Lockdown Missive #8: It goes on like this...
This picture is very important. It wasn't taken by me, it was taken by Archer! It's one of a series of photos he took of his little brother. First step, he managed to keep his finger (mostly) out of the way of the lens. Next week's lesson is exposure :)
Friday 24 July 2020
Hello all,
Well, here we are. Still a Victorian, still in lockdown. The case numbers over the past week have been concerning, but the spectre of more draconian Level 4 restrictions seems to be waning for now (I commenced writing this on 20 July...hopefully this will remain relevant!). Face coverings are to be compulsory from yesterday (a scarf apparently sufficing) as the state grapples with what the Chief Health Officer calls a ‘rollercoaster’ of daily new cases.
Being in lockdown, I don’t really have much activity to report on. We are really limited to the supermarket and walks down Gardiners Creek and across to Deakin—as it should be. Though that said, we went for a ride over to Deakin last week to admire the new law building we’ve watched go from dirt pile to shiny new glass-and-steel building, only to be told off by a campus rent-a-cop.
Apparently the campus was shut (wrong), that we weren’t allowed there (wrong), that no bike riding was allowed on the campus (wrong) and that there are signs everywhere informing people of this (wrong, wrong) and kids weren’t allowed on the garden because the uni wasn’t covered if they tripped (not sure if wrong? But it strikes me as a bit of an oversight on Deakin’s part. Archer’s kinder—his goshdarn kinder—needed minimum $10,000,000 public liability insurance to stick up a goddamn sign promoting enrolments. I can’t imagine a $110 million building—a law building at that—doesn’t have substantially more cover). The community really wants to be a part of Deakin Uni, but it seems they don’t want to be a part of the community. Oh well. I’m itching to run into that particular nuffy again so he can show me where his invisible 'no bike' signs are.
Still images; moving pictures
So yeah, I don’t have much to report, so I thought I’d reticulate a few splines and make some music/picture/video things in the Photos app on my iPhone, like what I demonstrated in missives prior with the zoo videos, but with photos that are not from the zoo. What wizardry.
London 2017
Ah, carefree international travel. Remember that? It feels like a lifetime ago, although the calendar indicates otherwise. Here are some pictures and videos set to music (sorry it’s the same music from the Werribee Zoo video) from our journeys to the UK in 2017 (with the wee baby Archer) and 2018/19 (with the addition of the very wee baby Finn). Some of these pictures you may have seen before, but there were plenty even I'd not seen since snapping them.
Mount Beauty & Bright, March 2020
Wow. March 2020 seems like a lifetime ago, doesn't it? The concepts of a dangerous global pandemic and a 'lockdown' were largely confined to works of dystopian or science fiction. I wonder if the grey nomad who admonished me for taking the WHO-recommended time to wash my hands in the public toilet is still alive or if he was struck down by coronavirus? We can always hope...
Yesterday
Okay, so it probably won’t be ‘yesterday’ by the time you get around to watching this, but it was the weekend just gone. Saturday 18 July to be precise. We grabbed our coffees and went for a wander down at the Damper Creek reserve in Mount Waverley. Then we did what we do every day, which is whatever we can to get through the day.
Still images
And here are some still images. Again, as with missives past, a selection of images from across space and time that have not been seen before. Press or click the thumbnails to embiggen the photos.
Conclusion
Well, the end of another period of time. Hooray. Congratulations for doing that thing.
