Escape from the City. Any City
Following on from my short “escape” themed film reviews this is a short post about our escape from Sydney.
Not a film by John Carpenter – that I know of. Nor is it about to be made into one – as far as I know. We were faced with a simple choice:
- Spending the three weeks of Dani’s school Easter holidays in an apartment with hardly any furniture. Or,
- Booking somewhere outside of the city as a short-term holiday let.
Which do you think I went for? I have read that one of the rules of life, survival or anything related to an epidemic or similar crisis, is always “get the hell out of the city”. I don’t think this situation is that serious, but I don’t even need that kind of advice. We were off…
Our case was complicated by (still) not having our furniture and other possessions delivered. The container is in quarantine. Obviously. So, we packed up and headed to a house in Jervis Bay. It was only place we were familiar with really and not too far to drive. We booked it via AirBnB that now well-known online connection between property owners and travellers looking for somewhere to stay.
Fugitives from the Law?
Things have been changing daily basis in Australia. They never went directly for the complete lock-down (as such) but have been gently nudging people in that direction bit by bit. Two days after arrived it was announced that the government had made bookings through Airbnb illegal. One of the latest ‘nudges’. Are we now effectively breaking the law or what? Have we become fugitives? To be honest I couldn’t give a shit. We are here now and booked for another week so that’s it.
By the way; ‘they’ are still allowing flights in from all over the world. And worse. But I don’t want to go into it just yet. This farcical overblown “crisis” is just a joke now.
The Familiar…
We knew the area and we knew exactly where we could go for our (supposedly) daily exercise – weather permitting of course. We have been staying about 50 metres from a great beach and a short walk from the supermarket and other shops. Even better than that there is hardly anyone else on the beach most of the day. Even when there is it is so big that you hardly notice them.
Pandemic Bargain…
Almost immediately after we arrived Dani’s mum found a bike on Gumtree. We arranged to go and see it. I had a $5 note in my pocket and after checking the brakes were working, I said:
“OK. Five dollars, right?” The guy said “Well actually, it was ten but…”
“Well here’s five”, handing him the note. “Erm…OK”. And that was that.
A functioning second-hand bike for less than three quid. What a lock-down bargain! It was a little big for Dani but I adjusted the seat to its lowest setting and bingo!. He has used it to ride down the sea front paths as well as riding it the length of the local beach. He has already had his five dollars’ worth.
The weather has not been quite as kind to us since this day however. We have had some serious rain. But what the hell? We are on holiday, whether the government likes it or not.
Limiting your booze?
The supermarkets still have ‘limitation’ signs on certain products. The ones that people are, for some mad reason, still trying to horde like rice and toilet rolls. Not to be outdone the local liquor store has some of its own ‘limit’ signs.
” One case of Cider, One case of beer and 12 bottles of wine per person”
Seriously. It made me laugh. That was per visit by the way. Not even per day…