Chapter 249: heading towards beginning the start of life Post Corona

Corona has arrived, hung around a while and changed our community. Are these changes going to remain post Corona?

We are told we are beginning to start to enter post Corona land.

Restaurants have re-opened. Open for the first ten customers.  Before Corona when we were ready, we turned up and took a seat. Nowadays we rang and we were told we had to arrive at 7:00 pm. We arrived and most of the tables are marked as reserved.

The waitress said: Don’t sit at reserved tables. They are not reserved for you. Or anybody else. 

Nobody was expected. Social distancing meant the tables were to remain empty. There was no atmosphere or buzz that came from being crowded amongst others in a popular restaurant. We had to generate all the buzz at our table. By ourselves.

The food was identical to previous food. We sat as normal and the waitress said: Order as normal and your food will be brought to your table as normal. We sat and watched the kitchen. The chiefs were as busy as normal. Busy packing bags for uber eats. Not as normal.

Grandma told the grandkids: Don’t run around and touch anything. You will have to wash your hands. Don’t touch that railing. When we entered the restaurant, we were not given a simple easy way of washing our hands. There was no change from past practices.

Post Corona I imagine restaurants will provide hand sanitizer or bowls or paper towels to clean our hand when you enter.

During Corona we have eaten healthier. We have eaten more food prepared and cooked at home. It is possible that not everyone has gone the same way. Maybe some people have eaten more ready prepared dishes. Post corona will our community eat healthier?

During Corona we have also eaten more home-grown food. More herbs or vegetables from our garden. During Corona more people have planted and tended vegetable patches. Will this trend continue. Post Corona will people eat more healthy, organic, seasonal home-grown food?

Social tennis: We have two courts. The law said we had to limit the number to ten people. By magic ten people turn up to play tennis.  We played tennis as normal. No change except we didn’t shake hands at end of each set. Hand sanitizer was provided to clean hands. Post Corona I expect social tennis to be very similar to pre Corona.

Corona has resulted in law changes. The laws and rules have been made up as we go. The new laws haven’t fitted correctly. They have all resulted in anomalies, exceptions, unintended consequences and routs.  Every country has rushed through different laws and different ways of defeating Corona. Every country has also a plan to fight the economic slump.  We will only know which way is the best after the event. Post Corona academics will analyse all the data and decide the best way to defeat Corona. At the moment we are all part of a real time experiment involving different countries and different laws.

Facebook is a global conglomerate. During Corona Facebook has helped us become more local. Connect with our Neighbours. Connect with people in our apartment. We are suddenly sharing jokes and posts on Facebook with neighbours we are stopped from meeting.  Corona and Facebook has strengthened local communities. Brought people together. Will this continue post Corona?

Our newspaper is full of articles written by single issue groups saying how their issue now needs more money because of Corona. I can’t blame any group for looking at Corona from their point of view.  Anyway, that’s what they do. For example:

1: Post Corona people will want to continue social distancing. They will avoid public transport. The roads will be busier. We need more money to build better roads and bridges.

2: Post Corona more people will work from home. Working at home leads to less traffic and an increase in domestic violence. We need more money to combat domestic violence.

3: During Corona homeless people are suffering worse than anybody. They can’t socially isolate. Give me more money to build appropriate housing.

4: Tourism has evaporated during Corona. Air B@B properties are now siting empty. We have no alternative but long term leases for previously homeless at much cheaper rents. Post Corona we need money to stimulate tourism.

Chapter 248: Radio Interview

Our local radio station is interested in the health and wellbeing of local community.  They proved this by an interview which we are providing for you to listen to.


ABC Radio Interview

Thank you Helen Shield for your interest.

https://www.abc.net.au/radio/people/helen-shield/7951872

Chapter 247: The Domain

I admit it. I can’t deny it.

I confess. I love the Domain. 

                                            https://www.thedomainhobart.com/

The Domain is an area of native bush in the middle of Hobart.

The native bush is not perfect native bush. It has degenerated. Many original native species have been replaced by foreign species. Many of these introduced species like their new environment. They have become naturalised. They have become part of the local environment.

If you have botanical knowledge you will know the Domain houses many unusual species.  Many native plants on the Domain are rare, endangered threatened or just surviving. The only threatened birds and animals still present on the Domain are probably some snails and a skink. It is possible that the threatened tussock skink hangs on and lives very close to an empty cage in Beaumaris Zoo. The cage once housed a much photographed thylacine. 

If you wander on the Domain you will see amongst the native bush evidence of humans. Hobartians past and present have left their mark on the Domain. The Cenotaph, The TCA and Government house are the grand structures. The Powder Magazine and Mawson’s radio masts are less grand. Every edifice houses a story.

Sports fields are scattered over the Domain.  Very few Hobartians have not played or watched a sporting event on the Domain. Every sports field can tell two stories. One about famous people who have played there. The other story is about all the locals playing and improving their health. Physical, mental and social.

I helped give birth to the Domain website and I hope it lives a long and successful life.  

I hope it learn from its mistakes and grows. Most mistakes I will become aware of when somebody takes the trouble of telling me. 

I anticipate that in the future when I receive correct facts I will adjust and update the website. Mistakes, errors and wrong posts followed by corrections will prove the website is alive. 

The Domain is more than a few scattered sports fields and neglected buildings.  It is an integral part of Hobart.

Since 1804 the Domain has confronted many issues:

Conflict between the people living there originally and newly arrived European settlers.

What environment is best. Should it involve preserving purely natural flora and fauna?

What community ceremonies are appropriate? The statues remain but with time the ceremonies have changed. Time for a new ceremony to remember people on the front line in the war against Corona.

Governance. Initially managed by local aborigines. Then controlled by the Queen. In 1858 she gave the land to Hobart City Council. 

Cars.  Is the car helping people access the Domain or helping destroy it? Many people begin their visit to the Domain by driving and parking there. Car parks are devouring and destroying valuable native bush on the Domain. At the same time Highways are isolating and separating the Domain from local pedestrians. A new pedestrian bridge has just been constructed for commuters who park their cars on the Domain. Is driving, parking then walking a good result for the Domain.

One issue the Domain faced uniquely was in 1975. Destruction of the Tasman Bridge altered traffic flow around the Domain in both the short and long term.  

Many people around the world will see similarities between their home city and Hobart. I welcome this. 

Us Hobartians have not done anything dramatically better or worse than anywhere else. We have faced similar issues as elsewhere. Maybe our solutions are worse or better than elsewhere. What matters is that we and you talk about the issues. 

I also want to thank many other people who made the Domain Website possible:

Convicts, with no descendants, who live on in the buildings they built. The Powder Magazine; the Powder Jetty; Government House and Arthurs Wall at the Botanical gardens,
Workers; at the aquatic centre; the Botanical gardens and mowing the grass.   
Volunteers at Tasmanian Masters Athletics; the parkrun; the soccer; the cricket and dog training.
Mountain bikers; dog walkers and joggers who greet me.

The annual parading Anzacs.
Freezing parents huddling and watching their child become a soccer champion.

Tennis players running and hitting tennis balls on some very good courts.

Cricket players calling, “Catch it.”

The three local designers of the railway roundabout.

The crowd who grabbed their opportunity and saw AC DC.

Men who built the diversion tunnel with sweat.

Douglas Mawson and the radio masts he erected to communicate with himself in Antarctica. 

And anybody who has ever been or may ever go to the Domain.

The Domain is a part of my life. If you read on you will see a lot of posts which don’t mention the Domain. This blog is not a single issue blog. A blog where every post comes back to the same issue. Like everybody else who visits the Domain I have a life outside the Domain. My life outside the Domain is made better and stronger because of the Domain.

                                                               https://www.thedomainhobart.com/