Actually Travelling (in which I discover that I can't take photos of stars from the plane).

 Probably my biggest question before going (after, how early, but not too late, do I get my pre travel covid test; if it takes 24-48 hrs to process but I have to have it within 72hrs of getting on the plane to the UK but before I get on the plane to Singapore *counts backwards on fingers*).... my biggest other question was what’s it actually going to be like travelling? Who would be travelling and why?

I anticipated the zombie apocalypse, with a dash of fear, and I imagine there will have been many times when travelling in 2020 and 2021 would have been like that.

If you want the too long didn’t read version (tldr) - it was fine, people were nice, yes I got to stretch out.

In more detail...

travelling was more calm, and spaced out, like every airport had rural airport vibes. New Plymouth airport vibes. Gates and checkin counters were late to open, quick to process. Each flight I took left before it’s time, because we all loaded so quickly and there weren’t any other planes on the tarmac. 

The flight from nz to Singapore was in the dark; with stunning stars and a half moon shining in through the window. Very peaceful and wonderful view.

everyone was spaced out; there would have been 30-50 of us on the plane on both legs and about half were families with young kids- the toddlers absolutely loving the wide long carpeted hallways to hoon up and down on in Singapore.

The shops were empty, but we left Auckland after midnight during level 3 lockdown there, so that was to be expected, and we arrived at Singapore at 6 and wee book shops and coffee places opened up there around 7. No one was really shopping so the shop keepers came out and chatted with the toddlers as the toddled and fell on their bums by the cordoned off queuing area with footprints for suggested social distancing measures.

Immigration doesn’t allow e-portal out of Auckland so with that, and with security in Singapore; there was a brief moment where we would show our faces to people wearing n95 masks. The chat and banter in those moments was nice - I’ve never been a huge fan of those machines that would have me take my glasses off and stare at red lights til they turned green...

The precautions varied. Air crew wore masks and comfortable looking eye shields. One dude in a diablo hat wore a material scarf the whole trip, a dude who was travelling to his home in gurnsey had a suit with a pocketcheif, a wonky green tie and a tailored black material mask. We were all issued with standard masks. Some wore n95s and face shields, three wore these white overalls that went over their clothes+n95 +eye Sheilds +face sheilds. I wore a mix of surgical mask/n95 and eye shields, being careful to biff any mask that had got too moisture soaked with breathe or that I had taken off to eat. 

People overall were more worried about hygiene than security- it happened more than once that people left their bags outside unattended to go into the loos. I guess there were so few of us, it would be easy to tell if someone was rummaging around in not their own luggage..

I think we all forgot at times not to get too close in queues- boarding in particular we got bunched up a bit. 

The air crew had gotten quite good at anticipating people’s needs at the start of the flight because I think their main aim was to stay away from us; no wandering up and down the aisles like I’ve seen in the past (except for a bit where there was AWESOME turbulence) This meant with the space people stretched out with their feet in the aisles and slept. it worked well. 

Only one  disconcerting bit of the trip was finding a used teaspoon well hidden in the seat pocket in front of me when I got on in Auckland. It set me up for being a bit more paranoid with the hand sanitiser etc. This isn’t to call out the cleaners or anything; it had slipped down out of sight - it was just a reminder that we’re all responsible for where we leave our own goobers.

Heathrow airport was an introduction.

Do as we tell you, even though it’s utterly contradictory.

No space for social distancing at the border. We were advised to keep 1m from the people in the queue in front of us, but the zigzag of the queue meant we had no way of avoiding people On the left and right of us. All flights mingled together.

No separation between those from the red list countries or anywhere else. Some of the border staff wave us along to fill in gaps. 

Hazmat man is my hero.

The video welcoming us, looping on repeat, had scenes of crowds at Glastonbury, crowds at west end, crowds at rugby, crowds at a rave, Megan and Harry’s wedding. Beside us is a massive poster of Leeds castle in Kent (#kentvarient?). Probably just all needs a bit of an update, is all.