Not Quite Travelling in Australia in a Not Quite Post COVID-19 World

Flying over WA 2007 trip.

Booking any kind of cross border travel in today's not quite post COVID-19 world is a bit of a gamble. Almost a month ago my partner and I booked airfares to travel from South Australia to Western Australia for a five day holiday to attend a 70th birthday, visit family I hadn't seen since 2016, and so my partner could spend her birthday in one of our favorite places, Fremantle.

We booked the tickets because the week before they were half the price we paid, and we didn't want to hold off any longer in case the price went up yet again to a potentially unaffordable amount.

In the meantime all the state governments of Australia were making plans for when to reopen their borders to general travel, based upon the number of fully vaccinated people in each state. SA settled on 80% fully vaxxed before we would open our border to states that were still battling COVID-19 lockdowns, primarily New South Wales and Victoria.

While I decided to get myself fully vaccinated just incase SA went from 'very low risk' to just 'low risk' in the eyes of the WA Government (meaning I would need to be fully vaxxed to enter the state), our state reached our quota quick enough to open the borders a week sooner than originally forecast.

Even though our state was only allowing fully vaxxed people in from high risk states, it took less than 24 hours for COVID-19 positive people to start popping up within the state. Only two people (I think) with one being a child of an age that was not required to be vaccinated at all.

The WA government, being one of the most over cautious states in the country, took this, along with the new ‘Omicron’ COVID-19 variant coming out of South Africa, as a reason to up South Australia to 'low risk'. Meaning, anyone coming from South Australia to Western Australia would have to be fully vaxxed, get tested upon entering the state, and quarantine for 14 days. We were kind of hoping that last requirement wouldn't eventuate and that a COVID-19 negative test might be enough.

It doesn't take much math skills to know that 14 days is a bit longer than our five day holiday plans. Needless to say, we not quite went on a trip to Western Australia.

Obviously this has been very disappointing but it was always a possibility. Had our state government been just a little more cautious and followed in WA's footsteps, with their plan for a 90% fully vaxxed population and opening their border in January of 2022, our holiday would've gone ahead with no issue.

To some degree it's a very first world problem. It was no problem to convert our airfares to airline credit, that we can use to book flights any time in the next 12 months and we got most of our accommodation booking refunded.

We still plan to visit WA in 2022, when we're past very strict border controls, or we can book a holiday long enough to factor in 14 days of quarantine (which may turn into a month of quarantine all up as our own state is also making people coming back to SA quarantine for 14 days).

That was our not quite trip to Western Australia. Heading into year three of a COVID-19 world I'm hoping we can get closer to wiping COVID-19 and its variants out.

The longer this goes the weaker arguments against the vaccines being untested get. At this stage you could make the case that the COVID-19 vaccines is one the most tested vaccines on the planet just based on the sheer number of people getting them.

After that, it really just comes down to choice. I'm definitely pro-choice, and people should not be penalized for not being vaccinated - at all. We all should be fully aware, by now, that being vaccinated does not stop you from getting COVID-19. It just gives you body a fighting chance to minimize symptoms, and possibly reduce its chance of spreading because it can't take hold in you and, in theory will die out.

However, if you are fully vaxxed, be aware you can not only get COVID-19, you can still spread it too, as I wrote about in Vaccinated Michael Rosenbaum Gets COVID-19 Highlighting the Importance of Vaccines Alongside Other Anti-Virus Practices.

Comments

How to Transfer Any Line Art to Your Griptape - Easy Skateboard Griptape Art Tutorial

Dog Star Griptape Art by TET Griptape art is once again gaining popularity amongst modern skateboarders. For those of us who have tried to create our own griptape art, using paint pens, you'll know reproducing your design onto the grip, without making any mistakes is incredibly challenging. Mostly because you just have to go for it and draw the design freehand, with paint pens, directly onto the griptape. You can make the odd mistake here or there but if you get the proportions of the design completely wrong, it can be very difficult to fix. Often you just have to live with the mistake. To address the problem I've come up with an easy way anyone can transfer a line art design to their griptape, removing almost all the anxiety of getting the proportions wrong. In fact, you could do this with any line art design, even if you have no drawing skill at all. Watch the video below to see my technique in action and/or skip past the video where I highlight the basic steps to get your de

Skateboard Trick Tips: Two Ways to Ollie North (Ollie One foot)

You have to be quick to see my Ollie Norths! Ollie One Foots, otherwise known as the Ollie North, is one of those skateboard tricks you learn and then tend not to do very much as more interesting trick challenges grab your attention. However it does look really cool if you learn how to kick your front foot well past the nose of your skateboard. Still shot from Braille Skateboarding's Ollie North tutorial. I was inspired to make my video below, showing two different techniques to achieve a successful Ollie One Foot, when I not only saw that Braille Skateboarding's Tutorial used a different method to the one I had learned but also, when I looked at various other video tutorials, I discovered yet another technique, with no one using the method I had originally learned. Braille's method is to simply Ollie and drag your front foot past the front of your board. The second method I came across in several video tutorials is to Ollie, drag your front foot and tap your

Are Ion Thrusters the Future of Flying Cars? Spoiler - Probably Not But... Hover Boards... Maybe?

Undefined Technologies Ion Propulsion Drone prototype 3D concept image. You may have heard of Ion engines or, more likely, Ion thrusters. NASA uses them on their spacecraft to help maintain a craft's position or to propel them through space. Upon hearing that you might think they're big, powerful engines, but actually they are not. They work well in the vacuum of space but, once any kind of atmosphere and gravity is involved they'd be hard pressed to launch you off the ground if you strapped four of them to your lawn chair and yelled "up, up, and away!" I am no expert on Ion thrusters - they're basically magic that science has an explanation for. If you want to know the details, The Space Techie website has a layman's explanation . Build Your Own Ion Thruster Earth based Ion Thrusters work a bit different to their space based cousins by Ionizing the same air that we breathe to create thrust (an effect known as Ionic-wind ). While they sound highly soph

Book Review: Brand It Purple by Ashley Knoote-Parke

Ashley Knoote-Parke. Image: Facebook It seems almost redundant to review Brand It Purple given you probably won't find a hard copy edition without digging into the second hand market. The book's author and publisher, Ashley Knoote-Parke, seemingly, disappeared off the face of the Earth around about 2015. Which is a story in itself. However, the book is still a very informative guide and, while not specifically targeted at women, many may relate more to a book written by an experienced female entrepreneur. Brand It Purple is a personal marketing and branding guide released in 2009 by then, star on the rise author, Ashley Knoote-Parke, an English born, South African expatriate, who made Adelaide, South Australia her home. There she started her own publishing company releasing a photographic, coffee table book of South Australian sights, along with books showcasing female, then male, entrepreneurs. As well she published 'Brand It Purple'. I came across the b

I'm Joining the Illuminati Brotherhood By Personal Invitation of Hiltom Rothschild... Wait, What?

How special am I to have finally come of age (53 years young) and am now eligible to participate in building the world alongside other members of the Illuminati Brotherhood... Yes I've received the call by way of an email, which I'm sure is real because I had to translate it from the Dutch language and it was personally written by Hiltom Rothschild, one of the non-existent members of the Rothschild family (or perhaps deep undercover because Google has never heard of them?). A Transcript of the email below: To: etourist From: Illuminati Brotherhood Subject: Illuminati Broederschap (Illuminati Brotherhood) I am Hiltom Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family, one of the 13 families of the Illuminati brotherhood. I'm here to let you know that you've come of age and are eligible to participate in building the 🌎 world. It is a calling and a privilege to honor him with pride and gratitude as not everyone will ever be chosen by the LIGHT, many are called but few are ch

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart

Movie Review: Force of Nature - The Dry 2 (2024) No Spoilers

Eric Bana returns as Detective Aaron Falk in Force of Nature - The Dry 2 , and that's the only real connection between this and 2020's The Dry . This is an all new mystery set in a new location. I will say, given that it's either wet or rainy, with the incoming threat of a major storm for most of the movie, the filmmakers really missed a trick in not renaming the film, The Wet. Back when I reviewed the first film I noted that I would love to see the second book made into a movie too, and here it is. This time Aaron and his detective partner, Carmen (Jacqueline Mackenzie), head into the mountains to investigate the whereabouts of a missing informant, who disappears on a workplace, team bonding retreat. All the performances in this film are easily on par with the first, though I do think some pretty outstanding actors really didn't have a lot to do here. In terms of mystery the first movie was better constructed as a who dunnit film you could play along with. Here you mo

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog