We’re not quite locked down…. sorry Sydney. But guess what! I still did the drinky thing!
That’s because my man, my mate, my buddy from another whatsit, my friend Dave did the driving! So we went to Hamish’s and played games and I drank the wines SO MUCH WINES and it was a great night with very cool friends. We had pizza. And wine and popcorn. We didn’t have cheese because Hamish didn’t have crackers. Ruined everything. But everything was still great.
So yeah, amazing to see people In Real Life and have a good ole’ In Person games night! It’s been too long. Sending out mad feels to my friends in NSW who are now dealing with what we’ve gone through too many times. This virus is a bitch, especially if you have a right wing government. Yeah, looking at you, NSW, Australia, UK, Brazil, Hungary, USA, Peru, India. And while lockdowns suck donkey balls, they’re necessary and often the very last line of defense. So keep your heads up, NSW. Don’t ignore public helath advice – wear a mask, saty at home, use gloryholes and don’t kiss strangers.
But it was so good to hang with friends in real life again. I strongly recommend it. Especially if there’s good wine and friendship, also alcohol. I mean, friends are great. Like Aristotle sorta said: man is a social animal. I say ‘sorta said’ because – and I’m not expert – but I believe there’s a number of interpretations and what he was really saying is that man is a political animal because we have reasonaing and a moral compass and can speak up for what we believe is right, so shove that up your Pufendorf-Grotius line. I dunno what my point was here.
So yeah, Gladys whilst being supposedly “unlucky in love” has been extraorinarily lucky in COVID – and that luck combined with good contact tracing has meant that Sydney and New South Wales have largely avoided the kind of lockdowns that we in Melbourne have grown so weary of. And maybe that has changed, as the Delta Goodrem varient surges and we see the most significant restrictions on people’s movement in a very long time. And I really hope it’s not too bad. It’s very tempting to gloat – I heard some very not nice things while Victoria grappled with harsh restrictions that there’s an element of schadenfreud at play. But that’s very juvenile and shallow. We are, as our political leaders maintained at the beginnining and subsequently threw aside when political points were there to be taken, all in this together. The virus doesn’t care about borders, or political leanings. It only cares about spreading far and wide – and it does that through human movement.
So while I can understand the temptation to throw mud at our less fortunate Sydney friends, we shouldn’t. We’ve already seen how easy it is for one persson to get infected at a birthday party and then bring the virus with them to Melbourne. What hurts one state can hurt the whole country. This is the time not for laughing at others’ misfortune but for supporting struggling communities. Reaching out to friends who are facing two weeks stuck at home with kids. To friends who might be cancelling holidays and work trips, who might be going without work or school for some time. This is a time for communities to come together – even across state lines and across huge distances.
This virus is sneaky, unrelenting and merciless. But we can defeat it. Get vaccinated if you can. Follow public health advice. Wear a mask where necessary. Don’t French kiss strangers.
But drink wine, if you should. Eat cheese, if you should. Definitely eat chocolate, you absolutely should.
Be nice to others, and be nice to yourselves.