How we snuck in and out of Brisbane during the pandemic 😷 Vlog With JustJallOz

Hey Beautiful people, welcome back to the Jalloh family blog. Pull up a pew and stay for a while; We have some things to tell you.

Covid-19!
Quarantine!
These words have become commonplace in our everyday lexicon and have become synonymous with 2020. Along with phrases such as flatten the curve; essential workers (I came to find out, sadly, I’m not considered one of those, as a teacher). The list continues with coronavirus crisis; social distancing; listen to the experts; pandemic; epidemic and asymptomatic. We heard, don’t wear a mask, then masks are essential; documented case; stay home and stop the spread; self-quarantine, lockdown, shutdown and my personal favourite, contact tracing.

Through all this, we waited patiently and kept in touch with our family in Queensland. The last time we had seen my sisters and nieces was when they came down to see us at Christmas. During this time, our visits had peaks and troughs as this was during the time of the bush fires, so the smoke was very prominent during this time. As you can imagine, we were excited to see everyone, including my mum and dad, however with the announcement of the virus that and closures that followed you can imagine how devastated we were. Not only could we not go to Queensland but my daughter and her boyfriend, who were due to return to London, couldn’t leave the ACT. However, this was bittersweet. We didn’t want her to go back to the UK but we are trying to give her freedom of choice because we felt we didn’t have that growing up.

So, we wound down at school and prepared for a whole term of online teaching/learning from home. Fast forward 6 weeks and the sambre mood began to stir up some defiance. While some stuck to their TVs religiously, others began to test the waters and live life.

We finally went back to work in week 5/6. I had predicted this because I know humans are social creatures and the more social distancing they practised, the more depressed they become, which brings its own set of equally devastating issues. Teachers (I) continued educating the children of essential workers, so they could keep the country and economy going.

Eventually, countries began to return to some form of normalcy. Imagine how excited we were when we read on the government website that interstate travel was going to be permitted during the holidays. There was only one place to go as soon as the ban was lifter, Brisbane. We had to see our family. Driving of course.

So as soon as we could, we packed up our suitcases and headed off to Brissy. These videos document our journey from ACT to Brisbane and some of the shenanigans we got up to while we were there.