< Back
Date
Because of my age, my boyfriend tells me that I mustn’t go out, so I am now housebound, an involuntary ‘houseboy’. My rewards are that he does all the shopping, and we do, however, go for a half hour walk later at night, when there is virtually no one around; we wear our face masks, just in case.
For someone like me, living in Darlinghurst and used to plenty of activity all the time around on the streets, it is now an uncanny sight on these walks through the darkened city, of so few cars and all those empty buses going by, a few similarly-masked people walking along on the deserted footpaths, and the only other movement being the food delivery riders, like hunched ghosts peddling by in the night, their packs of much anticipated tasty morsels suspended on their backs.
My gym is closed, so I am getting fatter. This is partly because of less exercise, but also partly because I have taken to trying out new recipes to fill in all that unexpectedly available spare time. But all it has given me is a spare tyre.
As a way to overcome the isolation, a group of us have started exchanging jokes and videos about the epidemic. Most of them are very funny, although some of them are clearly ‘Not for Public Distribution’.
Some of us have also developed a ’book swap’ group. We post lists of what we have just finished and what is available, and those of us who are still allowed out [the ‘youngsters’, those in the fifties], do the deliveries.
Technology helps. With two smart phones, an iPad and a laptop in the apartment, my partner and I are managing reasonably well, and my friends are just a What’s App away.
We will survive.
For someone like me, living in Darlinghurst and used to plenty of activity all the time around on the streets, it is now an uncanny sight on these walks through the darkened city, of so few cars and all those empty buses going by, a few similarly-masked people walking along on the deserted footpaths, and the only other movement being the food delivery riders, like hunched ghosts peddling by in the night, their packs of much anticipated tasty morsels suspended on their backs.
My gym is closed, so I am getting fatter. This is partly because of less exercise, but also partly because I have taken to trying out new recipes to fill in all that unexpectedly available spare time. But all it has given me is a spare tyre.
As a way to overcome the isolation, a group of us have started exchanging jokes and videos about the epidemic. Most of them are very funny, although some of them are clearly ‘Not for Public Distribution’.
Some of us have also developed a ’book swap’ group. We post lists of what we have just finished and what is available, and those of us who are still allowed out [the ‘youngsters’, those in the fifties], do the deliveries.
Technology helps. With two smart phones, an iPad and a laptop in the apartment, my partner and I are managing reasonably well, and my friends are just a What’s App away.
We will survive.