Leading up to lockdown

It’s hard to comprehend what is going on right now and for me there is a feeling of denial that it’s even really happening.

The Corona virus has affected the whole globe. Australia is currently in a weird state of being between business as usual and completly in lockdown. The city in Sydney is getting emptier every day I go to work and it has been a breeze to get into work in the mornings, I actually get to sleep in an extra 15 min due to the lack of traffic. It is quieter than I have ever seen, ever.

We received notification just hours ago that NSW will be locking down non essential services, which means no more going to the pub for the foreseeable future, I guess. I feel lucky in the fact that I live with so many people so I certainly won’t be lonely in theory if we go into full blown quarantine. Sadly the people I have become accustomed to living with and made good friends with in the past few months have all recently left to pursue their travels or go home and I now have a house mostly full of guys I don’t know that well. I’ll survive socially if we do go into full blown lockdown but it will be weird.

I am struggling with the hatred I am seeing on social media at the moment and the clear and distinct split between people who are trying to go about their lives normally and the large portion of the population that are shaming us for doing it.

Today I went to my sister’s house for a small party for my niece and nephew’s birthday. You wouldn’t have known there was a social distancing rule in place apart from the fact that we didn’t kiss each other hello (being Italian this is a weird thing) and maybe a little bit of chat around it, some light hearted joking even. Kids still played and adults still mingled, it felt pretty normal.

I am being told that by doing this it makes us bad people who aren’t taking things seriously enough but at what point are things OK and not OK? My local pub is still open and there are still people there, my work is still making me come in every day and the cafe downstairs is grateful for it. How do you stop living your life when everyone around you is still living theirs? How can someone say that it is OK to go to work on a bus and train everyday and sit next to all my work mates but say its not OK to see my family or do anything socially?

I am unsure of what is right or wrong at this stage but am following the lead of the people around me and honestly for the most part it really feels like business as usual with a side of precaution.

I am not down playing the virus, I really am not. I understand it’s a real thing and it kills people. My family is from Italy and we have a full blown insight into what has happened there. My dad is within the “vulnerable” category but even he doesn’t seem too fussed at the moment. It’s hard to know how to behave.

What I definitely do know is that behaving like a keyboard warrior and yelling at people from behind a screen is something that should be as much in lock down as our society. The grumpiness in people is really coming to light and I can only put it down to boredom and a sense of “if I’m locked up then everyone else should be”. It is not OK to be an asshole, no matter what the situation is and the amount of racist “go home” and “you brought it here” type commentary I am seeing is just disappointing.

The next 48 hours will be interesting and I really need to do some shopping to survive what’s next. Mostly for beer, hopefully Jimmy brings is still delivering.