They may take a swab, but they will never take our FREEDOM!

 Freedom... Horrible Freedom!

So we had our final PCR tests today and hurrah!!! Negative. We get to leave. Actually, we have to leave.

Don't get me wrong, I really want to get out of this hotel room. 14 days is a long time to spend in what is realistically only two rooms (I'm not sure you can really count bathrooms).

The hotel has been great. The food and drink (non-alcoholic only) have been plentiful. Too plentiful at times.

 

These are the drinks we haven't been able to consume... and we've sent back at least twice this amount. I'm not sure how anyone could drink this quantity of liquid. Probably explains why the suite has two toilets...

The very lovely people at the hotel sent a vegetarian pizza up on my birthday - Nice! The dinner ended up consisting of; a pizza, three curries (including 2 boiled eggs for each curry tray), three salads, three mini shepherd's pies??? and three servings of cake!

There have been times I wondered if they knew how many people were actually staying in the room, but the fact that everything has come in threes seems to indicate they have the right information. We actually asked on more than one occasion for them to send less, but so far we succeeded only in stopping the inundation of cans. That was something at least.

The fact is I will miss this place. It has been a haven; a place where we could decompress after a frantic scrabble to get here. We've had time to arrange things at our final destination; get the house up and running; get internet installed; sort out a hire car. These and a dozen other little jobs have been achieved from the comfort of a stable, predictable and, above all, comfortable environment.

We haven't had to worry about what to do for lunch or where to get washing powder from (they supplied a bar of clothes soap to do hand washing with - very pre-industrial!). We haven't had to rush to get anywhere or to do anything in particular.

I am extremely grateful that we have had the chance to quarantine here. The staff have been brilliant - friendly , helpful, attentive and welcoming. We were lucky - I know that the experience of quarantine can be a lot worse.

We have a daily routine which we have stuck to - breakfast, work/study, exercise, TV, lunch, learn some basic Malay (badly), games (more work in my case too), catch up with folk in the UK, dinner, TV again, bed for Thomas, work then yoga or Tai Chi (I know - very new age of me, but hey, given where we are...), bed. Oh, and in case my sister is reading this - rehab my ankle, and yes I actually have been doing the exercises!

This routine has made the time pass - I can't say I've been bored, but it is time to leave.

But...

If I'm completely honest, I'm more than a little nervous about leaving. 

You see, this is another step away from the world we know and understand. It's another step into this new chapter of our lives and consequently another step away from our old one. This is the last place where we can fool ourselves into thinking that we can just get back on the plane and pretend that this was all a dream or a joke or just something happening to someone else.

It gets really real on the other side of that door and that is a scary and exciting thought.

In here we understand the rules and we know what will happen day in, day out. Out there is who knows what... but that is what we came here for, so here we go!

I'm told there's a whole other country on the other side of the door - sort of feels like we're about to step through the door to Narnia (only not as cold)!