Managed Isolation
Sutton Scarsdale Hall
This Georgian pile sits atop a hill on the opposite side of the valley to Bolsover castle. This is actually the back, west facing side. In a morning particularly, the east facing facade looks very impressive from the M1. Built in 1724 for the Earl of Scarsdale, it was later bought by Richard Arkwright junior, son of Sir Richard Arkwright, 'father of the modern idustrial factory system.' Okay enough of the boring history stuff, but the point is it was eventually inherited by Sir Richard's great great grandson Francis Arkwright who decided after six years in the House of Commons, enough was enough and in 1882 emigrated to New Zealand
Do you have to pay for that yourself or does the NZ government pay for it/subsidise it?
ReplyDeleteI would likely have to isolate in UK government provided accommodation (there's a hotel at Heathrow block-booked for that purpose) upon returning to the UK, at my own expense, but I've not been able to discover what that expense might actually be.
The Government pays. There's been a lot of debate about it, and now people who leave the country and come back will have to pay, and the fee is $3100, about £1600 which is about 75% of the actual cost. Thing is it's done properly here. The UK is telling people to go and self isolate, so you could do that anywhere, probably a lot cheaper than the government hotel. Is it time to go home?
DeleteTo return home or not to return home... it's a multifaceted issue for me. I don't necessarily need to return home, although it is getting a bit boring hanging out here with no options to travel elsewhere other than back to the UK.
DeleteI flew out to Rio from the UK for £250, but a flight home is going to cost 3x that. That's much better than it was though as flights are now about two thirds to a half cheaper than they were 2 to 3 months ago. I can take the hit on that if necessary.
I had to renew my travel insurance. My previous policy covered me for COVID-19 because I took it out late last year, but the current one does not while Argentina has an "all but essential" travel advisory.
For the time being, the Argentine government has been automatically extending visas for foreigners during the pandemic, but I do not know what will happen when that stops. Usually you can apply for one 3 month extension on top of the 3 month visa on arrival, but I do not know what will happen with that following the pandemic. My original visa on arrival expired back in late April.
Other than the minor issue of the health insurance, there's little reason to return to the UK though. Argentina does have free healthcare for foreigners in its public hospitals at least, although private is obviously better funded and therefore preferable where possible.
The advantage of staying here is that I can live reasonably well on the income I have. I could manage a basic lifestyle on the income I have in the UK, but a job (part time at least) would make things easier. I'm not sure how easy it would be to get a job back in the UK right now, as many people have been put out of work as a result of the pandemic.
Without any work, I'd be doing the same thing back home in the UK as I'm doing here, i.e. very little, but at least here it's more affordable!
You're right about other options for isolating. I was considering and have looked at options for small self-contained AirBnB places because at least I will know how much it will cost. I've searched a few times in the past to try and discover what the cost of the UK government provided accommodation might be and have turned up nothing.
So, for the time being, I'll stay here and see how things progress!
It seems like NZ has done a lot things right during the pandemic. It's a shame the same can't be said of the UK government...
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