Quarantine buddies - anybody out there also paying the price for having got away?

[Pacif1cDogwood]

Just back from Tenerife.

Holiday was planned almost a year ago, when Covid was not on the horizon.
Flew out after quarantining for Spain was lifted, all of Spain back on the list shortly after our arrival. Foreign Office continued to advice to stay put and not cut holiday short (would have cost several ££££ to bring 5 of us back at short notice anyway, was prohibitive).

So, lovely time was had, we are now back and my hope against hope that the Canaries would have had some sort of special dispensation has obviously not come to pass. Ho hum. Sitting at home, will be working from home, DSs will be missing start of school (Scotland) and dog is under walked....

Anybody else who'd like a moan and mutual support?

Thank you for quarantining

Yes! We got back from Majorca yesterday having arrived there on the day that news broke that Spain was being removed from the exempt list.
We think it's absolutely ridiculous, cases are so low on the islands and on day 1 of trying to entertain a 16 month old in the house and small garden I'm already dreading the next 13 days 😫
I was going to go on a post-holiday no drinking and healthy eating stint but I think I'm going to need all the Gin to get through this 😂

We're on our last day on quarantine today! We got back from Portugal 2 weeks ago, we obviously knew we would have to quarantine when we went. It hasn't been too bad, Amazon Prime Now for emergency shopping has been our saviour!!

Yes we flew out to Menorca when all was fine, quarantine introduced 2 hours after we got there with zero notice. There’s less than 20 cases out there... More chance of catching it in my local town. We were in a private villa and ate in, private pool etc.

But yes we’re back and in quarantine, kids get no fresh air or exercise (too hot down south to sit in garden) dog not been walked and my post holiday no drinking has gone to pot. Can’t believe quarantine is stricter than lockdown. Can’t quite understand the risk of waking the dog at 6am in a quiet field...

It really is a case of just ticking off the days.

Wish they’d separated out Balearics and the Canaries. Made no sense to include them.

Well done for doing it, hope you've got enough food in!

My main concern would be food - I'd have spent days of my holiday trying to sort out deliveries.

Oh, hello, all, we are not alone!

Yes, of course we are sticking to the rules - I do fully understand WHY there are in place, although I am a bit less impressed about the flip-flopping about Spain (off the list/on the list within 5 days) and the fact that there was no notice.

We are lucky in that we have enough space in the house to not have to get on to each other's nerves too much and a garden.
Dog walking is sorted out from tomorrow - I don't know who is more relieved, the hound or I!

I was going to abstain from alcohol until Christmas but have deferred such virtuousness until we are free once again

It’s amazing they couldn’t sort out quarantines this quickly at the peak of the pandemic. Wasn’t beneficial apparently 🙄.

Yet now they can implement them within a few hours. I feel sorry for those trying to decide whether to go to France or not. Things change so quickly.

Luckily we can get food deliveries.

I heard a brilliant conspiracy theory today that quarantine was imposed on the most popular summer destinations in order to give the British holiday/hospitality industry and leg up

Various beauty spots/small villages in the Scottish Highland are completely overrun by inconsiderate idiots holiday makers and seem not all that 'grateful'...

I'd never really thought about that - that quarantine was implemented with immediate effect a few weeks ago and yet we let the world and his wife arrive from anywhere and everywhere without quarantine, until about June!

Quarantine and facemasks both would have been much more useful in February-May time but the WHO were saying "no need"

Thank you all for quarantining and following the rules

Yep and even jn June the government said ‘quarantine will start in a few weeks’. Why not straight away? Why did we wait so long?

Yes we’re all doing it but if they’d implemented quarantine for Italy/Spain etc in March would we have had a different outcome?

The WHO were indeed saying ‘no need, it has no impact’. Bloody useless organisation. Many countries ignored them and imposed very strict quarantines and had a far lower death rates.

It’s a bit arse about face.

Right. I’m not saying do this. But, if when you’re on quarantine you feel a bit dodgy and have a Covid test that then comes back negative......can you stop quarantining? Genuine question.

I don’t think you can actually. It’s all a bit ridiculous. You have to do the 14 days whatever.

Waiting to hear if France on the list. Have family returning from there on Weds 12th (very close given Belgium & Andorra on list since Friday 7th)

Thank you for quarantining

@Curioushorse

Right. I’m not saying do this. But, if when you’re on quarantine you feel a bit dodgy and have a Covid test that then comes back negative......can you stop quarantining? Genuine question.

no, because you might develop the infection later

Nope. no amount of testing would reduce quarantine time.

The available tests all have their limitations. Main risk that quarantine reduces is asymptomatic carriers who may (or may not) fall ill in the 2 weeks of staying at home.

I would have paid good money for tests for all of us, if that had allowed us return to work/school sooner. Ah well.

How did you get your dog back from doggy holidays if you were quarantined?

I'm confused Pacific -- are you in UK now or planning for your return?

I pay minimum attention to rules so not up to date with specifics. How are you supposed to get groceries while quarantining? What happens if one of you has a medical emergency (stroke or broken arm, gash, etc.) Glad someone is allowed to walk the dog, at least.

@Didkdt not sure who you’re asking about dog holiday to? Have read back through the thread and nobody has mentioned their dog going on doggy holiday. Seems like a loaded question but we had a dog sitter who left the house one hour before we returned. Satisfied that we are following the quarantine correctly now?

Though considering we had no notice of the quarantine and if the dog was in kennels then we would have had to go and get him on the way back from the airport as would many people.

Didkdt, my dog was dropped off at the bottom of our drive by his holiday auntie and galloped up to the house to meet me

Iljkk, I'm back in the UK, Scotland to be exact. Tesco does my grocery deliveries, dog gets collected for walks, DS1 is currently weeding the garden - he must be very very bored: I cannot remember him EVER having done that before!

Working from home with v v slow work laptop has been fucking awful frustrating.
On a tea break just now.

We got back from Menorca a few days ago, restrictions were brought in halfway through our stay. Quarantining now obviously but the holiday was totally worth it! Now we are home, I did a Tesco online order which we have almost eaten already! Using the time to do the garden, clean windows etc, all those jobs easily put off.
In a lot of ways though I'm finding it harder than original lockdown. For example, knowing the gym and the library are open but I can't go 👿, it's strange.

The reason we didn't have quarantine during lockdown was because (a) nobody was travelling for pleasure and (b) those entering the country were coming from places that were also locked down so the risks were miniscule. And numbers were tiny - about 90% (probably more) of flights were cancelled.

We really do need a more reliable test so that once you've had a negative test you can go back into the world.