Tress and I finished our first week of working from home, last Friday, and went out to a local joint for a quick dinner. That would probably be our last eating out occasion for a little while. Or a longish while.
Saturday morning, we lumbered in bed and woke later than usual. We had decided to give the house a good cleaning so after a late-ish brekky we set out to attack the tasks. By about lunch time the house felt cleaner and fresher. We went out again for lunch and sort of extended what must surely, and soon, become an inevitability. We had a good lunch in a local joint again – a different one, but like dinner the night before, we packed away to doggy bag it, about half of what we ordered, to stock up in our freezer.
After lunch, we took my car for a wash and back home, the weather was really pleasant so I gave the inside of the car a good cleaning too, before we then walked the little fellow.
Early on Sunday morning, I saw that St Alf’s had posted a link for the online service that would be immediately available for anyone to access. Tress message the home group to let them know and after an interrupted streaming while remaining in bed, we got up, did brekky and then took my work laptop to do the online service again. Lauren Weatherlake gave a very good sermon and Mike McNamara had a very useful Psalms 46 reading as well. At least one of the songs was comforting and even uplifting.
Online services will now be another one of many new normals and soon we saw on social media, numerous postings of online services.
Later that morning, I cooked lunch, and watched “For the love of cars” on Amazon. It was a wonderful distraction to see a couple of blokes in the UK pick up discarded old non-functioning but exotic and beautiful cars, and restored them to beautiful firing machines.
After lunch, we went out for a little bit to see if we could get more groceries, as news of imminent shut down/lock down start to emerge. ScoMo and Daniel Andrews were constantly providing announcements and updates on consequences of the dreaded virus.
The Hawks were to play the Lions at the MCG later in the arvo and towards the end of the second quarter, news began to emerge that the AFL season would be suspended. The second half saw the Hawks continuing to outplay the Lions to build their half time lead but it felt flat. Footy, like everything else, would soon cease and quiet and inert days are descending everywhere.
I was reading Greg Sheridan’s article this morning, where he relayed his discussion with Lee Hsien Loong, the Prime Minister of Singapore. Singapore has had much milder fallout from the virus, which is pretty amazing given how densely populated the island state is. The key to combating the virus’ fallout, the PM shared, was contact tracing. Affected contacts were traced rigorously and isolation monitored closely. I guess culturally, western communities would more likely resist that. Privacy, confidentiality and other values that place individuality on a higher priority than community interests are not what the current climate wants. In that sense, the “eastern”/”non-western” practice of subjugating individual interests to that of the community, is what the doctor ordered. I don’t quite like that. What I don’t like however, counts for little if anything.
Last night more work was required from the office so I was on email and phone, and working on docs etc for a little while, as I was earlier in the morning. It felt like I was working more than I was pre-virus days. Seeing how guys like ScoMo and Daniel Andrews and other like them work practically round the clock however, puts my own effort in its place…
As I write, events continue to develop and evolve. One is pushed to turn to one’s maker and in addition to seeking solace, comfort, peace and normality, asks “What are you doing through all this Lord? What is your purpose and what are you working at?” Psalms 46 is very helpful.
Ante 