[Jarred Santos]

Never even saw the trace of the devil ! Back in January 2020 I flew to Thailand for a couple of months.. so I thought. Ended up being nine months with March to May confined in my pension. Lucky I was way away from Bangkok, so the confinement was rather slack. Once those three months past I just travelled around the country waiting to return home. That came about in November (2020) through a repatriation flight to Sydney. Landing in Sydney was a shock: treated (politely, no problem here) as pestiferous, we (the 60 odd passengers of that masked flight) were transferred to our hotel to be quarantined for 14 days (I was not vaccinated then, but then who was). I‘ll pass on the two weeks brown paperbags meals deposited by my bedroom door to be opened only when knocked at.. until liberation, in December. As soon as free, I took a train and bus to the country with the intention to return to WA via Qld and the NT.. Anyway, fast forward to March 2021, still unvax’d but happy in Freo, bought myself that little Kangoo, fitted it to accommodate a single traveler, and headed off to Tassie via .. Broome, Katherine, straight down to the southermost pub in Australia where I spent a nice cold and wet winter, a few steps away from the waterhole. That’s when the vax became available.. never even felt the piercing needle, all the way to vax 2. To say the truth, I was attracted more by the lollypop handed as reward. That done I headed up to Cape York, then back to Freo (to make the story a few km shorter). Now that I have been injected with the counterpoison for the .. 5th time, yes, yes, might as well as long as it’s free, but no more lollypops (guess those blew the budget, what with people coming for seconds), I am ready to roll again.
Anyway, all this to say that that was the effect the pandemic had on me, just more travelling and always meeting healthy people and leaving me perplexed if it wasn’t from other people’s stories.

Wait, you were stuck in Thailand for nine months @Elzéar?!

 

[Jarred Santos]

One positive thing is that my connection with my sister overseas (Chile) has improved a lot. From emails now and then to Vídeo talks every week!!! ….and not only with my sister but with my school & university’s friends.

Glad to read about this @Gladys! Hopefully the sister and the friends are faring well!

 

[Grumpma]

How much has your life changed because of the pandemic?​

For most of the world, the COVID pandemic started to mark its presence around this time, exactly three years ago. So much has happened that sometimes it feels like that three-year gap was over a lifetime ago.

For one, I've noticed that even now, when things are considerably better COVID restrictions-wise, I still get slightly anxious at the thought of going out. I also actively avoid crowded places and wear even a cloth mask to ensure I'm safe against whatever's out there floating in the air.

But not all is doom and gloom, as the last three years have forced me to look at my relationship with the people I value the most. I've also improved my cooking skills (which are still pretty bad, I'm not going to lie) because of the need to stay indoors, to the extent that I won't poison anyone by accident with anything I prepare!

Ah, and of course, there's also joining the Seniors Discount Club, which I'm very happy about.

But enough about me. How about you? Maybe some things changed for the better? Maybe others for the worse?

Whatever it is that changed in your life, feel free to share it below!

The anxiety ramped up with getting kicked out of Tasmania half way through our trip. Overall though Covid didn’t impact us so much but it certainly did my daughter and her family because her husband was an international pilot. So we worried the whole time . Plus we couldn’t get over the border to see them. (Same as for millions of others). Health wise I got Covid despite vaccinations and while the illness was not as bad as some flu’s I have had, it knocked the stuffing out of me for 3 months and now the very mild arthritis has increased a lot and future joint replacement is now many years closer.

 

[Jest]

How much has your life changed because of the pandemic?​

For most of the world, the COVID pandemic started to mark its presence around this time, exactly three years ago. So much has happened that sometimes it feels like that three-year gap was over a lifetime ago.

For one, I've noticed that even now, when things are considerably better COVID restrictions-wise, I still get slightly anxious at the thought of going out. I also actively avoid crowded places and wear even a cloth mask to ensure I'm safe against whatever's out there floating in the air.

But not all is doom and gloom, as the last three years have forced me to look at my relationship with the people I value the most. I've also improved my cooking skills (which are still pretty bad, I'm not going to lie) because of the need to stay indoors, to the extent that I won't poison anyone by accident with anything I prepare!

Ah, and of course, there's also joining the Seniors Discount Club, which I'm very happy about.

But enough about me. How about you? Maybe some things changed for the better? Maybe others for the worse?

Whatever it is that changed in your life, feel free to share it below!

I still get amazed and amused by people who like to blame the government for covid. I am amazed at someone asking for a cool $15000 to attend a family wedding overseas. So many hands out, but never mind Labour will step up. Now!! I have had 5 jabs and beginning of December 2022 on a cruise I was one of those who caught covid. I cannot blame anyone else for that, just the luck of the dice. I ended up in the hospital in CCU, isolated for 8 days with pneumonia. Without the jabs, I would have been a lot worse off. To those who bleat on about the covid jabs, do you ever think back to polio injections? We all had that in New Zealand and imagine if our parents had carried on like some of those today. Not only parents, a lot of idiots as well. I am totally aware that my comments will not sit well with a lot of the readers but too bad.

 

[Jarred Santos]

The anxiety ramped up with getting kicked out of Tasmania half way through our trip. Overall though Covid didn’t impact us so much but it certainly did my daughter and her family because her husband was an international pilot. So we worried the whole time . Plus we couldn’t get over the border to see them. (Same as for millions of others). Health wise I got Covid despite vaccinations and while the illness was not as bad as some flu’s I have had, it knocked the stuffing out of me for 3 months and now the very mild arthritis has increased a lot and future joint replacement is now many years closer.

I had it too, and it also took a toll on me. The sad thing about it was that I isolated as much as I could, but COVID got me when I let my guard down that one time (it was the 2021 holiday season, we think a family member had it as they were the only one outside of our bubble to come in and the rest of us were symptom-free). I think that's why a part of me always wants to observe precautions, because it definitely wasn't 'just like the flu', as some friends said