Adventures in Isolation

The 31 May marked 65 days in 'self isolation', and it has been an interesting time. The end of January saw Australia's first cases in NSW and Victoria. At the end of January we were enjoying the Tamworth Country Music Festival and a leisurely trip back home over a week. Little did we know or even imagine how we would be living some months later. Lucky for us we live in a country where the government acted fast to partially shut down, test, test, test and locate source origins. Although different states had varying degrees of shut down and procedures - all based on local infection rates - we are starting to open up still with restrictions.

March 28 was the day that Queensland held local council elections, silly during a pandemic! It was also the day we had booked to go out to dinner to celebrate a family occasion. We thought about cancelling but the restaurant had the tables set apart and took all the care that was needed, so we had a lovely meal out. That was the last meal out. Restaurants, clubs and pubs were all closed the following week as many people couldn't 'social distance'.

We didn't mind staying home. We could still go out for walks, keeping social distancing, and as our Aussie family live with us we had lots of grandchildren cuddles. We could still go out to grocery shop and in fact most shopping for us didn't change. We did sanitize more and the shops had disinfectant wipes for trolleys and social distancing markers everywhere. There were not many people around as most only went out when necessary and wanted to stay home to be safe and keep others safe.

We had lots to do at home and now had the time to at least start. Always lots of machine sewing, and we were entertained by many music artists putting on concerts and shows.

We also started growing tomatoes and chillies. So many tomatoes now! Peter started brewing beer and organising his shed.

We had three cruises cancelled, and although we understand why, we are sad they were cancelled. Now we are hoping cruises come back in September as we have a cruise in November.

The cruising industry has been much damaged by both media and government bias. If you have been on a cruise you know how often railing and door knobs etc are cleaned by staff, and all the places and venues hand sanitizers can be found. The problem is people not using the hand sanitizers and not washing their hands. We feel safer on a ship than we would on any public transport, or at any arena event, or any pub! P&O have had their buffet behind glass with servers for years and they had no cases of the virus. Looks like other cruise ships will be following their example now.

Now, restaurants and cafes are opening up for dining in, with social distancing and things are slowly going back to a new type of normal. We couldn't wait to get away in the van, Queensland is lovely in Winter. The Queensland Premier said Queenslanders would be able to travel 150km and 'stay overnight' from 17 June..... BUT because of the very low number of new Covid19 cases (0 - 1) over the previous two weeks she allowed Queenslanders to travel anywhere in Queensland.

QUEENSLAND IS OPEN FOR QUEENSLANDERS!

So it took us a week to get the van ready after over 4 months of it just sitting there, and off we went.

Fingers crossed we can get back to cruising soon.