Is the world actually getting more complicated these days or is it just us? Aside from Don’s diagnosis and the complications that brings, I recently needed to send parcels of gifts that I had intended to hand carry to the US when we visited…which would have been next week had we not had to cancel.

The gifts were small because I was hand carrying them, except for one that was simple but on the heavy side. Did you know you cannot just send a book internationally from Australia now without identifying the type of book? Is it history, fiction, children’s, etc? And filling in the customs forms in detail is a job in itself. So many questions…do you want insurance, do you want to send regular or express, do you want to have tracking messages sent to your phone? The clerk was going through everything and then she said ‘and what did you have for breakfast?’ And I had to stop a second to realise her sarcasm. She was wonderful and very understanding of my situation, advising me the best options. But still. An HOUR to send three overseas parcels seems excessive on top of the $138 fees.

You also cannot send jewellery and insure it, no matter how small, if sending it internationally. If you send it you must have receipts for proof of cost. When you buy a tiny sterling silver necklace for a young girl on your travels, do you keep the receipt once the credit card comes through and shows the expense amount? And could you find that again and would the PO accept that as proof of worth for insurance purposes? And do I care that much???

I do understand why these regulations are necessary. Honestly. If we want to be in the slipstream of modern life we must play by the rules. They are there because some humans ignore the rules and niceties and cause us all headaches. And then there is litigation. Cripes.

Carrying on from my last post…We are holding our own. The remainder of this year has been mapped out for us by the recommendations for Don’s treatment for stage 3 prostate cancer. He will begin with hormone therapy this week for a couple of months before the next phase. That is being complicated as well. Interstate doctors do not seem to fully appreciate the differences between the Northern Territory and other States with regard to scripts, access to tests, treatment and medications. Like other things. It probably changes all the time and is difficult to keep up with. Even for us it is a challenge, two reasonably compos mentis individuals. One week you can access your GP’s services by making an appointment online, and a few weeks later you cannot.

The interstate specialist in Adelaide sent Don a script via email, for the hormone medication he needs to have injected by our local GP. However, the chemists here don’t carry the medication and have to order it but they won’t order it unless they receive the script directly from the specialist or doctor. Don was in Darwin so off I went to the chemist here and we worked out a plan that the chemist would order the medication but would not dispense it until we got the script sequence sorted out. Roll your eyes loudly, people.

Further to this first complication, the specialist has also recommended surgery to relieve the urination symptoms not to remove the tumour. So the sequence of things is: start hormone injections in Alice; go to Adelaide for surgery at the end of August; remain in Adelaide for two weeks’ recovery then return to Alice for a further 6 weeks recovery; then go to Darwin in about November for 8 weeks’ radiotherapy at the same place I had it twelve years ago (incidentally, the time when I started writing this blog).

The insurance company’s builder has not contacted us further about repairs which seems to be their M/O—rush of blood, visit and photograph damage, then nothing. But we live in hope.

Meanwhile I am working madly to downsize our belongings. We both feel a need to at least try and get some part of our life simplified and manageable. We (mostly I) will do a radical posession-ectomy so that if/when we need to move it will be easier. And meanwhile we will have fewer belongings to look after which will be much easier for me and might mean a little bit of painting time. Still living in hope.

We do have a couple of bright spots also, in addition to Don’s outcome being on the positive side. Our 40th wedding anniversary is in a couple of weeks and we have planned a day long outing with friends to a special place a couple of hours from Alice. I will write more about it later. Also we have a two week trip planned for a cruise to the Kimberly in the northwest of the country the first of August. This is our third attempt. It was twice cancelled during the Pandemic, so we are hoping third time lucky–there’s that hope thing again.

All in all we are doing well. As my father-in-law used to say, this is just ‘a temporary opportunity for improvement.’