So we had gone back to South Africa to visit my family. It was my dad's 60th, so it was a big planned holiday. It was supposed to be there for three weeks and all in all it took us just under three months to get back. When we left it was a case of wash your hands, if you're sickly wear a mask and within a few days of actually getting to South Africa it was flat-cancelled, everything's locked down. So it was a big shock because it happened really suddenly. We had no time to try and get back before everything got locked down. Emirates basically acts flat, straightly around the world, particularly from African continent. Almost everything was almost almost all at once. It was interesting to see that we tried to try to get different plots and boards. As soon as we created another flight they cancelled and eventually at the point where they just stopped and they said well no one's going home. Lots of other people were stranded, I guess from other countries. It was a vision of South Africa and lots of different blogs. I remember I was going on and viewing it. Just people stopped traveling instantly. It was quite interesting to see, obviously scary. But of course in recent memory we hadn't been through anything like that so couldn't have expected what was happening. So when the idea of the Comis Hotel came up, what was going through your mind? Obviously there was the cost associated with it. What process did you have to go through to get there in the first place? I can explain that. I was dealing mostly with them. It was the recording, returning residents. There's a small fraction set up, a fractional group set up within the government. It took a while for them to set themselves up but that's okay. I expected to take it a while. It was quite costly to myself and have the funds to go out towards the bank, find them, get a loan from South Africa and then agree with them alone and learn and whatever else before I could even do that and get there once we had it. But I am grateful that there was a service there. There was something at least. It didn't cost a lot of money. I'm grateful something happened. Yeah, at the time we actually weren't too worried about the money because we just wanted to get home because we ended up getting repatriation flights from South Africa to Heathrow and then there was about 10 days in between getting to Heathrow and being able to get back to the island. So we ended up booking a flat in Blackpool just to sort of wait it out. So we were really excited just to be getting back to the island. We were hoping that we would be eligible for like a payment plan or something but we weren't. We were told we had to pay it upfront. No exceptions. If we didn't pay it upfront then we would forfeit our place on the boat. Yeah, that's the second group that went through. Basically, I can explain this as well. What happened was we got an email saying this is the most cost. They took a payment over the phone and we got an email previously after that that had an exemption passed the entering out of the mountain. So we had an engine passed for me but my son is not sure. He's four and a half now, one was five. He was nine months. He was nine months then. It was very small then. And we got those papers. Once we had those papers, like I said, we have told we have to wait a bit. The exemption flights and the actual boat departing was about a 10-day gap. Again, the loan was that for that as well, getting money to go and stay in Blackpool and wait there. We hired a car as well for, do we hire a car? Yeah, we hired a car to get us from Heathrow to Blackpool. It was a lot of expense getting back. It was quite a large amount. It was burst them into my money borrowed. It burst way through that and dry the funds, trying to make sure. Obviously, a lot of people around the world probably spent a lot of money as well. Imagine people in Spain and what's over there were stuck there as well. Yeah, going obviously at that time, you wouldn't have known how long the borders would have been close for and what your options were. So it must have been just any means necessary to get us back to the island. Was that the mindset? Yeah, it was. It was a case of there's an opportunity to jump on, do whatever it takes to be able to get back. Yeah. So, take us then to the Comis Hotel and arriving back on the island. What was that like? Were you some of the first to come back and go through that scheme? We were the second group. So, we had missed that on the first week. So, we came back on the second week. And as I said, we were really excited to get back to the island. And then when we got here, there were police at the docks and it was a case of you will sign this document. I didn't feel threatened to sign, but it wasn't really an option. It was you will sign this so that we can then put you on the bus and head you over to the Comis. It just seemed a bit surreal, but just overdone. Was it because the first one came over what we noticed is that we could see, so we actually saw people watching from their cars and when we went past and the bus, we actually saw people pointing. So, it wasn't very... You felt like you were a bit on show. Yeah, it became quite a spectacle, didn't it? Spectacle, maybe a Marta Comis story. It was just a little bit weird. Felt very weird. Signing the document was very strange as well, basically. If you don't sign this document, put it in the boat, send it back. We're really here now and we live here. I don't understand that either. It's quite weird. And obviously, staying at a hotel for leisure can be a very, very pleasant experience. Obviously, something we've all paid for in our time, but this was very different, of course. What were the rules and regulations that were set out to you when you walked through the doors? Well, when we got there, we thought, "Oh, this is lovely. This will be like a little holiday." And it really wasn't. You felt very restricted. The security guard had to come to the door, knock on the door to let us out for our exercise hour. Again, it was very surreal because you think, "Oh, that's not too bad." But when you're in that situation, you're sort of waiting at the door like five minutes before, like, "Am I allowed out now?" So yeah, it felt very, very weird. And it got very tiresome very quickly. The rooms were beautiful, but our room had no hot water. And we were told that if we couldn't get anyone sent in to fix it, so we'd have to move rooms, and there were three of us in the one room, and we thought, "No, we don't want to risk going to a smaller room." So we sort of just laid out the two weeks with no hot water, which was difficult with the baby as well. The advantage to fix it, remember the tap function of the swimming tap? Yeah, there was some issue, and Dan managed to sort it out. Yeah, I think I'm going to go exactly how we looked at it. Anyway, so we're just going in, so we got to the hotel, got off the bus, expected to go through, and then went one by one, keeping distance. Then we were led to a room. I think we changed room, didn't we? No, we kept the big room. The gave us a slightly bigger room, which is nicer, I guess, because we had a baby, we were the only one that grew up with a hell of a baby, and our son was teething at the time. So he was very loud, very grumpy, very annoyed. Being a room with two weeks with a teething baby is challenging. Yeah, I mean, he would crawl well into the night because he wasn't happy, he was also frustrated to the point where we had the room above us. They actually phoned down to make sure we were okay. It was very difficult doing it with the baby. I mean, it was just difficult for us, but then the little one, he did get very frustrated as well. So what was a standard day? We were allowed out at any points for exercise, of course, and meal times. Most people were allowed out once a day, and we were given your exact time, that you were allowed out, because we had the little one, we were allowed out twice. So you think, "Oh, yeah, I'm very lucky." But even twice a day, and... That was not too well, like a green courtyard? Yeah, a green courtyard, but you could see it had been really built. So there were screws and nails in the grass, it was a lot of rubble, so we couldn't let the little one out onto the grass because it wasn't safe. I think there were four plastic chairs out there that you could sit on, but there wasn't anything to do. So you just sat outside for an hour, or you could do laps around the little courtyard. Not the most entertaining, but yeah, it was much needed after being locked. What kind of effect does that have on the psyche? Of course, you're cooped up with it with a nine-month-old anyway, but for anybody who's trapped in a room for that length of time, how do you keep yourself entertained for starters? You don't. We found... I had to get a laptop from work, and I was trying to work as well. And then trying to work in the trying to handle work, and baby crying, and we obviously, couples trying to get in a room. Tension was hot. Tension was hot. Tension gets hot. It's just one of those scenario situations. There were a few other people who complained about certain things, like Vincent's. A lot of people complained a lot of other people who could hear heard people saying it to each other when they used to bring the food. For example, not people need to eat, I guess, in this part of the package. They bought it on paper blades, and they gave you a plastic knife and fork. And it was cold. Yeah, it was cold. So, basically, I mean... I guarantee it's not the same quality of food that you'd get at the commerce now. Yeah. It really was exceptional circumstances. Yeah, and it wasn't great food. Also, with having the little one, they had nothing to offer for him. So, we were allowed one delivery when we first got there. We allowed someone to drop off something, and it was only allowed once. And so, we got a whole bunch of baby food brought in for us and dropped off there. But we ran out the day before. We were due to leave. We ran out of baby food and we asked, well, is it okay to get some more brought in? No, no. You had your one delivery. That's it. So, yeah, he moved on to a bit more solid food a lot quicker than expected. Yeah. Just silly things like that. You think, well, there's no reason for that. But, yeah, the rules and regulations, we had to badba. Yeah. And who was enforcing that then? Obviously, I mentioned that Comis had staff who were adapting to that scenario. No, I didn't answer that. So, with the document that we signed, when we got to port, within that document, we described the legislation to which we were following. So, we didn't listen to everybody. We were liable for rest, according to the document. Right. If we wanted anything we could phone the hotel reception, they wouldn't know. So, that's, oh, well, we'll find out and get back to you. A day would pass. Nothing. Phone back. Any news? Oh, no, we haven't heard back. So, a lot of run around. No, real. There wasn't anyone there that could say, yes, you can do this, no, you can't do this, or we'll organize. Yeah. Very confused. Yeah. At the end of the day, I mean, I was offered not so long ago to go for a function there in the Comis, and I didn't go. Yeah. Because it's like PTSD going there. Yeah. Don't want to go there. Don't want to go back there. Like I say, it makes it make your laugh and chuckle now, but at the time, it was, by the end of how long was it you were there? Two weeks. We were there for the full two weeks. During the time, Dan was very stressed out with work, and obviously, the situation I struggled with depression while I was there as well. It just, it wasn't, it wasn't a good experience overall at all. We were happy to be home, but we weren't home. We were so close, but, you know, we weren't quite there yet. What was that feeling like when you were able to step out of those doors and go into your own home eventually? Honestly, I felt a bit loopy. You do, because you feel like, hang on, is this real? And it does sound silly, but at the time, it was like, we're allowed out. It was just a very surreal sort of feeling. Yeah. Strange feeling. I have to admit it was, it was weird, because I have to admit, for example, when we don't break outside, we could see people walking past, and I remember saying to one of, how, you know, I could literally just jump over that fence and go away. And I think to myself, I kind of kind of imagined being locked up somewhere else for even longer than two weeks. People like me prison, whatever. Yeah. It just, you just claustrophobic. I tell you what claustrophobia was something. It's in their room all day, every day, rooms get really small, really quick. And you think to yourself, this room is, you know, and you sit there, and you sit there, and you sit there, and then the days go past, and hours go past, staring at each other, wondering what they'll do. So it was... There's not enough TV, there's not enough video games, it's not enough books. There is nothing you can do to make that day go any quicker. Yeah. From a wider perspective, looking from the outside in, you've described the residents that were there taking photos of the bus coming out of the seat terminal, and walking around, you know, around the Comis Hotel. Did you feel much sympathy from the manx residents, or was it a case of, well, they've decided to take this back? Prison family, yes, because they obviously knew our situation, but there was a lot of talk on Facebook that it actually really hurts. And, you know, I get that from an outside of perspective, they're sitting there thinking, you know, this is good, to protect, but no one had really much sympathy for, you know, us poor guys that were stuck in there. They didn't really understand what it was like, and they said, oh, well, you can moan about the food, but, you know, at least you're back on Ireland. Well, yeah, but we've actually paid a fair amount of money to come back and be treated like outcasts, and that's not really fair. We've described a fair amount of money, and not regarding the costs that it took you to get the flight back to just to England and the higher cars and everything else. How much was the bill for the Comis Hotel and coming back through that route? For the two of us, because they didn't charge anything for the little one, was 1750. Yeah, £1,750. Right. Yeah. And we're going through, obviously, this refund process now, part of the, it was a recommendation from the Cape Brunner Review, of course. How have you found that process so far? I've been dealing with the process myself, and the process, they've been very nice. They've been very, they've looked at me very responsive, and they're asking questions, which is good, and asking questions wanting to proceed. They have asked for a bit of detail, recently asked for detail of how it was paid, which is, I assume, they want to make sure everything's everything's fine in order. So, the process of trying to get it done has been quite painless, I imagine, which is nice. They're asking questions, they're very, very, sort of intuitive, I guess, on what's happening. I imagine that they would need to dig through their records a little bit further. Imagine it's quite a lump sum for me, and just want to pay it to anyone. I'm just going to make sure, so I understand that process. Honestly, we didn't think we'd actually ever get that money back. So, if they ask us to fill in X, Y, Z, we fill in the X, Y, Z, because we're so relieved that there is a refund process. A lot of the ex-residents of commerce have actually done a lot of hard work to get this done, and we're really grateful that it is a positive outcome for us. But, again, we agree with the rest of the group that it should have been done a long time ago. It's been overlooked for a while. There was, and this all spawned from the points where, after a certain period of time, off to May, to May 2020, I think it was, when they decided that people didn't need to go to commerce anymore, and they just were let in. And it was, well, not even a month later. Well, just that you could have isolated home. That's all we wanted. We just wanted to go. It was like, we went to a position, and there were just people walking past us coming through, and it was like the feeling of dread, thinking of yourself. We just went through this. And these guys were walking past us. And, you know, it's like, it's like, I can't explain it. It's a very hard feeling. It must have been impossible not to think in retrospect. Oh, if we had held on a few more weeks, but of course, like you mentioned, you had your job to carry on and get back with, you had to prove what you're trying to get back to. We were running out of money with an almond dolt, and it's a very, very, very scary feeling. So the fact is, you know, how much money can you really borrow? What happens if you can't borrow anymore? And there's other people around the world who are stuck in the world, so stuck in very difficult situations, who'd have to fend. Like, we were like in one respect, we were living with family at the time, but there were people around the world that would have gone to the commerce thing, they were living in paid. There were definitely people that had it a lot worse than us. But it was difficult for us. Yeah. And of course, part of the Kate Brunner review is looking ahead as well. What happens if we end up in an emergency situation like COVID again? What do you think should be in place? What would you have loved to have seen back when COVID happened to enable people to get, like I said, back just back to their homes rather than having to go through this process? So I would imagine that, for example, there were other countries that went to this, other countries that had expats moving in or something like that, people coming back. I'd imagine they would have a response, a response, like for instance, I imagine they're a response of military personnel, they're a response of other personnel, maybe medical personnel. They must have some formal response plan was to do to get people in the country fostered or back into where they live. So if they imagine from the turnaround and this should have a response plan, I don't know if they have one already or not, but a response plan would be good. This is what we do. This is how we do it. And consistency with the rules. I found that, you know, some people didn't have to isolate. Some people could go and isolate from home. And then some of us had to go to commerce. It wasn't one rule for it all. It was, well, we'll pick and choose, you know, who has to go where? And the payment thing was just the one thing. There were other people that were offered a payment plan. We weren't offered a payment plan. We told we had to pay. Now, I thought with a baby of numb and salt, not giving the payment plan option, when it's cost of money. A lot of money is a crazy kid. Not everyone has almost two grand just to Adley like that. And looking back on it now, of course, we're four years on, how does it sit in your memory? Is there still, are you able to laugh about it now? Are you able to look back and think, wow, what we went through at that time was extraordinary. Or is it still, you mentioned PTSD before? I imagine it's not far off. It's not far off. I mean, we avoid the commerce. We do, we try and and laugh about it now. We try and think light heartedly. But if we really sit and think about what we went through there, it put a lot of strain on us individually as a couple, as parents. So we try and see the light heartedness of it now and joke and laugh about it. But it's not what you see. I think if you were a single person and there was just a person saying they're reading a book or something, you would just have to wait the time out. But depends on the circumstances that you have. Us, the baby, it was interesting. Teething baby, as you've seen, halality babies can get. They can be very grumpy, very angry. Of course, the teeth are coming to their mouth. So there's a lot of pain that the baby's going through. Because there's so much pain, they cry a lot. So being stuck in a room. Now, parents, you feel helpless because you can't even take them for a walk. Stick them in the pram and go for a walk, calm them down. Couldn't do that. So it was hopelessness at the time. Constantly jumping around around the room, just trying to get in the calm down. And then the few minutes there, they start crying again. So you talk about sake and they're being stuck in a room with your partner, first of all, which should be a good thing. But you get on each other's nerves. You're for two weeks straight, it's screaming. You can be challenging. Do you think you came out stronger as a couple from it? Yeah, I think so. I hope so. We're glad to get out there. Because I think if you stayed another two weeks and they were one of us. And of course, a little one who was nine months old. I imagine one day you'll look back and you'll tell him about what you all went through. Yeah. So he actually has special needs. He's got developmental delay. And there is a part of me that thinks, well, you know, was it all related? You know, did how we reacted and our moods at the time and stress and all of that did that affect him. And I know it's silly to think that. But it is something that goes through your mind. He's a thriving young boy. Don't get me wrong. He's really strong. And he's doing very well. But I don't think he would believe, you know, what we actually way in three thing now. We just making up stories. So luckily, you can't remember it. And other comis residents that you perhaps were aware of at the time you're in this group now, how have they found the process of getting that refund? Have you heard anything else? I personally don't know. I haven't heard anything so much about the refund process that everyone else going through. Again, I think everyone's just happy that it's there. I know some of the residents, there's still want an apology, a proper apology. And I do think that is owed. But yeah, I haven't heard too much. Yeah. I guess they should make it available to two registered residents that did this went to this process. I know there's a site from there was a small little release, at least on the government website. They should make it more commonly known, like put it in radio or something, or repeat it in radio. So people know if they don't know, and they missed the cycle. Yeah, it wasn't more advertised the refund option. I mean, I should do it. Yes, because it is a lot of money. Now, if you if you if I had to put it into case, they say it's to say not at our age, let's say you're you're you're you're tied. Now that money is a lot of money for retirees. It could be a lot of money, you know, people trying other pensions and things like that. There's somebody to think about. So maybe, maybe they could let them know a little easier. Yeah, just advertise the fact that there is a refund option there and how to do it. I think we're good. There was, there was, I mean, it's but once again, it just wrapped us all up. I'm very grateful that the government actually did something. So there's there's lots of pros and cons that came out of this. But if they hadn't initiated this whole program, we wouldn't have got back here. Yeah. So there's in life of everything. It's great that this happened. But it was no deal. But it's great that it did happen in in the. We're glad that we got home. Yeah, we got home. But we just wish it had gotten about differently. Yeah. Thank you for making it to the end of the Manxeradian newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. May I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of Manxeradia podcasts at your favorite podcast provider. So our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone. Thank you. (gentle music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
