I’m able to book a flight back to Australia with Garuda for AUD$1100 return but not until Feb 2021. It’s more expensive than I would normally pay to fly with Jetstar but in the circumstances not excessive. I let Graeme know but decide not to say anything to mum just yet as booking a flight these days is no guarantee that it will happen.
The Australian Government has capped the number of arrivals to 6000 people per month and introduced restrictions to limit the number of people leaving the country. However, as I’m an Australian citizen there are no barriers to entry other than the arrivals cap and as I have an Indonesian spouse visa I am automatically entitled to return to Indonesia as I please.
It is highly unlikely though that Dewi will be granted a visa to enter the country as Indonesia is considered too high risk and, as I’m not in a position to play a waiting game to find out before booking flights there is little option but to travel alone.
The guesthouse is seeing small numbers of people arriving each month but it’s barely enough to cover the cost of wages let alone all our other running costs.
Fortunately though Melbourne has ended its three and half month lockdown and although there are still some restrictions such as mask wearing and density limits for restaurants and public events the pub has roared back to life.
Before the pandemic began we were treading water financially, trading well but struggling to cover costs most months but the pent up demand from a population consigned to months of hard lock down has allowed us to recoup all our losses and start putting some money in the bank.
But while the whole of Australia looks set to enjoy a covid free Christmas things don’t look so bright in the US where case numbers and deaths are spiralling out of control.
Donald Trump is in denial about both his wanton negligence and his election loss to Democratic nominee, “Sleepy” Joe Biden. In the months leading up to the election he has sown seeds of division and discontent across the nation, many of his comments act as a rallying call to white supremacist groups as Black Lives Matter protestors takes to the streets to object to the treatment of black Americans at the hands of police, notably George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Aberey. Protests are largely, though not always peaceful and Trump’s “when the looting starts the shooting starts” comment strikes bluntly at the raw heart of the matter. Police in a number of cities take to one knee in a call for calm and as a show of solidarity with the protestors.
On election day both Democrat and Republican voters turn out in record numbers, such is each side’s desire to ensure the other side don’t get into power yet it should come as no surprise to anyone that Biden’s hallmark traits of compassion and decency plus his lifetime of public service and track record as a skilled problem solver are the country’s best hope to address the shameful legacy of Donald Trump’s four years in office.
But clearly Donald Trump doesn’t get the memo.
He claims the election was rigged and stolen. And while no evidence is ever produced to corroborate the claims more than half the Republican voter base believe what becomes known as “the big lie.”
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News makes itself complicit in the deception, it’s reporters and commentators acting as a private PR machine disguised as a credible news gathering organisation. The strategy, however divorced from reality or fact, is a ratings winner for Fox.
And in plain view of the entire world Trump openly and quite audaciously attempts to manipulate the outcome of the election, calling for counting to stop in States where he is losing and to stay open where he is winning. He pressures Governors in several states to overturn the results, to either find extra votes or to lose votes.
And it’s not new behaviour. He is simply acting as he did when he tried to coerce the Ukrainian President to produce false information on Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, in return for US financial assistance and as when he almost certainly colluded with the Russians to hand him the presidency four years earlier.
There is only one person trying to steal this election and this time it’s not Vladimir Putin. Democracy itself is now under assault from a crazed and corrupt despot, concerned with no one or no thing but his own ego and his own personal gain.
His legion of followers are all too willing to buy into the lie and it seems likely they will stop at nothing to support him.
They would burn witches for him.
The world watches the final months of Trump’s presidency both shocked and bemused. To most observers this is like the end game, the decline of the western world being played out before our eyes. America, you were once great but now you are divided, and so, diminished. A carcass, a shell, a rabble.
Many Americans will read this post and some may take exception to my comments. I will simply say that from where I stand Donald Trump is the last person who can cast judgement on others based on the colour of their skin. His skin colour hasn’t recovered since his appearance on the Simpsons.
On a more serious note, John F Kennedy once famously said, “there is nothing wrong with America that can’t be fixed by what is right with America. I hope for your sake he can be proved right.
In December we host a party at the guesthouse for Dewi’s birthday. It is also a year since we first opened the guesthouse and Dewi’s and my second wedding anniversary. With Christmas also drawing near it seems like an appropriate time to invite family and friends for a bit of a celebration.
Dewi knows how to throw a good party. The event is fully catered and she has booked an MC. Hani and her friends put on a fashion show and dance performance. There are door prizes for the best dressed couple and for most outstanding karaoke singer. Dewi and I do a rousing rendition of Tom Jones classic, “You’re My World”. The head of the kelurahan then insists I join him in singing John Denver’s “Take Me Home Country Road” and Cat Steven’s “Father and Son”. We sing into the same microphone unmasked. I’m kicking myself afterwards but it would have been impolite to decline. Fingers crossed it doesn’t come back to bite me.
Christmas Day is a public holiday in Indonesia but as most of the population are Muslim it is not as widely celebrated as it is in the west. We give all our staff a Christmas bonus and give Kevin and Kezia some money to spend as they wish. They like the idea of gift giving however and Dewi buys some shorts and tee shirts for them to give me.
I call mum to wish her a Merry Christmas and she appears to be in good spirits. Graeme and Kiyoe joined her last week for the nursing home Christmas party and today she is getting ready to visit her friends from the retirement village where she used to live.
My sister Emma has also come across from Adelaide with her two children. Mum doesn’t want them to know about her recent diagnosis so for now nothing is said. It will cause them too much stress to be sitting over in Adelaide unable to do anything but will be more than mum could cope with having them close at hand.
Family dynamics can be tricky at the best of times and for now we take it one step at a time.
Mum nevertheless seems to be managing remarkably well but says her hand is constantly in pain.
The guesthouse is busy in the week between Christmas and New Year as domestic holiday makers travel from neighbouring islands with their families.
In early Jan I receive a call from Graeme. He has spoken to Emma and bought her up to speed. Mum’s condition appears to be deteriorating now and he suggests I try and book an earlier flight if I’m able.
She has been experiencing stomach pains and needs to have scans. Her GP thinks the cancer may be spreading to her liver.
She has also told Graeme she would like to look into assisted dying. She watched her own mother lose her life to cancer in the 1960’s and she doesn’t want to suffer the way her mum did then.
Assisted dying or voluntary euthanasia has been legal in my home state of Victoria for about eighteen months but as Graeme explains to mum its likely she will die before we get through all the red tape.
I go online to check flight availability but there are no earlier flights. I call Garuda directly to see if there is anything they can do to help but they have nothing before the end of March. They also inform me the flight I am booked on has been cancelled.
This comes as a major blow. The odds of getting back to Australia before mum passes are now looking incredibly thin.
Graeme suggests I look at flights out of Singapore or Kuala Lumpur but it appears that the only flights to Australia from either destination involve lengthy stopovers. One way prices are also between three and five thousand Australian dollars. As a last resort I may have no alternative but given the cost of Australian quarantine is also three thousand dollars, I need to try and find a workaround.
I do some further research and discover that I can book a one way flight from Bali on Virgin Australia for AUD$400. Again, it’s not til the end of March but there’s nothing earlier.
Graeme is now starting to make funeral arrangements and I am starting to get my head around the fact that I may not make it back in time to say a last goodbye.
I decide to register with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on the off chance they decide to offer a repatriation flight from Bali. (Six months on I have received no reply.)
Graeme and Kiyoe take mum on a day trip to the Victorian coastal town of Sorrento. Mum grew up here and her family’s house is still standing as is her old primary school and a pretty, old sandstone church where she sang as a young girl. As trips down memory lane go it is a most wonderful day.
Her scans the following week reveal no issues with her abdomen though the cancer has reappeared in her lung and is now also presenting in her pelvis.
Her hand also looks ghastly. It requires heavy bandaging and limits her ability to feed herself. She is now nauseous most days and is experiencing bouts of anxiety and shortness of breath.
In a last ditch effort to overturn the US election result Donald Trump incites an angry mob to storm the Capitol. Hundreds of rioters break into the Capitol building and occupy it for several hours, vandalising chamber offices and threatening to harm Members of Congress all of whom are rushed to safety. Several people are killed, including one police officer and more than a hundred police are injured.
Donald Trump eventually calls on rioters to disperse and go home but he has clearly relished the mayhem he has caused. He calls the rioters “beautiful people” as Members of Congress return to certify the election in favour of Joe Biden. When it comes to white insurrectionists, it appears that looting doesn’t lead to shooting.
To date Trump’s sole punishment is to be banned from all major social media platforms.
I am continuing to scour the internet for flights but prices out of Singapore are now upwards of six thousand aussie dollars one way.
But at the end of January a breakthrough. Singapore’s budget airline, Scoot has just listed a premium economy flight from Singapore to Melbourne for $1500. I will need to fly in from Jakarta the evening before the flight but I can book a hotel room in the transit area at Changi Airport and fly out fresh the following morning. The flight departs in four days time.
I can’t believe my luck. I need to notify the Australian authorities three days prior to travel and I need to take a pcr test within three days of boarding my flight from Lombok. I have time enough to do both. By Sunday evening I’m booked. Lombok to Jakarta, Jakarta to Singapore, Singapore to Melbourne. And an eight hour block in one of Changi Airport’s transit hotels.