Today is the first Father's Day to fall amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

We can only hope and/or pray it is the last.

When the pandemic first started to take hold in Australia earlier in the year, it forced me to reconsider a long-planned trip back to Tasmania scheduled for late March to see my family.

Eventually, after much deliberation, a few weeks out from setting sail, my partner and I pulled the pin on our plans.

I must admit I felt a bit silly at the time, thinking we had probably overreacted. After all, it's not like they were going to close any state borders or anything!

Ultimately, of course, it turned out to be the right decision.

We were able to get refunds on most of our travel and accommodation costs.

The Spirit of Tasmania people were excellent to deal with in quickly processing our refunds, as was the Airbnb host we had regrettably cancelled on.

In fact, everyone was most accommodating except for one particularly stubborn hotel we had booked for three nights in Launceston.

Refusing to acknowledge the exceptional circumstances that had been thrust upon the world, we were ordered to use our booking or lose it.

Now, I've been told on more than a few occasions throughout the years that I'm a poor consumer.

"You've got to stand up for yourself!" I've been told, including once when a waiter brought me the wrong order at a restaurant and, rather than return it, I decided just to eat it.

But I get more than enough conflict in my working life (it comes with the territory when you're a newspaper editor!) and I just don't need more if I can avoid it.

Understanding that a lot of tourism-related businesses were going to be hit hard financially by cancellations, I didn't want to push the issue of a refund too much.

Still, $369.57 is $369.57 and while I like to think I'm a generous person, I was reluctant to donate it to a hotel.

So I thought I'd struck the perfect compromise when I asked if the booking could be pushed back to mid-October. After all, I thought to myself, surely the world would have returned to normal by then?

Unfortunately not.

No doubt in a couple of weeks I'll call the hotel and ask for a refund, and failing that try to push the booking back to a time when coronavirus doesn't rule our lives, but to be honest, I don't care about the money.

It is missing out on those already rare opportunities of seeing my family that really hurts, a feeling that is only exacerbated when something like a Father's Day rolls around.

But it does increase my resolve, once the pandemic restrictions ease, to make more time for what matters most in life - my nearest and dearest - so maybe some good will come out of this.

All the best for the week ahead, and happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

Ross Tyson, editor