Blog Day 159 - Friday 11 December 2020

 One hundred and forty plus days all the zeroes for Victoria even including returned travellers in hotel quarantine.

The police minister, Lisa Neville, nearly matched the premier's comments from early in the pandemic when he told us it wasn't the time to "get on the beers".  Ms Neville was telling us about a person in hotel quarantine who tried to order a some beer for delivery from Dan Murphy.  Ms Neville told us that nobody would be receiving a delivery of a "crate of beer".  Can anybody remember when they last saw a crate of beer in a Dan Murphy store or anywhere else for that matter.

One of my regular readers and correspondents, Andrew, and I recently went halves in a half a pig, so my freezer is currently chockers with a quarter of a porker.  These pigs are obtained through a friend of Andrew's and are free range, country bred and a traditional breed and they are delicious.  Full of flavour, very rich and of course good for you.  I cooked a couple of the pork chops in my air fryer last night for my dinner and you should have seen the layer of that fat collected in the bottom of the fryer.  Lucky I cooked them in the healthy air fryer.

Another of my regular readers and correspondents, Flashy from FNQ, recently provided me with a couple of quotes of a military ilk and I thought that they were worth including here.  By way of background Flashy was a Captain in the 51st Battalion (Army Reserve FNQ) also known as the 'eyes and ears of the north', or as a mate of his calls it the 'ear, nose and throat of the north'.  

We both share an interest in military history and a few years ago we toured parts of Europe on the now notorious "Battlefields and Burgundy" tour.

Flashy's Quotes; 

"It is the soldier not the poet who has given us freedom of speech"

"No bastard  ever won war a by dying for his country.  He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country".

And one of mine;

"The quickest way to end a war is to lose it".  (I think that is from the French military regulations).

And one from a Beefeater at the Tower of London;

"The victors get to write history, that is why there are so many blank pages in French history books".

And while we are getting stuck into the French another from me;

"The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour was the first French naval victory in 200 years". 

 Who said that you don't learn things on this blog.

 The Victorian government has introduced a voucher scheme to encourage travel within the state. The first 40,000 vouchers became available at 10.00am this morning to be issued online on a first come first served basis.  Can anybody guess what happened at 10.00am this morning?  You are right at 10 seconds past 10.00 the application site crashed and at 12.46pm it is still not available.  Who would have thought it.

How come nothing works first time around in this state.

Nine new virus cases reported Australia wide in the last 24 hours, all in NSW and all returned travellers.  There are currently 49 active cases Australia wide and 48 of those are returned overseas travellers.  Nationally there are 38 people in hospital due to the virus, none in Victoria and none in ICU.

Worldwide things are still looking grim with 661,000 new infections in the last 24 hours bring the total of new infections to over 70 million.  There were 12,800 deaths in the last 24 hours bringing the total number of deaths worldwide for the pandemic to 1,587,000.

The US is currently reporting something like 3,000 deaths per day, which is by far the highest daily death rate in the world. This is by far the highest number of deaths by country in the last 24 hours, Italy is next with 880. 

Corona Virus Daily Stats – Day 5 – Covid Safe Summer 

Date	Aus Infected	Aus Increase	Vic Infected	Vic Increase	Aus Death	Vic Death	Aus Hospl	Vic Hospital	Aus ICU	Vic ICU
7/12	27,972	7	20,345	0	908	820	29	0	0	0
8/12	27,984	12	20,345	0	908	820	38	0	0	0
9/12	27,992	8	20,345	0	908	820	32	0	0	0
10/12	28,000	8	20,345	0	908	820	34	0	0	0
11/12	28,009	9	20,345	0	908	820	38	0	0	0
12/12

Date	World Infection	Daily Increase	World Deaths	Daily Increase
07/12	67,369,090	522,049	1,541,330	6,986
08/12	67,902,378	533,288	1,549,611	8,281
09/12	68,570,613	668,235	1,562,562	12,951
10/12	69,209,416	638,803	1,574,726	12,164
11/12

Remember: Wear your mask when you are buying your Bunnings sausage; no holidays in Britain for a while yet; be careful planning your computer upgrades (my most recent upgrade cost me $1,400); somebody is probably checking your poo; if in doubt get tested (it doesn't hurt, honestly); get the catgut strings in your tennis racket checked; as from 11.59pm tonight you can have a beer at the bar; keep an eye out for Germans with funny little moustaches; don't let possum pee rot your woodwork, beer comes in slabs not crates.