The C word, R U OK?

[Forg]

I went shopping this morning; we didn’t really need anything, but my mum needed some stuff and because she’s frankly not taking this thing anywhere near seriously enough I wanted to underline that I was worried enough to take a 5hr shopping trip to drop stuff off at her house that she could’ve bought herself In 15 minutes. Because arguing with here isn’t going to achieve anything, I think she needs to come to the realisation herself.

So anyhoo ... nobody’s respecting “social distancing”, everyone breathes all over you at the shops. People having meetings & catch-ups, all standing on top of each other. People overtaking on the escalators. Look at the Bondi Beach fiasco.

It makes me so angry that so many people are so willing to risk my life & the lives of those I care about due to laziness & stupidity. I’m frankly surprised more Australians don’t drop dead while tying their shoelaces because it looks like the average Australian doesn’t have the brain capacity to do that & breathe at the same time.

 

[NoGodsOneQueen]

I'm glad to be home from Sydney. Looking at the prospect of not being able to work for weeks... months perhaps. Grateful to live somewhere quite isolated. Also grateful that my day to day costs can be kept very minimal.

 

[RooFlyer]

I'd like to get my negatives scanned, more than a thousand, I'm not in Adelaide (Canberra) but happy to post to you @FlyboyAl Would you be interested?

I did that from Tas a while back, with good result (not as many!).

 

[leadman]

Well, home now after Thailand and I must admit a very different trip to the "normal" return home. So a run-down;

- Travelled down from up-country the night before and stayed at Le Meridien Suvarnabhumi, occupancy rate 15%. Amazing more staff than guests and sad to see a lot of the food wasted. Upgraded to the suite so a bonus. Speaking to staff, floors are just empty and shut off.
- Across to BKK and we get through the temperature scanners and given a blue sticker meaning you are OK. four people checking each door and very good.
- No lines at the QF desk and didn't see any upset customers, (more to come on that). Staff were great and could not do more for you.
- Only time i stopped in Priority check-in was to wait for my stuff to come through the scanners. No one again there.
- Into Duty Free to pick up supplies of Virus killer; Single Malt whiskey. King Power again wanted to argue that with 2 hours they could not make the SYD flight. (the only grumpy people i met!)
- Choose the Emirates lounge as Cathay seemed a bit dark, but again, more staff than people in the lounge. Spoke to some staff and they will be on leave as of the weekend. One was a bit teary eyed.
- Down to G5 and no crowds and into gate and very few people waiting to get on. About 5 seats free in J and quite a few in Y.
- On board QF24 and staff were great and positive knowing that they will be stood down after the flight.

I had a talk to the CS and he said they had to leave around 60 people behind because they did not met the current criteria of coming into the country. Most were transiting to NZ or Chile. He was quite sad about it and went through what they have to do coming up with having no work for at least the next 10 weeks. No doubt a long flight and funny feeling upon landing.

- We were told that Quarantine was going to board so don't move from your seats.
- Off the plane and given a form to fill out for out 14 day stay; address, passport number, sign etc. Duty free was busy because people were using their shelves and tables to fill in the forms.
- everything else normal, no temp or anything.

The announcements on the plane was very good and we knew what we had to do. The Captain made his top of descent announcement and thanked all the staff and those whose it was their last day before the break. There was a round of cheers and clapping which i don't think I've heard on an Australian aircraft.

Certainly you can feel a lot has changed and will change in travelling. Time will tell

 

[Cossie]

I did that from Tas a while back, with good result (not as many!).

I did my slides, but negatives are much fiddlier, I rather let some one else do it. I can only do 1 strip of negatives at a time, where as with the slides, it was like a slide projector, put a cartridge of 50 in and come back later.

PacificImage Electronics

 

[RooFlyer]

I did my slides, but negatives are much fiddlier,

Oops, I missed that you are doing negatives now - it was slides for me earlier (just in case FBA remembers doing my job )

 

[sanne]

I went shopping this morning; we didn’t really need anything, but my mum needed some stuff and because she’s frankly not taking this thing anywhere near seriously enough I wanted to underline that I was worried enough to take a 5hr shopping trip to drop stuff off at her house that she could’ve bought herself In 15 minutes. Because arguing with here isn’t going to achieve anything, I think she needs to come to the realisation herself.

So anyhoo ... nobody’s respecting “social distancing”, everyone breathes all over you at the shops. People having meetings & catch-ups, all standing on top of each other. People overtaking on the escalators. Look at the Bondi Beach fiasco.

It makes me so angry that so many people are so willing to risk my life & the lives of those I care about due to laziness & stupidity. I’m frankly surprised more Australians don’t drop dead while tying their shoelaces because it looks like the average Australian doesn’t have the brain capacity to do that & breathe at the same time.

Never a truer word spoken. We have been self isolating for 9 days now and will not leave our house until there is a vaccine - that’s how seriously we have taken things. I am incredulous just how ignorant the vast majority of people are. And how selfish. Risking the lives of others even if they’re not concerned for themselves. They are all in for one hell of a shock soon.

 

[Tropic]

Just finished dropping some care packages to friends of my elderly parents. I think there are lots of people out there in their 80s with no family, staying in their homes, watching the news every night wondering what's going to happen to them...

 

[leadman]

And so to the Virus Killer. Should last the quarantine period;

 

[mrsterryn]

Ok credit card used .... Bunnings appear to be still delivering

 

[Hvr]

And so to the Virus Killer. Should last the quarantine period;

I thought the isolation period was 14 days, not 14 hours.

 

[daft009]

i/we are are okay.
so many people have it much worse.

myself, my wife & my 3yo have been at home for the last week. refusing to send him to daycare as our parents/inlaws are in their late 60s and we're worried.
even though we got back from fiji on the 14th (not bound by any isolation orders) we've been avoiding going outside.
Only I've been to do the groceries and thats been a little depressing.. seeing all the empty shelves.

my small business employs 12 ppl all up, we are okay for now.
have shifted people to WFH who can, including myself though I do go for 1-2hrs just to check up on the 2-3 ppl there.
enough space now for the staff to spread out and work in separate corners of the office. and some are doing a morning shift and some are doing an afternoon shift.
their only contact is courier drivers.

the weak AU$ is putting a strain on our margins (we import goods from Europe), however it seems to be making a small comeback in the last ~2days.. it keeps going.

in positive news, we've been cooking all meals at home in the past week as we have the time.
my wife's entire workplace is 100% WFH for the next 1 month.

what the banks & the govt is doing will all help

i miss talking about our next planned trip. I do have a trip to Europe in July.. lets see.
otherwise I'm thinking a trip to Fiji in Sept/Oct.. need something to look forward to!

 

[nickykim]

I moved to being self-employed about 2.5 years ago and this year was looking like I would get back to my previous (employee) income level. But now I’m not 100% sure what will happen, and whether I should be trying to get back into a HR Manager role.
There’s been no indication that the self-employed will get any assistance or support but presume I would have to apply for the unemployment benefit to tide me over.
At the moment I’ve got another two weeks with one business, then four to six weeks in a relief role somewhere else. I’ve also got a project that is 80% completed but which I think will be put on the back burner until the local Council is back to business as usual. There was a progress payment schedule at a key milestone which I have met, so emailed the project leader and notified them I would be invoicing the progress payment at the end of March.

Also have started a workplace investigation but won’t be able to progress this until things are more settled due to type of workplace.

So, despite my general anxiety about what the future holds now, I think I am pretty much okay - I no longer have a mortgage so no-one will throw me out of my house!

 

[BensAdventures]

- We were told that Quarantine was going to board so don't move from your seats.
- Off the plane and given a form to fill out for out 14 day stay; address, passport number, sign etc. Duty free was busy because people were using their shelves and tables to fill in the forms.
- everything else normal, no temp or anything.

Least you had a form to fill out, on the 16th at 6am, there was nothing except a standard one-pager that I'm sure had been given out for weeks (on targeted flights) and nothing new.

It makes me so angry that so many people are so willing to risk my life & the lives of those I care about due to laziness & stupidity. I’m frankly surprised more Australians don’t drop dead while tying their shoelaces because it looks like the average Australian doesn’t have the brain capacity to do that & breathe at the same time.

I'm into my 7th day of isolation, and it's no fun, but it's not that bad either. I can't see what you're seeing obviously, but why is it so hard to follow these directions! The selfishness disgusts me!

 

[mrsterryn]

We are day 8 here
Still trundling along

 

[Catweazle]

I said something similar over at FT, that the beauty of these boards is that we always have someone there to support us. Face to face is always the best form of contact, but remember real human beings who often feel similar to you are at the other end of their keyboards in reply! If we can't meet up in the lounge, we can always converse in writing for the time being!

I'm feeling ok so far about the virus, despite being fully aware of the seriousness of the consequences. The past few weeks has been a bit of a whirlwind, as a high school teacher. Term 1 has had so many interruptions as it is, what with report writing, curriculum days, swimming carnivals, assemblies etc Dunno when these poor kids are supposed to learn the curriculum, and now this which will set back their learning by up to 12 months with a drop in literacy rates. So yes, I'm probably more stressed about the chaos at school more than anything!

And yes, as a teacher, I understand the frustration that comes with people not being able to follow the simplest of instructions!

Then there's the panicky reactions of some people, family and friends included. Dear spreads like wildfire, and I can see that many are struggling to cope with all this. Makes sense perhaps. As Australians we've never had all that much to panick about. But, I've also seen an irrational sense of panick in light of current circumstances too.

Frustration? Why sure, I just a bought a car which is sitting in Sydney but not sure if I can drive it down this week. So, still public transporting it to and from work. At least it's quiet on the train and I get a seat now.

Ask me again come May or June... My thoughts might be darker

 

[BensAdventures]

Ask me again come May or June... My thoughts might be darker

I'm genuinely hopeful about June/July, based on nothing but the strength of resilience of people during rough times, April/May though will be tough. Trying to keep a touch of positivity for the future!

 

[FlyboyAl]

I'm starting to have trouble holding it together. I have staff telling me we are getting $100,000 from the government (we have 5 staff!!!), I have customers calling to see if we are still open (we are), I'm trying to find out what support are getting from the feds (can't get any detail) and my wife, who has never been near a Centerlink office, can't get through on mygov to register.
The outside of me is trying to be positive, but the inside is a mess.

 

[mrsterryn]

The outside of me is trying to be positive, but the inside is a mess.

I think a few of us are starting to get to that stage sadly

 

[daft009]

I'm starting to have trouble holding it together. I have staff telling me we are getting $100,000 from the government (we have 5 staff!!!), I have customers calling to see if we are still open (we are), I'm trying to find out what support are getting from the feds (can't get any detail) and my wife, who has never been near a Centerlink office, can't get through on mygov to register.
The outside of me is trying to be positive, but the inside is a mess.

similar boat

the upto $100k, the treasury document is the best. $50k this FY, $50k next FY.
Your employee tax withheld will be refunded in full by ATO as a credit for the next few months.
more info here, https://treasury.gov.au/sites/defau...eet-Cash_flow_assistance_for_businesses_0.pdf

one of my suppliers is now shut in Milan... going to affect some orders on hand that we have.
Been chasing customers since July 2019.. they all gave the go ahead in the last 3-4wks and now we're stuck...gaah
hopefully Milan reopens on the 4th of April approx.