#7: Safe travels
Hello pioneering people,
If there is one thing that COVID-19 really brought home for all of us, especially us Australians, it’s how important travel is to our lives. And whether that travel is to an exotic location, or simply to the office, when we couldn’t do it, it left a big hole in our lives.
This week’s cartoons are all, although I didn’t realise it when I chose them, about travel. And travel isn’t just about going somewhere, it’s also the prepping for it, the return and, you know, everything in-between.
Let’s get this show on the road,
Chris
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Caption: "You will book a flight, but beware, you will first face a series of perilous questions about extras."
How far will you go to book a flight?
For our recent holiday, we booked a flight using Australia’s budget carrier (I’m looking at you Jetstar). And they were good flights. They were largely on time. They were remarkably cheap. And we felt safe the whole way. But, because they were cheap flights, we also had to go through what I call the ‘extras obstacle course’. It’s the high-stakes journey between when you choose your leaving and returning flights, along with all the digital haggling that goes with it, and when you reach the moment where you need to pony up your credit card. It’s that in-between zone where it feels like extras—such as seat selection, meal purchases or pricey insurance—are opted-in and opted-out randomly. It’s the zone where, if you merely click Next, your cheap flight might become anything but cheap.
It’s probably another good reason why you shouldn’t book a flight when you’re drunk, although being sober probably isn’t much help, either.
A little artist’s note: I do my work primarily in Procreate. It’s an iPad app (proudly made in Tasmania) that allows you to draw things with a whole lot of layers. Like, loads of layers. And this one used all of them. From the shading on the people to the multiple layers of shading on the background, to getting the crystal ball just right, this one was a labour of love from start to glorious finish.
Caption: "Brothers! I have returned from the icy tundras of Mt Kelvinator."
The freezer part of our fridge died recently.
But before we could commit to a brand-new whitegood, we wanted to do everything we could to try to bring the old one back to life. One part of this process involved removing everything from the fridge and freezer and turning it off for 24 hours. It’s the classic ‘turn it off and on again’ situation. Of course, doing this also involved removing everything. And that, led to a kind of leftovers voyage of discovery where I found food I had long forgot about, and containers I thought were long gone. This included a container that was part of a set of three from IKEA which was quickly washed and reunited with it’s two smaller containers on the tupperware shelf. It was like the long lost brother had returned after travelling and exploring the unknown.
A little artist’s note: This was drawn quickly. So quickly in-fact, that I can barely remember it. But every time I look at the plastic container with the beard, it makes me smile, and that will do nicely.
Caption: "Does this trapeze go into town?"
Trapezes are the future. Or the past. Or, well…
What if you could catch a trapeze into the office? What if the city had a series of trapezes that could take you wherever you needed to go? What if it was just damn funny to think that there would be a conductor for that trapeze?
All of these questions and more drifted through my mind as I created this one. Just think of this next time you arrive at the train, I mean trapeze, station.
A little artist’s note: I must have worked and reworked this one a hundred times. The idea lingered, but the placements of the people and the additional trapezes have shifted so often that I can’t really remember where they started out now. Is it perfect? Probably not. Could I have spent another few hours reworking it? It seems likely. Does it get the joke across? I think so.
Thanks for reading MiddleSquiggle!
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love the travel trio! Thank you Chris. I must admit that I have never had the thought about Trapeze travel 🤔 Do I think it could "take off"? Probably not - OH&S nightmare 😁