![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
We done good
Apr. 26th, 2020 01:46 pmhttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-26/life-in-perth-during-a-global-coronavirus-pandemic-in-photos/12174454
This is us. I've seen some of these images on my narrow trail of movement between home and work (i.e. what's visible from bike path or train window) but not the whole scenario. I remember reading the history of the Spanish Flu and how distance protected us. It still does, though much less due to the advent of passenger air traffic over the ensuing 100 years. As with that flu, our port of Fremantle was endangered by the arrival of a "plague ship," and as with such ships in earlier centuries, it was required to stand off - but the pestilence made it ashore anyway.
With the Spanish Flu; this happened because the ship, the Boonar, was a returning troop ship from the front of WWI and there was no way it would not be allowed to disembark. This time, it was a holiday cruise ship, the Artania, seeking harbour, where modern sensibilities and mercy were a strong incentive. [Not including the disembarkation of the Ruby Princess in Sydney NSW which was just a clusterfuck]. I've recently discovered that two of my British cousins had been booked on the Ruby Princess, but had observed the early progress of The 19 and had the wit to cancel.
This time, though I'm not being complacent about it, I'm beginning to think and hope that we have dodged a bullet.
Modern tech, though it brought the plague to our door, has also helped to save our lockdown sanity. It's been a steep learning curve for some of us, never mind the curve of the 19. Last night I met Zoom and online Cards Against Humanity at the same time and managed to work it out sufficiently well to win the game and be judged a reprehensible human being by my fellow players, some of whom had just met me :-)
Today I see that the social gathering restrictions have been relaxed back up from two to 10, which is a small step towards what I like to call normal.
This is us. I've seen some of these images on my narrow trail of movement between home and work (i.e. what's visible from bike path or train window) but not the whole scenario. I remember reading the history of the Spanish Flu and how distance protected us. It still does, though much less due to the advent of passenger air traffic over the ensuing 100 years. As with that flu, our port of Fremantle was endangered by the arrival of a "plague ship," and as with such ships in earlier centuries, it was required to stand off - but the pestilence made it ashore anyway.
With the Spanish Flu; this happened because the ship, the Boonar, was a returning troop ship from the front of WWI and there was no way it would not be allowed to disembark. This time, it was a holiday cruise ship, the Artania, seeking harbour, where modern sensibilities and mercy were a strong incentive. [Not including the disembarkation of the Ruby Princess in Sydney NSW which was just a clusterfuck]. I've recently discovered that two of my British cousins had been booked on the Ruby Princess, but had observed the early progress of The 19 and had the wit to cancel.
This time, though I'm not being complacent about it, I'm beginning to think and hope that we have dodged a bullet.
Modern tech, though it brought the plague to our door, has also helped to save our lockdown sanity. It's been a steep learning curve for some of us, never mind the curve of the 19. Last night I met Zoom and online Cards Against Humanity at the same time and managed to work it out sufficiently well to win the game and be judged a reprehensible human being by my fellow players, some of whom had just met me :-)
Today I see that the social gathering restrictions have been relaxed back up from two to 10, which is a small step towards what I like to call normal.