A Very Quiet Lockdown Sunday

It has been a lovely day today. The sky was blue, the sun shone, there was no wind. Really lovely. And quite cold! 

There are many things I could and should be doing in the garden but, truth be told, I couldn't be bothered. And it was cold 😜. I do have some "before' photos of the back garden:

Now I just need the "after" photos 😁

I did a little tidying and sorting inside in the morning. We had vegetable soup with crusty bread for lunch. I settled in front of the television in the afternoon and watched the Great British Bake Off 2020 final and a couple of episodes of Strait to the Plate, which is about the food and culture of the peoples of the Torres Strait Islands which lie between the north of the Australian mainland and Papua New Guinea. We had a lamb and vegetable casserole with rice for dinner (soft foods for people with no bottom teeth and a badly fitting lower plate).

And that was Sunday. I didn't wash any windows - and I really should; the ones out the front haven't been done since we moved in and are looking quite sorry for themselves. I didn't sort out the front or the back gardens. I didn't properly clean the dining room floor. I didn't do any Japanese or French practice. I did take advantage of the sunshine and change the bedding on our bed and do loads of washing.

But mostly today has been quite a lazy day. It's now just after 7:30 and I'm more than ready for bed. All of this staying at home is exhausting 😂

Lockdown Saturday

Did you hear that bang overnight?  That was the sound of the interstate borders slamming shut, once again sequestering Victorians in their state. I have no interstate plans until December and I am hoping, with fingers firmly crossed, that by then things might be slightly more under control. I suspect that this might be me being a tad optimistic. But perhaps not as optimistic as those who are planning interstate trips in the next few weeks. I suspect that many of those simply won't happen.

Did you hear that soft, almost silent whooshing sound a week or ten days ago? That was the virus silently, stealthily making its way to many locations around the northern suburbs of Melbourne, in the person of a non-symptomatic delivery driver who brought it to the Summerhill shopping centre via the fruit and vegetable shop. You have some sympathy with the delivery driver, who had no idea he was infectious at the time. The breach only came to light last night and it was almost long enough ago to think that Summerhill might have evaded the virus's embrace. I wasn't there that day, but the surgery was oh so close to becoming a Tier One site. A reminder against complacency. If you have symptoms, get tested. Don't assume that you can't possibly have Covid and go out clubbing, thus offering the virus the means to embrace lots of people in more than one crowded, inside location.

Jim and I have stayed at home today. We don't urgently need anything, although my kitchen scales chose today to inform me that its battery was flat. I don't have spare batteries of that type but, even under normal circumstances, it would be slightly extravagant to get the car out just to buy a packet of batteries. Under a lockdown, I decided that I could probably manage without until I needed something else. I will need milk in the next day or so.  The batteries can wait until then.

It has been a very quiet day today. The sun has been out, although it has been a bit chilly. But people seem to be tucked up safely in their homes. There was someone out on the former reserve this afternoon. I don't know what he was doing - it looked as though he was flattening divots with a golf club but that seems a slightly odd thing to do on what will be a building site. Not that anything very much has happened on the building front recently. They put the new bit of road in weeks ago and then went away. Anyway, that person was the only one that I saw all day (apart from Jim, of course). I didn't even hear anyone out on the court. 

Covid Strikes Again.

So here we are in Victoria, back in a proper lockdown.  Once again, the whole state - and for a week this time.

Fortunately, Jim had his first podiatry appointment yesterday and the lockdown didn't start until midnight. He's had his first of four appointments with the dental technician too, but his second and third were during the lockdown period and have had to be cancelled.  Dental care, apparently, isn't an essential service. Which is all very well for legislators who have a full set of teeth. Not much fun for people who are waiting to be able to chew again!  Fortunately, the weather is stew and soup weather and there shouldn't be much chewing in soups and stews.

I didn't need to head out and panic buy anything. The supermarkets will remain open, as will the butcher and the bakery. I did go shopping. The mushroom farm and the Elaine Farmgate shop will be well and truly out of our 5km radius from home so we can't go there over the weekend.  We went yesterday, after the podiatry appointment. One thing I did need was vegetables and while our IGA is an excellent IGA and has lots of interesting stock and is well provided with all the staples, its vegetable and fruit selections can be a bit hit and miss. I did not relish the idea of hit and miss vegetables for the next week. We are nicely stocked up now.

It has been amazing how the reappearance of Covid in Melbourne has galvanised people into action when it comes to getting vaccinated. Our Covid clinics have been trundling along quite steadily until Monday, when it became clear that the Covid cluster in the northern suburbs of Melbourne was growing apace. Suddenly, the phones rang hot with people, who had previously been dilly dallying and shilly shallying, wanting to know when they could come for their vaccine. We have plenty of vaccine available so have put on extra clinics. And the state government has opened vaccine hubs all over the place and widened the criteria for eligibility. Mind you, if people had been a bit quicker off the mark when the vaccines became available, and if the commonwealth government had made them more widely accessible - then just maybe we wouldn't be in this lockdown. Horses, stable doors and bolting come to mind.

I have finally been digging the potatoes, growing up at Hill House. The plants have died but the potatoes are snuggling happily underground. We've got good crops of Kipfler and Dutch Cream this year.  I'm hoping to supplement those two varieties with King Edwards next year.  King Edwards are all but impossible to get hold of here and I am rather partial to them. I've just had an alert from Diggers to say that they have some seed potatoes in so I'm hoping that they are still in stock. I'm also hoping to get another couple of asparagus plants and some rhubarb plants for planting in the Tani vegetable beds.

Have a picture of some very elegant whiskers, with a Smol Fluffy Kitkat attached:

And while we're at it, two very handsome Great Danes:

and a tangle of ginger and cream:

I do not think they will find a seven day lockdown particularly troublesome. I daresay they will quite enjoy it.

Odds and Ends

We have been based up at Rupert and Hugo's house this week while Lindsey and Ian have been in Sydney.

I go down to our place for a few hours in the mornings to keep Brandy and Whiskey company, while Jim stays up at Hill House with the dogs. On Tuesday and Thursday the district nurse comes to our place to help Jim shower so we both headed down the hill for a couple of hours. I also go back to our place late in the afternoon for an hour or so.

Brandy and Whiskey are always curious
when a car turns up, and head
to the nearest window to see
who it is.
This is the window at our front door

It works, although I think that Brandy and Whiskey will be pleased when we go back to sleep at our place, and I know that Rupert and Hugo will be pleased when Lindsey and Ian come back.

Freyja and Simon were in town last weekend and brought with them a water fountain and a cat tunnel that their cat Ghost definitely did not like.  Brandy and Whiskey like them!

As soon as I turn it on, they come trotting over
to play with it

Whiskey the racing driver 

Meanwhile, up on the hill, Rupert and Hugo are being very helpful

Helping to make the bed

The move at work has gone fairly well.  The old space is now boarded up and being prepared for the new business. We are more or less settled into the new place, although there are still things to do.

Our new signage is up out the front

but not yet inside the centre, although our new
reception area is coming together well

We have a presence outside the shopping centre now, and can be clearly seen from inside the centre. Previously we were hidden away at the back of the pharmacy and were quite difficult to find. Also, the previous site was quite dark and had no natural light. The new place is light and bright and some of the consulting rooms actually have windows! And people are noticing us. We're getting a number of people each day wandering in and asking about us.

Sunset, from inside the
entrance hall at
Hill House

Moving Day

Jim was a bit disconcerted when I started talking about Moving Day. He thought I meant that we were moving house! You know - you might have mentioned it before now :-D

But no.  It was the surgery and the pharmacy that were moving - all the way across the shopping centre, pretty much opposite to where we were, to where a restaurant used to be. It closed ages ago and has been empty ever since. The new clinic is lovely and bright and light.

Friday was Moving Day. For us, at least. The pharmacy moved into their new space the weekend before. We closed our consultation diary at lunchtime, although we did run our Covid vaccination clinic in the afternoon. We grabbed a load of supermarket trolleys and just trundled our stuff across. Back and forth we went, carting things over. And by going home time the move was well underway.

Lots of people turned up again on Saturday to carry on the process. I did not. I was busy in Ballarat, doing Useful Things at home and looking after Rupert and Hugo on Saturday evening.  The final clear out of the old clinic was yesterday. I think quite a lot of junk and perhaps-not-junk is cluttering up the new place while decisions are made about their future.

I'm looking forward to seeing the new look surgery, which is now up and running, when I go in tomorrow.

Jim came out to the mushroom farm and the Elaine farmgate shop with me on Saturday. They have almost finished the interminable roadworks beyond Buninyong, which have been going on for months and months and months. They are cleared from Buninyong to Scotsburn. I live in hope that the rest of the work will be cleared very shortly. It is very tedious driving along a country highway at 60 km!  I came back along back roads. It probably doesn't take any less time than driving at 60 along the main road, but it's more interesting. Jim enjoyed his trip out and was surprised but pleased when we came back along the back roads.

His support systems are beginning to come into play. A district nurse came this morning to help him use our shower. He doesn't like our shower anymore.  He finds it a bit small and worries about over balancing. The district nurse had him in and showered, dried and dressed with no trouble and no worries. Someone is going to come on Tuesdays and Thursdays to help with the shower plus he can use Lindsey and Ian's shower, which is bigger, when he is up with Rupert and Hugo. He has an appointment with a podiatrist later in May. An OT is coming out to do a home safety assessment in a few weeks, particularly focusing on the bathroom. And he got an emergency appointment with the dental technician to have new bottom teeth fitted so doesn't have to wait until July. 

It is cold, foggy, damp and gloomy today. It was much better yesterday morning:

Oh - and these came in the post yesterday. Now that was exciting

Health

Jim's cognition has noticeably deteriorated over the last 12 months or so. It's hard to know whether it has been affected by the isolation of lockdown, although we haven't been anything like as isolated or locked down as many other people. Even so, he no longer does many things that he used to enjoy doing. He struggles with jigsaws. He doesn't read anything. He no longer comes shopping, or not often.  On top of that his hearing is deteriorating and his balance and mobility are worsening. His world is shrinking, little by little.

We saw a geriatrician early in April who diagnosed probable early Alzheimers. He has just started on some medication to see if it helps at all. Too early to tell yet - he's only had two tablets! But it also means that we can start to put some things in place to help. The geriatrician made a referral to the Aged Care people for an assessment and yesterday a lovely lady came from the Ballarat Council health services to talk about our options.

She has arranged for someone to come three times a week to help him shower. She has referred us for an Occupational Therapy assessment to see if we qualify for subsidies to put grab rails into our toilet and perhaps even to assist with my planned refurbishment of our bathroom. He is eligible for podiatry care, and perhaps physiotherapy in the future. So many services that we are, will be or might be eligible for. And the advantage of living in a regional city rather than a metropolitan area is that the waiting times are less. 

In other health news, Jim has also had his first Covid vaccination. I had been planning to take him to one of the Covid clinics at the surgery but then the government opened a vaccination hub in Ballarat, a mere five minute drive down the road from our house. I took him there. I have to say I was very impressed. They've taken over a conference venue and it is really well organised.  A bit like going round Ikea, you move from point to point until you reach the place where they jab you. Then you are escorted to a "recovery" area and after 15 minutes they check that you are feeling well and send you out to make an appointment for your second dose - and home you go.

He's also been to the dentist to have his sore mouth sorted out. This resulted in him having a tooth removed. Unfortunately, this was the tooth that his lower dental plate hooked onto. His plate doesn't fit now and slides about in his mouth if he tries to put it in. This means that he can't chew so he's on a soft diet. He's seeing a dental technician tomorrow to see if the plate can be adjusted to fit. If not he will need a new one and that can't be done until July. I really hope the existing plate can be adjusted. I don't think he will enjoy a soft diet until July!

He does enjoy his "job" looking after Rupert and Hugo at Hill House. He loves them and they love him. They provide companionship when I am at work. He loves Brandy and Whiskey as well, but cats aren't quite as companionable as dogs - and Great Danes are very companionable dogs. Hugo was training to be a service dog when he came to us. He didn't complete his training. We didn't need a service dog. But I think he remembers. He is very, very gentle with Stella when she comes to visit and these days he is quite gentle with Jim. 

Rupert loves Jim too

We don't usually get beautiful sunsets at our place. We don't have the sort of view that allows for sunsets under most circumstances.  But I happened to notice on Sunday evening, when I went to bring the sheet and pillow cases in from the line, that the trees behind us were glowing red. Not a fire. A sunset!

Autumn, Mount Helen