The long days , warm nights and relaxed ambience can’t hide the anxiety that starts to build . Omicron is taking off , test sites are inundated and we have to navigate a system that isn’t coping , just in order to catch our flight . Our departing flight will connect via Fiji . Although we never leave the airport Air Fiji still requires a PCR test 48 hours before we fly . It sounds doable , but as the date gets closer the infections rise , the test result turnarounds grow and the likelihood of our results coming back on time look dicey . We test at Rosebud 30 hours before our flight (35 hours before we land in Fiji ) knowing that that the chances of our results coming back on time are not likely . Am I desperate? No . The thought of getting stuck in Australia is hardly the end of the world . There’s that sneaky thought that……” Oh well , looks like we are staying for good . May as well get the kids registered for school . “ Then of course you wake up . Shit I’m scheduled to work in 3 days , the kids have to get back to school and all of our worldly possessions are on the other side of the globe . Oh well , it’s back to panicking .
It turns out that being connected to a Facebook group called Aussies in LA has been very helpful . We know there is only one real option and that’s the 90 minute same day testing at the airport . Once again we are gouged but that’s your lot if you travel international at the moment ,you cop it in the back pocket . We get to Tullamarine 4 hours before our flight , allowing time for a test that according to the ‘Aussies in LA Facebook site ‘ should take between 30 and at worst 90:minutes . We find the Histopath pretty easily and I’m pleasantly surprised when we get to the line and see that we are only 5 people back from the entry . A security guard approaches me and asks if I had just joined the queue . I reply , “Yes “ . I am then informed that the queue is broken into 2 parts , the other part was on the back side of the building . To my shock and resignation the 2nd part snakes some 60 people deep in a partitioned area . It turns out that there are people lined up ahead of ourselves with flights up to 9 hours away and even the next day . It’s a fucking mess . Fortunately there is an attempt to prioritise the line . Those that have flights the next day are told to come back tomorrow, with the exception for those with early morning flights . It still didn’t go far enough . There were people behind me that looked almost certainly likely that they’d miss their flight , with just on 3 hours left until they departed for Bangkok . It would take the full 90 minutes for our negative results to return , leaving us just minutes to check in . We had Emma stay at the airport . I think she was more stressed than us . We got on our flight with 10 minutes to spare . To add insult to injury the 2nd connecting flight is a full plane . Not one of us slept a wink , but we made it back …..just . Oh and we got our PCR test results back from Rosebud ,2 days after arriving back in LA ,some 4 days later .
21 days flew by . It was great to be back . Every day back on Australian soil wetted an arid memory ,a sense of belonging that had been dried off in the back garden of your soul . To see family and friends . To have conversations that were always candid . To watch tv and see news bulletins that were worldwide and informative. To see all the great food shows that weren’t about winning or beating some chef , that had you immersed in different cultures . To watch the cricket , to see golf without only hearing about American players . To see tv adds that are not about lawyers and bloody medicines with all the possible side affects . To eat takeaway food that isn’t franchised . Coffee … done that a million times but had to repeat it . The list goes on . A lot of our stuff is simple but it’s just done better .
There are regrets as well . We came for a sick relative , that’s a downer , although the old boy is rebounding at the moment . Covid fucked things up again . There were many friends we didn’t see . That was really disappointing . This time of year is busy at the best of times but it’s especially hard fitting everyone in when there are outbreaks of Covid , a 72 hour quarantine to meet and 3 testing appointments to be kept . There were many people we had to reneg on . The negatives are the same old complaints of the past .Victoria is known as the nanny state with its overly officious predisposition . Watching the speedo constantly whilst driving , having security monitor me stay 6 feet apart whilst I lined up for my Covid test , the QR code requirements that I eventually started to ignore and of course I got breathalysed on just my 5 th day home . Yep welcome back .
Had to throw it in London Bridge at Portsea … rugged and beautiful.
We’ve been back in LA 2 weeks already . The trip and the events leading to our 3 weeks back in Australia have created a shift . After the first week I wasn’t sure I’d be back in Australia permanently for some time yet , but by the time we jumped on our flight back to LA I wasn’t so sure . Five years in LA will come up in April . There’s been serious thought and honest discussion in our household . We are not sure what our next step is but we a certain on one thing . There’s a major shift on our horizon .
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