Diary Entries

It's starting to heat up. We've had a few very hot days already and the weekend before last a scorching heatwave that lasted all weekend. Nevertheless, the overall mood in the country is much better I think. Much calmer. The news of a vaccine soon has, I think, calmed people. It has calmed me at any rate and I think my father who has been pretty much cooped up at home all year. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. A word about the irresponsibility of the media. At the beginning of the year the mood was anything but calm with the media whipping everything up by telling us over and over again that there may never be a vaccine because there has never been an effective vaccine found for this type of sickness. That is vague I know but I can't remember the details. Scientists were, on the other hand, quietly working away and at lightning speed and here we are with a vaccine or it seems more than one vaccine in just 11 months. I can't believe it has spread so voraciously all over the world so quickly. My thoughts are still occupied with my garden. At the moment I'm trying to decide if I want a full, bushy garden or if I want a garden where there is more à sense of space and light. To cheer them up, I have sent my friends in Brittany in France some books - two cookbooks - Greek Vegetarian and the Best of the Australian Women's Weekly - "A Short History of Australia" by Manning Clark and "Tracks" by Robyn Davidson. I paid an exorbitant $68 in postage for two. COVID-19 has affected overseas postage rates too. The council is putting in a beautiful street tree. Christmas present!!!

It was my father's birthday on the 18th. He turned 92. He hasn't been the easiest person to protect from COVID-19 mainly because at the beginning he wasn't taking things seriously enough. He wasn't taking enough care. He has a tendency to downplay health issues anyway. He still lives in his own home with Mum so that worked in his favour but for a while there he didn't want to stay home. There was a secret visit to a coffee shop (kept secret from the family)and not wearing a mask, to see friends. Fortunately there was no one there and he came home again. His friends were sensibly fearful of COVID-19 and didn't show. Then he would refuse to wear a mask on his daily walk around the block because he insisted the streets were empty. There was no one to catch COVID-19 from he claimed. Shopping was also an issue. I wanted to organise for groceries to be delivered but Mum and Dad didn't want deliveries. So I was going to the supermarket myself and doing their grocery shopping. I did the best I could but there were complaints. The bananas weren't green enough (the bananas had to be green) or the broccoli was too big and won't fit in the pan. The strawberries and raspberries weren't wanted neither were the qukes or tomatoes (That was my attempt at getting some vegetables into them.) and under no circumstances was I allowed to buy lettuce. Now that things have settled down a little they go to Aldi once a week and do their own grocery shopping. They insisted that they wanted to do it and kept asking. At least they go when it is very quiet, wear a mask and sanitise the trolley and their hands. My shopping is delivered.

I just read some hours ago that yesterday in Melbourne CSL started making 30 million doses of the University of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine because the trial is nearing completion and it looks like it will be successful. Churches have opposed this vaccine because they have said it uses cells from an aborted foetus. I need to do some investigating before I decide to take it, that is if this is the vaccine that will be made available. At any rate it is an extraordinary achievement. That a vaccine could be found and made available so quickly. Another feather in the cap of human achievement. It is my father's birthday on the 18th.My sister has organised a birthday party in an Italian restaurant where they make one metre long pizza. I'm not such a big fan of pizza but it sounds like fun. What do you gift a 92 year old man? An electric massage pillow. Places in Europe are in lockdown again. Greece till the end of November and France for 4 weeks I think. I have friends in both these countries. One French friend has said that the atmosphere there is morose. At least a vaccine is now on the horizon. I have made more things in the collage class - a postcard which I am going to send to my father and two self-portraits. Aaron, the teacher, has organised an exhibition in a local library for May of next year. We need to pick one collage from our collection to be framed and exhibited. It will be my first exhibition. That is something I never would have imagined would happen. This morning I was having a think about why the collage class has been so successful. We were producing our own work right from the beginning and not copying.

Things at the moment have been about water. It rained last night and everything is wet. It is going to rain for the next week much to the delight of my garden and plants everywhere. The rain will wash everything down and cleanse. The first sunshine after rain is glorious. I look forward to it. Still on the theme of water my pipes decided that during COVID-19 was the time to play up. Over 7 days it was a flooded shower, a visit from the loveliest young handyman in Australia from Nowra I think who put a camera down my shower drain only to discover the problem wasn't there and then didn't charge me. How many tradespeople do you know who do that ? Impeccable manners. He wanted to take off his shoes before coming into the house because he didn't want to stain the floor. How many people do that ? We had a lovely chat while he was working. He was a great conversationalist. Very polite and respectful. They say people from the country are different. Then it was 3 visits from plumbers, digging and new pipes. This is an old house and the pipes are very old. I was the only person wearing a mask yesterday at the hairdresser. Why aren't more people taking care ? COVID-19 is still with us. It is still out there. We aren't out of the woods yet. I missed my collage class yesterday. This week's theme was to create a Dada like poem. I will do it myself. Looking forward to it. This last week has seen the corruption of government officials. The squeaky clean Premier is no longer so squeaky clean after the revelation of her secret relationship with grubby MP Daryl Maguire and the unlawful shredding of important documents.

This morning it was glorious in Hyde Park sitting next to the purple and white pansies. They were so many of them. It wasn't too hot sitting in the sun. There was a slight breeze and in the shade it was even cold. It was busy in the park this morning. There must have been some sort of a Harry Potter convention because there were a lot of young people wearing black capes, witches' hats and waving magic wands about. I have decided to pass on Halloween this year but I will give a couple of packets of Freddo Frogs to my next-door neighbour for the neighbourhood children. My Friday morning collage class is keeping me happy. Thus far, I have made two. At first I thought it was a bit infantile but apparently it's a genuine art form. What I love is the process of having no preconception of what you might do and then watching the ideas form as you flip the pages looking for images. Yesterday I had a damaged water pipe and had to have a plumber come. I'm afraid the water pipes don't know we are in the middle of a pandemic. I've bought a few plants for my soon to be transformed garden - a white bottlebrush and a Corymbia Baby Orange which is a splendid 3 metre gum tree with bright orange flowers. I forgot to say that in addition to the usual ibis in Hyde Park scrounging for food, this morning there was a very wide-eyed, healthy looking possum running from one garden patch to another. Some of my no longer loved jade plants have been removed to make place for something new. I want flowers, lots of flowers everywhere. The government has asked us to spend big so I am.

This morning was very pleasant. It was deliciously warm with a slight breeze. It was so nice sitting on a park bench with my French conversation tutor. He is very easy to talk to. It might seem indulgent but I have to do things that are good for my mental health. On that note I am going to do something about my small garden. After Westconnex finishes tunnelling (mid -november) and the concreting and the paving in the backyard is finished I am going to plant some beautiful plants, mostly Australian natives. I have been looking online at pictures and thinking about what I might plant. I have already planted some and in pots too. Our environment affects our mood so it is important to try to make it attractive. I think my doctor said that. I have also put new prints on the walls inside not too long ago and yes, it has affected my mood. The thing I miss the most is the touch of another human being. Touching elbows is no substitute for a kiss on the cheek. I had a birthday lunch with my sister yesterday. She turned 59. We had a lovely lunch but I thought the people who sat at the next table were a bit close. For her birthday I gave her 2 books - one on Pilâtes and one from the Cloud Appreciation Society. Every page features a special cloud seen by a member somewhere in the world. People are apologising for bungles but what isn't happening is that people are not being charged by the police. How can the quarantine bungle in Victoria go unaccounted for ? So many people have died in Victoria. Shouldn't the people who directed the bungle have to answer for their actions that led to deaths?

I've just shut the back door, closed the kitchen window and turned on the air conditioner because the people who live in the house behind me are sitting outside and smoking. There have been guests, a celebratory lunch and now a smoke. Who in this day and age still smokes ? My neighbours. There's COVID-19 and people are still smoking. I'm feeling a bit better today. Calmer. A medical appointment yesterday upset me. I accompanied my 91 year old father when he went to see his nephrologist. He has to decide whether he wants to do dialysis. His nephrologist advises against it because of his age and his underlying heart condition. She thinks that instead of helping that his overall health will deteriorate. She also advises that dialysis doesn't always work especially in the elderly. My father has a difficult decision to make and I don't know how to advise him. The COVID virus might be around but people have other problems too, problems that don't go away because COVID-19 is with us. I've had a check up recently after a hysterectomy as treatment for endometrial cancer 18 months ago. Other problems don't go away because of COVID-19. A word on mask wearing. I wish people would do it properly. Medical establishments now insist that all patients wear masks but some people pull them down under their nose or even under their chin when they feel like it. And you aren't supposed to touch them without first sanitising your hands and you sanitise your hands after you touch the mask too. Well some people are doing any old thing. Touching everything, their mask included. Heaven help us. An essential visit to the chemist yesterday saw a maskless woman rush in hysterical because a doctor's surgery was closed for COVID-19 cleaning.

The council is kindly offering socially distanced art classes (via Zoom) to relieve some of the COVID blues and ennui. I have enrolled in two. I start on Friday. I have no artistic talent whatsoever but it will be nice to do something after so much inactivity. My sister and brother-in-law have bought a house together with their daughter and son-in-law in Marrickville. My niece and her husband will live in the front of the house and my brother-in-law is going to build a small flat at the back of the yard. It will be a big change from an architect designed house in Turramurra surrounded by tall gum trees but it is what they want - to downsize and to be close to their children. My nephew lives in Marrickville too so there will be lots of cups of coffee at the cafe down the road.I live in the next suburb along, a stone's throw away, so there will be cups of coffee with me too. Directly across the road from me has been given council permission to subdivide and build so soon there will be dust, trucks and congestion. I am not looking forward to it. Behind me, two other builds are going ahead. With Westconnex that makes for a lot of building activity. The Westconnex tunnels are coming. The tunnelling has already reached the local school less than 500 metres away. I have my property survey on Friday morning which needs to be done in order to be able to claim compensation for damage after the tunnelling is completed. I have been conversing with my cousin overseas about family history. He is in the process of writing the family history and is talking to my 92 year old father to obtain information. To be continued.

The COVID-19 pandemic hasn't curbed the greed of property developers. At the end of my street 5 tiny townhouses have been built where there were 2 modest houses. Across the the road from me there is another property development application to subdivide one modest property and to build another tiny townhouse. In the street behind me another subdivision. So I've been busy writing objections to property developments pandemic and all. There is another proposal to build a 9 storey block of apartments at the end of the street. Rejected by council so now the developers are trying to get the application through other government departments. I am trying hard to buy Australian to add my teeniest bit of support to the economy and local businesses. One day I went looking for spices in my local Woolworths. I couldn't find anything Australian. So I'm afraid a cross email of complaint ensued and I researched and found my own Australian garlic flakes online. There has been a COVID-19 case in my local Woolworths and one in one of my favourite local cafés, Matinée. It is all worryingly close. A much muted, resuscitated French film festival has been and gone. I went to 5 films and cautiously enjoyed the films socially distanced whilst wearing a Kn95 face mask and glasses as insurance against the virus entering through my eyes. We were spread throughout the cinema. My lovely French conversation partner, Marion, has gone back to Switzerland. I have now found Alexandre. He is young and has been in Australia for 18 months. He is from Alsace in France. We sit on a bench in Hyde Park like spies and have lovely conversations in French. We have met 3 times now. I am wearing a mask now outdoors in public venues like the supermarket.

After having relaxed restrictions NSW is going to tighten restrictions again from the 24th of July. My favourite waiters and waitresses at my favourite cafe are going to lose their jobs again. Those poor people. I really feel for them. It's been my birthday and my brother organised a "socially- distanced" birthday party for me. It was nice. It was the first time I had seen my brother in five months because of COVID-19 restrictions. I'm still watching online concerts, French films and Australian Ballet performances online which is keeping me sane. The French film festival is back after being cancelled in March due to COVID-19 restrictions. I am going to see five films. I have seen one already, "Mes Jours de Gloire", complete with mask and glasses. Marion, the Swiss international student who was helping me with my French, has finished her year at Sydney Uni and has taken off north with her boyfriend, Sebastian. They have hired a campervan and are driving up the east coast all the way to Cairns visiting the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree on the way. Luckily the Queensland border opened on the tenth of July so they have been able to do it. What a year Marion has had with the bushfires at Christmas and now COVID-19 ! I now have a new French tutor - Alexandre. He is young and from Alsace in France. He has been in Australia 18 months. The pandemic reminds me of the story of the plagues in the Old Testament when Moses went to Pharaoh to ask permission for the Jews to leave Egypt. How quick and devastating the plagues were ! How quick and devastating the COVID-19 pandemic has been ! So much sickness and death so quick, in just a matter of months. Terrible!