Fire, Flood, Pestilence

Sunday 22 March 2020

Bondi Junction Medical Practice

As strange as it was for me to visit a GP on a Sunday morning, it appeared to be perfectly normal to everyone else there.

At first I thought that surgeries were working overtime due to the pandemic but when I arrived at the Bondi Junction Medical Practice at 9:00 am that morning, I realised that 7 day openings were pretty standard practice in Australia.

I spent rather a long time in a waiting room with several other people which did concern me a little especially as the children in particular, were not so good at the two metre social distancing rule.

One incident was particularly worrying when a young man with a cough came in to ask for a Covid test; the middle aged receptionist handed him a mask immediately and directed him outside to the back of the surgery where I believe he was able to have one there and then.

At that time I assumed that covid tests would be readily available everywhere for anyone who wanted one; that was clearly the obvious way to find out who had the illness and consequently who should isolate and trace their recent contacts so they too could be tested.

It was only when we returned home that we realised that accessing covid tests in the UK was certainly not as easy as we had previously thought.

After a 45 minute wait surrounded by quite a few coughing and spluttering people I finally saw a Dr Davis.

After a back scan, an X-ray and an examination, (all done in the surgery), he wrote me a prescription for strong painkillers and muscle relaxant medication so I would be better able to cope with the journey.

He explained that if we were not in the grips of a pandemic, he would advise not embarking on such a long journey at that time but as we had no choice but to fly back before borders closed he accepted that it had to be done and that the meds hopefully would help.

He also offered to add other regular medication I took to the prescription at no extra charge (including vitamin D which he said could help strengthen our immune systems); he felt it might be difficult accessing GP appointments in the UK during lockdown especially with everything that was happening there at the time and he was right.

I often thought of him during those first few lockdown months when I realised that thanks to him I did not need to worry about my repeat prescriptions.

Before leaving he also handed me a Covid information leaflet with advice on how to avoid infection as much as possible.

He explained that this information was particularly important to tourists in our position as we would almost certainly encounter people with the virus at some point on our travels..

The leaflet focused on hand washing, sanitising, wearing double masks in enclosed areas, maintaining the 2 metre distance rule and avoiding touching hair and face when in public places; door handles, bannisters, supermarket trollies, keys, money and other everyday items we tend to touch without thinking were all potential hazards.

I became very conscious at that time of how difficult it is to avoid touching ones face; you have to consciously remind yourself all the time to not do so and even then it is virtually impossible.

The cost of all this was approximately £60, exactly what my husband had paid in New Zealand for his mini surgical procedure.

There is a reciprocal medical arrangement between the UK and Australia so I could have claimed it back on Medicare but since we were leaving the following day and as lockdown rendered it impossible to speak to anyone at any of the Medicare centres I contacted at the time, I ended up not bothering.

When I left with my prescription I immediately went to the chemist nearby where it was all processed relatively quickly which was good as it was rather more crowded than we were comfortable with; people were mainly trying to stock up on masks, gloves and sanitizer.

Fortunately we made our purchases of those items in Canberra which we were still using sparingly so we would have them for our journey home and during lockdown in the UK (we still have some of it now over a year later).

Both the medical practice and the pharmacy appeared to be part of the Westfield group so once all had been done we popped into Cole's to pick up some fresh fruit for brunch.

We couldn't believe how bare it all was.

There were fewer people than there had been when we went before which didn't surprise us as everything had been bought; so those shelves were well and truly empty.

We had invited our North Sydney friends over for a pre-birthday tea later that day as they would both be having big birthdays within the following few weeks and would not be able to celebrate them with friends or family at the time, so we all thought it would be good to mark the occasions in our Bondi Junction apartment before we left.

Strangely enough the patisserie counter at Cole's was well stocked, unlike other more essential areas, so we managed to pick up a few delicious looking pastries and some savoury items as well.

We then returned home to find that I had received another email from Emirates.

Upgrade Offer on Emirates Flight from Dubai to London

Opening emails from airlines was a stressful business at that time.

We were always afraid that our flight would be cancelled and that we would need to change our plans yet again.

We had become quite adept at just 'going with the flow' and not having any plans at all anymore, but it was still a little disconcerting when news of forced changes first reached us.

That particular email was just another invitation to upgrade our flight to business class; this time it was for the long flight from Dubai to London.

We had already decided that we would try and manage in Economy for that final stretch should the opportunity to upgrade arise but following my visit to the doctor, I felt that the upgrade should be selected for the sake of my back if nothing else.

As our insurers had agreed to cover the cost of the flights and the dispatch of our luggage, we didn't expect them to cover the cost of the upgrades as well but I called the chap who had contacted us in Belmont South just to give him an update on our situation and he explained that as we had booked ourselves into business class on our cancelled Vietnam Air flight, our insurance should cover the business upgrade costs as they were extremely reasonable, unlike the £15,000 they were being offered at when we first booked our flights.

He appeared to be aware of the Emirates flight cancellations that coming week and he was very happy to encourage us to accept the upgrades on those flights which appeared to be one of just two not cancelled that week; he explained that by accepting the upgrades other stranded British tourists could be offered seats as well.

We wondered at the time whether this person was indeed, the spokesperson of the underwriters of several travel insurance providers and as such had a vested interest in repatriating as many people back to the UK as possible.

I mentioned my visit to the doctor and my back pain following my fall the previous Sunday.

He expressed concern and was surprised that I hadn't mentioned it before; I explained that compared to the predicament we found ourselves in earlier that week, my back pain felt relatively insignificant by comparison.

It transpired, however, that as I had declared my damaged discs on my form when I first applied for cover, on those grounds alone I would be entitled to the upgrade to business as those seats could recline and therefore prevent my having to sit in the same position for over 20 hours in two days, but claiming on those grounds wouldn't be necessary as he had already approved both our upgrades on the basis that we would have travelled back on business class anyway on our original return flight..

Obviously we would need to pay for the upgrades up-front and claim them back later with everything else we would be claiming for, which was not as easy as we thought it would be at the time, but that was a problem for a later date.

After accepting and paying for our new upgrades, we decided to go out and say our final goodbyes to our beloved Sydney. 

ARRIVEDERCI SYDNEY

Our final drive to several of our favourite haunts in that spectacular city which since 27 December 2019 we had been able to call home, was one of the most emotional experiences of our lives.

The realisation of the fact that just 24 hours later we would be setting off for the airport to return to the UK suddenly felt real and irreversible.

We had grown accustomed to a sort of travel Limbo since mid February when our return trip to the UK via SE Asia was changed from 12 to 20 March until borders closed and it was cancelled altogether.

Obviously, having lost our SE Asia holiday with friends in KL, Singapore and Vietnam and having no return flight certainty for almost the entire final month of our stay was less than ideal.

But what we hadn't appreciated up until that point, is that on a subconscious level, not knowing exactly when we would leave New Zealand then Australia did create an attachment to our nomadic Southern Hemisphere lifestyle which we were suddenly and rather abruptly having to completely sever.

When we were still in New Zealand we were so impressed with their immediate response to social distancing guidelines that we did wonder whether we should book an extended stay in remote Invercargill or take up my friend's offer to stay with her daughter in Christchurch.

But having made it back to Australia, we had then been forced to seriously consider more permanent rental options there when the covid situation took a turn for the worse and our return flights to the UK were all cancelled.

We had even gone as far as contacting potential landlords in Canberra and Belmont South about long stay accommodation which we eventually set up in Belmont South just in case we would not be able to return home at all.

We would certainly not have been able to pay the extortionately inflated ticket prices that some airlines were charging at that time.

Had our Insurance parent company not made contact when it did, chances are that we would be returning to Belmont South the following morning rather than the to the UK

Spectacular Sydney from Milson's Point

But for us on that emotionally charged final day of what had been so much more than just a holiday, it was the overwhelmingly beautiful views of Sydney Harbour from Milson's Point that totally took our breath away.

As I looked up at the sweeping expanse of the Harbour Bridge towering above us with the Opera House sparkling in the sunshine like the beacon that it was, I could not help but shed a tear.

It would not be the last time that I would find myself overcome with emotion during the challenging year ahead but it was certainly the first.

On that afternoon we mourned the loss of a newly discovered land which we felt we were leaving just as we were becoming properly acquainted with it.

Leaving Australia or New Zealand is not like leaving France, Italy or even the US.

One doesn't pop over to Sydney for a mini break or a Christmas shopping spree.

No, this farewell felt permanent and that is what hurt the most.

Would we ever make it back there?

Would we ever travel anywhere again?

How long would lockdown last?

Would we survive COVID 19?

These are the questions we were asking ourselves at that time and we were certainly not alone in wanting answers that no one could give.

We had experienced a crucial moment in our shared earth's history in those lands: we had lived through terrifying wildfires, horrific flood damage in New Zealand and finally the start of a world pandemic.

We had changed plan after plan after plan until we stopped planning anything at all.

Flights were altered then cancelled as were accommodation bookings and to the very last we had absolutely no idea where we would be staying from week to week or even which hemisphere we would be locking down in.

So this was a farewell like no other.

We were leaving a land we had established a bond with in a way which could have never happened in 'normal circumstances'.

But we were also leaving behind one era and entering another.

That moment for us signalled the end of international freedom and the start of a much smaller, more restricted lifestyle, though exactly how small it would actually become could not even be imagined at that point.

Whether this new era we were about to enter would be permanent or not is a question that remains unanswered even now in June 2021. 

Party Time in Bondi Junction.

Leaving Sydney Harbour for the last time that evening was an experience like no other.

We always felt a little sad when we left an area we had visited, especially if we had established a particular attachment to it, but this departure was on a completely different level.

Whether it was the impending doom and gloom of lockdown which would be dominating our lives from that moment onwards or whether we were just genuinely sad at the prospect of leaving that city, that country, that hemisphere, not knowing if we would ever be able to return, we did not know.

I expect it was a combination of them all.

Whatever the reason, our walk back to the car and our drive back to Bondi must rate as the saddest moment of our entire voyage.

At least we had our soirée with our North Sydney friends to look forward to so that cheered us up a little.

They arrived punctually at 7:30 pm which was excellent.

We showed them into our courtyard and opened our last bottle of McGuigan sparkling served with left over fresh food which we managed to construct into creative and unusual canapés.

It was whilst sitting in our courtyard enjoying our sparkling wine, canapés and a cup of tea that we noticed quite a ruckus coming from the flat across the road from us.

At first we thought it was some sort of altercation between neighbours but when we spotted the balcony full of young people and heard music playing in the background we realised they were having a party.

It should be noted that although the New South Wales lockdown didn't officially begin until midnight that day, social distancing guidelines had been in place for several weeks by then.

These guidelines certainly did not allow for large groups of people to gather in one small apartment for parties of that kind.

Our friend, who taught EFL to international undergraduates totally sympathised with youngsters being asked to socially distance at a time of their lives when they should be living a full university experience.

As time went on we all started to appreciate the detrimental effects that these lockdowns had on many 18 to 29 year olds all over the world but she was the first person I spoke to, who argued in their favour on this.

It is very easy to get angry at people not following rules, breaking lockdown and disrespecting social distancing guidelines but when you are a first year university student living away from home in a new city where your only connections are your fellow students, lecturers and flatmates, to have that suddenly and abruptly taken away from you is potentially damaging to personal development and mental health.

She pointed out that although they realised that they could face hefty fines and police sanctions, those youngsters probably calculated that it would be worth the risk as the following day the country would be in full lockdown and this could well be their last social interaction for the foreseeable future.

But stopping the spread of Covid was ultimately the main aim of these lockdowns everywhere and articles printed in the media later that month highlighted the fact that university students were one of the main groups guilty of spreading the virus in those early days when parties and mass gatherings such as these took place regularly in University towns and cities all over the world.

Whether we felt we would be more at risk out in the courtyard or whether the noise made it difficult for us to communicate at all whilst sitting out there, we decided to move inside, shut our sliding doors and switch on the air conditioning.

We were, after all, celebrating two big birthdays so our collective ages had to be considered as well.

Some of those youngsters partying on that balcony, may well have had the virus already and would have spread it to others without even realising it but even then it was known that young people were more likely to survive the illness than anyone aged 50 or over so that was definitely a consideration for us when we made any decisions at all at that volatile time.

What we hadn't thought about at all that day was that it was Mother's Day in the UK.

We were reminded by our daughters calling us almost in quick succession soon after we moved inside.

Our friend's younger daughter who lives in Cambridge called her first then less than five minutes later our younger daughter called us from Bristol to wish me a Happy Mother's Day.

Of course it was mid morning for them which is why they called when they did but it was lovely to hear from them both.

We marked the occasion with a bottle of Prosecco which they had brought for us, after all we didn't know when we would be able to celebrate anything again with anyone so we drank that, ate the excellent pastries we had bought at Coles that morning and even had a few chocolates from our Hunter Valley collection.

It was a lovely evening spent with very good friends which was the perfect finale to what had been one of the most extraordinary travel experiences of our lives. 

We would definitely miss them but at that point we thought we would see them in August that same year; we could never have imagined then that foreign travel (especially for Australia), would still be compromised over a year later.

It is now June 2021 and our friends have not seen their younger daughter or elderly father since summer 2019.

We hope they will be able to come to our elder daughter's wedding in 2022 and spend time with their families and all of us then 🤞

Monday 23 March 2020

'Total Eclipse of the Heart'

We couldn't believe on waking that morning that we would be leaving Australia later that day.

It didn't feel like it was the end of our adventure; how could it end like that? So abruptly and in such a strange way. We both felt as if we had so much more to see, so many more places to explore and so much more to do but when we went out to our courtyard with our morning coffees, we caught our first glimpse of the deserted, isolated streets of lockdown.

The usual buzz and busyness we had associated with Bondi Junction since early January, appeared to have vanished seemingly overnight.

The roads were empty, there were very few cars and no one at all was out and about.

It was clear then that we would not be seeing or exploring anything anywhere for a very long time.

Our check out time had been extended to 11:00 am which was perfect for us as our flight was at 2:30 pm which meant we needed to arrive at the airport by 12:30 pm.

This gave us 1.5 hours to drive there which we did not need so we decided to have a final tour of Bondi Beach and other areas we had visited over the course of the previous few days and maybe one last walk before having to sit in planes and airports for the following two days.

The Bondi Beach area was completely deserted that morning apart from a few policemen stopping people from parking and seemingly questioning anyone out and about.

All cafés, restaurants and shops were closed apart from the little pharmacy we had been to on several occasions in the past, and the beach and grass picnic areas had barriers preventing people from accessing them.

It was such an unwelcoming experience that we decided to abandon our other 'scenic' drives and head straight to the airport.

But as luck would have it we did take a wrong turn at some point and ended up having to drive over the Harbour Bridge anyway for one last time and catch one final glimpse of the Opera House, Luna Park and Kirribilli - definitely an unexpected bonus.

As we turned to approach the bridge that morning Bonnie Tyler was singing Total Eclipse of the Heart on the radio and that song combined with that drive in that magical area of that extraordinary city was almost too much to bear.

By the time we reached the airport I was a quivering, emotional wreck.

Fortunately it didn't take us long to drive there that day as traffic was pretty light compared to other occasions when we had taken the bus from or to Mascot Station and got stuck in traffic at some point along the journey each time.

We dropped off our car in an isolated hire car parking area where keys had to be posted into a box rather than handed to a human being, much like our Omega car drop off at Auckland Airport though the Sydney one was clearly signposted so the experience was considerably less stressful.

We then checked the car thoroughly, took out our bags and made our way to the international terminal.

Ghost Town - International Terminal

Our airport experience that morning was like no other we had ever lived through anywhere.

We had witnessed airport self isolation when we left Auckland just before New Zealand's borders closed, but though social distancing was managed very well there, Auckland airport was full as so many people were trying to fly home or fly into Auckland from elsewhere.

But on that lockdown afternoon in Sydney on 23 March 2020, the international terminal was absolutely isolated.

We were aware that ours was the only Emirates flight anywhere that had not been cancelled that day, but when we caught sight of the departures board we could see that in actual fact most of the flights due to take off that day from Sydney had also been cancelled.

I suppose if countries were in lockdown and / or had closed their airports then flight cancellations were inevitable.

Although less streamlined than our Auckland airport experience, efforts had been made to keep people apart as much as physically possible in the queue we were in. 

We hadn't appreciated at first that the business class queue was separate from the economy one and much shorter so when we eventually joined it everyone else in that queue had already gone through.

The only delay we had at that point was getting through security which was only allowing one family group through at a time and conveyer belts were sanitised regularly while people waited.

All airport staff wore masks and gloves and all passengers were urged to wear masks or face coverings at all times.

We were very impressed at the care and efficiency of the Sydney airport staff that day and how quickly they had managed to put systems in place in those terminals in an attempt to keep passengers and staff as safe as possible.

We had also put on our masks and latex gloves prior to entering the terminal that day as we were not sure what the airport protocols would be at that time.

Once we cleared security we thought it would be good to have a hot drink and a sandwich as we had not eaten anything since breakfast.

But when we walked through we found that all bars, cafés and restaurants were closed.

The main perfume and alcohol duty free outlets also appeared to be closed as were all the usual designer boutiques and tourist gift shops.

It was desolate and disconcerting.

A veritable Ghost Town.

We were pleased we were travelling light as there were also very few places to sit and certainly no tables to sit at with a cup of tea and a sandwich.

It's only when we walked around the corner to the toilets that we spotted an Australian speciality store which was still open and selling everything on display with discounts of 70% or more.

I bought two tins of biscuits reduced from $17.50 to $3.50 and several large bars of Haig's chocolate in a variety of flavours all being sold for $1.

I also bought a baby grower and toy kangaroos for friends' children, a tin of chocolate covered macadamia nuts and Tim Tam gift packs all at a fraction of their original cost.

When I went to the till to pay for my purchases, I started chatting with the sales assistant and discovered that once everything had been sold the store would close its doors just as the others had done.

It was a worrying time for businesses everywhere.

It wasn't long after my impromptu shopping expedition that our gate was announced.

It was while we were walking to the gate that we spotted the same hot sandwich stall where we had bought our excellent steak sandwiches when we set off for Christchurch just over a month earlier; much to our surprise it was actually open.

The tables and chairs had been removed but the sandwiches could be purchased as takeaways.

We had enjoyed our previous steak sandwiches so much that we decided to buy them again on that day.

We then packed them into our backpack and pressed on to the gate. 

The boarding process was extremely efficient.

Business Class passengers were boarded first and social distancing was a priority at all times throughout that process.

I don't know if it was due to social distancing or just the fact that we were travelling back in business class but it was the easiest, less cluttered aircraft boarding experience we had ever had.

We were shown to our lovely, spacious seats where we had excellent leg room to stretch out and personal overhead lockers which we could comfortably access at any time during our journey.

Once I had stored away all our hand luggage I used our hospital grade antibacterial wipes to clean our seats, tables, windows, mini video screens and even the contents of the complimentary toiletries we found on our seats waiting for us.

As soon as I sat down after our cleaning spree we were handed a glass of sparkling wine each and we were told we could have as many refills as we wanted; obviously we cleaned those glasses as well before drinking which our stewardess found rather amusing but later told us that she wished others took their safety as seriously as we did. 

Having taken advantage of Singapore Airlines' generous offer of free refills and excellent meals and snacks on our way to Australia in December, I decided to be a little more abstemious on our return journey with Emirates.

I had felt decidedly unwell on our first full day in Australia back in December so I thought it best not to repeat that experience on our return flight. 

But a glass of Barossa sparkling wine as a prequel to our excellent steak sandwich was the perfect late lunch for us that afternoon as we waited to take off. 

South Australia 

Before we knew it we had crossed over into South Australia.

As we distanced ourselves further from NSW and Victoria the outback below us started acquiring more brown/red tones than green ones.

It looked dryer and more arid the deeper we flew into it.

It was in South Australia that we had experienced heat such as we had never seen before anywhere not just in Australia.

On the one full day we were in Adelaide we lived through soaring temperatures that in some areas reached the low 50s.

Weather warnings had been announced the evening before urging people to stay at home and not to venture out in it especially as car engines, mobile telephones, computers may not be able to cope with it, so people could find themselves stranded in isolated locations with no means of being able to ask for help.

As it was our only full day there we did go out but we were very careful. 

We managed to discover Adelaide's excellent indoor market, its beautifully air conditioned indoor wine centre in the Botanical Garden where we could enjoy the views whilst sipping excellent wines in opulently cool luxury.

We also spent an afternoon at the seaside in Glenelg and a wonderful evening with friends enjoying a excellent meal and learning all about acquaponics whilst being shown around their very productive garden. 

Since writing my entry on this several months ago, those same friends moved from Glenelg to a farm location further out in the SA countryside. 

They now have a large Australian farmhouse, acres and acres of farmland, sheep, cows and quite a few resident kangaroos.

Aquaponics will feature greatly in their venture to introduce sustainable farming to the region and in time they plan to run sustainable farming holidays and / or tutorials online. 

As soon as that has been set up I will post details of it on this site for anyone who should wish to find out more. 

But our memories of SA extend far beyond Adelaide.

Our few days in the Barossa valley sampling some of the finest wines in the world was wonderful as was the first part of our 7 day road trip which started in SA and ended in Melbourne.

We will treasure those memories forever and we look forward to returning there at some point in the not too distant future.