Having been on the other end of it and experienced it, I will admit that there will be a lot of anxiety and angst over the passports. I went over to Crowsnest last Thurs and didn't have my phone (I was letting it charge). And they wanted to see the proof of vaccination early, i.e. not on the 22nd.* I was ready to turn around and go home, but it was an extremely slow night, so the guy at the box office had me go sign onto my email and we finally tracked down the email showing I had been vaccinated. Then he let me in. But most venues will not have that much flexibility or patience, and thus most people will indeed need their phone on them at all times (and this is doubly true whenever the Provincial app is rolled out).
No question there will be lots and lots of people that argue they aren't aware of the new rules, or the phone battery just died, or who knows what. Sadly, there is not a lot of compassion or understanding left. People are just worn out by everything and are quite scornful of those who try to dodge the rules, including the inevitable outpouring of "jailhouse lawyers" that will be springing up over this, as they see them, rightfully, as further prolonging the crisis. That said, there are also going to be a lot of people caught in very difficult positions, including people that were vaccinated legitimately with the Chinese or Russian vaccines, which are still not recognized by the WHO, and in some cases the Canadian authorities are not being reasonable at all.
At any rate, the next time I went back to Crowsnest to see Harrow Fair, the guy at the door remembered me and waved me through, even though I was prepared and had my vaccine print-out. Again, this is the advantage of becoming a semi-regular at a venue that has so few customers right now. I enjoyed the first set, particularly their cover of Wicked Game (there are several different versions on Youtube, but this is probably the best) and their original song Hangnail. I've taken a look at the line-up of groups stopping by Crowsnest this week, and I'm likely to go this Thurs. and Sat. In part, I find I can relax a bit and write fairly freely, though I will admit I write better during instrumental sets... I've sort of sketched out the main episodes of my planning department comedy and given most of the characters names and some quirks, and I'll just see how quickly I can pound this out. I'll write more about it in a later post. I've learned that if you reveal too much early on, then you don't actually get around to the hard part, i.e. writing it out...
The main downside of going to Crowsnest more is trying to squeeze in going to the gym, though I have managed to keep going about three times a week, which is what I did pre-pandemic. I haven't fit in the swimming yet, but I'll get more serious about that soon. Also, I'm not seeing quite as many sitcom episodes with my son, and there is a fairly long backlog. (At the moment, we are alternating Slings & Arrows and The IT Crowd, which I haven't seen in 15 years, so it is almost like coming at it brand new, and I'm sure I never got around to watching Season 4. But I actually ordered Dreamland/Utopia, though I have also decided I can't watch it until I am finished with my own series.) Obviously, his school work always needs to come first, and it doesn't help that football has started up, since he can get wrapped up in the games, but we'll eventually get through these shows.
* After this experience, I have been trying to probe the gym I go to to see if they are starting asking for proof early, as I very rarely bring my phone to the gym. They basically said that they would start asking for passports in the afternoon or evening of the 21st, i.e. just a day early so they don't have anyone linger in the locker room past midnight and violate the new orders. Now this may change, but I don't think I'll be caught out unprepared. While it is a violation of privacy in some sense, I would definitely prefer if my status just gets updated on my gym profile and I don't need to show proof every single time, but clearly this is a work-in-progress, and I'll just try to be patient...
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