The Native Iowan

Good morning,

It is 553am, I’m sitting in the Virgin departure lounge at Brisbane Domestic Airport. Up early on the farm, ready n drive to BNE, have an hour to wait before flying to Melbourne.

I have Mendoza with me. His US Passport expired a few months back. Due to covid and lockdowns and such we have not been able to travel to renew it. Now a funny thing is that the US honestly has only one Consular Office open for us. The Sydney offices were shut down last year. The office in Perth is useless to us because West Australia is “borders closed” to the rest of Aus. So, as a US citizen, there is only one place possible to get a new passport.

Melbourne.

Kind of a pain in the arse.

So we are on the fly…

Been 38 months since I last traveled. Checked in for a flight.

I’m not used to it any more. I’m a bit paranoid in that we could get somewhere, anywhere, only to be locked down. We could get on the plane and be told we’ve been exposed to a new and milder variant, and must be held in cages for an indefinite length of time.

My old buddy, David Fegan, got stuck last year in the UK. He and his Mrs, Jackie, had flown over for their daughter’s first child. Expected to be back before Cmas. They got back a few weeks ago, had to do 14days of quarantine, only to come out on the day that quarantine regs were trashed.

Talk about “the luck’o the Irish”.

So here I sit. Today is a day-trip. Down early, go do the passport stuff, back in the eve.

I’ll write as I fly. Have a lot of fallow hours ahead, where an hour or two of waiting is required more than once in the coming day.

And having a discussion with the keyboard is always ok.

I’ll write this in stream of consciousness, intending to post it later.

The airport looks busy enough. We’re traveling light so no lines or waiting. I printed the boarding passes so we waltz straight thru security. Everyone is friendly.

Queensland borders have not been open very long. Only a couple months. Before you had to do the quarantine dance to come to QLD.

Funny how the world is slowly waking up with a covid hangover. After almost 3years, after such damage to the economy, after such BS, the world is slowly ceasing the insanity.

The Solomons, after supposedly being reasonably covid-free, has started getting sick. And of course, as is the way of de-islands, once it hits it hits hard. My son’s family all just did the positive shuffle. Everyone, even the 4month old, got the flu, stayed home for a week, and got better.

Of course, we get reports of the numbers of people that die “from covid” daily. I do not think that a lot of folks are dying from covid. Dying from old age, or ill health, but not covid. It wasn’t covid that killed them.

Sitting in Melbourne with a couple hours to kill. 1115am and we just ordered breakfast at a sidewalk cafe.

The flight was uneventful. I slept most of the 2hours it took.

Some observations:
* The plane was pretty full. Business class was completely full. Old rule of thumb in aviation is a full biz-class pays for the flight.
* Did not count but there are plenty of flights happening. Plenty of people traveling.
* For all the shut downs and bizzyness -interruption, things look prosperous here in the State of Victoria.
* I have not traveled for ages but find I am in a world-lost when I walk out of the airport. No longer is there a taxi-rank. Now its “UBER”. I had to have Mendoza show me how to sort an Uber ride out.

So, a sidewalk breakfast done n dusted. It has been ages since I have been in a city, sat at a sidewalk cafe. It’s kinda nice. We’re sitting in the sun as a chilled wind blows through the man made canyons. People carrying on conversations with their phones walk past. Masks are mandatory. It’s hard to order because we can’t see each other’s faces as we talk. Cant watch the lips as words are spoken. There was an Asian gal taking our orders and we kinda struggled with the various selections… eggs fried, scrambled, poached or raw? Plain, wheat, sour drought toast?

I would think that children going to school, forced to wear masks, are at a severe disadvantage.

So we are an hour out from our appointed time to meet a US Consular Officer. It should all go easy enough. Tho in a modern world, where it should all be done virtually – should be able to be done virtually, these guys can make it rather difficult. But one can appreciate the constraints they operate under.

One of the big hassles has been getting an appointment. You must book ahead and, as it stands right now, there are no available meetings for the next few months. I got this appointment by being persistent and checking the website a lot and finally finding an open block. Must have been a cancellation. It is impossible to talk to the “embassy” by phone. You have to leave messages and emails and hope they contact you back.

Very soon both Grace and I shall have Aussie passports. Sure will make life easier.

316pm. Our work with the passport renewal all done. Took a lot of waiting and waiting but its complete. Success is good.

Ensconced in the airport lounge at the Melbourne Domestic terminal. It is quiet and nice. Busy enough, like I say, the terminals are pretty busy, but there is still a strange feel to it all. The mask mandates make things funky at best. My ears hurt from the straps. Today is the most/ longest over worn one. I dont like it.

Rumours have it that all will soon be history here. I fear that the politicians and their pet advisors are far too invested, by now, to recant. but, mind you, there is a federal election coming on in a few months. May be a wiener for the incumbents to change course right before the election.

Not sure what happened on the planet today. Have seen and heard no newz/bluez. I’ll have to see, check up a bit to know how flippant I can be… nope, nothing at all happened… nothing.

Life is gud…

And the beat goez on.

More siting here, then an Uber to the airport and more sitting there, then a flight back north then a drive back to the farm…

Life is good.

Smiles all around your world.