One day at a time

Short working week, as I took Monday off as part of a long weekend, when I was supposed to be in Sydney, but due to the current lockdown was stuck at home. Not sure when the current lockdown will come to an end, I've stopped following the news about the pandemic as it's just too depressing to keep hearing about infections and deaths. I know the lifting of the lockdown is linked to the vaccination rates. Been looking at air fares to get over to the UK, but at the moment, the borders are still closed here in Australia and I don't have the information necessary to apply for an exemption. I have been looking at going over during my Christmas and New year leave, but the prices are exuberant and will probably cost me several thousands of dollars to get over there. At least more airlines are being to schedule flights to Australia and hopefully the more that come back, will help lower the cost. My dad is still in hospital but there have been moves to get him home (because the hospi...

Once again I celebrated my birthday in lockdown, at least with have a road map (again) out of this one, depending on how the vaccination rates go. I had planned to be in Sydney this weekend and although I can not travel, I have still taken the annual leave that I booked for the trip. I did manage to see my social bubble mate on my birthday. My father is still in hospital but there is very little that I can do from here, with the international borders still closed here in Australia. He is in very good spirits even though it's not looking that good in terms of a full recovery.

The walls are going up, in my case quite literally at the building site down the road, The walls closest to our apartment building are going up first, which might act as a sound barrier but I doubt they will have much impact. The lockdown continues, although there have been a couple tweaks to the restrictions from Friday, with travel permitted up to 10km and small gatherings outside allowed. I had a visit from my social bubble friend, he turned up during the afternoon, when I was still working so I probably was’t the best host. I am on the owners committee for my building and we had our first meeting with the new owners corporation management company, it was a refreshing change to talk to someone who came across as professional and knowledgeable. Sounds like the transfer from the old company did not go smoothly but they are working through the issues. Work is getting to the pointy end of the latest publication, we have the big meeting with the “important” people next week and I had to ...

 Finally had enough of work and took a mental health day on Friday to do something completely different (well as different as I can in lockdown). I took the train to the next town and went shopping (all within my 5km limit). The other highlight from the week was arranging, conducting and editing a radio interview for the show I volunteer on, which we recorded on Sunday. I also went to see my elderly relative to check up on her and make sure she was okay over the weekend. One of the family will see her during the weekend as she does not receive support over the weekend. Apart from that my week has been very same same, there is very little to do in the evening but watch TV so it was nice to do something different this week. 

Lockdown in Victoria will stay in place until 70% of elibigle people have had their first vaccation and then there will be some lifting of the restriction, unfortunately that means that we are probably going to stay in lockdown for most of September. My elderly aunt had her 99 birthday in lockdown, although one of my cousin's children did make time to visit her and she had lots of phone calls and presents delivered. I had my second jab and have received my vaccination certificate to prove I have had both jabs, although at the moment that doesn't change anything for me, but hopefully when the international borders open up a bit, I will then be able to travel again. We have been having some nice weather and even though today was forecast to be wet and cool, I am out on my balcony enjoying the sunshine.

This nightmare continues with lockdown until 2 September and a nightly curfew between 9pm to 5am. This means that my local supermarket now closes at 8:30pm! There have been violent protests about the lockdown and I share the frustration, but the protests will have no impact and can possible turn into super spreader events, only prolonging the lockdown! Work is not really helping, with numerous requests coming from another area of the department with no regard to the work I need to complete for my own role, hopefully I will be getting someone to assist me soon and I have sent some of the recent requests on to other members of the team so I can concentrate on my own work. I should get my second AZ vaccination on Friday coming, although recently there have been people dying from COVID who had been fully vaccinated so it's not a silver bullet the politicians keep saying it will be, I hope they make sure that we have got to over 80% fully vaccinated before removing all the restrictions ...

I don't think anyone was surprised that the 7 day circuit breaker (ie lockdown) was extended for another 7 days, since it is the same thing that has happened for all the previous Victorian lock downs. Even though it wasn't a surprise that does not mean that it wasn't a disappointment when it was announced. Work has not been helping my mood,with endless rounds of chasing people for information, used by other areas of the department. This means it has felt like there is little time to do what I consider my own work, reviewing the feeds and preparing the reports for the sectors. One of my flights to New Zealand in November got rescheduled, so that I would need to spend a night in Auckland to connect another flight and therefore arrive back a day later. I took the decision to cancel my New Zealand trip to Christchurch, one of the flights has been refunded the other has been converted to a credit and I cancelled the hotel booking .I am also in the process of cancelling my trip t...

 The lockdown in Victoria has come to an end, although I am still working from home and visitors are not yet allowed. Masks are mandatory both inside and outside of the home. Work is beginning to pick up and there is a difficulty that many of the early submitters are falling foul of in the new system, even though advice has been provided to them to help overcome the issue. I went to visit my aunt today and she thought I was bringing food but I only mentioned cake in the conversation this morning. Thankfully she enjoyed the cake I had brought. Trying to get her to use a mobile phone but she was having difficulty just getting it to start up. I'm writing this on my “new” iPad and am waiting for a cover to arrive. It's a refurbished unit and can no longer be updated but most of what I want works on it at the moment.

The latest (fourth) lock down was relaxed from midnight Thursday and we are now allowed to leave our homes for any reason, but are limited in how far we can travel (up to a maximum of 25km). Still working from home, although offices are allowed to reopen, but if people can work from home that is still encouraged. The relaxation coincided with a long weekend, which I should have been enjoying in Hobart in Tasmania, but since they have closed the borders to Victorians, that was cancelled last week. I am still taking the leave from work and will not be returning until Wednesday. One of the relaxations was that restaurants are allowed to reopen, so I was able to have brunch with friends over the weekend and I also washed the car (although I think that was allowed during the lockdown). I also took a train on Friday to do some shopping, as expected there were very few people on the train in both directions and I only travelled a couple of stops. My arm has finally stopped hurting where I had...

The 7 day circuit break has been extended for metro Melbourne for at least another 7 days, basically the same rules but with the extension of the distance that people can travel for shopping and exercise from 5km to 10km. So working from home continues up until my leave, but unfortunately I have had to cancel the trip to Hobart, as Tasmania has closed the border to Victorians. I had an unscheduled visit to my elderly aunt, she needed someone to stay with her after a small procedure to remove a lump and I was really the only one that could do it at short notice. I didn't sleep well staying there but we both survived the experience. I have had the first COVID-19 vaccination and my second one is scheduled for August. Apart from a sore arm where the injection was made, I currently feel okay. I thought that I would do some online shopping, but hit a problem when the payment system approved my purchase but the online retailer site failed as I returned from the payment site. I have been i...