Last weekend seems a long time ago – we’re back in lockdown this weekend due to an outbreak from a quarantine hotel in the city that has leaked into the community.
The pictures below were taken at a music festival called In the Pines held in the beautiful setting of Somerville Auditorium (in the University of Western Australia’s grounds).
Mlle’s workplace, RTRFM, were the organisers so we went along for a couple of hours over lunchtime to check it out and support Mlle (see here for the RTR Family Day outing we had a few weeks ago). In the afternoon we headed off to our younger granddaughter’s 6th birthday party in a local park. Such gatherings alas will now be off the agenda for some time to come.
Leaving Somerville we strolled back to our car along the pathway by the Swan River – it was such a lovely autumn day, still warm and the river was shimmering in the sunshine. Families were picnicing on the river banks enjoying the gorgeous weather. Cyclists and walkers were out aplenty – it’s bit surreal now as everywhere is eerily quiet. We are allowed out for an hour a day in groups of no more than four for exercise as long as we are masked up. We can of course also leave home for shopping for food and medical supplies or for essential work that can’t be done from home. Masks must be worn at all times outside the home.
We have had a very privileged lifestyle over the past few months and really this is a small sacrifice to pay to stamp this latest outbreak out. It is getting harder and harder though to keep the virus out of Australia especially with the newer variants and increased number of returning citizens.
We are hoping for a return to some normality reasonably soon but suspect we’ll be living with restrictions for several weeks at least.
In the meantime here are photos from last Sunday that seem another world away at present! Can you spot the cheeky kookaburra who had pinched a sandwich?
Copyright © 2021 Rosemary Thomas Le Chic En Rose. All rights reserved
Le Chic En Rose 
There are big challenges in our world for the moment – but really some inspiring captures you give us. 🙂
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Thanks Drake! We are coming out of full lockdown at midnight tonight but will have restrictions such as mandatory mask wearing, limits on gatherings and reduced capacities in cafes etc for a while at least. It is very sad to see what is happening in many countries at present. Hoping for better times ahead.
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How delightful. We are opening up soon to events so it remains to be seen whether they cause an increase in infections. Of course our rate is far higher still than anything you have had over there. The solution is to get as many people vaccinated as possible all over the world as the longer this virus is out there, the more likely it is to mutate. You have to wonder if we’ll ever feel safe again. Is your daughter back in Perth for good then? It must be nice to have all your chicks around you.
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Thanks Jude – it was a lovely day 🙂 We are coming out of lockdown tonight as planned but restrictions will remain for a while. It will certainly be quite strict for the rest of this week at least. Yes one wonders what the world will look like going forward. We never had the same level of rapid travel even 20 years ago let alone in times such as the Spanish Flu. I know I’ll be worried about getting stuck somewhere or being forced into testing and quarantine if I venture overseas again! It will certainly be interesting to see how you go in the Uk now that events are starting up again and also how effective the vaccinations will be protecting against the various mutations. Or the virus may just keep a few steps ahead and keep mutating. Our daughter is certainly back in Perth for now – she is settled with a full time job she loves. She does miss her London friends but has no plans to head over to Europe again for a long time. We’ll see! For now it’s lovely to have her back here again after nearly 6 years away – I know we’re very lucky 🙂
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Sorry to hear you have had a regression, but hopefully a swift clamp down will sort it out. Our restrictions ease tomorrow, but I won’t be surprised if we also have some setbacks.
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Thanks Anabel – it’s a nuisance but honestly it is the only way to stop a big outbreak developing. In fact we have heard this afternoon (Monday) that we’ll be coming out of lockdown as planned at midnight tonight. There will still be quite strict measures in place for another 4 days though and I should imagine some measure of restrictions will be around for a while eg mandatory mask wearing. So far we have only had another 2 cases of community transmission since the initial case who brought it out of hotel quarantine – unwittingly I might add! The man caught it from another returned traveller in an adjacent hotel room who was Covid positive (inadequate airflow seems to be the culprit). The hotel in question won’t be used to quarantine returning travellers in future but the problem is that the hotels available are nearly at capacity at present. At the same time there has been a sharp increase in overseas arrivals bringing the virus back with them. At least the federal government has now agreed to half Western Australia’s overseas arrivals intake for the next month (international arrivals are already heavily capped). The swift sharp lockdown has given the authorities time to contact trace, isolate close and casual identified contacts and test as many people who might have been exposed as possible. I do hope things go well with the easing of restrictions with you. It will be lovely to have freedoms back but at the same time I guess some setbacks will occur. Your vaccination programme has been impressive though – time will tell if it’s going to be effective.
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Yes, I read on the BBC website this morning that your lockdown was ending. Decisive action certainly works. Even though restrictions are easing I’m not changing my behaviour much, certainly not until I’m fully vaccinated.
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I think that is very sensible Anabel. I’d be doing the same too. I’m going to cautious here for a while too even though lockdown is ending- social distancing definitely helps a lot!
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Hi, Rosemary. I heard they shut down the Anzac marches but let the footy go on. Can this be true?
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Hi Coral – the footy went ahead but without any spectators but the Dawn Services were all cancelled. However the service was broadcast instead and people were encouraged to join in by holding candles in their driveways and listening in on their phones or radios.
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Great venue for an outdoors festival, your photos are beautiful. Such a shame about the infection rates rising again and unfortunately that is the case in most of Europe also. How is your vaccination program going?
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Hi Gilda well our vaccination prgramme is going slowly! We don’t have anywhere near the infection rates of many other countries though. Our lockdown was in response to a case that leaked out of hotel quarantine and infected a couple of people (which counts as local transmission). So the authorities wanted to crush it before it got going. So far no other cases have been detected despite extensive testing. Of course with the lack of high infection rates our contact tracing teams can immediately swing into action and identify and isolate any contacts and exposure sites. It’s easier for the health authorities to identify the strain and then use genomic sequencing to identify the chain of transmission. Most of the other Australian states and New Zealand have now closed their borders to anyone from the affected areas in Western Australia. It’s easier for us to do this of course with our isolation. We’re coming out of the total lockdown tonight but restrictions will be in place for a while longer such as mandatory mask wearing. Somerville was a great venue for the outdoor festival – so lucky it was last weekend and not this one! Hope all is going well with you 🙂
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I am glad the infection rate there is so low. Here in England, things have improved a lot and we are slowly coming out of lockdown. Brian and I are both now vaccinated and we have booked a trip to Cornwall for May. We have no plans for international travels, but we will be keeping an eye out for any opportunity later on in the year. Keep well 🙂
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You must be so looking forward to your Cornwall trip Gilda! Sounds sensible to stay closer to home initially and then hopefully go a bit further afield down the track. Fingers crossed the improvements continue and you can gradually return to a normal life over there 🙂
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Beautiful places, warm weather it looks like. Unfortunately now on lockdown. I guess it’s inevitable since people with covid keep on coming back to their home country and we cannot prevent them from doing that so yes getting a transmission to the community is inevitable. We have the same problem here last month had 3 days then another week of lockdown because of it. Until there are people keep on traveling whether sick or not covid will never cease. If no host covid will die.
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I agree – it is a very tricky issue though and the subject of a lot of fierce debate here. For now our international arrival intake into Perth has been halved for the next month to help take the pressure off our quarantine hotels. Yes it is still very warm – high 20s for the past few days but much cooler wetter weather is apparently on the way. We’re out of lockdown at midnight though, which is encouraging news 🙂
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