MELTDOWN

I've never been good with the telephone - well not since I was 15 and it was an extension of my hand. I find it so intrusive - when somebody calls you they require your attention there and then - not 'when you're ready' like messaging. You could be half way up a ladder and the expectation is you'll drop everything and give the telephone your full attention immediately.

Even worse if my husband picks up a call for me he always takes a message and says 'I'll get her to call you back', even if this isn't needed. In my 'normal' life this just adds one more thing to my list that I have to get done.

I could go on, but let's just leave it as read that I hate the phone.

Yesterday I needed to get my UK summer holiday sorted - it's ironic that in January we decided to treat ourselves with 2 holidays this summer - something we NEVER normally do. As you know our overseas holiday was cancelled. But - as things come out of lockdown it's looking like our UK holiday might be achievable. It's a cottage so self-contained and I think they plan to release this sort of thing on 4th July. Fingers crossed we don't get a second wave before then (not that the first wave has ended!).

I needed to pay the balance so decided to do it on my credit card so I had more security if everything goes t*ts up. I never touch my credit card - not since I spent 8 years paying back a wild spending spree. Although my balance is zero (lucky me and thank goodness at the moment) the available amount wouldn't cover the holiday. 

As money is precious - especially right now I decided I didn't want to shut my eyes and pray on this one so decided to do it over the phone. I also needed to call the holiday company as I needed to check something out about the holiday. 

First I rang the holiday company - a recording said due to COVID waiting times were long. They were not fibbing. I spent one hour in the queue with banal shrill hold music. Then just gave up. Next I needed to ring the credit card company. Again they said waiting times were long - after 40 minutes of listening to shrill hold music my brain was screaming at me. I eventually got through - did the transfer and job done. 

I was a bit nervous about this because it didn't sound official - I now realise that this is because the call centre was working from home. The person was lovely and efficient but it left me nervous In case I'd just handed the last bit of my slush fund plus credit card and current account details to a scammer.

Went onto the holiday website to pay the balance and it wouldn't accept the card. 

This is when the meltdown happened. It's odd isn't it. I feel I'm doing OK with the whole furlough, life upside down thing and then just one small thing can turn that reality on it's head. I started shaking - I couldn't stop. Then I realised I needed to get back on the phone to ring the credit card company again. As soon as the hold music started I just started crying - all very strange - so by the time the poor lady at the call centre answered the call 50 minutes later she had a shaking, blubbering wreck on the other end of the phone.

She was literally awesome and took things in hand. She confirmed the money had been transferred I just needed to wait a few hours for it to go through the system. She even made an extra call to try to get things moving. Shaking and crying stopped (thanks kind lady you made a big difference).

I had big plans yesterday - in the end I did my furlough equivalent of the basket weaving they do to help people calm down and started to make plarn (will tell you more in a different post). So that's what I did for most of yesterday.

Anyway, holiday payed off - much calmer today - just a little shocked at how close to the surface the meltdown was.