# What do you want to do most when the pandemic is over? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [December 10, 2020, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782 "2020-12-10T18:08:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/41 "2020-12-12T08:35:32Z")
Cocktails, appetizer, cocktails, dinner, more cocktails, until the kitchen closes. With a group of friends, of course. Live music. Good cover bands are acceptable, until the full-time artists get their tours going again. Miss my concert buddy. Travel. We’re land-locked here and I miss the smell of the seashore. Italy or Islay are both good. Book a hotel in London near Covent Garden and wander the streets. See people. Haven’t seen my parents for more than a year. Beers with coworkers. We are doing well for productivity, but we’re not able to make up for the missing social activities, whether it’s just coffee in the break room, or going out for beers after work. A new Mexican restaurant opened near work, and I’ve been there twice, but just for lunch. I hope they manage to stay open until we’re back to normal. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/42 "2020-12-12T08:56:31Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Get a haircut from a real barber. Oh gosh, yes. I last had a haircut in April of 2019, and it was cut back much more than I wished. No problem, as I can let it grow out. Then Covid happened, barbershops were closed, then opened, but I didn’t take advantage. And now I look like Carol Brady, with a flip in the back. “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!” ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/43 "2020-12-12T09:01:27Z")
Leave this Kingdom before the war starts. Retire for good. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/44 "2020-12-12T09:07:44Z")
Visit my folks in the States. We’d been intending to fly over last July, run through some old stomping grounds in central Illinois, and then go up to Michigan to see them. So much for that… With any luck, things’ll be safe enough by next July. We’ll probably be vaccinated by then, though it doesn’t look like vaccination will start in Australia until March\*. See some of the movies that have been delayed - _Black Widow_, a few others. Any other things I’ve been missing are back in operation here - restaurants, barbers, etc. Still some mask-wearing required, but that never bothered me anyway. Domestic travel is wide open too - we’ll be seeing my wife’s family over Christmas. \*I’m mainly fine with that, as we’ve got it pretty much beat here. \* touch wood \*. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/45 "2020-12-13T01:41:46Z")
A steak and red wine. I’m not a steak person normally, but just the idea of going out for a steak with Mrs P one evening, to our local steak house. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/46 "2020-12-13T02:00:32Z")
Disneyland. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/47 "2020-12-13T02:00:59Z")
Go down to Texas to visit family. Eat at a Chinese buffet. Go watch a movie. Take a day trip to Canada. Play some big board game with six or seven players. Have a conversation with my mother that doesn’t involve Covid. Walk around a store without my eyeglasses getting all fogged up. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/48 "2020-12-13T02:15:24Z")
I want to go to Peru. The university where I work had a study abroad program there a few years ago, and it looks so beautiful in all the photos I’ve seen. Also, I want to go to some of the parts of Mexico where I haven’t been yet, and Belize and / or Costa Rica. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/49 "2020-12-13T02:18:14Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Play some big board game with six or seven players. Same here. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/50 "2020-12-13T03:43:13Z")
I’d also have said “see my mother in Chicago”, but she passed away this morning (not from Covid). ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/51 "2020-12-13T03:45:06Z")
I’m so sorry. I’ll be holding you in the light. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/52 "2020-12-13T03:45:54Z")
Thank you ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/53 "2020-12-13T07:45:02Z")
Be able to travel to Thailand. I was not planning a return visit until 2022 anyway, but the wife was hoping to see family in Bangkok early next year, and that’s been scotched. She does not want to spend half her visit in quarantine, which is what would happen. With some exceptions, foreigners are no longer allowed into Thailand. The ones who make it in have to jump through all sorts of hoops – carry a specified amount of Covid health insurance, quarantine at your own expense for two weeks in a designated facility/hotel (and you WILL be watched) among other stuff. A casual visit to Thailand now costs an arm and a leg, and the tourism industry has practically been obliterated. My friend in northeastern Thailand, his daughter just finished her bachelor’s degree in tourism last year and is now pretty much unemployed after having started a good job with a promising future in a five-start hotel in the North. A friend in Boston has a Thai wife, and their daughter lives in northern Thailand. His wife left to visit the daughter the day after Thanksgiving, not too much of a problem since she’s a Thai national (but still has to quarantine). But while he spent five months putting together his plans to leave eight days ago, a week after his wife, it all fell completely apart when his Covid test came back too early, placing it outside the 72-hour window required before you can board the plane. By then it was too late to make other plans for Christmas travel, so he just said screw it, will wait until after the vaccine. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/54 "2020-12-13T10:14:12Z")
> [@CardboardBoxx](#): > > I want to go to a buffet style restaurant, choose what I want and eat my fill. I’m hearing that restaurants like that are gone forever. Nobody will feel safe dishing out food at a self-serv restaurant where everybody else is dishing out food too. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/55 "2020-12-13T17:54:31Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I’m hearing that restaurants like that are gone forever. Nobody will feel safe dishing out food at a self-serv restaurant where everybody else is dishing out food too. Aren’t there like zero cases of someone catching Covid from food? Which I guess doesn’t negate your point, since perception of risk, not actual risk, is the gating thing. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/56 "2020-12-13T21:31:55Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I’m hearing that restaurants like that are gone forever. Nobody will feel safe dishing out food at a self-serv restaurant where everybody else is dishing out food too. Not true. We walked past one yesterday in Ala Moana Shopping Center. Called Shibuya, it is mainly Japanese food. Doing a booming business from the looks of it, with the buffet advertised tight outside the door and visibly set up inside. Of course, Hawaii has been hit relatively lightly, but still, I think the wife and I will pass for now. But obviously not everyone else agrees. There was a good Mexican-food restaurant in Bangkok that offered a unique buffet. It was all-you-can-eat, but instead of the standard buffet set-up, you just kept ordering dishes, and they would continue bringing them to you. That might become more standard. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/57 "2020-12-13T23:10:23Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Not true. We walked past one yesterday in Ala Moana Shopping Center. Here’s an entire thread on the loss the the Sweet Tomatoes / Souplantation chain, an all-you-can-eat buffet salad bar style restaurant, including speculation that this whole style of restaurant will die out and be gone forever. > [@Sweet Tomatoes restaurants are no more. I mourn.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sweet-tomatoes-restaurants-are-no-more-i-mourn/853365): > > The California chain of restaurants named Souplantation, or Sweet Tomatoes if you’re not in California, has announced they’re going under. They were marginal, apparently, and then this pesky Coronavirus went and iced the very idea of a dine in buffet style salad and soup restaurant. For the long version, I offer this link: [https://www.sandiegoville.com/2020/05/souplantation-sweet-tomatoes-will-not-reopen.html](https://www.sandiegoville.com/2020/05/souplantation-sweet-tomatoes-will-not-reopen.html) There is a Sweet Tomatoes around the corner from my home, and it was a fine place for… ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/58 "2020-12-13T23:28:09Z")
As stupid as the idea is in general, go to the casino. I had been planning on potentially wasting a little bit of my savings when I hit a specific nice round number, but it’s going to have to wait. For some reason I just like the vibe of the craps table; I was going to say “atmosphere”, but taking that literally, the exact opposite, given it’s one of the last places you’re allowed to smoke indoors. They do have non-smoking slot machine areas, but I’ve never seen any non-smoking table games in the Detroit casino I usually go to. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/59 "2020-12-13T23:34:57Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Eat at a Chinese buffet. Oh yeah. A friend and his family operate a Chinese buffet locally, and they’ve had to close for indoor dining. They’ve been getting by on pickup and delivery orders, but they’re not doing as well as they were when they could have the buffet open. > [@glowacks](#): > > As stupid as the idea is in general, go to the casino. For me, it’s the track. Well, race book, but I can wager on various tracks from it. It’s a nice place, with a bar and reasonably decent food. It’s not open, though. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782/60 "2020-12-13T23:38:14Z")
Number one is hugging my parents. I’ve only seen them twice this year – they live 200 miles away, in Wisconsin, and they are both in their 80s, so my visits were socially-distanced, out on their back deck. Between the spiking COVID cases since September (the last time I saw them), and the cold weather, I haven’t felt good about going back up there since then. There are lots of other things I want to do (eat indoors in a restaurant, be able to see my friends and hug them, go to gaming conventions), but they’re lower down the list. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-to-do-most-when-the-pandemic-is-over/927782.md?page=4)