Rut in Stuff

As everyone knows by now, these are such weird times we are living in. I keep thinking forward to in 10-20 years time when this is a memo in the history books. I’ll be old and ancient by then (well, nearing my 60’s if I make it haha).
It constantly changes here in Australia, and each state is usually vastly different on what their restrictions are at different times.
Currently as I write, my state is still wearing masks, but is not in lockdown. Three of my southern sister states however, are in lockdown, including the two most populated, which I guess always made a lot of sense to me. When Melbourne had their really long 8-month lockdown, I found it strange that it wasn’t Sydney. But the virus doesn’t discriminate where it pops up. And now, 18 months in, Sydney is having their main Covid-crisis.

The bloody irony though - my state’s premier completely closing our border to Victoria and South Australia (from this Thursday) but only closing to Greater Sydney and not the entirety of New South Wales. Currently it is like we are dodging bullets. It just seems like a disaster waiting to happen. A lot of Sydneysiders have a reputation for not giving a shit and flouting lockdown laws, so I can just see them spending time in regional NSW and then crossing into QLD. Then again, our border checks seem to be pretty damn good I’ve got to say, as a lot of people get turned away at the border and airport, but I am concerned about the inland access points, as they are the areas near where I grew up. They’ve already caught a couple of rich Sydney yacht owners who thought they could just sail into the Gold Coast last week (DURING their lockdown), as well as some others. It’s a $4004 fine each for lying on a border application, but I’m sure that amount means nothing to rich people.
Our state premier is also allowing sports-people all the exemptions in the world. Because VIC and NSW are in lockdown, we seem to be hosting every god-damn football team in the country, and having packed-out stadiums in the process. All three State Of Origin games were held here this year. The reasoning is that ticketed, outdoor stadiums are safe environments.

Tomorrow night, my city finds out if we get to host the 2032 Olympic Games. That’s huge. There’s 11 different sites set up around the city for people to congregate and celebrate (our deputy premier is actually encouraging it so as to create memories for parents and their kids). Our premier is currently in Tokyo to make her pitch, so there was a lot of controversy about that, since there are thousands of Australians who still haven’t been able to return home, yet she and our athletes are A-OK!
Fireworks are set up to go off all along the river (for when/if the news comes through). I personally think it’ll be hilarious if we lose out given all the hype LOL. It’s party fucking central, pretty much. It just blows my mind.
I know we can’t go on living being scared of Covid-19. We just have to live with it. I am envious of England completely opening up so their citizens can get on with a normal sense of life, despite cases in the 50,000’s. What I am concerned about is that I am still not vaccinated at ALL, despite registering months ago. I keep checking my email every fucking day looking for an appointment confirmation, but nothing. And then I get annoyed at our government and their useless rollout, and then at the LNP government, who I sure as fuck never vote for. NSW have had 5 more deaths. One escaped outbreak and I too could be a statistic.
It’s pretty concerning given what’s happening down south and me having an essential job dealing with the public, and who knows where they’ve been. Check-in is mandatory at all indoor locations here, but so many customers still just walk in and ignore the people at the front door. I helped at least 4 customers were weren’t wearing masks at ALL, despite that still being mandatory. But we can’t kick them out. I just want the fucking jabs in the arm, God-dammit. Someone read that out at my funeral and tag the Prime Minister if Covid claims me please.
It probably also has a bit to do with keeping me in the apartment. My mask strap was cutting into the back of my left ear at work last week, as I haven’t been used to wearing it for this long. I was trying to use my longer hair to act as a buffer for the strap.

We had a couple of donut days, so it was looking good to removing our masks again from this Friday, but today we had one new local case, so we’re on alert again. It was a 20yo woman who studies in Melbourne and who flew into the Sunshine Coast. She was briefly in my city but just making her way to the airport so was on public transport, and then flew on to Cairns. She was wearing a mask the entire time and had been double vaccinated as of early May, but still tested positive to Covid within the past few days. And of course she was (what I like to call-) gallavanting all over the Sunshine Coast, so they are on alert, especially a popular restaurant that she dined in, as obviously one doesn’t wear a mask when they are eating/drinking. Anyway, I’m not too mad - she did everything by the rules and we just have to contract trace and see how things turn out. It’s all we can do. A friend thinks our masks will be extended yet again.

It’s nice not to be in lockdown, but I may as well be with how little I leave the apartment, and how anxious I am. Time just seems to be going SO fast lately. Like, holy shit. How did 24 hours go by so fast? It’s like my housemate goes to work and is home again before I know it. I’m finding it quite scary and I know time just doesn’t speed up or is any different than it always has been, but am I really tuning out THAT much? I need to figure out how to slow down time. Maybe I need to actually DO shit. I don’t do anything. I’m just existing. Being depressed about Covid. About never owning a home. About politics. About being an introvert. I dunno. A rut is definitely what I’m in. The most exciting part of my day is heading to the shops for supplies, which was something I could do in lockdown anyway haha. The only difference is heading to the gym, which I haven’t done in the past three days. That’s what I mean about time seeming to have gone so fast. It feels like I was just AT the gym, but in reality, that was on Saturday.

I watched the F1 race live and therefore didn’t get to sleep until 3am. I’d passed out asleep during the exciting part but woke up for the majority of the race. I was pissed off when I saw what’d happened. What a fucking joke. Anyway, so, so cool seeing the English crowds out and about and celebrating their freedom. It’s something to hopefully look forward to.