What a difference a few weeks make! These photos were taken at a breakfast catch-up with a friend just over three weeks ago. We went to Hamptons a cafe/restaurant overlooking the Indian Ocean at City Beach. Leisurely breakfasts, long lunches and sit down coffees by the sea are (for now) a thing of the past although cafes and eateries can offer takeaways and home deliveries.
Our younger daughter, Mlle, arrived back from London last Friday on one of the last (for now) Qantas non-stop flights to Perth. She had to make an 11th hour decision and we are so relieved to have her back here for a while – her plans to move to Berlin in September are obviously on hold. The music industry (she works in PR) has taken a massive hit with the cancellations and restrictions. She’s currently doing mandatory self isolation for 14 days mostly in the upstairs bedroom/ensuite away from the rest of the household but we do allow her to come into the garden where we can chat at a safe distance across the courtyard! She’s 3 days in with 11 to go and fingers crossed all will be well!
We are adapting to the social distancing rules, which do change with confusing regularity. I know we are luckier than many others as we can continue to go for our walks and bike rides as long as we observe the correct distance.
Hope everyone is doing well – stay safe and take care! À bientôt!
Copyright © 2020 Rosemary Thomas Le Chic En Rose. All rights reserved
Le Chic En Rose 
Lovely to have her back, even at a distance, Rosemay 🙂 🙂 I’ve lost count of the days, but thank goodness I don’t live in an apartment with no outside space! I managed a bit of t’ai chi on the roof this morning but it’s bouncing with rain right now. We’ve had a couple of takeaways from a nice little restaurant near here, but it’s back to the slow cooker tonight. 🙂 Take care!
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It’s a bit strange with the distancing in the same house Jo – will be glad when the 14 days are up, we’re on day 4 now! Good that you have somewhere to sit outside and can do t’ai chi on the roof. Hope it fines up soon 🙂 We’ve been cooking from home but once this 2 weeks self isolation is up will be nice to get a couple of takeaways and support local businesses who are all doing it tough. I still do my weekly German class online via Zoom, Skype my dad twice a week and always do a daily walk so that gives some structure but it’s weird time seems to pass differently when you’re hardly going out . Tomorrow will be a new month and hopefully more positive news! Stay safe and take care! xx 🙂
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Good to hear that you are safe and sound at home. We came back 10 days ago from what was supposed to be a 2-month journey around the Mediterranean (we came back 2 weeks early) and so far we haven’t developed symptoms so we should be OK. Directives were also confusing about our confinement on what we could and couldn’t do; it kept changing from one day to another. We still have been on regular walks but in keeping great distance with others. It is certainly a strange time we are going through… Take care and stay healthy. (Suzanne)
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Thanks Suzanne! Am so sorry to hear that you have had to come back early from your Mediterranean trip though sounds like you still managed to do quite a bit of it. Yes the information and instructions are confusing and we also find they change almost daily! Our daughter is required to do a mandatory self isolation period at home for 14 days. She cannot leave the house at all even for a walk. It is policed and we can expect a check up at some point to see whether she is complying with the stay at home order! So far so good though my nerves are somewhat frazzled! She’s staying upstairs in a separate wing from the other bedrooms and living zones downstairs and we limit chatting (as far as possible) to outside in our courtyard at a safe distance. I have to make sure surfaces are regularly wiped down too (well I’m choosing to, that part isn’t mandatory!). If she’d arrived back a day and a half later she would have had to have gone to a hotel organised by the authorities to do the mandatory 14 day quarantine away from home. This now applies to all overseas and interstate arrivals. Anyone arriving from overseas must do the mandatory 14 day quarantine in the state of their arrival and if it isn’t their home state they must then do a further 14 days quarantine when they get back to their own state. So there are strict border rules in all parts of Australia now. In practice there are hardly any overseas flights coming in anymore as airlines have made drastic cutbacks and interstate travel must be for essential reasons only. Freight and goods are excepted from these rules. Monsieur and I are not required to self isolate unless Mlle shows symptoms but we are choosing to be as cautious as possible and avoid going outside the home except for our daily walks. We are all practicing strict social distancing measures anyway. Good luck with it all and stay safe and healthy too! 🙂
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Thanks for the update. I had heard from a Sydney friend about the mandatory hotel stay. Not something we could do in Canada as there were 1 million travellers who came back the same week we did and probably 1 million more in the week following. At any point in time, there are 3 millions Canadian roaming the world. Another of our big concerns is our very long unprotected border with the US as they haven’t taken very strict measures to confine the virus so they are being infected in high numbers. The border is officially closed but there are a lot of points that aren’t watched along that border so it is a risk. Also, as the crisis deepened in the US some of our supply chains could be affected. In winter, we get a lot of fruits and vegetables from the US; trucks are still circulating but if Americans all get sick they could have troubles harvesting so we could find ourselves in rationing situation but we aren’t there yet and I hope we don’t have to deal with that. The various industries are also very integrated between the two countries so there could be all kind of impacts… Very difficult situation indeed…
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It certainly sounds a very difficult situation Suzanne. With Australia’s remoteness and island status we have been able to implement these strict quarantine measures. Western Australia’s borders will be closed from Sunday (they are already severely restricted) so it’s like we’ll be a separate country from the rest of Australia. Goods and freight can still get through though checks are of course mandatory and there is a lot of paperwork apparently to complete. We are lucky in that we grow most of our fruit and vegetables locally and produce meat and fish. The disruptions to supply chains appear to be one of the major challenges being faced in many parts of the world at present apart from the health toll. Troubling times indeed. Stay safe and healthy X
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I hope you too all stay safe. Aren’t those of us who can do so lucky to be able to continue with walks and so on? Long may it continue!
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Thanks Margaret – yes we are lucky to be able to carry on walking, definitely hope we can continue throughout! So important for both physical and emotional well being! Take care and stay safe 🙂
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This situation is so weird. We are all together on our knees in this corona catastrophe.
Let´s hope we don´t have to wait the vaccination too long. This virus has been our curse for 12 weeks, but already 37,078 people have died.
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It is certainly a strangely surreal and unsettling time 😦 Let’s also hope for an antibody test that would be freely available to see who may or may not have already had the virus without knowing it or else had had a mild case. There seem to be many undocumented cases as there are not enough tests available to test everyone who actually has the virus. An antibody test would help to see who could be allowed back into the community (as they’d be immune) and some restrictions could begin to be lifted. So much is still unknown. Take care and stay safe 🙂
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Lovely for you to have your daughter back home with you for the duration.
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Lovely and unexpected Anabel. It’s such a surreal time – her plans have been upended like so many people’s at present. We’re all hunkering down at home for a while. Stay safe and take care 🙂
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You too!
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🙂
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My visits here are always well rewarded.
Stay well
Regards Thom
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Thanks Thom appreciate your visits! 🙂 Stay safe and healthy too!
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Good that you have your daughter safely back with you and I hope she remains well. London is definitely not a place you want to be in right now. I think we are all going to get very twitchy if this lockdown situation carries on for too long. We are so used to the freedom of going about as we choose. I for one will certainly appreciate the beaches and the gardens more once I can get back to them – and I appreciated them a lot before! Stay safe 🙂
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Thanks Jude – yes much happier to have her back here rather than in London. We are fortunate to have a good sized garden and although getting cooler it is still relatively warm and sunny. We can still get out for walks but Mlle is not allowed to leave the house at all as she must do the mandatory self isolation period for 14 days. This applies to all overseas and interstate arrivals. The police came by our house to check up on her yesterday and make sure she was compliant – Australia is being really strict with quarantine measures. Now you have to do the quarantine in a hotel organised by the government – she just got in on the old rules by a day! I quite agree – it will be lovely to visit parks and go on outings once the restrictions ease. As you say we are so used to the freedom of going about as we choose. I do think there will a myriad of other problems if this does go on for a long time – domestic violence, mental health issues, post traumatic shock etc Fingers crossed solutions can be found though hard to see this crisis settling down quickly. In the meantime stay safe and healthy! 🙂
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And yet here, people returning from overseas are NOT being tested, nor asked to stay in quarantine, unless they show symptoms when they should self-isolate! They should be whisked off to a hotel to do the quarantine period like the first folks who were brought back from Wuhan.
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I quite agree! At the very least quarantine should be mandatory – people can pass this on asymptomatically so just self isolating if they develop symptoms is not enough. Plus not everyone will be honest enough to report symptoms.
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Exactly! Bonkers!
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😢
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I’ve never been to Hampton but it seems like a wonderful place for a leisurely breakfast. Hope you are doing well, here in California everyone has to stay inside too it’s been hit pretty hard. Lets try to make the best of a not so good situation, that’s what I do 😉
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Thanks for visiting virtually! We can still go out for walks and bike rides here as long as we observe the social distancing rules – I would really miss that outlet if it was not allowed. In the southern hemisphere we are now in Autumn but we’ve just got another warm spell today which should last the week. Always better when the sun is out! Very best wishes and hope this crisis will soon pass 🙂
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I love it when the sun comes out it makes life so different! Take good care of yourself and your family 😉
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Thanks Debby! Yes sunshine does make such a difference 🙂 Wishing you all the best too stay safe 🙂
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So happy for you having Mlle back home. Not so happy we had to cancel our UK trip to see daughter & grandchildren in June. Ah well, we still have FaceTime. Best wishes, Ken
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Thanks Ken – relieved to have her back here for a while. So sorry that you can’t do your trip in June to see your daughter and grandchildren – it’s such a difficult and uncertain time. Thank goodness for modern technology so we can still keep in touch by FaceTime and Skype. We should have been going over to the Uk too this spring but that has been postponed though fortunately we hadn’t booked. It’s hard with family still over there including my dad who’s nearly 87. We’ll have to wait and see – travel options not looking likely this year but have to remain optimistic. Very best wishes to you and your family too 🙂
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