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.

It's been an extraordinary week! Firstly we have the continuing lockdown and curfew, with a couple of minor tweaks (upping the distance people can travel and allowing two households to mix outside), but on the whole the same rules and regulations still apply to metro Melbourne. There is a "roadmap" to when all this will be lifted, which is dependent on the level of vaccinations in the state and across Australia more generally. Then on Wednesday we had an earthquake! Not something that happens very often in Melbourne and not to the magnitude that this one struck - 5.9. It was a very scary 20 seconds, as the apartment shock and things fell over. Thankfully there was little danger caused by the quake, a couple of walls on old buildings collapsed and some people lost power  but thankfully no one was hurt or lost their life. Then on Friday I found out that my father had been taken to hospital and was in a pretty bad way. I have spoken to him and he sounds in good spirits, but ...

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.