Image: Wiki ClipArt Bit hard to know what we are thinking. Here we have been shopping non stop since Covid hit. It has been relentless for supermarkets and other shops. We seem to need all this food. There has not been a quiet period since 2020 and maybe it will never happen. What is the matter with us? We are also quite divided as to our approaches to Covid. Some are happy to be maskless, have no problem being sick or allowing others to be sick. The level of illness is a health crisis no one is taking seriously. Just in my own sphere there are gastric illnesses, heart ailments, strokes, respiratory illnesses, vertigo and dizziness, anemia, fatigue, flu, Covid. I have never seen or heard of so many people sick. We really need to sort this out. We are no longer sure if a fourth booster will help because there is information saying BA5 is not helped by our vaccine and that is on the way. We are being pulled down and messed around. Workplace absenteeism is normal. I should like to know how much absenteeism is affecting schools. Certainly affecting kindergartens. Whole families are sick. Social clubs are affected by illness and workplaces are under strain. Not wearing a mask is silly. It helps. Sanitising helps, social distancing helps. Shopping seems to soothe?! We need a plan to get out of this because we are only a month into winter. We need to stop concerning ourselves with pretending it is all underlying conditions and start things about what it actually is we need to do to improve our health and welfare. For us, a change of state and federal government has been beneficial. It takes some getting used to , though We have been emotionally bashed and brow beaten for nearly 10 years and so people are worn out. They will rally. Maybe it will be slow and sure. We need a plan!
Image: webstockreview Bell Cares community based home care service is the brain child of Lesley Bryce. It is worth reading the linked article to understand just how good this idea is and how we need to lend support to thinking it through so that community based homecare becomes a solid part of the Australian way of life. It has been established in the town of Bell in Queensland. The article mentions it is going to be trialled in other Queensland council areas and also in South Australia and Western Australia. This idea centres on establishing this programme in towns which are quite a distance from city areas and hence facilities. It is about using local community members to help each other. At the moment it is privately funded. There needs to be a business model where it is properly funded as a concept so that wages are guaranteed and there is an avenue of employment for those who wish to help others.
For many , it would be attractive to have local work. We all go through different stages of life and need flexible working arrangements at times. It is a way of skills sharing and skills upgrading. The helpers can learn from those who need help. It ought not only apply to those who are older or older and infirm. It ought to apply to anyome who needs help. Not everyone has the physical strength to complete some tasks like shifting furniture. Not everyone can get their bins and rubbish out the front of their place. Not everyone can sew buttons on or repair curtains. Everyday there would be people who have things they want to do but cannot do them themselves. We can go online to find and hire helpers but if we centered it on our communities and local areas it would draw people together. There would be other benefits. It would be a different way of getting small job tradie help , medical help, housework help . I got someone to repair my fridge. He was someone who liked to work but could no longer do anywhere close to a full time job. He lived in the local area. He was easy to deal with and it was better than what often becomes tradie hoo ha. If he doesn't want to do the job he says. He was happy just doing bits and pieces. I got my fridge repaired. He got to use skills he loved using.
One of the market gaps is people who own homes but don't have the income or energy to run them properly any more. Some of that is the process of ageing. Some of it is illness. We haven't even seen the impact of long covid yet , so I am thinking creating community based help and making that normal is a good way to help people keep thriving.
SA Health has created an informative little video which you can find on the SA Health site under the Stop the Spread in SA link. It is 30 seconds long and so a good video for short attention spans. People are busy and preoccupied at the moment and concentration levels seem to be less than optimum. People are confused about what is going on. Some are in denial but everyone knows we keep losing people to Covid. Ten in the last two days. We have such a high infection rate for a small state. People worry about the spread, some could not care less and it sets up a lack of ease and tension. Even if you are pretending, getting Covid is no fun. Giving it to someone is disturbing and seeing people you care about die, because this disease can kill , is making people worry considerably. Even if they are putting on a “normal” front, the truth is still there and cannot be avoided. Too many people are getting it and hating it. Some can shrug it off. Others are feeling really depleted and depressed by it. Like the rest of the country our hospital numbers and infections are up. The death rate this year from Covid is horrible. I feel for those who are losing parents, grandparents and family members. It is tragic, the moreso because we are faking coping.
This little video is unassuming but makes the points clearly. There is something you can do. You can get tested and you can wear a mask. You can stay home if unwell. Our case numbers are up today because people have had the sense to get back out there and get tested. Hope they put their masks back on too. Double masks in public are so much more effective than if one person hasn’t worn one. It is easy. Testing takes far more effort , but thank goodness people have got back to that good practice! We will get there if we follow good practice and help each other.
Image: all-free-download Every day we get up and every day the news package with bait arrives. Unpleasantly predictable. Media have become routine news dumpers and very little is discussed in an impartial fashion. Once in a while we are pleasantly surprised. It is a shame. Limiting news approaches is limiting ideas and involvement in any genuine sense. The repetition is wearing. The facile thinking is unnecessary. The sameness is mind numbing. We need to look at ideas and explore them properly. We would all be a lot happier. Today was no different. I use Edge as a browser normally but have come back to Chrome just to get some open links to something which ought to be important news in South Australia but is being drowned out by political clap trap and Elon Musk buying Twitter. Truth is, he could use all that money to do what Peter Malinauskas is doing, and make a difference for the the homeless. His money , though, so he can do as he pleases with it and he wants to buy Twitter. Our media is being aggregated into fewer sites owned by particular types of people and so we are now limited in what we are served .
I found it hard to get links to articles about what Premier Malinauskas is doing. On Edge the links were behind paywalls. On Chrome there wasn't much choice. So I offer the only two links I could find. We need to ensure our local news is broadcast across a number of media outlets so people can read it and know about it. I think working towards solving our homelessness problem needs us behind it and to do that we need to know what Mr. Malinauskas is doing. He is having a good look at social housing and working out how we can have more homes available through he Housing Trust. Affordable housing is critical to a safe and happy life. Be it everso humble and all of that. He is also putting significant funding into centres and organisations which have already been working hard to help homeless people. He seriously wants to end homelessness for us and that is a worthy aim for us all to achieve together under his leadership. May there be access to decent information so we can get this idea off the ground as a state.
Well, it is not actually new, but Dymocks in the city mall has a new , swish venue. It was heartwarming to hear that people in Adelaide had got there really early in the morning to visit the new premises . It was wonderful to hear the queue had been very long and Adelaide people were still so much in love with books. It was reassuring to know that Dymocks has just endured and grown stronger in the Mall , no matter what. We had a Borders store in the Mall close by to Dymocks which opened with much fanfare, enticed and entranced everyone and then it closed down. I loved Borders. It was a whole new book experience but always ended up at Dymocks afterwards on the same day to get the other sorts of books I wanted. Both stores had a wide range of books and were well stocked. Dymocks endured because it is solid. It has a loyal community. It is a great shop to buy calendars for the new year. It has book type gifts which make great presents. It offers a sound selection of foreign language books. It really does bargains when it is has a markdown table and I have found some fabulous books on those tables. I have also found great cookery books and then good books for children and for my own reading. Dymocks offers what readers want and if you are a lover of sitting with a real book and just enjoying it, then Dymocks does not let you down. It is the range and then the efficient, professional service. I am looking forward to seeing Dymocks in its new home.
It is sad the Regent Theatre is no longer open but I feel Dymocks is a worthy successor to the venue. The Regent will hold memories for many people in Adelaide but sadly cinemas seem to be losing their place in the lifestyle we live now and coronavirus has damaged things which were important to us. This particular changeover is a good one. We could not stop the Regent from losing trade, but we can bring people back to the venue so they can enjoy the beauty of it and celebrate our love of books. So many Adelaide people are big readers. The pandemic has disrupted some readers, I know. They just can't sit and read a book anymore. My way is to sit and read a chapter, maybe two , a night. It is how I have held on to my reading. A book brings you a perspective nothing else can. I did not want to lose my connection to reading. Hopefully this new Dymocks will rekindle that love of reading we have always valued. My approach means I read at least a dozen books a year. I am happy with that.
There is a lovely review of the new store on Play&Go.
You can find the Adelaide store on Facebook and read how heartwarmed they were they got so much support when they reopened.
Image : David Speirs Today we discovered David Speirs is the new Liberal Party leader. He was their environment minister. I knew nothing about him. This is why we need local and broader news coverage. We hear about the same select few politicians and we hear the same messages about them. We need to know all our politicians and who they are. One family member did know him from when he was an MP for Bright. She lived in his electorate at the time. She said she heard nothing from the Labor MP at the time but knew a lot about David Speirs because he kept his electorate informed and was across his social media skills. He was excellent for a year for all the things they needed doing in the area and then , she said, he became a pea brain and she had no idea what brought about the change. He has since become the MP for Black which basically covers coastal areas and has worked hard on the environment there which is something the people in that area would value. He won his seat back with a 6.5% swing against him to Labor. Whether this was part of the state swing to Labor in our recent election or a swing against David Speirs is yet to be discovered. The Labor candidate for Black , Alex Dighton, is strong and competent.
David Speirs was elected as party leader with a significant number of votes so he does have the support of his party. Like Premier Malinauskas he is fit, enthusiastic and can be a very good listener. If we have two positive people at the head of our state we shall benefit from that and they ought to be able to form a good alliance because they have common ground. Enough of the adversarial politics. Time to work together and collaborate for the benefit of all and then, when the time comes, may the best person win.
I was sitting in a park at McLaren Vale in our famous wine region. It is just a lovely place to visit whether you like wine or not. There was a massive whoosh and something sped within a millimeter of my ear and the noise was huge. It was the only time I have ever been swooped by a magpie. I got up and walked slowly to another part of he park and sat down and , for me, the problem was over. I must have been near a magpie nest. I don't know what they teach in primary schools these days but they used to teach children to wear and ice cream container or a bike helmet with plastic zip tags poked into it if you were walking in areas where magpies swooped. I confess I have never seen children wearing those things ever.
It happens. We tend to be able to avoid it but it is very disconcerting if you are swooped by magpies . I have not heard of aggressive attacks here , which does not mean they haven't happened. I have heard of aggressive attacks interstate. Could be that here there is more room for bird and human to get away from each other easily. The statistics bear me out. South Australia is not high on magpie attacks compared with other states.
Generally we live and let live with magpies. They can be huge birds. Some people feed them and they become firm friends. Magpies can imitate lots of sounds and are good socialisers. I have never fed the ones which have always come to my front garden. They love a freshly mown lawn. They are also birds with social responsibility firmly built in, hence the swooping. They protect their own. I watched my two magpies protect a rosella in the protea bush next door from the neighbour's cat. I was watching because I thought the rosella might need help. I need not have bothered. The two maggies herded the cat away from the rosella and would not let the cat move back to the shrub until the rosella had recovered itself from the worry of a possible feline attack and had flown happily away. When I saw maggies do that, I had nothing but respect for them. They used their size, strength and strategies to keep the rosella safe but they did not harm the cat. I love hearing them in the morning. It is one of the sounds I wake up to here.
Our new Premier, Peter Malinauskas, is getting himself, his plans and South Australia known. Speaking at the National Press Club is a big undertaking which requires thorough research and preparation. You are before an audience who will consider detail and content deeply. You are broadcast to the nation. He acquitted himself extremely well by respecting the standards of the NPC , representing our state, representing himself and in creating a platform for some decent national discussions about our future.
When he dresses formally , his attire is impeccable. He is just as likely to come on our screens, though, togged up in his running gear, and chat away to us for a bit. He adapts himself and his language to the moment. He has the sort of social awareness you expect from a good leader and he is enthusiastic and positive. You don't have to agree with everything he says but you do value his thinking input which he backs up with action. He is a good thinker but he is an equally a good communicator. It says on his Wikipedia entry he is pro nuclear. Looking forward to the debates and thinking around that. As a state we are generally anti nuclear. He listens, though, and he thinks about what matters.
His three slides on the make up of the German, Canadian and Australian economies stopped everyone and forced them to think differently. Here was a man giving us some really meaty information which was forcing us to get out of our thinking rut and think hard about what he was saying. Think deeply about our future. You could see it on everyone's faces. These are people who like to think and very little which currently comes out in Australia is going to challenge you as a thinker. That changed yesterday. Peter Malinauskas shot his arrow very straight and we realised that yes, we can't keep doing drivel and dribble. We wanted to have something decent to get our brains moving so we can move on and change our country.
He was born in South Australia, educated in South Australia but comes from a Lithuanian, Hungarian migrant background. He knew what it meant to come to Australia and contribute to your own life and the prosperity of Australia. He knew exactly how to get through to us about not welcoming refugees and immigrants. He knew because he had lived it through his family history.
He also spoke about the importance and value of early education as an investment for the future. He seems to have a plan for education in South Australia and we shall see how it unfolds. He understands the importance of the early years as a valuable asset for the future.
It was good to listen to someone with vision, who could really think, who did not just approach things simply but was prepared to make it all a dialogue. We will talk ourselves through this to the future. Repeating guided phrases has landed us in a big ditch because we just keep spinning the wheels. He is the voice of change and should not be overlooked.
I have been playing with my blog. That had not been on my mind but I had given permission for Google to put ads on my blog and it went haywire! It is fair , if I have a free blog, that I do something to help the host fund things like offering me free website place. I had specified to put the ads in the sidebar or under the posts. That does not destroy the look of my blog. The ads are not intrusive and we are all happy. Somehow banner ads were turning up in the Header of my blog and it was an abomination. Not on Edge, not on Safari but on my iPad and on my Android phone and , presumably, on Chrome. It looked horrible. Nothing like problem solving and puzzling. I could not find anywhere or anything to take the image ad from my Header. Soooo, I decided I would put my own image in and then I went on to do a bit of decorating and I am well pleased.
For a start, Christies Beach is my favourite beach. Always has been. It is a great view, the ocean sounds are powerful and it is not overly crowded. People walk on the beach, take their dogs for a walk, go for a bit of a surf or swim if they feel brave. The undertow on this beach is powerful. Some puddle around on their boats or jet skis. Little kids get to build sand castles and it is just nice, outdoorsy fun. You can walk around that cliff on the left of my image and get yourself to Port Noarlunga, the next beach down and a little town full of atmosphere.
Further down the coast again , on the Seaford train line, is the bike track , The Shiraz Trail, which takes you through beautiful countryside to another lovely village, Willunga. Adelaide people are not full on fitness fanatics per se, but we do like to get out in the fresh air and walk, cycle, do a bit of sport or enjoy the wide open spaces. We have some good places to visit and Christies and The Shiraz Trail get you to some of them.
We are doing well. We have infected so many more people between yesterday and today. We are winning. Best number of infections we have ever had. Mr. Malinauskas is thankfully keeping our vaccination clinics open. Who wanted to shut them when we are trying to get everyone sick and vaccines will help keep them less sick, alive even? We have nothing to offer the under 5s except sending them home from kindy in shame if they cough or have a runny nose. We are totally divorced from Adelaide being in hayfever month from November to May. Some of us can look forward to having flu and covid in winter. Brighton Secondary School has shifted its students and staff online and other schools have done that with some students as well. Was that wise? Shouldn't we just keep infecting everyone? We need to get the masks off at Easter, though. Best thing, eh? We enjoyed having Christmas disrupted so we were isolating or staying away from family over the festive season. This time we have put a real effort into getting those numbers up so people can be infected for Easter. Whole families can be sick together and eat Easter eggs. We are mad. We need to use some decent mitigations but that means we forgo moaning and complaining about health protocols which work. We have vaccines. We don't have to shut everything. Masks work. Distancing works. Why on earth we are aiming to keep infecting others is well and truly beyond me. It is not one of my aims in life to ensure I can infect other people with dreadful diseases. So well done schools for keeping your communities safer. Professor Spurrier says we might be reaching the infection peak. It is peak bonkers, that is for sure. Can't wait for us to reach peak long covid which hasn't entered people's minds yet because they don't want to wear masks . Honestly, they are so inconvenient. If this is normal, send help, please.
We can do this , you know. If we set goals, have clear messaging, use what works and help each other, we are in a good position in South Australia to beat these numbers. Team effort and collaboration. We are not hugely built up. We don't have lots of high rise apartments. W have space, we have trees, forests and beaches. We can get away from it and we can shop when it is quiet. Still don't know why, but we do have to get to the supermarket. It is how we are coping. We are also helping each other if there is quarantine and isolation involved. We can safely do that too with contactless deliveries. RATS for familes all going down with Covid is proving to be expensive. Those on pension cards can get their last lot of free RATs this month. Given it started late because of the federal governments expecting chemists to acquire the RATs themselves and the misunderstandings around that, then maybe that timeline should be extended for another month? Those having to pay for them if, say, two adults and two children in the home are infected with Covid are having to pay a lot. Can we look at the RATs pricing yet? Can we offer some free? You can get two free with your PCR test. That tends to mean you need a car. We can do the logistics better for people without cars or who are sole parents quarantining with little children.
The last two days we have got the number down under 5000. That is a great achievement. Today it was 4096 infections and yesterday it was 4483. We know what to do. Stay home if we are sick, mask up, increase fresh air, sanitise, wash our hands, social distance, get vaccinated. Dr Moy(Australian Medical Association Vice President) said yesterday, "We're going to transition from sort of what they are telling us to do — like rules — to what we should do, which is a different world then, and that is where we really get to see what we're like in terms of our care and consideration for each other."
He is right. They cannot keep telling us. At some point we have to take the science and what works onboard and drive it ourselves. We don't keep being told about seat belts , suntan cream and safety goggles. We are told regularly about using mobile phones while we are driving. Covid is a bit like the latter. We have to keep being told. Who knows why? We must be listening , though, because the numbers are going down and we could get them down more. We need to look at who spreads the infections and where. So many seem to come home from school but many seem to go from home to school. We need to be clear how we are spreading the infections so people can do something about it. Wearing masks works. Pass that on, not Covid.
Woodies, Haigh's, Bickford's, Stobie poles, FruChocs, Kitchener buns, frog cakes, fritz , pie floater, Salvation Jane, Torrens Title are all South Australian. Our Popeye is a tourist boat and we used to love double cut rolls. Every place has its things and ways of being. Radelaide is a place which has so many things and yet, when you travel, no one knows where it is. You have to say it is west of Melbourne. No, not near Sydney. People overseas tend to know Melbourne or Sydney, but Adelaide? One of my favourite things when in Sydney and I can't easily work out their train system, is to find an official and say, " I am sorry, I am from Adelaide. I can't seem to easily find out how to catch the train to Kogarah. " Ditto with trams in Melbourne. I get a sympathetic look but the best help ever so that I quickly get to my destination. The video sums it up so well and Christian Hull has done a good job. Adelady has her 40 signs you come from Adelaide which make you laugh when you read them, because you are from Adelaide. The comments under her post have opened up the mirth really well. We love coming from Adelaide. We do and achieve a lot and can just get on with our lives and interests.
Image : fineartamerica Living with covid is probably one of the most worrying experiences we have all had together. Add it to family issues, climate issues, acts of aggression and we are living in a high stress world. We are not the first to do this and we'd like to be the last but it won't happen. As far as coronavirus is concerned , we have to pool our knowledge and experience, deal with it in a calm and measured way and stop it from spreading. I heard today of people who had had their first vaccine but won't have a second. Why is that? The vaccine isn't perfect but it has been greatly helping. That information is everywhere and clear. We need to establish why people don't get three vaccines and may not get the fourth. In South Australia we have been informed there are people who can access that fourth vaccine first once they are four months out from the third. Do people think vaccines don't help? We need to correct that view. Are they too lazy to get the next vaccine? Why? Did they suffer bad side effects which put them off? I had two Astra Zenica and one Moderna. With the Astra Zenica I spent the first month wondering if I would get blood clots because I come from a family with a history of blood clots. With the first dose I was really out of sorts for a week and then, after a month , I was fine. With the second one it was the same but milder. One of the bonuses for me was the Astra Zenica helped my osteo arthritis. It has been far less of a problem. With the Moderna I was off colour for a week , my arm really hurt but tea tree and honey manuka cream really helped that after the first day. I decided I preferred the Astra Zenica side effects. Moderna made me like a snail. Sooo slow. We need to sort out what puts people off vaccines by having decent conversations. One person I know who had had one vaccine dose got covid and then , as soon as he was recovered, he was in the line to get the rest of his vaccines. He had to get really sick to take action.
We have voices of reason. SA Health is one of ours and today's presser was clear and helpful. We need to know what is being done and what we can do. Letting disease spread is stupid. Really stupid . It is not normal . We have to let the voices of reason hold the spotllight. Another one of our sane and comforting voices is Professor Esterman from the University of South Australia. His calm, measured voice has been with us throughout the pandemic. He neither gives us too much information nor panics. He gives us things to look at and do. His recent article about statisitics in the pandemic made sense and clarified the picture . He encourages us to look for the patterns.
Professor Pagel in the UK looks at the myths we persist with during the pandemic so we do not help ourselves and get the case numbers down. If we keep letting people get sick it is not going to help at all. If we keep being sick and another variant comes along , we are in no position to defend and protect ourselves. She looks at it calmly. There are things we can do. Today's presser for South Australia was another example of giving us information but letting us know there are things being done and things we can do.
When the going gets tough, Adelaide goes to the supermarket. It has not let up since Christmas. There is normally the Christmas rush, a lull then it builds up for Easter again. My local supermarkets are always busy and staff tell me there is rarely a quiet time. What are we doing with all this supermarket haul? I am shopping as I have always shopped. I haven't changed. Are people stockpiling? Comfort eating? Staying at home more and so needing more at home more often? Are they cooking more for themselves? Shopping for others who have Covid?
I do not get the impression we are overweight. In fact, I'd say we are pretty fitness conscious at the moment. In the local area people walk their dogs, their children, walk with their friend or are walking in a group. Some are walking alone. This year there has been lots of walking. Not strolling. A good, solid walk at a good pace. So why all this supermarket shopping?
People are sharing ideas as to how to cope too. Some have just been going along quietly and following safe practices. Others are out and about and going off on local trips. Some are attending events. On a regular basis we hear of more getting Covid. Whole families. They approach it logically and sensibly but it is not fun . They get good help from SA Health and they get good help from friends, family and neighbours. Haven't yet heard of anyone just being left to get on with it. Maybe because they can't tell anyone? A lot of people mask up their children and we have kept our masks on because they work.
It then seems weird to live in a country , and world, where a virus is just left to spread. I grew up in an age where there was polio, diphtheria, rheumatic heart fever, measles, scarlet fever. I was there when the vaccines and good medical practices were being developed. I missed the bit where children had to be hospitalised because of scarlet fever and I had it twice. Once with measles. I was three. My parents cared for me at home and a doctor home visited. They followed what he said. At school I was with children in leg irons and who were sickly from rheumatic heart fever. That experience taught me that not everyone is well all the time. At no point did we let disease spread. As soon as vaccines arrived we had them. We were given bottles of milk and medicine, not disease.
It was good, then, to hear the press conference this morning which included information about schools. It was done in a very reassuring way for parents, especially, but was very clear about the guidelines for teachers and teaching staff so that everyone had a Covid safe plan. I grew up at a time when everyone did the right thing because it was the right thing to do. Military precision. People have become the options and choices people now. They want to make their own choices. The pandemic has taught us we have to operate as a cohesive group to get success. We cope with those who don't want vaccines by making good health choices for everyone. If they get Covid , and survive, they will have antibodies. If they spread Covid more easily, as has been said, then we have to look at what they are doing so the social distancing and clean air is there. The old are dying from covid, not so much the young, so we have to protect older people and we have to protect the under 5s. Clear press conferences help to explain decisions and the conference was firm but fair.
We had just about five and a half thousand cases today. We have to change this and our behaviour. It is not logical or sane to let disease spread unchecked. It is a lunatic way to go about living. It does not make sense to let Covid spread and offer a legacy of long Covid, constant illness and reinfection, sick households. It will be debilitating and will create so many more problems besides Covid. Common sense and mitigation have to prevail . Talking people clearly through this has to continue.
We all got up and played Covid bingo again this morning and some found their children had covid and some had been notified their year levels, schools or daycare centres had covid. Some adults discovered they had covid. For families this is really tricky and hard. For schools it has become complicated. Our teacher's union had called for the last week of school term to be pupil free time to help ease the burden on teachers. Mr. Malinauskas, our Premier, has ruled this out.
School principals , kindy managers and daycare centres would currently have a lot to say about our coronavirus situation. We have well over 30, 000 cases and for a state of 1.7 million that is too many thousand. We have to think this out and approach it in a very level headed way. Yes, schools are there as baby sitting services for those who work, but so are many grandparents. If a child has covid the parents have to take time off. The grandparents can't be used as care providers because of the risk. The children and parents have to isolate.
We know what works: masks, sanitizing, ventilation , social distancing, vaccination and hand washing. As we approach winter, ventilation is going to be a challenge. Getting people out into the cold and wet to get vaccinated is going to be hard. RAH has broken some thinking barriers and is directly dealing with people who have needle phobia. What a positive thing to do! We have to problem solve our way out of this and find what works so we can all keep going.
Deciding to shut schools early or not is irrelevant. Covid doesn't care what we decide but if we move it will move with us. We have to stop the spread.
Schools provide education. It is convenient that allows parents to work but the prime purpose of a school is to educate children. We have an education act. Teachers have qualifications in subject areas and education. They are trained in mandatory notification, first aid and social justice. We had a world standard distance education unit. Home schooling has to meet certain criteria and currently parents in Australia are choosing to home school their children. since covid more schools and departments have developed online lessons for students. Home schooling means the parents deliver the official curriculum but teachers are marking it. Online learning means the teachers are delivering lessons to students in their classes while the students are at home. The parents are supervisors.
By now, all schools ought to be able to deliver online curricula. By now , students ought to be able to learn at home or at school. Some schools do easily change from face to face to screen to screen learning. Some parents have just gone to home schooling. We need hubs where children of parents who have to work and there is no one who can supervise can go...school buildings with teachers, presumably. With our numbers we should be encouraging options to get the case numbers and people numbers down.
We haven't even considered other things which would help and maybe we shall now. We have technology. We have social media. We have connectivity. We are used to it. Some teachers would be comfortable as online teachers only, I am sure. Some teachers and others would be great online content producers whose content could be shared. We have our home schooling curriculum to be a framework. We have to add online content creators and teachers and then have face to face versions . We could be flexible. I wonder if we dare?
A lot has changed since the pre covid world of 2016 in Adelaide and a lot hasn't. I reread these posts I had put on this blog when it was on WordPress. Lismore. Does Lismore come to mind? They are suffering so much more and they too are being pushed rather than pulled . We need to know those people are getting the help they need. We had Jay Weatherill as Premier at the time and he really got into it and did deals for batteries with Elon Musk and we got our state cleaned up and fixed. The fact people blamed renewables was so upsetting and offensive . It was also ill informed and ignorant. Adding damage to an already difficult and damaging situation is not how you help others. Help. Just help. Anything, even if it is a little bit. Like when John Travolta, Oprah Winfrey and Michael Jordan helped with the situation in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina. You don't hit people when they are down. You help in any way you can. Jay Weatherill helped us. His leadership strength got us quickly back on our feet and now we can produce 60% energy needs for our state from renewables. Mr. Malinauskas has been talking about getting hydrogen production going in Whyalla. I don't know if that is good or bad. I don't know much about it and just think of the pictures of the Zeppelin burning. We really need educating about modern uses of hydrogen. In the meantime people can learn a lot from our experiences in South Australia which brought us to being so good at renewable energy. The world economic forum has written about seven things you can learn from us.
Original post September 30th 2016
I am proud of South Australia and South Australians. We have, and still are, managing a very difficult situation for the state. The reaction from Canberra has been highly irregular under the circumstances. The lack of concern at a time, when we were in the thick of it not knowing really what we were dealing with, was uncalled for and remains inexplicable. The continued muddying of the waters is unnecessary. We are very grateful for interstate expertise and practical help which is assisting us rectify the situation. That's why I am proud. We have hauled ourselves through this and we have all been working hard and very positively. We have given each other practical help, ideas, reassurance, encouragement, information. SA Power networks, SAPOL, 891 and Jay Weatherill were giving clear, helpful directions. Even before the storm hit we were told what to do and what we needed to look out for. The SES got a very useful infographic out on social media and have been on the ground ever since. All sorts of organisations and individuals have put themselves out there so we could manage Wednesday night and now the upshot of all of that on Friday. Last time I was on an extended power outage I was on holidays on the south island of New Zealand. There was no power, no landlines just blackness , the thunder, lightning, rain and wind. Powerlines had broken and were waving around so the power had to go off. The same happened here. That was a massive storm. We don't have things that look like tornadoes forming off our coast. We can have devastating winds and we do have storms. I have lived in South Australia for 51 years. This year I have had more power outages than ever and Wednesday night I was without power for 11 hours. Some people are still without power. Others got their power back by about 7.30pm. Our supply comes from Victoria and the generators are like a Clipsal safety switch . They will shut down if they sense a fault. I'd rather have that than live wires or transmitter stations coming down in heavy winds , massive rain and significant lightning strikes. It has caused us to think about how we'll deal with this kind of situation again. I am hoping there is no deal whereby we will get charged for not using enough electricity because we couldn't because we were shut down. My new neighbours , who come from the country, appear to have been running a generator while we had the black out. We are thinking of ways now that we can create supply if the main supply has to go down for safety reasons. I had plenty of candles, my mobile devices were charged and I still had access to a landline and mobile network. Some of that meant I was relaying messages for those who found themselves without mobile or online access. I had battery powered LED lights and I'll be getting more of those. We were not as badly hit as other areas of the state and now some regions are dealing with roads which have fallen away or are blocked and flooding. The great thing about us was we were helping keep the mood positive. We were coming out with the laughs but we were supporting each other. The storm has caused widespread damage and disruption. It is a major event. 891, our Premier and our emergency services have taken this seriously, have kept their nerve and are genuinely working hard to help us. That means we can help ourselves. It is really hard for the people who still don't have power or proper phone access. That is not our fault. That is what has happened because we had a massive storm unlike any other. We do have thinking to do and we'll do it. People with expertise who can help us think this through would be great. Meanwhile we'll wait for the next lot of rain and carry on.
Original post 1st October 2016
The narrative continues. We have been from #stormmaggedon to #adelaidestorm to #SAStorms and now to #SAFloods. Meanwhile reality is starting to kick in and the the enormity of this is hitting us. We'll manage and we'll get through because we'll talk each other through it and we'll share information. The national reaction is baffling and inexplicably odd. Where's the empathy? The care? The consideration? Where's the acknowledgement that what has happened in South Australia is calamitous, catastrophic, disastrous? The discussions can by all means go on in the background but front and centre should be help. Concern. We are dealing with some real issues here which are extremely challenging and we need people onside. We are currently double battling reality and then the capricious nonsense which is diverting authentic care. We'll deal with it but it is pretty unsettling to know this is how we are being treated. There are people who have been frightened and destabilised by the thought of the storm and then the storm itself. Their levels of anxiety and depression have escalated. There are people who are appearing to be selfish because they cannot compute that food had to be wasted in huge quantities and it will take some time to get resupplied. Many of our roads are flooded, blocked, degraded, crumbled, broken or unsafe. Our food largely comes by truck. The emergency services, SAPOL, Jay Weatherill and other organisations are sending clear , strong messages to us and getting the information out to us. We don't need to be diverted from those messages. We are a big , sprawly state and some distances we need to travel to get food or help are long and now difficult or impossible. Some still don't have power or mobile and or phone connections. Many are concerned about relatives. People are traumatised. They might seem like they are coping but they have taken a body blow and so are not necessarily thinking straight so they do seemingly dumb things like drive through flood waters. That message that we mustn't just has to keep coming out. Likewise the messages about checking roads and transit corridors, not going into flood waters, how to get help. We need good, clear information and the state is supplying us with that. We also have had sightseers criticised for taking photos. No, they should not put themselves at risk or get in the way, but it is how we are coming to terms with the enormity of this. It is HUGE. Cosi was so sweet to make a live video of the flooded Brewery Lights. It has meant a lot to people because it is a childhood thing. Instinctively he knew it would help us process what we need to process. If you are looking for flood information Greg Barila at AdelaideNow has established a live feed site:
Image : Harvard Health It is not encouraging news to hear modelling suggests we shall have 8000 cases a day in South Australia by April. That is a lot for our state. We are not built up and big. We have space. We can distance. What is the matter with us? Do we think pretending there is no virus we can be "normal"? Do we think it is so mild it is no big deal? Have we got corona fatigue and have decided it is over? Life may not be as we wish but we have to deal with it in a common sense way. We have known forever how to mitigate coronavirus and stop the spread. Why wouldn't we? Not everyone can be vaccinated . Putting little children and the vulnerable at risk is a horrible thing to do so we can be "normal". Ignoring we can be reinfected and suffer long covid is not a good option for a healthy, functioning society. Sick and dead people can't keep us going and making all this profit some are keen on. We need happy, healthy people and we need to work together. Masking up, washing hands, keeping air fresh, sanitising and social distancing are all easy and help. Getting triple vaccinated really helps. We need people to be vaccinated. We are the country that virtually stamped out smoking by using social control. Why don' t we do it with coronavirus?
Harvard Health Edu has some good, solid information as to how we can stop the spread. We now have a Premier who is prepared to sort the garbled messaging out and get us on a better footing with clarity surrounding our health measures. We have a responsibility too to take this seriously , whether we want to or not, to ensure we can all stay healthy. I don't want coronavirus cases to escalate. I don't want it and I don't want others to get it. I am doing what works and have stocked up on RATs so I don't unknowingly pass it on. We are going to have to adult this because we don't know who will suffer badly from coronavirus. It is a rotten virus like that.
I don't blame them for trying out how far vaccines could free us up , so to speak. I don't blame them for trying things and trying to get information as to what works and what can be improved. We have to be included in those conversations and decisions. We have to have clear and direct information. Baffling us, confusing us and leaving us to our own devices is increasing case numbers. We are not epidemiologists or public health personnel. We need direction. Those who ignore it will be fewer if the bulk of people are clear.
South Australia elected a new premier resoundingly yesterday and Peter Malinauskas gave a heartening speech. He is fit, enthusiastic, capable and his deputy, Susan Close, is very competent and a good communicator. There was a big swing to Labor so the message was clear. Many are offering opinions today as to why the Liberals were not reinstalled. There are no quick, easy answers. It has been a mood which crystallised on 23rd November when our borders were opened and has only grown for all sorts of different reasons. I can offer a few:
Opening the borders before we had had boosters and our children were vaccinated meant many were quarantining during Christmas. Omicron was increasing. People were getting sick. Those without boosters went into voluntary isolation. It hit businesses and families hard . At the time we had done well and were safe. We had had four deaths the whole pandemic. We now have 231. These people and families have been so hurt. Trying to see how effective vaccines are is probably something which needs to be done, but not before everyone has had a chance to be properly vaccinated. It puts vulnerable and little children unduly at risk.
Liberal decisions meant retail workers had public holidays and penalty rates removed. We are the only state which does not let them have public holidays.
Creating a nuclear waste site at Kimba has angered so many because we had formally made it clear as a state we didn't want one.
Liberal politicians were resigning because of state ICAC and the minority government had become weakened. Our parliament hasn't been running very well recently.
Prior to 23rd November 2021 our covid management team of Professor Nicola Spurrier , Chief Commissioner Grant Stevens and Premier Steven Marshall were doing a great job of clear messaging, good decisions and creating safe practices to keep us secure. When the borders opened it has been difficult, garbled messaging, unpleasant and our safety has been threatened. Some of it was addressed but the ambulance ramping and deaths because no ambulances arrived on time have exacerbated the situation. There is a lack of consistency around pandemic management we really do not like.
Privatising public transport has been extremely unpopular.
There are other reasons. Mr. Marshall wasn't really himself. We had all respected him during the beginning of the pandemic but he seemed more to be broadcasting federal talking points in recent months. His concession speech last night was him, who he usually is. He gave a dignified, measured speech. We wish him well and know he will find a happier position to be in in South Australia.
As it stands, we have what we need right now. Mr. Malinauskas is committed to and knowledgeable about health matters. Our crisis centres on that. He is committed to children and the future. Our worries are about that. He wants people to be who they are and find a good place in our state. We need that. We need strong, enthusiastic leadership which is about our health and wellbeing.
I wrote the original post on August 18th 2016 and Christies has only improved since then and is a vibrant, happy area. It has encouraged an active, positive enjoyment of the great outdoors. People walk and exercise their dogs, they bring themselves and their children her for some fresh air and exercise. Sailing seems to have picked up again after all the coronavirus restrictions and Rotary Park has some outdoor events which are well attended. It is not a crowded Beach. There are times when you can see dolphins and whales and not that long ago we had a ship offloading oyster shells from the oyster farms onto the reef. It disrupted the beach quite a bit but was really interesting to watch. You can now walk around the cliff face to Port Noarlunga and that has really encouraged people to get fit. Deja vu has gone and has been replaced by the very popular Flavas and Espy's bakery has gone from strength to strength. There are good places to eat close by. For many locals it is just a good place to get away from the worries of the world and take in some fresh air and listen to the rhythm of the waves.
Original post:
Christies Beach is changing in a good way. Some people will miss the empty, natural beach front with just the green railing fence but the improvements are welcome and have been well thought out. The big wooden walkway onto the beach means you can get down there more easily and people keep jogging down it or take their dog and it is easy. The trail along the cliff face is well used and popular and seems to have been improved. When the wind dies down and the rain holds off I intend to go and explore that to see what they have done. It is better with more people and more life at the beach front. It makes it safer. It has become a beach where people enjoy the outdoors and exercise. It is not a good swimming beach unless you stay in the shallows. There are rip tides which are very difficult to deal with. Deja vu is a newish cafe right on the Esplanade at Christies and overlooks the ocean. Very friendly and very civilised. A lovely spot. The park on the corner has been upgraded with play equipment for children and seated areas so people can have a picnic. The apartments have food and shops and I guess that will expand and the views from those apartments will be spectacular. Without Port Stanvac Oil Refinery it has returned to being a a really great place to be on a nice day where you can just relax and enjoy the laid back, ocean life style
It was a real pleasure to find myself at the bottom of Hindley Street and visiting the JamFactory. Like everything else in Adelaide , this end of town has been reinvented too and it's starting to look and feel really cool. It was great to see how focussed the glass makers were . They have to be. They are dealing with molten glass and their loving care was obvious but paramount to their safety too. The exhibition of shell jewellery was lovely. I have seen a lot of shell jewellery in South Pacific nations and ours was just so delicate. The other display areas housed some beautifully made objects at what were reasonable prices for such carefully conceived pieces. Back up the road from the JamFactory is The Adelaide College of the Arts. I am so glad they have settled on that name! It has been through a number of name changes and they didn't ever quite do the job. This one is simple , straight forward and nails it. I must go and have a closer look at some time because it seems to have lost its industrial look. It is a very well respected art school and always has been. It was interesting to walk down Hindley Street this morning. It gets a bit tacky but not brash like it used to be . During the day it has an interesting rather than unsavoury feel about it. The Woolshed Hotel looks spectacular. They have done a brilliant job on the facade.
I walked from the Arts College to the JamFactory and wondered why they had massage parlours on that side of the road. Out of place, unseemly looking and away from the feel of what is now becoming a very artistic and creative end of town. The Mercury Theatre fits right in and so it could be further be developed to be a really cool area for artistic innovation and expression. You see the Nove on Luce cafe in all its aesthetic glory and then a massage parlour which is a bleak and stark contrast and spoils the feel of the area. The massage parlours and so on can exist elsewhere. Let that area just be developed by our creative spirits. No reason why we could not have the more new age places for relaxation and therapy.
