The Best Laid Plans

 As we know, my plans for this relocation to Tasmania have all gone awry so far. Well, surprise! The trend continues! Except this time it's not due to my own ineptitude/failure to plan/general slowness, but because of the Western Australian government declaring another lockdown. Or the universe intervening to keep me in WA. Po-tay-toe, Po-tah-toe. 

Perth skyline over the Swan River at dusk

After ten months of no community transmission of Covid-19 in Western Australia, we had one local case announced yesterday. A hotel security guard who oversaw international arrivals in quarantine got it and was out and about for three days before getting tested. Now the whole Perth region is under lockdown for the next 5 days. I had just filled my car with fuel and was on the road, headed east to Tassie, for less than ten minutes when the press conference interrupted all radio stations. So I turned off the highway at the next exit and headed straight to the grocery store for basics. I waited 50 minutes to check out, but it was well worth it to get back to Nat's with butter, bread, milk, and no idea what I'll do next.

The thing is, Western Australia has really aggravated the eastern states. The borders here were hard long after the eastern states eased and then lifted travel restrictions. We required interstate visitors to do a 14 day quarantine long after their states had zero recorded cases. And our Premier (Australian version of a Senator), beloved in the state for "making the hard choices that kept Covid out and kept our lives normal," probably came across as a bit smug. So the prevailing wisdom is that the eastern states are all going to be pretty harsh about letting Western Australians in now that we've had an outbreak; they're going to retaliate for the harsh rules that we levied against their residents. 

Maybe most importantly, I'm grateful that I'm safe, healthy, and happy, surrounded by friends and in a community where I've got support. The security guard lived north of the river, far from here, so I'm not worried about getting sick. I have not one but two houses where I can call home for the lockdown and beyond - and they're located literally around the corner from each other. I've got my stuff at Nat and Mick's, but it's a 3 minute walk to Wiebke and Weronika's house. 

So. This leaves me in a bit of a pickle. If all goes perfectly to plan, the Perth lockdown will end Friday evening at 6pm. From then, best case scenario, the other states allow WA residents in but require a 14-day quarantine for all new arrivals. Many states, though, are doing restrictions against people coming from hotspots that say you've gotta have a compelling reason to travel through - a job, a new home, an emergency of some sort - none of which really apply to me. I don't have any plans! So with no job officially lined up (which wasn't going to be an issue since Tassie is screaming for workers to please, please come), no housing planned (since I was going to wait and see what cities I liked), they have no reason to let me in to even DO that 14-day quarantine. And all that is best-case. More likely, they wait a minimum of 14 days from Friday to even think about letting us in... and then still require a 14-day quarantine when you cross the border. For now, my ferry is cancelled without a loss because of the lockdown rules impacting my ability to get there in time. So I've got that going for me. 

All of this matters less because I need a job (though I will need one of those sometime soon, I've got savings from Exmouth to tide me over for now) and more because it delays my being able to get days of work to count towards my third year visa. I still need to do 4 months of work before I turn 31 at the end of August - 7 months from now. I'm not interested in paying to do a two week hotel quarantine in order to travel interstate. So do I stay in the Southwest and try to get farm work down towards Margaret River? Do I head back to Exmouth and work at the Pub til we know what's happening with borders? Do I just stay here in Perth and work at the old restaurant I was at, just to save up some money, and just deal with losing the month of time for my visa days? I'm not sure. Fortunately, I have 5 days of lockdown to think about it and come up with a plan! So for now, Lockdown Round Two: let's do this!

With the girls before my "departure" yesterday