England 2021

Ireland done. next stop, England. 

Day 1: 

We arrived at Heathrow airport and were greeted with a clusterfuck of bureaucracy. Firstly, the 2 PCR tests we had booked (in Ireland and in London) weren't checked. Neither was our passenger locator form. Secondly, after waiting for 2 hours for our bags to arrive, we finally found them on separate baggage carousels! Then, lastly, we had to catch a black cab to the COVID testing site because we were running late. The clinic had highly untrained personnel (my swab barely touched my nose). The taxi driver, who was not wearing a mask, vented to us about how COVID kills fewer people than the flu and that it's destroying the economy. He was extremely critical of card payments and was very open about how much he wanted the PM to die. Admittedly, the cab driver was homeless - he showed us the sleeping bag and gas heater in the back seat before he drove off in a huff. 

With our bad start out of the way, we were ready to start our day. The first thing we noticed was how similar everything looked to Australia. The brick front yards were a dead giveaway. 

When we arrived at Pestana hotel, Kaz was very eager to jump straight into self-isolation without saying hi to my auntie. Unfortunately, this didn't work out because Alex and Clare were there ready to ambush us on our arrival. After our not-so 1.5m hello's we sprinted upstairs and spent the remainder of the day and the following day in isolation. 

Day 2:

Self-isolation sucks, but if you have to endure it, it helps to have a great hotel room. The room, which was partially purchased by my parents and my uncle, was pretty swish. It had a decent view of Battersea Park and had a bathtub with neon lights. 

It struck me as odd that we needed to self isolate ourselves so effectively in London. I could understand self-isolating in New Zealand because you can view the country as a pure, clean Petri dish. But England is more like a messy dog bowl. If anything, the whole country should isolate to protect us.

In the evening, after enough kicking and screaming, Karen allowed me to have dinner with my Aunt and Uncle. Marcus was there too. Clare made an excellent dinner and it was nice catching up with my family. Marcus is a stereotypical British University student. He says "you know what I mean, right?" in every sentence and talks endlessly about his drinking escapades. 

Day 3:

This was our busiest day. We took the Uber boat all the way to London Bridge and walked around. The whole country was completely open. Stores were wide open, people were running, pubs were crowded. It was a big change from the Netherlands. We saw the Tate museum and to my surprise I actually really liked it. I ended up focusing almost none of my attention on the post-modern "artworks" and spent a lot of time admiring a mechanical project. Someone had created giant floating octopuses that were floating in midair with the help of drone propellers. It was very captivating and I couldn't help but figure out how they worked. 

In the evening Daniel Chee and I met up on Mayfair. All 3 of us enjoyed a very British meal consisting of Raman noodles and octopus balls. After that, we walked through the light festival and proceeded to get drunk in a local bar. It was great catching up with Daniel. 

Even in my drunken stooper I couldn't help but notice how much the average Brit doesn't care about COVID. No one wears masks and no one obeys government regulation. It's as if the whole society has become numb to the pandemic after the first hard lockdown.

Day 4:

We spent the largest part of our day recovering from our hangover. I walked a lot around Battersea Park while Kaz capitalized on our amazing hotel quality and read manga on her phone. 

In the evening we went to Wimbledon to meet up with my cousin, Andrew, and his wife Hellen. I really enjoyed meeting up with them. They have a kid called Marius and he's an uncontrollable bundle of energy that's strangely quite shy. I had never had a long conversation with Hellen before (only some quick small talk in Ireland for their wedding 4 years ago). It was very refreshing having a serious, intelligent conversation with them. Andrew was still very vague about his job, but I did find out that he spends at least part of his time contracted out to fight cybercrime against insurance companies. Hellen has an extremely stressful job doing psychology work on attempted suicide victims. To top off the night we went to the pub and drank some hot chocolates and ate some crisps. 

Day 5:

Christmas! Jake and Laura rocked up to Clare and Mark's apartment and we all had a very enjoyable Christmas together. They have a baby called Casper. The conversation was light-hearted and friendly. To top it off we played a board game called Codenames - adult-themed. It was a lot of fun. 

Day 6:
Last day. We met up with Daniel again briefly for another pub feed then sprinted our way around town to get more covid tests + a 2 hour bus to Stansted airport. 

Goodbye England! This was definitely more of a family visit than a country tour, and it was much needed! Stay posh.