In my lifetime, there have been several outbreaks of "deadly diseases." But they always felt so distant. Australia was always safe enough from these things and nobody really worried about it over here. We have good healthcare available and a decent system for dealing with these things.
But a few weeks ago COVID-19 really started to affect Australia. In our local town, the feeling of panic amongst the community was intense. Everyone was in a hurry. People were stockpiling groceries like the world is going to end. A woman came into Mitre 10 in a rush as I was buying some clips for dog leads, looking around in a harried manner. When asked by a staff member if she needed help, she asked if they sold toilet paper. We have three big supermarkets in our town and apparently, they've all sold out. She was told that while Mitre 10 did have toilet paper usually, they'd also sold out earlier in the day. She walked out of the store with an increasing air of panic.
"We probably won't be able to contain this virus," said our health officials last month, "Everyone is at risk." They also told us not to panic but those words came too late and were easily overshadowed by the dire warning that came before. People are afraid and the media is loving it. "Deadly." "Death toll climbing." The whole country panicked. People ran to the shops and brought everything in bulk, leaving very little for the rest of us.
Fast forward to this week. COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic, bringing a fresh wave of fear to the country when it seemed like things were starting to calm down. Now, the Australian government is limiting how many people can meet up at a time. Events are being canceled. The recommendation to have two weeks of supplies on hand is impossible for us to follow. Without an income (besides the tiny amount we get from the government a fortnight), we are severely limited in how much we can buy at a time. And what's left on the shelves now is the more expensive products, which makes it even harder.
We're being careful, of course, but I'm not scared of getting sick. I'm scared that we won't have enough food to get through if this situation gets worse or if we did get sick. It's a tough time to be broke.
.......................
In other news.
Our calves were going to be transported at the end of last month, but then the guy who was going to move them changed his mind because some of them have horns. He was worried about his truck getting damaged, which is fair enough but still annoying. Someone paid in advance for a month's worth of feed for the calves so we didn't have to worry about that, although we're halfway through that feed now and there's still no sign of our situation improving.
Someone gave us enough money to get a new generator, so I am able to keep sewing dog gear. We went to the local markets last weekend and sat there for five hours, and I sold absolutely nothing. A disappointing day.
Skuggi hurt his foot so we weren't able to go to the agility trial at the beginning of the month. He's healed now though so we're planning to go to one next Saturday. Although at this point, I'm not sure if the trial will still go ahead.
We keep applying for jobs, but potential employers continue to muck us around (if they even respond to us at all) and then give the job to someone else. Nobody seems to understand how desperate we are. I'm so fed up with it.
So I think that's everything I needed to update you on. Life has taken on a bit of surreal feeling in the past few days. We live in very interesting times.
Fast forward to this week. COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic, bringing a fresh wave of fear to the country when it seemed like things were starting to calm down. Now, the Australian government is limiting how many people can meet up at a time. Events are being canceled. The recommendation to have two weeks of supplies on hand is impossible for us to follow. Without an income (besides the tiny amount we get from the government a fortnight), we are severely limited in how much we can buy at a time. And what's left on the shelves now is the more expensive products, which makes it even harder.
We're being careful, of course, but I'm not scared of getting sick. I'm scared that we won't have enough food to get through if this situation gets worse or if we did get sick. It's a tough time to be broke.
.......................
In other news.
Our calves were going to be transported at the end of last month, but then the guy who was going to move them changed his mind because some of them have horns. He was worried about his truck getting damaged, which is fair enough but still annoying. Someone paid in advance for a month's worth of feed for the calves so we didn't have to worry about that, although we're halfway through that feed now and there's still no sign of our situation improving.
Someone gave us enough money to get a new generator, so I am able to keep sewing dog gear. We went to the local markets last weekend and sat there for five hours, and I sold absolutely nothing. A disappointing day.
Skuggi hurt his foot so we weren't able to go to the agility trial at the beginning of the month. He's healed now though so we're planning to go to one next Saturday. Although at this point, I'm not sure if the trial will still go ahead.
We keep applying for jobs, but potential employers continue to muck us around (if they even respond to us at all) and then give the job to someone else. Nobody seems to understand how desperate we are. I'm so fed up with it.
So I think that's everything I needed to update you on. Life has taken on a bit of surreal feeling in the past few days. We live in very interesting times.
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