I don’t know how many times I have started this blog and deleted, then started again. I literally have no words as to how I am feeling today….just that hopefully I am getting on a flight in 9 hours time. ??And that I feel terribly sad.
I know I have no reason to feel sad, I have achieved and seen so much in the last 6 months. But I am feeling really sad. I don’t want to come home, I want to see New Zealand, Fiji and all the other places I have held in my heart for so long. I realise, they will still be there when this all blows over, but will I ever be able to get the time off work again?? Will I be in a financial position to carry on?? I’m aware that I can finish this once I retire, but who knows if that is in my stars. I have lost so many close friends, who never got to retire. None of us knows what is around the corner, that’s why it’s so important to live for the day. Stop putting things off and making excuses.
I’m of course, very excited to see my family, be it from a distance, in most cases. At least I am lucky that once I get home, I will have company (Jake may feel differently!!). I also have an amazing garden that I’m sure could do with a make-over by now!! I’m terrified at what work will hold for me, when I go back. I can’t even imagine what my colleagues are dealing with at the moment.
My self isolation actually finishes today. I think maybe I’ve had too much time on my hands to over think things. Once I’m home and feeling more optimistic, I will do a lovely ‘round up’ blog. I have been so lucky to have got this far. I mustn’t let the last 3 weeks distract me from all the amazing things I have seen and done.
I can’t even add any photos, because iCloud is playing up for some reason ???♀️
So I exited Bali, Indonesia, without knowing that by the time I landed in Australia they would be closing their borders the next day….phew just made it in time ?. Before I had left, Indonesia had announced that it was closing it’s border on Friday 20th. The world is literally closing it’s doors.
Sunrise over Australia
On arrival to Australia, there were no temperature checks, or health questionnaires. My temperature had been taken 3 times at Bali airport. We were given an advice sheet, but again pretty vacant with it’s information, and the government website wasn’t much better. At passport control, I was asked if I had visited Iran, China, Italy or South Korea recently….no I said. Welcome to Australia. The immigration officer had rudely suggested that my passport must be quite old because I had changed a lot ?. Mate you trying looking fantastic after and overnight flight!!! RUDE!! He didn’t even put a stamp in my passport. I have no idea how long I can stay for ??♀️. Could be for a years if all the flights to the UK stop.
Day 1 Isolation.
I caught an Uber from the airport to my airbnb. I wore a face mask, for the drivers protection, and kept my distance. At my new accommodation, I was met by my very enthusiastic host, Simona, who seemed to have very little concern about catching anything off me ??♀️. I settled in, had a long sleep, and the thought about cooking some dinner….I ordered in a KFC, via Deliveroo. I had put a note on the delivery request that I was in isolation. The driver, literally threw the food at me and legged it. I found this quite amusing.
Day 2 Isolation.
Really didn’t do very much today. My sleep pattern is all over the place. Not really sure why, as Australia is only 3 hours ahead of Bali. But I had been exchanging messages with friends and family until about 3am, which probably didn’t help. I had left over KFC for my dinner….healthy eating at it’s best. A couple of things, out of my control, upset me (stuff in the UK, nothing to do with isolation), but heyho I was probably tired and not dealing with stuff as well as I would usually.
Day 3 Isolation.
Awake at 5am, and a decision made, to not mope about. I still needed to do a food shop if I was not going to eat take-away food for the next 12 days. The supermarket was a couple kilometres away, so I decided it would be safe to come out of isolation for a walk when it was dark and quiet. Hopefully the supermarket would be quieter too that time in the morning!! Like the pictures I have seen in the UK, the supermarket was stripped of a lot of its products. When I arrived, there had been a massive pile of toilet rolls….all gone by the time I had finished. I wore my face mask, again, while shopping, and then got an Uber back to my apartment.
Later that day, I finally did some cooking, and put several meals into the freezer. I realised that this was actually the 1st time I had cooked properly since leaving the UK back in September. I still managed to set of the smoke detectors, so nothing has changed in that time ????
Finally on day 3, I made arrangements with my mum and son to have a ‘movie night’ in our various places of isolation. We are going to use a conferencing call app called ‘Zoom’. Jake adds us to the call and we can watch a film and talk all over it as required. A brilliant way to stay connected and not feel so isolated. Jake also talked me into buying a secondhand PS3, a couple of games and a headset, so we can play against each other!!! Hopefully it won’t take long to be delivered!!
Day 4 Isolation.
I was up at 7:30am for for movie night with Mum and Jake. Of course we had to choose a disaster film!!! 2012…seen before and truly a dreadful film. It was great fun though and amazing to think that I am 10,497miles away from them. The things you learn in isolation!! I may have fallen back to sleep before the end ?. We will definitely be doing it again. I really want to see Gavin and Stacey Christmas special again.
Later that day, after watching too much news programs on the TV, I decided it would be best to go home to the UK. The main reason being that everywhere was closing, people are being told to stay indoors, so really no point carrying on with my travels. I also do feel guilty about being off work, when I will really be needed sooner rather than later. And Boris said come home before it’s too late!!! After a lot of research, I found a flight to London via Hong Kong, that was still open to transit passengers. Loads of countries have closed up completely, and it wasn’t until I was looking for flights that it really dawned on me that I was lucky to find a route home. My flight would be in 5 days time, still plenty of time for things to change ?. I cancelled my order for the PS3, as I wouldn’t be needing it!!
Day 5 Isolation.
I was up at 6.30am for movie night with Sue/Louise/Julie/Jake again with the help of Zoom. Our film choice ‘mean girls’ it’s so fetch but mainly because I’m not a regular mom, I’m a cool mom ??
Didn’t really do much for the rest of the day…what is there to do in a foreign country, in isolation ??♀️ Oh…I did dye my roots!!! Maybe I’ll look more like my passport photo now ? I also did some washing, but over did the powder ?
Day 6 Isolation.
Another long quiet day, not doing very much, other than keep refreshing the internet, checking that Hong Kong wasn’t closing it’s borders, sending myself mad.
I feel asleep about 11pm but woke up at 1am and checked the internet!!! Hong Kong had closed it’s border to transit passengers….bollocks….tired and a bit emotional, I rang Jake. Over the course of the next 3 hours, we kept looking for new flights home. Eventually, at 5am we found a flight with Malaysian airways. Melbourne to Sydney…..4hour stop over…. Sydney to Kuala Lumpur….. 4 hour stop over…… Kuala Lumpur to London. It was going to be a shit journey, but it meant getting home. This of course relied on Malaysia keeping it’s borders open for transit passengers!!! I also would like to request the seat that has the floor lamp and coffee table next to it??
At about 10am, an old school friend, Fiona, messaged me to say she thought the flight from Sydney to KL would be cancelled because on Malaysian Airways, there was a list of flights that had wouldn’t be going ahead. I felt a bit cross at this point, not with Fiona, because how could an airline allow you to book a flight, if they have no intention of it going ahead…. oh yeah…that’s because they want your money to keep them afloat. Cathay Pacific…my 1st flight, had told me, it could take up to 6 weeks to get a refund from them!! I am in a lucky position that I have the rest of my ’travelling’ money, plus credit cards, but what about the ‘kids’ backpacking etc.
Anyway, Fiona suggested I booked another flight, just in case. At the time I felt it was a bit over kill, but for once, listened and got a new flight with Qatar. I could have flown home, with Qatar, this weekend but they were charging £5000+ which is shocking. Fiona found a flight with Qatar for the following Wednesday for £1000. Booked. I now had 2 flights home, surely 1 would get me home?
After chatting with Fiona, I decided to give Malaysian Airways a call, they reassured me the flight was definitely going ahead. Less than 2 hours later, an email cancelling my flight, it wasn’t going!! Another refund applied for.
I’d like to add during this madness, my wonderful airbnb host. Originally I booked for 16 nights, then I changed it to 10 nights, she refunded me. I then changed it to 11 nights, she accepted the change. I’ve now had to change it a 3rd time to 14nights!!! She accepted it again. If the Qatar flight gets cancelled, I’m just going to stay here until this all blows over.
During the course of the day, I also emailed my MP (1st time for everything), to ask what the government were doing about getting us all home, because obviously, its not just me stuck. I also emailed the British consular in Australia. At least I am comfortable and safe in Australia. It could be a whole lot worse.
So as things stand…..I have a flight home Wednesday 1st April (no joke there!!!) which will land in London on Thursday 2nd April. Qatar Airways have just updated their website, which looks hopeful ?
I hope those kids aren’t going to hug that man…what about social distancing???
I would finally like to add to all the amazing people who have reached out to me, be it helping me find new flights, keeping my spirits up, even offers of money to get me home…..you lot totally ROCK ?. I’m strong because you are in my life. At the end of the day, I am safe and sound in Australia, I’ve got a really nice apartment, and if I have to wait it out here, it could be so much worse. Please no one worry…I’m fine ?????
My care package for Australia because they are out of toilet roll and pasta ?
Once again I want to express that my ‘problems’ are so insignificant to what so many people are going through, and special BIG LOVE, to all my awesome healthcare professionals back home, having to carry on ??
And so to me and my midlife gap year. While in Bali, as I said in my last coronavirus ‘special’, I was becoming very aware of a fast changing world, and started becoming a bit obsessed with watching the news to see what was occurring.
I had planned on flying to Melbourne where I was going to spend 5 days, sightseeing etc, aware that a lot of museums etc may well be closed. From Melbourne, I was going to hire a car and spend 2 weeks doing a road trip to Brisbane. I was going to stop off on route in Sydney to visit an anaesthetist I used to work with in Brighton. He now lives nearby, in the blue mountains, and I’d also see some of Sydney’s sights. From Sydney my road trip would continue onto Brisbane, where I would be staying a few days with an old school friend, before flying to New Zealand to start 14 days self isolation ?.
24 hours later… new plan. Australia announced that everyone arriving from abroad had to now go into 14 day self isolation ☹️. I cancelled my car hire, all the accommodation I had booked and started looking for an airbnb that I could isolate in for 14 days. I found one in St Kilda, that looked nice and contacted the host to ask if she was happy to take my booking. She was….I’m sure, because the tourist market must have really crashed. She also kindly let me check in early. I then booked a flight to Brisbane for day 16, so I could still stay with my friend before flying to NZ. This would give me 24 hours to runaround Melbourne and see the sights!!! I wasn’t too upset about not seeing much of Australia, because I had never really planned on visiting, it was more a stop over to break up the journey to NZ.
24 hours later, I’m landing in Australia. I transferred to my airbnb and switched on the news. New Zealand had now closed it’s borders to all non-citizens ☹️ and within 24 hours, Australia was going to close it’s borders…..phew, made it just in time. I cancelled my flight to NZ.
So here I am Day 2 of self-isolation, and I’m not making any more plans, until the isolation is over and I can see what position the world is in. I hope, I can spend some extra time in OZ, do that road trip, after all, get to Brisbane etc. Whatever happens though….Australia will be my last country, unless some miracle happens and the world re-opens in the next month.
The next problem will be trying to find anyone who’s flying back to the UK!!! In the meantime, I’m finding pictures to text to my family ??
