Today's Tenerife rave

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

Face it, you will be so green with envy after you read this that your life will never be the same. 

It looks like Myrtle is going to have a new lock on Friday after only FOUR trips to the locksmith!   

How the hell does she do it?  Read on and learn:

1.  First trip to locksmith:  get there and find out they are closed between 13.30 and 16.00, and it's 13.45.

2.  Go back for 16.00.  Nice lady looks up lock in the catalogue but quickly ascertains in a phone call that the distributor does not have this model.  However, she has four other makes so thinks we can find one that fits.  It really would be best to have the old one in the shop to compare and select the correct replacement.  Can't argue with that so cue trip 3.

3.  Have OH deinstall the lock for the umpteenth time and go back to the locksmith with hardware in hand.  OH stays home because we can't lock the front door.  I go because I can speak Spanish, the lady knows her locks, and OH is at the other end of a phone.  We find a problem - the hole for the cylinder is not euro-size and that's all they have these days.  I call OH to relay the situation and he talks all kinds of garbleydeegook to me, resulting in, if the key is in the exact same position, it will be alright.  Get off the phone to find the nice lady is on the phone then she's excitedly giving me the thumbs up, she has found the EXACT replacement, same brand.  Some Scottish guy who has been waiting remarks that God certainly is looking out for me today. 

We discuss when it will be in.  It will be in Friday around the same time.....around 13.00.  We swiftly agree that Friday afternoon is when I should come back.  Yes, I realise that this will cost me a potential fifth trip to sort this out but what the heck.

4.  Trip 4 planned for 1600 Friday.

So I return home and have OH reinstall the damned lock for about the millionth time. 

I realise I did not tell you what the brand of lock we have.  Are you ready?  It's a Fac.  Say it in Spanish.  Could anything be more perfect?

[Marion]

We just got the locksmith in. They came about 4 times before deciding they needed to take the door away for 3 hours. I was sceptical they would be back and we would be left with no door overnight, but they appeared even earlier than they said, refitted the door and all was well. Bill was 190euros.  That was 120e for the lock and 70e labour.

[Delderek]

My goodness, I have almost forgotten the Tenerife frustrations. Had a similar problem back here in the UK six months ago.1 hour on the net, located what was needed, delivered mid morning next day, handles, locks and all bits and pieces 40 quid.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

Frustrations?  Hell, this is what we call a good time here.  We love a good initiative test; it keeps us on our toes. 

My lock is half the price I was expecting too; only 75€.

I am so happy I keep exclaiming the brand.  Fac!  Fac!  Fac!

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

This being Tenerife, I got a call from the nice lady at the locksmith before noon to advise that the lock had arrived.  So I went and picked it up and it is installed. 

I can really recommend the locksmith La Llave in Adeje!

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

On balance, I think this probably belongs in the rave thread rather than the rant thread, as surely there is a net benefit.

So here's what happened.  I got a notice in the post from my health insurer, Sanitas, saying they wanted to give me a  Samsung tablet, "for being one of our best customers and having demonstrated your loyalty, we have a very special gift for you."  Using it, I would be able to book medical appointments wherever I happened to be because of their app.  There was a number for me to phone to confirm my delivery address. 

WTF? 

This sounded too good to be true, as you don't get something for nothing and you are unable to book appointments online in the Canary Islands.  Anyway I phoned to find out the catch.  No catch.  You mean you really want to give me a free tablet?  Yes, because you are a loyal and most valued customer.  Okay.

The cynic in me figured this would be a strangled device only able to book appointments, which you can't do here, so it would be useless.  Did not even mention it to OH as I figured he would roll his eyes.

Then I get an email at the beginning of last week saying my tablet would be delivered by courier in the next two weeks.  Well, Tuesday a guy rocked up and handed me the envelope with my brand new shiny Samsumg Galaxy Tab 3 Lite.  Holy tomato, this looks for real.  I charged it up and it IS for real.  It's a full fledged tablet with full capabilities. 

I finally had to come clean to OH.  He did not roll his eyes; they about bugged out of his head.  He is still outraged that I will not just turn the thing over to him.  I figure that since I have to learn Android for my new phone (Samsung Galaxy S3 Neo) I will learn the tablet first while I wait for my new SIM for the phone. 

So I have been doing a few things with it.  Getting online was a piece of cake.  I am going through the instruction manual page by page to try and figure out what to do with this thing.

The Sanitas app, when it is not crashing, enables me to log on with my exisiting id/password so that's good.  So I decided to book an appointment.  It's a bit of a learning curve with the touch screen business, but I manage to convey I want an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon, an initial consultation involving my foot, in Adeje.  Bingo bango, find me an appointment.  It returns the message "It has not been possible to establish communication.  We have not been able to find any available openings.  Please check that you have access to the Internet or try again in a few minutes."  Well, I do have access as I've been on various web sites.  And I have tried again several times.

So it looks as if it is the same as going through the website on a PC:  you can't book appointments online in the Canaries.  Which was the whole reason for giving me the tablet. 

But anyway, thanks, Sanitas, for being such a lovely insurance company and for my tablet. 

[El Profesor]

Interesting concept this. Why would they give you a free device worth . . . I'm guessing 250€, when they already have your business.

I imagine that the way these Spanish insurance companies work is to reward you if you don't use it much.

Let's say someone pays about 900 € in premiums over a year and just visits the doctor a couple of times with the snuffles, an earache and gets an analysis done - profit 700€. It makes sense in a cut throat market to pass on some of this profit as a reward for continuing loyalty. Bearing in mind that they probably get a half price deal off Samsung for buying a few hundred thousand tabs.

nice one

[Nova]

It's also great publicity because it has Sanitas branded on the back and grateful recipients tell their friends. Very clever really.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

The device costs about 100 quid/115 euros, not the most expensive.  It does not do telephony. 

We are paying around 3000€/year for the two of us (age).  This year alone OH has had to see the urologist after a fall in the garden in which I thought he may have damaged a kidney (not), the ENT man, our favourite endocrinologist who likes to see us every three months because we are the only patients who produce results for her.  And she orders up loads of blood/urine tests.  I think I have seen our endocrinologist about three times with attendant blood tests.  But I cost them big time when I got to have two procedures for something else in one day, one planned, the other the result of haemorrhaging afterwards, and a two day stay in hospital.  Oh yes and I have been to a podiatrist for a running injury. 

I tried booking an appointment online (ostensible reason for giving me the tablet with the app) on my PC and once again it said that this facility is not available in your province.  I cannot book using the app on the tablet.  Surely they could have saved themselves several K by not making these things available to their Canarian customers. 

But they did and I am not complaining!

[Janet]

This isn't a long rave but it's a rave all the same. Out for pizza last night, sitting outside with a glass of wine with Perikles, Myrtle and OH enjoying the fact that it's sunny after the rains have gone, and cooler with the calima passing, and watching some children play football in the car parking area of the pizza place.

Children getting progressively louder and the football getting progressively more frenetic. Perikles saying we'll eat indoors because this is getting irritating. Myrtle and I saying but it's nice outside and they'll calm down in a short while ...

when the football came flying towards our table and went smack into my right shoulder. It was so close to my face that I was momentarily too shocked to see what happened next but I think the ball just bounced off, but the immediate effect was that the football game came to a sudden halt and the children just evaporated! Next thing they were all sitting back on chairs with their parents looking a bit abashed ...

At least we'll be able to eat outside now, we thought, though Perikles (correctly as it turned out) said they'd start again after a short break ... and then I became aware of a small figure standing to my side ...

I can't remember his exact words now, but it was I'm really sorry about the football thing. The child was around 7, hardly older. It's fine I said ... more surprised by the apology than I had been by the ball!

I'm not saying it wouldn't happen in the UK, but this child was totally confident in his apology. He hadn't been sent over to say sorry with the sort of foot-dragging sheepishness you'd expect. It was a child who naturally understood what had happened, took responsibility for it, and apologised in the full confidence that that was what you do, and that since that was what you do, acceptance would be natural.

Families together, children playing outside, and a sense of manners instinctive because of upbringing, and a confidence to demonstrate them ... that's worth a Tenerife rave any day!