RogerBW's Blog

No Essen, Again 07 September 2021

Essen SPIEL are doing a better job than UK Games Expo did, but I've very reluctantly decided that I'm not going anyway.

It's masks all through, and proof of vaccination or a recent test (though they're accepting antigen tests, which isn't great). So that's not bad. But it's a lot of work:

  • special expensive test to get into France (though in-EU land borders should be OK);
  • possibly another special expensive test to get into the show if the UK doesn't get its finger out and arrange vaccination certificate reciprocity (it hasn't even asked the EU to start this process yet);
  • and another test to get back into the UK.

And whatever happens with that, probably still 100K+ people on site, many of them not local… and I'm guessing they won't close the food vendors, or completely ban eating and drinking in indoor spaces, so some people will have to be unmasked at least some of the time…

And then, well, the chance of my bringing back something dodgy may be quite low, but it's not practicable for me not to expose my wife to anything I have brought, and I really don't want to do that. I was fully vaccinated back in June, but it's still a vastly higher risk than staying at home and maybe having a few friends over would be.

In the end, it's a risk (and an expense) purely for my fun, and I'm old-fashioned enough to rate my fun as a lower priority than many other things.


  1. Posted by Owen Smith at 12:02am on 08 September 2021

    No test is required at all to get into France from the UK provided you are fully vaccinated, your NHS covid vaccination certificate is accepted for entry to France. Indeed many EU nations are accepting UK covid vaccination certificates (via the App or phone 119) even if the official reciprocity process hasn't started.

    I fully understand the rest of your concerns and why you're not going to Essen, and I don't expect the lack of test to get into France to change your mind. But let's get the facts right.

  2. Posted by RogerBW at 08:44am on 08 September 2021

    A test is however required to get onto any commercial aircraft, ferry or train that is going from the UK to France (or vice versa), at least according to the operators' current information, and alas I lack my own aquatic or airborne transport.

  3. Posted by Owen Smith at 06:43am on 09 September 2021

    No test is required to get on Eurostar or the shuttle to go from the UK to France, I have colleagues in France at present who used those modes of transport. All were fully vaccinated, I don't know what the rules are for unvaccinated or different modes of transport.

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 essen 2024 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1