A little less arrogant about how far a British passport and a smile can get you

Option one: We attempt to fly to Canada during a global pandemic.

Problems with option one including, but not limited to, the potential that I could fly there, then be refused entry (if my travel is not deemed ‘non-discretionary’ by a Canadian Boarder Services Agent) and sent back to the UK.

Jacob, who has the magic combination of a work visa and a job, should be allowed entry. Meanwhile I, holding only a work visa, would have to fly back alone.

Option two: Continue living in my Mum’s house and hope that Canada open their boarders at the end of June (2020).

Problems with option two including, but not limited to, the fact that we currently have a £1000 credit note with Air Canada (previous failed attempt) but after the boarders open the price of flights are set to sky rocket.

Which means that we will have to add a further £2000 to this in order to be able to use our credit note which, obviously, we can’t afford.

So how did we get here?

Last November Jacob asked me if I was really sure about doing this: leaving my job, our rented house of six years and our families to go and live in a small city in Northern British Colombia, Canada.

I, with the typical arrogance of a Westerner who loves travel, probably answered ‘hell yeah, lets do it’.

Because in late 2019 the sum total of my experience of how ‘difficult’ getting into a country can be was a long queue in the searing Thai heat, bag-pack on, sweating, irritable, but in the full knowledge that I would be permitted entry into Cambodia momentarily.

In fact, in late 2019 I’d probably have claimed some knowledge of boarder entry.

Ha, how little I knew.

So now after moving out, goodbye drinks with friends, a leaving party with family, weeks staying with people, Jacob going to Canada, Jacob returning from Canada we find ourselves grounded in a global pandemic in my Mother’s house in Wiltshire, England.

I am a little less arrogant now about how far a British passport and a smile can get you, exceedingly humbled by how much help we have had from our incredible friends and family and very confused about which of the above options we should choose.