State of Disaster

What a year 2020 has turned out to be. Just when you think it can't get any worse, it does. I suppose it was inevitable, considering the terrible numbers of new infections being announced every single day. Something had to change.

This afternoon the premier announced that another 671 infections had been detected in the past 24 hours. He also announced that Victoria was now in a declared "state of disaster", This gives the police a range of new powers and takes the entire state into a whole new level of restrictions.

We will now have a nightly curfew between 8 pm and 5 am. This means that no one can be out of their houses during that time, except for an emergency. Most businesses and public transport will cease. All students will revert to remote learning, universities will close and people will be restricted to staying within their own neighbourhood (no more than 5 km from their home). People can only exercise for a maximum of one hour each day and in a maximum "group" size of two people. The only businesses that will remain open are food retailers, petrol stations and medical clinics.

It will be a brutal change and I suspect that many will be tempted to ignore the new rules, just as they ignored the current ones. For the next six weeks at least, we will be spending almost all of every day in our own homes.

The weather today was glorious - warm and sunny, so much so that it almost felt like spring had arrived. Maggie and I took the opportunity to drive to a nearby vantage point and sit in the car in the sunshine. It may well the last chance to do that for some time.

We also dropped off our grandson's birthday present. His big day is not for about 10 days, but we will no longer be able to see him on his important 8th birthday. It really breaks our heart that he will have to open his present without us being able to share the excitement with him. He doesn't know it yet, but his present is an astronomical telescope. He has a fascination with all things related to astronomy and I was looking forward to helping him set it up and use it. That moment will have to wait till a future time.

Today our granddaughter in Queensland turned 6. We had originally planned to be in Queensland at this time. Now we have no idea when we will be able to see her. We can endure most of the other restrictions, but it is the separation from family that really hurts the most.

I know that one day we will be able to look back on this time. I don't know how far off that time will be, but I sure hope it is not long. Yes 2020 really sucks big time.Read more