Blog Day 539 - Wednesday 22 Sept 2021 - Day 48 of Covid Lockdown V6.0 Extended

Well, the excitement never stops here in good ol Melbourne town, protests and riots in the streets, lockdowns and curfews, and to cap it all off a 6.0 earthquake has just given us all a good rockin and rollin.

I had just got out of the shower and I was towelling myself off prior to undertaking my morning calisthenics and the room started to move.  Looking at the walls swaying it took me a few seconds to work out what was going on and then it was all over.  The quake probably went for 10 seconds but hard to say.  The quake was significant enough to be a bit scary and I was very pleased when room stopped moved.  

Luckily the quake stopped before I decided to rush outside, cause the sight of me fresh from my shower would have been a bigger shock to the neighbours than the earthquake, talk about PTSD.

A couple of wall have collapsed in Chapel street but so far that seems to be the extent of any serious damage.  Some people have reported pictures falling off walls and so forth.


This is a photo I took just around the corner from my place.  They are still looking for the chap who was sitting on the loo, although they have found his newspaper.

As I have been writing this the protests in the city have ramped up again with protesters rampaging through the CBD and ending up on the forecourt and steps of Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance.  Hundreds of protesters converged on the Shrine early in the afternoon and at 4.30pm this afternoon they are still there.  There is a very strong police presence and they are gradually pushing the protesters into a tighter and tighter group plus appear to be grabbing some of the more vocal protesters out of the crowd and taking them away.

The riot police have decided enough is enough and started to fire baton rounds (rubber bullets) into the protesters and that has certainly got them moving.  Gas is also being fired into the crowd and some of the protesters are now igniting flares.  There are loud gunshot type noises going off, either baton rounds, possibly gas pellets or gas canisters.

The mob are now running towards South Melbourne and in the midst of all this a car and a tram have collided in St Kilda Rd.

It will be interesting to see if as the crowd disperses or whether they gather again in another location.

It is now time for your intrepid reporter to retire to the bar for the evening, the mob is moving back towards the CBD so who knows what is going to happen next, but at least they have been moved away from the Shrine.

I haven't even looked at the covid figures for today or even yesterday, I will bring myself up to speed on that over the next day or two.

Although, talking about covide, the premier has been conspicuous by his absence over the last two or three days and at the morning media conference James Merlino appeared without any reason being given for the premier's absence.

Just when we need the premier's strong and reliable hand at the wheel he is missing in action.

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