Australia Day 2021

Australia Day commemorates the landing of the First Fleet from England at Sydney Cove on this day in 1788 and the founding of the first European settlement in the country, albeit a penal one.

The indigenous population, having been here for tens of thousands of years, see it as Invasion Day.

Their lives would be changed for ever and not in a good way, a situation not unknown in other parts of the world either.

As time goes on, discussion for a change of date to celebrate the founding of modern Australia does not go away.

Of course the conservative view is there is no need for change.

Only a few days ago our chronically tone deaf Prime Minister said “When those 12 ships turned up in Sydney, all those years ago, it wasn't a particularly flash day for the people on those vessels either”

Apart from the fact there were 11 ships (Australian history has never been his long suit), this statement has caused considerable angst.

Also it appears currently there is little interest generally in changing the date.
A recent poll for The Age/Sydney Morning Herald and Nine News found only 28% of people surveyed nationally were in favour of shifting the date, while 48 per cent were opposed and a further 25% didn’t care one way or the other.
Drilling down into these results demonstrates the conservative bias.
47% of those aged between 18 and 24 backed the move to a different date compared with 19% of those aged 55 and over.
Those living in regional and rural areas were more likely to disagree with Australia Day being celebrated on a different date with 58% opposed compared to 42% of those from metropolitan areas.
Despite three years of intense debate over Australia Day, the latest poll has similar findings to one in 2017 which found 26% of Australians supported changing the date from January 26th, while 54% were opposed.

But this has not stopped a Covid compliant heavily policed but peaceful protest of around 3000 in Sydney this morning. It was one of many across the country.

Noel Pearson, Aboriginal lawyer, academic and lands right activist has said Australia has an ancient heritage, a British inheritance and a multicultural achievement.
The challenge is to bring those three parts together as a unique whole and choose a day to celebrate that.
It will inevitability happen.....one day.

A Medical Appointment / Date Day

I have had a skin cancer (BCC) on the tip of my nose for a number of years and finally decided to do something about it. My local skin cancer doctor recommended a dermatologist who performs the MOHs procedure. He consults out of Kiama a couple of hours drive to our north.

So off we set, early, due to possible heavy holiday traffic but there was none.

Arriving an hour before appointment time, we headed for the town’s main attraction, the blow hole.

There was a big swell running and it was performing pretty well. Quite a crowd had gathered to ooh and aah with a few getting quite wet standing down wind when a particularly big spout was produced.

After the appointment we drove south to the Gerringong boat harbour for a picnic lunch.

Luckily we got a table right on the ocean edge and watched the big waves crashing onto the reef.

No boats were being launched. Too dangerous.

The co driver had put together a great meal including pastrami, pickles and cheese to put on our jalapeño sour dough rye purchased from a new artisan bakery at Burrill Lake.

All very yummy.

Then it was off home via Nowra with a stop at Dan the Man to top up our wine stash which had been depleted a little over Christmas.

A nice day out.

Surgery booked for mid March.

COVID-19 / Australia / 9th, 10th & 23rd January Updates

Brisbane (Queensland’s capital) residents are in lockdown until at least 6pm on Monday and masks are mandatory as of 6pm Friday, in response to the UK virus variant discovered in a hotel quarantine cleaner on Thursday.
NSW recorded four locally acquired cases on Friday, with one from the Avalon cluster yet to be linked to a source. The upper northern beaches will exit lockdown at midnight tonight.
Victoria recorded no new cases for a second day on Friday, as Premier Daniel Andrews flagged he would make border (currently closed to NSW) announcements next week. Many residents are stranded outside Victoria with the sudden closure.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced caps on international arrivals will be halved in NSW, Western Australia and Queensland until February 15.
Western Australia has closed its border to Queensland.
International flight crews will be subject to stricter conditions and testing, while quarantine workers across Australia will be subject to stricter testing requirements

 (well duh!)

And locally, fragments of COVID-19 have been detected in a sewage treatment plant at Ulladulla for the first time.
This catchment serves a population of 32,000 people and takes sewage from Narrawallee, Milton, Mollymook Beach, Ulladulla, Kings Point, Burrill Lake, Dolphin Point, Lake Tabourie.

There have been no recent locally acquired cases or returned travellers who tested positive from our area.
However it could mean there are undetected cases of COVID in the community - or that someone with the virus visited the area.
Everyone in the area is being urged to be especially vigilant in monitoring for symptoms, and if they appear get tested and isolate immediately.
"This is a time of year where we have lots of mobility so we can't exclude that someone who has cleared the infection in either NSW, Victoria or a returned traveller from interstate may have visited the area," Dr Chant, the state’s chief medical officer, said.
Yep, this was inevitable. 

For us it means total self isolation.....once again.

Update: 10th January 

NSW has reported three local cases and three in hotel quarantine.
Victoria has reported no local cases and six in hotel quarantine.
Queensland has reported no local cases and none in hotel quarantine.
South Australia has reported no new cases.
The ACT (Canberra) has reported no new cases.
Australian Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly started his coronavirus update by constrasting the situation in Australia with the rest of the world.
There have been 750,000 fresh coronavirus cases worldwide over the past 24 hours. 

In Australia, seven of eight jursidictions have recorded no new local cases today with NSW reporting three.
There were 1000 deaths in the UK on Saturday and 4000 in the US.
We should be aware in comparison we are doing well, albeit with considerable economic and social cost, but should not be complacent.

Update: 23rd January 

Victoria reached 17 days without community transmission today.

NSW made it sixth straight days without a local case.

Queensland made it 12 straight days without a new case.

So far so good.

The Christmas/summer holiday break has less than a week to run so it could be we are out of the virus woods in our region.

COVID-19 / Australia/ 3rd January Update

It’s disappointing to have to reinstate Covid updates for 2021.

We obviously celebrated the virus elimination way too early.
Somehow the Covid made its way to Northern Beaches area of greater Sydney.
It is the USA strain of the virus and it is suspected that lax quarantine measures for international aircrews is the reason. They were not subjected to the same hotel quarantine rules as returning citizens but were required to voluntarily self isolate. It has become obvious many did not.
The northern beaches area was put into lockdown but the virus has since ‘escaped’ to the greater Sydney area as well as neighbouring cities like Wollongong.

Even worse, it has turned up in Victoria obviously brought down from Sydney by visitors to the city.
That state had gone two months without a case due to a very strict but successful Covid elimination policy.
However reduced quarantine measures (some called it whack a mole) were put in place over the four day Christmas/Boxing Day break by the New South Wales government as they “didn’t want to spoil family Christmas celebrations”.
This disastrously backfired with many cases springing up around the city and suburbs after Christmas.
In panic they legislated against New Years Eve celebrations in the city which usually attracts over a million people but still had a fireworks display at Sydney Harbour at midnight.

They have now instigated strict domestic social gathering rules for Sydney and environs and mandated masks for indoor situations including public transport but have allowed a cricket test match with 20,000 spectators to go ahead at a Sydney stadium.

Huh?
And the NSW premier has now gone on holidays!
And the Prime Minister of the country has basically gone missing only popping up to announce the changing of one word (yes, one word!) of our national anthem.
Huh? (Again!).
But he has form for being absent during crises. Last year, when the country was on fire, he went on family holidays to Hawaii.
What is it with conservative politicians? Just look at their performance, or lack thereof, in other countries around the world during this crises. Economy before society seems to be the common mantra.

So now we on the south coast of NSW, free from the virus since day one, have been inundated with tourists from the infected areas.
We wait with bated breath for the consequences of this over the next weeks.
Do I sound angry?
Yes, I am!

2020 / The Year That Was.

Normally I write a bit of a retrospective at year’s end about our past 12 months but this time around will let some pictures do the talking about annus horribilus.

BUSH FIRES

Bush fire approaching our property. Taken by neighbours who stayed

Our vineyard on fire. Taken by firefighters who saved our house

Repairing the damage in the desolation
 

SEVERE STORMS & FLOODING

 

COVID-19

State borders closed

Unemployment Benefits Queues

Compulsory Mask Wearing

Panic buying at supermarkets

Covid Testing Queues

Sydney (population 5+ million) downtown deserted

Then, in November....Doughnut Day! Zero cases 

State borders open. Airport scenes reminiscent of the movie "Love Actually"  

And then......it was back in New South Wales! Lockdowns, border closures and disrupted holidays.

So now we wait to see how this all pans out over the next few weeks
 

BLM

FAVOURITE 2020 CARTOONS

Australian Prime Minister goes to Hawaii on family holidays as the country burns.
Shamed into returning and then only appears for photo ops.


 

  FAVOURITE 2020 GRAPHIC

 

OPTIMISM & HOPE for 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the free world breathes a collective sigh of relief that the disastrous USA four year social experiment is over and adults are back in charge.

Vaccines have been developed and released.

Hopefully the deaths and infections will start to wane as the world takes advantage of these.

All Australians should be vaccinated by October 2021 according to our government.

This means, on a personal note, overseas travel may be an option again for us in late 2021 or more likely our Autumn of 2022.

A happier and safe 2021 to all my readers

Christmas 2020

A rather subdued celebration this year but far better than 2019 when fires were raging around us.
Christmas Eve we listened to Elvis sing Christmas songs (he never died in this household) and then it was our seafood feast for the season accompanied by home made focaccia.

Oysters, tiger prawns and mussels with a great Pikes savagnin followed by fresh berries and ice cream.
Then it was a cheesy Hallmark movie to close out the day. It had everything. The cute couple ‘dancing around’ each other, one or two dead parents, the misunderstanding, the interrupted first kiss, the Christmas festival and tree lighting ceremony and of course the final locked lips scene. I think they must have a computer that spits out the multiple similar scripts. But who cares.....
Christmas Day dawned wet and cloudy. That hardly ever happens. Normally it’s hot and sunny.
We started with our traditional pancake breakfast and then later in the day, after a few phone calls to family and friends, the ‘main event’ began.

Preparation was accompanied by some lovely Italian Prosecco and Pikes Merle Riesling. Then it was barbqued wagyu sirloin and mini dauphine potato stacks washed down with an old Pikes Premio (Sangiovese) I’d had in the secret stash for many years. Wonderful!

We did our usual cracker ‘battle’ with the co driver winning most. This year we had bought the premium pack and some of the prizes were quite useful. The jokes were suitably corny and there was a quiz and charades too.

The co driver had arranged for a VERY expensive plum pudding which needed to be boiled in its muslin jacket for an hour. But boy, was it worth it! The best I’ve had in a long time, especially with vanilla bean custard and ice cream.

The co driver’s conversion to Australian hasn’t progressed yet to plum pudding 

(or fruit cake for that matter) so she had made herself a yummy mini cheese cake.

So that was it.

We were not  nearly as ‘stuffed‘ as previous years which was good.

Even had room for some left over prawns and more pudding for dinner.

Then another Hallmark! We are really suckers for punishment.

A very merry and safe Christmas to all my readers.

Covid-19 Is Back / With Updates - Latest: 31st December

In the space of 36 hours, New South Wales has gone from a 12-day period free from local transmission to the sudden emergence of 38 of cases centred on the northern beaches area of Sydney and is known as the Avalon cluster.
The area is home to around 270,000 people.
At 5pm Saturday (today) the northern beaches will enter a lockdown similar to that imposed on all New South Wales residents in March.

This means residents will be required to stay home and only go out for essential purposes such as shopping, exercise and medical care until 11.59pm Wednesday.

Preliminary genome sequencing has confirmed the coronavirus strain circulating on the northern beaches came from the United States.
The strain was a close match to the virus sample taken from a woman who had flown into Sydney on December 1. However she is still in quarantine so health authorities still don't know how the virus was introduced to the northern beaches.
They have not ruled out that Australian aircrews returning from abroad may be linked to the Avalon cluster, though it does not appear to be a focus of their investigation.

A deserted northern beach centre of Manly last night

Several flight staff live on Sydney’s northern beaches and the NSW government has faced criticism for its flexible quarantine arrangements for aircrews, which effectively let them self-isolate at home with minimal monitoring. It has also become known that aircrews have been breaching quarantine requirements and going out to Sydney venues, instead of staying in their hotel or home.

All in all a disappointing development and one which will disrupt Christmas for a huge number of people.

Update: 20th December

NSW has recorded 30 new locally acquired coronavirus cases in the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday.
Twenty-eight have been directly linked to the Avalon cluster, including the case believed to be the origin of the outbreak.
The two cases which have not yet been linked to the Avalon cluster are people who live in the northern beaches.

New restrictions will now apply across the greater Sydney region until midnight on Wednesday 23rd December in addition to the northern beaches lockdown.
The state of Victoria is reinstating it’s ‘hard’ border with NSW for those who have travelled from the greater Sydney area.

Update: 21st December

New South Wales has recorded 15 new cases of Covid-19 since 8pm last night – all are linked to the existing northern beaches cluster.

Update: 22nd December

From 44,000 tests in NSW yesterday, only 8 additional cases were found.

However NSW Health has identified more cafes, shopping centres and gyms across Sydney's CBD and north that have been visited by confirmed COVID-19 cases.
We are not out of the woods yet.

Locally, some ‘clown‘ from the Northern Beaches signed into our Recreational Centre when he should have been at home in Sydney or at least self isolating here and was ‘sprung’ by staff. Police were called. 

$1000 fine for this person. Expensive trip to the gym!

Some people are plainly stupid.

Update: 23rd December

Another 8 cases reported in NSW. Seven linked to the Avalon cluster.

Discussions underway whether to cancel the Sydney New Years Eve fireworks.

Update: 24th December

7 new cases all related to the Avalon cluster from 60,000 tests.

There are relaxed restrictions in place for the Christmas period. Hopefully this somewhat generous but fraught with danger move by the NSW government will not prove a disaster.

Already people are taking advantage of the situation and have been caught. It would be naive to think many others haven’t.

Update: 25th December

Seven new cases all in the northern beaches from just under seventy thousand tests.

Concern there is a cluster in the CBD (downtown).

Update: 26th December

Around 40,000 tests were carried out on Christmas Day with 9 cases of community transmission detected.

People have been asked to stay away from Boxing Day sales today, particularly in the CBD (downtown) and they are. Normally it’s one of the biggest sale days of the year in line with the USA’s  Black Friday. 

Update:28th December

12 more cases over the last two days, all related to the Avalon cluster.

Restrictions have been tightened for New Years Eve despite the Sydney Harbour fireworks at midnight going ahead.

Under the new restrictions, residents in the northern zone of the northern beaches will adhere to the current strict lockdown measures until January 9. Their southern zone counterparts may face an easing of restrictions as early as January 2.

Meanwhile, people are urged to stay away from the CBD unless they have a permit to be there.

Update: 30th December

Three new cases related to the Avalon cluster reported yesterday

However cases in Greater Sydney, outside the northern beaches (Avalon cluster), detected between December 16 and 27 now number 43 and are scattered across more than 25 suburbs.

And now in the city of Wollongong, south of Sydney and 2 hours drive to the north of us.

Residents are lining up for testing today.
This is concerning.

Update: 31st December 

NSW recorded 18 cases of local transmissions to 8pm on Tuesday from 17,267 tests, taking the total number of cases in the state from zero to 160 in two weeks.
Melbourne recorded three new infections, ending Victoria's two-month run of zero local cases. They are believed to be linked to the NSW outbreak via close contacts.
The situation becomes more serious as the days go on. 

New Years Eve events are being touted as super spreaders and people are being asked to avoid them.

As though that is going to happen.