An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Test and No Trace

1010 Labs – the company that managed to send a quarantine testing kit to my address in the UK while I was yet to return home from Greece [see this blog An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Great Britain?] – seems to go from strength to strength.

I got the result of my Day 2 test from them a couple of days later and that was negative.

I posted my Day 8 test off on 1 July – and on 8 July (that's Day 15 of my 10-day quarantine) I was still waiting for the result.

So I emailed them - no response.

So then I phoned and spoke to someone called Asal who promised the result would be emailed to me that very day – and also that they would ring me back to tell me why I had had to wait a week.

They didn't phone – and I didn't get my result.

I phoned again and after queueing behind seven other callers (complainants?) I was told they had "been very busy". That didn't seem to cut it as an explanation for why I was still waiting for a 48-hour test result after seven days.

This time I was promised that I would have the result "by the end of today".

I asked the name of the call-handler. She said she wasn't allowed to identify herself. But why not? The previous call-handler had done so. We're not allowed to, she repeated. I asked for the name of the head of the company. She didn't know it. I asked for the address of the company. She didn't know it. I asked her where exactly in the world she was. She said she wasn't allowed to tell me.

So this is 1010 Labs – a company that has been charging travellers (who have had little choice) nearly £130 for two tests during a 10-day quarantine – or in my case, it seems, £130 for one test during a 10-day quarantine.

I'll write to the company, to the Department of Health and to my MP about this sorry mess. But I think we all know where this is heading... the same place as where the UK is going to...

An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Great Britain?

I used to know someone who was – to put it mildly – unattractive. I don't want to use the word ugly. He had awful skin, was extremely overweight and smelt terrible from chain-smoking. But he thought he was good-looking – and behaved totally as if he was irresistible.

For some reason I remembered him when I was thinking about Britain.

Because I was having to face dealing with things British again... after three weeks in Greece.

In Greece I needed to get a covid test. I called a nearby Bioiatriki clinic, they made an appointment for exactly the time I needed it, I showed up on time, they tested me, they promised the result within 24 hours, and they sent it to me within 12 hours. They were efficient, polite and helpful – and even spoke perfect English.

Compare and contrast... I had to sign up to the British government's ridiculous 10-day quarantine package (coming from a country with no significant covid problem to the covid-ridden UK!) and tests on days two and eight with one of the companies on the Foreign Office's website.

I gave the company – 1010 Labs – details of when I would be arriving back – from which they should be able to deduce when days two and eight would be. And after I'd handed over nearly £130, they then informed me that the first kit was on its way to my home the following day... ie two days before I would be there to receive it.

I emailed five times (and had no reply) and finally phoned them... to no avail. The call handler I spoke to – who didn't appear to me to understand the problem of delivering a covid test to someone who wouldn't be there to receive it but would probably have to break quarantine to go to a post office to pick it up – didn't seem to me to comprehend or to speak English that well.

She promised she would report the issue. She promised someone would call me back. So far, I'm still waiting...

Global Britain? Give me a break...

An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Vaccination

Greece, August 2020 Photo©Nigel Summerley

My 2020 odyssey had to contend with more than a few hurdles, probably the greatest being the obtaining of certificates to prove that I didn't have coronavirus. That kept me in the Greek port of Patras for four days before sailing to Italy (see this blog: An Odyssey in the Year of the Plague – 9: 1-7 September 2020 and An Odyssey in the Year of the Plague – 10: 8-14 September 2020) and in the Italian port of Bari before sailing to Greece for one of the most stressful 24 hours that I can recall (see this blog: An Odyssey in the Year of the Plague – 12: 22-28 September 2020).

Now this plague year of 2021 sees the possibility of having to obtain vaccination certificates before being allowed to travel in Europe. The prime minister of Greece (fearful of another huge hit to his country's economy) has asked the European Commission to consider such a move and hopes to raise the issue at an EU summit on January 21.

Right now, pending quite a few (for me) unanswered questions on the much-vaunted vaccines, those hard-won certificates of negative coronavirus test results still look more appealing.