We went to our favourite beach location thinking we would stay one night, possibly two, then ended up staying three nights because we had a couple of phone calls in the late afternoon and by the time we finished the sunset beckoned. Photos do not do justice to the experience, of course.
Our second full day, yesterday, was spent entirely outdoors and we are showing the effects – we got sunburned. I think it may have been partly because of having cars parked which were reflecting the sunlight as we didn’t spend very much time in direct sun. I went swimming twice, once in the morning and once in the late afternoon, but not at times when the sun was fierce.
We basically had two very relaxing days sitting around in the heat of the days, having fried eggs, bacon and bread for tea, using our own facilities to avoid the public toilets and being distant from other people, mostly. Eversley came over yesterday morning and we went down for a swim before breakfast/morning tea. She brough her own coffee and biscuits.
One call was from Robyne, asking for advice, but really her situation is very difficult and there isn’t much she can do but press ahead with trying to sell her unit.
The second call was from our friends in Chongqing. The phone call didn’t work so I quickly reinstalled WeChat and we made a video call. They had heard that Covid-19 has reached Western Australia and were wondering how we were. We were very touched by their concern. They have been in lockdown for two months, working from home and having food delivered. They have a walking machine to get exercise. So, there are five of them in a two bedroom apartment high above the river (his parents live with them to mind YaXuan as they normally both work of course). We had been wanting to do a video chat with them and it was lovely that YaXuan wasn’t shy at all. She didn’t get that we didn’t understand Chinese and chatted away.
By the time we finished we felt quite emotional, which probably contributed to our decision to stay one more night. Our toilet and grey water didn’t seem too smelly although I was very glad to empty them both when we got home late this morning. We dropped in at our shopping centre to get fruit and vegetables, with a plan to use the special morning shopping hour on Friday morning for anything else that we need. Our plan is to shop as little as possible.
This morning we woke up feeling refreshed. Although it has been hot for the last couple of days the evenings have been cool enough to wear a light jumper when watching the sunset and it has been comfortable for sleeping with a light breeze. We packed up after breakfast, then took a walk down to the beach to have a last paddle.
Most people seemed to be being careful about keeping their distance from strangers in the time we were there camping. Some of the setups were interesting, with one young couple camping out of an older station sedan, sitting on low chairs to have meals. Last night in particular we had more people sleeping in cars (from what we could see they were well prepared with special set ups for sleeping). Whether these were people just getting away for a couple of nights or permanently living in their cars we couldn’t tell. The woman who lives in her car and has been there for months was still there. Although we had a bit of contact with her when we had morning tea with our friends a couple of weeks ago she did not speak to us this time and we did not like to disturb her privacy.
We have had a lot of communication from the Ability Centre in the last few days about needing to limit contact. One parent has said that he has decided not to visit his daughter for a couple of weeks to see what happens. This is despite not having an illness or knowingly had contact with anyone with the virus. We have decided that we should do the same, keeping in contact with Matt via Facetime. They already have a lot of people coming into the house of necessity to care for them without parents adding to the possibility of bringing the virus to them.
We’ve been able to watch the news tonight, having missed a few nights due to not being able to use much power after sunset. First part of the SBS news, which gives us overseas news, then the ABC which gives us news of this state, then the rest of Australia, and then the 7.30 Report. We also switched to Channel 7 to see if there was a difference in the coverage. Actually, no, they also seem to be covering the COVID-19 news in a sober and responisble manner. All the advice seems to be to stay at home as much as possible, in fact, one expert suggests we act as if we have the virus and keep our distance to protect other people. If the new restrictions work we should see an effect within two or three weeks.