Tress and I caught up with Jason and Mel on Friday night. We used to do that every now and then – just having dinner and chatting to unwind and end the week. Obviously, we hadn’t done that for a little while. They still sounded apprehensive about going out for meals however, so the next catch up would probably not happen for a little while again.

Dining out these days are a little stifled – we had to leave the restaurant by 7.15pm, but that meant we were home well in time for the footy. The Collingwood and Essendon game was on but I struggled to stay interested. Games feel like they’re boring these days, and yesterday, when I was doing some cooking, the Geelong v Melbourne game sounded that way too. I was following last night’s Hawks v North Melbourne game on the iPad and it felt that way too. I was wondering if the restarted season lacked something or was it me… and then this morning, Clarko said the game needed to be opened up. He said tackles aren’t paid anymore and I realised that too. So it wasn’t me. I hope footy, like life before this horrible virus, returns to less stifled experiences.

We went and got pies for lunch on Sat – Tress had a satay chicken one and I had a good old chunky meat one. They were very satisfying. We didn’t just go there for lunch however – we had wanted to takeaway some frozen ones for a getaway, which we did. Later that arvo, we did some grocery shopping and then did some weeding. Swathes of clove weed had taken over large patches of the front yard on the eastern side, and we – Tress mainly – got busy and attacked the task.

Sunday was the usual St Alf’s online service, and then pottering around the house before going out to get some lunch. We decided on a little Malaysian place in Donvale and while we were there, someone at the next table had a chat with the owner of the joint, about getting legal service. They talked about costs and I suggested to them about getting a Law Institute referral that’d save them a few dollars. The customer looked like he was alone, looked a little lost and didn’t speak English. Tress and I wondered if his legal issues were immigration in nature.

Later in the evening, we exchanged some WhatsApp messages with Kiddo. She and Mic looked like they had haircuts, just as Tress did over the weekend. Earlier in the day, Isaac had his picture taken and sent to us by Daniel, showing a new hairdo. Must have been a designated haircut weekend of sorts… maybe life has returned to normal in some ways.

Victoria has become a pariah state. It has recorded 4-5 consecutive days of spikes in numbers of virus infections, with each day a higher number than the preceding one. A big hole appears to be unchecked quarantine for those who were infected. They breached quarantine and went on to infect others. I don’t know why people do that. Maybe they thought they knew better. It’s so hard to have these conversations now. Especially if these quarantine breakers are of diverse racial or ethnic backgrounds. With the George Floyd incident still exploding across the world, it feels like it is so hard to just look at what actually happened and ask reasonable questions, without being an x-hater of sorts. A la China and its reaction to Australia’s asking for an inquiry. Australia simply suggested an inquiry, which is not an unreasonable suggestion given how much our lives have been tossed and turned around. China had then reacted with threats of economic sanctions of sorts, and have actually proceeded with that. One can no longer take things at face value and ask reasonable questions, it appears. Not without being a hater of some sort.