Behind the waterfall

Sunday 15th March
I am down at the lower pool at the hotel behind a waterfall, looking out at the jungle. This is our last day here in Bali, however the hotel have given us a late check out free of charge so we won’t have to leave our room until 3 p.m. This means more time at the pool so we are delighted. Mind you James is banned from going into the water. He has an ear infection which came on over the last few days and by yesterday morning it was very painful and felt blocked. So we went along to the hotel’s little medical room and the nurse called a doctor who arrived quickly and gave James many antibiotics and painkillers. Honestly this hotel just couldn’t be any better! James’ ear feels much better already which is just as well because not only do we have a long journey ahead of us, we won’t be able to go to the doctor when we get home. I know this because we have been getting a series of texts from the surgery to say: “Due to corona virus we are not offering routine appointments. We will only see urgent issues on the day. Please do not attend with cough, fever, flu like symptoms or breathlessness, we will offer you telephone advice for this.” On the subject of the coronavirus, James and I have decided to self-isolate for two weeks when we arrive in Scotland. It’s not officially required by the UK government (so far) - although arrivals to New Zealand from overseas now have to self-isolate. However we have been on quite a few aeroplanes over the last couple of weeks and have passed through busy airports - and will be disembarking for two hours in Dubai tomorrow. Some of our family and friends are in the “vulnerable” category for whom catching Covid-19 could prove to be very serious. So we will be keeping a low profile and have already cancelled all social meet ups until the start of April. Such a strange time we are living in!
Update - I just met James swimming about in the pool. He assured me that he has been careful to keep his sore ear above water!