Graeme is waiting to pick me up when I arrive in Melbourne. My flight left Singapore at 8.30am but with the time difference it is 6.30pm when I touch down. The arrivals hall at Tullamarine Airport has reverted back to it’s pre-pandemic guise. Automated e-passport readers issue a ticket which is presented to immigration officials then straight onto baggage claim and customs. The last time I was here the arrival hall was unrecognisable, with a series of manned checkpoints to be navigated before being whisked off to hotel quarantine. This time around no one even asks to see my proof of vaccination or negative test result.
I need to take a follow-up covid test within 24 hours of arrival. Until a few weeks ago the requirement was for a PCR test but now a rapid antigen test conducted from home will suffice, with self reporting only required if the result comes back positive. I also need to familiarize myself with the digital system for recording proof of vaccination which is done through the Australian Medicare app. It turns out to be a very simple process as I have already received a digital certificate for my Indonesian vaccinations from the WHO.
It’s not until I’m back at Graeme’s that I discover I actually require a permit to enter the state of Victoria. I was not asked for this on arrival but am made aware of it while reading over something from the state government that was handed to me as I made my way to the baggage claim. Again I’m able to apply for this via the Medicare app and a digital certificate is instantly generated.
At this point in time I have received two Astra Zeneca shots in Indonesia but am not eligible for a booster dose there until March. However, the timeframe for a booster shot in Australia has been shortened from six months to three, which means I am eligible to receive one here now if I want. I am initially unsure whether this will complicate matters, having received my first two shots overseas, but as my current vaccination status is recognised in both jurisdictions, I can get my booster now and all three shots will be displayed on my Australian vaccination record. I imagine it may be a little more difficult recording the Australian booster on the Indonesian app but this also means I could choose to receive a further booster shot in Indonesia, should I need it, somewhere down the track.
I am able to book an appointment online and receive a Pfizer booster at a local vaccination centre two days later. I come down with a mild fever two days after receiving the shot but sweat it out in my sleep and wake up feeling fresh and fit.
It is now a little under three weeks until my sinus operation and I am content to lay low and spend the pre-op time at Graeme’s. Josh and Tom are keen to catch up but I tell them I need to limit my exposure to the outside world as it could potentially result in not being able to undergo my sinus procedure.
Josh and Dimi actually caught covid on New year’s Eve at an after work staff party. In fact, all but two members of the team attended the gathering and all who were present subsequently tested positive. The bar had to close for a week while the bottle shop and online operation were able to remain open, manned only by the two who went home early. It turns out that one of the staff who worked on New year’s Eve was infected but asymptomatic and only learned she had the virus the day after the party.
They are both back at work now. Josh was out of action for a full week while it took Dimi the best part of two weeks to recover. Omicron was spreading fast around Melbourne at this time, while the Delta variant was still prevalent but on the way out. At the time, they were unsure which of the two strains they caught but later conclude they most likely caught the Delta variant, given the relative severity of their symptoms. I will likely go and spend a few nights with them in their new place after my op, which will give me a city base from which to catch up with Toby, my accountant and a couple of close mates.
I put in a call to my good friend Robbie K, who is also keen to catch up only to discover he too has had the virus. He is roundly dismissive of the hype presently surrounding the Omicron strain. He describes it as nothing more than a mild cold which kept him house-bound for only a couple of days and which his partner Ellie, who was with him the whole time, did not catch.
Graeme and Kiyoe are going camping for five nights with a group of friends at Wilson’s Promontory, a rugged, pristine wilderness area and National Park on the state’s south east coast.
The weather was cool for the first few days after I arrived but February is the last and usually, hottest month of summer in Melbourne and this year it doesn’t disappoint. The days are glorious, mid to high 20’C temperatures, sunny and clear with an occasional light breeze. The warmth usually lingers well into the night too, which is perfect for sitting outside with a beer or glass of wine in hand and a steak on the Weber.
I have invited Tom to come up for dinner one such fine summer evening, while Graeme and Kiyoe are away and have bought ingredients to make pulled mushroom meat taco’s. He calls me the day before to say that he’s feeling a little off-color which could be attributable to a hectic and slightly boozy weekend but he wants to see how he goes before committing 100% to dinner. The following day he calls to say he has covid.
He goes through a series of symptoms in the ensuing days starting with fever and body aches, then headaches, sore throat and then a cough. Each symptom lasts about two days and as one symptom subsides a new one takes it’s place. He says the first couple of days were the worst and he is back at work after a week.
I am in near constant communication with Dewi. She informs me that the night I flew into Changi was Chinese New Years Eve which explains the fully booked hotels. She has decided to enrol in a painting class while I’m away this time to give her something to occupy her time. She hates me being away and it seems to affect her physically as well as emotionally. Her blood pressure drops, she often can’t sleep, she suffers from migraines and feels generally lethargic. A wild storm blows through in the early hours one particular evening which wakes her at 3am and causes leaking in our bedroom and upstairs balcony which she immediately sets about mopping up.
She gets very upset with me around this time, when I suggest, jokingly that our daughter, Kezia, who has to stay home from school for a couple of days after coming down with a sore throat and mild fever might have caught the coronavirus. I take a muted response to her outburst and only communicate with her in the days that follow, if she messages first. It is like this for a few of days before she comes around and apologises, by which time Kezia’s school has been closed down due to a covid outbreak and Rini’s daughter Hani, who goes to a different school, has also bought the virus home, infecting the entire guesthouse team from her mum, Rini, to Harry and mbak Lis as well as Ian and Fajar.
Dewi now acknowledges that she was likely also infectious at the time I made my remark about Kezia as she had been complaining of migraine and fatigue. The only two who seem to have escaped infection are Kevin, whose bedroom is next door to Kezia’s and most surprisingly, Kak Ida, who is the oldest and most vulnerable member of the group and was sleeping in Kezia’s bedroom at the time. Kezia has recently moved from having a conventional bed in her room to a mezzanine-style bunk bed with a desk and study area below. Kak Ida meanwhile slept on the floor and it may be this level of separation that prevented kak Ida from catching Kezia’s infection.
Incredible also, to think that I have lived in Indonesia for the two years of the pandemic, as the Alpha, Beta and Delta variants have wreaked havoc around the planet and have felt, for the most part, completely safe. To be fair, schools here have only recently resumed in-class lessons and are an obvious spreader point for such a highly infectious strain as Omicron but it is only by sheer chance that I was out of the country as it tore through the two families here that I am closest to.
But the fun doesn’t end there. Graeme and Kiyoe arrive home from Wilson’s Prom armed with stories and photo’s of rugged mountain trails and wombats wandering through their campsite. The following day, Graeme receives a call from close friend, Cindy, who, with husband Paul and their two daughters, was part of the camping group. And she is calling to say she has covid.
At first it’s unclear where she might have picked it up. There were up to 100 other campers on site while they were there and it could have been sourced from any one of them. But in the days that follow, no other person from their group contracts the virus and Graeme begins to suspect that the carrier may have been her husband Paul. He recalls that Paul, who is a fairly fit 50 year old, was complaining of hay fever the day they went hiking and went to bed early that same night, saying that he felt fatigued.
Graeme spent a reasonable amount of time walking in step with Paul the day they went hiking so he, Kiyoe and I ageree to wear masks while we’re in the house together. Graeme and Kiyoe begin taking daily rapid antigen tests and I cross my fingers and hope for the best, now being only a week out from my operation. We let our guard down after a few days however and stop wearing masks in the house but I’m happy to report, none of us end up catching the dreaded virus.