Stompergirl's Plague Diaries

I am feeling very grateful that I don't have young children in this current state of lockdown, especially now that the playgrounds are closed!  I took my kids to a playground every day when they were little, and I never once worried about germs on the equipment. Looking back, obviously, there would have been loads of germs all over EVERYTHING!  But I didn't really care about germs.  I trusted to our immune systems.  Now I hold my breath when I walk past people.  Packages are being delivered to my house and I wipe down our doorbell after the delivery person drives off, and try not to handle the packaging too much, and wash my hands thoroughly after opening.  Remember just opening your package with excitement? All my life I never wanted to think too much about germs: I felt sure that way madness lay.  When we saw comedian Hannah Gadsby live, she talked about cooking with wooden spoons and wooden chopping boards, and said sternly Don't ...

  When Steve almost broke down from stress about ten years ago whilst studying his apprenticeship, his lovely GP, Doctor Miranda, prescribed him walks as a stress-buster, and it was a very effective treatment.  Well, in these pandemical times there is a LOT of stress to bust, so every night this week, Steve and I have been having an evening constitutional. As well as getting to know the new neighbourhood, we are connecting and catching-up with each other, and talking through our various worries and annoyances. Tonight we walked along the Darebin Creek, which turned out to be a gorgeous bush oasis; the sounds of gently running water and various birds - including 3 kookaburras-  and the sights and smells of gum tress and native flora were incredibly soothing.  It's the financial fall-out from this pandemic that frightens us most, understandable I suppose given we've never felt truly comfortable, money-wise. Obviously we worry how we'll mak...

Directions from the governments (federal and state) have been changing rapidly, but this feels like the first proper week of semi-shutdown. I've cancelled all face-to-face tap classes and am in the thinking stage of how to deliver content online, Steve is still at work (essential service) but unlikely to be for much longer, Jake is properly home - no work, no face-to-face uni, and Sean is on school holidays, starting 4 days earlier than normal as directed by the Dan Andrews-led State Ggovernment. Yesterday I went to Piedimontes supermarket and felt happy because I was able to buy a box of Weetbix and a 4-litre tin of olive oil. The supermarket is a very strange place to be recently. There's been a lot of panic-buying, so the shelves are bare, and limitations (maximum 2 of any item per customer) are now in place.  The government message is that everyone should stop panic buying because there is plenty of food, but that's not what your eyes tell you when you visit the shops...

In late 2019 / early 2020 the whole world caught a cold. That shouldn't really have been a problem, but because this cold virus was (a) extremely contagious and (b) came via animals (so our immune systems had no infrastructure to deal with it), within a very short time it had spread round the world and was killing people at an alarming rate. Most people just had a fever and a cough but others - particularly people over 60 and people with existing medical conditions like cancer, diabetes, emphysema etc - developed acute respiratory failure, and the world soon found out we didn't have enough respirators and hospital beds to save them.  And so society had to close down as much as possible. Many of us lost our jobs and incomes, national economies spiralled, people panic-bought all the toilet paper and hand sanitiser, and we were asked to isolate ourselves at home to stop the spread of the virus. This is my diary of isolation.  I'm Caroline, and in non-plague life I am a tap-d...