Ross River Fever and other viruses

Ross-Rivr-Fever-viruses
The eastern saltmarsh mosquito – image Wikimedia CC

There is an ongoing household discussion here about the sliding screen door, which, if left open, exposes us to mosquitos, potentially carrying Ross River Fever. (It’s tempting to leave the door open so the dog, who lacks an opposable thumb, can get in and out at will. Ed)

Of course, we could just as soon be bitten when outside for a multitude of reasons (gardening, watering, chopping firewood, walking the dog at dusk). Nevertheless, I can tell if the screen door has been left open for a period as mosquitos the size of bees invade my study. It seems mine is the sort of blood to which mosquitos are attracted. I found that out big time on our caravanning adventures in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. If your blood group is type O or you are mosquito-prone, this article might be of interest.

North Queensland, the Territory and the Kimberley are among the places where one is most likely to be bitten by a mosquito carrying Ross River Virus (RRV). This is a disease for which there is no vaccine and no cure. And, despite common perceptions that it is a tropical disease, RRV can occur anywhere in Australia. An article in our local paper in early May revealed 121 cases were reported in the Darling Downs Health region in the March quarter. This is considerably higher than the norm (67 cases a year).

Condamine Medical Centre Dr Lynton Hudson told the Warwick Daily News his concern about Ross River Fever was that some patients may not come in for a physical consult due to COVID-19 fears.

As you’d expect, several years of drought followed by a late wet season, contributed to increased numbers of the southern saltmarsh mosquito, the type most likely to carry the virus. Complicating this year’s cycle is a mild autumn, which means mosquitos are still out and about, particularly at dawn and dusk.

As it happens, a member of our inner circle has recently been diagnosed with RRV, which started with a hives-like rash and a temperature. Fearing something dreadful like Lupus, she went to the local GP who, after some tests, diagnosed Ross River Fever. Stage two of the disease is swollen joints accompanied by arthritic pain and fatigue.

The condition is also called polyepidemic arthritis. Our friend was confined to bed for a few days until the anti-inflammatory medication started to kick in. She told me the arthritic pain was most intense in her knees, feet and ankles. The arthritis extended to her right wrist and finger joints, making it difficult to grip and lift when carrying out domestic chores like cooking

“I also felt extremely fatigued – so if I overdo it in the garden or something, I pay for it the next day.”  

Her GP said there was not much she could do but ‘ride it out’ – easy to say when you are not the one home schooling three kids.

Every year, 3,000 Australians will develop RRV symptoms, which can last from six weeks to three months or longer and leaves patients with a risk of relapse or recurrence. RRV was first discovered in 1959 and named after the Ross River, which runs through Townsville. While people are more at risk of developing RRV if they live in humid regions around rivers, lakes and marshlands, the disease can be found anywhere in Australia. Some large marsupials, including kangaroos, act as an intermediary host.

Depending on weather cycles (drought followed by floods will do it), some years are worse than others. In 2014-2015, RRV cases more than doubled to 6,371.

Ross River Fever is one of a half-dozen viruses carried and spread by mosquitos, including Dengue Fever, Barmah Forest Virus and the lesser known Japanese Encephalitis.

Although RRV is not fatal or contagious, it is one of many notifiable diseases in Australia, with each State and Territory having its own parameters around notification. Included on the list is the bat-borne Lyssa virus, which can be caught by someone who is bitten or scratched by an infected bat.

There is no vaccine for RRV and unlikely to be one in the medium-term as the world’s scientists and epidemiologists are focused on finding a vaccine for COVID-19. Nor is there a vaccine for the mosquito-borne tropical disease, malaria. Mainland Australia is free of the disease; nevertheless 437 malaria cases were reported between 2012-13 and 2016-17. Cases were linked to people returning from a malaria-prone region.

Now that we are all in a state of heightened awareness about infectious diseases, we should perhaps remind ourselves of those not yet eradicated. Tuberculosis is one such illness – prevalent in third-world countries but contained in Australia to fewer than five cases in every 100,000 people. Tuberculosis or TB is primarily a disease of the lungs, although it can be systemic. It can be treated with medication, but patients need to be isolated, as it is extremely contagious.

While Australia aspires to a pre-elimination tally of one person per 100,000 by 2035, the incidence of TB is six times higher in the Indigenous Australian population. Legitimate cross border movements between PNG and the Torres Strait by traditional inhabitants unavoidably pose some risk of TB spreading in the Torres Strait Protected Zone.

Now that you are all feeling psychologically contaminated, the good news is the pre-elimination TB target (1 case per 100,000 by 2035), has already been met in the Australian-born population, who represent 72% of the total. A report by the Department of Health states that the incidence of TB has been ‘low and stable’ since 1986.

The point is, now that so much research capability is being focused on a COVD-19 vaccine (or cure), there a danger of being distracted from developing vaccines for other viruses, which, if not life-threatening, impose a serious burden on the lives of those afflicted.

The report, Mosquito- Borne Diseases in Queensland 2012-2017, may not appeal as bed-time reading in this time of heightened awareness of human frailties. So I will save you the chore and summarise a few statistics. For example, almost 14,000 people picked up RRV in the five years from 2012-13 and 2016-17.  There were 3,986 reported cases of Barham Forest Virus, one of a small group of Alphaviruses including RRV and Dengue. There were 1,895 cases of Dengue fever in the same five-year period. Dengue is like a form of the flu. Most people recover in a week and fatalities are rare. In Australia, Dengue is confined to Far North Queensland, so cases diagnosed elsewhere are usually traced to a recent visit to FNQ or places where the disease is prevalent (Africa and South America). As for Japanese Encephalitis, which I referred to at the start, only three cases were recorded between 2012 and 2017.

As has been the case with COVID-19, we look to New Zealand for an intelligent response. The NZ Department of Health identified the RRV-carrying southern saltmarsh mosquito as a threat back in 1998. Over the next 11 years, with the help of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, the imported mosquito species was eradicated from New Zealand. I feel safe in using the word ‘consequently’ to report that there have been no reported cases of Ross River Virus acquired within New Zealand since September 2006.

New Zealand scored a world first by snuffing out the little Aussie biter and RRV over a decade, possibly because there are no kangaroos to act as incubators. Having said that, did you know there are two species of wallaby in NZ (Kawau Island, Rotorua and southern Canterbury)? Anyway, I reckon Australia should send a delegation to talk to the people who eliminated the saltmarsh mozzie. Like, tell us how to do it, Bro. (If that’s the case, the kangaroos should start feeling pretty nervous. Ed)

Related reading: https://bobwords.com.au/shoo-flu-dont-bother-me/

Ten songs that influenced teenage me

ten-songs-influenced
Image (and research): Wikipedia

Most of my musician friends spend time on Facebook, so that’s why I probably saw so many of those ‘10 albums which influenced your musical tastes’ challenges. It is no surprise this diversion has become popular in the uncertain time of COVID-19 because it allowed us to yearn, just a little, for those carefree days when music helped shape our lives.

You can tell how much the ‘challenge’ means, as so many participants cannot leave it at 10. Ah, the warm feeling of remembering a relationship that budded and flowered, just as Cat Stevens released Tea for the Tillerman. Maybe you’d met a brown-eyed girl (called Rhonda); perhaps you lived in a town without pity. Or it really got you when Ray Davies wrote, ‘I’m not like everybody else’.

I walked in to the ‘challenge’ by posting an ironic observation that nobody had nominated me to do anything, My record producer friend Pix Vane-Mason popped up, asking about the music that influenced my teenage years.

It didn’t take long for me to break the rules and make my own mini-FOMM, with explanations and reviews (most just post album covers on 10 successive days, with no comment at all). A few people who saw the first entry were surprised to find I was a pre-pubescent jazz head. No 1 was Carmen McRae’s version of Dave Brubeck’s ‘Take Five’. The song version of Brubeck’s famous jazz instrumental (in 5/4 time) came out in late 1961, when I was about to turn 13. I’d not heard the original instrumental version (1958), but this set me off on an exploration of modern jazz.

In 1962, pop music began to intrude, starting with Cliff Richard’s ‘The Young Ones’ in 1961. In 1962, I quickly became impressed with Cliff’s backing band, The Shadows. Original and distinctive tunes like ‘Apache’ and ‘Flingle Bunt’ can still be heard on the radio today. Check out this 2017 version of the No 1 hit ‘Apache’ (1960) when Hank Marvin and the original members reunited for one final tour.

 

(There’s a prize for the first one to tell me which politician they think the drummer resembles. Ed)

In 1963, the fickle fifteen year old was torn between folk (there was a folk club in town) and the peer pressure to go with those brash young pop/rock groups from the UK. This was the year The Beatles penetrated the Kiwi consciousness.

I liked the two covers the Beatles did early on (A Taste of Honey and Till There was You) which hinted at the musicality to come. But the music I remember most from that year was a collection of trad folk songs by an extraordinary singer, Odetta. It was a hit record in NZ.

An incredibly eclectic mix of music came through the AM radio in 1964. The Beatles dominated the charts – five songs in the top 20 including numbers 1 and 2, and nine in the top 100. But they had to share Billboard’s top 10 with Louie Armstrong (Hello Dolly), Roy Orbison (Pretty Woman), the Beach Boys (I get Around) and Dean Martin (Everybody Loves Somebody). I really liked vocal harmonies so the Beach Boys almost always got my vote. But the jazz influence was still there, so even though it seems cheesy now, Stan Getz’s collaboration with Brazilian singer Astrid Gilberto, was, as Danny R said on FB, perhaps our first taste of ‘world music’.

Difficult as it was to pluck one song from the plethora of hits in 1965, I could not go past ‘Rescue Me’ by Fontella Bass. It was released a few months shy of my 17th birthday. I bought the record and played it to death. Nothing wrong with a good old fashioned teenage crush, eh! This was the year that brought us ‘King of the Road’, ‘I Can’t Help Myself’, ‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’, ‘Downtown’, ‘Help’ and ‘You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling’, so there was a lot of competition.

(Rescue Me)

Aretha Franklin is sometimes mistakenly credited with this song, which was written by record producers Carl Smith and Raynard Miner (Bass claimed she co-wrote the song but was never credited). The other song that grabbed me in1965 was ‘I Got You Babe’ by Sonny and Cher (Cher also recorded ‘Rescue Me’ in 1974). What was that I said about teenage crushes!

Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Early Morning Rain’ was a hit for folk trio Peter Paul and Mary in 1965. A version by George Hamilton IV made No 9 on the country charts in 1966. This was the year Simon and Garfunkel emerged, suitcase and guitar in hand, also a beautiful song full of imagery (Elusive Butterfly of Love). But this was also the year of ‘Doobie Doobie Doo’ (say no more) and the Monkees, a manufactured band provided with catchy hits by a then-unknown Neil Diamond. For all that, folk/country music was starting to penetrate the pop charts courtesy of artists like Dylan, PP&M and Gordon Lightfoot. ‘Early Morning Rain’ covers prevailed for decades, including Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eva Cassidy and Australia’s Wendy Matthews, A great song is always just that, no matter the genre.

No 9 & 10 in music that influenced me as a teenager makes a reference to J.S Bach. I was raised in a household where classical music was always in the background. Mum played the piano and organ, so naturally enough, the Bach-inspired introductions to hit songs in 1967 (the year I turned 19), pressed all of the right buttons. The late Ray Manzarek, keyboard player with The Doors candidly spoke about the inspiration for the intro to ‘Light my Fire’, Bach’s Invention No. 8, BWV 779. Many piano players who ended up in rock bands had a classical background. So when the organ intro from Procol Harem’s No 1 hit ‘Whiter shade of Pale’ first emerged from the AM radios we owned in those days, the similarity between that and Bach’s Air on the G String was immediately identified. Matthew Fisher’s Hammond organ intro eased the way for Gary Brooker’s distinctive vocals and a global hit was born. Jim Morrison’s smoky vocals on ‘Light My Fire’ emerged from Ray Manzarek’s attacking organ intro.

Later, in my 20s, the classical/jazz influence continued with a love of 70s bands like Blood Sweat and Tears, Genesis, Sky, The Nice, the Moody Blues and Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

While Joni Mitchell’s songs (Both Sides Now and the Circle Game) were hits for Judy Collins and Buffy Saint- Marie in 1967, Joni’s first album did not appear until 1968 (when I turned 20). Little did we know, 19 albums later, what an incredible influence she would be for anyone with a keen sense of music, poetry and art.

My bad – I forgot to mention ‘Friday on My Mind’ (The Easybeats, 1966), selected as one of the best songs of the last 1,000 years by Richard Thompson, Here’s RT’s version.

In the Facebook posts I also neglected to mention a key influence on my songwriting, Ray Davies of The Kinks. Those well-crafted songs (e,g, ‘Sunny Afternoon’, ‘Dead End Street’, ‘Lola’ and ‘Dedicated Follower of Fashion’), stitched sardonic social comment into a fabric of catchy and rhythmic tunes. His songs lived on in my lizard brain until I picked up a guitar aged 27 and discovered the circle of fifths, just like Ray!

 

Morris Dancing And Other Cancelled Events

morris-dancing-cancelled events
Image of Morris dancers at Mt Coot-tha (2019) by Mary Brettell

Most of us have one social activity we love to share with like-minded people, be it Morris dancing, concerts, plays, ballet, rodeos, stock car racing, cricket, playing or watching football (all codes) or participating in surfing carnivals or golf tournaments.

Perhaps camp drafting is your thing (nothing happening here); there are no country shows or rodeos and the list of cancelled music events and festivals goes on for pages.

Even if your interest is excentrique (a dozen friends gathering for dinner and Chateau de Chazelles while trying to speak French for two hours), COVID-19 restrictions have put paid to it.

I might just add, before developing the theme, I’m puzzled why the horse racing industry has not come under much scrutiny for its lack of attention to social distancing. Horse racing, trots and even greyhound racing have continued without disruption throughout COVID-19. Sure, there are no crowds in attendance, but just envisage a typical blanket finish in a horse race: a nose, a neck and half a head. Pity the poor jockeys at the back; copping all that flying sweat, saliva and horse drool. That’s not social distancing, folks. As animal rights group PETA rightly observes, “staff members at a typical race meeting include trainers, jockeys, vets, strappers, farriers, stewards, handlers, and stable and kennel staff. “They’re required to be in close proximity, and many travel considerable distances to attend.”  (Nothing to do with gambling revenue, of course. Ed)

But as we were saying about cancelled events, Queensland’s Morris dancers called off today’s traditional May Day event.

Every year on May 1, dancers gather on hilltops at dawn to welcome the sun. Morris dancing is a 14th century English tradition which lives on, not only in the UK, but in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the US.

This was the topic of my first FOMM, six years ago. It was an eye-witness account of pre-dawn shenanigans atop Brisbane’s best-known spot to view the city. It was cold, dark and showery, but nothing could extinguish the enthusiasm of musicians and dancers and their loyal followers.

Morris dancers clash sticks and bump bellies, symbolising the battle between the seasons. Morris men often wear hats with flowers, and “tatter coats” and many paint their faces. Dancers use either garlands of flowers or hankies for the gentle dances. But  there are as many variations in dress and dance style as there are Morris ‘sides’ or teams.

Brisbane Morris musician and dancer Nicole Murray told FOMM that local dancers would not be congregating at Mt Coot-tha this year, the first no-show for at least 40 years.

“But we are marking the occasion,” she said. “Emma (Nixon) and I recorded a version of Princess Royal (a traditional dancer tune). Everyone is dancing a jig at dawn and filming it. The aim is to do a stitched-together video. I hope that will be the outcome, anyway.”

Amongst other things, COVID-19 has postponed attempts by those who aspire to topple world records for mass participations. World records of this nature are many and varied – mass gatherings of Peruvian folk dancers, people wearing Akubra-style hats, Elvis impersonators, people dressed as Harry Potter, the longest River Dance line – the list goes on.

In 2018, the Potty Morris and Folk Festival set the record for the largest Morris dance in Sheringham (UK) with 369 dancers (33 Morris sides).

(Ed: Bob reels about clutching his head screaming ‘the bells, the bells”)

Nicole Murray’s partner John Thompson penned a song a few years ago which starts: “Dance up the sun on a fine May morning, dance up to sun to call in the Spring…” and traces the English tradition that spawned this annual event. The ritual insists that if Morris dancers don’t dance up the sun, it will never rise again.

May Day also commemorates those who struggled to win the right to fair pay and an eight-hour day. Perhaps that is one reason British Morris dancers arced up last year when the UK government arbitrarily decided to shift the date of the May long weekend (in 2020).

Meanwhile back home, a survey showed that Australians are anxious, bored and lonely as a result of the COVID-19 restrictions.

This may not apply so much to the over-65 cohort, many of whom will tell you they routinely experience anxiety, boredom and loneliness. For example, the highlight of my week was queuing up at 7.15am for my annual flu shot, along with 150 others over-65s. (We stayed at least three walkers apart).

Freedom of movement restrictions are sending some people a bit bonkers. Look how much trouble these rugby league players are in, not only breaking curfew but sharing their co-mingling activities on social media.

Young people are finding self-isolation and social restrictions tough. I offer as evidence the chart that shows more women aged 20-29 have been infected with COVID-19 than any other age group.

We have noticed, on our evening strolls along the river with the dog, increasing numbers of runners, seemingly out for more than routine exercise. Most people whizz by at one or two metres with a cheery “G’day”. Some give us a wide berth, occasionally muttering “1.5 metres mate.” A solitary young man can be seen repeatedly whacking a hockey ball into the net, not missing very often. One can only guess, in these uncertain times, at the level of frustration felt by people who enjoy team sports of any kind.

Even though I have been a rugby league fan for some 40 years, I disagree with the National Rugby League’s decision to restart the professional season in late May. It is irresponsible, fraught with risk and seems to be done for the sake of TV rights, betting agencies, and advertising contracts (not forgetting contractual obligations with players and coaches).

As is often demonstrated, the NRL cannot control what goes on in the lives of young athletes with high disposable incomes. What’s worse is the sense of entitlement the season re-launch implies. It may not be so well known that all amateur and semi-professional footballers (and netball players), were stood down in March. There are no signs at all of those competitions resuming any time soon.

We all may deeply resent the forced curtailment of our chosen sport/hobby/social activity. But it is being done for noble reasons, demonstrated every day with a notable drop-off in new COVID-19 cases. This weekend will be the first big test (in Queensland), as some restrictions are eased. For our part, we may visit Queen Mary Falls, located in a national park some 40 kms from home, just inside the 50km maximum travel allowance. As it’s in a national park, the dog will have to say home. He won’t like it, but rules are rules, eh?

As for the Morris no-show, several people who follow the tradition suggested Morris folk dance in their own driveways, just like on Anzac Day. Accordion and bells at 5am, LOL!

Here’s Nicole’s Murray’s song, Let Winter Begin, about that very magical moment from a southern hemisphere perspective.Let Winter Begin

Non-viral news stories you may have missed

news-viral-fuel
Breaking news – some regional fuel suppliers accused of profiteering (not this one), charging $1.20 or more for a litre of unleaded petrol.

Even when the world is assailed by an invisible foe – a global pandemic – the ordinary news cycle continues. Not that you’d know it, with electronic and print media obsessed 24/7 with the virus and its long-term effect on the global economy. (That is, the economy has been seriously affected – not ‘impacted’, please- the latter referring to something jammed together, e.g.  wisdom teeth. SWAG(SheWhoAddsGrammaticalNotes))

The Guardian Weekly has taken to presenting 15-20 news briefs badged “non-covid-19 news”. Unavoidably, about a third of these stories somehow manage to touch on the virus that stopped the world in its tracks. But at least they are trying to maintain perspective.

The mainstream media has not so much ignored standout news stories as relegated them well beneath the repetitive coverage of COVID-19.

For example, did you know that Australia’s Easter road toll was greatly reduced in 2020 compared with the four-day public holiday in 2019? Nationally, six people died on Australian roads, compared with 19 on Easter weekend 2019. The Northern Territory usually has the worst Easter road toll per capita, but this year joined Victoria and the ACT in recording zero deaths.

Over the Tasman, New Zealand reported zero deaths on the roads, compared with four last Easter and a record 17 in Easter 1990. That’s hardly surprising, given that New Zealand has been on Level Four lockdown.

Before the virus, stories about refugees and asylum seekers often led the news, or if not the news as we know it, definitely on social media.

The one news story that penetrated the mainstream news was the latest chapter in the three-year ordeal of a Tamil family seeking a safe haven in Biloela.

The family of four was living in ‘Bilo’ quite happily until March 2018, when the Department of Immigration removed them to detention in Melbourne and subsequently to Christmas Island. There have been numerous (failed) legal challenges to the Department of Home Affairs’ attempts to deport the family. The case came to public attention again last Friday when a last minute Federal Court injunction literally stopped the deportation flight on the tarmac at Darwin. The ABC reports the family will remain in Australia (at a Darwin hotel) until at least today. The Department of Home Affairs has repeatedly said the family does not meet Australia’s protection obligations. It is understood their visas expired in early 2018.

If anything positive came from COVID-19, it delivered a temporary reprieve for the planet, dramatically reducing traffic pollution in major cities.

The Guardian commissioned new data that estimates the global industrial shutdown will cut carbon emissions by 5%. Yes, global carbon emissions from the fossil fuel industry could fall by 2.5 billion tonnes in 2020. That is the biggest drop on record.

Activist groups resisting the spread of coal seam gas and/or coal development in rural Australia have put their direct-action campaigns on hold, instead relying on social media for exposure.

The ‘Stop Adani’ campaign, which aims to thwart development of a major coal mine in Australia by an Indian company, claimed a ‘win’ this week.

Social media posts said engineering group FKG had pulled out of the second stage of the crucial rail link being built between the Carmichael mine and the Abbott Point export terminal. Stop Adani’s main thrust now is to put pressure on contracting companies to distance themselves from the controversial project. The next critical date is May 21, when insurance broker Marsh is set to decide on providing essential insurance coverage to Adani. Toowoomba-based FKG Group declined to comment on the Facebook posts.

Adani Australia said on Tuesday it was awarding the $220 million rail contract to Martinus Group. Adani Mining CEO Lukas Dow said anti-coal activists had failed to stop the project going ahead. “Their recent claims that contractors have pulled out of our project are false and we remain on track to create more than 1,500 direct jobs during the construction.”

Meanwhile, Arrow Energy’s 50/50 owners Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina announced a financial commitment to the first stage of a $2 billion coal seam gas (CSG) project in the Surat Basin. Queensland Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk predictably enough said positive things about the 1,000 jobs this project would create, describing it as “a milestone in Queensland’s economic recovery from covid-19”.

International news stories which did not receive the sort of coverage they did a year ago included the first anniversary of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire.

The anniversary was commemorated on April 15, signalled by a lone bell tolling in locked down central Paris. Despite the chaotic state of the ruined cathedral and COVID-19 restrictions, a mass was celebrated on Easter Sunday and livestreamed to Catholics world-wide.

Work has been halted on the $1 billion cathedral restoration (funds pledged by 340,000 companies and individuals), not only because of COVID-19 but also because of lead contamination.

Also largely missing from the media radar was the first anniversary on March 15 of the Christchurch mosque attacks. Ten days later, the lone gunman charged with killing 51people and injuring more than 40 changed his plea to guilty. The plea saves relatives of those killed and injured from re-living the event through what would have been an international showcase trial.

Unless you subscribe to John Menadue’s blog collective Pearls and Irritations, you probably did not read Judith White’s take on the gutting of the Australia Council’s funding. Cuts announced in early April are the last of savage cuts made in the 2016 Budget and rolled out over four years.

As White reveals, those to lose multi-year funding include the Australian Book Review (Federally-funded for six decades), the Sydney Book Review, Overland magazine and the Sydney Writers’ Festival. Small to medium creatives also affected included Melbourne’s La Mama Theatre and new music company Ensemble Offspring.

 

Speaking of the arts, Winton’s week-long outback film festival, usually held in June, has been postponed to September 18-26. A source said the Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival would go ahead at that time if the government changes its rules about large gatherings.

You may have started watching the latest in the outback noir series, Mystery Road on ABC TV. The original Mystery Road movie was filmed in Winton, as was the sequel, Goldstone. The latest made-for-TV series, filmed in and around Broome and the Dampier Peninsula in Western Australia, has a famous cast member. Swedish actress Sofia Helin, who played homicide detective Saga Norén in the cult series, The Bridge, was one of the first lead actors to portray someone with a form of autism.

In Mystery Road, Helin plays European archaeologist Professor Sondra Elmquist, digging for Aboriginal artefacts in a remote coastal location.

Apart from watching Grey’s Anatomy, we don’t watch 7 very often, but I did catch this snippet, tucked away at the bottom of an online news feed.

Australia’s oldest man, Dexter Kruger, quietly turned 110 on Monday, being characteristically optimistic when speaking to well-wishers at a (virtual) party held in his honour.

“My life has spanned a lot of years and I have touched seven generations of the Kruger family,” he said.

“I don’t know what else (to say), but I will invite you all to my next birthday.”

FOMM  Back Pages: https://bobwords.com.au/climate-extremes-polar-vortex-bushfires/

The joys of gardening

joys-gardening-company
(Photo: SWPAG (aka Laurel Wilson, suitably attired for gardening – the T-Shirt quote says ‘Economic Rationalism Isn’t’)

This week, determined to write something without uttering the C word, I decided on a blow-by-blow description of our efforts to establish a garden. Great minds do think alike, apparently, as The Conversation published a timely piece on Monday. “It’s a great time to try – a vegetable patch.”  The Conversation’s thrust is that we (the people) have more reason now than at any other time in recent history, to grow our own food. If you take heed of the dire warnings from the International Monetary Fund, by the time the global recession really kicks in, it will be harvest time!

My thumbs have definitely greened over years of associating with She Who Plants and Grows (SWPAG). In the early days, keen to be seen as doing my bit, I weeded down the narrow but sunny side of the house. Alas, the two weedy-looking plants I ripped from the ground were tamarillos, planted by SWPAG.  There was a degree of cold shoulder for a while. Mollified, I tried a parody – “I’m sorry I killed your tamarillos, every night I’ve been hugging my pillow”.

You had to be there.

We always planned to build small vegie gardens in the relatively small back yard of our new abode on the Southern Downs. We went down to the Big Green Shed and spent the equivalent of a months’ worth of fruit and vegie supplies on above-ground garden beds, compost, manure, cane mulch and assorted seedlings.

Then we set about building the first of the timber, no-dig garden beds. After a considerable amount of finessing and swearing, we concluded that the metre-square pre-cut garden beds were not at all precise.

By trial and error we put the first one together, using a battery-powered screwdriver and a hand-held Phillips head screwdriver to finish the job.

The swearing started with repeated attempts to get the box level.

“Next time let’s get the ground level first,” I suggested.

There’s a recipe to follow when making a no-dig garden bed. First you build a layer of small twigs and branches for drainage, then a layer of cardboard. Next a layer of cane mulch, then a bag of manure, another layer of cane mulch, a layer of our very own compost, husbanded (and I use the word correctly), from our own vegetable and fruit scraps, lawn clippings and anything compostable that wasn’t a weed. Then more layers – cane mulch, manure, compost and then more cane mulch. Finally, SWPAG said: “That’s enough.”

We stopped for a cup of tea and a biscuit, which turned into an hour-long bout of stooging about the house complaining about various aches and pains and watching last week’s Gardening Australia.

Later, we watered the new garden and let it sit. Magpies appeared from nowhere and started foraging around the edges where we’d stirred up all kinds of magpie food.

That was Friday. Night fell and we watched the latest edition of Gardening Australia. This truly national show has something for everyone, no matter where you live, even this peculiar temperate/arid zone where 100mm of rain in a day leads  news bulletins.

On Saturday we decided to spice up the day with a trip to the dump. The fellow at the boom gate (1.5 metres away), said “Not another load of garden waste!”. (It’s the new excursion in these ‘iso’ times. Ed)

We got up early on Monday morning and set our minds to building the other two garden beds. Now that we knew what we were doing (Ed; LOL), in no time at all we had three above-ground garden beds. The magpies were ecstatic and the dog christened all of them.

Our fledgling herb garden, established a few months ago, was contained elsewhere in a dozen pots of various sizes. Curiously (I thought), SWPAG tasked me to move the 12 pots, strategically positioning them inside the second above-ground garden bed.

“So we didn’t really need the second bed?”  I ventured, without a trace of criticism or sarcasm.

“Yes we did – it looks tidy that way”.

The thing about gardening, it has to be regarded as a hobby, because financially (the wooden boxes alone cost $147), it makes no sense at all. But it’s great for your mental and physical health, gives a sense of accomplishment and creates convivial times spent outdoors. Best of all, you have something to show for your labours.

I mentioned Gardening Australia – despite the obvious expertise of the presenters, it baffles me how few of them wear gloves or dust masks when handling compost, gypsum, dynamic lifter and a host of other elements added to the soil.

The harmful bacteria and fungi in potting mix have been known to cause lung ailments such as Legionnaires’  disease or Histoplasmosis (the latter a fungus that lives in parts of the US, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia).

The risk is accentuated if you store bags of potting mix in a moist and warm environment where fungi can multiply. This article in The Conversation qualifies the warning by adding that the risk of contracting lung disease from using potting mix is slim. Nevertheless, I wear a dust mask when using potting mix, cane mulch or any soil additive that gives off dust. SWPAG takes it one step further and wears a respirator.

Sometimes, breathing noisily, she complains in a muffled voice (like Dark Helmet in the 1987 Mel Brooks spoof, Spaceballs):

“I can’t breathe in this thing.”

Wearing gloves is a sensible protective measure. If you are a guitarist (or a person who likes to cultivate long nails) it will protect them from damage. If you have any tiny cuts or abrasions, gloves will guard against picking up infection, or worse, tetanus. There is a vaccination one should have to guard against the latter, a serious bacterial infection that causes muscle spasms.

Even Good Housekeeping magazine got in on the gardening hazards topic, warning gardeners against everything from Lyme disease (we don’t have this in Australia, or so it is said), heat stroke and poisonous plants to a stern warning about harmful chemicals used in lawn and garden care products.

Robyn Francis of Permaculture College Australia, on the other hand, says people should get their hands dirty and soak up the serotonin in the soil. She cites research that “dirt-deficiency in childhood is implicated in contributing to quite a spectrum of illnesses including allergies, asthma and mental disorders.”

No need to be more paranoid than we already are, folks. Be like Bob –  wear a hat, mask and gloves and stay 1.5 metres away from potentially hazardous substances.

Which reminds me of the time a friend was staying with us in Maleny and helped SWPAG plant an edible fruit tree down the back of our half-acre block. Just as they neared the bottom of the hole they’d prepared, a large hairy spider jumped out, rearing up and showing fearsome fangs. To this day they ae not sure if it was a deadly Funnel Web or the less harmful but no less scary Trapdoor Spider.

Risks aside, you could do worse, in this strange time we Australians have abbreviated to ‘Iso’, than to establish a small vegetable and/or herb garden. If, like so many city folk these days, your back yard is small, fear not. Josh from Gardening Australia has (almost) the last word.

FOMM back pages:

 

Martial Law Or Just Do What You’re Told?

Martial-law-Brisbane-Ekka
Inventive Brisbane Ekka photo by David Kapernick

This may be Good Friday, but by any definition it’s not all that flash, given varying states of emergency in Australia and attempts to police COVID-19 restrictions (emergent but not quite martial law).

Well may you scoff, as hysteria spreads in the US about the very real prospect of the Commander in Chief ordering the armed forces to take over. Outspoken New York governor Andrew Cuomo has dismissed martial law rumours in his state, although he has tightened business restrictions. As always, the global situation changes by the day.

According to <militarynews.com>, there are more than enough believers that martial law could soon apply in some US states. As we should know, that means the abandonment of civil liberties, free speech and all recourse to legal protections through suspension of habeas corpus. This has happened in recent times in countries relatively close to us, including Fiji, East Timor and Aceh.

Martial law occurs when military control of normal civilian functions is imposed by a government. Civil liberties, such as the right to free movement or protection from unreasonable searches, can be suspended. Civilians may be arrested for violating curfews or for offences not considered serious enough (in normal times) to warrant detention.

The United States has imposed martial law in one or more States on more than a dozen occasions since the formation of the Union. Most were declared because of wars, civil unrest or natural disasters. President Trump has more wiggle room in 2020, thanks to John Warner’s National Defense Authorization Act, brought into law by President George W. Bush on October 17, 2006. In addition to allocating funding for the armed forces, it also gave the president the power to declare martial law and to take command of the National Guard units of each State without the consent of State governors.

The Atlantic reported last month on the extraordinary power available to the President simply by invoking a ‘national emergency’.

This delivers more than 100 special provisions not usually available in peacetime. For example, he can shut down many kinds of electronic communications inside the US, freeze Americans’ bank accounts and deploy troops inside the country to subdue domestic unrest. As The Atlantic’s Elizabeth Goitein observes, it would be OK if one trusted the President to do the right thing. But she points to past abuses, such as President Roosevelt’s rounding up and detaining Japanese nationals, even US citizens, after the bombing of Pearl Harbour. More recently, George W Bush supported programmes of wiretapping and torture after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

As far back as the Civil War, some presidents have had misgivings about martial law. President Lincoln defended the suspension of habeas corpus, saying that while it was constitutionally questionable, it was “necessary to preserve the union”.

It may surprise readers to find that Australia was subject to martial law, notably Tasmania and NSW, during the Frontier Wars of the late 1800s.

Governor Arthur declared martial law (against indigenous peoples) in Tasmania in November 11, 1828.  Soldiers were given the right to apprehend without warrant or to shoot on sight any Aboriginal person in the Settled Districts who resisted them. The edict stressed that tribes that surrendered should be treated with every degree of humanity; and that “defenceless women and children be invariably spared”.

The Tasmanian state of martial law remained in place for three years. Meanwhile, Governor Brisbane introduced his own version of martial law in New South Wales. I have lost count of the Australians who have told me “we were never taught that at school”. Even now, some of the evidence is disputed, but at least there’s enough of it out there to make up your own mind.

Roll forward to 2020 and we have an executive Cabinet running Australia, only recalling Parliament one time, to vote on spending a lot of money to keep the economy in ‘hibernation’. There is a bi-partisan delegated legislation committee to oversee these measures, but how much influence does it really have?

The most sensible analysis I’ve read of this National Cabinet Committee is from libertarian blog, <Cattalaxyfiles>.

The writer describes the Cabinet (the nation’s first ministers – the Prime Minister, premiers and territory leaders), as an attempt at ‘cooperative federalism’. But he argues it has no constitutional authority.

 “The Commonwealth might not actually have the power to do many of the things that are currently being done. The States do. The ‘National Cabinet’ is an unconstitutional fig leaf that allows the States to coordinate their activities while appearing to have a unified national approach.”

Even with just a humble State of Emergency in place, Australian citizens have reportedly been subjected to harassment by police in NSW. Can someone sit on a park bench and eat a kebab? Not if the police have spoken to the same guy twice in the same day, apparently.

Life seems relatively benign in Queensland, compared with zealous police patrols of NSW streets, markets, shopping centres and beaches. Nevertheless, Queensland police have the power to order you to move on (when did they not?) and if you are flagrantly breaking the rules (using a kids’ playground for example), expect to get run in.

But is this anything new?

The National Museum of Australia may be closed, but you can still read online a summary of stern health measures taken by Australian authorities in 1918 and 1919, during the Spanish Flu pandemic’.

“The Australian Quarantine Service monitored the spread of the pandemic and implemented maritime quarantine on 17 October 1918, after learning of outbreaks in New Zealand and South Africa.

“The first infected ship to enter Australian waters was the Mataram, from Singapore, which arrived in Darwin on 18 October 1918. Over the next six months, the service intercepted 323 vessels, 174 of which carried the infection. Of the 81,510 people who were checked, 1102 were infected.”

Despite all best efforts, the illness spread and 15,000 people died of pneumonic influenza, the nation’s name for Spanish Flu. The death toll equated to 2.7 people in every 1000, one of the lowest death rates in the world.

History will show whether or not we can improve on this, more than a hundred years later. Much depends on how long we can all hang in there under virtual house arrest. The cancellation of the Royal Queensland Show (the Ekka) is a clear sign that authorities expect the pandemic to still be around in August.

Authorities decided that exposing up to 400,000 people to the coronavirus was too big a risk. Also, the State government has taken an option over the 22ha Brisbane Showgrounds site for temporary hospital accommodation, just as it happened in 1919, at the peak of the ‘Spanish Flu’ pandemic.

We can only imagine what a blow the Ekka announcement was to the State’s farmers – their annual chance to leave the drought and bushfires behind, put on their best duds and escape to the city.

It’s for the best, they say, but we don’t have to like it.

Further reading: NSW civil liberties advocate Nicholas Cowdery warns extended adjournment is “unacceptable and dangerous for democracy”

https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/government-response-to-the-covid-19-outbreak

 

 

Working From Home In The Time Of COVID-19

working-from-home-covid-19
Working from home through covid-19

Fifteen years ago, just after SARS but before the GFC and COVID-19, I opted out of full-time paid employment and started a consultancy business, working from home. This was an era when many large organisations did not want their employees working remotely. The resistance was hard to understand, given that even in 2005, the technology to do so made it easy, particularly for people in the communications industry.

Now, in plague-ridden 2020, many employers have made working from home mandatory. A Morris dancer friend, whose work often takes her to places like India, has her office set up in one corner of the house. That’s K’s home office above.

“Contrary to others perceptions of this period, I am finding that I am extremely busy (hence the short note), because I have to carry out my usual job achieving the same minimum number of hours. I also have to work out a family timetable and supervise and enforce the online learning that the children have been given.  It is a real handful, and with limited computing resources in the house, we are packed like sardines into the office and dining room space. This results in a lot of distractions and consequently late hours of work.

“But I am finding this period more social because people are uploading virtual folk clubs, sessions and dance events I would not otherwise have the time to attend.  It is an exciting and vibrant time, full of possibility for musical and creative pursuits.”

Mr Shiraz, who recently attended a virtual board meeting via Zoom, said he has seen some inventive ways of setting boundaries when someone is working from home.

“This can range from a sign on Mum’s closed office door “Mummy is at work,” to a friend who posted a list of possible answers to things the kids want to ask her (“Have you looked in the fridge?”).

Residential property researcher Michael Matusik, who has been working from home for nearly five years, has a few practical tips. The most important one is: “Put your arse in the chair” for a set time every day.

“You need to focus and the best way to do that is to be at your desk and sticking to a routine,” he said in a recent Matusik Missive.

”Make a to-do list for the day, week and month ahead and stick to it.

“It is easy to labour unproductively when working from home. It is best to set yourself timeframes to do certain tasks and to take set breaks each day.”

(see link below)

Freelance writer Lisa Southgate started working from home in late 2001 and loves it, so is intrigued to find that friends forced into it by COVID-19 are not coping.

“I was fresh from a job in a big newspaper office, and I knew, because I had a teenager on the spectrum, that whatever I did next it had to involve the late-ish start to the day we used to have in newspapers then. “My son was in his teenage years, and it took him forever to get to school.

“At the time I was getting heaps of freelance offers. I was working in property, tourism and business, and there was a property boom, a tourism boom, and an increase of interest in investment. So I called my accountant, set up an ABN and a business structure and went to it.

“It was great! I could get my son off to school – I could take the endless whingey phone calls from the school staff. And I could concentrate on work and not office politics.

“I didn’t have to spend so much money on clothes and makeup for looking presentable in the office. I sometimes wondered what my interviewees would have thought if they’d seen me sitting there in my Ally McBeal pyjamas.”

The key to working from home, Lisa says, is to work out when your brain works best and design your day around that.

Musician and instrument-maker Andy Rigby reports from rural Victoria that while there are no COVID-19 cases in the vicinity, he thinks it is only a matter of time. He is accepting that this (home isolation), will go on for some time, which might be a problem for his daughter, who is in Grade 6 and bored after day one.

For his part, Andy plans a re-union with the local bush (“which has been sadly neglected in our busy lives”.)

“I have several harp orders, plus whistles, and a fair bit of potential on-line teaching to arrange, so I don’t think I’ll be bored for some time yet.

“I reckon I would qualify for some Government assistance as a small business with most of my income (gigs and school jobs) denied by the virus.”

Self-sufficient people who live on rural properties have no shortage of things to do, although they don’t describe it as ‘working from home’.

Former Queenslander Marion lives on a 52ha farm, in Victoria, which includes about one hectare of ornamentals and vegetable gardens.

“I have no problem productively filling my day with just this work.

“I have had a vegie garden for the five years I have lived here and we have our own meat (cows and sheep) and chooks for eggs. So there is no shortage of food and we are relatively self-sufficient (except for the dreaded toilet paper which I am now rationing).” 

Marion, like so many of the kind readers who responded to my request for home-alone anecdotes, advised us to: “Stay well, stay safe and stay sane. This too will pass.”

Teri from the Granite Belt is not troubled by isolation, keeping in touch with friends and family via group messages test and phone calls. She prefers the latter because “hearing someone else’s voice is the next best thing to a face to face visit.”

“Because we live on a bit of land, we love being at home. Nature is good company. There is always plenty to do here, both practical and creative, with veggie garden, repairs and decluttering top of the list at the moment.”

Ralph from South Australia says staying at home is something he has become used to in recent years and offers some tips.

“I go for days without utterance sometimes, but I am never bored, because there is so much to do. There is the variety of household chores, the cycles of gardening, getting dirty with weeds and compost, harvesting and house repairs.  

“There’s writing the letters you’ve long forgotten to send to old friends and rellies, learning poetry, reading the world’s best speeches, playing chess and, can you remember the rules for cribbage and euchre?”

On a serious note, we know people who are at various stages of chemotherapy or have compromised immune systems. For them, self-isolation is literally a life-preserving strategy.

David, who has just finished his last round of chemo, is susceptible to coronavirus and understands that he needs to self-isolate, along with Mrs David. He tells me, in a fairly neutral way, I thought:

“(Mrs David) is doing her choir practise in the kitchen on her iPad for the first time ever, and it is working.’’

Peter from the Hinterland speculated that there is an important-sounding future PhD thesis in: “Priorities in Panic Buying as an Indicator of National Character.” 

“Data I have noted to date (according to impeccably reliable newspaper reports):

  • Australia: toilet paper, then alcohol
  • Britain: toilet paper, then all groceries
  • Italy: pasta and tickets out of the country
  • USA: more guns
  • Argentina: viagra

Or as another Pete friend said, in a postscript to an email sent when we were travelling:

“Drive safe and keep your bum clean.”

More reading: Wise words from travel writer Lee Mylne https://aglasshalf-full.com/2020/03/23/a-freelance-writers-top-tips-for-working-from-home/

Lisa Southgate’s tips:

Michael’s tips https://matusik.com.au/?s=working+from+home

 

Splendid isolation in the time of COVID-19

Isolation-COVID-19
Two wallabies practising social distancing (in Wodonga, Victoria)

As we drove 1,200kms in haste from Albury NSW to the Southern Downs, trying to escape Queensland border chaos, I was grateful for readers’ insights into COVID-19 and isolation. First of all we should credit Sandy W with the witty caption for this week’s photo.

Realising I’d be spending three days driving home before resigning ourselves to self-isolation, I asked FOMM readers for their thoughts on this health crisis. I was overwhelmed with responses, so will keep some back for next week’s quarantine episode.

Two readers sent me the same meme which essentially says:

“Your grandparents fought in a world war. All you’re being asked to do is sit on the couch. Don’t fuck this up.”

The meme memo was a bit too late for the hapless authorities who allowed 2,700 people to disembark from the Ruby Princess and mingle amongst the crowds in Sydney’s streets, shops and nightclubs; 130 passengers have since tested positive to COVID-19.

Yesterday we began 14 days’ voluntary home detention, mindful that we have been travelling through rural NSW in recent weeks.

King Richard of The Village said self-isolation is ‘great’.

“I’m enjoying the time to do all those jobs at home that I put aside for another day. We visit the IGA late in the evening when we need to and keep in touch with friends by phone. It’s a bit like my childhood memories of World War II and self-sufficiency.”

I asked our musician friend Silas Palmer how his gigs were going: “Six major festivals and a lot of small events, all cancelled but we’re in the same position as everybody else.”

“But we’re practicing a lot,” he added gleefully.

Katie Bee self-deprecatingly said: “So far the trickiest thing for me is that with so many things I CAN do, and so much time to do them in, my procrastination knows no bounds!

“But I’m finding myself a little more often on FB, and keeping in touch with friends by phone or email, and am gradually doing jobs that normally never enter my consciousness, after which I reward myself with some Netflix.”

Superchip from Calgary said that having been raised on a remote prairie farm in southern Alberta, isolation was not something that caused him great angst.

“I do not consider my formative years as being spent in social isolation, but I did spend a lot of time alone. I learned how to make my own fun. I learned how to just sit and try to take in my surroundings. I enjoy the company of other people, but I don’t need it on a constant basis. Given the state of the world at present, I feel I am one of the lucky ones. Getting past the pandemic will not be a mental challenge for me.” 

Anne and John are self-isolating, which means missing out of physical contact with grandchildren.

“We are missing our music session, our book clubs and exercise classes,” Ann said. “Our little granddaughter (supposed to be keeping to her school routine at home), Zoomed us this morning and tried to teach us some origami to keep us occupied…..argh!”

Barbara is coming to terms with strict tests and limits in her home, the Independent Living Unit section of an Aged Care Facility.

“The impact of the virus has radically changed our lives in the past couple of weeks, but particularly in the past couple of days.   All entrances other than the main one to our Residential Care Facility were closed last week; entrance restricted to two only visitors at a time (who have their temperature taken and are then asked to use hand sanitiser). This test has now been extended to delivery drivers visiting the facility.

Despite the constraints, she does not feel out of touch with the world.

“My IPhone is in full use. I can have uke jam sessions with friends; enjoy the light hearted Facebook posts and many, many things to keep my day full.” 

 A few of my readers appear to belong to the introvert club (we are apparently supposed to teach extroverts how to handle this).

Roger Ilott has been a professional musician and sound engineer for more than 30 years and is not fazed at all.

“As the ultimate stay-at-home, this is fulfilling a lifelong ambition of mine – I’ll never have to go out again!

“I actually always just wanted to be a session musician and did quite a bit of that in the 1970s and 1980s. Since Penny (Davies) and I started our own folk music label back in 1982, I’ve been able to do loads of session work as well as performing. I’m happy all my days sitting in the studio recording (and in cricket season, streaming the Sheffield Shield while I record!).”

After eight days in isolation, Ruth realised this was very similar to how her life has been for the past eight years, caring for her husband who had a serious stroke.

“I have come to this realisation after speaking to family and friends on the phone, some of whom are expressing angst and frustration. On listening, I realise I don’t feel like this at all. I am actually loving it. Loads of time in the garden( work and pleasure), heaps of time for photo sorting and sending, enjoyment in doing things I NEVER do, eg, cleaned all our windows inside & out the other day!”

Choir enthusiast First Soprano said that self-isolating for a couple of weeks would be easy as long as you prepared appropriately.

“Social isolation, as we know, is not a healthy situation (and unfortunately, unlike the Italians, we don’t live in high-rise flats; Italian city folk have been able to continue “socialising” from their balconies, which actually looks like lots of fun and would certainly keep spirits up), but happily in this day and age we have Skype and FaceTime so we can still easily keep in touch with family and friends.”

Jim from Albuquerque said life in the time of Corona had made a difference in his working class neighbourhood.

“Both friends and neighbours with either high or low paying jobs are on furlough or worse. Some better compensated than others in time-off but all paddling the same boat. Neighbourly relations are conducted at a safe remove but with a higher content of cordiality: Hey, howya doin’?; Feelin’ OK?; Need anything? Toilet paper?”

“Mercifully, no one is sick.”

Jon from Vancouver Island says there is always plenty to do on his little farm in what is often regarded as Canada’s Riviera.

“Spring has just arrived, which means preparing the garden for the upcoming season. Like many, I shudder when reviewing my market stocks but this brings with it a modicum of patience, realizing that fixing this up effectively is beyond me.” 

Ms Proodreader, who lives alone, said she is enjoying the interaction with virtual choirs and musicians sharing online.

“I’m mostly staying upbeat but I’m prone to little bursts of panic. I’m very much keeping away from all media….. especially social media…… as there is so much misinformation and I just need to know the basics not the analyses and the what ifs.” 

Yeh I’m with Proodie on that one. There is a lot of misguided and possibly inaccurate information being spread on social media by people who should know better. The mainstream media is completely obsessed and helplessly looking for any new angle.

As for the free papers left in the letterbox – wash your hands after reading.

Postscript: You might enjoy Erin Sulman’s Apocalypse Playlist. If you do have a listen, track 30 is Warren Zevon’s Splendid Isolation. It was recorded live in Brisbane in 1992 – you can probably hear us and Prince Richard of the Village cheering.

 

 

Don’t fence me in – a COVID-19 adventure

covid-19-travel-adventure
The author looking for an elusive bird at Sawn Rocks, 25kms from Narrabri. Photo by Laurel Wilson.

In downtown Dubbo, NSW, the checkout operator at one of the major supermarkets described the day as ‘crazy’. Shopping late (6pm) we managed to buy enough food to tide us over, mindful of Scotty from Marketing’s exhortation to stop hoarding, because ‘it’s UnAustralian’. But the PM was at least three weeks late with that edict, which fell on deaf shoulders (in Dubbo at least). There were plenty of empty shelves and shortages. No rice, mince, long life milk, potatoes, pumpkins or toilet rolls. I cracked a lame joke with a customer about SFM’s demand that we stop hoarding.

“Didn’t work here,” was the terse response. (Possibly because people resent being spoken to like naughty schoolkids.Ed.) The only things on our list that we could not buy were spuds and long life milk – the mainstay of campers everywhere. What is that about? In normal times supermarkets can’t give it away!

But these are not normal times, not at all.

As of 8pm on Thursday, there were 565 diagnosed cases of coronavirus in Australia. Yes, it is spreading fast. But lazy reporting, combined with deliberate sensationalism in the news media does not help with perspective.

Example: “The number of COVID-19 cases in NSW (265), has escalated dramatically,”  the comment not balanced with the observation, ‘Australia’s most populous state’ (7.54 million).

Scotty and his War Cabinet came up with the idea of advising the cancellation of all non-essential events attracting crowds of more than 500 people. Just why they decided on that arbitrary number is one mystery. The other imponderable is why the COVID Crisis Team decided to foreshadow the plan on March 11 but postpone it until after the weekend of March 13-15, which just happened to be the start of the rugby league season.

As we all now know, future rounds of NRL matches will be held in empty stadiums, to attempt to limit the spread of the virus; to flatten the curve, as they say.

Regardless of what happens to the infection rate now, 80,000 people attended eight rugby league games last weekend, not to mention the thousands who attended the Hillsong Conference in Sydney. As of last Monday, you can’t go and watch a live footie game anywhere.  I have no argument with that, but must roll out the old cliché about  closing the stable door. Too late, Scotty, that horse has bolted. The War Cabinet may yet regret the decision to let 80,000 people co-mingle, three days ahead of a ban on mass gatherings, which they now tell us could last for six months.

As I said last week, we are on the road and anything could happen. The three music festivals and a garden show we had planned to attend have been cancelled. Nevertheless, we motored on down the New England and Newell highways, giving our new-ish caravan its first serious road-test.

People we know who are taking the coronavirus more seriously than we are (so far) seemed alarmed that we were not self-immolating or whatever they call it. We are not alone. I counted 185 vehicles between Moree and Narrabri (some 100kms). A third of them were trucks – essential services, no doubt. In a way, we travellers are all self-isolating, sealed in our air conditioned cabs except for times when we have to refuel (paying by EFTPOS, using the same keypad upon which hundreds of customers have already left their microbe-laden fingerprints).

We’ve been staying in local showgrounds, a process which usually involved leaving cash in an honesty box. Vans are parked a long way from each other so there’s not much interaction unless you go looking for it. As I have remarked to people who know me well – I have no trouble with social distancing.

It’s a bit hard to find a news story which is not touching on the coronavirus pandemic, even in a small way, so we switched off and went birdwatching. Lake Narrabri is a good spot to see water birds of all varieties, which we did, thanks to the unprecedented discipline of getting out of bed at 7am!

If we were not ambling around country New South Wales (centre of the coronavirus universe, remember), we’d not have seen the amazing Sawn Rocks (photo above). The basalt formation lies at the bottom of a small gorge in remnant rainforest. The spectacular geology is known in the trade as ‘organ piping’.

Later we drove to Gulargambone, (kudos for those who can pronounce it correctly) stopping off for a good soak in the Pilliga Bore Baths. There were three other people in the pool and we all negotiated our corners without anyone having to say anything. I noticed that they close the baths for cleaning on Friday mornings.

Matters of personal hygiene loom large when assailed by a fast-spreading virus for which there is no vaccine. Dubbo’s biggest supermarket was right out of all items related to hand sanitation. My plan is to buy a small spray bottle from a $2 shop and mix up a mild solution of antiseptic and water. I was bemused to see sideline officials at the Tigers vs Dragons game, disinfecting footballs every time one of them went off-field. Dip, rinse and dry. Then gloved-up ball kids ran the ball back to where it was needed. Did that really happen?

The cancellation of the three music festivals at Katoomba, Yackandandah and Horsham was not a financial loss for us, apart from deciding not to upgrade our non-refundable cheap air fares to Sydney and back.

We were just going to these festivals as punters, maybe picking up a walk-up gig along the way. But I feel for my musician friends trying to earn a living in a notoriously fickle business.

As one muso friend said: “We’re watching our careers evaporate and transition to an online model that can’t possibly be sustained.”

Sick of all the negativity and doom-saying across all media, I went on a hunt for the places which had the smallest exposure to COVID-19. Gibraltar, a British protectorate located between Spain and Morocco, has only three reported cases after banning all cruise ships quite some time ago. The Vatican (meaning the Holy See), had one reported case, and the ACT has three, including high-profile politician Peter Dutton. Or you could head for the Northern Territory where no cases of COVID-19 have been reported. But you’d have to be sure you were not carrying the virus, and apparently that is the one thing none of us know.

I’m not at all sure how the Vatican City, a walled enclave within greater Rome, has managed to keep coronavirus out. Italy now has 25,000 cases and the death toll has reached 1,809. Normally a haven for tourists in the lead-up to Holy Week, this report says tourists have vanished across Italy. That must be a weird feeling for the citizens of Venice, who each year host 20 million tourists.

Closer to home, the Byron Bay Blues Festival and Canberra’s National Folk Festival at Easter have both been cancelled, with a host of smaller events following suit. Sydney’s Royal Easter Show and Melbourne’s annual flower show have also been axed. This is likely to be a financial disaster for the catering businesses who earn a living from such events.

Meanwhile we will continue on our uncharted road adventure, spending a bit of money in local towns, as my editor person says “until someone in authority orders us to stop.”