It is unavoidable at the moment. Jeez… with the media devoting about 99% of its time to this thing you have to ask if there is anything else going on in the world and if so, why aren’t they reporting it?

Anyway, here goes…

First they closed the beaches…

So much for the great Winston Churchill’s speech eh? “We will fight them on the beaches..” and all that. The fools running the local councils around here have closed the bloody beaches. The “iconic” (sorry that word again) Bondi Beach was first to go. Apparently too many people enjoying themselves when they should be (at least partially, for now) self-isolating and shitting themselves.

Hell yeah! After stripping all the supermarket shelves bare why aren’t the plebs all at home? I’ll tell you why. Because they are still not afraid enough. Well the local authorities intend to put a stop to all that and the beaches was a good place to start. Bastards! That will mean the ocean pools will also be out of bounds. I had one or two in mind this coming week for a swim. Obviously, once Bondi closed the surfers and general fun-loving public would look for nearby alternatives; so they started to fall like dominoes. They closed Bronte and Tamarama beaches. Then nearby Randwick council closed Maroubra, Coogee and Clovelly beaches. That means all the main ocean facing beaches in the (so called) Eastern Suburbs are closed.

Bondi is always very crowded. Probably because it is so “iconic” – puke! It’s also why I don’t really like it, but still… Surely that’s “un-Australian”?

It’s all about gatherings of more than 500 people apparently. Who knew that virus could fucking count? Clever little bugger eh?

No idea on the North Shore beaches. I am not sure I want to know either. I try and keep the depressing news at a safe distance. Speaking of which…

Social Distancing?

Here’s a good question. How come they managed to organise all sort of these signs so quickly, but they couldn’t stop foreigners from entering the country for over two months? Yes. It is more than two months since the first case in Australia, but they have only just sealed the borders to possible infection from other countries. Talk about too little too late. Well, certainly the ‘too late’ part eh?

Cruising for a Bruising

While you are at it ask your local politician this one: Why have thousands of tourists from several cruise ships, known to have cases of the disease, been allowed onshore in Sydney city centre over the past few weeks?

The mind boggles. But hey. Let’s start locking down the general population bit by bit and scare them slowly. If it was up to me, I would advocate giving all the politicians a good slapping. The way they have dealt with this nonsense they are definitely ‘cruising for a bruising’ (as we used to say when there was a spot of bother in the air). If they are looking for volunteers to hand out the ‘bruisings’ they can start right here with me…

Escape

Fortunately this weekend we managed to escape the city – while we still could. It was good to get out of the city again. More on that to follow. I wonder when we will be able to do it again? NSW government is now saying that from tomorrow (Monday 23rd) only essential services will be in operation. That definitely signals the start of a total shutdown.