Blog Day 183 - Monday 04 January 2021

The more astute of my readers may have realised that there was no blog yesterday.  You may recall that myself and Andrew ( a regular reader and contributor to the blog) bought some shares in a hotel at the beginning of 2020.  For various reasons obvious to most we have been unable to visit or inspect our investment up until now.  Yesterday myself, Andrew and a mate of his Chris and Flashy who is visiting from FNQ went on a road trip to Woodend to visit the Holgate Brewhouse (est 1999) in the pretty town of Woodend.  Flashy, being from FNQ was dressed as if he was on expedition to the South pole but that is pretty usual for him when visiting southern climes.

The Holgate Brewhouse is a large old pub located in the main street of Woodend and includes a boutique micro brewery, pub, accommodation, tap room and visitor centre and is the object of our investment.  After arriving we walked through a convivial front bar and found our way into one of the dining rooms.  

Immediately on arrival Andrew was up at the bar ordering tasting paddles for all.  The tasting paddles had eight of the brewery's beers of various types and strengths.  

Although not all of us agreed on our favourites with the beer tasting we all found something, or in some cases, many beers that we liked and all agreed that the beers were well made and of excellent quality.

As I was the designated driver I only sipped a little of each of mine but there were enthusiastic volunteers at the table who were prepared to finish them off.

We ordered lunch and each ordered something different and I think that we all agreed that the food was at the top end of good pub food and included a burger, parma, fish and chips and chicken.  (In keeping with the only rule in this blog you will notice that there are no food photos).

After walking past the sparkling new brewhouse (purchased with our investment) we visited the taproom and visitor centre where some enjoyed further libations.  My warning that there would be no stops on the way home ensured a rush for the little boys room before departure.

A number of us purchased supplies of the product (to take home, not for the journey, as in the old days) and Andrew and I received our new investor packs.

An uneventful trip home and after dropping Andrew and Chris off Flashy invited me to one of his son's place for dinner which was lamb and pork cooking on the spit as we arrived.  Most delicious as agreed by all.

All in all  a good day out and unusually for mixing with that company no hangover.

Now to the business of the day, what has the virus thingy been up to in the last 24 - 48 hours.

In the last 24 hours Victoria reported four new cases, one of which was an returned overseas traveller and the other three have been traced to the Black Rock Thai restaurant cluster.  This was from nearly 32,500 test results in the last 24 hours. In the previous 24 hours Victoria reported 3 new local infections from 22,500 test results.  There has been long lines and much disgruntlement at the Victorian testing sites but obviously large numbers are getting tested.

In the last 24 hour NSW reported seven new local cases and 11 in the previous 24 hours. 

It would appear that both Victoria and NSW are on top of the testing and the new local infection figures are currently stable.

There appears to have been an increase in hospitalisations nationally over the last couple of days but as these increases are in NT & Qld I am assuming that they are returned overseas travellers and not from the locally acquired cases in Victoria and NSW.

There is still some difficulties with the closure of the Victorian - NSW border by the Victorian state government leaving many Victorians unable to return home to Victoria, including lots of people who camping along the NSW side of the Murray and people holidaying in the NSW south coast.  This will need to be addressed urgently.  At the moment to return to Vic you need to apply for an exemption and neither the rules for an exemption or the process is clear at the moment and apparently the phone lines to deal with this are constantly engaged.

Worldwide the the infection and death rates have seen no significant improvement over the last couple of days as you can see from the tables below.

Corona Virus Daily Stats – Day 04 – New Year – Covid Normal (as much as possible)

Date	Aus Infected	Aus Increase	Vic Infected	Vic Increase	Aus Death	Vic Death	Aus Hospl	Vic Hospital	Aus ICU	Vic ICU
01/01	28,421	13	20,376	8	909	820	21	0	0	0
02/01	28,441	13	20,388	12	909	820	19	0	0	0
03/01	28,483	14	20,391	3	909	820	26	0	0	0
04/01	28,499	16	20,395	4	909	820	30	0	0	0
05/01
06/01

Date	World Infection	Daily Increase	World Deaths	Daily Increase
01/01	83,771,040	1,448,870	1,824,387	28,095
02/01	84,342,947	571,907	1,834,255	9,868
03/01	84,984,546	641,599	1,843,112	8,857
04/01	85,489,462	504,916	1,850,209	7,097
05/01

Covid Safe Summer Reminders;

Remember; stay safe and sober for the new year, I know I will be; no hugging and kissing strangers on new years eve!; don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things; as the captain of the Graf Spee said "you have to be bigger than anything faster and faster than anything bigger"; to wear your mask indoors (again); if you have a tickle in your throat, get tested (again).