Covid passport updates.

 Fred Olsen Cruises has sent us an update on their requirements. They have described where our taxi is supposed to meet the boat and also listed all the covid restrictions they will require before we arrive and they want computerized evidence of having had the appropriate covid vaccinations and last minute tests. Of course we can do the Lateral Flow Tests one day before the voyage and get that recorded on line. I can also produce a Covid passport showing my five vaccinations, including the 3 required boosters. Albina has had the same jabs, but she has no email account, and so cannot produce a Covid passport. All she will be able to show is a list of her inoculations for the last twenty years, issued by our GP. Hope that will be good enough. They're not going to stop her travelling just because she has no email, are they?

They also want to corral us in on arrival at Southampton to check our covid passes and our UK passports. Then they will retain our passports for the whole 80 days. During our excursions they will show our passports to border officials themselves and in the meantime we are asked to carry photocopies of our passports on our phones and printed on paper. This is more like a secure facility than a relaxing holiday. 

Some an introduction to the concept of eternity. other new titbits in Olsen's letter. For Singapore we will have to complete something called an SG Arrival Card 72 hours prior to arrival at the port. For Vietnam we pay an immigration service fee docked from us by the shipping company. For Hong Kong we will need to wear a mask and have an extra Covid test with our own covid test kits. For Colombia we may need a yellow fever jab. 

Yet they still do not answer simple questions which I sent them, most notably about the correct electric plugs and the amount of suitcases.

I finally wrote up the 10 year history of the Friends of Polish Veterans Association and sent for her comments and grammatical corrections to my colleague Krystyna Dereszewska who was my Treasurer. So another job partly fulfilled.

Also, I received confirmation from the liaison office of London Assembly confirming that the Mayor of London would be pleased to visit the POSK building. In the meantime Wlodek, President of the Federation of Poles, says that the Federation AGM would not take place before I leave for my voyage. I reported that this morning at the POSK Council meeting, so that the Chairman can nominate someone to replace me as POSK representative at the eventual Federation AGM. He thanked me publicly at the Council meeting for arranging the meetings with the MP and now the Mayor of London. It was a monster of a meeting again lasting five and half hours, but not so ill tempered. It included key debates about the future of the ailing Lowiczanka Restaurant in POSK, and also the distribution between long term investment and immediate repairs from the 2 million pound income from the sale of a property inherited by POSK from Frascati Street in Warsaw. Luckily, the earlier bitter debates at the last POSK Council about the children's Syrena Theatre appear now been resolved. But some parents from the Syrena are still sending bitter personal attacks on Zaneta the cultural director. Attending these POSK council meetings is like undergoing an initiation into the concept of eternity. There are moments when you hide your face in your hands with frustration at the endless repetetive regurgitation of the same arguments as each participant wants to have he last word. However, each time I hide my face in despair, my lady colleague sitting next to me keeps prodding me to say "Don't fall asleep".