Have you tried to buy travel insurance lately for international travel? Do you know if you even need it? Has the pandemic affected your travel insurance needs? Here are a few considerations that might help you to make a more informed decision. Emergency medical travel coverage and straight cancellation insurance isn’t too expensive, but the interruption and cancellation policies can be …
Getting weary of languishing
Is anyone else feeling down? Grieving your former life? Lacking purpose? Feeling untethered? If you are, you aren’t alone. There are a lot of stressors out there right now, including, but surely not limited to: bad weather this summer, COVID-19 screwing up our lives for two years, divisiveness as public policy, unexpected and unfair wars, losing rights that everyone thought …
Sniffing around COVID-19 concerns
Out of an abundance of caution when I thought I had allergies, before finishing packing for a work conference, I took a rapid test, and within a minute, tested positive for COVID-19. Now, a week later, I am finally feeling more like myself, but the experience has left me with lingering concerns. First off, I worry that two years in …
Quarantine’s sensory deprivation allowed Greece’s treasures to truly come to life
After being stuck in a mandatory quarantine for six days in Athens, our freedom was delicious in every sense of the word. With heightened senses, we were released into the world, ready to experience everything. We drank in every view, contrasting ourselves in bright colours against the whites of the ruins and rocks. Our eyes, ready for anything different, saw …
’Speed bumps’ accompany current international trek
I’ve just embarked on my second international trip post COVID-19. Given all the new challenges due to the pandemic, and perhaps the airline’s needs to make up for lost revenues, I’m wondering if we’ll see a resurgence in the use of travel agents. I say this for the simple fact, that as an experienced traveller, I had a number of …
Becoming less testy about COVID travel
Hearing that the federal government was lifting the travel restrictions allowing for non-essential travel on Feb. 28, I got really excited. Then, the fear of what all the ongoing COVID restrictions meant started to creep in. My travel planning joints are rusty and, from COVID testing to cancellation insurance, there were so many new decisions and unknowns. If you are …
Does the vaccine actually work? Details in the data
A large number of us will get the Omicron variant of COVID-19 over the next six months. What matters now is who gets it, and when. The vaccines’ roles in all of this are important to understand. Here I sit, with two doses of Moderna and a booster dose of Pfizer in me (and no improved Internet signal – yes …
‘Haphazard non-data driven’ decisions get F grade
“Blunt the latest wave” is what we’re being told to do in Ontario. Is this a call for citizens to buy cannabis and roll a fatty to get through this lockdown? Or are we actually trying to make the latest wave less sharp? A wave, sharp? Words matter. What also matters is data, logic, and forethought before making wide-sweeping, seemingly nonsensical …
Tree decorating yields fertile finds in memory bank
“O Christmas tree O Christmas tree you stand in splendid beauty!” (Did you sing that as you read it?) This year is a bit different with fewer presents under the tree for many, and the fact that a lot of us also have rapid antigen tests under them as well in preparation for possible yuletide visits. Regardless, everyone has different …
Rules around COVID-19 ring hollow without enforcement
As news and social media stories cross my screen on people not following COVID-19 protocols in our community, I can’t help but think that we need a lesson in parenting, and … well … “humaning.” Two incidents in particular have reminded me that rules with no enforcement are useless. Firstly, there are multiple establishments in Sault Ste. Marie that have decided …