Eerie

Melbourne has been put into Stage 4 Lockdown. There is a curfew between 8pm and 5am, limits on what people can do and where and how they can do it. Country Victoria has moved back into Stage 3 Lockdown. The limits aren't quite as onerous and there is no curfew.  Not that a curfew would affect us. We are seldom out between 8pm and 5am anyway.

At the moment there is no pressing need for me to go to work at the surgery. I do have a permitted worker's certificate which allows me to physically go to work if need be but at the moment I can do what I need to do from home and someone else is doing the scanning.

Fortunately, one of the permitted reasons for travelling, wherever you are in the state, is to provide care for  the elderly, frail, infirm. It was our weekend to go and visit mother.  Ordinarily we go on Saturday morning and return on Sunday afternoon.  This didn't seem appropriate just at the moment. Stella lives in the Greater Metropolitan Melbourne area so is subject to the Stage 4 Lockdown. So I spent part of Saturday preparing food and doing the shopping and we went down on Sunday morning.

People are obviously taking the restrictions seriously. There was almost no traffic on the roads. It was all a bit spooky. The Burnley Tunnel was pretty much empty. The freeways had almost no traffic. It was a bit like being in a post-apocalyptic film. I quite liked the ease of movement but I didn't much like the lack of traffic.  It was quieter than it ever is on Christmas morning! Eerie, I tell you.

It did, however, mean that there were no hold ups getting to Mount Martha. 

I took with us some of the food I had prepared on Saturday, plus a couple of pies I had bought at the mushroom farm. The pies come from a small bakery in Ballarat and you really can't complain about the amount of filling you get. I took a family size steak and mushroom pie. Lots of big chunks of steak and mushroom and a lovely rich gravy.  I also took some scalloped potatoes. I bought some from a takeaway food shop the other day and was reminded how much I like scalloped potatoes. No need to pop out and buy them, though.  They are simple to make and I had everything needed. I think Stella was pleased to have some home made meals ready for the week.

There was more traffic later in the afternoon than there had been first thing in the morning but still not as much as usual.  We were stopped at Checkpoint Charlie at Bacchus Marsh. The nice police officer asked for my driver's licence and my reasons for travelling. The reason for travelling was satisfactory and we were sent on our way. The couple of cars behind us were also sent on their way. Not many people out breaking the Lockdown Limits, though you get reports of some people doing ridiculous things.  I know it can be frustrating but if people bunker down it should only be for six weeks - and one of those weeks has been done already.

We are occupying ourselves by messing about in the garden on days when it isn't raining.  Jim is slowly laying a patio outside the dining room door.  I have ordered the spring and summer seeds from Diggers and am filling the new garden beds with potting soil.  But I have decided that getting gravel, potting mix, sand etc in little bags from Bunnings and the local garden centre is a very expensive way of doing it.  I am going to contact the local garden and farm supplies place and see about getting stuff delivered here in bulk.  And then I need to steal, I mean borrow Lindsey and Ian's wheelbarrow for shifting it.