Double Whammy for Australians

Double Whammy for Australians By Veronica Matheson

It’s been a double whammy for the Land Down Under as Australians are still recovering from massive bushfires around the continent as COVID-19 kicks in.

Confirmed Australian cases have passed the 360 mark and grow by the day, capturing international headlines as an Australian Cabinet Minister, Peter Dutton, was confirmed with the virus just days after a business meeting with US President Trump’s daughter Ivanka.

Around the same time, Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, currently filming in Australia, were diagnosed with the virus and are now in isolation in a Queensland hospital.

The first race on the World Series FI Grand Prix calendar was to be held in Melbourne at the weekend, but it was canceled after FI team members went into quarantine over COVID-19 concerns.

The Australian Government has placed a worldwide Level Three travel warning on its Smart Traveller website urging Australians to reconsider all non-essential overseas travel, while all overseas arrivals are required to selfisolate for 14-days after setting foot in Australia.

It affects me right now as we were to be off to Japan next week where my husband was joining a motor enthusiasts’ tour of Japanese car factories, museums, and motor circuits. Fortunately, our tour company has postponed the trip until October. It is also fortunate as our travel insurance does not cover a pandemic.

Now we have fingers crossed that the European COVID-19 situation improves in the coming weeks as we fly to Paris to “babysit” our daughter’s apartment—it has a view of the Eiffel Tower from the kitchen window— while her family takes a holiday in the UK. When the family returns to Paris, we were off on a river cruise to explore Normandy, visit Monet’s garden in Giverny, the WWII battlefields, and so much more. We look forward to enjoying delectable French food and wine along the river banks. There were to be many generous glasses of apple cider by day to wash down crusty baguettes and rampantly runny cheeses, with smooth Calvados to rock us to sleep at night. ©Chris Cutler

We may need to plan French-themed feasts in Australia instead.