Reply With QuoteVery best of luck to you, how long are you 'in' for...
Morning!
My family and I flew into LHR yesterday from Doha, Qatar, and I am currently sitting on the 6th floor of a central London hotel - ask me anything!
It's been a mixed bag so far - the company organising the hotel stays was a model of inefficiency - not answering phone calls, not answering emails. We only had confirmation of an available hotel room literally three hours before we were due to get in the taxi in Doha! (And without the hotel confirmation, there's no boarding of planes.)
But the hotel has been really good and helpful - food has been fair to good, and we've got two interconnected family rooms for the four of us!
And the wife is thrilled at the food delivery options in central London! Yesterday's midafternoon snack was Greggs, a four-pack of 1664 and half a pound of KP dry-roasted peanuts!
If you've got any questions, ask them here, or maybe this can be a place to share experiences, gripes!
Here we go - Day 1!
Very best of luck to you, how long are you 'in' for...
how did you get from the airport to the hotel?
I wish you luck. We saw the Sofotel LGW was being used for quartine - non opening windows and “guard” escort for a fag break to the lovely car park outside. We were warned by guards to move away and wear mask as we were waiting for a taxi home (from a green list at the time)
seems like a mini hell - I really hope you guys are keeping well.
“ Ford... you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.” HHGTTG
What is the cost for your stay?
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How much does the isolation cost you per night?
I was going to ask if there is anything physical to stop you going out.
Ten days is the headline, but the day you arrive is day Zero, so today is day 1. We are then free to leave at midnight on day 10, following two negative COVID tests. Midnight on Friday 2nd July means we'll get transport morning of Sat 3rd, and should be back in Warwick late morning for a cup of tea!Originally Posted by Passenger
Ugh, that's a tale. All of LHR Terminal 2 is set asside for travellers from red countries, I think. The terminal was quiet - very few passengers arriving, and about a third of those transitting onwards. Heathrow was actually quite efficient - always clear where to go, always clear what paperwork they needed. We'd printed two of everything, of course, but there were plenty of people being pulled aside for their papers not bing order. (I stood up to teh temptaton to bark "Papiere, bitte!" in German. Probably for the best.)
Then onto a full-sized coach outside the terminal, where we waited for about an hour - the staff clearly had a list of passengers, a list of hotels, and once we were loaded, off we set.
And the journey... was not great. We were to be dropped at the last hotel on the list, and they were all central London!
(It was like being on a tour bus that we couldn't exit!)
So, big coach, central London, and eight hotels on the list? I think it took about three hours on the coach, and by the end of the trip, we'd had enough.
But like I said, our hotel was excellent - we were the first quarantine family to check in there, we were testing out their Plague Floor (as we call it).
So, a mixed day!
Last edited by Qatar-wol; 23rd June 2021 at 10:21.
welcome home Walt
Cheers,
Ben
..... for I have become the Jedi of flippers
" an extravagance is anything you buy that is of no earthly use to your wife "
Just remember the two Vostok Amphibias you have waiting for you when you finally get released
It actually sounds like a living hell and on day 2 I'd be tying the sheets together and doing a prison break.
Do they service the rooms wearing hazmat suits ?….
Must be near impossible to fully manage segregation?…
Hope you have access to Netflix
Resist scratching the number of days expired on the wallpaper…..
Thanks for that, so they call it isolating yet mix all the travellers up together in a small space, you couldn't make that up
Welcome back Walter!
Good timing on the release of Clarkson's Farm, so hopefully that'll whittle away a few quarantine hours.
Forgive my ignorance but I'm not sure I get the "quarantine hotel" policy in the UK......rising cases nationwide and a total pain in the arse (and presumably expense) to those "incarcerated". On release back to society, one has a reasonable chance of contracting the virus. I fully understand those countries with a virus free status enforcing a mandatory quarantine period for almost all arrivals but the UK is far from it. Seems more like a light bandage than a fully waterproof dressing.
Maybe this is a daft question but what's the vaccination status of your group QW...
I too am unclear why someone coming from a country with around 100 to 150 new infections a day, and presumably vaccinated...looks like Qatar have fully vaxed just over half their population and with MRNA vax's at that, needs to go through all this rigamarole.
Last edited by Passenger; 23rd June 2021 at 11:09.
Which they did on the various planes etc. prior to arriving.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
so surely you would send passengers from the same plane to the same hotel, and not further mix them. I don't know how many flights there are or how many hotels this would take before we ran out of rooms.
Do you get a choice of hotels/star rating or is it random allocation? Is it a flat fee?
Couple of people asking about the cost, not surprisingly! £3050 - two adults, two children (11 and 9), two rooms. But that includes everything, of course - three square, some laundry (not much), internet. You know - the essentials!
Yup - I mean, I've not tested their resolve yet, but there is security on the floor, and lots in the foyer, seeing new families in. There is a certain honour system here - I think I could possibly sneak out, but I'd be making a lot of trouble for myself! I just asked whether we could post something, but the answer was No - things can arrive in the room, but can't leave! We can receive post, deliveries, even booze from Tesco Direct! But we can't post things.
Thank you! It's genuinely nice to be in the same timezone as other people, to have the same weather, to have things like WhatsApp video call working properly, without having to resort to VPNs, as we did in Qatar. (I'm looking forward to not having to play with VPNs at all!) Having the England match last night at a reasonable hour. Things like that?welcome home Walt
I've got things waiting for me that I'm sure I've forgotten! (But I've not forgotten those two Vostoks) Two years of stuff - post to open, packages, things to sell. And then, n two months, when our shipping gets to the UK, I can start the process of unpacking and wondering why on Earth we brought this. (I'd better start practicing my Hard Stare for the wife.)Just remember the two Vostok Amphibias you have waiting for you when you finally get released
It actually sounds like a living hell and on day 2 I'd be tying the sheets together and doing a prison break.
Things (food, packages) left outside the room as the staff practice their Knock-Down Ginger or Tommyknocking. We get fresh sheets on days four and eight, I think, but we have to fit them. We can ask to go for a walk, supervised, outside, so that's this afternoon's treat!Do they service the rooms wearing hazmat suits ?….
Must be near impossible to fully manage segregation?…
Hope you have access to Netflix
Resist scratching the number of days expired on the wallpaper…..
Full isolation? No, probably not, but it's a good attempt, and if everyone manages to maintain other good habits - masks, hand-washing, hand sanitisers, things like that? - it should work.
Netflix? Check. iPads? Nintendo Switch wired to the hotel telly? Yup, yup? The temptation (already!) is to just turn to a screen all day, but I'm trying to manage that. This afternoon, some reading, some writing, a little maths. I'm going to get the kids to do a hotel diary, maybe even a video diary. Letters that we can pass on when we leave. Things like that.
Yeah, that had the wife and I raising our eyebrows at head other, hard. Masks on the coach, but yes. That concerned me.
Of course, my whole family received negative COVID tests two days before flying, as had all passengers, so we'd have to be quite unlucky, I think, to catch it at the airport, or on the plane. But that's the thing about big numbers, isn't it? Keep rolling, more and more passengers, and someone's going to hit double 1.
I'll keep popping in and try to answer your questions - thanks for reading this far! I appreciate your help in my own quarantine project here!
I saw a great one a couple of weeks ago. I was sat in a large open car park waiting for someone. A portacabin covid testing hut had been set up in the car park. Large coach pulls up, 50 people get out, form a 2m socially distance queue, go in to the hut one by one, out the other side, then all pile back on to coach.
Not a daft question at all! Wife and I fully vaccinated, kids not. Qatar, being a small and wealthy country, rolled the vaccine out very quickly. We should be OK, all of us, but we do see travel from other countries and wonder. Never mind travel for Euro 2020 - plenty of VIPs who can skip quarantine, I think.
No, no choice. We were emailing back and forth with some nice staff at the company organising it all, and we were polite, and kind, and everything, and we got one of the nicer hotels. Make of that what you will. And yes, a flat fee.
What's the internet speed like?
Good on you Walter, it must feel good to be back even in such odd circumstances. Do you have a yard you allowed to go to for exercise? I would go mad without being able to get outside.
We spent a weekend in Warwick recently and enjoyed it. Warwick didn't feel overrun with people like anywhere coastal is presently.
Do you find it justified or unnecessary the quarantine?
Qatar has only a fraction of cases the UK has yet you are considered somewhat a risk
Ha! Pretty good, I think! We'll try out Netflix this evening for the kids, and I'll see how that works! Our Tesco order has been delayed, but I'm not going anywhere!
(Hmm, Imgur is playing up, but I got 130 Mbps down and 90 up.)
We've booked in some exercise for this afternoon, I'll report back. Perfect? 300m down the road to the Thames. Less good? Three laps of the roof!
That's a tricky one, at least without getting political. I think that the UK government has handled the outbreak badly, being far too lenient and too keen to appease those that deny the science. Qatar, on the other hand, has a small and compliant population - we've had workable (and compulsory) track and trace on our mobile phones for about 14 months, and it's a way of life - want to enter a building? Show your phone and the Ehteraz app. No excuses. I can't complain that the government is now imposing rules that it should have imposed a while back!
But I do feel that, currently, the rules are unevenly applied, country to country. I find that frustrating. The adults in my family are vaccinated, we've all been tested.
My wife is ill and got her latest diagnosis of cancer in Qatar this month. Test and Trace said she can leave the hotel and finish her quarantine at home only when she has an appointment to make. My son has cerebral palsy - we're still waiting on the results of our exemption application for him.
A lot of things could be a lot worse, and we're getting through day 1 here. We've just had a couple of small Amazon packages delivered for the kids to open later, after the exercise, and I downloaded (so shoot me) a couple of new films for them to watch while I was still in Qatar, beyond the reach of copywriter law. We're trying to make everything into a game.
We'll get there.
You seem very strong and I admire that. I really wish all the best to your family
I do a weekly quiz for my local cricket club. If you want to PM me your email address I'd be happy to email you a couple over.
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SO sorry for you wife's diagnosis - I do hope all works out well in the end. As said, it seems you have string spirits. All the best and roll on Day10. Maybe some mindfulness stuff etc can help? All the best. M
“ Ford... you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.” HHGTTG
That's very kind of you. You do what you have to do, I find!
That's really kind! I might shoot you a PM, thank you!
Cheers! Third diagnosis in three years, so she's getting used to it. I call her Sicknote - she's not done a full week's work in those three years!
If I was planning on quarantining people, I wouldn’t be doing that in the most densely populated City in the country.
I would be designating hotels out of London. Heathrow is on the edge of London so you can just as easily put people up in places like Reading. Probably quicker to get to as well
In theory, I'm not sure density of population matters if you are isolating inside a hotel room? I would be interested in how they dish out the contracts for this though...I'd bet someone is making serious money out of this. You'd think a contract for thousands of hotel rooms during what must be a difficult time for hotels would work out very cheap per room per night. Also, seems like a real lottery on hotel allocation. I've seen news stories for Heathrow based hotels and from experience, those airport hotels around LHR can be pretty bad...would much prefer to be allocated a Central London hotel.
Welcome home, as weird as it may be at the moment.
If you are lost for what to do, and haven't before, just binge Taskmaster and the days will melt away like minutes.
Welcome back Walter! My cousin is going to have to go through this in a month or so (no chance the country she's travelling back from is going off the red list) so will monitor and see the pet peeves you highlight. Any issues with Netflix streaming may cause her some distress though, so fingers crossed!
This can really eat up the hours if it's your kind of thing: https://apolloinrealtime.org
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
There was an old Bob Mortimer episode on last night as we were about to turn in, so we stayed up for another 45 minutes, of course! Best thing on the telly!
- - - Updated - - -
To be honest, it's going OK. Just spent an hour or so making a Quarantine Diary video with the kids!
Halfway through the third day, and we've discovered a few things.
- onion bajhis give me the farts. Especially when served in paninis, and for breakfast. Honestly. The food is a little eccentric but could be a lot worse.
- most people are happy if they can eat and they have internet access. This is the kids and the wife, mainly, but I'm feeling the pull, too - I started all clever an' shit, finishing my Dennis Lehane thriller, and starting a well-reviewed biography of Nietsche, but Taskmaster on Dave is calling to me, a siren on the rock of pop culture. Or something.
- underpants can be worn for at least three days, tee shirts, too. The best way to way a pair of traumatised boxers is to get into the bath wearing them, then give them a proper washer-woman scrubbing. At least, that's what I told the wife I was doing when she burst in, unexpectedly.
Do I detect strains of early onset cabin fever?
It's the oil, does the same to me. Sometimes does a bit worse
Last edited by wileeeeeey; 25th June 2021 at 15:51.
Don't leave any Guff Puff on my watch
Maaaaaybe. It's OK - three days down, seven to go. Got a delivery today from my brother and sister - a new Nintendo Switch game, and a board game. Also picked up Uno for the first time in my life.
Someone mentioned mindfulness - we're going to try some yoga tomorrow, I think. We'll get there.
This quarantine sounds a lot like being on detachment in the military…a case of passing time until the next meal. The longer you do, the quicker time goes by.
Did you get lucky with a view?
A colleague of mine had to go on a business trip to Oz earlier in the year. Over there he wasn’t allowed out of his hotel room at all for 2 weeks.
I've a colleague who has recently arrived in Singapore with his family, it's currently 21 days there. But a comfortable suite with good internet and great food options, they seem to be coping fine and I think he'll have quarantine withdrawal symptoms when he eventually has to turn up for work.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
You will find some ideas to pass the time in this thread, although some of the links to online shows will have expired. I can highly recommend the Escape Room games.
https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...aining-at-Home
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
Thank you for all the replies and interest. I'm bumping this thread as it's day 8, so second round of self-administered COVID tests, and we're nearly there.
The kids have survived wonderfully. We've done our best to keep them amused, of course - they have Zooms with some friends this afternoon - and the hotel is doing its best. We had a call from the F&B manager a couple of days ago, "Would we like 50 inflated balloons to play with?" Sure, why not! So the hotel delivered the balloons and we had great fun with them. Still plenty around.
Thank goodness Greggs delivers!
Wow, day 8 already! Well done.
The balloon thing sounds very strange, but fun. I wonder who thought of that and if it's a thing they do for everyone in quarantine with kids.
Last edited by adigra; 30th June 2021 at 16:27.
What a fascinating insight into the bizarre reality of the Covid world this is Walter.
You and your family sound like you have approached this with such a positive mindset.
And yes, Taskmaster is fabulously addictive!
So clever my foot fell off.
Not meaning to hijack the thread but how about this for craziness in these times!
My wife has travelled back to the UK to see her dying Father. Hospital provided a letter stating this and that under compassionate grounds that she should be allowed to visit. According to the guidelines on the internet compassionate visits are allowed but should be minimised.
Now by wife is fully vaccinated via the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, had a negative pre flight PCR test and had booked her day 2 and Day 8 tests even though she was leaving on day 6. Again the website stated that you had to buy both tests even if you did not plan to stay in the UK for 10 days. Tried to call
The helpline to clarify only to be told that they were too busy confirm and to check on the website! Great helpline!
Fast forward to today and the track and trace person tells her that she can’t leave the country until day 11 unless she has a day 5 test to release. Day 5 is Friday and day 6 is her flight home. She can’t use the Day 8 test even though it is the same test because it has a big day 8 written on the box! Even if we brought a day 5 and posted on Friday it is likely we would not get the results until Sunday or Monday. The advice from the helpline is you can’t leave and they have no advice on where she can stay as her accommodation ends on Saturday! Helpline tells her they have made a note of her and if she tries to leave without a day 5 test she will be fined £1,000! So I have one panicking wife stressed to the eyeballs with a dying Father and 2 upset kids not knowing when they will see their Mum!
However, have managed to book an express test on Saturday morning and have adapted the PLF to state this is her Day 5 to release.
Bear in mind that she is fully vaccinated and has had 2 negative PCR tests within 7 days and does anyone actually believe the ‘system’ is only there to keep the Country safe and not to line the pockets of some Tory crony!
In the words of the right, this is common sense gone mad and a well spent £36bn
Anyway, good luck with the quarantine and fingers crossed for the last few days!
Enjoy the freedom Walt…
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