No matter your level of fitness or commitment to staying in shape, we all have bad days. Weights may feel particularly heavy one day, while at other times, we may even find it hard to get out bed and into our gym gear. It’s perfectly normal, and often, it’s a sign our body is telling us to slow things down a bit. However, inspirational fitness figures such as David Goggins, Joe Rogan and The Rock, have all made a career out of pushing their limits in order to smash goals and get themselves into the best possible shape.Whether you would be best advised to follow in their footsteps is between you and your physio. But if you would like to ‘hack’ your way to more motivation they are great to look to.We’ve previously discussed how David and Joe go about overriding their brain and body wishing to laze: the former providing such words as “Let me explain to you how this works – when it’s early and you don’t want to get up, you wake the fuck up! When you don’t want to go to run, you put your shoes on and go run regardless if it is hot, cold, windy, snowing, etc.”Joe Rogan, meanwhile, has spoken about his “inner b**ch”, his inner voice that tells him he needs to stop: “It’s amazing how procrastination and laziness can sneak up on you some days, and how, much like inspiration, it’s got weak days and strong days. I think the key is to never give yourself that option. Ever.”So, what does muscle mountain and Hollywood megastar The Rock do to keep himself motivated? The 49-year-old revealed all in a recent video posted to his Instagram account, responding to several people who have asked him how he “fights through fatigue being tired.”Watch the video below

The Rock admits that “we are busy, we are on this treadmill of life, that there’s no stop button”, before giving examples such as going to school, going to work or having bills to pay, all which “make us tired throughout the day”. And so, when it comes to working out, which The Rock tends to prefer to do late into the night and early hours of the following morning, he often thinks, “s**t, I should just call it a night.”But, not one to be deterred, his first port of call to motivate himself is to try and think back to his younger days when he didn’t have much to his name, his “seven bucks days”, and the work he put into becoming one of the most famous – and likeable – people on the planet.If he still feels demotivated, and the idea of sleep outweighs the thought of working out, he steps things up a notch, telling himself:

“How bad of a m***r f****r do you think you are?”

“Go out and prove it, no-one’s watching. Everyone’s asleep, nobody will ever know.”Having this conversation with himself tends to work everytime, according to the man himself, making it an internal monologue everyone could stand to benefit from taking onboard.Who knows? Maybe serious gains await.

Check out how to get as huge as The Rock in the video below

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The post Call Yourself A 'Bad M****r F****r?': The Rock Reveals Benefits Of Verbally Abusing Yourself In The Gym appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

In his almost six decades of filmic exploits, the legendary fictional secret agent James Bond has worn a wide variety of high-end timepieces. When No Time to Die comes out later this year, our current Bond, Daniel Craig, will be wearing an OMEGA – but 007 has favoured many other brands: Rolex, Seiko, Breitling, Hamilton…

One of the most underrated watches Bond has ever worn was the TAG Heuer 1000 Professional ‘Night Diver’ that Timothy Dalton donned in 1987’s The Living Daylights. Featuring a blacked-out PVD case and bezel combined with an unusual fully luminescent dial with darkened indices (when the reverse is common practice), the Night Diver, as the name implied, was the perfect companion for the stealthy spy.

Now, in 2021, TAG Heuer is reviving the legendary Night Diver as a new variant of its Aquaracer Professional 300 Collection: taking the signature features of the original Night Diver and incorporating them in a far superior timepiece, both technologically and aesthetically.

While the Aquaracer Night Diver is a truly distinctive-looking watch – and arguably one of the best watches Bond’s ever rocked on the silver screen – it’s worth pointing out just how brilliant the Aquaracer Professional 300 family it’s a member of really is.

RELATED: TAG Heuer’s New Aquaracer Might Just Be 2021’s Most Exciting Diver’s Watch

First unveiled at Watches & Wonders earlier this year, the new design features an overhauled ceramic bezel with less recessed and sleeker graduations; a more angular, modern overall aesthetic; and grippier facets, facilitating greater ease of adjustment.

The case is also somewhat slimmer, lighter, and shorter lug-to-lug than the outgoing iteration, with the angular indices of the older model also swapped out for octagonal indices that evoke classic dive watch styles with a subtle, individual touch. Another unique touch is the date window, which has been moved from 3 to 6 o’clock and its cyclops lens now sporting a perfectly spherical design – a really unique look.

The release of the Aquaracer Night Diver also coincides with the reveal of three new rubber strap references within the Aquaracer Professional 300 collection, bringing the total number of watches in the collection to 11, including the Night Diver and another limited edition throwback model, the ‘Tribute to Ref. 844’ – another watch we reckon Bond would approve of.

RELATED: TAG Heuer’s Silliest Watch Release May Actually Be Their Smartest

Whether you’re a fan of spy movies or just know a good dive watch when you see one, the Night Diver – as well as the rest of the Aquaracer Professional 300 collection – are the perfect partners for any sort of mission, whether you’re diving into the deep end or sipping on a martini. They’re all very cool watches.

Check them all out at TAG Heuer’s online boutique here.

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The post TAG Heuer Revives The Most Underrated James Bond Watch Of All Time appeared first on DMARGE.

There are a lot of good ways to try to get an Airbnb ‘super host’ rating. This is not one of them.

In fact, it’s quite the opposite; doing what one Victoria Goldfield’s region Airbnb host (allegedly) did, is a bad move for a number of reasons, and can even get you reported to the police.

As Ross Mathieson from Kingsville, Victoria recently wrote to Traveller in a letter, an Airbnb host proposed he break lockdown in order to go ahead with his booking.

Entitled: “airs and disgraces” the letter reads as follows:

“Further to the concerns expressed by Trish Lynam (Traveller Letters, August 14), we have also lost money through a COVID-19 lockdown-related Airbnb cancellation. Our host kept 100 per cent of our money, despite being informed of our lockdown cancellation three days before our intended stay.”

“The host informed us that lockdowns are ‘ridiculous’ and proposed that we just hop on a train, travel to Victoria’s Goldfields region and stay as intended. In his view, we would be unchallenged and suffer no consequence and he claimed to have hosted people from Melbourne during lockdown.”

Mathieson says he has reported the matter to the police but was told “it is unlikely that action can be taken against the host because he is ‘not a business.'”

He added: “Airbnb requested a refund from him on our behalf but he refused to cooperate. Airbnb was also unwilling to address his encouragement to defy the lockdown restrictions.”

Airbnb has been put increasingly under the microscope in recent years regarding the extent to which it takes responsibility for negligent (or criminal) behaviour on the part of hosts or guests.

And there have been far more extreme cases than the example above.

The Guardian reported in June 2021 that an Australian woman who was allegedly raped at knifepoint in an Airbnb apartment in New York in 2016 “received a secret settlement of $7m which included restrictions on what she could say about the incident, according to a media investigation into the vacation listings giant’s ‘guest safety’ policies.”

According to Bloomberg, the attack sparked fast intervention of a dedicated Airbnb crisis management team.

The taskforce, Bloomberg reports, “cleans up only after disaster strikes” and, in this case “relocated the woman to a hotel, paid for her mother to fly in from Australia, flew them both home, and offered to cover any health or counseling costs.”

“The duplicate keys posed a particular problem for the company and a mystery for investigators. How had the man gotten them? Airbnb doesn’t have a policy for how hosts exchange keys with guests, and its reputation for safety, and possibly its legal liability, hinged on the answer.”

“For all its importance, the safety team remains shrouded in secrecy. Insiders call it the ‘black box,'” (Bloomberg).

According to Bloomberg, former ‘black box’ team members say the job is nerve-wracking, and requires them to balance the often conflicting interests of guests, hosts, and the company.

“I had situations where I had to get off the phone and go cry,” a former agent told Bloomberg. “That’s all you can do.”

Airbnb remains, as Bloomberg puts it, “somewhere between a tech platform and a hotel operator—unable to disavow responsibility for ensuring its users are safe, as some tech companies might, or to provide security guards and other on-site staff, as a hotel would.”

On this, Tara Bunch, Airbnb’s head of global operations told Bloomberg, trust and safety at Airbnb is more complicated than at Apple or Facebook because “you are dealing with real people in real people’s homes.”

Bunch also told Bloomberg: “People are naturally unpredictable, and as much as we try, occasionally really bad things happen.”

“We all know that you can’t stop everything, but it’s all about how you respond, and when it happens you have to make it right, and that’s what we try to do each and every time.”

In 2020, Airbnb was valued at 75 billion U.S. dollars (up from 35 billion the previous year). The company spends tens of millions of dollars each year to resolve incidents with potentially negative public relations consequences.

A document Bloomberg says it saw, “purports to show that Airbnb pays about $50m annually to hosts and guests, which includes damage to property and legal settlements.”

Read Next

• ‘Money Spinner’ Australians Will Have To Get Used To When Travelling In 2022
• American Man’s ‘Callous’ Act Sparks Controversial Plane Etiquette Debate 

The post Airbnb Host's 'Illegal' Request Of Australian Travellers appeared first on DMARGE.

Anyone even passingly familiar with cars knows that the performance argument for electric vehicles is just as compelling as their environmental bona fides: the effortless acceleration, hefty torque and impressive stopping power EVs are inherently capable of lend themselves well to performance applications.

It’s no wonder, then, that Porsche – one of the world’s top performance car manufacturers – was so keen to get in on the EV action, releasing the blisteringly fast Taycan sedan last year. Sleek, comfortable, modern and crucially, extremely bloody fast, the Taycan has been an utter revelation; a true paradigm shift for luxury and performance vehicles.

Now, in 2021, these genius Germans have come up with yet another spectacular look into the future of cars: the Mission R concept, which the Stuttgart marque has unveiled just in time for the start of IAA MOBILITY 2021 (better known as the Munich Motor Show).

An extremely low-slung, all-electric competition car, the Mission R looks amazing – like if a Taycan Turbo S and a Lotus Evora had a baby. But it doesn’t just look thrilling. It’s a highly advanced piece of kit that could very well be the future of motorsport, whether you like it or not.

Watch the Mission R reveal below

Porsche have a long tradition of customer motorsports, with models like the 911 Carrera and GT3 having formed the basis of 30 one-make cup series across the world. An all-electric cup car like the Mission R makes a lot of sense, especially when you also consider how Porsche is now involved in the Formula E World Championship. Consumer motorsports will inevitably go electric, so Porsche is just getting ahead of the curve.

But how does it drive? Shorter and lower but slightly wider than the 718 Cayman, the all-wheel-drive track car makes just under 1,100hp in ‘qualifying mode’, accelerates from 0 -100 km/h in less than 2.5 seconds and boasts a top speed of over 300 km/h. Knowing Porsche’s typically humble approach, there’s a good chance it’s even faster off the line than that, and you can bet your bottom dollar it will handle like nobody’s business.

RELATED: I Drove Porsche’s Insane New Electric Car. It Blew My Mind

But those numbers don’t really give a good sense of just how revolutionary the car is. Thanks to its advanced 900-volt technology and Porsche Turbo Charging, a good 15-minute break from racing is all that is needed to charge the battery from 5 to 80%. It’s got Formula One-style DRS (Drag Reduction System, i.e. active aerodynamics) to generate maximum downforce.

But it’s also good for the planet: it’s mostly made out of flax, thanks to its use of natural fibre-reinforced plastics for body panels. And of course, it doesn’t use a drop of petrol. Of course, this may infuriate some sports car stalwarts, but they’ll just need to get over it. This is the future.

The other interesting element of the Mission R concept is how it’s intended to bring the worlds of real and virtual racing closer together – as the launch video, with its very Cyberpunk 2077 vibes, hints at. Core to this is how the Mission R’s monocoque driver’s module can also double as an e-sports simulator, for when you can’t make it to the track.

This is no mere gimmick. the rise of e-sports, particularly racing simulators like the rFactor and Assetto Corsa series, is deeply influencing real-world motorsport. E-sports is increasingly becoming a way for motorsports teams to identify emerging talents, hone established driver’s skills, and entertain fans. Indeed, the official Formula One eSports Series received plenty of attention last year as the 2020 Formula One World Championship faced repeated disruptions thanks to the COVID-19 crisis.

Proper racing simulator setups can cost tens of thousands of dollars, so having a car that can race both virtually and in real life is a brilliant concept. If we’re talking consumer motorsports, it’s a fundamentally consumer-friendly move; one that will appeal to real purists (who recognise the essential role simulators play in modern motorsports).

The really exciting thing about the Mission R is that if Porsche’s recent track record (pun intended) is anything to go by, it stands a very good chance of making it into production.

RELATED: Wild Porsche Statistic Puts Other Car Manufacturers To Shame

One of the most exciting things about the Taycan is how closely it resembles the Mission E concept car Porsche unveiled back in 2015. Normally, there’s a bit lost in translation; too many compromises between a concept and production car, but the Taycan doesn’t have that. It was the same story with the 2018 Mission E Cross Turismo concept and the new Taycan Cross Turismo. Fingers crossed we see a trifecta with the Mission R.

We wonder if the Mission R will kick-start a new range of electric consumer motorsports vehicles. A Tesla Roadster Cup? A Toyota Supra GT4 EV? Guess we’ll just have to wait and see…

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The post Porsche Unveils The Future Of Motorsport… Whether You Like It Or Not appeared first on DMARGE.

Personal trainers and fitness professionals will all claim we should leave our ego at the door as soon as we step foot into a gym. But, despite their best efforts to try and prevent the competitive nature that takes hold in gyms around the world, people will always have a small voice inside them telling them they can go a little heavier than they really are equipped to.

Which is why a particular press-up challenge recently caught our eye. In theory, it looks like a simple movement that we can all attempt with guaranteed success. But judging by the videos we’ve seen of some incredibly fit guys having a go, it’s anything but.

Dubbed ‘the impossible chest press,’ the movement – which is currently sweeping around Instagram’s fitness community – sees you needing a flat bench and a kettlebell to perform. Going back to the “leave your ego at the door” message, it’s definitely wise to start with a relatively light kettlebell so you can figure out the technique for yourself. Go too heavy, and you could get injured.

Move to one end of the flat bench and rest the closest elbow on the seat. Place the foot on your opposite side flat on the floor and bend your knee. Push up through this same foot to get your torso parallel to the ground, and lift your other leg up off the ground, in a similar fashion to a single-leg hip bridge.

Check out Luke Cook, Tim Robards and Chris Carlson attempting the impossible chest press in the video below

Holding the kettlebell in your other hand, bring your upper arm close to your body and bend your elbow to 90-degrees, with the kettlebell being held in a neutral grip (palm facing inwards). Now, keeping your body stabilised in the parallel position, press the kettlebell up.

There is a lot going on in this movement, as a video of NFL athlete Chris Carlson attempting it shows. Claiming it to be the “hardest core & hip stabilisation drill ever,” as well as allowing for “full body strength & motor control,” Chris – who has to be physically fit to compete in the NFL – struggles with his first attempt. Understanding what is required of the movement, his second attempt is much more successful.

The impossible chest press appears to have caught on in the fitness world, with former The Bachelor contestant turned fitness expert Tim Robards being set the challenge by fellow Australian Luke Cook. Tim attempts the challenge using a 12kg kettlebell, achieving three reps on his first attempt and seven on his second.

It’s clearly incredibly difficult, so we would suggest getting used to the unusual position without a kettlebell first, just so you can learn how to best stabilise your body when you’re only using one elbow and one foot to keep yourself elevated.

From there, gradually increase the weight of the kettlebell you use to start building up the strength in your arms, shoulders and core. While the challenge appears to only require you to perform the chest press on one side, you should try performing on both sides to help balance things out.

Give it a go, post it on your socials and challenge your mates. The competitive nature of fitness will never cease.

Read Next

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The post 'Impossible' Chest Press Exercise Challenge Taking Fitness World By Storm appeared first on DMARGE.

Got a flight coming up? Don’t go getting a big head. TikTok star and flight attendant Kat Kamalani has a video that might destroy your ego.

How? She reveals why flight attendants always awkwardly stand at the entrance of the plane and greet every single customer, looking them up and down as they do so.

And it’s not because they are flirting.

Kamalani says the real reason is safety.

“When you’re walking on the plane and see our happy, smiley face we’re actually looking you up and down and trying to find our ABPs (able bodied people),” she said in a recent TikTok video (watch it below).

Why flight attendants greet you

“This is people who are going to help us in an emergency. For example: military personnel, fire fighters nurses doctors, cops etc.”

Other flight attendants like @cierra_mistt have said the same thing, explaining that while you might think they are being friendly, they are actually “judging you hardcore.”

This crushed a number of TikTok users’ hopes and dreams.

From “I always thought they smiled a little too hard” to “I always thought they were politely greeting us” (to “how can you tell someone is a doctor just by looking at them”) there were a lot of comments beneath Kamalani’s video.

Another said: “I caught one looking me up and down, thought she disapproved of my Adidas bottoms and comfy top for flying.”

Others experienced less of an ego death, writing things like: “So basically the flight attendant is checking me out ;).”

Yet others said, if the uncomfortable shoes were on their feet: “I’d be looking for the cute guys.”

Speaking of searching, Kamalani said “we’re also looking for one more thing.”

“Besides looking for things that don’t belong on a plane – like a box full of liquid… we’re looking for human trafficking, it happens a lot and our passenger safety is our number one priority so we’re just looking for things that look off.”

There you have it – that’s why flight attendants always stand at the doors of the plane and greet you. It’s not just because they don’t trust you to find your seat.

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The post The Real Reason Flight Attendants Greet Every Single Passenger Individually appeared first on DMARGE.

The 2021 Formula One World Championship is shaping up to be one of the most exciting title fights in recent memory.Mercedes‘ Lewis Hamilton, who took home his seventh World Drivers’ Championship last year (equalling Michael Schumacher’s record), has seen his rivalry with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen really heat up in 2021 – with the wily Dutchman currently ahead of Hamilton in the points.We’re 19 races in with 3 to go and the battle between the pair has been neck and neck, with both stars pulling out some of the most exciting and high-stakes driving we’ve seen in a long time. Will Hamilton take home an eight title, securing his place as the GOAT? Or will Verstappen put an end to Hamilton’s golden run and secure his first championship? The stakes are high.When you’re at war, you need a watch that can take a beating, too – which is why Hamilton’s sacked IWC Schaffhausen’s horological hoard for a real no-nonsense timepiece: the Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Top Gun Edition “Mojave Desert” (ref. IW503004). It seems he’s quite enamoured with the watch, as he keeps sharing photos of it on social media. We’d be taking pics of it for the ‘Gram too.

The ‘Top Gun’ in the watches’ name doesn’t refer to the Tom Cruise movie: it instead pays homage to the US Navy’s Fighter Weapons School, also called TOPGUN. It’s this elite flight school that inspired the iconic 80s flick, actually. Why the Mojave Desert, then? Well, it’s because that’s where the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station is located – a military base where the US Navy and Marine Corps develop and test their most advanced airborne weapon systems.IWC has had a long relationship with TOPGUN. Indeed, they make a watch called the Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition “Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor” which is only available to TOPGUN graduates, much like how Bremont offers their famous MBI exclusively to customers who’ve ejected from a Martin-Baker ejection seat.RELATED: Best Military Watches That Will Enhance Your Rugged Good LooksHamilton’s watch takes advantage of the Big Pilot’s characteristically – well, big – dial to include a full perpetual calendar with displays for the date, day and month; the year in four digits; a perpetual moon phase for both the northern and southern hemisphere; and even a power reserve indicator and small hacking seconds integrated into the 3 and 9 o’clock subdials respectively.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Christoph Grainger-Herr (@chrisgraingerherr)

The scratch-resistant, sand-coloured ceramic case; tough textile and rubber strap; seven-day power reserve and anti-reflective sapphire crystal further mark the watch out as not just an example of haute horlogerie but a real tough cookie that’ll survive even the fiercest frays… Such as those with an angry Dutchman with something to prove.We got another good look at the watch this weekend, as the champ wore it both before the race as well as on the podium at the São Paulo Grand Prix – the Brit having cinched his 101st win, narrowing the gulf between him and Verstappen and add a bit more excitement to this title fight.

Check out some of Lewis Hamilton’s other high-end timepieces [Watch Below]

The next race on the F1 calendar is the Qatar Grand Prix. With only 14 points between Verstappen and Hamilton (with the former in the lead), Hamilton will need all the help he can get if he wants to snatch back the lead and remain top dog.

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The post Lewis Hamilton’s ‘Desert Storm’ Edition IWC Schaffhausen Watch appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Have you ever found yourself parallel parking on a busy street, only to suddenly find your hands shaking and your patience waning? Well, imagine the same thing, but with thousands of tonnes of metal under your grasp.

Intrigued? If you’ve ever wished to see how a 511 ft superyacht is moored, look no further than this video, which shows an absolutely gigantic vessel casually pulling up to Barcelona and being moored.

Watch how a 511ft superyacht is moored in the video below

The video was taken by Instagram account @marinaportvell, and was shared on Instagram by account @boatinternational, with the following caption:

“Hello 156 metre Dilbar… ”

“With a total interior volume of over 15,000 GT, Dilbar is the largest yacht in the world by gross tonnage, if not by length. She was built in steel and aluminium by @luerssenyachts to a design by @espen.oeino.”

“Hope to see it somewhere,” one Instagram user wrote. Another follower of the channel replied: “This vessel is often to see in the port Vauban of Antibes, France. It’s the only Harbour on the French Rivera where vessels of this size are able to anchor. Good luck.”

RELATED: Video Shows Every Luxury Yacht Owner’s Worst Nightmare

Another claimed the ‘yacht’ is owned by a Russian multi billionaire called Alisher Usmanov (“some people build or buy ships and call them yachts…”).

Not everyone was stoked though. Various followers of the account criticised this Khubla Khan kind of monument. One called it “F*cking senseless,” while another labelled it “a symbol of our demise as a species.”

RELATED: What It Costs To Spend A Week On A Super Yacht In The Mediterranean 

“Putin’s wallet bought this,” griped another.

“It’s disgusting this thing exists for one person.”

Some hit back with comments like: “born a jealous man will always stay a jealous man.”

On a more positive note, Marina Port Vell – the port in Barceloa where this vessel can be seen mooring, has also taken to Instagram with an explanation for why such vessels might choose Port Vell as their temporary home.

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A post shared by Marina Port Vell Barcelona (@marinaportvell)

“In #MarinaPortVellBarcelona it’s sunny in summer, and sunny in winter. Who wouldn’t feel confused? This amaizing weather conditions make our marina the safest mooring choice all year round,” the Marina Port Vell account wrote last week.

Talk about FOMO…

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The post Incredible Video Shows How A 511ft Super Yacht Is Moored appeared first on DMARGE.

Despite PCR testing requirements causing mild indignance (among a confused minority) in Australia when we were asked to do it to go to New Zealand (back when the trans-Tasman bubble was still open), pretty much everywhere else in the world, PCR tests are the new normal – and have been for some time.

However, as we’ve become a bit of a hermit kingdom here in Australia, many of us have been a bit sheltered from this particular new reality.

There are a few things we’re going to have to get used to again though when we start travelling internationally – whether that’s in December 2021, April 2022, or even later.

One of them is learning how to wear a mask so that it’s comfortable on a long haul flight (see: Genius ‘Face Mask Hack’ You Need To Learn Before Travelling In 2022). The other is getting used to getting our wallets out for PCR tests.

Health.gov.au states: “All people travelling to Australia on flights departing on or after 22 January 2021 (local time at departure point) must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) result at the time of check-in.”

It also states: “Passengers travelling to Australia must be tested for COVID-19, 72 hours or less before the scheduled flight departure, and display evidence of a negative test result at the time of check-in. COVID-19 PCR testing is required. Passengers arriving on a green safe travel zone flight are exempt from pre-departure testing requirements. Countries where COVID-19 PCR testing is not reasonably available are also exempt, as determined by the Australian Government.”

That’s just when it comes to returning. On top of this, you may have to do a PCR test here in Australia, before you go, too, now that Delta is out and about Down Under.

PCR tests from private companies can range in price.

According to the BBC, “Tests cost about £75 [AU $140] per person on average but there are reports of some being offered for as little as £20, and others more than £500.”

“The government publishes a list of companies and clinics offering testing but there have been reports that many have not got full accreditation,” (BBC).

An Australian expat, who tells us he is “double vaxxed,” and who is living in Europe, told DMARGE: “You need 2-3 to go some places – 1 before, 1 to come back and 1 after two days.”

Another Australian resident, who was granted an exemption to travel to Europe earlier this year for essential reasons, told DMARGE another thing Australians will have to take into account when we are able to travel again, is the logistics of booking your test (and getting it back in time).

This Australian resident visited family in a small town in Spain where there was not easy access to PCR testing in the days leading up to her flight home. She had to travel by train for two hours to a bigger city to get her test, before returning to her home town, before going to Madrid for her return flight back to Australia.

The BBC reports that Britain’s health secretary has called for a review into “excessive” pricing and “exploitative practices” among PCR test providers, which travel industry figureheads have blamed for discouraging people from travelling.

“The Competition and Markets Authority said it would explore whether there are pricing and reliability problems,” the BBC reports.

“It said it will also investigate whether PCR providers are breaching obligations under consumer law and what immediate actions the government needs to take.”

So even though they are a useful tool at this stage in our pandemic development – not a rort, as some might be tempted to glibly refer to them as – PCR testing is something Australian watchdogs may need to keep an eye on when it comes our turn to shell out for them to travel internationally.

Of course, for all this to be a relevant conversation, we need to be able to travel internationally first – something planned to happen, if all goes well with our vaccine rollout, in December 2021 for low risk (in terms of COVID-19) countries, and April 2022 for some higher-risk countries (read more about all that here).

Want more tips on what you need to be ready for when international travel returns? Why not watch the below video, which shows you a handy ‘mask hack’ to save your ears when flying.

Mask Hack To Save Your Ears When Flying

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The post PCR Tests Set To Sting Australian For International Travel appeared first on DMARGE.