was packed into the car it was back to the bank. The queue had disappeared and there wasn't any problem booking the new Gold card. We asked about a savings account we have and got the balance but she said we had another account in the Nedbank Investment Bank but it was blocked and she couldn't get the balance but she could phone for us using the free services phone. She didn't get any priority being an employee and still was put on hold. She gave up and handed the job over to an assistant to wanders round the place helping to direct people to the right department. She also had to wait and got transferred from office to office. Eventually she found out that the account was with Old Mutual and further investigation showed that it was the annuity that is paid monthly to me by that insurance company. Why it is listed as an account with the bank is a mystery, unless Nedbank is part of the Old Mutual group?

 

When we left the bank the road was completed jammed. It was probably an accident but we couldn't see anything for the number of cars blocking the road. The other side of the road was clear and Moira did a U-turn and took the back road beside the river and over the hill to 'Tweni. After packing away the shopping we had lunch then set of for the airport to sort out the cases. The roads were fairly quite except around Durban and it took the normal 2 hours to get there. It wasn't clear where the short stay parking was and we ended up in the multi-story cover parking area. It didn't take long to contact the person in charge of the baggage and he said they had tried to phone but Moira had changed the SIM card on her phone to the local one, they also sent is an email but we haven't been online. He brought our case through, we had to wait outside, security wouldn't let us through to the baggage area. He said we would have to deliver the other case to the man's hotel in Durban but when Moira asked him for directions he said never mind he would deliver it. He must have thought that these two idiots would end up getting lost and he was no doubt ultimately responsible for the case anyway. It suited us, now it was straight home.

 

It was another 2 hours near enough to get back. On the way we cut down to the bowling club in Southport to see what time they start playing on Saturday. It was early in the winter 1:15 pm, we will have to get off sharpish after lunch if we want to play tomorrow. Before getting home Moira stopped at the Spar for onions, she forgot to get some earlier and we were having spaghetti Bolognese for dinner tonight.

 

After dinner I worked on the crosswords in the local newspaper 'The South Coast Herald' and managed to finish both the cryptic and the quick versions. After that I played another video tape Moira had found. It was the Irish Tenors concert in Dublin. The sound quality was much better and it was very enjoyable. After that I fast-forwarded the tape and got what looked like an old black and white newsreel. I watched it then it suddenly change to colour and turned into a play/drama. It changed to the B&W news again after about half an hour then back to play. It was weird and difficult to follow, we gave up and got to bed. It was 10 pm anyway, our bedtime.

 

 

 

 

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