NSW Lockdown continues!

We are now entering the 10th week of lockdown in NSW. The COVID case numbers are going up at a crazy rate and it feels like we’ll be locked down forever! In the week from 21 August to 28 August, cases have steadily climbed and now sit well above 1000. (1218 on 29/8/21) Tomorrow they may be higher or lower, who knows but either way, they’ll be too high.

Source ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-29/nsw-records-1218-new-covid-19-cases-six-deaths/100416170

Protest?

There was another attempted protest in Sydney last weekend, but it was shut down very quickly by a massive police presence. Did it lead to a spike in numbers? Probably!! I really don’t get the point of the protest? But then I’m in a position of privilege. Lockdown is not so bad for me. I have a job in an essential industry, viz education.

I still have a job, even though my days look very different now that I am working from home. I can “stay-at-home” in my own very comfortable home. I can go to my workplace a couple of times a week and see a few of my colleagues when it’s my turn to be site manager. My daily walk takes me down to the beach, past the soothing Tasman Sea and I have a shopping centre nearby that has everything I need. I like my own company and I can keep myself busy.

While I’m perplexed and annoyed when I hear about people from south-western Sydney and the LGAs of concern not sticking to the rules, I don’t live their life or have their experience. Perhaps I’m not in a position to judge? I am not living with four or more adults in the one small public housing unit with a leaking roof and dodgy plumbing. I’m not living in a crowded suburb with little green space and no expanse of ocean to calm my nerves. Under those circumstances, I’d want to get out too.

Source ABC News: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-21/nsw-police-arrest-47-issue-260-penalties-anti-lockdown-protest-/100396384

What I can’t understand though are the parties and large gatherings. A few people hanging out on a corner or lingering in the mall while they shop is one thing, but to have a deliberate gathering or attend a protest when we know the Delta Variant has an R-value of more than 1 is mind-bogglingly selfish. It prolongs the lockdown and increases the risk for everyone.

More carrots, less sticks?

We needed a stronger start to this lockdown back in June. With the horse well and truly gone, we need the people of NSW to stick to the rules and get vaccinated. To do this the government may need to offer more carrots and fewer sticks. In 2020, many Australians received a job keeper subsidy from the Federal Government if they lost their jobs due to COVID lockdowns. This payment may well be the soma that many need to feel supported and more inclined to be passive and stay home. It may make the less-than-rosy living conditions in south-western Sydney more unbearable to those who are trapped there.

Back to School?

Return to school plans were published on Friday (27/8/21) and allow for a return to school even if stay at home orders are still in place. While the lockdown is now scheduled to end on September 30th, these return to school plans project out to early November. Does that mean the lockdown will be extended beyond the current date? Most likely. We will be lucky to get out of lockdown by November. Some schools, especially those in regional NSW are likely to return earlier. It will be mandatory for teachers and other staff to be fully vaccinated. That particular announcement has coped a bit of flack!

I think by then I will be well and truly sick of my own company! And I wouldn’t be planning anything much for Christmas except maybe an outdoor picnic!

At least Jimmy Rees is keeping us entertained! Check out his YouTube channel.

In the Freezer

When this most recent bout of COVID lockdown started in the Greater Sydney Area in June 2021, I decided that I was not going to go shopping until I emptied my freezer and pantry. This solved several problems. I was able to avoid the germy world while using up resources that had already been created and thus reduce food waste. I figured I had enough leftovers, frozen veggies and pantry staples that it would not be too much of a challenge.

UFOs

Step 1 was to do an archeological dig and conduct a freezer audit. I threw out the UFOs (unidentifiable food objects) that were suffering from freezer burn and no longer edible. The rest of the containers were stacked in neat piles and I retrofitted some labels. Labelling should be mandatory but it is a step that I approach with annoying inconsistency. Present-Robyn has way too much faith in Future-Robyn’s ability to identify the blocks of various curries and casseroles.

Resourceful use of some freezer items – frozen raspberries became jam.

Meal planning is one of my happy places and when I cook I generally make 4 – 6 serves. Eat one for dinner, put one in the fridge for tomorrow’s lunch and then the remainder in the freezer for “later”. The trouble is I have a tendency to delay the later. Rather than cook a couple of nights a week, I cook every night, until my freezer is full and I have run out of containers. There is a direct inverse relationship between my Tupperware cupboard and my freezer. The fuller the freezer (V_F = volume of the freezer contents) the emptier the Tupperware cupboard. (V_T)

V_F = 1/V_T

Mission accomplished

This propensity for food hoarding has paid off over the lockdown and I have for the most part avoided the germy world of supermarkets. After 6 weeks, I have finally extracted the last of the pre-prepared meals. (Yippee!)

My quest has not been 100% successful as I was forced to seek out some fresh fruit to avoid scurvy (and boredom). In addition to the fruit, I purchased fresh milk as needed but apart from this, I have made do with what I had. The freezer is not yet completely empty as I still have some frozen pastry sheets some bread and a few other odds and ends, but I can see the bottom. An astonishing feat. I still have a way to go to empty the pantry but that’s OK we’re under stay at home health orders until the 28th August at least.

With an empty freezer, I can start work on the pantry! Hallelujah! Tomorrow, I can cook again!

Oh wait! That means I’ll have to go shopping and face the germy world, lucky I’m fully vaccinated!

Lockdown in Greater Sydney

Sydney, or more correctly “Greater Sydney” is in lockdown again. Greater Sydney includes the commutable urbanised areas that fringe the sprawling metropolis of Sydney. Not extending as far as Newcastle, but encompassing Wollongong, and Shellharbour to the south, the Central Coast to the north and the Blue Mountain, westward.

The Greater Sydney area is home to 5/8th of the population of New South Wales and nearly a fifth of the total population of Australia. The lockdown came into effect on the first Saturday of the winter school holidays. Once again plans of going anywhere went out the window for many families. It was due to end on the last Friday of the holidays but it has been extended until the 16th July. Watching the numbers, we all know it will go well beyond that.

*The lockdown has been extended until at least 16 July, but given the numbers it will be well beyond that.*
*Source: ABC News*

Like Melbourne before us.

Melbourne has had a number of stints in solo lockdown. At the time, I wondered what they were doing that was so different to the rest of the country. Was it their good public transport? Did the fact that more people were on public transport rather than travelling solo in cars make a difference? Was it because it was colder down there and more people were indoors?

After the last few weeks in “soft lockdown” I think I have more of an idea. We are ignoring the stay at home orders. When the whole world was in lockdown last year it was new and scary and we all took it very seriously. But a single city tucked up in its own borders does not have the same scary overtones. People are still way too out and about. My exercise walk route takes in Wollongong Harbour. Last weekend at around 11 AM it was business as usual! Lockdown? What lockdown? People were sitting around in the sunshine eating their takeaway gelato and sipping their take away coffee cheek by jowl with most of the population of Wollongong. No one exercising here! Stay at home orders mustn’t count on sunny days. Wollongong had not had any cases (yet) so we must be immune??

Is the soft lockdown too soft?

Soft lockdown means that many shops are still open. Pubs, restaurants, and cafes are closed for anything other than take away. Places like cinemas etc are closed, Hairdressers, and beauticians are closed. Supermarkets are open. But strangely, the handbag shop in the mall is still open. The clothes shops are open. The vape shop. You can’t tell me these shops are essential.

There are movement and gathering restrictions in place which have progressively tightened over the week as case numbers have continued to rise. Now only 2 people are allowed to exercise together, except those from the same household. Only one person is allowed to go shopping and only once a day. (Make that list!!)

Masks are mandatory for all people over twelve in indoor areas. And now we have moved to remote learning for students in the Greater Sydney area. This came as no real surprise. Teachers by and large have been preparing for a “just in case” scenario since last year. Many teachers have kept their online classrooms running. They have shifted their resources to accessible drives in the clouds. Learning from home was do-able. but then…..

Queue suspenseful music: Dun-dun-der!

Learning from home becomes complicated!

About an hour after Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the Learning from Home orders for the Greater Sydney area, the NSW Department of Education was hit by a massive cyber attack. All those resources we had squirrelled away in the safe places linked to our portal were inaccessible! We were paralyised to get lessons ready. Email was down. Links to our corporate accounts for Zoom, MS Teams, the Google Suite, Microsoft365 were down. Everything we used our department user name for was turned off, as the tech bods tried to fix the damage.

It took until Sunday to get most things working. Let’s put that in perspective. Those people worked hard! The NSW Department of Education is one of the BIGGEST educational systems in the WORLD. With over 2000 schools, more than 50,000 teachers and in excess of 800,000 students all managed by the one system, that’s a big job and I take my hat off to them for getting it up and running so quickly!

Time to get hard?

The numbers were unexpectedly a bit lower today (only 89 new cases compared to 112 on Monday), but still high enough. The Police will be more visible telling people to go home. But still the soft option persists. Come on Gladys, we don’t need handbags in a lockdown. Let’s close the other non-essential shops. Go hard! Keep people at home!

Stay home, stay safe.

PS: Gladys must have read my post! On Saturday, 17th she announced further restrictions in place until 30/7/21. The non-essential shops are now closed. Non-urgent construction has also been shut down.

Well done Gladys!