Written 23 August, 2020
I lazed all day yesterday, and went to bed early, worn out by the week’s drama. Just before bed, my friend Sarah in England emailed me with 3 pictures of her wearing her 3 masks, the ones I illegally posted her back in June. I didn’t believe hand-made cloth masks would be needed by hospitals, and ignored the woman at the post office who said I wasn’t to send them, that masks were needed in Australia. I didn’t explain then that they were cloth masks. I just ran away, and popped them in a post box. i still don’t believe hospitals needed my 3 cloth masks. They’d only be safe in surgical masks. Sometimes, the rules are plain silly.
Sarah has at last been able to buy a phone. Her old phone died just at lockdown, and she wasn’t able to buy a new phone until phone shops re-opened in North Hampton. I swore to her I’d ring her when I woke, but at 5 am I got out of bed, sleepily put a new log on the fire and, sitting on the sofa to make sure it caught fire, I fell asleep, and finally woke chilled and sneezing at 8am, too late to ring her. Sneezing… sneezing… coughing. But no chills. Surely I haven’t got the virus! Have I? Didn’t I get away with it during the week when i sat next to my friend? If I was in the city, I’d go straight away and get tested. But surely it’s only sneezing caused by getting cold by a dying fire. I decide to wait it out. We’re a long way from the city, hours away. It’s 9 degrees today, for there’s snow falling in the Blue Mountains. I take 10 gms of Vitamin C, Sofradex ear drops, and resist going outside, except to quickly grab kindling, for there’s a 40 knot wind was blowing.
I watch the wind blowing light across the bay, and, sneezing gone, coughing gone, write this.(Warning: turn off the sound)