{"id":1772,"date":"2020-04-17T13:04:33","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T13:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/suewoolfe.com.au\/pages\/?p=1772"},"modified":"2020-04-21T04:14:07","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T04:14:07","slug":"day-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/suewoolfe.com.au\/pages\/day-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 26"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written 13 April, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

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At last the day of our shopping delivery- or the night really ,for our \u201dwindow\u201d is 6-9pm at DB\u2019s boatyard in Brooklyn. We all admit to a feeling something will go wrong. We plan to wait in the car, though normally we\u2019d spend time chatting to DB or B. But this is the time of the virus. We calculate exactly\u00a0 when to leave; it normally takes 45 minutes to Brooklyn if GG drives, and hour if I do! Then unexpectedly, Woolworths texts to revise our \u201cwindow\u201d to just an hour. What a relief! We\u2019d been worrying about coming back up the river late. GG texts DB to tell him what\u2019s going on, and insists he drive the boat, and that we leave before 5pm. K will stay home and keep warm. I email Annie, a neighbour who\u2019s recently arrived, \u00a0and ask her if something goes wrong, can K ring her. Annie kindly emails back- \u201cOf course\u201d. But what could go wrong?<\/p>\n

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In the afternoon, Dy arrives and wanders up the track to chat while\u00a0 I\u2019m encouraging my two spinach seedlings and GG\u2019s baiting a crab trap. Dy’s brought a friend to help him lop trees so there\u2019s sun enough for his solar panels, and now the bay rings with sawing. Dy’s a\u00a0 man who leans comfortably against a tree. He reminds me of an old advertisement for Billy Tea, a lanky bushman rolling a cigarette and chatting to an attentive kangaroo.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We mention our new thought to use our spare floating pontoon for our new winter solar panels, because they\u2019d get 2 hours more sun than on the roof, which is shaded by trees from early afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween us in the bay we\u2019ll have lots of power\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we can feed it back to the grid\u201d, I joke.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could have our own grid,\u201d he continues. \u201cWhy don\u2019t we ask everyone? There are a lot of empty houses generating power that\u2019s not used.\u201d<\/p>\n

I shrug my shoulders. Sharing can bring the best and the worst out of people. At Bar Point, when we first came here, people shared jetties and stories about neighbourhood fury were rife: someone\u2019s house ended up being burned down. And in Danger Island, where people shared beach buggies to take their shopping form the wharf to their houses, buggy wars broke out and from then on, buggies had to be strictly controlled.<\/p>\n

Later, Dy\u2019s friend comes to borrow a ladder. I ask in return if he\u2019d saw a tree trunk, blown down from the storm, that\u2019s blocking us getting down to our tiny cove. By the time I\u2019m back with the ladder, the tree trunk has gone. I\u2019ll be able to pull my boat up into the cove,\u00a0 instead of typing up to GG\u2019s yacht. I\u2019m delighted: I\u2019d hug him in normal life.<\/p>\n

I make dinner early, our last chicken legs, baked in the oven with cardamom and rice. They\u2019ll be here for us when we get home. Then, rugged up in thermals, jumpers, beanies, gloves and coats, we set off, and immediately things go wrong. The night is black, the water is like glass. Beautiful, but in a glass world, reflections are bewildering. GG has no choice but to follow the reflections of the mountains- that way, he hopes,\u00a0 we\u2019ll avoid the huge log in \u00a0the middle of the bay. \u00a0I stand at the prow, peering for more logs. \u00a0We cannot gaze enough at the lit up houses of Milson\u2019s Passage as we pass them- how extravagant you can be with electricity form the grid.<\/p>\n

But when we turn at the bridge into the narrow isthmus called The Gut,\u00a0 the glassy water defeats us. Every moored boat with its perfect reflection has a peculiar, unfamiliar geometry-that boat\u2019s\u00a0 so big it seems almost upon us- is it? or is that because of its reflection? And surely that huge shape is \u00a0a boat sitting on the water\u2019s surface- but that isn’t a boat shape, it\u2019s a boat plus its reflection, and the water surface is not underneath it as reason argues it seems to be, but half-way up. Our perceptions wrestle with what we know\u00a0 to be true. So we travel fearfully and slowly to the boatyard- but there’s still 10 minutes to go by the time we tie up. Then Brutus and B \u00a0race down the jetty, Brutus barking and B shouting to tell me that the Woolworths man came early, and has gone. He refused to leave our food. B\u2019s handing me out of our boat in his gentlemanly way but I\u2019m so angry wiht Woolworths that I slip, and he has to catch me from falling in.<\/p>\n

In vain do I ring customer service and plead and shout and shout and cry. Customer service will only refund our money.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust give us our food,\u201d I cry.<\/p>\n

Finally, I give up, and we get in the car and drive to the only supermarket in Berowra Coles, though it\u2019s now 9 pm and we don\u2019t know whether or not they\u2019re open. We have only one mask between us, and no gloves except K\u2019s leather gloves I\u2019ve borrowed for the cold. On Corona Cast this morning I heard that men are about twice as likely to die as women, so I decide to be the one to brave the crowds of shoppers, all possibly shedding virus.<\/p>\n

We swing into the parking lot and Coles are still open. But there are no shoppers there, only staff re-filling the shelves. Suddenly, a city girl, I\u2019m revelling in the newly astonishing idea of replaceable food! Food that doesn\u2019t depend on the chances of catching it, the skills of growing it. And when we run out, there\u2019ll be more in the shop. Vast trays of it. And more. And more. As long as we can pay. As long as we can sort out a delivery. As long as we can get to a shop.<\/p>\n

Never has ordinary old lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, fennel, leeks, onions and asparagus looked larger than life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t a criticism,\u201d says GG afterwards. \u201cBut why did you take a whole hour? Were you so shop-deprived you dawdled?\u201d<\/p>\n

I didn’t admit that amongst the deserted supermarket aisles, I was so full of joy. I did what I’ve always been wanting to do, I’d tangoed to the musak.<\/p>\n