Lockdowns might very well be frustrating or boring but it does mean that pretty much everyone stays at home. If it is necessary for you to go out for one of the lawful reasons, there aren't many people out and about.
On Friday, regional Victoria was no longer in lockdown. And people had definitely emerged from their hibernation, just as we emerged from ours.
I persuaded Jim to accompany me to Bunnings. We went to the one just outside of town, rather than to Delacombe. This may have been a mistake, from Jim's point of view. It is further for him to walk to get from the car to the store entrance, and he is struggling to walk at the moment. And it was really quite busy. Nevertheless, he managed to get into the store and to make his way around to the various places I wanted to go. We had gone for a new compost bin and for a new washing line. The existing, fixed washing line at our place is probably in the only place it could sensibly go, but it is also in the place that gets the least sunshine, regardless of the time of year. I wanted a portable washing line, but not a clothes horse or airer.
And we found what I wanted. It wasn't heavy but it was very long. So long, in fact, that it only JUST fitted into Ziggy. A few centimetres longer and I would have had to leave it at the service desk and come back the following day with Lindsey's (longer) car. The compost bin fitted with no trouble at all.
We came back via Officeworks, which was also. very busy. Jim waited in the car while I did some shopping for the surgery. And then we decided that everything was really far too busy and went home.
The Saturday market had been cancelled early on in the lockdown. I don't know what effect that had on the numbers of people heading to the mushroom farm, or to the Elaine Farmgate shop, but both of them were very busy. It was busy in Dan Murphy's. It was very busy in Woolworths. It was a bit busy in Petstock. The roads were busy. I spent Saturday afternoon and all of Sunday in the peace and quiet of my not busy house.
I used up various odds bits and pieces that were hanging around in the fridge and freezer and made these:
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| Three cheese and bacon rolls, made with scraps of pastry; a feta, tomato and mushroom tart, using puff pastry; a blackberry and cherry tart, using shortcrust pastry |
I pre-prepared loads of vegetables, which are now in boxes in the fridge, ready for me to choose from when making dinner. I made a potato and parsnip soup for Jim and a chicken and vegetable soup for me. I trashed the kitchen multiple times and tidied it up again. I caught up on a bit of TV and read bits of my library books. It was a good weekend.
Once upon a time, many, many, many years ago, I bought Jim a red jumper. He was very fond of that jumper and wore it pretty much all the time during jumper weather. We took it to England with us last year but by then it was beginning to look very sorry for itself and was slowly starting to come apart. When we retreated back to Australia when Covid hit we decided to leave it behind. It didn't seem worth hauling it all the way back across the globe only to have to throw it away shortly thereafter.
Jim missed his jumper. Every now and then he would forget that we had left it behind and would go looking for it. I kept an eye out in the shops to see if I could find anything similar to replace it. I bought him red cardigan from Kathmandu, which he likes a lot. I bought him a red cardigan from Uniqlo, which he doesn''t like at all because it has a hood and he isn't a big fan of hoods apart from on outside jackets (so I wear it because I do like it and I am not bothered about hoods). Then last week I found the replacement jumper in Aldi. Jim is very, very pleased! It's not exactly the same but it is close enough.
Jim, wearing the original, much lamented red jumper on his birthday in 2017:
And here, wearing the new one yesterday, but with apple juice in his glass rather than beer:
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