Monday, May 04, 2020

A world in solitary confinement



‎Tuesday, ‎21 ‎April ‎2020
I have some things to do on Wednesday, and couldn't face waking up at dawn to catch the early-morning shopping hour.    I used the self-checkout at one of the smaller suburban supermarkets, then went to the ATM. Since they were both touchscreens, I used my hand sanitiser freely after each encounter


DICK TRACY (1945) - Mike's movie moment
I admit it, when I saw this RKO B-movie was on You Tube, I expected a cornball cops & robbers romp.  Was I surprised when right from the first scene (a murder on a dark street) it furnished a lot of thrills in the best "film noir" style.  Way better than expected.(Director William Berke)


 ‎Saturday, ‎25 ‎April ‎2020
I have never been to the Dawn Service on Anzac Day, but this year things felt a little different.  In lieu of the usual commemorations, people were encouraged to gather in their driveways to participate.  So at 6 a.m. I walked down the front path and sat my lantern on the gatepost.  All was dark and still in my street and I stood there for a minute or two, thinking of all the people in my family - uncles, cousins and parents - who had served in the armed forces. 
Lest we forget. 

I had never thought much about my 70th birthday, but I certainly never imagined anything like 2020 if I considered it at all.  I never went through a war or the great depression, but we now have some vague idea of what life must have been like for previous generations.  But I have been encouraged by the cards, e-mails, messages and phone calls from friends wishing me a happy birthday. (And the cake that Gill & Graeme dropped off!)
Let's hope that next year we will all be together as normal.




TERMINATOR: DARK FATE (2019) 
Mike's movie moment
Having seen the first five Terminator movies, I found it startling for them to go back and make a sequel to the second in the series. Linda Hamilton and Arnie reprise their roles and Canadian actress Mackenzie Davis registers strongly as the time-travelling cyborg soldier.  This was a big noisy movie, but that's not always a bad thing.


 ‎Sunday, ‎26 ‎April ‎2020

A quiet day at home (of course).
In the evening, being a bit disgruntled with television, ate dinner and listened to an audio drama THRESHOLD, a spin off from a Doctor Who episode.    Scriptwriter Paul Finch supplies an imaginative plot but doesn't quite get to grips with the medium -- a story that relies heavily on weird noises and strange voices can often leave the audience confused as to what is actually happening



‎Tuesday, ‎28 ‎April ‎2020

Again the days fall into the familiar new rhythm.  After breakfast, one feeds the poultry, lets the cat out and listens to the Premier's daily briefing on ABC radio.  If it's a nice day, lunch in the garden and read for a few minutes on the Kindle -- today a novelette by John Russell Fearn.  Then a walk down to the old railway bridge.  No trains run on that line anymore, but I remember the days when Julie and I would walk her dogs down that way, waving at the engine drivers as they roared past, feeling a little like the main characters in THE RAILWAY CHILDREN.
Today I unloaded some feed I bought earlier in the week.  After all these weeks of staying home, it only just struck me that if I bought two bags of wheat instead of one, I would have to venture out half as often.  Slow and steady, O'Brien, slow and steady. 

 (I realize that most of my posts fall into this sort of pattern: there will be a description of the world from my viewpoint, some throwaway references to classic science-fiction or English literature, ending up with some self-deprecating humour. I see how it works, but the leopard can't change his spots.)

===
‘The change is enormous, ”  John Suchet told THE GUARDIAN straight after presenting his morning radio show on Britain's Classic FM. Instead of being inside a professional radio studio, he has just been broadcasting live to the world from the spare room of his flat in east London.

“I’ve never had so many emails and texts in nine years of doing this programme. I mean, they are flooding in,” he says in amazement. “And the one phrase that most of them seem to be using is: ‘Thank you for keeping us sane.’ ”

Carry on and keep social distancing

Now that Daylight Saving has finished, the poultry expect to be fed earlier.  As you can see, they often gather around the door, waiting for me to remember it's dinner time. 


Friday, ‎3 ‎April ‎2020
#Start every morning the same way -- after breakfast, listen to the live broadcast by the State Premier on ABC radio, followed by their airing of that day's Corona Podcast. The Premier's message today was "Be kind to each other."  (Following that is the Conversations show, which at least is usually a bit more cheerful.)
#This morning I dealt with some messages and phone calls.  Messaged one of the local newsagents that I would try to pick up my magazines somehow.  This brought a response from the girl who works at the front counter, offering to bring them to me.  It turns out she lives just near me, but she didn't know that when she made the offer.  An example of community co-operation.
#Downloaded some more of that big batch of the radio show COUPLE NEXT DOOR that I bought from the Classic Radio Store.  I begin to see what the fellow at the computer store meant when he advised me to do one thing at a time on my laptop -- if you try to do too much at once, the machine slows to a full stop.
#And, of all things, I was in contact with a neighbor who told me one of my hens had got into his back yard.  I went round and had a look, but it's a big garden and the chicken was in no mood to be rounded up.  I shall have to think on this.

Saturday 4 April 2020

A follow-up to my mention of the straying hen and the back fence.  To my surprise, my neighbour tuned up with his children who had successfully captured the renegade chicken and brought her home.  Unexpectedly they had also brought her young chick with them. What I am thinking is that the chick got through a crack in the fence, and its mother had fluttered over the fence in search of her errant offspring.  No wonder she didn't want to be caught.

Sunday 5 April 2020

Went to church on-line after breakfast.  A little strange, but better than nothing.  Surprising that the figures show we had enough people tuned in to fill the church twice over!
Listened to today's update from the State Government on the radio, then switched on the television to see SONGS OF PRAISE for the first time in years.  (I used to tape it on my VCR back in the days of analog television, but I have no idea how to do this with digital television.)

Wednesday 8 April 2020

~Into the third week of semi-isolation.  Wednesday morning I got up at sunrise so I could take advantage of the supermarket's special early-morning shopping hour for "the vulnerable"  -- the aged, the disabled, and those in need of assistance.  Two out of three ain't bad.
~This evening I took part in a virtual Bible-study group via Zoom.  It was a bit odd, with many of the participants distracted by the little screen images of themselves on their computers.  Since they had not seen me for about a month, there were several good-natured comments about the length of my beard.
~Made out my menu selections for home-delivered meals for the month.  Food without human contact.  At least I won't starve. (The cover for last week's NEW YORKER depicted a delivery person dropping off a meal on a dark street - very atmospheric.)

‎Thursday, ‎9 ‎April ‎2020

A disturbed night's sleep, so I didn't get up early because -- well, I had nowhere I had to be and nobody I had to see.  I listened to ABC radio's THE WORLD TODAY then had a late lunch in the garden.  I selected a new book on my Kindle for afternoon reading, THE RED THUMB MARK.  I've read a few of the Dr Thorndyke series by R. Austin Freeman, but I thought I'd go back to the beginning and read the first story, published in 1907.  Thorndyke is a doctor and a scientist and this first novel brings him into conflict with the then-new study of fingerprints as a forensic science.  (Even if I keep reading all through the lockdown, I don't think I would get through the whole series!)

‎Friday, ‎10 ‎April ‎2020

Good Friday and it felt strange not to be in church.  I tuned in for the You Tube live stream from St John's with Alistair and Rachel, then I had coffee and a hot cross bun.  You can't share buns over the Internet, so I made sure I had some in the house.
Oddly my back felt worse after watching the service from home in my own chair than it does when I spend the same amount of time in a hard wooden pew.  People are complex things.

Lunch in the garden and read a couple more chapters of Dr Thorndyke.  Couldn't decide whether to take a nap or a walk, so ended up doing neither.  Sat around downloading some old radio shows till it was time to feed the poultry and have dinner.
The cat was a puzzle today;  all the rest of the month, he's been eating like a horse and putting on weight.  Today... nothing.  I had to give him some dry food I had left over from a previous cat;  that, he ate.

‎Saturday, ‎11 ‎April ‎2020

A cool and cloudy morning and the cat had gone back to bed after breakfast, so I took the opportunity to go out and get some feed for the poultry.  On the way home, I called in at the supermarket for a loaf of bread and found there were a good number of people around for an Easter Saturday.
It was then that I realized the effect that the fortnight of seclusion was having on me.  Even though I did everything to follow the rules for social distancing, I felt anxious at being among so many people.  More than once, I went to scratch my head and stopped with my hand in mid-air, like a robot who was about to violate one of Isaac Asimov's Three Laws.  I was relieved to get home and settle myself with lunch and a good book. 

‎Wednesday, ‎15 ‎April 2020

Woke at sunrise and made my way before breakfast to the supermarket's early-morning shopping hour.  Returned home an hour later with what I hope is a week of groceries, feeling a bit knackered.  I rested up in the afternoon so I'd be ready for this evening's Zoom teleconference with some people from church.  At least it gave me the incentive to trim my beard and put on a clean shirt.
Meanwhile in Burnie the army has been called in to help disinfect the hospital that seems to be the focal point of a virus outbreak in north-west Tasmania.  The Premier is on the radio every morning, warning us to stay home if possible for at least another four weeks.

‎Thursday, ‎16 ‎April ‎2020

For a change, I wouldn't have had any phone calls on Thursday if it hadn't been for Federal Parliament.  A staffer for Brian Mitchell MHR rang to ask how I was getting on.  Apparently he's phoning a lot of voters in Hobart to check on them.  Nice idea but I told him I was doing all right, thank you.
Aside, that is, from that periodic buzzing noise I kept hearing this evening.  Insistent, but sort of far away.  The sort of sound you'd get if you locked your mobile phone in your suitcase.  It's not my phone, or the laptop, or the smoke alarm, or the microwave.  Maybe isolation is sending me cuckoo faster than I expected.
Meanwhile the media are suffering along with the rest of us.  TV stations like Sky News may be doing well in the ratings, but your local newspaper is probably flagging.  My local paper is getting thinner every month, and seems to be subsisting on full-page ads from the government.  The editor appeared in her own paper yesterday appealing for support from the community.  Who would have thought it could come to this?

BANDIDAS - Mike's movie moment:
Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek decide to rob banks to get justice in old Mexico. This 2006 romp is the most fun I've had watching a western since the days of CAT BALLOU and VIVA MARIA. And written by Luc Besson of all people.

‎Friday, ‎17 ‎April ‎2020

The Yale University School of Public Health found that reading tends to involve brain functions that help you live longer.  If I read all the books in my house, I could potentially be immortal.

Friday morning started with a long phone call, then after breakfast listened to the morning briefing from the Premier on ABC radio followed by the national "Coronacast".  A bit of a chilly wind for lunch outside but went for a walk in the afternoon sun.  The streets are so quiet nowadays but the crisp Autumn air was refreshing and I enjoyed being outside for a while.  One neighbor had put out a box of apples and pears at their front gate and I took a few -- another neighbor has a Little Library of free books but in this health-conscious era I was not game to inspect them, alas.

MONSTER - Mike's movie moment:
This was made by the Asylum studio, who specialize in imitations of blockbuster movies. This one was released the same week as CLOVERFIELD in 2008. The trouble with "found footage" movies is they are actually supposed to have inaudible dialogue and jumbled images! One star, at most.

A radio research group has compiled a collection of the 1940s radio show THE WEIRD CIRCLE and I took the opportunity to download a few samples of the show. To start with it, I listened to "What was it?" based on an 1859 short story by Fitz-James O'Brien.   I well remember reading this story as a teenager in Damon Knight's notable anthology A CENTURY OF SCIENCE FICTION.  Since the story is about (SPOILERS) an invisible monster it was a natural for radio and this recording is a good quality one.

‎Saturday, ‎18 ‎April ‎2020

A few months ago, I spent every Saturday fossicking through the Thrift Stores and Op Shops.  A blur of book titles, DVD covers and all sorts of stuff.  Mental overload at times.  Now Saturday is pretty much like every other day of the week  --  breakfast, feed poultry Facebook, lunch, walk, maybe a nap, dinner, TV and/or book, bed.

Still working my way through that big list of downloads I bought from the Radio Classics Store.  I've done the COUPLE NEXT DOOR comedies and half the SHERLOCK HOLMES shows.  After that I just have HOPALONG CASSIDY to go.

The year the virus came

‎Monday, ‎23 ‎March ‎2020
Sunday night I slept for almost nine hours.  I guess my body thought I needed it, because when I woke up I had the feeling that nothing was going to be the same again.  It was like the day after September 11th in a way.  A friend had phoned last night and given me a summary of the Prime Minister's latest speech and it hadn't been soothing stuff.
All the states had closed their borders.  Two weeks of quarantine for all people travelling, inside or outside Australia.  Pubs and clubs had been shut down, restaurants, sporting events, churches and any other "non essential" activities.
You could say 2020 is shaping up to be a memorable year, but I suspect it may be a year we would rather forget.  The weird thing is that it comes exactly a century after the Spanish Flu...
A little googling reveals there were also pandemics and epidemics in 1820, 1720 and 1620. Would it be paranoid to suggest burying a time capsule to be opened in 2120, warning the authorities to be wary?

‎Tuesday, 24 ‎March ‎2020
Usually Tuesday is a busy sort of day.  Croquet at lunchtime, pub quiz in the evening and in-between downloading all the weekend's radio shows from America.  But times change.  I ventured across to the Croquet Club and found two other players there -- what a difference a week makes, last Tuesday we had 15 out on the lawns.  We had a couple of games, resting halfway through as we sat at opposite ends of the shed, drinking from our own water bottles.
Afterwards, I stopped off in Moonah to support the local coffee shop, who were still open for take-aways;  they said they would keep going as long as they could, or until the government changed the rules again.  At the moment, the official word is very strong on the messge "Stay home unless absolutely necessary." 

Friday 27 March 2020
Quiet outside but there were a few things I had to do.  Firstly, I woke up to find I had a text message from the water company telling me there had been a problem with the water supply to my street and it wouldn't be restored for a few hours.  Fortunately I had enough water in the kettle for breakfast, and I was able to get enough out of the watering can in the garden to provide for the poultry.  It was not, as one might have thought, the final sign of the collapse of civilization in the 21st century.
Then a request from the people next door for any feed sacks I had that weren't needed.  I swapped a bundle of sacks for some home-made stewed fruit from their apple tree.
Most of the afternoon was taken up moving crates around.  I had promised to lend a friend a particular DVD and as usual it wasn't where I thought it was.  I had no option but to start glancing through the three dozen odd plastic crates I had stacked up (which is why I always use the clear plastic design).  I found it in crate #29.

‎Saturday, ‎28 ‎March ‎2020
Last time I was in Woolworths I noticed customers were limited to two packets of bread or rolls "excluding Hot Cross Buns."  Huh - is this because in their greed they ordered thousands and thousands of these so they could start selling them in January?   Difficult to feel much sympathy for them.

‎Monday, ‎30 ‎March ‎2020
Wednesday I had my monthly consultation with my psychologist via Zoom.  It was a little strange, though I suppose it was better than nothing.  It did make me feel a little self-conscious;  I'm not used to having conversations with my laptop.  Not to mention the interruption when the cat sat between me and the camera.
Then on Sunday I attended church via You Tube.  This went along fairly well, until the last five minutes when the sound dropped out and the vision started to buffer.  It's only the second time we've done this, so you must expect a few glitches.  It was odd on Saturday night thinking I didn't have to drive in to church the next morning for the first time in thirty years.

‎Tuesday, ‎31 ‎March ‎2020
Looks like being a quiet day at home. Gatherings of more than two people have been banned from midnight on Monday night and Tasmanians have been ordered to stay at home for the next four weeks or face arrest. (The only exceptions will be for people going out to buy essential supplies, going to school or work, or check on neighbours or elderly relatives.)
My minister phoned to ask how I was going, which was nice.  He asked if I was keeping in touch with my friends, and I told him on Saturday I had three people ring between breakfast and lunch.  (I also exchanged e-mails with one neighbor, and another pulled up as she was driving past to say "If you need anything, just knock on our door.")
Aside from that, I pottered around the place feeding the poultry, playing with the cat and drinking too much coffee.

After spending the morning with the laptop and the phone, decided on a late lunch out in the garden.  Made some sandwiches and enjoyed the fine weather while reading a Sherlock Holmes on my Kindle (a new one by Lyn McConchie)

Muldoon tells me we're going to have to call it a "world-wide pandemic" instead of a "global pandemic."
Apparently there's been an objection from the Flat Earth Society 
😊