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memories of Melbourne (lockdown and all)
Writing this down so that I remember, as much as any other reason.
What happened in Melbourne last year
The year started off as usual, with hot sunny days, the beginning of school, and half the country on fire.
I got concerned enough about the smoke to purchase facemasks on the internet.
China had another weird virus again, and we all watched the YouTube videos of them killing time while stuck in their houses for weeks.
Then came the end of the world. (For reference see: every country in the whole world, around about March.)
The main signs, to start with, was that the number of kids arriving at school started dropping (over the course of a month, my son's class went from 20 kids to 6). People started talking about maybe staying home.
We didn't go to church that week. My husband has a cold – and we were also getting a bit nervous.
The federal government said everything was fine, no need to panic. The state government said bollocks to that, everything was not fine, and closed schools a week early.
Church was also cancelled. (They have not yet started services again.)
We rang up the caravan park in Ballarat and said "Yeah, we were supposed to be coming in mid-March – could we postpone until September?" and the lady on the phone thanked me profusely for postponing rather than cancelling.
The state government informed us that we were in "lockdown", and asked us to stay at home unless we had "essential" reasons to go out. We were not allowed to visit other households at all.
They also informed us that school was not going back; that we'd be doing school at home for at least a few weeks, possibly the whole term.
My husband's work also told him to stay home until further notice. (He has not yet returned to the office.)
Six weeks of school at home, with weekly emails detailing what we should do. The kids were BORED, and wanted to see their friends.
Then we were back at school! Hurrah! Pandemic over!
We weren't allowed inside the school, though. And there was hand sanitiser everywhere.
No church.
No office work.
We had friends and family over, and spent time together. It was awesome.
And it was fine, more or less, until the end of term 2 (mid-June). Most of Australia had no cases; Victoria had a few.
And then had a few more.
And then a few more.
Suddenly we were at over 100 cases.
I bought a few facemasks, on a whim. I went back two days later, and they were sold out.
We re-entered lockdown. (Just Victoria.)
All the Murdoch-owned newspapers sneered at our Premier panicking over nothing, and "destroying the economy" unnecessarily.
Facemasks were now compulsory at all times when outside the house.
Term 3 started, back at home. Except now we had video lessons with teachers, twice a day.
My niece couldn't go to kinder, but her parents were essential workers, so she needed childcare. Suddenly I had three kids, all day every day, with two running around outside and one doing schoolwork on the dining table.
This next bit I have a clear record of: I sent a message to my husband, detailing what the Premier had just announced:
None of these restrictions would be eased at all for over a month.
I contacted the Ballarat caravan park again, and asked if I could postpone our stay indefinitely. They were fine with this.
Murdoch newspapers were gunning for the Premier, hard. They started calling him "Chairman Dan", to imply (in a very racist fashion) that he was power hungry and imposing facism.
Our Prime Minister was missing in action, ignoring Victoria as much as possible. (This was in character; when our country was burning to the ground in January, he ran off to holiday in Hawaii.)
We waited, at home.
And waited.
And waited.
And slowly, ever so slowly, our case numbers dropped.
By the end of October, we had zero cases in the state. And we were back at school for term 4.
Facemasks were still compulsory. Travel limits were still in place. Most activities still weren't available.
But we were done. We could see family! We could go to playgrounds!
AND IT WAS THE BEST DAY EVER.
December 30 we got our first community transmission cases in two months. The Premier immediately slammed restrictions into place (facemasks indoors, no gatherings over 15 people), with enormous support from us all (with the exception of Murdoch-owned newspapers, who can go die in a fire if they would be so kind).
We are now back down at zero cases.
The Australian Open tennis tournament is happening, and all the tennis players have flown into Melbourne and been chucked into isolation for two weeks. Several of them are outraged by this. I just want to show them our streets, full of people, with no-one getting sick, and cry "Don't you see? Don't you get why we're holding onto this like our lives depend on it?"
(One of the outraged tennis players tested positive for Covid halfway through her "totally unnecessary" quarantine. And all Melburnians were immediately stricken with a sudden case of schadenfreude.)
My son is back at school.
My husband's work is considering sending people into the office for one day a week each.
My kids have swimming lessons again, and will soon start gymnastics lessons.
Next week we will go back to church.
There are facemasks that live permanently in my car, ready for trips to the supermarket. There is still hand sanitiser available everywhere, at every shop entrance, and every activity my kids do.
We are about to book in our Ballarat caravan park visit for April. If this plunges Victoria into our third lockdown, I will call that trip cursed, apologise profusely to everyone, and never again attempt it.
Questions? Comments?
What happened in Melbourne last year
The year started off as usual, with hot sunny days, the beginning of school, and half the country on fire.
I got concerned enough about the smoke to purchase facemasks on the internet.
China had another weird virus again, and we all watched the YouTube videos of them killing time while stuck in their houses for weeks.
Then came the end of the world. (For reference see: every country in the whole world, around about March.)
The main signs, to start with, was that the number of kids arriving at school started dropping (over the course of a month, my son's class went from 20 kids to 6). People started talking about maybe staying home.
We didn't go to church that week. My husband has a cold – and we were also getting a bit nervous.
The federal government said everything was fine, no need to panic. The state government said bollocks to that, everything was not fine, and closed schools a week early.
Church was also cancelled. (They have not yet started services again.)
We rang up the caravan park in Ballarat and said "Yeah, we were supposed to be coming in mid-March – could we postpone until September?" and the lady on the phone thanked me profusely for postponing rather than cancelling.
The state government informed us that we were in "lockdown", and asked us to stay at home unless we had "essential" reasons to go out. We were not allowed to visit other households at all.
They also informed us that school was not going back; that we'd be doing school at home for at least a few weeks, possibly the whole term.
My husband's work also told him to stay home until further notice. (He has not yet returned to the office.)
Six weeks of school at home, with weekly emails detailing what we should do. The kids were BORED, and wanted to see their friends.
Then we were back at school! Hurrah! Pandemic over!
We weren't allowed inside the school, though. And there was hand sanitiser everywhere.
No church.
No office work.
We had friends and family over, and spent time together. It was awesome.
And it was fine, more or less, until the end of term 2 (mid-June). Most of Australia had no cases; Victoria had a few.
And then had a few more.
And then a few more.
Suddenly we were at over 100 cases.
I bought a few facemasks, on a whim. I went back two days later, and they were sold out.
We re-entered lockdown. (Just Victoria.)
All the Murdoch-owned newspapers sneered at our Premier panicking over nothing, and "destroying the economy" unnecessarily.
Facemasks were now compulsory at all times when outside the house.
Term 3 started, back at home. Except now we had video lessons with teachers, twice a day.
My niece couldn't go to kinder, but her parents were essential workers, so she needed childcare. Suddenly I had three kids, all day every day, with two running around outside and one doing schoolwork on the dining table.
This next bit I have a clear record of: I sent a message to my husband, detailing what the Premier had just announced:
2 August 2020, 2:43 pm
Curfew starting tonight: 8pm to 5am.
No going further than 5km from home.
One person going shopping once per day.
1 hour of exercise, close to home.
Announcements about workplaces/employment tomorrow.
None of these restrictions would be eased at all for over a month.
I contacted the Ballarat caravan park again, and asked if I could postpone our stay indefinitely. They were fine with this.
Murdoch newspapers were gunning for the Premier, hard. They started calling him "Chairman Dan", to imply (in a very racist fashion) that he was power hungry and imposing facism.
Our Prime Minister was missing in action, ignoring Victoria as much as possible. (This was in character; when our country was burning to the ground in January, he ran off to holiday in Hawaii.)
We waited, at home.
And waited.
And waited.
And slowly, ever so slowly, our case numbers dropped.
By the end of October, we had zero cases in the state. And we were back at school for term 4.
Facemasks were still compulsory. Travel limits were still in place. Most activities still weren't available.
But we were done. We could see family! We could go to playgrounds!
AND IT WAS THE BEST DAY EVER.
December 30 we got our first community transmission cases in two months. The Premier immediately slammed restrictions into place (facemasks indoors, no gatherings over 15 people), with enormous support from us all (with the exception of Murdoch-owned newspapers, who can go die in a fire if they would be so kind).
We are now back down at zero cases.
The Australian Open tennis tournament is happening, and all the tennis players have flown into Melbourne and been chucked into isolation for two weeks. Several of them are outraged by this. I just want to show them our streets, full of people, with no-one getting sick, and cry "Don't you see? Don't you get why we're holding onto this like our lives depend on it?"
(One of the outraged tennis players tested positive for Covid halfway through her "totally unnecessary" quarantine. And all Melburnians were immediately stricken with a sudden case of schadenfreude.)
My son is back at school.
My husband's work is considering sending people into the office for one day a week each.
My kids have swimming lessons again, and will soon start gymnastics lessons.
Next week we will go back to church.
There are facemasks that live permanently in my car, ready for trips to the supermarket. There is still hand sanitiser available everywhere, at every shop entrance, and every activity my kids do.
We are about to book in our Ballarat caravan park visit for April. If this plunges Victoria into our third lockdown, I will call that trip cursed, apologise profusely to everyone, and never again attempt it.
Questions? Comments?
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Stay safe and sensible, Oz!
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I'm so sorry about what's happening over there. I have a great deal of affection for the UK, and I have been watching the last year's political situation with horror.
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with enormous support from us all (with the exception of Murdoch-owned newspapers, who can go die in a fire if they would be so kind).
Yes, absolutely. Personally, I think Dan did a good job of managing an incredibly difficult and virtually unknown situation and if this has taught e anything, it's to watch ABC news and not even bother looking at SkyNews because it's only going to make me grit my teeth and seeth.
(One of the outraged tennis players tested positive for Covid halfway through her "totally unnecessary" quarantine. And all Melburnians were immediately stricken with a sudden case of schadenfreude.)
Yes, that is very true. *sniggers*
We are about to book in our Ballarat caravan park visit for April. If this plunges Victoria into our third lockdown, I will call that trip cursed, apologise profusely to everyone, and never again attempt it.
Well... that just makes me glad that we've got a weekend away booked in Feb. I mean, just in case your holiday plans have been the cause of lockdown, at least I'll get to leave the house for a little while. (In theory, in 2020, Mum and I had a three week tour of China and Japan booked. We literally booked it in Dec-19, and by the first week of Feb, we were very happy to cancel and get most of our money back. I doubt there will be any overseas trips for the next few years, so camping is the go.)
I think my clearest memory is Feb/March, before lockdowns, when I was still working in teh office 5 days a week and everyone was struggling to find toilet paper, tissues, sanitiser, paper hand towels, hand soap, nappies -- every time someone went shopping, there'd be a call around the team for what people were missing and a promise to pick it up if Coles had it in stock. It was a nice bit of teamwork.
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Totally! I can't believe I forgot to include that in my post!
I remember coming home and trying to explain to my husband "No, really, the shelves are EMPTY! Whole shelves! There is NO PASTA."
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I'd actually followed the Coles truck into the supermarket, and whatever was on it was unloaded and gone within minutes it felt like (probably longer in reality, but I really wasn't that far behind it, and there was nothing.)
No pasta, bread, toilet paper, toiletries, washing powder, tissues, soap of any description, baked beans, rice, beans (actually there were dried beans, which surprised me), flour of any description, sugar, weetbix, canned tomatoes, canned everything else, frozen everything, meat, tomato paste, herbs - my suburb apparently only knows how to cook about three dishes, one of which is spaghetti bolognaise based on what vanished - fresh produce... it was utterly bizarre. I mean it was a respiratory virus, not a freaking post-nuclear attack. The supply chains were intact.
And then when we hit the second lockdown people went crazy again and the toilet paper vanished again!! And again when the Sydney cases hit! I swear a lot of Melbourne has PTSD manifesting in a desperate urge to buy toilet paper every time the case numbers rise.
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Note to self - move to New Zealand before another pandemic hits.
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For all our sakes I hope it goes ahead with no issues.
Murdoch-owned newspapers, who can go die in a fire if they would be so kind).
I am amused to see that there are now businesses who will not stock them because they are so angry. The old "is that the truth or did you read it in the Herald-Sun?" is still accurate.
Our Prime Minister was missing in action
Still is. Jacinta Adern suggesting she might negotiate with states has been amusing me a lot. Also, apparently immigration is only Dutton's responsibility when he feels like being sadistic, and certainly quarantine is nothing to do with his dept. /eyeroll
(One of the outraged tennis players tested positive for Covid halfway through her "totally unnecessary" quarantine. And all Melburnians were immediately stricken with a sudden case of schadenfreude.)
Between that and the NSW/QLD/SA outbreaks showing that yes, it is in fact a very infectious virus and that they had escaped as much due to luck as anything else... yeah schadenfreude is sweet.
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Indeed. Our Federal government really is dreadful.
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I already liked our Premier before all this started, because he made public transport free in the city centre, and improved renters' rights, and awesome things like that. But seeing him give a press conference every single day, looking exhausted, and continuing to hold the line while Murdoch tried his best to destroy him... I love the man. He's fantastic.
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