Welcome back…

Sunday April 17 marked a big date in the calendar, the cruising calendar, as that was the date cruise ships and cruising finally returned to Australia after a 2 year absence, due to the covid-19 pandemic that swept the world.

The first cruise ship to be welcomed back to Australia? P&O’s The Pacific Explorer, or the former Princess Cruises Dawn Princess, for those who remember her.

I must confess that after seeing videos on Facebook from the cruise director currently on the Pacific Explorer, seeing her return home to Sydney on board the ship, even I teared up as she shared her excitement in her live Facebook videos.

I’ve never sailed with P&O before but I could feel her excitement as the ship sailed through Sydney Harbour as she shared what she was feeling and witnessing through the live videos.

The world is slowing returning to normal, or a new normal as we have to deal with protocols and procedures for keeping everyone safe from covid.

I’m sure that when it comes to my cruise in December 2023, that the possibility of all restrictions will not be a thing. No testing before a cruise, no face mask wearing, no covid regulations while cruising, that the process will be relaxed.

As someone who has cruised previously, for those who are reluctant to get on a cruise ship for their very first cruise, or who are reluctant to go back onto a “floating Petri dish” after the Ruby Princess incident, Princess Cruises did get a rap over their knuckles for not being open and transparent with the Australian authorities and the passengers on the ship at the time but I know that the Australian authorities would have received the hardest rap over the knuckles for not doing their jobs properly.

Any cruise ships visiting a port have to follow that country’s laws. They have to follow the health authorities rules, customs and immigration rules for a country and the port authorities rules, a cruise ship captain and the crew simply are unable to override those rules in place, set by that country they are currently visiting. The Australian authorities messed up big time over the Ruby Princess.

I for one, am looking forward to cruising again and I hope you are too.

Welcome home Pacific Explorer and to all the other cruise ships who have home ports here in Australia as you too come back home.

Happy sailing!

Until next time

Kaye

Just do it because the world depends on it…

We are certainly living in uncertain times due to the Covid-19 pandemic upon us. In fact, I feel as though we are in the midst of 2 pandemics – one which is called Covid and the other one is called Stupidity.

When the world began hearing about Covid-19, back in January 2020, people were generally encouraged by the health authorities and the government’s around the world to practice social distancing, wash your hands frequently or use hand sanitiser if you are unable to wash your hands, to sneeze and cough into your elbow and isolate if you feel unwell. We were encouraged to not gather in big groups of people, to use technology as a form of being together with our loved ones and our friends in order to stop the spread of this virus. By being apart from one another, it was to enable us to be back together sooner rather than later. So what happened?

Now we are at almost August 2021 and this virus is still prevalent in it’s presence here in the world and that’s mainly due to the stupidity of certain people who refuse to do what they are told because they feel as though by doing what they are supposed to be doing to help eradicate this virus, that their rights or civil liberties are being taken away from them, where they are unable to do what they want to do, when they want to do it. These people think their freedoms are being taken away or that the leaders or the government of the country are turning that country into a dictatorship by telling these people what to do and these people do not want any part of it.

What the selfish, entitled, ignorant covidiots who organise and participate in “Freedom” demonstrations don’t realise is this… they are not fighting for their “Freedom” to do what they want and when they want to do it. Their “Freedom” was, or has, been already fought for them by those who served in a country’s military forces and fought during war times, enabling all free countries to be free and not be ruled over by another country who were hell bent on removing freedoms and turning another country into a dictatorship by overpowering their governmen. These covidiots really have no clue over this reality and that makes me angry over their attitudes in regard to this virus, which is definitely not just a “little cold” or just a “little flu” or “nothing to be worried about”. This is a virus, especially the Delta strain from India as that is a more highly infectious strain, it simply does not care who it infects.

Right from the first diagnosed case of the coronavirus, before it was renamed as Covid-19, this coronavirus has always been a real thing. From the very beginning, the way it affects people varies. It can go from a person who has no symptoms but has tested positive to having the virus to someone who has ended up on a ventilator finding it impossible to get air into their lungs and struggling for breath and then death. Then there is the incubation period of the virus, just because you don’t have any of the symptoms at present, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have the virus. This is a unpredictable virus as it can take days before you have symptoms from the time someone infected you with it, how many people have you interacted with in that time? This is how this thing spreads.

I choose to live my life as though I have the virus and have been doing this since the beginning of the pandemic. I’ve been social distancing as best as I can do when in places where social distancing is not guaranteed, I have been washing my hands or using hand sanitiser, I  can count on one hand the number of people I have hugged in the last 18 months and for a hugger, that’s been really hard and I miss the physical contact, I wear a face mask when required,  I have been following the advice from the health authorities because I want to keep not only myself safe, I want to keep others around me safe as well and that is why I do this.

Covidiots just don’t care because they are entitled, selfish, ignorant and stupid in their thinking. They have no respect for other people but they also have no respect for themselves either because they are willing to risk the health and physical well being not only for other people but for themselves as well.

Covidiots believe that those of us who are doing the right thing are “living in fear” of the virus. Wrong! We care about others well being and we care about ourselves and that’s why we follow the directions from the health authorities and the government.

If the covidiots would now learn to follow the directions and start doing the things we have been instructed to do, then this virus would quickly be eradicated and the sooner we can go back to life the way it was before the pandemic took over.

I think the covidiots are the ones who are indeed afraid and living in fear and that is why they refuse to do what they are instructed to do. These are the people who want to make this pandemic all about them but it’s not because it is about every single one of us. We are all in this together, not just individually but all of us. We need to follow the instructions and be guided by the scientists and medical professionals who have put in the research and studying the actual facts in relation to covid-19 and not the armchair scientists who listen and follow all the misinformation on Google or certain so called medical experts who have no medical background. We need to put trust in our medical authorities and our government health officials just so that we can go back to living life the way it was before the pandemic and not hinder or continuing to delay it by refusing to follow the guidelines and directions put in place by those who have the authority to keep us safe.

Just as the covididiots are over the pandemic and Covid, so am I but I will continue to follow whatever the current restrictions are as they can change rapidly. I will continue to gather my information from reliable sources. I will get vaccinated against covid-19 as well, when it is my time to go and be vaccinated. I want to go back to living life as we were before the pandemic. So I will do what I must do, not only for me but for those around me.

Until next time

Kaye