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?

@Shesapunkpunk Probably nothing! Unless someone reports you? I don’t know anyone who even got a phone call.

I dunno why anyone would risk going abroad right now tbh, it seems bananas.

@TeaInMyStoneCup MzHz has just given a v valid reason. And not everyone goes for a jolly. My DH is French and has already been cut off from family for a huge length of time. We knew we could drive through the tunnel without mixing with anyone then drive to our incredibly rural cottage and mix with nobody but our own family who we know have been distancing. We didn't expect the quarantine because we'd been studying the stats, but were willing to accept it if it happened.

@TeaInMyStoneCup Same for me, I went abroad to see my family who I hadn’t seen since Christmas.

There's also the thousands of people who had booked a trip before we'd ever heard of COVID-19. Not going would have lost us thousands because we were unable to cancel if flights/ferries/trains were still running.

Starting 2 weeks from today. I don't mind to much as can wfh and have some jobs to get on with around the home. It will be harder for the teens but they did understand this might happen, before we drove to France, and still wanted to go. We've had to cut short our trip to be home in time to quarantine and start the school term.

I do think I will have to visit the supermarket once. Online slots and food (bread flour again!) are disappearing before my eyes. Not surprising as so many Brots will be starting quarantine within days of each other. I'd have to go to several small shops to tide us over until I cam get a slot, so I may as well do one big shop at a quiet time. I have no one who can shop for me.

@TeaInMyStoneCup

I dunno why anyone would risk going abroad right now tbh, it seems bananas.

Oh here we go.

The clue is in the title @TeaInMyStoneCup, you don’t need to come here to preach or wag your finger.

Take it somewhere else.

Honestly it’s people like you who make people like me want to fly a million fucking miles in any direction rather than take another second of this simply unacceptable behaviour.

I’ll say this again.

Flying to and from our destination, driving to a remote house in the middle of a rural spot and half a dozen trips to supermarkets was safer than me popping to the sodding garage or Tesco in my village. FACT

From the moment we got in the car to the airport to the time we got in the hire car in our destination was 10 hours.

In all this ( 2 flights, 5 hour stop, destination airport, shuttle to car hire) we and everyone around us NO EXCEPTIONS wore masks and in some cases visors/gloves too. No excuses, no pretending to have some kind of special, nothing.

The planes in both directions were managed amazingly well. The air changes ever 2 minutes and there were spaces between all passengers.

In the shops in the town we were in, again everything run impeccably, no excuses, no special.

Why did I travel?
Because I booked this holiday last November Because we can work from home if need be.
because we have EHIC and can and would pay our own bills in the extremely unlikely event of becoming ill,
because I knew I’d be remote and safe and would’ve able to train harder, better and more frequently than I would here.

Perhaps also more importantly because it’s actually way safer there in a country where common sense prevails and there are no sorry finger wagging dementors to terrorise those stupid enough to listen to them or people making up excuses why they can’t just be inconvenienced for a little while or so when they do the shopping

Oh and I’m fluent in the local language, I had lots of conversations with locals (at safe distance and with masks) so I know the facts and figures etc.

Some of us make informed decisions and would do so again and again.

@TeaInMyStoneCup

I dunno why anyone would risk going abroad right now tbh, it seems bananas.

Because my holiday was booked and paid for last autumn. No way to claim on insurance as FCO said it was safe to travel until nearly a week AFTER we arrived. We are in the middle of nowhere. Have been to the supermarket three times. You aren’t allowed into the supermarket until you have been seen to use the sanitiser on your hands and your trolley and masks must be worn. NO EXCEPTIONS. Staff also all wear masks. (Very different time my experiences in England). Apart from those supermarket trips I have had no contact with a single human being apart from my DH and DS (who I live with). At home I have to contend with living cheek by jowl with neighbours who have ignored all the rules since March. Visitors, parties, mixing of multiple households etc. The borough I live in has had over 1100 confirmed cases, the entire departement (about the size of a county - much bigger than a borough) where I am staying has had 26 cases!

Where would you feel safer?

MzHz

I actually don't give a shit from a covid perspective as I don't feel particularly worried or concerned by the virus and really couldn't care less what you do.

My point was simply that I don't know why you would bother to holiday abroad given the current situation, because it seems like a massive hassle to me. Not that I think it's unsafe.

@TeaInMyStoneCup

MzHz

I actually don't give a shit from a covid perspective as I don't feel particularly worried or concerned by the virus and really couldn't care less what you do.

My point was simply that I don't know why you would bother to holiday abroad given the current situation, because it seems like a massive hassle to me. Not that I think it's unsafe.

And yet you comment...

No hassle
I’d do it all again tomorrow

I do feel bad because may colleagues had to pick up a fair bit of slack to allow me to quarantine (there's only so much I can do from home), but it is impossible to feel bad about a holiday that was a. much needed, b. v safe (see above points), c. booked last year.

IMO, we are going to have to learn to live with this virus for the foreseeable, so it is going to be much more about longer term social distancing/handwashing/mask wearing/not touching one's face (why is that so fucking hard?!) and otherwise functioning like a 'normal' society. Otherwise the economic costs will cost even more lives.

Anyway, deployed teenaged forced labour today to clear/tidy the garage . Who says we're idle?!

Day 2 for us today and I'm back in work so the kids are under the supervision of the electronic babysitter!

Can I just double check @Pacif1cDogwood as nobody actually clarified with us...if we came back yesterday, and you were told the day you got back = day 1, would you reckon our last day is therefore the 31st or the 1st? Thanks!

@IAmTheWaiting Your last day is the 31st as you have to quarantine for 14 days.

Day 2. I've been able to arrange a click and collect for tomorrow. Our dog sitter kindly dropped our dog off and also told us of friends who did get a visit from police, following the phe phonecall.

@IAmTheWaiting, I agree, you have to quarantine until the 31st.

I am tidying and packing stuff for Ebay but as I cannot bring anything anywhere.... My house looks like we are about to move house. Or as if some kind of toy/clothes/shoe bomb has gone off. Sigh.

No phone calls or visits here. I had a call from an unknown number yesterday and got all excited, but alas, cold caller re the 'accident you have recently been involved in'. Erm, no.

ha I got a cold caller just before and was almost disappointed too...very sad 🤣

There's also the thousands of people who had booked a trip before we'd ever heard of COVID-19. Not going would have lost us thousands because we were unable to cancel if flights/ferries/trains were still running.

Exactly.

To all those posters smugly saying 'serves you right for travelling', take £3000 in cash, rip it to shreds and set fire to it.

Not willing to do that? Well neither were lots of other people, which is why they ended up travelling.

If the UK government was really serious about limiting overseas travel (and limiting the spread of Covid), it would have issued and maintained a clear prohibition on non-essential travel from the outset.

It would have legislated for refunds from airlines, travel companies etc and recovery from travel insurance companies (many of whom have failed to pay out) and it would have actively enforced refunds.

It would have reached agreement on compensation with other European countries.

It would have ensured travellers did not lose out financially due to circumstances beyond their control.

Instead it has left its citizens high and dry. Turned a blind eye to all those airlines, insurance companies etc refusing to pay out. Left individuals to bear the brunt (including through loss of income from quarantine) whilst bailing out big businesses.

So when there is the inevitable spike in Covid, think about how much more this Government could have done but chose not to.

I’m quarantining abroad, after spending the summer in England. We are only 6 days in and I’m going crazy.

We also had to quarantine in England when we arrived there a couple of months back, but that was easier because (a) we had a garden and (b) the kids still had the structure of online school. Now we have neither of those things and I’m going slightly crazy.

Also, the initial lockdown novelty has worn off and I can no longer be arsed to do anything virtuous, like baking sodding banana bread or Joe ducking Wicks.

Hi sorry to but in but here's a query. My holiday was booked last year to mainland Spain. I booked hotel and flights separate. Flights haven't been cancelled by the airline.

Work said I can wfh on my return BUT looking at the FCO advise it's only essential travel - so how does that sit with going. Can you still go - I'm not worried about catching COVID and I know you can take out separate covid insurance. But would it be legal to go bearing in mind a holiday is non-essential travel?

I think you'd struggle to find an insurance to cover a holiday while the FCO advises only 'essential travel'.
If you want to go, speak to the insurance.
It's not criminal to go, there's no law to stop you from going, but it's against FCO advice.
Unfair, but there you have it.

So when there is the inevitable spike in Covid, think about how much more this Government could have done but chose not to.

We’ve been threatened with spikes and second waves since May bank holidays, VE Day and BLM.

Most of us are in less risk of contamination than when in uk.

Someone mused that the quarantine is trying to force money spent here.

They’re not following science, they never were.

"Someone mused that the quarantine is trying to force money spent here"

There's no logic in that. UK holiday accommodation seems to be at full capacity so there was no need to coerce people holiday in the UK over the school holiday period, many people want to stay in the UK this year

Quarantining people for 2 weeks following travel abroad could be detrimental to the economy. If we don't leave the house for two weeks, we won't be making impulse purchases in garden centres or local shops as we had been. We won't be out buying ice creams, fish and chips, paying to park, buying fuel or eating out in a pub garden. That might be worth it if people returning from abroad are infected and it stops them passing it on but we don't know if that is the case. I suspect many families who visited france acted like mine - went to a rural location, only spent time outdoors, wore a mask in shops, traveled in their own vehicle.

I've been really sluggish today. I'm not motivated to do anything and not sure how to get the teens to exercise in the garden. Any ideas welcome.

I'm trying to focus on September and making outdoor activity plans to make the most of September.

Naw, I think the conspiracy theories re forcing people to holiday at home are bogus.

DS1(17) today was cycling around the table tennis table - desperate times, desperate measures.
The last time I saw DS2(16) actually move faster than a sloth must have been early March. He is turning in to an inanimate object. Sigh.

I’ve spent a bloody fortune on online food shops since I’ve been back, there is now literally nothing I need to go out for that I can’t get delivered - and I live in the middle of nowhere

That’s the one thing Covid has shown us is that we can stay home and keep going without shops.

Quarantine has practically zero effect apart from the physical aspect of being able to go out.