Essential Travel

One of the acceptable reasons in Victoria for going out of your house is for care giving or compassionate reasons.

Stella's carers are only with her on weekdays, so she is alone at the weekends unless one of her children goes to see her.

We have not been to see her for almost 2 months.  In the first instance we were in the UK. Then we were quarantined at home for 2 weeks.  Then it was felt that it would be better to wait for another little while, Just in Case. There are a few studies which suggest that people *might* be infectious for as long as three weeks and we definitely didn't want to give Stella (or anyone, come to that) The Virus.

We went down at the weekend.  It's funny.  I know perfectly well that care giving is a legitimate reason to travel.  We were care giving.  I had supplies and all sorts in the car.  Even so, I was poised, ready to be stopped and for the Stasi to demand to know what I thought I was doing and where I thought I was going. I put it down to having been compulsorily sequestered at home for two weeks. No one else seems to be particularly worried about going about their legitimate business!

Nobody stopped us to enquire what we were doing!

We got home on Sunday evening and I was putting things away. CATTLEASTROPHE!!  DISASTER!! I realised that I didn't have my laptop.  I knew exactly where it was.  I had moved it off the dining room table and put it on a chair with an enormous teddy bear. I hadn't noticed it when I was checking to make sure I had everything; you couldn't really see it.

I decided that this was annoying but not really disastrous.  After all, I have a tablet and a smart phone. It could wait until someone went to Mount Martha and could bring it to Melbourne. I'm sure I could think of an excellent reason to go to Melbourne.

By Monday lunchtime I had changed my mind. I am supposed to be working from home at the moment and there are many things I need to do which either can't be done or which are difficult to do on a tablet and smart phone.

We braved the Stasi again on Wednesday and went back to Mount Martha to pick up the laptop.  I decided that it definitely counted as essential. I can't work without it.

We didn't see any Stasi, nor any police.  Nobody was remotely interested in where we were going and what we were doing. And there was more traffic than I was expecting.

Even so, the staying at home policy seems to be working.  There is very little disease in the state at the moment. The Virus, flus and colds seem to be being held back by a big shield.  I fear that they are biding their time lurking behind the shield, waiting for it to be lifted so they can burst out and take us all by surprise.

Anyway, I have my laptop back.  I can work, update the blog, catch upon emails and do all sorts of things again, more easily than when I don't have the laptop.

We are back up for sale. Again.  All three units are on the market. I am hopeful that if we are sold it will be to an investor.  If it's a private purchase I think this time I might wait until the lease runs out before heading elsewhere. We like living here.