The U.K. announced its third national lockdown. This one too sounds close to being as restrictive as last March. You can only travel for essential reasons. Non-essential shops closed. I have to admit – the first thing I thought was: awesome! My mum and my aunt and my grandma are going to be safe now. Get back in your prison, ladies. I’m off diving.

My mum texted me as it was all happening. I called just when the PM was announcing what would happen with school exams. I could hear the word ‘exams’, but no more.

‘What did he say?’

‘I don’t know. I missed it picking up the phone.’

‘Maybe I’ll call you back later,’ I shouted, competing with the volume of her telly.

‘What? Maybe call me back later!’

I flicked through the news in the meantime. ‘Exams can no longer go ahead as normal.’ I stopped. Took a deep breath. There we go.

No need to sail to Bermuda in April – when late winter storms off the Eastern Seaboard can still make it tricky. We’ll stay in Bonaire for another month – until mid-May, and make our way back to the U.K. before hurricane season starts. In this way, we can keep ourselves safer by minimising where we go.

Of course, I’m getting ahead of myself. Need to wait for InterHigh to officially announce the news. I could imagine us being the one exception.

This is turning out to be the month where our electrical devices are giving up. Jack’s laptop started us off. The keyboard stopped working. No Apple authorised repair place on Bonaire. He took it to the island’s small computer store instead.

‘Lithium batteries right under the mouse trackpad,’ they said, ‘getting too hot. It creates an air pocket. You need new batteries.’

They pulled out a set. Jack’s heart began to thump thankfully. Wasn’t for him though. Another client had the exact same problem. The batteries had just arrived.

For now, Jack bought an external keyboard and mouse. Lithium batteries can’t go by plane and take a while to ship. He looks like a gamer now. Delph said, ‘Can we get a set of headphones with the microphone attachment to go with it?’

My MacBook Air died last week. The charging port stopped working. Doesn’t seem to be the charging cable either. This works when you plug it into the other computer.

Urghh. But amazingly, this Air still has Apple Care! I called Apple. They confirmed it – except now you have to send it to someone who takes/sends it to an Apple repair store. Surely this extra handling increases, not minimises the risk of exposure to the virus? I didn’t get an answer. Stupid question.

I am sending said computer to my dad in Colorado. He has kindly offered to deal with its journey to Apple and back. Bonaire’s FedEx office opens tomorrow. We went and packed the computer in a pizza box, just in case you need your own packaging.

I wish this was the end of the story. But our little HP printer died this weekend. We bought it last year in Trinidad. It no longer recognises the tri-colour cartridge – and won’t print at all. Even in black and white.

We went back to the computer store. They said, ‘Can you shove a little piece of card by the cartridge? It just needs to see the connectors.’

I sighed. Tried it already. New cartridge as well. Can we live without a printer – until we get home? Nope.