"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps . . .

       [I]n this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time; and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death."  (Wm Shakespeare's MacBeth).

We are lucky here in Australia that the pandemic was never allowed to get away from us and most cases in Australia came off cruise ships.  I have been in lock-down for weeks and life is getting tedious.  I made myself some masks but they are hardly needed since most of the shops downstairs are closed with only the two supermarkets and the pharmacies open, along with Bunnings Hardware and Zoo Pet Supplies, both of which are considered to be essential services.  I did break out to go to the doctor for my 'flu vaccination  -  travelling on an almost empty train.

I have been spending my time listening to The Rachel Maddow Show, looking at Facebook and sporadically cleaning the Apartment, ironing and reading.  I have not panic-bought toilet paper but sometimes shoppings is a sort of Hobson's Choice and you take what you can or, in extremis try again in a day or two.

The cats,and especially Parsifal, have been driving me crazy; they want to go for a run in the passage but cats can get the virus so I am keeping them in the apartment.  Parsifal has been trying to get into the TV to meet all the people there ( he does that every so often) and while looking for  my 'Miniscule' DVDs to keep him quiet I came across a set of "Music for Cats" so I am playing one at the moment and Poppy is entranced; even Parsifal has stopped shouting.

I now have Skype on my I-Pad so I can connect with D1 and D2 but D3 seems to think that I can contaminated her via radio waves and, having ordered me into quarantine has pretended that I do not exist.  And yes, I have phone her a couple of times but have to run the gauntlet of SIL1 who is the telephone answerer.

Enough of my complaints  -  the Limerick:-

There once was a bear at the zoo
Who complained he had nothing to do.
"It's boring, you know,
Just to go to and fro,
I think that I'll go fro and to,"

. . . and Little Captive Drop Bears

I have been in lockdown for over four weeks now and I am getting lazy.  I have lists of things which I should be doing but somehow I rarely get around to doing them and instead sit, knit and listen to the Rachel Maddow Show.  However, there is starting to be a dreary sameness to the news out of America; not enough medical equipment, unevenly distributed medical equipment and people dying for the reasons stated above.

Australia has instigated very strict rules about travel between states, regions and just simply out in public:  wear a mask, wash your hands, wash your hands with soap for at least 20 seconds and use a hand sanitiser if there is nowhere to wash your hands, do not touch your face, keep at least one metre away from anyone in public and wash your hands with soap for at least 20 seconds.  It is all very repetitive but seems to be working as 'the curve' is flattening.

As I have now been in lock-down for over three weeks I am in no danger to anyone and am thinking of starting to walk around the lake again (masked, of course and carrying my little bottle of hand sanitiser in my bum-bag) if my sore toes will let me and as the weather gets kinder to walkers.  Walking rapidly in 40 degree heat and humidity would be neither fun nor beneficial.

I have my bear in the window to signify that I am locked down and a couple of days ago I removed the label from around his neck, read it and discovered that his name was 'Dolly'.  He was never a Dolly and he now has a new name  -  Kovid Koala and, of course, he is a drop bear, one of the more fearsome sort but sadly lacking in gum trees to drop from.

I now have Skype on my I-Pad and chat to D1 and D2.  I still haven't tried it out on my MS Surface Pro1.  When I fired it back up and recharged it ready to go it took two days to upload all the MS changes  (literally two days).  All in all about 20 hours and I am fearful of finding out just how it will behave but Teckie phoned me to say that he can fix my computers remotely if they need fixing.  He has done that before but I fear that the Surface Pro might need more than that and I am too scared to try it as it will almost certainly be an "as new" computer after all its self improvements.

The Limerick:-

There was an old man in a hearse
Who murmured, "This might have been worse;
Of course the expense
Is simply immense,
But it doesn't come out of MY purse."

Covid-19 (Mk 3)

I have finally found the hidden treasure  -  a pack of toilet rolls.  I don't actually need any but it was too good a prize to pass up so I bought a 20-pack which I have stored away with my hoarded cat food.

D2, who is back at work in RPH Emergency was very insistent that I should activate Skype.  I have it on this desktop computer but with no mic or camera it was not ideal.  On my I-Pad I have Facetime which seems to simply be a Mac version of Skype and despite the fact that D2 has an Apple computer she refused to use it.  I have the Skype App on my I-Pad but it needed a fingerprint to load it and, as I have found to my cost, it refuses to read any of the fingerprints which I have registered.  It is a problem which I have had before and I had to go into the Apple Shop to load the last app which needed a fingerprint.  That is not an option now that I am in lock-down.

So I went online and asked how to bypass the fingerprint problem and these were the suggestions:  register a toe print; use one of my cats' toes or register one of my nipples.  What??

I was so angry that I started hitting the fingerprint icon rapidly and repeatedly and suddenly I was in.  I am not sure if I just managed to hit some magic spot which registered or if my i-Pad simply gave up the fight.  The silly part was that it already knew who I was as it had connected with the Skype on my desktop  computer and had all my details.

Anyway, D2 and I had a virtual afternoon tea yesterday and later D1 Skyped me which meant that I didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn this morning to phone her in Sydney which is three hours ahead for six months of the year.

There was a session on homemade face masks during the TV news this evening.  The best one was a pair of bikini pants worn sideways. The crutch goes over the nose and mouth and the leg holes are over the eyes   I have some which I bought and which turned out to be a two-pair pack and the pair I first wore was extremely uncomfortable so this particular knicker was brand new, unworn and waiting to be given to charity.  I am going to keep it in lieu of my hijabs.  It might give someone a laugh.

The Limerick:-

I'm the very best scout in the troop,
And the very best cook in the group.
Bread I can toast
And lamb I can roast,
And I've tried but I cannot pee soup.