It's almost Love Actually season. The 2003 piece of Christmas-romance-comedy perfection is required viewing for many fans every December.
And it doesn't matter how many times you watch the film, it is impossible not to get teary at the opening scene, a montage of real-life reunions at Heathrow Airport.
And now, after 18 tumultuous months, we are about to witness a flood of Love Actually-style airport reunions.
Monday - November 1 - sees Australia's international travel ban lifted.
For the first time since March, 2020, vaccinated Australians, will be allowed to travel abroad. On that front, we're banking on some happy, even euphoric, farewells as young Australians, especially, finally get to roam the world.
But, importantly, there will also be some very emotional, very long-time-coming reunions. From November 1, vaccinated Australians can return home without completing mandatory hotel quarantine.
Australians travelling home must not only be double-vaxxed but also show a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken 72 hours or less before their departure. Some home quarantine may be required, depending on the state or territory.
In the ACT, travellers who are aged 18 years and over who are vaccinated with a recognised vaccine, quarantine requirements will no longer apply. Travellers will be asked to undergo testing for COVID-19 within 24 hours of arrival into the ACT. Travellers will also be asked to undergo a second test for COVID-19 between days five and six after arrival.
The ACT Government says unvaccinated travellers must complete a 14-day quarantine period at port of entry. If travel to the ACT is required for exceptional or compassionate purposes, travellers are required to seek an exemption from ACT Health. Quarantine conditions will continue to apply.
Unvaccinated travellers aged under 18 years will be managed differently. Exemptions to enter the ACT will be required, and modified quarantine and testing requirements will apply. More details are here
Travellers with a medical exemption will be managed as a fully vaccinated travellers.
For many Australians, the trip home often could not happen earlier as flights were not available, ticket prices were exorbitant or people could not afford to pay the hotel quarantine - $3000 per adult, $2500 per child.
The first quarantine-free flights are due to land at Sydney airport early on Monday morning.
Aboard Flight UA 863 from San Francisco, due to touch down in Sydney at 8.05am Monday, will be Claire Meeks, former Canberra girl and daughter of well-known local couple John and Colette Mackay. A few hours later, she will be on a connecting flight to Canberra and in the arms of her family.
Importantly, she will have a government-provided QR code that means she has ticked all the boxes allowing her come back to Australia without the need to quarantine.
"I am wildly excited to see my family, and hoping that my best friend will have her baby while I'm in town," Claire said from California last week.
"I'm also a bit nervous. I'm fully vaccinated and getting two COVID tests, in case I don't get results from one company in time, so I have my results before I fly. I also have to get tested when I arrive in Australia."
Claire, 39, moved to Sonoma, California in 2016, where she lives with her husband Trevor and is a development manager for a local animal shelter.
She was last in Canberra for just 36 hours in July, 2019 to attend her grandmother's funeral.
Her parents also visited her in California for Christmas that year and "looking back, I'm so glad they did".
Soon after, COVID started to shut down the world.
This trip, Claire will be home for two weeks, something that wasn't possible until the travel bans had eased.
"Honestly, I would have done the quarantine, but flights were insanely expensive and very unreliable. Prices were roughly $10,000 and there was no guarantee that you would fly," she said.
"Quarantine also meant that I couldn't do a shorter trip - I would have had to come for at least a month to make it worthwhile." Her flights now had cost closer to $2500.
And after giving her loved ones a hug, the thing she is most looking forward to?
"I'm going to Tu Do in O'Connor for some roast quail and spring rolls," she said, with a laugh.
