Writing in Lock Down

I have half re-written my novel while I have been in lockdown. Amazingly, I think to myself that I could, actually, finish it. I have even come up with an ending, my main gay character, who has been single and fancy free thought the whole novel, and has never wanted to get married, will marry his boyfriend. 

I've been working from home, as has Sam. And as I only work Mon to Wed, I just started at the beginning of the novel one Thursday sitting at the coffee table with Sam as he worked and off I went. 

I have it all now planned out in my head. It is all pretty much written, the first draft such as it is. It shouldn't be too hard to rewrite it all. There is a lot to write, there is a lot missing, don't get me wrong, but I realised the basic frame work is there now.

P.S. Funny, the minute I came to this realisation I lost momentum. When I was just writing it with no expectations it almost flowed quicker than I could get it down.

But, as I said, a lot of it is written. And when it is written, even if it is badly written, it is so much easier to rewrite and end up with something good than trying to write the first draft. Writing gets more writing. Even if it is just notes, and it is way more than that, it is infinitely better than staring at the blank page.

The first draft is like having your blood drained, the rewrite is when it starts to be enjoyable.

They're Back

Oh, Jesus Fuck! The tourists are back in my suburb. The footpaths are suddenly populated with people again. BooHoo. I liked the social isolating, I liked the peace, I liked the quiet. Sam and I have been loving it, so nice and quiet when we left the house for the park with our dogs. I'm now just hanging out for second wave of the Corona Virus to hit to return things back to our 'new' normal.

I liked lockdown, my normally busy inner city suburb has been so quiet, it has been lovely. 

Firstly, it was just the crazies out there who didn't get the whole self isolation thing, it was like a psycho ward out there for a time. Toothless, crazy-haired people coming up to you with no understanding of social distancing, like some bad LSD trip. (I like the crazies, it stops the streets from becoming beige. Is that patronising? I don't mean it to be)

And then it was just the locals who ventured out of their caves with their pets, or in their jogging gear, and it was great.

But, last weekend, the great unwashed from the suburbs were definitely back. Boo Hoo.

Is it wrong to wish for a second wave of the virus to shut my suburb back down again? No? I thought not. 

Lockdown didn't make you fat

Toothless Old Hag

I had to have one of my front teeth removed, second to the left, if you are looking at it from where I am. It has been a problem for some time, due to an infection I got in my gum. I have never had a filling, but I have had all sorts of gum problems. You know that old joke, there is nothing wrong with your teeth but you gums have to come out, well, that is me.

I have explored all the options and now I am going to have a bonded bridge to replace it. I have to wait some weeks before that can happen, it is now schedule for June 10th, I think that is the date. I'm going to be one of the toothless until then. Ha ha.

Perhaps, I should get an old shawl and say, "Come here my pretty, pretty," when I am out in public.

Good thing we are still in lock down, and I am continuing to work from home, so I don't have to go toothless into the office. And, I don't have to go into how I was trying to save some poor kid from some bullies and got into a bar fight. I ducked every right hook that came my way, like a fucking champion, except for the last one. Damn it!

Oh, I guess I won't even remember in a few days times that I don't have a tooth. The beginning of June will come soon enough.

PS. A week later, I have forgotten I have lost a tooth.

The Fat Boy Dictator

Kim Jong Un has been missing for 20 days. Apparently, he had heart surgery, there was information that he was very sick after the operation, even some speculation he’d died.

Allegedly, before he took power after the death of his dictator daddy, his main hobbies were crystal meth, hookers and video games.

So, perhaps he had just regressed, old habits die hard, and all that (what would you do if you were all powerful?) and, perhaps, one of his advisers had to head over to his palace recently, kick him and say, “Sober up fat boy, get out there and be seen, they think you are dead.”

I'm Not Downloading Scumo’s Coronavirus Tracing App?

There are only 140 person to person transmissions of Corona Virus in Victoria and we have flattened the curve, so why do we need Scumo's (Australia's most dishonest politician) app?

How is this app going to make things better, specifically? It doesn't. It is only designed so that Scummo can get the economy going again for all his business mates.

And what’s that you say? Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been chosen as the cloud storage platform for the Federal Government's coronavirus tracing app. (Reuters) Oh, what could go wrong with that?

And when Scumo works this hard to convince us of something, quite frankly, I smell a rat, Whiteside! A rat with a beard… er… virus app.

Our morally bankrupt Prime Minister says, "Download the tracing app, it won't compromise your privacy, trust me."

Seriously?

Out walking the dogs in that glorious sunshine

Day 50 – Friday, 1 May

The Australian Capital Territory enters the day with no active cases of Covid-19, with 103 people recovered and three dead.

Loosened restrictions in New South Wales and Queensland take effect. North of the border, family groups are allowed to go for picnics or to a national park; to eat a takeaway meal outside instead of scurrying back into their homes; to take a leisure drive within a 50km radius of their home address; and to shop for frivolities.

In New South Wales, people are allowed to have up to two visitors in their home, or visit other people.

In the Northern Territory, which has not had a new case of Covid-19 in weeks, the parks are reopened. Fishing, camping, outdoor weddings and funerals and attending the local swimming pool are back on the cards. In two weeks’ time residents will be allowed to go to the pub, provided they only stay for two hours and also order food. By 18 June, according to a plan outlined by chief minister Michael Gunner, everything will be back to normal.

The national cabinet moves forward its decision on easing restrictions to next Friday, 8 May. “We need to restart our economy, we need to restart our society. We can’t keep Australia under the doona, we need to move ahead,” Morrison says.

- The Guardian