It’s been quite a while since I last wrote anything, and maybe I’m not alone. Coronavirus has hit all of us in so many different ways; all of them as impactful as the next. I, personally, have turned away from the overwhelming social medias, and dived head-first into other media consumption. I’ve been making an effort to stay in contact with the people I love, slowing down to read off-screen, and continuing to learn by starting a podcast with one of my best friends.
All of these things have been a distraction from what the virus has stirred up. Some of you may know that I was travelling at the start of COVID-19 (pre-pandemic days) when my partner and I, despite our best efforts to get out of the Philippines as quickly as possible, were caught locked outside of the Australian borders. We were left with a few choices that we had to decide between within an hours time: stay in Singapore, take our chances on going to the US, and heading to the UK. If you want a more detailed account on how we made it out of The Philippines, you can read How To Get Out Of A Country During A Global Pandemic.
Seeing as Singapore is expensive, and we weren’t sure if Alan could come into the states due to the UK being ‘banned’ from entering, we took the third choice. We stayed with Al’s mum and her partner in a beautiful and quiet country hamlet for over four and a half months. Luckily, it had so much open space and so many farm animals nearby that it was the welcome peace that we needed during the time. We are so grateful for their generosity and patience.
With the help of our wonderful friends in Sydney, we were able to pack up and move our belongings to a storage unit until we figured out where we were going to end up. A big thanks to our wonderful friends Cameron, Nell, Leo, Bettina, David, Josh, and Dan. We literally couldn’t have done any of this without you.
We are now in London awaiting the contents of our Sydney apartment; the ship carrying our life should be arriving sometime in October. I’ve finally been made redundant from my company, so my ties to Australia are nearly all cut. Alan has transferred offices at the same company.
We have lots of friends on both sides who’ve opened their arms to us, and I couldn’t feel more loved at this moment.
As Alan’s father always said, “if you can’t be good, be lucky.” We were thrown for a big life change, and in the grand scheme of things we have been so incredibly lucky. We are healthy and our families have been safe through the entire ordeal (fingers crossed that continues) and we have been able to land on our feet despite being in limbo since mid-March.