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Now ye're talking - to an Irishman in mandatory quarantine in Australia

Boards.ie: Niamh

Hey all,

We have an AMA with a Boardsie who has made the trip to Oz recently and is going through the mandatory hotel quarantine (MHQ) which is still required in most places over there. It is probably one of the strictest Covid-19 prevention measures still in place for travellers right now.

Our boardsie will have to stay in place in the hotel for 14 days so he is available to answer anything you want to ask him - I'm sure it will help to pass some time for him too!

Ask away...

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smurfjed

It’s extremely unlikely that i shall answer your questions in full, unless i get drunk again. Anyway time for my 4th PCR of this week.

faceman

OP some more questions if that's cool.

Touching wood when I ask this, if your mental health did take a downward turn during quarantine, what measures are in place to help you if at all?

If an emergency arose while in quarantine and you had to return to Ireland, would you be permitted to do so?

Not suggesting you do this next one btw, but if you decided you wanted to sneak out and escape. Have you mapped an escape route and would you encounter any resistance? (In Ireland the Gardai were called but many escapees were never located afterward lol)

Does the hotel wifi permit the illegal downloading of tv shows and movies?

If then hotel had to evacuate due to an emergency like a fire etc, would your evacuation point be different to everyone else? Presumably your door isn't locked from the outside?

Is it difficult to watch porn on the sly with the missus hanging around? Im sure the whoopee between you is great, sometimes you need a bit of dirt on the telly box to get by, AMIRIGHT? 😝

Noo

How long has your partner lived in Ireland? After all the separation covid has caused for families, do you think this trip may spark some desire for her to move back to Australia?

I'm in Quarantine in Australia, AMA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118132894#Comment_118132894

I'll try to answer a few!

There's a daily call from the health team,if you have any mental health concerns you can contact them.They can help by talking it out and reassuring people.Many people like myself knew that they would struggle in a small sealed room with no fresh air for 14 days,many others thought well it's not ideal but I'll be grand,a lot of those people werent grand and were onto the nurses.I personally find the idea of them having a chat and trying to talk you down fairly patronising in this situation. If a person has issues just move them to a proper room ffs.Fortunately neither myself not my partner came close to calling them.If I was struggling I would have said let's skip the chat and get the xanex and sleeping pills up here fast,in fairness from chatting to others that's their only real role in how they can help and lots have to go this route.They can't help you change room or hotel,it's a pretty fùcked up element of the situation.

If an emergency came up while I was in quarantine then no,I wouldn't be allowed leave.

The best escape plan having experienced the set up now would be to have blue gown,gloves,mask,faceshield to wear.Wait until one of the days the testing nurses are on your floor and walk out,hopefully you'd blend in and might get to the door.This plan could also work (Maybe better) on days when they're taking in groups of guests/inmates,if you could get to the lobby then it might be a bit more chaotic.Overall security is very tight,there are cops and army assigned to the entrances aswell.No chance of just walking out like in Dublin.

Not sure about downloading illegal streams etc having tried.My guess is it would be fine.

If we had to evacuate I reckon we'd be told to stay in our rooms ( like the Titanic!) Army and cops would come up and escort us out.The fire alarm went off one morning,it was somebody burning toast apparently.If it was serious like we could see smoke or something I'd just be out the door running and deal with the consequences later.

As for you last question.....where there's a will that's a way!

I'm in Quarantine in Australia, AMA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118132618#Comment_118132618

Cool well let us know when you get drunk and what story you'll come up with then.

vicwatson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118131993#Comment_118131993

Jail 🤣

haraberu

Have you anything to say to the geniuses here who proclaim "This is a dictatorship!!!! " when they're asked to wear a mask or produce their covid cert before going into a restaurant?

I'm in Quarantine in Australia, AMA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118139398#Comment_118139398

That exact question phrased word for word ....

"Have you anything to say to the geniuses here who proclaim "This is a dictatorship!!!! " when they're asked to wear a mask or produce their covid cert before going into a restaurant"

Was asked by the poster Daraxtor on page one of this thread.

I'll tempted to go off on one but I'll give the same answer!.....

This experience wouldn't change my view of people like that.Ill be polite and say as a reasonable person like the majority in Ireland I don't agree with their version of reality.

I'm in Quarantine in Australia, AMA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118134614#Comment_118134614

She's been in Ireland 15 years but we've been together for 5 and a half.

I've lived on the other side of the world for a decade myself and you do get homesick.Covid has compounded and exaggerated that for sure.

She's certainly looking forward to seeing family and enjoying some sun, I think no matter where you go there's always a desire on some level to go back to where you came from at some stage.Hopefully with travel opening up we'll be able to visit more just like in normal times and her family can visit ireland again as they have a few times.

Mr Burny

How often are you having sexy time with the lass?

I'm in Quarantine in Australia, AMA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118139432#Comment_118139432

Haha! About 20% of the questions on here are sex or sex related!

A few of my friends in real life have copped who I am from this thread so don't want to go into too much detail but let's say more than a normal two weeks at home in the middle of November!

rameire

Do you miss your stalker friends at home?

I'm not one.

I'm in Quarantine in Australia, AMA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118139770#Comment_118139770

Just goes to show Ireland is a small country. I've often thought especially on the Personal Issues and Work Problems threads that if you knew the person in real life you'd often figure it out from all the specific details they give.

Anyway,I've not said anything on here I wouldn't say to my close friends so no worries there.

Ps Hi Law!

TaurenDruid

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118109247#Comment_118109247

To keep someone in this situation for 14 days is against all sorts of human rights laws and is also mentioned in the UN charter I believe.

Yeah, no, it isn't. Maybe if you were pressganged into it and had no choice, you'd have a case, but you volunteered to put yourself in this position. The UN charter? Covers things like slavery, the right to marry who you want, the right to be free from persecution... Not so much on the right to voluntarily check in to a 5* hotel so you can go to a wedding...

I'm in Quarantine in Australia, AMA

You seem to be a bit confused?

There's also a right to fresh air in there *even for prisoners*(,did you miss that bit)?

I ended up accompanying my Mrs here (original idea was for a wedding) but other family things here became much more important. The fact we ended up where we did was a 1/20 chance.

I'm pretty sure keeping somebody in a sealed room for 14 days is illegal?Google it. It certainly is in ireland and Australia,its not hard to find links fot that.

I volunteered for this but many on repatriation flights didn't,you don't have a clue.

TaurenDruid

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118141760#Comment_118141760

I spelt "persecution" wrong.

TaurenDruid

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118141760#Comment_118141760

You're right, I had no clue Australia was conducting extraordinary rendition and forced repatriation operations! All I'm saying is maybe dial back the hyperbole - you knew what you were getting into, so no, you weren't forced into a sealed room for 14 days. And it's worked for Oz - only 130,000 cases and less than 1,500 deaths, compared to 470,000 cases and 5,500 deaths here.

If Australia's hotel/building regulations don't have rules for being able to open a window, that's admittedly a bit **** - I don't think I've ever stayed in a hotel like that, maybe in London once? - but from what I've read, it looks like you can pay a premium for a room with a balcony and/or opening windows, so it's the hotels gouging people quarantining, not the fault of the Australian government. Though with what we know about transmission, if I was organising it, I'd be insisting on availability of fresh air!

Anyway, I hope the second week flies by and you get to enjoy the rest of your stay.

I'm in Quarantine in Australia, AMA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118142189#Comment_118142189

In some very limited cases you had an option to pay extra for a balcony ( good luck with that if as in many cases there wasn't a balcony or opening window in the hotel) in none of these cases was it official or an option before you arrived.There was a tiny number of people who managed to move hotels but none til at least after the 2nd PCR test on day 5.Personally I think $4000 for a forced mandatory hotel quarantine is enough but in my own circumstances I would have paid every penny in my bank account to get fresh air (this wasnt an option for us and through an almighty amount of luck we landed in the suite we did) "From what you've read" is not surprisingly incorrect, many of the hotels don't have any opening windows full stop,I'm currently looking at one across the road from me.Theres 2 flights a week into Adelaide, if I was on the one on the Tues rather than the Thursday I'd be in that hotel and not this one.

You've never stayed in a hotel with non opening windows? Well as a person who notices these things I have lots of times,the last being in Dublin about 6 weeks ago.ìMost people wouldn't take too much notice of this but I'd say they would if they were confined to that space for 14/15 consecutive days and nights.

You " insisting on fresh air" would be completely ignored (outside of the mental health nurse nodding symapathically over the phone and sending you up benzodiazapines,sleeping pills and valium) This is my main gripe with the whole situation that you seem in your own head to be completely familiar with but in true Boards warrior style haven't a notion.There are people with GP letters,psychiatrists letters,long lists of anxiety prescriptions, claustrophobia diagnosis etc,forced into sealed rooms and in a constant state of panic,it's disgusting and my heart goes out to them,I was more than likely going to be in the same position.Go on any of the main quarantine hotel fb groups and see how far people got "insisting" on fresh air.

Thanks for your wishes of the time flying by,it is for me and I'm actually enjoying my stay.Im confident in saying I'm in the absolute minority in that, I'm in contact with lots of people currently or who have done quarantine in the the usual situation of sealed rooms,many with young kids.Some people have chalked it down to an experience and mad times,some people are struggling months later,that's the reality.

I don't mean to come across as aggressive or narky but you genuinely haven't a clue what you're talking about.

glencar 22

fool in australia why the **** didnt you stay at home whinger

smurfjed

Guessing that you are coming to an end of your quarantine so this AMA will finish, I decided to put you out of your misery. I always love that when people don’t understand something they immediately believe its BS.

Anyway, when this pandemic started, a lot of airlines stopped flying, but many continued and were faced with the issues of following covid restrictions in their own countries and destinations. To alleviate the issues they established “operational bubbles” crews would permanently stay in quarantine and keep operating.

This created issues with time off, when people may have had 10 days off per 30, they now required 10 days off followed by 14 days quarantine to reenter the “operational bubble”. So this lead to crewing having slow rotations that became even slower due to lockdowns or people going sick or testing positive. Vacations or rotations to home countries were even harder as the crew may have had to do 14 days quarantine on reaching home and 14 days upon return, so one month off was basically all spent in quarantine in two different countries. So crews just continued in the operational bubble as they couldn’t get home.

Some destinations are stricter than others and they want guarantees that the crew are quarantined, so there are different levels of quarantine.

I would assume that something similar has existed in the shipping world as crews wouldn’t be allowed to get off ship in certain destinations or their home countries were closed or required quarantine negating the ability to take days off.

So I hope that you have enjoyed or at least survived your 14 day stint, maybe now you might understand why there are people who have done it for over 1.5 years.

Enjoy the beers.

smurfjed

@TaurenDruid, the majority of modern hotels where i have stayed do not have windows that open.

I'm in Quarantine in Australia, AMA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118144461#Comment_118144461

Wow! Thanks for coming back with that.

That's fascinating, I did guess you were in aviation at least!

Well that's an interesting existence for a couple of years,I presume you're young and single? I'd also assume you'd be getting danger money or some sort of bonus.I imagine not everyone at the company would enter into those conditions thus making you more in demand ( these are all assumptions of course)

We're free to leave from 1 minute past 12 midnight tomorrow but we're actually going to stay the night,have a few sparkling Shariz in the jacuzzi,chill out and leave the next day at our leisure. The whole thing has been a breeze and I'd happily stay at this hotel again any time.Im really glad I got to say that and mean it,I often think about the majority who are in ridiculous conditions and suffering as a result especially those with kids or anxiety or claustrophobia issues.

Can I ask some questions?

What was the best and worst conditions you quarantined in?

Ps apologies for doubting you!

I'm in Quarantine in Australia, AMA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118143411#Comment_118143411

I had to get out of Ireland,I just couldn't hack the lack of commas.

Boards.ie: Niamh

@glencar 22 do not post in this thread again, warning given on your profile.

smurfjed

[quote]What was the best and worst conditions you quarantined in?[/quote]

Best - place I just left, 2 bedroom fully furnished apartment in major US named hotel chain. (windows didn’t open :))

Worst - my home city housing compound, 500 meters away from house and not allowed go there or even interact with the dog.

Hotblack Desiato

Well that's an interesting existence for a couple of years,I presume you're young and single? I'd also assume you'd be getting danger money or some sort of bonus.

I expect you're wrong on both counts!

I'm in Quarantine in Australia, AMA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118144971#Comment_118144971

I think I'd prefer the second option as long as there was fresh air!

smurfjed

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118145200#Comment_118145200

Actually it’s a NO and YES, luckily.

I'm in Quarantine in Australia, AMA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118147016#Comment_118147016

You must have a very understanding partner!

I figured you'd have to be on bonus money,I guessing you get some sort of supplement for time spent in quarantine (don't bother answering if too intrusive)

smurfjed

Hope you enjoy your freedom starting tomorrow.