We’re back at the Cuzs’ house in Altrincham after our leisurely swing through Wales and apart from a few seasonal closures, as in opening when it’s a bit warmer, we have encountered exactly zero evidence of a global panic. Of course this excludes watching the carnage on the stock exchange – a buying opportunity if ever there was one because markets always over-react (usual disclaimers apply) – and listening to the idiots on morning TV like Piers Morgan who are adamant that the Government should “do more” without actually consulting the experts in crisis management who are advising said Government to elaborate on what “doing more” looks like. Something similar to the climate change “doing more” I expect, with similar results. Like journalists all over the world they are all seemingly only interested in the “gotcha” moment when some hapless minister can’t answer the most esoteric of questions.
The two main issues for the CB and I are (1) will this spoil (more than it has already) my cousin’s wedding on Friday and (2) will planes still be flying to Ireland, specifically the one we’re booked on, on Sunday. And the corollary to point (2) is will we be able to get back to Manchester airport from Ireland in time to get our flight back to Australia and will ScoMo let us back into the country anyway. If he follows the lead of Miss Hugs and Pouty Face in New Zealand we may be stuck here. Not to worry. The pubs don’t appear to be running out of beer anytime soon. And the weather’s only going to get better.
It’s now a day later and the Ireland trip has been cancelled. If we’re going to be stuck somewhere, I’d rather it be in the UK where I have relatives. And get this, the Australian Government is recommending that Aussies overseas should return home asap i.e. before the borders are closed and Miss Hugs and Pouty Face scolds us over taking too much time to act like how we haven’t closed all of our coal mines so the world’s temperature will immediately drop by 2 degrees. But at the same time as this is happening, Qantas, the national carrier has cancelled 90% of its flights. We have confirmed flights on Cathay and every flight before ours is full. So the reduction in travellers is being more than off-set by the reduction in flights. Brilliant.