I shouldn’t be shocked

I shouldn’t be shocked by this news, but I am: Qantas chief Alan Joyce reckons we won’t be travelling internationally until July next year.

And I think by “internationally” he means New Zealand.

Joyce said yesterday that the “travel bubble” with New Zealand has progressed, but access was unlikely until 2021.

“(For) international, we have to be realistic about it and in staying with what’s happening in the rest of the globe, it is probably an extended period of time before we’ll open up those borders,” he revealed yesterday.

The airline has mothballed its fancy double-decker A380 Airbus planes in the desert.

“We’re parking the A380s for at least three years because they don’t have any use, we think, during this period of time.”

Three years!!!!!

I’m not going to mention it to the youngest just yet, she’ll be devastated, as the World Skipping Championships have been rescheduled to July next year.

It’s sounding unlikely Canada will be on the can-fly list by then.

It’s a stark reminder of just how much the world has changed in the past few months.

The Qantas announcement follows last week’s update from the Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham, who said it was likely Australians will be banned from overseas travel until 2021.

“I hope that we can look eventually at some of those countries who have similar successes in suppressing the spread of COVID to Australia and New Zealand, and in working … with those countries to find safe pathways to deal with essential business travel that helps to contribute to jobs across our economies,’’ he said.

“But I do, sadly, think that in terms of open tourist-related travel in or out of Australia, that remains quite some distance off, just because of the practicalities of the volumes that are involved and the need for us to first and foremost keep putting health first.”

Asked if he was really talking about a travel ban until 2021, Senator Birmingham replied, “Honestly, I think that is more likely the case.”

Professor Joel Negin, head of the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, told SBS News: “In terms of mass travel and holidays to Hawaii and Thailand and America, that’s going to be a while still I think, like late 2021 or even longer.”

It still doesn’t feel real. Who would have guessed a few months ago that our world would become so small? I went out for dinner last night with a few friends, and while it was a novelty after so long in lockdown, it also felt very normal. We all commented that as we sat around the table eating our green chicken curry, it was hard to believe what was happening globally as we sit on our relatively COVID-controlled continent.

On the subject of business-as-usual domestic news, I’m piking out and colouring my hair today. All those Google articles about redheads not going grey LIED. My regrowth is getting super long and it is most definitely grey, not strawberry blonde like I was promised by the internet. I’ve been feeling a bit iffy about going grey, so I will check if my hairdresser can make me ash blonde, but I think they previously said it would be really hard, so I will probably give up and stay red for another year or two.

Wuss.

Have a great weekend. I might not get a chance to blog on Monday morning, as it’s shaping up to be a bit hectic, so I’ll catch you on Tuesday.

Song of the day: Nelly Furtado “I’m like a bird”