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Week 15 - Saturday sees mixed blessings for Simon and family in Perth

Edited BY

G P Kennedy

Uncommonly wet and cold here right now


Simon - Perth, Australia


 Hello there, World. Hope everyone out there is as safe and happy as you can be!

 

 Well another week rolls around and here I am again, Once again it appears that we are in the same situation as last week here in Perth.

 

 Basically, we have no new COVID-19 cases, no community transmission and nobody in hospital. Our Stage 5 restrictions will not come into effect on Saturday though due to the situation in Victoria and New South Wales. That would have meant no restriction on crowd numbers and and ending of the 2 square meter (6 sq ft) rule. As it is, Perth Stadium hosts an Australian Football League match tonight with a half-capacity crowd of 30,000 people - unthinkable in almost any other place at the moment.

 

 Obviously on a global level the situation is worse than ever, I’m sure we all know the facts and figures but the trend is still a bad one. It looks like the only way through this is with a vaccine but it would seem that is still at least a year away.


If life hands you lemons make lemonade

 Since last week the situation in Melbourne has become even worse. It seems every day now they are recording around 300 new cases and the worrying thing is these are all community transmissions meaning the actual amount could be much more. They have had apartment blocks quarantined and surrounded by the Police and Armed Forces with food being delivered in.

 

 Apparently there are now 160 COVID clusters in the state of Victoria and over 2,000 active cases. Not massive figures compared with other countries but only a few weeks ago there were almost none and it looked like Australia was almost COVID-free. Many experts here are now saying that this is actually our first wave as the cases are almost all due to community spread and not people entering on flights or cruise ships. It just goes to show how quickly it can spread.

 

 Victoria’s borders are now closed again with local quarantine areas popping up to contain outbreaks but we will have to wait and see how effective this is.

 

 Here in WA we remain cut off from the rest of the world and the rest of the country but it is amazing how quickly people adapt to it. We are able to holiday within the State and the economy is not in too bad a shape.

 

 Perth is actually the most isolated city in the world at the best of times. The closest city to us is Adelaide in South Australia, which is some 2,700 kilometers (1.677 miles) away. We are kind of used to it!

 

No eggs yet...

At home the kids are on holiday for 2 weeks so they have been enjoying playdates and sleepovers with their friends. We have been trying to do a bit outside but the weather is against us! Its mid-Winter and the fire is on and the rain keeps coming down, we don’t mind though as we can go up to six months without a drop sometimes! 


 Still the garden keeps producing amazing citrus, herbs and vegetables and we are still waiting on eggs from our four chickens (2 of whom may be boys…)

 

 My mother-in-law is out of hospital and back home but our dear friend with cancer is in a hospice and not doing great.

 

 As always it’s the small things that make you happy and there are so many people worse off than us how can we grumble?

 

 Stay safe and well and wish us luck waiting for our first egg..

 

Cheers

 

Simon  

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