COVID-19: Looking at the lockdown – Sydney edition – UPDATE

UPDATE

Just announced – Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Central Coast will enter a two-week lockdown from 6:00 pm on Saturday (tonight) until midnight on Friday 9 July.

Doesn’t look like I’ll be making it to New Zealand then. Expect further border restrictions between NSW and other states. And don’t be a dickhead by trying to get around the restrictions like these three people did.

PREVIOUSLY

I should be writing to you from Adelaide. I should be staying at the EOS Hotel. I should be enjoying lunch at Fugazzi. I should be looking forward to seeing Alan Cumming ‘Is not acting his age‘ on stage at the Festival Theatre as part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

But I’m doing none of these things. I’m in semi-lockdown in the inner west of Sydney.

Instead, I’m contemplating a long read (The Glamour Boys) and listening to the final episode of Foundering, The Tik Tok story.

Lockdown

Although not strictly in the lockdown area, lets just say I am in a ‘casual contact’ of the lockdown area.

Various local government areas (LGAs) of Sydney were put into lockdown as of the start of today, Saturday 26 June, for 7 days. The idea is to keep people largely at home so any COVID-19 infection outbreaks are contained.

We’ve been here before people, and we survived. We didn’t run out of toilet paper, we didn’t starve to death, we survived. OK, we might be a bit thicker around the waist, had a few more standard drinks than we should, be a bit lighter in the pocket, a bit zoomed out, and missing our friends, but we did survive, and we will again.

Keep yourself up-to-date by checking the NSW COVID-19 site regularly.

My advice

You know that cupboard that needs a good clean out? Those stack of books on your bedside table? That waitlist on Netflix? The isolation video you want to record for Instagram Reels, or TikTok (see above) – now is the time to complete one – or more – of those tasks.

Have a plan

What I’m really saying is have a plan of what you are going to achieve during this lockdown. How many loaves of sourdough to bake? Which garden beds are you going to prepare for spring? This time I really am going to collect all the electronics we don’t usea or are broken and get them ready for the electronic waste pickup.

And don’t forget your friends and family. Some people really do struggle with these lockdowns. Give them a call, send them a text, zoom /Facetime them.

Worse before better

Looking at the headlines out of Gladys-Beryl Jiklian’s press conference today, it looks like things will get worse before they get better. We may move from lockdown adjacent to full lockdown before the end of today.

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

No one wants these lockdowns They give me a frisson of PTSD from that first state-wide lockdown way back in 2020. But we did survive that and we will travel again.

On the upside – I have more credit notes with airlines than I could use on my first international business class airfare once borders reopen.

And that final season of The Handmaid’s Tail on SBS isn’t going to watch itself.

Stay safe, wear a mask and get vaccinated.