Welcome back to this weeks Post Comment Love or #PoCoLo with Stephanie from Lifeat139a and I. We host this weekly linky for anyone to join in with any blog post written this week and in exchange we'll comment and tweet a link to your post out on twitter. We can also send a weekly reminder, when the link is live.
All we ask is that you comment on the hosts post and one other post, most of you do and it's lovely and it's really great to meet other bloggers now a lot of us are spending more time online during covid.
I'm planning the rest of my trips this year, organising house and pet sitters ready to return to Dubai. I'd just arrived back there this time last year and Covid was now very much a topic for almost everyone.
A facebook memory popped up yesterday about the schools being closed in Dubai and how most had just hit the malls with the kids or had booked holidays to take advantage of the kids being off school. I was back in Dubai and within a week I was keeping a very close eye on my flight home.
Travel will be very different from now on I'm sure. I've already had to have PCR tests before travel and on arrival and have quarantined/isolated on 3 times now on my return to the UK. I've also been fully vaccinated whilst I was in Dubai to ensure mine and others safety for when I next get on a plane, hopefully in a months time.
Flying has been incredibly daunting during covid but it has also been in general a much better experience than normal. Less people, less stress, reduced queues, more space, less time. I imagine it's similar to the days of early aviation in terms of numbers, but obviously with a lot more checking.
A lot has changed in aviation since my first flight in 1989, aged 18. I smoked on the plane and went into the cockpit. You booked your suitcase into the hold, but carried a toiletry bag with full bottles of hairspray, shampoos etc as hand luggage.
It was only after 2001 they locked the cockpit door, stopped you driving up to the departure door to drop your loved one off and in 2006 stopped you taking liquids on board, then for a brief time in 2017 all electronics were banned in hand luggage with certain airlines and routes.
Now I have to present time sensitive, negative PCR tests (£120 each) complete forms for permission to leave/enter/return, test on arrival, isolate/quarantine as per latest guidelines in both the UK and Dubai. My next flight is in April, I will return to the UK in June, I will follow the guidelines/rules/laws on arrival as who knows what may have change by then.
Seeing empty airports, departure boards and closed airports is actually quite daunting and really does make it quite clear just how deadly Covid is for the world to come to an almost stop.
Terminal 1 Dubai Arrivals Hall.
Terminal 3 Heathrow - Closed.
Birmingham Airport, Departure Lounge.
xxx
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