Lucas_Dad

Anyone sick? Everyone well? Anyone stressed? Anyone care?!

Now that grass-roots AFL has been cancelled, the Auskick centre I help out at has pushed back the start of the season until the end of May at the earliest. My 8yo has had all his other extra-curricular activities cancelled for now too. He's taking it really well.

I've struck lucky financially. I was worried about the potential of being put into lock-down and having to buy extra shopping on Newstart allowance. I'm on a really tight budget as it is, but two PPI claims back home have come good. I've received £1000 so far, which I have transferred over here into $. Most welcome I still have two claims outstanding that I'm hoping won't get too delayed by coronavirus, and should be for much more.

Stay we'll y'all

Pollyana

Well I have little super left, retirement plans scrapped and I will have to stay in this hellhole until I die, but in a more immediate capacity I am working for emergency services in the centre coordinating the government agency response in Queensland. Lots of plans in place for us to work from home if necessary, and the only advice I can give is to ignore media hype and just stay focussed and sensible.

GarryP

Currently good, but with lots of things going wrong (this just being one of them), I'm thinking 2020 is cursed. Anyone think the supermarkets are beginning to resemble Soviet stores of the 1980s?

Monitoring the new case rates and hoping Morrison et al finally get a clue and "shut it down". Expect 1000+ cases by this weekend, and 3000 by next if that social distancing doesn't work (I think Italy might be levelling off with their strong measures). Expecting to be working from home by the end of the week - for at least another month.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

spouse of scouse

I'm not sick, I'm slightly stressed about my (very!) old mum and my daughter who's in a wheelchair and is running low on supplies - emergency drive down there tomorrow.

Kids will weather all the palaver much better than most adults, especially if 'their' adults are sensible.

Congrats on the PPI payments, may your next ones be huge ones

Apart from cancelling a trip to the UK and Europe next month, everything else is hunky dory. We're being very careful with our dwindling supply of toilet paper

spouse of scouse

Excellent advice Polly.

Dorothy

I'm ok but have been in contact with 2 people with family who have just returned from Singapore. There's no plan in place for non essentials to work from home just yet but things change regularly.

cresta57

The wife & I currently each work a week on week off system. When the 4th child came into our care 6 months ago I'd just got my business going again and was picking up a few new builders. Reluctant to give up that new found freedom and the ability to converse with adults we/I decided that in order to cope we'd each do a week at home. It's worked well so far. We both get to talk to adults and both spend time with the babies.
I've got the eldest child off school, she's had a heavy cold, nothing more serious just a cold. Teaching staff have been openly hostile towards her to the point she was told to ring me to come and pick her up this morning. In one breath they are telling her she will fail her assignments in the next they are sending her home. The 10 yr old is bullet proof and strong as an ox she just gets up and goes to school, not a care in the world. The two babies are a worry the 20 month old is a bit run down and whiny the 6 month old is oblivious, just grins all the time. Keeping them healthy is going to be a challenge.
Deb works in a nursing home, they're talking about going into lock down. I usually take the babies in to see the residents a couple of times a week. Not allowed to do that until further notice, the kids love it as do the residents but seems like a reasonable precaution.
Shopping is a worry, we usually bulk buy as there's 6 of us. Currently we're down to about 10 day's worth of dunny roll. We simply can't buy rice,pasta, sugar, flour & meat was non existent in Woolies this morning. With two under 20 months we buy wipes by the box, I've started taking both kids in the trolley as the looks I get when I buy a full box of wipes could kill.
We have a couple of hotel rooms booked in Brisbane this weekend and were taking all four kids to watch the Broncos. That's canned, we can't get a refund on the rooms so we're still heading down and will do a few fun things with them while we're there. I was thinking watching pop make pints of Guinness disappear might be fun, sadly I'm out voted.

moneypenny20

I've had a cold brewing for nearly a week and it's finally coming out. No dodgy symptoms and I'm an unsociable cow at the best of times. However work can not be done from home so I'm having to rearrange our roster so I'm not around anyone, relatively easy to do. Most of my volunteers are in the 65+ bracket so I'd rather not infect them however harmless my cold may be. We may close to the public, not sure yet, they seem to be self isolating so we're very quiet. Worse thing for me at the moment is that my daughter has become unemployed for reasons beyond her control, she has no money and no chance of finding hospitality/retail work in the UK at the current time. We can't send her money as she's applying for rent assist and job seekers so she can't be having random amounts of money going into her account. Not that we can afford to send her much anyway. She's hugely stressed and so are we.

Kim67

We are well.

I work for two music schools and we have just started online lessons for those choosing self isolation or those forcibly in lockdown which is working well. We have removed all toys and books from our play areas and are wiping down instruments between each lesson. We've made our own hand sanitiser and a local pharmacy has made us another batch.

Two of my teens are off to Perth tomorrow to visit their elderly grandmother. Their father always chooses the best times to travel. They'll probably only be able to wave to her through her window as shes 80 and not in the best of health. I hope they're not stuck in WA for an extended period as the youngest is in Year 12.

Alf and I have toilet paper, meat, veges, rice, pasta, tin food etc in case we have to self isolate, but we usually have heaps of those things in the house anyway. While the kids are away, we'll just go to work and then hang out with the two of us at home. Not a real lot has to change in our life - we'll hang on the deck, have a wine, bbq and wave to the neighbours over the fence. Netflix, Foxtel, BE, swimming will be our entertainment and we should save heaps of money not buying petrol.

Beoz

All good. Wife and I been in the office via the car and today are annoying each other at home. Kids are in school and day care and it shall remain that way until instructed otherwise.

I have been following Singapore as an example of this. Very interesting to say the least. My office is all work from home in Singapore as its been for weeks however kids in school there. Singapore started to come down the other side of the curve but had a big spike today, 44 cases, 30 came in from abroad, so they have implemented the 14 day rule for those coming in.

Its also interesting their detective system. They have been tracking down the spider web of cases stemming from a source, rounding them up and isolating. At these numbers easy to do but should it rise they may have to give up on that.

No deaths yet in Singapore.

Tom Sawyer

Partner and Mother in Law currently in self isolation as they got back from overseas on Tuesday but no illnesses indicated, or anything in the family, and overall not that concerned by the virus as we are all in a lower risk age range and with no major health issues so hopefully we should be OK even if we do get it. Just really the Mother in Law in her 70's locally that we need to be aware of contact-wise, and my mother is in a care home in the UK which has basically gone into isolation.

However, we both work in the airline industry (Cabin Crew & Engineer), so a bit unsure where this is going to leave us by the end of the year......or next week for that matter!

DeadVim

The booze will likely claim me before Fostersvirus.

Mandatory working from home for me, what’s not to like?

Dreamy

We're all good. I have diabetes and Mr Dreamy has rheumatoid arthritis and so on immune suppressing medication. He's a Government worker and although they've kind of backed off everyone working from home, because of his compromised immune system, he's been able to. That brings its own challenges, especially as the two kids who are still in uni are now having to study online and the one looking for work has had a couple of interviews cancelled.

Believe me, there isn't enough alcohol in the world to deal with that

I had to go see the doctor this morning (an unrelated matter) and he's said that apart from my flu shot, he doesn't want to see me near the surgery again for at least 3 months, and if I need to I can get a phone consultation.

scrubbedexpat098

I'm in port headland at the moment, and it's down to essential staff only so I feel quite special. I feel for everyone on zero hour contracts, no stimulus package from scomo is going to cut it. Suspend all essential bills and payments as Italy did, that's the only way everyone will be safe from financial ruin.

quoll

As my son said yesterday, it's a bit like being in a lifeboat. DH and I are on day 5 of mandatory isolation from entering the country (from UK) and are taking it very seriously, Fortunately we have a son who supplies us but he's pulled the plug and is taking his daughters and their mother down to the bush at the weekend. He's a first grade prepper so he's in his element. He prepped for us returnees too so we are set for many months without external assistance (rice and beans will get a bit old after a few days though!!! But there are a couple of freezers full of venison and kangaroo - which I dont like!). He's been predicting this for at least 10 years and preparing for it. My other son is in London - much scarier prospects especially as he is military - so he's probably going to be very busy in the next few weeks. Sadly, I've sort of lost my knitting mojo but I have plenty of stash to last me, oh, about 20 years of self isolation!