james o'brien

The barmaid was serving in the other bar, as the woman sauntered into the pub, And when I say sauntered, I probably mean swaggered. At a local pub where you pretty much recognise all the faces, she looked a little out of place. She didn’t look like a “local”. And she had a slightly “menacing” look about her.

As I was near the entry, I noticed she hadn’t used the QR code. When the barmaid appeared a few seconds later, she asked the woman to sign in. “I don’t have to, the laws have changed, and you can’t make me,” she said. She then went on with a bit of what-appeared-to-be a prepared speech.

Finally, the barmaid was able to convince her the changed laws did not include pubs, gyms and other “high volume” places. The woman signed in and then immediately walked out. The whole experience had the feel of some kind of prepared “protest” about it.

The barmaid and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes. “Hasn’t she heard about the prediction of 25,000 daily cases?”, the barmaid asked me.

In contrast, it seems like the population has heard about the prediction, as there were long queues for testing in the city today.

I posted this video on Twitter, and someone responded with a recommendation about the queue at the Eastern Suburbs Community College.

I have the testing trifecta requirement. 1 Hospital admission. 2. Flight to Northern NSW. 3. Visiting older family members. So the need for me to get tested is immediate. Fingers crossed.

As I listened to the situation of other nearby patients the phrase, “I’m going to Queensland” seemed to be the most common answer.