Hey guys, I wanted to post a message on here to address questions about me being in Dubai, as my original response to comments on this post were deleted by the original commenter.
Yes, I’ve been out in Dubai. We booked it just before Tier 4 was announced in the South East and London, and flew out on Boxing Day, not breaking any laws. When filming my final Vlogmas video the night Tier 4 was announced, we didn’t think this trip would be going ahead, but following the government announcement on the 23rd, I believed the restrictions in our area were still Tier 2 at the time of our flight (10pm on Boxing Day) and we took the decision to still travel. I was actually mistaken in this and we were in fact Tier 3 at the time - so still legally allowed to travel, but strongly advised against doing so. (something I have, unbelievably stupidly, only just realised as highlighted by some of you.) This was a misunderstanding on my part as I thought the rules came into effect at midnight on Boxing Day, not midnight coming into Boxing Day. I’m not trying to make an excuse for my poor judgement here, only trying to explain my thinking at the time. At the time it seemed like quite a few people I knew and followed were travelling out there as it is on the government travel corridor list, and seemed to have a sensible testing requirement in place as well as strict rules of mask wearing, distancing etc. and low reported COVID numbers. Obviously we were all tested before travel as required.
Obviously the situation in the UK has very rapidly escalated since then, and in hindsight, I made a very wrong decision. I should have realised it was morally the wrong decision, even if it wasn’t legally wrong at the time, rather than acting like a sheep and thinking because others were doing it, it was ok. For that I can only apologise, learn from this and do better in the future.
