The end of 2020

Meerkats watching me work from my home office.

 

2020 has not been a good year for a travel blogger! With all the current indications, 2021 will probably not be very much better - if not even worse. The novel Coronavirus has caused havoc and it will not be going anywhere anytime soon. The novel mutations of Covid-19 is the top story on the virus at the end of 2020. There are a few new variants which have been found. One of these variants is in the UK and the other - which is slightly different, has been found in South Africa. The fact that there are variants is not strange. Coronavirus is - after all a RNA virus and RNA is known to be highly unstable and prone to errors when replicated. However, what is of a concern is that the new variant appears to be more transmissible - which means it spreads much more. The potential problem with any variants is that it could increase the disease causing ability of the virus and can also have an impact on the ability of the vaccines to work. We will just need to wait and see on this. 

Working from home has its advantages when you live on a Wildlife Estate


I had four international trips cancelled in 2020 and all work had to be carried out from home. One of the "problems"with working from home is the fact that everyone had to investigate on-line options to continue workings. It was soon discovered that the on-line options work pretty well. It was possible to hold meetings and present seminars without actually needing to travel to the destination. This will probably have an impact on how much travel will be needed in future. 

The on-line option also worked well for presenting university academic classes and also on-line tests. Setting up all of the on-line activities proved to be quite a challenge, particularly for older people who were born when telephones still had a dial!

Working from home has some advantages, if your home is in a good place. I live on a wildlife estate  and my "working from home" desk overlooks the green belt (natural grasslands). There are quite a few animals which I see on a regular basis. These include ground squirrels, mongooses and my favorite - meerkats. Every now and then, I look up from my computer screen to see a colony of 15 or so meerkats peering through the window at me. Makes working from home pretty good! 



My favorite airline - Emirates - has been good to their regular clients and have extended the status of their frequent flyer passengers. I guess that it does not really cost the airline anything, but it makes their loyal clients very happy and as soon as I can travel again, I will make sure that as many as possible of my flights are done on Emirates. 

Emirates making an effort to disinfect the plane between flights.

 

As William Shakespeare might have put it - "To vaccinate or not to vaccinate - that is the question." For me, the answer is very easy - to vaccinate! If the requirement to be vaccinated is a requirement to open up international travel possibilities, I will be first in line. After all, the need to be vaccinated to be able to travel is not new. No-one seems to complain that a yellow fever vaccine is  needed when traveling to South America and a growing number of African countries. You have your little yellow book which is inspected when you book in at the airport in South America and no issue - so if we get the Covid-19 vaccine book, and it opens travel - please bring it on. 

 

My last Emirates flights just before the "Lockdown" kicked in.

I still have quite a few destinations that I have previously been to that I have not covered in the blog yet, so, now that the academic work is over for a while,  I will try to get a few blog posts done.

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