Coronavirus: 2020 — a year to remember and forget
This time last December, would we have wanted to know what 2020 was about to hurl at us?
If fanciful things such as crystal balls existed, would we sneak a peek? This time last year, would we have wanted to know what 2020 was about to hurl at us? Perhaps ignorance really is bliss.
In T+I’s final Departure Lounge column of 2019, my colleague Susan Kurosawa reflected on the upheaval of the preceding 12 months: the bombings in Sri Lanka, fires in California and the Amazon, floods in Venice, political trouble in South America, Hong Kong and Lebanon, the New Zealand volcano tragedy. It had been a rough year.
In the first column of 2020, on January 14, I wrote of the bushfires raging across the country and my concern for the survival of those small communities that depend so heavily on tourism.
Well, who would have thunk it? December has rolled around so rapidly in a year of seemingly nothing and everything all rolled into one astonishing, disastrous and, at times, terribly sad annus horribilis.
For a while there, the very concept of travel seemed irrelevant. Overseas assignments for T+I’s team and our talented contributors were swiftly erased from calendars. We all hunkered down at home, feeding sourdough starters, rationing toilet paper supplies and arranging arty Zoom-meeting backdrops as borders slammed shut. We watched incredulous as, after the first wave, Europeans and North Americans apparently embraced their usual summer holidays, crossing international and state boundaries willy-nilly.
Scrolling through my photos from 2020, I realise I am a COVID-19 cliche. There’s the exercise snap, the cocktail pic, the baking, the jigsaw puzzle, the re-creation of a famous painting (my husband will never forgive me for choosing American Gothic — we look so morose), the new sofa, the bushwalks. Gradually some adventures farther afield creep in: Canberra, Gerringong on the NSW South Coast, a couple of Sydney hotels, Uluru and, most recently, Melbourne.
Across the festive season the herd mentality will continue. My family is, like almost everyone else, getting in the car and driving, in our case north to Queensland to see relatives who’ve been out of reach almost all year. At least, that’s what we’re hoping to do if the latest cluster allows.
Ideally we’ll return just in time to see off 2020 (good riddance), after which I’ll be hoping for more news of vaccines, an easing of travel restrictions and a 2021 diary slowly filling with departures and destinations. But if this year has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. There is no crystal ball and that’s probably a good thing.
Travel + Indulgence is taking a break and will return the weekend of January 16-17. The T+I team wishes all our readers and industry colleagues safe and happy holidays.