5August, 2020
Had a déjà vu moment this morning when the Queensland Premier announced
that Queensland will close its borders to all of NSW and the ACT on Saturday at
1am.
I was supposed to be heading up north in a van with my husband early
this morning, to get some of the “treasures” he’s left behind in Brisbane when
he was living there. But, why are we still in Sydney now?
Let’s rewind:
22July, 2020
The situation is very bad in Victoria. When the Victorian Premiere was
addressing the media, this dude next to him suddenly pointed two middle
fingers! What’s going on? Did he think the Premiere is too incompetent?
Actually, this person was doing Auslan sign language. Two middle
fingers meant “lazy”!
http://www.auslan.org.au/dictionary/words/lazy-2.html
Which reminded me, my husband had been working from the living room
couch since March. This is the perfect sign language for me to use every
morning, when I prepare to leave for work and see him still sleeping in bed.
But then again, I should just be glad that I still got a job.
29July, 2020
I don’t work on Wednesday mornings. Therefore, I was relaxing on the
couch with my husband watching TV, when something suddenly made us jump in
shock! The Queensland Premier suddenly announced that Queensland will close its
borders to Greater Sydney effective from 1am Saturday morning! Recently, there
were two sausage-lipped teenagers who went to Victoria to attend illegal
parties and shoplift, and they lied on their declaration form saying they’ve
never been to Victoria, avoiding hotel quarantine! Subsequently, they were
diagnosed with COVID19! There were eight days where they potentially spreading
the virus around in Queensland! Seemed like this really scared the pants off
the premier!
So, my husband and I had to make a sudden change of plans, and get his
things from Brisbane a week earlier than we had planned! After all, the
situation is more likely to get worse than it is to get better. If we don’t get
his things now, don’t know how many years later it will be before we can go get
them. My husband misses his things a lot and can’t feel at peace unless they
are safe within his reach.
I have to agree that the situation in Victoria is very bad. However,
it’s not so bad in NSW, because most cases contracted COVID19 through known contacts. I
work in a region with lots of Chinese, so members of the community had been
extra careful since January. I’ve been referring one or two people for COVID19
testing every day and so far I still haven’t had anyone test positive. But we
still acted on the side of caution and did not arrange any catch up with family
or friends in Brisbane. We planned to just quickly go, and quickly leave!
30July, 2020
I don’t work on Thursday afternoons. I took Friday and Saturday off
work and headed up north at 5pm. We planned to spend the night in Coffs
Harbour. Today happened to be the 9th of Av on the Hebrew calendar:
the day of destruction of the first and second temples in Jerusalem. The
thought of driving 500kms in the dark on a day like this prompted me to send a
prayer request to some of my intercessor friends. Listened to some spiritual devotions
along the way, and was reminded about focusing on God’s glory instead of the
movements of Satan, and place greater emphasis on praising God than the fight
with the devil. Got to Coffs Harbour safely at 10:30pm, and found my social
media newsfeed swamped with news about the passing of President Lee Teng-Hui,
the first people elected president in Taiwan, and the president who initiated
Taiwan's transition to the democratic era!
31July, 2020
We went to the following places in Coffs Harbour:
Muttonbird Island
Coffs Harbour Marina and Jetty
The Big Banana
Digger’s Beach
Forest Sky Pier, Sealy Lookout
Then we continue on towards the border of Queensland. My husband
realised that the M1 highway has been modified and is now 100kms shorter! The
road also became better and easier to drive on. When we reached the Queensland
border, there were many cars waiting in line. After waiting for half an hour,
we passed the border smoothly at 3:15 pm!
We drove through the Gold Coast and found that it looks very different
from before.
We ate the Yatala Pies. My husband thinks it is delicious, I think it
is ordinary.
We arrived at Garden City Travelodge at 7pm, and went to the Garden
City Shopping Centre next to it. It was actually empty! There were only people
in the outdoor dining area. Then we went to Sunnybank, which was even more
empty, because it had just been marked as a COVID19 hotspot. There was no one
in the restaurants! It reminded me of the scene in Eastwood, where I work,
during January, when the local community got really scared about the COVID19. After
buying dinner at the Fry Chicken Master, we went back to Travelodge. We looked
at the news and found out that Garden City just got marked as a hot spot! No
wonder it was empty! But then, that’s a good thing for us, because the less
people we encounter, the less risk of catching the disease! Then, my husband’s
friend come to the Travelodge car park dressed up like a scrubbed surgeon to
drop off his things. They stayed a long distance away from each other and spoke
through a video call.
1August, 2020
We began our southbound journey. First, we went to a farm in Park Ridge
South to pick up my husband’s things. The owner had already opened the shed
where my husband’s things were. He wore a mask as our car approached the shed
and communicated via the phone. My husband was excited to see his things, but
also devasted when he saw that many things got eaten by termites. If he comes
to fetch these things a few years later, it will probably be all gone!
We initially planned to have lunch at Orion Springfield Central, but
saw hundreds of cars lined up and not moving. We asked the traffic control
person what happened, and he said a COVID19 drive thru testing centre had just
been set up there. So we immediately drove away from that place!
After driving through Warwick, and then to the border of Queensland, we
took lots of photos at the border, not knowing when we can come in again next
time.
When we were approaching Armidale, the city of churches, there were
noises coming from the boxes, and a fluffy shadow jumped out. When we arrived
at Armidale Hideaway Motor Inn and opened the car door, a possum the size of a
cat suddenly ran out! She was very frightened and hid in a corner of the motel
wall, and I saw two additional little paws coming out from her chest. When we
tried to put the possum back into the car, she ran away. My husband recalled
that when he went to Queensland to inspect his things four years ago, an animal
had made a hole in one of his boxes. It seems that this possum has lived in his
box for at least four years!
We had dinner at New England Hotel, which had a beautiful fireplace. It
was buy one get one free, a real bargain!
2August, 2020
Took a look around Armidale:
UNE
Booloominbah Historic House
St Mary & Joseph Catholic Cathedral
St Peters Anglican Cathedral
New England Regional Art Museum
Looking at the news, the Victorian Premier suddenly announced that
Melbourne will enter into stage four lockdown at 6pm tonight! Wow, said and
done on the same day! People will probably all rush out to shop for food!
Took a look around Tamworth:
Moonbi Park and Lookout
Oxley Lookout
Walked on the main street and had lunch at Tudor Hotel.
Check out the Big Golden Guitar
After having dinner at Albion Hotel in Singleton, we continued our
southbound journey and arrived home at nine. What an adventure this was. Thank
God for the excellent weather over the last few days.
