Category Archives: Uncategorized

travel insurance trouble

Posted in After treatment, Bumpboobs, Travel, Uncategorized by

As you may (or may not) know, Zsolt and I have decided to get away. Where to? Portugal. Not for long, just a short break – the Ryan Air ticket was so inexpensive that we jumped on the opportunity for a reasonably priced vacation. I’ve heard rumour that the weather is above 20 degrees and sunny (drool) in Faro, which means for the next few days I’ll be sprawled across a beach towel and soaking the vitamin D.

Anyhow, jump back to last night. What’s an essential when travelling abroad? Finger on nose if you’ve guessed it: travel insurance is essential.

When comparing prices we generally go to moneysupermarket.com. I’m not positive they’re the best, but their advertising is hilarious – good marketing wins again. With their search engine narrowed to ‘travel insurance’, the enter button is pushed and a long list of options appear on the screen.  Hmm, cheap.

The EU has this scheme established where you can go into another EU member country and have access to their medical assistance in an emergency. There are limitations, but in general if you fall and scrape your knee – and  you’re an EU resident – you won’t need to pay 100$ for a bandage. However, what is covered varies country to  country, which is why buying travel insurance is smart.

Which takes me back to moneysupermarket.com  – £6 for two person coverage sounded almost too good to be true. And guess what? It was.  Okay okay, for £6 (about 9.50 Canadian bucks) you cannot expect too much from an insurer. . . but I wasn’t  quite ready for the shut down they delivered.

Looking over the policies and conditions I ‘CNTRL+F’ed  (aka searched) “cancer” and found nothing. Then I ‘CNTRL+F’ed “illness” and found lots. Essentially most insures state they won’t cover any medical costs arising from an existing illness. Fair enough. It’s not as though my boob(s) are about to explode, so no worries on my end about the existing illness.

Onwards. Click “purchase” and proceed to the next screen.

This is where the brick wall showed up. Essentially, the medical screening consists of a question along the lines of “have you or anyone being covered by this insurance have or ever had any of the following,” and of course – of course, there was cancer. It’s not like they cared what type of cancer, or whether it’s gone, or in recession, or appeared once and then disappeared forever . . .they don’t care. It’s just: tick this box if you’ve ever had it.

So I ticked the box.

And of course was denied insurance.

Anyhow. I became a steaming kettle of indignation. Like I said, my breasts are not going to explode because last year I had cancer. Right, my lymph nodes are gone – so maybe there is a risk of lympodemia . . . but the question didn’t ask about lymphodemia, it asked about cancer.

Grumble grumble.

That’s when I gave up on the hunt for cheap insurance and went digging through my breast cancer information. There is a company called ‘insurepink’  who cover those diagnosed with non-terminal cancers (specifically aimed at breast cancer) – it was still more expensive than what moneysupermarket.com offered, but I suppose that’s to account for my pre-existing medical condition.

Even on this site I had to answer about 25 questions about my condition, but at least they bothered to ask the specifics rather than apply a blanket policy of exclusion.

Funny . . . imagine being cancer-free for over 35 years, and you still need to tick that little box. Even when cancer is gone, it’s not totally gone.

So that was an interesting experience. Thank goodness for Insurepink. Righto – on a brighter note, time to fly away to warmer places. No more cancer thoughts for the rest of the week. Have a lovely start of April. See you soon.

Sticky notes on campus

Posted in Bumpboobs, Fun, Life, moving to canada, Travel, Uncategorized by

Today at the Avenue campus someone (a student, I’m guessing) left a trail of sticky notes throughout the halls. Some were on cupboards, others doors, a couple bulletin boards . . . and I spotted one more in the stairwell. And written on these little yellow sticky notes were a variety of positive messages. For instance, one of them was a stick person with two speech bubbles. On the left speech bubble (and crossed out in red) it said: Why me? In the right speech bubble it read: Try me! I guess it’s equivalent to ‘turn that frown upside down’, eh?

And then I started to find the quotes. Now look, my short term memory is a sieve so I can’t recount them all, but one was from Ghandi (i.e. a quote from Ghandi): Don’t cry for it ending, smile because it happened.

I am happy it happened.

Not the cancer, nope, not that.

The friends, the challenges, the writing, the working, the living, the grocery shopping, the tea drinking, the sofa shopping, the Lost-a-thons, the orange eatings, the portswoodings, the guy foxings, the spring flowerings, the movie nightings,  the self-explorings, and the apartment hoppings. Plus that fabulous fried chicken served at Pleasure Garden.

I’m so incredibly happy for all of it.

So here is to smiling, not crying. And to good memories, not bad. Mind you, come May I’ll be a human rain machine. Sentimental expression has become my middle name (Catherine Sentimental – Geez, is she crying again? – Brunelle). But it’s because of all the good things, and not the bad, that I’ll cry come next May. That is a positive contrast to last year.

Sticky notes with positive messages. Maybe you could try some yourself? Afterall, there’s no need to sign a name to your little kernel of positivity. It’s good vibes sans embaressment. Believe me, people WILL notice.

Here is my sticky note for this post: When one door closes, another one opens. Like my time in England and moving to Canada, and like the end of this posting followed by dessert.

*Oh! I burnt the apple crumble. Blog posting is too absorbing.

The end. For real. For real, for real – because it’s time for dessert! (minus the burnt bits)

Calculating square footage

Posted in Bumpboobs, Canada, Finding Home, Life, moving to canada, Uncategorized by

Lately Zsolt and I have been calculating the square footage of our lives, or rather, our belongings. I’m  in the bad habit of associating my possessions with my ‘life’, which actually can’t be further from the truth. Yesterday we were watching videos of what’s left in the tsunami ruined areas of Japan – you know, the ones where people pick through the damage and hope to find something salvageable? And I thought, yes it’s stressful to move, but what if it was a choice between your goods or your life? What would sheets, pots, and books matter then? I find it’s a bad habit to tightly associate life with possessions. Because, as we’ve seen, everything can be lost in a moment.

Anyhow, it’s something I’m trying to remember.  I would trade everything except the people I love to be guaranteed absolute health. . . and I bet people suffering from the terror of war and natural disasters would do something similar for a little peace of mind.

So, Zsolt and I were calculating the square footage of our possessions the other day, trying to decide whether we can ship our paintings via a tea box or special carton. A tea box  (apparently standard shipping size) would be less expensive. Therefore, we had to revisit grade nine math. Funny how what used to be so easy eventually becomes so easily forgotten. Thank goodness for Wikipedia providing easy to access formulas.

Anyhow, the painting – without the frame – will fit into the tea carton.

Things are starting to look up in the world of moving. We found a company with reasonable prices, and while I’m suspect of the incredibly good deal they offer, I won’t say no. Don’t say no. Gotta say yes . . . Our plan is to order X number of boxes, fill them up with whatever matters most, and sell/give the rest away.

What matters most? Sentimental things go first: the photos, the fridge decorations, the albums, and Christmas ornaments. Next come the clothes: there’s an entire closet of stuff to pick through, but we have time for purging. After that it’s about the kitchen: my pots and pans, everything else can be left. And finally it’s computer related goodies: games, dvds, the computer, the screen (maybe) . . .

Too bad food cannot be easily shipped into Canada. I’d love to bring home some beautiful paprika and kobasz from Hungary. Oh well.

Step one in the moving adventure: find a company for shipping.

Check!

So that’s quite a relief.