Blog Day 141 - Monday 23 November 2020

Big storms here overnight with 60 something mm of rain in this area and some massive thunderclaps and very close lightning.  I hardly had time to say one mississippi; two mississippi between the lightning and the thunder.  It is still raining with more to come.

Andrew, one of my regular correspondents has advised me that our half a pig has arrived.  A friend of his has access to farm bred free range porkers and we have gone halves in one.  The meat off these pigs is magnificent, very dark and with a layer of fat on it that you couldn't jump over and lots and lots of flavour, nothing like the insipid pork you get from the supermarket.  You can feel your arteries hardening just looking at it. I have to pop over to his place this afternoon and pick up my share. 

At midnight last night the border between Victoria and NSW was reopened, that means travel between the two states can occur without any quarantine in either direction.  The border control post at Albury/Wodonga has been removed and all three airlines have recommenced flights between Melbourne and Sydney.

The guy from Melbourne airport was on the radio this morning and he said that during the pandemic their passenger traffic had dropped from 100,000 plus per day to around 1,000 per day.  They are expecting about 8,000 today and increasing from there.  Should be good for the Qantas shares.

Now here is a funny story.  A couple were arrested in South Melbourne for running clandestine drug lab in their garage, as well as drugs and drug making paraphernalia the police found $13 million dollars in cold hard cash in the house.  I don't care what you say but that is a serious amount of money.  I had visions of them living like Scrooge McDuck, sitting in chairs made of bundles of currency and diving into a swimming pool full of notes and coins.

Good news - day 24 of zero zero in Victoria.

Another day of zero new infections and zero deaths in Victoria with only one active case in Victoria who is currently still in hospital.  There 8 new virus cases Australia wide in the last 24 hours with 5 in NSW and 3 in Qld, all overseas travellers.  Currently there are 92 active cases nationally with 1 in Victoria, 14 in NSW, 14 in Qld, 18 in WA and 37 in SA.  Test results were down in both Victoria and NSW for the last 24 hours at 7,300 and 7,800 respectively which is a little concerning.  It will be interesting to see the testing results tomorrow.

The worldwide figures showed the traditional weekend decline in numbers for the last 24 hours with 495,000 new infections and 7,500 new deaths.  Although lower than the last few days they are still very high when compared to previous Monday figures.

Corona Virus Daily Stats – Towards Covid Normal – 2^nd 14 day stage – Day 1

Date	Aus Infected	Aus Increase	Vic Infected	Vic Increase	Aus Death	Vic Death	Aus Hospl	Vic Hospital	Aus ICU	Vic ICU
22/11	27,819	12	20,345	0	907	819	22	1	0	0
23/11	28,828	8	20,345	0	907	819	22	1	0	0
24/11
25/11

Date	World Infection	Daily Increase	World Deaths	Daily Increase
23/11	58,970,438	494,689	1,393,227	7,452
24/11
25/11

And now the Towards Covid Normal remembers;

Remember: Wear your mask when you are buying your Bunnings sausage.