The Power of positivity. It has never been as important as now to connect with loved ones, family, friends, strangers - don’t ignore any reach out and always respond, even with a simple are you OK? Spreading kindness and positive comments bring a little ray of sunshine into our day. The warmth of a community - kindness is sunshine. I had a very heartwarming two days (and some heartbreaking) responding to every comment on my #weareallinthistogether post on Girls LOVE Travel. I asked everyone around the world to share their life at home while being isolated, most of them living alone, during this current crisis and not forgetting those who are risking their wellbeing and health of loved ones to protect us all by doing their job. It provided comfort to know we have such a strong community all supporting each other. Connection & Gratitude I want to express our gratitude to all the beautiful humans. That are out there fighting on the frontline in the healthcare industry. You are all true heroes. They have to suffer the extremely uncomfortable new protocols to protect themselves if they are lucky enough to have them on supply. The extremely long shifts they have to do. The inability to have a glass of water or food to get through the day. To ensure they don’t put themselves and others at risk by removing their PPE (Personal protective equipment). The staff who are isolated, due to being exposed to the virus. And the emotional and physical rollercoaster. Knowing that they need to prepare themselves for losing patients if they haven’t already. Every one of you has our support, and we are eternally grateful for you caring and protecting us all. COVID-19 is real. Stay home and spread gratitude to our health care workers across the world to help them stay healthy and positive. Names have been removed to protect our angels. 😇 First The number of healthcare workers from all over the world who found time in their crazy schedules to post and respond, while pleading with us to stay home. So they can do their jobs, and we don’t contribute to overwhelming them further to breaking point. I found they needed us to know we were all thinking of them and sending them positive vibes to get through the situation. They don’t have a choice we do, so please #stayathome for them and the sacrifice they are having to make and continue saving lives. Second Thank you to all other essential workers are incredible going to work every day to make sure we all stay nourished and fed, safe and protected as we live comfortably as possible in our homes. Third The rest of us who are doing the right thing and #stayingathome. While replying to all these special ladies, it reminded me of the power of connection and knowing that someone is there to give you some encouragement to keep smiling and staying healthy. Some want to share their day, or have lost their job, even worse have lost family members and unable to say goodbye, see their family and loved ones, suffering from COVID-19 and other illnesses. Some are high risk and unable to leave the house, or need some friendly advice, or just wanted to share their experiences after being in isolation for over three weeks, the list is endless. It provided me comfort in knowing that I was spreading sprinkles of positive energy to everyone and hoped that their day just got that little bit easier and brighter. Let’s all stay together and constantly connected to each other. We all need a virtual hug every now and then 🤗 #weareallinthistogether

I keep reflecting that the individual needs to be the leader right now. Some simple ideas individuals can do right now to be a leader. Check your facts before posting on social media platforms. Call out those individuals (nicely) that post incorrect information. Below is from a post I did about winning mindset. For perspective, we are in day 11 of a 28-day countrywide quarantine in Vienna, Austria.

Today was all about giving back and how we can help other countries throughout this crisis. We find when being part of B1G1, you bring new purpose, meaning and relevance in your business and life by embedding giving right at the core of what we do. B1G1 is here to help us all make a real difference easily in our business and personal life. We do this together with an amazing group of humans and businesses across the world. Today we wanted our impact to be aligned with this global crisis that we are all doing our very best to get through and provide to those that may not be as fortunate as we are. We have just provided 2500 days of access to a bathroom, including a toilet and shower to Gram Vikas in India 🇮🇳 Gram Vikas, which literally means 'Village Development' is an organisation that has been working since 1979, to bring about sustainable improvement in the quality of life of poor and marginalised rural communities - mostly in Orissa, India. Let’s all support each other and stay united and protect every nation. Keep staying safe and strong. Our personal impacts against the UN Sustainable Development Goals so far via B1G1.

I love being part of a fabulous Facebook community called Girls LOVE Travel, we all share our amazing experiences and provide support to everyone, especially at times of need like now. It started with a Facebook post I popped a post up this week to ask everyone to share a selfie at home and 500+ likes and 1,000 comments later, the overwhelming response received was full of inspiration, compassion, support and encouragement for each other and to keep us all healthy and safe. The post has prompted me to share the tips from all the lovely mother's comments around the world. Who are busy trying to come up with creative ideas on how to keep their kids entertained, along with being educational and fun while isolated. Free creative ideas 10 'free' Creative Ways To Travel With Your Kids Inside Your Home A great resource with creative travel ideas to keep your kids entertained at home while learning about the world, new foods, new music, virtual tours of museums, dancing and much more. At Home Arts and Craft Community At Home Arts and Crafts is a new community for parents or anyone with little ones in their life to inspire each other with at-home craft, imaginary play and virtual tour ideas. Zoo webcams This great site lists 12 webcams of zoos that are offering virtual tours of their animals, and you can see the animals at feed time or chill out. Chalk the walk Send your kids outside to your front pathway with a box of colourful chalk and let their creative juices flow, great for positive messages, artwork or scrawls. Maybe organise with your street for all the kids to do this together, clearly keeping within their home boundary, fun for all and keeping them connected. It's a gift that keeps on giving, once it rains they can refresh their sidewalk creations again. Neighbourhood Zoo walks Have a Zoo day in your neighbourhood. Collect all your kids' stuffed toys and perch them throughout the community, then take the kids on the sidewalks and spot the animals! Teacher parades in neighbourhoods This one melted my heart, a group of teachers in the US all drove through their children's neighboured and waved to all the kids. Keeping the kids positive and making sure the teachers also do not miss their little ones too. Keeping new mums connected Are you a new mama and have just taken your precious bundle home and now isolated from your family and friends, here is a great support group to keep you connected and talking to other new mums. This Monday The Suite Set begins their free 14-day email lessons on finding calm and peace in such uncertain times. They are there to provide you with expert mummy advice, beautiful hints and tips and bring you closer to their community of mamas. Sign up here.

I slept for 11 hours last night, which made me realise that I had burnt the candle too hard. It was a wake-up call for me to understand that, I’m pushing myself too hard. It’s easy to slip into the habit of just work, work, work while in quarantine. My wake up call was having a bit of a cry while on a Zoom call with a client Mazzcorp Partners. Thank you, Anthony & Maria Mazza. Sally and I have been working too many long hours over the last ten days. I cannot imagine all those people at supermarkets, hospitals, health services, military, police and essential services and others still working (often without the option to work from home). A shout out to Luke at Bunnings, who gave this very emotional interview with Christian O’Connell on GOLD104.3 radio, around the four-minute mark. They go to work often without a mask while others walk around with masks (don’t get me started). For our weekly shop in Vienna in the supermarket, we ensured we asked every person if they are ok (even with a language barrier). Thank you, Luke. So many accounting firms are rising to the situation running webinars to help business owners stay open. Mazzcorp Partners is now even running weekly online webinars open to everyone. Join Maria, Anthony and me every Tuesday at 5.30 pm Sydney time. ✅Running a business through uncertainty ✅Tips to run a business remotely ✅Bring your questions Register Now something to make you smile, outtakes from Anthony & Mazza recent campaign to hire more team members during this time. Just be kind.

I know we all have some fabulous grand plans to be somewhere right now. Whether it be travelling and exploring new parts of the world, visiting your loved ones, spending time together, running the business you love or work for, or going to the gym. We all need to take a step back. Let us give the world some time to catch up, so health professionals are in a position to protect us. We need more time to get a handle on this unexpected challenge. The best thing we can all do is to stay home, and this will not be forever. The faster we all adopt this new way of living, we are providing our brave health care workers and system some relief. Help those beautiful people putting their life at risk by not causing additional stress. Rest in peace to all those we have already lost. You are true heroes on the frontline. It is simple, and this is not going anywhere until we all stay home, or we risk continuing losing all our precious peeps. Worth a watch if you are trying to get a grip on Coronavirus. Check out this new video from the World Health Organisation We will all reach the other side and will resume life as we know it, hopefully with a new appreciation of life. Let us all fight this together around the globe, and we will win together. Has it never been as important as now to connect with everyone and just check-in and let them know you are thinking of them and are you ok? Stay connected We are very fortunate we all live in the time of social media and the world is very connected. Many countries are going through tremendous heartbreak and need everyone's support. This isolation is new to us all, and we don't know when it will be over as this has all happened so fast, but I feel that if everyone sacrifices their version of freedom as they know it, we will beat this and our freedom will return. Remember it is still ok to visit the grocery store to keep your thirst quenched with wine (or your chosen beverage) and food to help our ever-expanding waistlines, remember to keep your distance from others. I know we might want to give another fellow human a big hug, especially if you are isolated somewhere on your own, but we need to wait until this is over, then you can hug as much as you want. Massive gratitude to all the staff who are also risking their well-being and keeping us fed, it doesn't go unnoticed. The sun still rises and sets. Let us all take some comfort in this and how fortunate to experience this daily at home (for now). Sending everyone virtual hugs (for now) and love during this time, be kind, stay home, strong and healthy. We will see you all on the other side for a glass of champagne (ok for those that know me a few bottles!) 🍾🥂 😍

Welcome to the reality of travel, sometimes things go pear shape. I am 57 and Sally is 42, a Baby Boomer and a GenXer slowly travelling around the world. We decided to leave our full-time roles, travel and work remotely back in 2017. Now I am sitting in a beautiful Airbnb in Vienna, Austria under quarantine due to the COVID-19 virus outbreak. How did we end up in this situation? Our friend was celebrating her 50th birthday in a fabulous restaurant, ice Q in Solden, Austria perched high up in the Alps. We would generally turn up to a letter opening, so we jumped at the opportunity to detour our travels to enjoy some apres skiing. We’ve been following the COVID-19 virus since early January as we travelled through Morocco. Like most of the world, it was in China, and we kept it only a thought in the back of our mind as we explored Morocco and then Tunisia. Even as COVID-19 spread, we flip-flopped on our travel to Austria, yes one day, no the next. However, we decided about ten days ago to fly in and celebrate our friend's birthday. Well, Houston we have a problem, within days the situation deteriorated and celebrations cancelled. That’s ok. Fortunately, our friends made it on one of the last flights back to Australia. Meanwhile, we just followed the advice of the government, and we stayed put. Now we’re in quarantine. Let me share some real-world facts. Assume anything posted on a social media platform is false. I always reverse search for any image posted on Google. I always check anything via a fact-checker like Snopes. Assume all newspapers reporting is incorrect, it will be exaggerated and often be factually inaccurate. Your government is more worried about the political ramifications and will act too slowly. So who do you trust right now? For us, it’s the World Health Organisation. Why? It’s non-political, non-business, just realtime facts. They'll never take our freedom! Yes, the government can and will lock you in your house, no you cannot go for a walk in the park or a drink at the pub. How can they do it, well they close the pubs down and most other businesses, and yes you can close a park down. It’s like house arrest without the bracelet. Our current rules in Vienna. That helpful fancy travel insurance policy that you bought before travelling, well most likely it is now null and void. So now some real-world facts. You will end up at some stage having some form of physical distancing enforced in your region. If you are panic shopping congratulations, you have broken already the rules around physical distancing. Personally, if I had my freedom right now the last place on earth, I would be, is in any social environment. Even if you do not care about getting sick, it is a fact you can spread this virus to another human that is the issue. People have died, enough said. So we sit here unsure when we can go out, the planes have stopped, and borders closed, so team Australia, it is a struggle to get home now if we tried, mind you I think the Austrian people are currently showing us up. I applaud the Austrian people. For your absolute resolve to not panic, to treat everyone with respect and dignity and not focus on just yourself, you are going about your daily life and shopping as you usually would, we have an abundance of choices in our supermarkets. I have this one simple request for everyone. In 2021 will you be proud of your actions in 2020? Above is the view from our Airbnb in Vienna of a closed playground.

So today we ventured out to buy food, one of the few restrictions not in place. I keep loving Vienna and this country, Austria. No panic buying, no crowds, people kept their distance, pure joy. Meanwhile, in my home country of Australia. I feel ashamed of all the stories I am hearing, where there is a minority who lack respect for our fellow citizens, it is quite alarming. So our day was filled with some fantastic moments. One of my clients, an accountant that I mentor Kelly Chard from GrowthMD, delivered a webinar to her clients. Instead of another email about working from home, Kelly’s gave clients some practical advice about how to manage their practice during the current situation. Kelly’s client base is mainly in the medical industry, so they are the front line putting their life at risk for ours. I will say that again; they put their life at risk for ours. Just like those in retail right now (imagine writing that three months ago). Going to work, the risks they are taking to ensure we are all nourished and not knowing who they contact might be a carrier. Kudos to all of them, it isn’t going unnoticed, and we are eternally grateful. The webinar was a fantastic experience, and the questions from doctors showed that it’s up to us to help each other through these tough times we are all facing. So, I’m now doing this for several accounting firms (best use of my time and skills). I reached out individually to another 20 people (it’s something I’ve tasked myself to do each day) to check on their mental health. Something we all can do (not a bulk are you ok?). An individual message each day to a new group of people. Sally worked so hard, that’s the one thing working from home. With no distractions, you end up working crazy long hours, which has been her life for the past few years, she is adept to this work-life. Tomorrow I’m seriously going to try and watch some Netflix hopefully. Ok, that bit probably won’t happen, just too much opportunity at the moment to do good and help all those that need a helping hand. In 2021, will you be proud of your actions in 2020?

So today we decided to move Airbnb, as Austria is now in lockdown, quarantine extended until April 13. Like many of you are already and like many of you will soon experience. While our current Airbnb is stunning, we just wanted a balcony, yard or patio so that we get fresh air. Consider that for a minute. I am writing about the word fresh air as a priority in your accommodation instead of 400 thread linen. So after much searching, we found an Airbnb that looked perfect, great reviews, area, etc. Knowing that we’re allowed to travel within Austria for short distances (no, sightseeing is not essential), we booked an Uber. Can we all pause for a second. Maybe you have the luxury of walking around with a mask (the jury is still out on the effectiveness). Consider all the people that are out there, helping us, like those cashiers who still are working selling you that 24 pack of toilet paper. All are going without that mask. Anyway, that’s for another post. Sally packed our suitcases (we learnt early in our travels, that for our marriage and sanity that Sally should pack the bags - as I don’t seem to do it to ‘Sal standard - a bit like Sal does not iron to Wayne standard). I love Europe when prestige cars are used as a taxi and uber. In this case, our Mercedes Benz dutifully dropped us at our new Airbnb. Ok, we already sensed we had a problem, as we walked past the rat traps lining the corridors. Seriously you cannot make this up. However, with the attitude that the glass is always half full, we pressed onwards. Let’s say the photos didn’t match reality (a bit like Tinder). No the Wayne of old, would have done a dummy spit, however as seasoned travellers we are (eye roll). Sally immediately started cancelling our booking using the Airbnb Wifi, while I looked for an alternative place. No tantrums from me as per the past, we worked the problem and boom we are now sitting here writing this blog. Once settled into our new pad, a quick trip to the supermarket. Again has Austria known about #COVID19? Check out the markings on the floor. These have been here for years. Physical distancing at its best. Again plenty of food and no panic buying. So the lesson for today. Just be kind. It definitely pays off. In 2021, will you be proud of your actions in 2020? PS. We told the owner the first Airbnb with the issues, and they truly appreciated us sending photos of the place etc. I genuinely believe that they didn’t know the state of their house and appreciated our feedback.

No family or support group in a country that is in full quarantine. So why did we decide to stay in Vienna, Austria instead of flying back to Australia? Being married to the queen of data, we took a more pragmatic approach. The numbers don’t lie. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ Firstly our travel insurance is now void (specifically for COVID-19), and the thought of flying and being in close contact with others helped make our decision easier. Some Australians are definitely not showing that Aussie spirit, especially after the terrible bushfires and floods that have recently ravaged large parts of the country. Austria just gave us the impression that they are well prepared. https://metropole.at/coronavirus-in-austria Having a strategy and plan The youngest head of state 33 years old, Sebastian Kurz Closing their borders early Convert an exhibition centre in Vienna to an 880-bed hospital Two dedicated COVID-19 hospitals in Vienna (a city of 2 million) Closing Tyrol, no one in or out (the main hot spot for COVID-19) Practising physical distancing Acting early to introduce a quarantine Can test for the virus within 90-minutes A people-first approach Regular updates (considering English is not the main language spoken) No panic buying or hoarding Below is a video from a supermarket in Vienna today, physical distancing and no hoarding. We are allowed to leave our Airbnb to shop only. Some random thoughts from today. It’s physical distancing, not social distancing, thank you, Clayton Oates, for keeping it real. Things move fast, as shown in the United Kingdom. Keep reaching out to people one by one, no group messages. Give your mind time to process what is happening and reflect what you have already. Social media is so important right now for allowing us to stay connected and share experiences. In 2021, will you be proud of your actions in 2020? Let’s rise to the occasion, stay united and support each other.