Bugger

Most states in Australia have very little to no active CV-19 circulating.  In Victoria, alas, we have had a spike of cases over the last week, mostly in and around Melbourne. Regional areas are not affected as much - we've had no active cases in Ballarat for a month at least, and very few cases before that. But we can't assume that that will continue

The upshot of this is that some of the CV-19 restrictions, which were being slowly relaxed, have been put on hold, or rolled back a bit.  So we are back to having no more than 5 visitors in our homes (plus household members) instead of up to 20 people in total. Pubs and restaurants, which were expecting to be able to have up to 50 people per space from this week, are still restricted to 20. Some things are still going ahead, but more cautiously.  And people who live in the local government areas which are most affected by the clusters and spikes are encouraged not to travel unnecessarily out of their local areas - and certainly not out into the regions.

This is mildly inconvenient for us.  Freyja and Simon have recently moved from one "hotspot" area in Melbourne to an adjacent "hotspot".  We had been trying to organise a weekend when they could come to Ballarat, have lunch with us, catch up with Freyja's dad, gather in an appropriate physically distancing manner with some friends and generally have a nice weekend out of town. We have put that on hold.  Better to be mildly inconvenienced than for us all to create a family-transmitted, regional cluster.

Here's hoping that by re-applying some of the restrictions and holding back a bit on easing some of the others we can nip this outbreak in the bud. We do not want CV-19 spreading over the state like some sort of noxious weed.  Otherwise we'll end up as a pariah state within a hermit nation forever isolated on the far side of the world!

In other, happier news, the For Sale board at the bottom of our driveway now looks like this

I don't know who has bought #2. Our neighbours said that they weren't interested in buying it because it is too small for them long term.  But we are definitely the buyers of #3.  The rental property manager rang me up yesterday to congratulate us on our conditional finance now being unconditional and to discuss the dissolving of the lease after settlement.  We definitely do not want to be renting from ourselves - the tax implications don't bear thinking about!

For some time now Jim has been complaining of a bad back.  And I have been aware that I am waking up during the night with a sore back, uncomfortable hips, grumbling shoulder, sad neck.  Then we go to Hill House and sleep in our room up there and think how comfortable that bed is.  It seemed ridiculous that our primary bed is very much less comfortable than what was a spare bed at Hill House before we rocked up and took it over.

Time for a new mattress.  Freyja and Simon have a Koala bed and mattress which we found remarkably comfortable when we stayed there at Christmas.  Koala was offering End of Financial Year discounts.  I ordered one.  It arrived yesterday

We will put it on our bed this morning.  Later.  It is still much too early to be doing such energetic things as changing mattresses.  Anyway, Jim is still tucked up in bed.  As I should be really.  It's only just after 4 am.  I am hopeful that a new mattress might encourage me to stay asleep for longer.  Waking up in the Wee Smalls is getting to be Very Tedious Indeed!