Covid Blog 14

Today was probably the best Melbourne has to offer with regards to weather... a lovely Autumn day. For years I have been saying that Autumn is the best season of the year 

Today was a bit of a sleep in with me waking at about 7.00 am and catching up on the news from around the world. The news is still sad with a lot of Covid deaths in many countries... seems that the US is having the worst of it with the UK and several European countries not far behind. Seems also that the social distancing is working when combined with lockdown at home. In Australia we have seemed to have “flattened the curve “ with the number of new Covid cases slowing down.

With this comes the impatient noise about relaxing the current restrictions... I feel this would be very premature as the only way of a long term solution is with a vaccine which is a long way off.

The other thing that seems to have been discovered is that the lower socioeconomic economic persons have a greater propensity to contract the virus... the example of this is that the black community in the USA make up greater numbers of those with the virus 

Luckily the politicians in Australia are listening to the scientific community who are advocating maintaining the strict isolation rules for the time being... let’s hope this continues 

After breakfast it was time for a short ride before starting to work on the exterior painting of the house.... yuk I hate this!

One of the many frustrations of this task is getting all the right gear to get the job done. Also having the right tools!!!

Over the past 2 days I have had 6 trips to Bunnings to get stuff... so frustrating as I want to get on with it!!!

Anyway the work began with plugging gaps and sanding the “builders bog” ....

All of this is slow progress but I have been told by many that   good preparation I does take time and is worth it to get a good result 

Well with that job done I could finally cover the repaired surfaces with undercoat ...

All looked good when done... this preparation now means I can get on with a top coat of paint sometime soon 

With the weather warming up I was able to tidy up the front and back yards and clean the pool.

When done I packed the Ute with gear ahead of going to Rye to sort out the furniture in the house which is to be leased in the weeks ahead...most of it is pretty terrible and will be going in the skip to the tip!

Before heading off I participated in a Zoom call with Chris from NZ and Steve from the UK to chat about how we are doing in this new normal. Both Chris and Steve were my riding mates on the Lands End to John O’groats ride a few years ago.

Good to catchup with the guys who are coping well in each country 

We agreed we should do another call in a month 

After the call it was time to head to Rye... the traffic was very sparse on the roads and I made good time.

Seems that the message has been well and truly been received to stay at home... I have never seen so little traffic on the roads!!!

I will be in bed early tonight as I have a big day ahead of me tomorrow... I am fortunate to have help from Chris , my son, to get the job done 

For me today was another good day with a mixture of fun on the bike and hard work in painting the house at Kenmare st

Now for a few photos ....

Front bay window repair done!

.and the other window!!!

Another view... yes looking good!

The ride today