Monday 6th April – Home

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 15

921 cases: Testing for coronavirus is expanded to include anyone with respiratory symptoms in hotspots across Queensland, including Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Cairns. Testing for COVID-19 had previously been restricted to people who had returned from overseas travel, had come into contact with a known coronavirus case, and frontline health workers. Authorities say they have identified 32 cases where the source of the virus is unknown and they want to gauge the extent of further community transmission. Another 14 people test positive to COVID-19 in Queensland.

Shopping

Bronwen and I drove down to the supermarket to do some grocery shopping. Our attempts to shop less aren’t working very well.

Woolworths are now limiting customer numbers in-store Product restrictions continue Toilet paper seems to be back in stock Coles has implemented a queue system for store entry

Mt Gravatt

I went for a walk part the way up Mt Gravatt. I had intended to walk all the way up, but I got engrossed in researching the efficiency of different methods of air-conditioning, and when I exited my little research-bubble, it seemed very dark and lonesome, so I got scared and went home.

Tuesday 7th April – Power Failure

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 16

934 cases: A Queensland infectious diseases nurse who worked with coronavirus patients at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane is one of 14 new people to test positive. Six of her colleagues are sent into isolation. The Premier orders all cruise ships in Queensland waters to leave by midnight, April 8.

Kmart & Officeworks

Bronwen and I drove to Officeworks to print a postage label for a laptop she’s selling—Bronwen’s printer having run out of ink and Officeworks having run out of ink for that printer—and popped into Kmart while we were there. It was quite early in the morning, but the place was mostly deserted. Easter eggs were half price. We dropped the laptop off at National Storage for the courier, and then drove home.

Officeworks ask people who can’t maintain 1.5m between each other to not enter Officeworks coronavirus signage Officeworks have closed down most of the self-service kiosks Kmart has implemented coronavirus one-way queueing Kmart have per-aisle customer limits

Sick

I still have a bad cough, and today my throat is again sore and the glands behind my ears are feeling a bit swollen again.

Mt Gravatt

Bronwen and I went for a walk up Mt Gravatt. There were 18 cars up the top when we got there at 7:50 PM. Security turned up to close the mountain a few minutes later, though another 10 cars turned up while he was trying to close it down.

Power Failure

The power failed at 8:16 PM, followed shortly after by a distant explosion. Bronwen and I were just about to sit down and watch some TV while having dinner, so it was a bit annoying. It came back on again at 9:27 PM. However, after restarting the server, I had no internet. After some investigation it turned out that pfSense had died, and wouldn’t boot. I used up all my limited BSD knowledge trying to fix it, but wasn’t able to, and ended up having to reinstall it. Fortunately, I had a backed-up config file which I could then restore, which seems to have put all my settings back—but the various kinds of data that it was recording (traffic etc.) seem to be lost. Overall, pfSense has not been very reliable—this is the second power failure in a row where it’s caused big problems.

Wednesday 8th April

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 17

943 cases: Queensland police are forced to hand out more fines for people breaking social-distancing rules, with five young people pinged more than $6,000 after holding a party in a Sunshine Coast motel. The State Government announces $5.5m to boost domestic violence support services, including by providing more accommodation during the pandemic. As 13 more people are diagnosed with the illness, the Premier reveals initial modelling suggested 30,000 Queenslanders would die from COVID-19 if it was not contained.

Home

You guessed it—another boring day at home, avoiding the viral pandemic.

Mt Gravatt

I went for a walk up Mt Gravatt, just after dark.

Thursday 9th April

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 18

Home

I had another boring day at home.

Mt Gravatt

Bronwen and I went for a walk up Mt Gravatt. Surprisingly, there were only 5 cars up the top when I got there at 6:55 PM. There was quite a bright moon.

Children have chalked all the footpaths

Friday 10th April

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 19

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warns Queensland’s state election may be held entirely by postal vote due to the coronavirus pandemic, saying the poll on October 31 must go ahead. The Attorney-General is discussing options with the Electoral Commission of Queensland, with a decision expected in the next month.

Home

I had another boring day at home, popping down to the nearby service station for milk in the morning.

Maz’s New House

I dropped Bronwen off at her parents’ place so she could have dinner with them, and continued on to Maz’s new house to help him unload some heavy stuff. This was the first time I’d seen his new place, and it was better than I’d expected—after looking at several of the other places he’d been interested in buying, I’d developed a sort of automatic  expectation downgrade because the places always looked a lot better in the real estate ads than they actually were—but in this case the place looked pretty much exactly the same as the real estate ads, but in my mind I had subconsciously assumed it would be worse, so was pleasantly surprised when it wasn’t.

Mount Coot-Tha

Bronwen and I drove home via Mt Coot-Tha. There were several cars parked up there—less than I’d normally expect, but technically there’s no valid reason anyone should be there under the coronavirus stay at home directions.

Saturday 11th April

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 20

Home

I had a boring day sitting around at home. I’ve converted www.nedmartin.org across to use HTTPS.

Mt Gravatt

Bronwen and I went for a walk up Mt Gravatt lookout.

I have no idea what this is — at a water tank Bronwen looking at the unknown thing — at a water tank

Sunday 12th April – Kangaroo Point, South Bank, & The City

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 21

The Queensland Government announces the state’s 465 community kindergartens will be open and free for term two, after discussions with the sector. Education Minister Grace Grace says 130 of those centres are in regional and remote Queensland. She says the situation will be reassessed in June.

Home

The morning was as boring as any other, spent at home.

Afternoon

We drove to ALDI, but it was closed, so we drove to Coles and Woolworths, which were open

Coles are asking everyone to pay by card if they can

Kangaroo Point, South Bank, & The City

After shopping we drove to Kangaroo Point and went for a walk through to South Bank. To my surprise there were a normal amount of people still climbing at Kangaroo Point Cliffs. I’d assumed they’d have been closed—or at least, climbing would have been deemed unessential and people would be being fined.

Bronwen is excited to be outside in the real world again! People are climbing at Kangaroo Point as if things are normal The walkway along the river is quite busy Lots of bikes are using the Goodwill Bridge

We continued on from South Bank—where it was quite busy along the river walk but empty elsewhere, with the pools and the playgrounds closed—into the city, and then back along the other side of the river along the new walkway built to trick the masses into accepting the new casino.

South Bank Parklands are empty The pools are closed at South Bank Parklands The pools are closed at South Bank Parklands The pools are closed at South Bank Parklands South Bank Parklands are deserted QPAC is trying to be optimistic MYER is closed The messaging in the city is feeling very communist Ibises are not concerned Hungry Jack’s are pushing zero-contact ordering & delivery Apparently Jack Ma is someone we look up to and quote now? Well-intentioned (I think?) but extremely communist-feeling messaging City Hall looks abandoned Beware of sudden noise Interesting movement measuring stuff keeping an eye on the expressway South Bank, seen from the other side One of the new parks the casino bribed people with A casino-bribery bird Bronwen on the new casino-bribery walkway Bronwen on the new casino-bribery walkway

Bronwen in a lit-up tree at QUT Gardens Point Bronwen in a lit-up tree at QUT Gardens Point Bronwen in a lit-up tree at QUT Gardens Point Bronwen in a lit-up tree at QUT Gardens Point One of the it-up trees at QUT Gardens Point

My Easter Bunny! He is delicious! Very delicious!

Monday 13th April – Tillack Park

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 22

Queensland schools will open for term two for vulnerable students and the children of essential workers only, with the majority of students to learn remotely from home, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says.

Home

Home. Boring old home.

Tillack Park

After much complaining about how boring doing nothing is, Bronwen agreed to go to a nearby park. She picked Tillack Park, so we drove there. As expected, it was just another boring park—but it did have a somewhat interesting rope swing over the creek. We wandered around the park for a bit, Bronwen played on the rope swing, and then we drove home again.

Bronwen playing on a rope swing at Tillack Park Bronwen playing on a rope swing at Tillack Park Bronwen playing on a rope swing at Tillack Park Another sad coronavirus playground at Tillack Park A fantastic tree at Tillack Park Some Easter messaging Bulimba Creek at Tillack Park Bronwen wandering off into nowhere

ALDI

We stopped at ALDI on the way home, seeing as we were driving directly past it

ALDI’s new coronavirus staff shielding

Tuesday 14th April – Home

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 23

Home

Home all day, avoiding the plague.

Wednesday 15th April – Home

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 24

Home

I put some more journal entries online.

Mt Gravatt

I went for my daily exercise up Mt Gravatt.

Thursday 16th April – Home

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 25

Home

Boringness at home as usual.

No Water & No Emails

I just spent a dumb amount of time trying to “fix my email”. I went and ate a small Easter Egg—one with a gooey centre. I then got an alert on my phone that I’d received a new email—but when I went and looked at my phone, I had no emails at all from today. I went to wash my hands to get the gooey Easter Egg centre off so I could go use my laptop to investigate this concerning issue, but there was no water! This wasn’t particularly surprising because there were several Urban Utilities trucks outside digging up the footpath on the other side of the road, but it did mean I couldn’t wash my hands to use my computer to figure out why I wasn’t getting any email on my phone. Then I remembered I’d filtered my phone’s email view to show only work emails, so I unfiltered it, and all my emails were there again.

Mt Gravatt

I went for a walk up Mt Gravatt. There were only 8 cars up there when I got to the top at 6:53 PM. Maybe people have learnt?

Very sad coronavirus swings at Mt Gravatt

Friday 17th April – Home

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 26

Home

Continuing what’s become an unfortunate trend, today was another very boring day at home, broken only by a mid-afternoon trip to the shops.

Woolworths reminding everyone to keep their distance A tragically closed children’s toy outside Coles Mount Gravatt Mazda wish everyone to know their cars are coronavirus-safe

Mt Gravatt

Bronwen and I went for a walk up Mt Gravatt. There were 16 cars there at 8:20—just before its new Friday closing time of 8:30 PM.

Saturday 18th April

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 27

Home

Another very boring day at home.

Mt Gravatt

Bronwen and I walked up Mt Gravatt. There were 17 cars there at 8:10 PM.  After security locked the gate we met someone who was locked in. Security left a note on their car saying they’d left the gate half-open so they could get out and asking them to close the gate behind them. They weren’t able to open the gate, but I managed to open it for them. Apparently the call-out fee to get let out is $70.

One of the more interesting chalkings on the footpaths

Sunday 19th April

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 28

As of yesterday, there were only 271 (known) active cases of coronavirus in QLD.

Home

I had a very boring day at home. It rained a bit.

Toohey Forest

Bronwen walked down to some boulders in Toohey Forest to fall off trees and hurt her foot. I stayed home nice and safe, but walked halfway to meet her on the way back as it had got dark and she’d broken one of her thongs, so was walking home half-barefoot in the dark through the forest.

Monday 20th April – Home

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 29

QLD, SA and WA all reported no new cases today.

Applications for the Government’s JobKeeper scheme ($1,500 per fortnight per worker) open today.

The Queensland Education Department’s website crashes as thousands of students start their first day learning from home, with the Premier saying the “teething issues” were being looked into.

Home

I stayed at home, as usual. I applied for JobKeeper—which turned out to be absurdly easy to do. A single one-page form that took a minute.

Mt Gravatt

I went for a walk up Mt Gravatt. There were only 8 cars at the top—4 of which were motorbikes—when I got there at 7 PM, but security was also already there, kicking people out.

Tuesday 21st April – Home

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 30

1,024 cases: 6 new cases in QLD today. 21 remain in hospital, 6 in intensive care and 5 require ventilation. More than 83,000 Queenslanders have been tested for COVID-19.

Virgin Australia goes into voluntary administration but the administrator says no job losses are planned.

France exceeds 20,000 deaths. Three other countries have so far recorded more than 20,000 deaths—Spain, Italy and the United States (41,000).

US oil prices fall below $0 (-$US37.63) for the first time.

Home

I spent a quiet day at home.

Mt Gravatt

Bronwen and I went for a walk up Mt Gravatt. There were 19 cars there at 6:50 PM, which is up a lot on recent numbers.

Wednesday 22nd April – Shopping

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 31

1,024 cases (90,168 tests conducted, 6 dead): No new cases recorded in QLD, WA or ACT for the second time this week. Despite the positive results, 130,000 Queenslanders are without a job due to the government-imposed restrictions. Australia-wide there were 4 new cases and 3 deaths. Worldwide more than 2.5 million people have now been infected with COVID-19, a figure that has risen by over 70,000 a day in April.

Day

For some reason I couldn’t sleep last night—stress I think—so I ended up sleeping in until 3 PM. I’d normally think that was a waste of a day, but considering we’re all in lockdown and there’s nothing to do, it really doesn’t make any difference.

Night

Bronwen and I walked down to the supermarkets for some exercise and milk.

Thursday 23rd April – Home

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 32

1,026 cases: 2 new cases.

Day

I spent a quiet day inside.

Mt Gravatt

I went for a walk up Mt Gravatt.

Friday 24th April – Home

Coronavirus Lockdown Day 33

Human trials of a potential coronavirus vaccine have begun in the UK.

Home

I spent the day at home—of course.

Mt Gravatt

I went for a walk up Mt Gravatt. Continuing my pointless counting of cars up there, there were 18 cars at 8:10 PM—shortly before the mountain was closed at 8:30.