Dark Times in Bentleigh East

Blog Day 69: Sunday 31 May 2020 Even a hard working and reliable blogger and social influencer such as myself has to have the occasional day off, so nothing much to report today.   Last night I decided that one of my emergency lockdown food items was getting close to its use by date so roasted pork knuckle was enjoyed by all. The more observant of you will recall that the pork knuckle appeared in the occasional series of " What's in the pantry Graeme"? so for your amusement and to take up space in the blog I have posted some before and after pics below, I will leave you to work out which is which; It was delicious and I have some left over to have cold tonight.  To support my role as a social influencer please ring "Three Aussie Farmers" and tell them that you have seen my blog about their product and how that has encouraged you to buy it. They can contact me for my bank account details. I can say at this stage the can of pickled mutto...

Blog Day 68: Saturday 30 May 2020 Zoom trivia again last night with players from Cairns to Warrnambool and places in between.  No international contingent last night unless you think that FNQ is another country.  The quiz was played over three rounds of 10 questions and was played hard but fair, although each team marking their own paper does leave room for a little bit of concern.  As usual good fun and great to catch up with everyone in a corona virus safe manner. Just talking on the phone to Shaun, a keen reader of the blog, who works for a Federal Government department.  He has been working from home for something like 10 weeks and thought that they were going to be back in the office in the CBD next week.  Not to be, he has been advised that they are working from home for at least another 4 weeks. An increase of 11 infections in Victoria and 19 nationally.  The Victorian increase includes 2 returned travellers, 4 more in the Rydges Hotel clu...

Blog Day 67: Friday 29 May 2020 For something a bit different today I drove down to Sandringham and went for my walk along the cliff top walking path.  Walked about 3 km in delightful Melbourne autumn weather.  There was quite a few people about and apart from the boot camp people and the boy racers on Beach Road they appeared to be maintaining the appropriate social distancing distances. A couple of photos from this morning's walk. I think that sometimes protesters do things that result in the loss of a bit their credibility.  There has been serious public protests in Minneapolis over the last few days, protesting over the death of an African American man at the hands of the police.  The loss of credibility comes about when you see TV footage of the protesters running down the street with looted flat screen televisions.  Why do they always seem to go for flat screen tellies? Interesting story about the virus infected nurse who drove 400 ...

Blog Day 66: Thursday 28 May 2020 Regular but recently missing blog correspondent Richard has posted a heartfelt but amusing comment on yesterday's blog.  As a bit of background Richard and his wife Donna (a different Donna to the pear cakes Donna) have been planning and obviously paying for a trip of a lifetime on which they were due leave sometime next month.  It was to be an around the world trip and I think that they were going to be away for about 10 weeks and without being too extravagant they were going to be doing it in some style.  Anyway this Virus thing has got in the way of all that and obviously  the trip is not happening anytime in the foreseeable future.   So, from Richard's comment on yesterday's blog I would suggest that he is not having a lot of success in obtaining refunds on travel costs already paid.  Whilst understanding his frustration I am not sure that writing to various European governments (as threatened) will achieve much ...

Blog Day 65: Wednesday 27 May 2020 Some of you may be aware that earlier this year I enrolled in the local U3A for a topic called Maritime and Military History, unfortunately I was only able to attend three sessions before the virus thingy closed the whole place down.  Like the ed staff at the Shrine the volunteer staff at U3A have been active in keeping members informed of what is happening and offering some of the courses on line.  Stephen, the convener of the Maritime and Military History group has been sending e-mails with links to various topics that either connect to the earlier sessions or of topics that he thinks may be of interest.  It is good to see these people going out of their way to maintain connections that may otherwise be lost over this period of time. The following was sent out by Stephen for the group about the sinking of the RMS Laconia in the 2nd World War, so here is the story of the Laconia Incident. Firstly, if you'd care to read ab...

Blog Day 64: Tuesday 26 May 2020 A big walk today, but in a good cause as it was in the pursuit of 'pear cake'.  A friend of mine, Donna, has become part of the pandemic baking/cooking epidemic and has been making all manner of things from soups to cakes and sharing this bounty with me amongst others.  So today I walked from the Centre Rd Bentleigh shops to Donna's rooms near the corner of Centre Rd and Thomas St, about 3km round trip to pick up some pear cakes.  Haven't tried them yet so a further report to follow. Schools are back today for a limited number of students.  I reckon that there will be some nervous people in the government, health department and education department etc.  Hopefully all goes well and the balance of the students can return as scheduled, which I think is next week. Good Luck to Andrew and Jacki who are both back in the classroom today, as teachers, and to Lucy who is back today, as a student. I think that one of the ne...

Blog Day 63: Monday 25 May 2020 A big step today and tomorrow with some of the students heading back to school.  Preps, years 1 & 2 and year 12's are back tomorrow with teachers back today for a student free day.  The schools have had to make special preparations for the arrival and departure of the children with limited entry points and not to be accompanied by parents.  I know of one school that will be taking the children's temperature before entry to the school buildings, using a non invasive thermometer of course.  This is a big step to getting things back to some degree of normality, lets hope it doesn't hit any hurdles. GLD (Great Leader Dan) is suggesting that people continue to work from home, where possible, until the end of June.   For this weeks weekly stats I have added South Africa, India and the World.  I think that South Africa and India will be interesting to watch over the next few weeks and I have added the World purely for...

Blog Day 62: Sunday 24 May 2020 A few things to talk about today.  First up, yesterday's blog was abbreviated because I went to Mornington for lunch with Jackie and Sharon.  This was the furthest I had been from home for at least 8 weeks and possibly 10.  Usually the drive from Bentleigh East to Mornington is a bit of a chore but yesterday it was like a road trip, I felt like I should have checked the oil and water before I left home.  Anyway it was nice to be out and about and have some company for the afternoon.   CD (or DD) has this morning announced some further easing of the corona virus restrictions.  As from 1/6 we will be allowed gatherings of up to 20 in private homes including the residents and maintaining social distancing, likewise pubs, cafes and restaurants will be allowed 20 patrons but must be able to maintain social distancing.  We can still only go to a pub for a meal not able to just have a drink at the bar.  These restri...

Blog Day 61: Saturday 23 May 2020 An abbreviated blog today as I am heading out shortly, but keep your eyes open for a bumper edition tomorrow (now there's a promise I hope that I can keep). A cracker session of trivia last night, capably and excitedly hosted by Kathie and Mac in Florida and Ben in Melbourne.  A tight competition was won by the optimistically named "Cool Aunties", congratulations to Jo & Katie. I appear to be a bit early for the updated daily figures, so I will update all of that tomorrow and don't forget Monday's blog will include selected international corona virus stats. Corona Virus Daily Stats: Day 138 Vic: Aus: Recovered: World:

Blog Day 60: Friday 22 May 2020 This morning I went for my walk along Centre Road in Bentleigh for the first time in a couple of weeks.  Lots more shops open but most with signs up restricting the number of people who can enter & reminders to maintain proper distancing etc.  The bookshop has moved some shelves around, making it easier to browse while maintaining the proper distances. Woolies was the busiest I have seen it for some time.  Plenty of toilet paper, a little bit of hand sanitiser but interestingly there appeared to be a shortage of some general grocery items.  No Domestos! The government has announced that the bans on cruise ships operating Australian waters has been extended until sometime in September.  Where on earth are the cruising set going to get their fix of Rod Stewart impersonators and boot scooting lessons.  (Some passengers on the voyage of the damned on the Ruby Princess said that the Rod Stewart impersonator on that ...

Blog Day 59: Thursday 21 May 2020 Just filling in a bit of time until my Zoom conference with the Shrine Education staff and my fellow Thursday PM volunteer crew starts.  It will be interesting to see if the Shrine staff have any opinion on when the Shrine and similar institutions will be reopening. It is National Volunteer week and in normal circumstances we would be having a nice afternoon tea provided by the Shrine.  Alas not to be this year.  Although, as well as the nice letter from the Guv last week, this week I received a nice letter from the Shrine CEO (Dean Lee) thanking me and my fellow volunteers for our service and enclosing a commemorative lapel badge. Nice of him to invite me around to his place for a barbie as well. I have to go and get changed, I am putting a shirt and tie on and my Shrine jacket.  Although it is a Zoom meeting one must maintain one's standards.  Now here is a funny thing, prior to putting on a clean shirt I put on som...

Blog Day 58: Wednesday 20 May 2020 I see in the Age this morning that the AFL has put off 80% of its 3,000 staff.  What on earth would all of those staff have done every day when they turned up for work.  No wonder these organisations ran out of money so quickly.  How many of those staff will be necessary to run the AFL when things are back to "normal". The local nail salons must be thinking that they are opening shortly, both in Centre Road had the cleaning crews in there this morning. If anybody is interested in doing a virtual tour of the Shrine have a look at the following web site.  You can look at galleries of still photos or do a virtual tour moving around the various parts of the Shrine, it really is very clever. https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/shrine-of-remembrance This is part of Google Arts and Culture and through this site you can do virtual tours of many museums and galleries world wide .  It really is an amazing site.  ...

Blog Day 57: Tuesday 19 May 2020 And now for some good news, there has been 5,600 fines handed out in Victoria for breaking the virus lockdown rules, for a total of $8,000,000.  That should help in balancing the budget.  Maybe DD can put it towards the $3,000,000,000 shortfall on the metro tunnel project (please note the extra zeros on this figure). I have just noticed that it is two months since this virus started to have a real effect on day to day life.  On 19 March I was supposed to join a couple of the duck shooting crew on a weekend away camping and fishing and although travel was still allowed the camping weekend did not go ahead.  Seems a lifetime ago. Four nursing homes in Victoria have been placed in lockdown with unconfirmed reports of virus infections.  Two people, living on the north west coast of Tassie, who had tested positive for the virus have died however the Tasmanian authorities have not yet labelled the virus as the cause of d...

Blog Day 56: Monday 18 May 2020 Although traffic is building up a little it is still a lot less than usual so why do bicycle riders seem to think that it is OK to ride on the bloody footpath!!!! Got that off my chest, again. You will all be pleased to know that a book that I ordered some 4 weeks ago has been delivered today.  It is called "Clash of the Gods of War" subtitled "Australian Artillery and the Firepower Lessons of the Great War".   If anybody wants to borrow it let me know.  During TGW the BEF artillery (including the AIF) fired 170,385,295 rounds of artillery ammunition on the Western Front.  No wonder they are still digging it up, and it is still dangerous and killing people.   Please find below the weekly table of virus infections and deaths for selected countries.  I have added Belgium, Russia and Brazil to this week's table.  I have also resorted it to run from the highest deaths per million of population to the lowest....

Blog Day 55: Sunday 17 May 2020 Sunday today, beautiful autumn weather in Melbourne, Melbourne at its best.   CD has advised us this morning that he has declared in his infinite wisdom that cafes, restaurants, bars and hotels will be able to reopen in a couple of weeks.  Initially the venues will be restricted to 20 patrons with all of the social distancing requirements to be observed.  This also means the venues like hotels will only be open for dining just having a casual drink at the bar still not allowed.  There is a timetable of some sort to allow for increases in patronage to 50 and then to 100 patrons over a period of time.  I daresay if there is a spike in our infection rates this program will be reviewed. As usual CD had to make a production of this announcement and stated that further announcements will be made about playgrounds, gyms etc in due course.  Not going to chew up all of his grand opportunities at once.  It will be good ...

Blog Day 54: Saturday 16 May 2020 Slim pickings for the blog today, although that comment made me think of the great American character actor, Slim Pickens.  Slim appeared in two of the great classic movies of all time, Blazing Saddles and Dr Strangelove. I am sure that he appeared in the famous, and tastefully presented baked beans farting scene in Blazing Saddles.  In Dr Strangelove he was an airforce officer who was last seen riding an H Bomb that was being dropped on Russia.  They don't make em like that any more. Today I also have another in the occasional series of jokes provided by Leanne; Q: Why has Covid 19 been especially hard on flat earthers? A: They are worried that social distancing will push some over the edge!  Not much changed from the figures yesterday although a number of McDonalds workers have been place in quarantine due to an outbreak in two stores in the Northern suburbs.  Interestingly the government had no hesitation i...

Blog Day 53: Friday 15 May 2020 Beautiful autumn day in Bentleigh East today, warm and sunny with coolish mornings.   Richard has made some comments on yesterday's blog about MMT (Modern Monetary Theory), if anybody wishes to comment please feel free to do so. I am still doing some research on the boys on the motorbike in the photograph with my grandfather in 1917 but I keep getting distracted. Yesterday, whilst rummaging around in the NAA (National Archives) site I found a file of documents containing letters to and from the Australian army with my great grandmother discussing the payment of her allotment from my grandfather's army pay.  This file contains approximately 40 pages of documents and included birth certificates some of my grandfather's siblings.  At the time she was a widow with at least 6 children on a minimal widow's pension and the allotment from my grandfather's army pay.  I think by the tone of the correspondence they were doing it prett...

Blog Day 52: Thursday 14 May 2020 Yesterday, I received a very nice letter from the Governor of Victoria, Linda Dessau, and I thought, this is it, as a reward for my many years of service to the community I have been awarded a MBE or an OBE maybe, a bit like the Beatles, alas not to be.  Although it wasn't an award it was a very nice letter all the same from the Guv thanking me and my fellow Shrine volunteers for our service to the Shrine and reflecting on the issues of the day that are preventing us from performing our volunteering duties.  My letter had a hand written note across the bottom suggesting that if I happened to be in the area of Government House one day I should pop in for a cuppa and a scone. The figures below show minimal new infections Australia wide and no new deaths.  Victoria still seems to be dominating the new infections.  The new Victorian infections include a couple more from the abattoir, 3 or 4 international travellers returning and 3...

Blog Day 51: Wednesday 13 May 2020 My word, day 51 of the blog and day 128 of the virus, although I am not sure now where I got the starting date of the virus from.  So, I am thinking, and in the absence of anything else to write about, I will review the highs and lows of this magnificent historical epic.  One of my early blogs was about my attempts to develop a virus vaccine using brake fluid as the primary ingredient.  This wasn't particularly successful although I do note that Mr Trump was pursuing a similar theme with his idea of using disinfectant.  ( I know that should have followed up the international patents on my idea).  I also didn't get very far with my project to develop a home made and cheap respirator using parts from my stick vacuum cleaner.  Never did solve the problem of the over sucking and blowing.  One of the difficulties I faced with the development of the above projects was the escaping of my test ferrets.  Although...

Blog Day 50: Tuesday 12 May 2020 Running way behind schedule today so very much an abbreviated version of the blog, just to let you know that I am still around and keeping an eye on things. This morning the teachers unions, sorry, silly me, correction, CD announced a timetable for the return of students to school.  Preps, grade 1 & 2 and years 11 & 12 return to school on Tuesday May 26.  But get this, after how many studentless weeks Monday May 25 is going to be a student free day.  The teachers must have to stock up the staff room fridges with Chardy.  The rest of the students return to school on Tuesday June 9. Current Virus Day Stats: Day 127 Vic: 1,509 infected (+15 from previous day) - 18 deaths (increase 0) Aus: 6,968 infected (+21 from previous day) - 97 deaths (increase 0) Recovered: 6,213 World: 4,177,584

Blog Day 49: Monday 11 May 2020 Relaxation of virus restrictions announced this morning by CD.  The main changes being households can have a maximum of five visitors, being family and/or friends, 10 people can attend outdoor events maintaining social distancing, but no relaxation on the rules around cafes, pubs and restaurants.  These condition to be maintained until the end of May. No announcement as yet as to the return of students to schools, obviously the teacher's unions haven't given CD the go ahead for that as yet. Corona Virus International Stats as at 11/05/2020 Country   Population Infected No Infected % Deaths No Deaths % Deaths Increase No Deaths Increase % Australia 25,000,000 6,848 0.0274 97 0.00039 2 2 New Zealand 5,000,000 1,497 0.0299 21 0.00042 1 5 USA 331,000,000 1,3...

Blog Day 48: Sunday 10 May 2020 With today being Sunday and also Mother's day I have decided to call it a day of rest for this little blogger, so only a couple of bits and pieces for your edification and amusement today. On my walk today I noticed that traffic was very light, so maybe people aren't visiting their mothers for mother's day or maybe some of them visited their mothers yesterday! And now a riddle from one of my regular readers and contributors, this is from Leanne Q: What do you get if you mix alcohol and literature? A: Tequila Mockingbird The figures below are a bit contradictory but they are the best I could find, maybe clearer tomorrow. I think the total numbers are OK just the new infections don't add up and some reports are showing an additional two deaths. Current Virus Day Stats: Day 125 Vic: 1,479 (+10 from previous day) - 18 deaths (increase 0) Aus: 6,939 +(+12 from previous day) - 97 deaths (increase 0)(some sources s...

Blog Day 47: Saturday 09 May 2020 My word, the bar was set at an extremely high level for last night's zoom trivia.  Shane, Chris and Dave excelled themselves with the zoom presentation, production values and the quality of the questions.  Going to be hard to match that effort, well done. Chairman Dan (CD), who used to be Comrade Dan and soon to possibly be Great Leader (in his eyes anyway) is now saying that there is a possibility that schools will be reopened before the end of term two, does he have any idea what is going on or is he just revelling in his hour of glory.  He probably thinks that this is his "Churchillian moment".   Not many people around today, which I think is more as a result of the miserable weather earlier rather than any significant effort to comply with the iso rules. I received an email from one of the education staff at the Shrine the other day.  National Volunteer week is coming up shortly and usually this would mean lun...

Blog Day 46: Friday 08 May 2020 As I am writing this the PM is on the radio announcing the changes in the virus isolation restrictions. Essentially there will be a staged easing of restrictions over three stages.   Of course here in Victoria we are dependent on what Chairman Dan (CD) and his merry band of looney lefties are going to inflict on us after discussion with his union masters.   CD has just been on the radio and while broadly acknowledging the changes in the corona virus restrictions as announced by the PM he has also stated that any changes in Victoria will be decided by him and implemented to a timetable also decided by him.  CD will advise us on Monday what the program will be for Victoria. Last night at about 11.00pm I was having a look at the Flight Radar 24 app.  This app shows every aircraft in the air worldwide at that time.  There wasn't much traffic over Australia, but I was surprised to see a couple of international commercial fli...

Blog Day 45: Thursday 07 May 2020 I don't know if I have mentioned it before but it looks like the Boundary Hotel is taking the opportunity of the forced closure to do a major refurbishment. There have been lots of tradies vans parked outside and upon peering through windows it looks like the interior has been gutted.  All they have to do now is get rid of the kiddies playground, get rid of the pokies and employ some half decent staff and it wouldn't be a bad sort of a pub. I think that my ambition to become a social media influencer may be a little ambitious but as always I am prepared to give it my best shot, and thanks to Andrew for his advice "to remain humble". The number of infections in Victoria has continued to rise thanks to the Cedar Meats cluster, with 14 out of a national increase of 19 attributed to Victoria.  The connections between the Labor party and the owners of Cedar Meats is continuing to raise eyebrows. This connection is especially rel...

Blog Day 44: Wednesday 06 May 2020 On my walk today both an aeroplane and a helicopter (non police) flew over, my word it is getting busy around here. Today, I will discuss a couple of comments and contributions from some of my legendary army of followers, I wonder if I qualify as an "influencer" yet? Leanne has commented on yesterday's "What's in the pantry entry", asking what sort of wine would pair well with my can of Croatian beef goulash.  Given the label says it is 30% beef I am thinking maybe a cheeky red made from grapes grown in one of the well known Croatian wine making regions.  Open to other suggestions. In a post a few days ago I mused upon the fate of the 3 men (boys?) in the photo with my grandfather and wondered if they all survived TGW and/or the Spanish Flu.  Leanne has asked if my grandfather ever spoke about the Spanish flu.  The short answer is, not that I can remember. The longer answer is that these returned servicemen...

Blog Day 43: Tuesday 05 May 2020 A pleasant autumn day in Bentleigh East, a warm 19 degrees and clear blue skies.  Its funny how you don't miss things until the exception emphasises the absence.  As I walking this morning a light aircraft flew over and I realised that this was the first aircraft of any sort that I had seen for at least a week, with the exception of the police helicopter that is still buzzing around usually late at night.   We all know that some folk are doing things a bit hard at the moment and some are having to make sacrifices to get through these difficult times.  Every now and again I am heartened to see some businesses making a sacrifice to help the less well off in the community.  Simon Johnson Providore of Toorak is certainly making an effort and have advertised in The Age today, and I quote " Right now we have 25% off all caviar in-store and online".   If that doesn't lift your spirits and make you proud to be an Australian I...

Blog Day 42: Monday 04 May 2020 Big day today, drove 4km to the supermarket and back.  I also went for a walk along the Centre Road, Bentleigh shopping strip.  Lots of shops still closed but a few people hanging around the cafes and coffee shops that are open for take away.  Clair, I had a look in that funny little arcade on the other side of the railway line, the second hand bookshop was open, not that you would ever find anything in there.  The lady in there almost seemed a little offended when I asked if there was any rhyme or reason in the way the books were sort of displayed. Woolies had toilet paper on sale today at half price, what a difference a couple of weeks makes. I know that some of you look forward to a new episode in the occasional series of "What's in the pantry Graeme"?   Well, good news there might be a new posting in the series tomorrow, the sense of anticipation should brighten your dreary day in iso. Weekly international virus stat...