So we did, on Thursday evening because we thought it might be less crowded that the rest of Easter. We went to Mosman Beach, which is a bit south of Cottesloe and were able to find a nice parking area set above the beach. Even Cottesloe, as we drove past, did not seem to be crowded. Our beach, it turned out, was the dog beach and we didn’t actually walk along the sand. The beach path had quite a few people out walking and we only did a short walk to the end of the car park and back. The picnic shelter was taped off.
It feels a good move to leave the beaches open for this last heatwave over Easter as most people appear to be being responsible and taking precautions for social distancing. We still have quite low numbers of infections here in Western Australia and apart from when I’ve been to the supermarket I feel less anxious than I have been about catching the virus.
Because we didn’t get some vital sutff from our home delivered grocery list we decided to have a shopping expedition on Wednesday morning. I wore gloves and my thicker mask, precautions which were derailed at the entry by a request to show my pension card. It was the second time I have been during the special 7.00 to 8.00 a.m. session at Coles, Stephen has gone once as well, and this was the first time someone has requested proof of age. My card was tucked in my handbag in my money purse and I had already been holding the trolley handle for a while, so I was slightly irritated that my efforts to avoid contamination came to nought at the entrance. I’ve now put the card in the flap of my phone cover to make it readily accessible. I pay for things using the phone and it is easily cleaned afterwards.
Later, Stephen went to the chemist for medications and QV soap for me. Although it was a bit stressful we now have enough food, etc. to last for a while before we will need to do more shopping.
On Wednesday at 10.00 a.m. we had a test of having a French lesson using Zoom. I thought it would be quite brief, but our teacher had prepared a lesson and we spent an hour in our virtual classroom. She told us about a web site which has good resources for learning French including crosswords which I quite enjoy doing. The decision was made to begin classes on the 29th April, have a couple of lessons for free to see how it goes, then we will be charged a small fee to continue, not as much as for physical classes, but something, as we are using the expertise of the administration staff.
Thursday’s visit to the beach meant a bit of planning. We had our main meal at lunch time and I packed sandwiches, drinks, tea bags, fruit and chocolate for a small supper. We used the ridge monkey to toast the sandwiches. When we put the kettle on for tea we ran out of gas. The single bottle has lasted us since we bought the van, which is pretty good going. I switched over to the second bottle and we were away.
The sunset wasn’t that wonderful, but we were appreciating being out in the fresh air with a lovely view. Apart from our short walk we spent time at the fence looking over the beach to the ocean. There were a few other vans in the carpark, but we stayed longer than most, heading home after dark. When we could no longer see outside we listened to the radio over the internet using our bluetooth speaker for excellent sound. And were home by 8.30 p.m.
Yesterday I had a migraine. It was the usual stress one, and I’m not sure why it would happen at that point, but with a hot day outside spending a day mostly in bed wasn’t a problem. Stephen bought some strong Panodol a few weeks ago and they worked on the headache, though I still felt ill and very woozy. However, by late afternoon I was well enought to shower and dress and eat dinner. Stephen went out for an evening walk on his own, not such a bad idea as we are not getting any time alone at the moment. We don’t argue and if things get slightly testy we realise that our lives could be hell if we argue and both back off. We do spend time separately in the house, watching different Youtube channels and other small tasks.
Overnight I still had a headache and had to take more Panadol this morning, but it is now just a headache, I’m feeling otherwise normal. I took a short walk before breakfast as I feel like I need to get moving again, and found it very refreshing. It was still quite cool at around 8.00 a.m. I feel sure I will be up to walking again this evening.
Being fully self contained in the van is quite a bonus at the moment. We are able to totally avoid using communal facilities and we don’t have to buy takeaway to have hot food. We are not sure what will happen in the future, but thank you West Australian government for allowing people to go to the beach if they wish over Easter. I guess the experiment will prove successful if we don’t have a spike of infections in the next week or two.
Cruise ships are still our main worry when it comes to the virus, but we cannot just send ships away if they have sick people on board and can’t get to their home ports. I think passengers who were assurred that they were safe to board should take class action to sue the cruise ship owners for the dangerous decision to go to sea in the middle of March.
P.S. The maximum temperature was 39.5 (103F) today. I wonder if that is a record for April.