“So I guess you won’t be going to the Worker’s Club on Friday night?”, Pat said to me the other day. “I guess not”, I replied, in reference to the (hopefully only) 7-day COVID-related lockdown we’re having in Lismore right now.
Since arriving home, I’ve quite enjoyed going to the Workers Club for the Friday night meat trays and badge draws, even if I haven’t won a single thing.
But on this Friday night, our fifth night of lockdown, I’m at home, I’m in my pyjamas, and I’m catching up on some correspondence.
Though I got a little homesick earlier in the week, I’d rather be here than in Sydney right now. The case numbers keep increasing every day, and there doesn’t seem to be much hope in sight. Though it’s important to say, a friend in France reminded me how minor our problem is, compared with what they’ve been through.
I’ve been out and about to the supermarket a couple of times this week, and I’ve also been to get some take-away coffee from the Duck Pond Espresso.
“We just sat and listened to the birds across the road”, the grandson told me a couple of days ago, referring to the quietness on the road. Today, the grandmother told me about the mating behaviour of the local birdlife, and pointed out the ones currently mating.
And today, the conversation in Lismore turned to sewerage works.
Several family members contacted me today to tell me they had “read on Facebook” there were COVID-19 cases in South Lismore. They were refencing an item on the Lismore City Council Facebook page which indicated there had been “COVID elements in the South Lismore Sewerage Treatment Works”.
Through no one really understanding what that meant, there were countless posts declaring there were “known COVID cases in South Lismore”.
Thankfully, the City Council put out an explainer the Lismore Base Hopsital (where there are known cases) fed into the South Lismore Sewerage Treatment Plant, and so it shouldn’t come as a surprise.
There was also a bit of excitment as the local medical centre (where I got my injection the other week) also had some known close contacts. It’s a medical centre, right?
Definitely not much hope down here! November if we’re lucky according to the latest.
On the upside – still time for you to win a meat tray!
It’s definitely a much different vibe to the 2020 lockdown – there seems to be more people about and definitely more cars on the road. Obviously I’m not (yet) in one of the super-locked down LGAs, so we have a little bit more freedom. People are being reasonably compliant here – but not surprised it is spreading.
We’ve definitely been more fortunate than other places in the world (which doesn’t make being in lockdown any more pleasant!). Disappointing that we squandered our good fortune and find ourselves here now!
Even before I came up here there was a feeling in the air. We had “returned to normality” despite the warning signs. I’ve been going through old blog entries to try to remember what it was like during last year’s lockdown. It’s so much different here of course. Sunday afternoons are quiet here anyway!! Though I am missing some of the live entertainment. A bunch of live music gigs and performances have been cancelled up here, which is understandable, though sad.
I really wish I’d recorded more last year, because I’ve already forgotten so much. There was a definitely an air of sort of eerie unreality about the 2020 lockdown which is absent from this one.
Hopefully your lockdown will be short and sharp and you’ll get out a lot sooner than us!
In some ways we probably thought last year was a bit of a novelty. Whereas now, we’re thinking of it as reality.
Logic tells us we are much better off than most countries, but humans are often not known for being terribly logical.
You’re so right about that!