Wednesday 21 September 2022

A few things happening around the place this week, with the covid figures moving into the background with weekly reporting instead of daily.

The big media event this week was surprisingly not the Brownlow medal broadcast but the funeral of HRH Queen Elizabeth II.  It has been claimed that about 4 billion people worldwide watched the broadcast of the funeral.  Of course there were hundreds of thousands watching the funeral live in the streets of London and the roads leading to Windsor castle.

Although we can sometimes be critical of the British over certain things such as food, warm beer, lousy cricket teams, not showering etc. However they do certain things very well and by that I am talking about both pomp and circumstance.

The pageantry of the funeral was extraordinary and the whole thing ran like clockwork although I daresay there were some anxious moments behind the scenes.

Once again Hazza and Megs were relegated to the second row in the church sitting with the cousins and other second rate royals, Hazza looked like he was sucking a lemon.  I wonder if Hazza & Megs have worked out yet that you don't fuck with the "firm".

I am sure that most of my readers in Australia and overseas watched all or some of the funeral.  I lasted until about 11.30 AEST before I called it a night.  

Whilst talking about the passing of HRH it is interesting to note that the AFLW footy people refused to hold a minutes silence at their recent matches as it was also the indigenous round and a minutes silence for the passing of the Queen may have been offensive. 

I would have thought given the recent score lines in the AFLW more time could be spent worrying about improving footy skills instead of being woke and politically correct.

Of course this coming weekend is an extra-long weekend with a public holiday on Thursday for a day of mourning and a public holiday on Friday for the AFL grand final, although the grandy is played on Saturday, work that one out!

The grand final is being played by Geelong and Sydney.  Geelong gave somebody a hiding to get to the grand final but in a real nail biter Sydney beat Collingwood by a point to get to it's spot in the big game.  As you know I don't really follow the footy but even I experience some delight in seeing Collingwood beaten by a point.

I've got a few things happening at the Shrine over the next few days.  On Thursday afternoon I have my usual shift, although being school holidays and a public holiday there won't be any school groups but there could be a few locals and visitors around.  On Friday I am taking a dozen or so members of my U3A Maritime and Military History Group around the Shrine on a guided tour, how lucky are they.  

On Monday I have the quarterly Shrine volunteer lunch to attend.  We are usually brought up to date on events and happenings around the place by the CEO and there may be a guest speaker.  However the main reason the volunteers attend is for the party pies, sandwiches and little cakes provided for our lunch.  Under any circumstances do not get between a volunteer and a party pie.

With the states now reporting their covid figures only weekly it is difficult to record and report on the current state of play covid wise.  From what I can see it would appear that both nationally and in the glorious state of Victoria the covid figures are heading in the right direction, downwards that is.

The following are some of the Victorian figures and for the sake of comparison I have put the figures from two weeks ago in brackets, where available.

    Vic daily covid infection increase 21/09        1,568 (2,237)

    Vic active infections as at 21/09                      9,806 (12,270)

    Vic covid hospitalization as at 21/09                 144 (222)

    Vic covid ICU as at 21/09                                     7 (18)

    Vic average daily deaths week ended 21/09      15  (9)

The average daily death figures are hopelessly inaccurate given gaps in daily reporting and then large daily numbers as figures are reported and compiled.