The Australian Government is now saying that residents who are overseas and who are planning to return home at any point should do so ASAP.

I had already come to that conclusion.

I had an email from Qantas this morning asking if I wanted to bid for an upgrade to business class.  I assume that this means they are still intending to fly on Thursday.

We have cancelled planned trips to the pub tonight and tomorrow.  We can meet those people on a future trip when the chaos has all calmed down a little.  Jim will be 78 at the beginning of April and is staying in the house until we go to Heathrow by car. I am not venturing out much - I did go to the local small supermarket this morning but apart from that I too am staying in the house.

On another note, I had an email from River Cottage in response to mine telling them that we wouldn't be there on Sunday, offering me a long dated voucher to use later if we come back. It duly arrived and was for the full amount I had paid for the lunch.  I have to say I was very impressed. I wasn't expecting any sort of a refund and not a voucher which is dated for 12 whole months.

We went to the supermarket yesterday. before deciding more or less to stay at home. There were mountains of fresh fruit and vegetables available.  I bought quite a few.  They had everything that I had on my list.  There were gaps on the shelves, toilet paper and hand soap, of course.  Odd things that I probably wouldn't want to buy anyway, let alone stockpile.  Then we got to the frozen veg section.  It looked as though it had been ransacked.  There were peas lying loose all over the bottom of the freezers but no bags of peas.  There were virtually no frozen veg at all.  It was all very odd, I thought, as I ambled off with my lovely fresh veg.  If I had been staying for any length of time and was worried about supply, I would have bought fresh veg and frozen it myself. (I do have supplies of pre-frozen veg in my freezer at home, but I wouldn't panic and rip bags of peas apart in my frenzy to fill up with ready frozen things, particularly if fresh were available)