Blog Day 308 (or 7.62) - Friday 29 January 2021 

Wonder who will identify the relevance between 308 and 7.62

Dark and dull day outside today and has been raining heavily all morning and by the looks of the radar it has also set in for the afternoon.  When I say heavy I mean heavy by our standards not by FNQ standards.

I was up early this morning at 6.45am (early for a retired gentleman anyway) to attend a talk presented by the British Western Front Association (WFA) on "The Royal Artillery War Memorial and the Work of the Veteran as Sculptor".

This presentation was particularly relevant for me as the sculptor that they focused on was Charles Sargeant Jagger.  Jagger was a TGW veteran who has served with the BEF at Gallipoli and the Western Front.  After the war he designed and constructed a number of war memorials and cenotaphs including the massive Royal Artillery Memorial in Hyde Park Corner, pretty much next to the AIF memorial also in Hyde Park Corner.

The relevance to me is that we have two of his works at the Shrine, we have two of his statues, called 'Wipers' and 'the Driver'.  They are typical of his work, larger than life and showing the British soldier as stoic, determined and demonstrating endurance and fortitude.  These are two of my favourite works at the Shrine and this talk has given me much more information the bore the school kids with.

"Wipers" This is the bloke I want next to me in the trenches.

The Driver (taken of a nightime with a hand held camera)

Both photos from the author's private collection.

Due to two more people testing positive to the virus in NZ the Aus/NZ travel bubble has been suspended for a further 72 hours.  Three people have now tested positive in NZ after being released from hotel quarantine.  The suspension of the bubble arrangement means that anybody arriving in Australia from NZ will need to go into 14 day hotel quarantine.

As at today Victoria has gone 23 days with zero community transmission of the virus.  Victoria reported one new case yesterday who was a ROTs, NSW reported 3 and Qld reported one for a total of five Australia wide, all ROTs.

Victoria received the results of 15,500 tests in the last 24 hours, NSW 11,900 and Qld nearly 7,000.

Victoria currently has 27 active cases, all ROTs, NSW has 26 plus 50 ROTs and Qld has 12 also all ROTs.  Nationally there are 84 active cases of which 58 are ROTs plus NSW's 50 ROTs.

Further good news in the hospitalisation figures.  Currently there are 20 people in hospital due to the virus Australia wide.  In January the hospital figures peaked at 48 on 16/01. There are currently none in ICU.

Worldwide there were 624,000 new infections in the last 24 hours taking the total infections for the pandemic to over 102 million.  There were 17,500 deaths reported in the last 24 hours.  These figures have been climbing again as the week continues to a peak on Friday or Saturday (Australian time).  Although difficult to make comparisons it would appear that the current weekly peaks are not as high as the previous week's peaks.  Although the death figures are remaining stubbornly high.

Corona Virus Daily Stats – Day 28 – New Year 2021 – 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	28,518	14	20,399	4	909	820	26	0	0	0
06/01	28,533	10	20,402	3	909	820	36	0	0	0
07/01	28,544	8	20,402	0	909	820	35	0	0	0
08/01	28,658	21	20,403	1	909	820	40	0	0	0
09/01	28,582	12	20,404	1	909	820	40	0	0	0
10/01	28,595	13	20,410	6	909	820	41	0	0	0
11/01	28,611	16	20,411	1	909	820	47	0	1	0
12/01	28,633	19	20,411	0	909	820	43	0	1	0
13/01	28,647	13	20,414	3	909	820	45	0	1	0
14/01	28,658	8	20,414	0	909	820	47	0	1	0
15/01	28,665	7	20,414	2	909	820	47	0	1	0
16/01	28,689	20	20,417	3	909	820	48	0	1	0
17/01	28,707	18	20,424	7	909	820	47	0	2	0
18/01	28,721	13	20,428	4	909	820	36	0	2	0
19/01	28,730	9	20,432	4	909	820	33	0	1	0
20/01	28,740	10	20,433	3	909	820	32	0	1	0
21/01	28,747	7	20,433	1	909	820	33	0	1	0
22/01	28,753	5	20,434	1	909	820	34	0	1	0
23/01	28,760	5	20,437	3	909	820	32	0	0	0
24/01	28,765	4	20,437	1	909	820	26	0	0	0
25/01	28,777	11	20,442	6	909	820	26	0	0	0
26/01	28,779	3	20,443	1	909	820	26	0	0	0
27/01	28,785	5	20,445	2	909	820	23	0	0	0
28/01	28,793	7	20,447	3	909	820	21	0	0	0
29/01	28,799	5	20,448	1	909	820	20	0	0	0

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	86,041,606	552,144	1,859,179	8,970
06/01	86,834,551	792,945	1,875,519	16,340
07/01	87,619,457	784,906	1,889,556	14,037
08/01	88,495,963	876,506	1,906,630	17,074
09/01	89,331,906	835,943	1,921,160	14,530
10/01	90,077,029	745,123	1,934,801	13,641
11/01	90,662,902	585,873	1,942,390	7,589
12/01	91,298,922	636,020	1,952,020	9,729
13/01	91,983,757	684,835	1,968,523	16,503
14/01	92,747,904	764,147	1,985,405	16,882
15/01	93,507,781	759,877	2,001,209	15,804
16/01	94,282,394	774,613	2,016,604	15,395
17/01	94,949,414	667,020	2,030,914	14,310
18/01	95,479,062	529,648	2,039,601	8,687
19/01	96,005,763	526,701	2,049,238	9,637
20/01	96,621,459	615,696	2,065,624	16,386
21/01	97,279,743	658,284	2,081,541	15,917
22/01	98,032,303	752,560	2,097,737	16,196
23/01	98,736,967	704,664	2,116,159	18,422
24/01	99,293,021	556,054	2,128,702	12,543
25/01	99,755,652	462,631	2,138,343	9,641
26/01	100,280,252	524,600	2,149,387	11,044
27/01	100,798,715	518,463	2,164,678	15,291
28/01	101,378,169	579,854	2,181,545	16,867
29/01	102,002,513	624,344	2,199,092	17,547

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); to add Brissie to your list of places to avoid; at a 1st birthday party be first in line for the fairy bread; try not to spend too much at Bunnings; bowls is the only game where the players are allowed to have a bias; if you see a big hole, take a photo; vote 1 Trump in four years time; brighten up your day by patting a puppy; don't start lining up for your jab yet; if it is 40 degrees where you are keep up your fluid intake, I know that I will be; if you venture outdoors take your umbrella.