As much as I feel my life is not worthy of its own blog I recognise that personal stories can give great insight into larger topics or debates. Personally at least I enjoy reading through the prism of a personal story so I will avail those who care to continue my personal experience through these utterly ridiculous times.
I will begin this story a few months ago when I began this blog. Catallaxy has always been an important part of my life, a collection of information, opinions and debates that are simply ignored by the mainstream media. I had no intention of taking on such a role and definitely no time for such an endeavour but my “motto” in life is take on a challenge and work out the details later.
At the same time 2 major life events were taking place. I was starting a new business in my hometown (not that big of a deal) but unexpected media attention meant that it grew faster and quicker than anticipated which left me extremely time poor. The store is a lolly shop, the idea was to bring a little bit of joy to my children, sharing with them one of my favourite childhood activities. The site is lolly-kingdom.com.au and it is now Australia’s largest pick and mix lolly store with over 300 varieties. you can see my wife and I in the half finished shop at this news article here. https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/7389272/australias-largest-pick-and-mix-lolly-store-is-open/
As a result of the media attention I had to hire extra staff and put on a manager to assist. As anyone who owns a business putting on staff is no small matter, besides the cost and effort involved you have a new responsibility (and stress) to look after them.
The second life event was a decision for my wife and I and our 6 children to move to Brisbane. Our small hometown had become incredibly lacking in ambition and the sea change retiring crowd from Sydney had destroyed the housing market and the vitality of the town. I don’t blame them for the change but wanted more opportunity for the kids and ourselves. I should add the warmer climate was a significant factor as my wife is very ill. Neither of these events are overly complicated until you add in the Rona and the government incompetence and overreaction that follows.
Mentally the Covid debate was already taking its toll on me. The fact that so many people close to me just followed the advice like ducks waiting for bread or worse repeated the advice as if watching the 6pm news gave you anything more knowledge then a government press release. One discussion with a gym member was particularly memorable for the ability to shift goal post and then the nonchalant dismissive nature of the person when called out on it. (Proper debating needs to be taught in school but that is a side issue). After I politely pointed out that Israel has high vaccine rates and still have lockdowns I was asked what I would do. I suggested the Sweden model of doing nothing which had excellent results far better than many countries with severe limitations on freedom. They replied that you are happy with 60 thousand deaths in Australia, a number that would never apply to us for a host of reasons climate and location being the main two. I knew the number was wrong but being a typical conservative I said nothing as I was not sure of the correct figure which at the time was actually 15000 (and that is if deaths are being recorded correctly which I doubt). So they had pulled a number out of thin air to prove their point whilst I being unsure of the numbers was too polite to do the same, a microcosm of the larger debate I think. Anyway these conflicts were deflating as you Cats would know and had already diminished my appetite for news or political debates.
It was then I made a huge error of judgement. I decided to move the family at the beginning of term 4 so the kids could see out the term and finish their sporting commitments. We had a couple of titles to win after all. This would also give me more time in the lolly store to have it running smoothly before I left. I had assumed lockdowns would be restricted to Sydney as we had not had a single case of covid – Ever. But not having a single case of an infectious disease is not a good enough reason to keep a town open according to the NSW government and as a result our life got a whole lot more complicated and completely unnecessarily.
The lolly shop was now closed, I have 2 full time staff and can not open to the public. All the momentum and goodwill generated from the opening and the media attention had vanished overnight. Tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of kilos of food sitting there with little options and no warning as well as a significant portion of my savings invested sitting there. I wasn’t even eligible for the government grants due to it being a new business.
At the same time our move to Brisbane became far more difficult. We could no longer travel across the border to look at houses to move to, so we had to pick a location via video call which, although unspoken, put our applications at the bottom of the list for landlords. No chance we were to buy a house sight unseen so renting was the only option now. We decided to take the first house we were offered (many did not get to this stage) so our rental agreement began a few weeks before our desired move date. We then put our house up for rent as our local area has a severe housing shortage and this was to start at a similar time to our new house in Brisbane.
We also now had to require hotel quarantine to get into the state if we couldn’t get a medical exemption. So we immediately applied for a medical exemption on the grounds that 8 people in a hotel room is not mentally healthy for anyone, especially children. In addition my wife has trigeminal neuralgia also known as the suicide disease, severe facial and head pain caused by stress, noise and touch. Pretty sure stress and noise with 6 kids in a hotel room is a given. 2 of the kids have been formally diagnosed with ADHD not much of an issue normally but being imprisoned will be devastating and a third has Autism. Combined we think it would present a reasonable case for home quarantine, coming from an area with zero cases ever.
This begins our first direct interaction with government, a new department set up for medical exemptions into queensland. We were responded to in a few days asking for further proof of medical issues requiring a lot of work talking to paediatricians, psychiatrist, doctors and the like. After we submitted the new information and didn’t hear back we decided to contact the department. Not finding any details we contacted the Qld covid help line for more information. They tell us they have no idea on how the exemption department works, no idea what the chances are and that there is no way to contact them either by phone or email. The best option is to add to our case daily so that they see the notifications. This is something we did and we didn’t hear back for 4 weeks! Not being one to sit idly we began to plan for the inevitable hotel quarantine stay instead moving forward our dates so we wouldn’t be paying rent for a house we can’t get to. However hotel quarantine was also paused for an indefinite time. We were now homeless where we lived (staying anywhere as a family of 8 is nearly impossible) paying rent on a house we couldn’t get to and with a new business closed to the public, children no longer at school or childcare and no dates or information reliable to make any decisions on.
We then hired a holiday house locally (they were dormant because of the lockdown), opened the business to the public as it was food retail, told the kids not to worry about school until we had moved and tried to enjoy a mini holiday to assist our declining mental health. Unfortunately lockdown meant that we could no longer exercise at a gym (my single most important mental health exercise), we could not go out to dinner, we couldn’t go shopping together (actually got pulled up at bunnings for this one. I actually laughed at them first before realising they were being serious) and had to wear a mask out in public so not exactly a textbook edition of a holiday.
Staying at the house got many strange looks from the public (as it was clearly identified as a holiday house, culminating inevitably with a visit from the local police asking why are we there, and where are we from. To their credit they were pretty easy going about it but the thought of being dobbed in by locals for the temerity of having a roof over the head was depressing.
After a week or so the QLD government announced that they would be accepting applications again from Sunday at 8pm. By 8:05 on the sunday we had applied for hotel quarantine and once again had to sit idly by extending our stay at the holiday house day after day. After 2 days we were given news from the medical exemption team that we had “been semi successful”. As with all government directives it was unintelligible what was meant so a further phone call to the QLD helpline was answered with I have no idea what that means they should of called you to explain. I will get my manager.
Like Deja vu the manager proceeds to tell us I have no idea what that means they should have called you. Here is what they sent us:
I am writing to advise you that your request for an exemption to enter Queensland by road and home quarantine has been partially approved.
To clarify, if you are moving house to settle in Queensland and you still intend to come to Queensland you may arrive by road, however you must:
- arrive by air to Brisbane or the Gold Coast Airport (you may not enter by road);
- complete 14 days in government-arranged hotel quarantine at your own expense (you cannot complete quarantine at home);
- practice social distancing of 1.5m where possible, perform regular hand hygiene, and always wear a mask while at the airport, on the plane and while travelling to the quarantine hotel;
- agree to monitoring and COVID testing whilst in hotel quarantine, in accordance with the requirements of the Public Health Unit; and
- apply for a Queensland Entry Pass.
We appreciate that this is not the decision you were hoping for and acknowledge this may impact your plans to enter Queensland.
The Chief Health Officer delegate considers every request very carefully, weighing up the risks of COVID-19 to Queenslanders with the urgency and importance of the request. The risk of transmission of the current strain of COVID-19, the delta strain, is significantly higher than previously identified strains and travel to Queensland for the purpose of relocation does not outweigh the risk and necessary action to protect the Queensland community.
Eventually we did get a call from them a couple days later saying it meant we can get in but we have to hotel quarantine. Our exemption was now the same thing offered a few weeks ago to anybody, a stay in prison like conditions costing nearly $10,000. Seeing we were already forking out more than $1500 a week extra for accommodation and that waiting for a sensible resolution to covid restrictions is a poor bet we decided to bite the bullet and move forward with our lives.
We booked a flight from Sydney for the next day and began the journey at 10am driving to the train and catching it to the airport. The train was quiet but the scene at the airport was eerie.
The people in the airport were excited to see anyone and were talking our ear off. The security detail was the only thing that outnumbered our family and they let us know doing a random substance test on me and going through our bags several times finding nail clippers in my wifes carry on. Don’t get me wrong they were polite but I think they were exceedingly bored. The flight was comfortable with only around 20 passengers on the plane, which suggest there are kickbacks involved because it could not be profitable for Qantas to fly like this. That would also explain the strange silence coming from the airline space during these lockdowns.
We landed in Brisbane and our travel time was now around 6 hours, putting young children into less than ideal moods. But this is where it becomes farcical. As we leave the plane a human chain of police officers and SES personnel create a walkway from the gate to a processing area. They stand roughly 10 metres apart and give no indication of what exactly we are expected to do. Our kids walk straight through the human chain to the public toilets causing anxiety amongst the ranks. They can’t expect kids not to go to the toilet but now they are in a public space infecting everyone in the bathroom with covid. We stop next to a retail outlet to wait for the boys and my 2 year old daughter starts touching the shirts next to her. To clarify the human chain was in the middle of the walkway any retail outlet to the left was fair game to us covid passengers. A police officer gets the shits and gives us a dressing down about not letting the kids touch anything even though they probably don’t have it. I have now taken a vow of silence so as not to jeopardize the move and my wife becomes the spokesperson for the family.
We continue along the human chain about 100 metres and turn into another corridor where the processing facility is set up to one side. The other side is a general thoroughfare for QLD residents and is divided by cinema ropes (I kid you not). We are then put in a line without social distancing to be processed to our hotels. This it is important to note does not happen before you book a flight. It happens once you land which we were told many times during our chats despite us explaining that with a large family with special needs we would like to have an idea of the accommodation we can expect and prepare for. But I digress, we are last in the line having stopped for a toilet break and the kids are getting on each other’s nerves badly. An older police officer with an ipad comes up to begin planning. I say to him I don’t want to answer the same questions twice then remember my vowel of silence and pass off to my wife. We get yet another of the same reaction “wow 6 kids I am not sure what we will do for this one” which sets me on another rfit of quiet rage wanting to yell “ no shit that is why we tried to plan things in advance and get an exemption from this shit”. He then leaves and I wonder to myself what qualification a police officer has for organising accommodation and why they wouldn’t get a civilian with experience to do such a task. After about 30 minutes we get to the front of the queue and answer the same questions with another police officer who then directs us to another administrative person whom we answer the same questions to and then sit in a waiting bay, a bunch of close seats with the movie rope dividing us from the public.
The whole group gets a stern talking too and we begin our journey to collect our luggage. Again the human chain begins operation and I can’t but help think of the enormous wage bill being generated particularly with the difficulty I had for just 2 full time staff for my new business. Again they make a chain with large moving gaps in the middle of the walkway, our left side completely open to retail stores and food outlets. I was within a foot of at least 2 dozen people during my walk and around 10 non quarantined people walked through the chain completely unaware. We get through the departure gates and walk down a set of stairs to get our luggage. The tail end of the human chain of police and SES personnel are running down parallel stairs to get in front like a scene from monty python or scooby doo.
Our luggage pick up was amongst other domestic (not the right word but since we no longer act as a federation fitting I think) travellers with the human chain again more ineffective then a mask stopping covid particles. Once baggage was collected we were told to hop on a bus together with our family going first to make things easier which we were grateful for. This led to the most farcical scene of the day with a domestic passenger actually bumping into one of my children who doesn’t walk in a straight line. You could see the visible embarrassment of the authorities at this point.
We loaded on the bus, social distancing of course and wearing mask. Our first stop was one passenger going to international airport which was curious. Surely they should fly international from the first airport they go to, why would QLD accept another passenger who was leaving immediately. Our second stop was a hotel where one passenger got off. Why they didn’t stay with the rest of us was a mystery. Our third and final stop was for the remaining 18 or so passengers. Each group got off separately despite being together every step to date. Again we were off first being the only ones dumb enough to travel with young children.
We waited outside the bus whilst the police unloaded all the luggage. Once unloaded I was asked to load all the luggaeg onto baggage trolleys so that the same officers who unloaded the bus would not have to touch our luggage an unnecessary amount (they were fully masked and wearing gloves). This doesn’t bother me as I don’t like help traditionally so I loaded up 2 trolleys and we proceeded inside to talk to hotel management.
They handed us forms to fill out for each family member and explained that we could have 2 adjoining rooms if we were happy to have a fold out bed added to one. We agreed and then were escorted to the lifts where we were to travel up alone as its part of the new protocol. The police officer who wouldn’t travel with us would step into the lift, select the floor and then step out but as went to go up they got a message that the room wasn’t ready and we could not go up until the room was clear. We then waited in the lobby for another 15 minutes or so and then tried again. This time the lift would not work and after about 10 minutes a dozen attempts and several different people coming into the lift to try we moved to a second lift asked to stand in the corner and made our way up with the police officer inside with us.
We were given a key to both rooms and made our way inside with 6 tired kids who had been traveling now for around 10 hours. We are told that dinner will come up shortly so we decide to keep the children up to feed them. Dinner comes about 90 minutes later and the food is surprisingly good but not worth the $65 day each we are being charged. The rooms are typical hotel rooms, lovely generally but small in size. We have no balcony and no window so will have no fresh air for 14 days. We have limited direct sunlight for about 2 hours a day and for some reason hotels have poor lighting so our nights are unnecessarily dim. We do have baths which are great for the little kids and both rooms sleep 4 and are comfortable. It’s a lovely hotel so no complaints there.
The stay so far has been difficult and rewarding. I decided immediately that a strong routine would be key to getting through this well so we do a little bit of yoga after breakfast, schoolwork to lunch, screentime whilst the little one sleeps (adults do our work), screenfree time till 5, the kids have made board games, exercise and then showers before dinner and free time after. So far it has worked well, and personally I have enjoyed homeschooling immensely. It is something I have always wanted to do but I want the kids to have the social life of a mainstream school and we spend enough time together already.
Interestingly the catholic school 2 of the kids go to have an excellent online learning program for lockdown with a daily set of task to do. However without parental supervision nothing would be achieved so if you are not actively teaching your kids during lockdown it’s safe to assume they are learning nothing. The two who go to the public school have no discernible lockdown school work. As long as they sign in they are not marked absent but beyond that they do nothing. I have been giving them old naplan test to work on and working through it with them and they have told me they learn more in one hour with me than they do in weeks at school. It will be something I continue post quarantine.
Exercise is difficult in limited space but I am a qualified crossfit and zuu trainer. If you haven’t heard of Zuu look it up because it’s perfect for these kinds of conditions, currently being taught to sub mariners. So with this knowledge I thought I should be pretty sweet but on the 3rd day of quarantine new guest had arrived and been placed in the room below. A phone call was received from the hotel complaining of noise because of the workout and not wanting to rock the boat again we complied. Now all workouts can’t involve any form of jumping which was the best way to get heart rates up. We persevere but again it’s more difficult than it needs to be and feels a lot like being dobbed in for the holiday house. It would have been 20 minutes of small noise a day.
Food is reasonably good, hard for the kids who can be picky but plenty of fruit is given so they always have something to eat. A lack of vegetables is probably the main grievance at the moment. We are also allowed to order food in, but the delay between it arriving at the hotel and our room means it’s never the best quality and having no microwave doesn’t help.
I am now writing this on day 8 so over half way. I miss my privacy at this point, miss having quiet times or spaces, miss cooking for myself (although enjoying the easy clean up), miss fresh air, miss sunshine, miss walking and feel like I am in a dream like state where nothing seems quite real. The kids are doing well with the routine, bit more screentime then I would like but a compromise I am willing to make. Definitely a lot of fighting going on but that is not unusual, we have been using the bathroom as a quiet space when they get in trouble which is quite a lot. Our 2 year old girl has gone quite pasty with the lack of sunlight so she is read books in the sun around lunch time when we have it. My wife’s illness is playing up but she managed to get more medication from a local pharmacy fairly easily so we are thankful for that. A trip to the hospital would be a pandora’s box we don’t want to open.
Overall we are managing well and thankful for the little things we do get. Most people on our journey have been absolutely fine and doing their best but that is not to say that any of this is remotely acceptable. We tell our kids every day that life is not fair and to play the cards you are dealt and that is exactly what we have done. However I must invoke godwins law and can’t but help think of Nazi germany. Its something I think about every day but the parallels are more evident than ever currently. No one thinks we have Covid, several negative test have confirmed this. No one thinks a family like ours should have to stay in prison conditions without the benefit of fresh air, sunshine and then being billed for the privilege. No one thinks that a human chain is an effective covid barrier at an airport or that touching peoples luggage fully masked twice is significantly more risky than once. Yet here we are where arbitrary and contradictory decisions are made daily that affect everyone, and no one has any power to help, to answer questions, to be held accountable. Everyone is just doing what they have to to survive, no one wants to enforce stupid mask rules, shopping with people form the same household, check ins and the like yet everyone does and anyone who steps out of line is sacrificed and made an example of. A lot of the rules applied to us seem unconstitutional but there is no pushback from the legal space, or the airline space, or the tourism sector or the hospitality sector, even the construction sector went soft in Sydney. Our apathy at an individual level, and amongst all the institutions of society that are supposed to protect us from such tyranny have completely failed us. If you asked someone if they were in 1930s germany would they be a Nazi they answer no. The sad reality is 99% of people would reluctantly go along until one day they closing the door of the gas chamber rationalising that they have no choice. Every day I ask myself am I going along to do what’s best for my family or am I going along because it’s easier and I never am certain what the answer is but Australians at least need to be asking themselves that question because 14 days to flatten the curve has now turned into 14 day interment for interstate 2 year olds and their family.
Adam, my heart goes out to you and your family.
We have all been affected by the neo-fascism imposed by our politicians; likely not to the same extent as you, but nobody has been able to escape entirely.
I count myself and my wife in the same category. I ended up selling a very successful business, for less than it would have been worth under more normal circumstances, and we have managed to get out of the country; mostly by lucky timing, I might add.
The long-term effects of this are anyone’s guess, but one thing is certain – they won’t be anything good.
I do hope to live long enough to see at least some of those responsible for this state of affairs to be punished. I vote for a death penalty, without right to appeal.
Hang in there mate.
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A well written piece, Adam. Best of luck to you and yours.
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I am so sorry to hear this, what the hell has Oz become.
I’m fully vaxed with AZ, (my choice) i went from Osaka to Singapore, rapid antigen test at each end, 5 hour layover in Singapore, got a charter flight to Port Moresby (no testing), driven straight to the marina at Paga Hill jumped on my company boat and headed off to New Britain.
That’s it, nothing else.
Australia has become the gulag island, this is nuts.
I am truly sorry to hear of you predicament, i wish you well.
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Bloody hell Adam. What an indictment of the tyrannical, incompetent arseholes running this shit-show.
If we had an opposition party worthy of the name in this pathetic country, they would read this out in parliament. Deserves much wider dissemination.
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Oh and good luck for the rest of your sentence.
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Oh. Wow. I am so sorry Adam. I disagree about Nazi Germany though, it’s more like something out of the movie Brazil. Worse! Franz Kafka would never have imagined what you’ve had to go through. Surreal. The entire Qld bureaucracy seems to be on LSD.
I wish you and your family the best. If we ever can get out of this fever-dream we’re in I think your business will do very well, but the road ahead is insane.
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Six kids! You’re a brave man Adam. It’s good to see that someone is thinking longer term about what’s best for themselves and the family. Willing to negotiate the complexity and difficulty necessary in the course of the prerequisite changes to enable a new life situation.
Bummer about the no window thing. Even that Monica Smit probably has one of those.
“Our apathy at an individual level, and amongst all the institutions of society that are supposed to protect us from such tyranny have completely failed us. ”
Reminds me of an uncle I see very little of, living where he does. Like many of his’ generation presently in their 70’s, literacy wasn’t prerequisite or necessary for most careers available at the time. Despite not being the most intellectual of men, he had some exceptional guiding wisdom in addition to the master skills in metal fabrication. I didn’t understand until my twenties what he meant when he told me “TV rots your brain – books make you smart”.
“The sad reality is 99% of people would reluctantly go along until one day they closing the door of the gas chamber rationalising that they have no choice. ”
It is genuinely disappointing to have made such an effort in life, figuratively following the latter component of that uncle’s advice particularly vocationally through critical thinking and analysis skills. To be situationally reminded that the general community in general, did and has not, followed advice similar advice. Many who have “signed up” to be part of the global medical intervention trial may already be past the point to which you referred.
It is as though people have forgotten what their ancestors went through and endured to get here. Failing to recognise that which encroaches and that is strangling what it was to live in Australia- is exactly what those ancestors went to great effort and traversed some serious geography to leave behind. Then came the complexities thereafter in a the new home.
Some consider within future circumstances the continuation of delegation, abrogation of personal responsibility, freedom and choice may lead social division and Australian history best left behind.
When the first world war began my grandfather lived in Austria-Hungary. At the end of it he was the “proud” recipient of Italian citizenship post Versailles and the new border. Got the hell out a couple of years later when every other bloke in his town got call-up papers to go fight in the territorial conflicts that were ongoing in Albania, the former Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe. Under the banner of a nation they were not born into and wars facilitated by the growing influence of fascists and their ideology centred on restoration of a lost Empire.
Two decades later and the internment of Italians in camps in Western NSW began, alongside Japanese prisoners of war. Granddad burned his’ passport. On the basis of the rather Northern European looks as well as fluency in German, convinced the Sydney Police that came through the area to arrest “subversives” he was an Austrian who had fled Hitler’s occupation. That everybody just thought he was Italian because he attended Catholic mass. Got them pissed on home brewed grappa and that was that.
I sincerely hope the people as whole begin to manifest the will to wrest individual and social autonomy back from fascists that are running the show of late. It can’t lead to any kind of future that people whether they realise it or not yet- want. That resembles, rhymes perhaps metaphorically repeats the past.
That they begin to recall who they are which is not the scared little animals in need of shepherding and protection by a dishonest, corrupted media enforced by thugs perpetuating tyranny based on lies.
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Good luck Adam.
Sorry to hear of this.
It’s an absolute disgrace.
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As much as I feel my life is not worthy of its own blog I recognise that personal stories can give great insight into larger topics or debates.
Adam, your story here provides much reflection, in several areas.
You have taken on many challenges and if it wasn’t for the scamdemic, the results would have been quite different.
I hope in the next few weeks, you will be out of quarantine and settled into your new home. The priority is your family and their well-being.
Thank you for sharing with us this chapter in your life.
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Oh Adam I sympathise with you and your family – I can only pray that every single person involved in this egregious imposition on your family will get their just desserts, good and hard. I pray that you and your family can come through this together.
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Thanks Adam for taking on the task of continuing the blog, amongst all the other pressures of life.
Good luck with the move. And prosperity for your business.
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Adam, this is a disgusting story.
Hope things get A LOT better.
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I can only admire you and your wife’s fortitude Adam.
I am hearing second hand some stories about defence families with little children being made to endure similar.
It’s unforgivable nonsense that happens only in Australia
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Adam, good luck
One thing I don’t understand though. How were you going to run business by moving to Brisbane. Presumably the business has a physical presence?
moderated
Not the welcome real Queenslanders would give you and your family, Adam. Those mad people down there in Brisbane are not representative of the state as a whole.
Glad you’ve made it so far, I hope the rest of your “quarantine” goes well and you all get out unscathed.
That there are state premiers, “health” ministers and CHOs behaving the way they are, dividing Australians, tarnishing so many of us with the implied label of “unclean” simply for being from another state or not having accepted their experimental jabs, is not just a disgrace – it’s hideous, as are those perpetrating this division. There will be no forgiving from me.
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FMD
What a shithole of a country.
My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family!
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Sad to hear Adam but good to hear too. This is what happens when state gummints employ more and more and more people. We appreciate your efforts. I hope the trolls read this and leave your Cat alone. PS, no sherbert pips in lolly kingdom. Those little beauties have afforded my dentist several new Mercs.
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A Personal Covid Journey
Except it’s not a personal covid journey at all is it. You or your family have not contracted the disease. This is your personal journey of dealing with the hysterical over-reaction of incompetent petty tyrants.
A scathing indictment of this pathetic country.
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Her Excellency the Governor Dr Jeanette Young PSM RACQ must not be allowed to escape retribution for implementing this travesty.
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Vividly written account.
Best wishes for a quick(ish) normalization.
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Adam:
Except it’s not a personal covid journey at all is it. You or your family have not contracted the disease. This is your personal journey of dealing with the hysterical over-reaction of incompetent petty tyrants.
I’d have cracked by now.
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Godalmighty.
What has happened to this county?
I had a rising cloud of blood reading of the way you and your family have been treated Adam.
You are a better man than me, I would have gone postal by now.
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I saw Kafkaesque used up thread. That morphed with a Dante-esque circle of hell.
There has to be serious malevolence involved. More than some perfect storm of bureaucratic SNAFU.
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Adam,
what an Kafka-esque journey.
the world’s gone mental
stay strong
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Thanks for sharing your story Adam.
I feel for you and your family suffering needlessly.
Federal and state governments and their unelected “experts” have a lot to answer for.
All the best in surviving your ordeal and for the future.
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I’m so sorry to read this, Adam, but I admire your families courage in the face of intolerable governmental interference in your lives. I wish you well on your new journey, I think your children are incredibly fortunate to have you looking out for their best interests in the most trying of times.
The fact you have managed, through all the personal upheaval to provide an online space for the Cat community to continue discussion, debate, story telling, sundry moanings, cartoons, lame pics and the outright stoush, is admirable.
Thanks and gratitude. Hold the line.
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Thanks for the kind words. To be honest it’s that bad you have to deal with the situation you have but it’s so unnecessary and seemingly unaccountable.
What is really tough is not having a clue about future impositions. Can we visit family and friends in NSW, if we do will we be stuck there if the border closes, Will vaccination rates mean anything if there is an outbreak. Will an outbreak occur in QLD once we are out and then will we be in lockdown again just in a different location.
I don’t see any light or any clarity with the people in power, even the pushback we do have is completely smother by the MSM. Losing hope is the tough part.
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Wow.
My petty problems with government over-reach are very minor compared to the Adams Family travails. Puts the PonyGirl government placement of the touring Springboks rugby team into Sanctuary Cove into bitter perspective.
Keep up the good work on all fronts Adam, you/your wife/the kids have my admiration. And thanks for the Zuu hint.
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Adam,
Mrs D and I have also done the hotel quarantine as part of our move to Queensland but luckily it was only the two of us, so we know where you are coming from. Although we love them dearly, I am sure that had we had to do hotel quarantine with any one of our grand kids, we would not have coped.
It was around day 10 that Mrs D asked ‘are we doing the right thing? We have been now out 6 weeks and the answer is a resounding yes.
Hang in there, and make sure you apply to have your bill waived when you get it due to financial hardships(there is mention of this in the direction you were given, the lovely copperette that did the iPad thing with us took great pains to point out that section).
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On a much, much smaller scale, but still indicative of how well our government services run, it recently took me the following, at an average of 70 minutes each call, to determine
a) whether or not the tax office had received a (ten page) form I had sent them (2 calls)
b) whether they had ‘processed’ the form (another 2 calls)
c) whether they had sent back to me the information requested on the original 10-page form (1 call), during which it was discovered they had sent it to the wrong address
d) another (sixth and final) call to get them to send the requested information to the correct address
the whole process covering an elapsed time of 13 weeks (not the 55 days they quoted on the original 10-page form). The transaction in question was related to management of a deceased estate, and could not be executed online.
nil carborundum illegitimi …
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Adam, so sorry to hear your story of government ineptitude, overreach and bloody-mindedness. This is being played out over and over again across Australia. So many Australians being brutalised by government. Petty bureaucrats following “orders” with no room to apply common sense and a bit of compassion and caring for their fellow Australians.
We’re all thinking and of you and your family and send our best regards that QLD will be fine for you all in the end when you get out of house arrest.
Though I’ve done self-isolation away from home and in a different state twice in the last year away, I’m sure I wouldn’t have coped as well as you have, if put in the same circumstances.
Best wishes to you all.
BBS
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I feel for you & your family Adam. An woeful experience, I’m not sure I’d cope all that well in the same circumstance.
That things like this happen to people (like you) is incredibly & impossible to reconcile with how some others are exempted.
…. or how the rules you were forced to submit to are not made to apply to others.
For much of last year I was a quarantine hotel, & boyo boyo boy, can I relate to what you write.
Everything you describe I’ve seen happen.
Also;
Everything you describe I’ve seen breached, ignored, or deliberately exempted, by CHO or govt edict/connivance, and nobody saw a double standard, coz “exemption”
It was never about health, science, or for the benefit of the general public, & none of those overseeing/regulating it cared or understood one jot of what they were doing.
What I saw & experience makes a grating foil to your excellent first person experience of being inside the mandatory quarantine machine.
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Oh Adam, my heart is with you and your loved ones. Calamities happen in life . We know that. Previous generations lived through wars, the Spanish Flu & other horrors.
But who would have predicted the appalling decisions made by governments in “this land of the free?” It astonishes and angers me every day and it getting worse.
Again, anger at government is one thing, but the smugness & duplicity of some neighbours and every day Aussies is sobering & massively disappointing.
And the daily descent into an authoritarian country that looks nothing like that amiable, sceptical & lovable country that I grew up in? I weep at the memory.
Adam, your story is chastening to me. My husband &I live in the relative security of the country on our farm. Sure, we haven’t seen our family in 5 months, and have to “show our papers” to a police road block every time we go shopping in the local town. But it is NOTHING like you have been through.
And yet, like you, we are feeling immense anxiety & disorientation because of this new country we seem to be in. Yesterday, I nearly lost my husband when, doing something he would never normally do, he got out of the car to tell a truckie that his stop lights were not working & had his door ripped off when the truck moved off.
These are terrible terrible times. My heart & best wishes go out to all Cats. We are also with all those construction workers. Like the the bloke who said this morning “ You can put litres of the stuff in your body, but not in mine”. Same goes for us!
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The bureaucrat with the most comprehensive strategy is the one most likely to get promoted. Happy and would like to make a contribution should you make the option available.
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Flipping heck! I hope you’re ok Adam
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Those above have already said what I wanted to say, so I won’t repeat it all.
But on a personal level, thank you for sharing this story, just one of many but it is good to put a face to the tale. Faces, I should say – your wife and children deserve our support as well.
That you managed to keep all those balls in the air throughout is very impressive indeed.
Very best wishes for the future of your family and your business.
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You and your wife show inspirational courage and patience, Adam.
Stay strong, knowing that ultimately, this, too, shall end.
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Thanks for sharing Adam, you and your wife deserve medals.
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Adam, many thanks for sharing you and your family’s harrowing ordeal. I hope all of you survive the remainder of your lockup intact. Best wishes for your new life in Qld.
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bloody oath. Just horrible. Hang in there mate. As much as I can’t stand the Chook, Yvette Daft or Jeanette Ancient, they can’t be in charge forever. Things will improve. And yes, if you felt it was the right thing to do for your family, it absolutely was.
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“Everyone is just doing what they have to to survive, no one wants to enforce stupid mask rules, shopping with people form the same household, check ins and the like yet everyone does and anyone who steps out of line is sacrificed and made an example of.”
Indeed – hence why I have had my first “jab”: not preferred, but what I need to continue my life.
I guess that this is the real issue – although I am pushing back as much as I can (complaints to various authorities etc), I too “went along to get along” or “not rocking the boat” in some sense, rather than dig my heels in. To be expected (and being gotten!) from most normal people. However, the pollies (with the notable exception of UAP) are all uniparty hacks with no desire to stand up for the rest of us, and the police and other authorities are unwilling to say “No”, along with most of corporate Oz who have been unwillingly roped into enforcing various mandates.
My concern is not that no-one (or at least, very few) is standing up against it in any meaningful way – for now. But at some point, people will snap and that won’t be a good look if it is enough of them. Seems we are actually seeing some pushback in Vic via unions, but is it enough to drive popular opinion against the MSM fear-porn? I suspect not – not yet, at least. One thing I am pretty sure of though – if we go down the same path as other countries like Israel and the USA and start talking about more lockdowns even “boosters”, this will push many over the edge, and it will all collapse in a screaming heap. That may become violent if the pollies don’t sense the change soon enough – with pollies at the centre and likely to be “done over” in one way or another. I hope that doesn’t mean mob rule justice (people beaten to death etc), but fear it will become that due to the sudden nature of the change.
Here endeth my rant. 🙂
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Hope the telling of your situation is somewhat cathartic, not in the medical sense though just as likely. It certainly will be beneficial to Cats to realise their own situation could be a lot worse. All the best.
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Wow, just wow. I am sorry to read of your woes Adam. Your story is awful and I hope you settle into Brisbane without further stress.
All the best to you and yours.
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Sorry to hear about your situation Adam, but thanks for sharing your story with us and all the best on the other side.
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@jo – I wrote it around 3 in the morning siting on the toilet so not to wake others in my room. It was indeed Cathartic and I will happily publish anything similar should fellow cats feel the need.
Freedom comes tomorrow and it the feelings are nothing like I anticipated. For some reason trepidation seems to be the most prevalent but that is likely due to the fact that the move is only half done and I have a house to unpack.
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Adam,
A terrible state of affairs-my sympathies and I hope things get better, and soon.
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For all those well wishers ….thinking of doing anything against this?
At least joined the UAP or go around sticking white rose stickers about ..letters to pollies etc.
What Adam and his family are experiencing is punishment fot attempting to travel within the prison island of Australia.
Brissy gets locked down as well Adam.
You’ve moved from one section of the prison to another.
And Queensland’s regional areas will be the last to be conquered but without a fight nobody escapes a prison moving within it.
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Adam.
The last area populated by traditional white Australia the commos despise so much is regional Qld.
They are getting everyone else under the commo yoke and will come for us last.
No restrictions here and people mostly ignore QR codes.
Still doing gigs and many escapees up here spending money.
They will start getting heavy with us soon , I suspect and we are not jabbed nearly enough.
Get out of Brissy and get north of Gympie, Adam.
There’s cats up here who will help you guys as best we can.
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Has it come to this as a solution???? The most terrifying force of death, comes from the hands of Men who wanted to be left Alone. They try, so very hard, to mind their own business and provide for themselves and those they love. They resist every impulse to fight back, knowing the forced and permanent change of life that will come from it. They know, that the moment they fight back, their lives as they have lived them, are over. The moment the Men who wanted to be left alone are forced to fight back, it is a form of suicide. They are literally killing off who they used to be. Which is why, when forced to take up violence, these Men who wanted to be left alone, fight with unholy vengeance against those who murdered their former lives. They fight with raw hate, and a drive that cannot be fathomed by those who are merely play-acting at politics and terror. TRUE TERROR will arrive at these people’s door, and they will cry, scream, and beg for mercy… but it will fall upon the deaf ears of the Men who just wanted to be left alone.” – Author Unknown
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My heart bleeds, Adam. If this is the worst example of government interference in your life you don’t have too much to whinge about.
You haven’t (for example) been sent overseas for ten months to a war zone, slept on the ground for months, carried many kilograms of kit on your back whilst tromping thousands of metres daily in tropical heat and humidity, been shot at by “friend” and enemy alike, watched your mates maimed and killed, had to tiptoe around jumping jack land mines to avoid being flensed, and when you finally returned to your country, being treated like you had committed war crimes.
Thousands of young Australians had this imposed on them by government 50 years ago – for some (on the basis of date of birth) – not all. You were at least treated the same as everyone else.
Get over it….
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“1735099 says:
September 23, 2021 at 9:47 am”
Get over it….
—————————————————————————
So when will you get over it….? It’s been fifty years.
Always the narcissist…and a nasty one at that.
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Spack off, Collaborator Bob.
Are you so starved for attention and allergic to the tumbleweeds on your own blog, that you felt you had to try again here?
You helped to win the war in Vietnam against your fellow Communists in 1971, and there is nothing we can do to ease the mental arsecheek-chafing this has caused you.
Go away and be irrelevant elsewhere.
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What an awful story Adam. As an ex-service wife who had to move unpteen times with four children, many moves pretty difficult, I can only say that your experience is far worse because of the sheer callousness being displayed by the QLD government and its lackeys.
While the comment above by ‘numbers’ may also reflect what happened to young servicemen, I none the less think it to be mean-spirited towards you and your family. You have lived a nightmare, completely unnecessarily.
All best wishes for the future and recovery from the present misery.
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Glad to see that horrible comment has gone. Thanks Cassie and Rex Anger.
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Waaaaaaaaaah???!
Where ya go Bob?
Bob?
Boooooooooooooooooooooooooob!?
Hello?
Bob?
Hello?
Ha, ha, ha.
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”
For all those well wishers ….thinking of doing anything against this?
At least joined the UAP or go around sticking white rose stickers about ..letters to pollies etc.”
Well, I for one have done a few things along those lines.
wrote to my state MP, who was at least responsive, but unlikely to get much done, being in the opposition party.
wrote to my federal MP, who is on the NHMRC he says. He said there was “no evidence” on IVM etc, said they were “investigating” treatments, but refused to answer on why such “investigations” were not started immediately, nor why the “vax hesitant” health workers were not given the opportunity to participate in an IVM prophylaxis trial. When I quoted him studies by Oxford (who collaborated on the AZ vax) and US NIH, he basically said he has already stated his position and won’t change it. He has, IMO, been captured by “experts” and won’t change his mind or see that anything has been missed.
wrote to the AHRC regarding a violation of my internationally recognised right to medical self-determination free of coercion. They claim that they can “investigate” et al for Federal Gov, company and individual violations, but not State Gov ones, and referred me to the state Omsbudsman.
Based on 3, I wrote to the state omsbudsman, citing AHRC’s reference, asking about a violation of my right to medical self-determination free of coercion, as well as the state exercising it’s laws despite such being in conflict with the federal Bio-Security act when, as now, federal gov has declared a bio-security emergency. Still awaiting a response other than the “We have received your complaint, and will get back to you … blah, blah” standard boiler-plate response/acknowledgment.
I do not hold out much hope that, by myself, I will get much joy from any of these avenues. However I also feel it is important to try – several hundred/thousand/million people all making the same complaint is more likely to illicit a favourable response, and therefore I think we should all go down this path, as well as encouraging others to do likewise. Numbers matter.
As to voting, I will be supporting UAP in the lower house and PHON in the upper, both state and federal. I will most certainly be placing my current federal member dead last, state I have yet to decide where the current member will be on my preferences.
What about others? Have you tried, and what have you learnt?
I will also re-quote Dan Bongino:
”
Yes, a lot of people have died from COVID.
Yes, many more will die.
Yes, I could be one of them.
But living in eternal fear of the above means I’ve already forfeited away my life and therefore I’d be dead anyway.
I choose to live.
And I’m not looking back.
”
The fear-porn from the MSM and pollies is disgusting, and I refuse to support anyone who promotes it – we need calm, considered choices, and need to recognise it is not a choice between good and bad, but between bad and worse. Once that is accepted, we can do as best as we can, without choking the life from the economy nor throwing anyone under the bus because of their private and personal medical treatment choices. Freedom matters – physical, political, health and economic freedom are all important. We know what happens when governments become dictatorial, even for “our own good”. We must not allow this to happen without a fight. We may lose, but we – all of us – have to fight for our freedoms as best we may.
“Freedom isn’t free, the price is eternal vigilance” – an apt quote (OK, paraphrase!) that many appear to have forgotten. Let’s remind as many as we can of this price, as well as the price of the failure to remain vigilant, and more so, to act! Talking is all very well, but it’s time to stop talking and start doing.
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Kneel.
Yes I have written many letters, and with the same brush off responses.
To the point where I have said, well at least I have your answer in writing, so if your little coup d’etat doesn’t work out we can call you up for any covid 19 Nuremberg trials we may organise.
I didn’t start out that blunt, but ended up that way.
Our parliaments are non existent and the local members up to the Governors, and even the Queen are uncontactable.
But to try is all we can do.
But that is done for me.
The cocky ones have put their arrogant criminality in writing and so we move on.
Changing as many minds as possible, getting the news out there the MSM won’t show, and fighting wherever and whenever possible.
Never staying quiet in the midst of the bullshit.
Calling it out.
Also the white rose stickers are great fun when they are found stuck over a QR code check in at Bunnings or elsewhere, ……………….
Disobeying always where you can without being shot!
The problem we have is that to organise in this digital world, it is of course done digitally, which they are in control of.
I think the older crowd may have good ideas besides smoke signals as to how to organise and unite, away from the digital world.
It’s what they are petrified of.
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”
I think the older crowd may have good ideas besides smoke signals as to how to organise and unite, away from the digital world.
It’s what they are petrified of.
”
Yes, in my view they are stuck in an old paradigm of “control the MSM, control the conversation”. Not everyone is yet at the point where this is no longer true, but there are enough out there that will find other sources of information not controlled by the MSM or Big Tech (Google, Apple, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter), and this has created the current protests etc.
But I think there is somewhat of a divide here – the majority of older people follow the MSM and not much else, the younger ones actually WANT the big tech censored stuff for a “safe space”, and lastly there is a small minority that doesn’t trust the MSM/establishment, sees and abhors the censorship from big tech, and uses alternatives like gab etc. for social media, streams “freedom of expression” stuff from places like rumble.com instead of ewe-tube and so on.
The first group is not going to change.
The second is already convinced that if they catch COVID they are likely to die, that we are all racists, and anyway who cares because the climate apocalypse will kill them in a few years anyway, so what’s the point.
The third is composed of those who distrust central planners and central control, want the freedoms they always thought they had, and are prepared to put in the effort to listen to those who have been otherwise “banned” as conspiracy theorists, far right, et al, and make up their own minds.
It seems to me that most Cats fall into the latter category. Alas, this is quite a small minority compared to the other two. It doesn’t matter if we get proved correct, the MSM will do as they always do and “drip, drip, drip” their change of what is true, so that they themselves were never “wrong”, just “mislead” – the “lab leak hypothesis” for COVID being the prime (but by far not the only) example. The slow change, together with “stealth” edits of MSM articles (where they change the headline, subhead or article text in on-line hosted content without noting the changes) means most people don’t see what they are doing – they are too busy living life to take the time to track it down.
All of which sounds somewhat depressing, but I think the decades long global warming push made a few more stop and start paying attention. And the COVID lockdowns, vax etc stuff is getting more to pay attention also. I hope this will become a cascade/snowball. I think it has started, but not quite big enough yet, and perhaps still vulnerable to sabotage to TPTB, if they can keep the distractions going long enough. We shall see. I think the more they push, the easier it is to get others to awaken to the lies and censorship, and that protests like those in Vic may actually help here, even when they turn violent.
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trigeminal neuralgia also known as the suicide disease, severe facial and head pain caused by stress, noise and touch
*******************************************
Tic Douloureaux, Adam.
I remember from my childhood that our very elderly neighbour lady suffered from it. Very rare – I have never encountered another person with it.
There are many treatments available for it these days – both medical and surgical. I hope your wife can obtain some relief from one or more of them – or from treatment of any of the underlying illnesses that might be causing it.
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There you go. This past week Denise Drysdale needed hospital treatment after suffering her first episode of trigeminal neuralgia (Tic Douloureaux).
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Great write up, Adam. I hope it all works out for you and your family.
But now that we are all living like “illegal immigrants” I wonder if the supporters of Trump, nationalism, regulating trade and immigration, etc, have reconsidered their positions?
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Hmm so my post didn’t make it through moderation.
But that kinda proves my point just fine, Adam 🙂
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Adam, after reading what you and your family had to go through I decided that a practical response would be to become a customer of your business. I put an order online last Friday and I must say that you have good staff, I got an email shortly afterwards that the order had been processed and then a tracking number for the post which showed that the parcel had been posted at Ulladulla Post Office within 90 minutes of the order being placed. The parcel arrived on Wednesday.
I think you have a good strategy of being a personal trainer with a retail business selling lollies, you create demand for the training services!
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Wow! Adam, that is some serious bureaucratic inertia. One part seems to move another part and each part doesn’t question the previous (not without retribution anyway).
I hope your change goes well. If you can, get out of Brisvegas and go regional. As some commenters have remarked, they will be the last places to fall but they will. So many there only get their news from ‘their ABC’, so apart from the usual distrust of outsiders, they have their opinions clouded by that monster.
We were just in regional QLD visiting family. One is a first year QPS Constable. They were told to have the jab or get sacked. What do you do when the job you’ve dreamed of since you were a kid is threatened and you have a young family to support? Something many of us will be faced with no doubt.
I advised him to write on the form he must have to sign (silly me) that he does not consent and that he was having the shot under duress and coercion to keep his job. Nope, the person administering the shot ticked and signed a card to say he consented! No form to sign. The QPU rolled over and backed the QPS hierarchy. They were probably the last apolitical union who supported their members.
All the best for your change. Hopefully, we all wake up before it is too late.
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Adam.
In case you get time to read the posts – thanks for the Zuu tip.
I looked it up on several YouTube videos and adapted several of the exercises to suit my ageing, decrepit body.
Doing them outside, in the sun, and enjoying the feeling of success in completing the (very simplified) range of movements. I’m planning on doing it long term and to build the number of sets.
Thanks.
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I am an Israeli btw. Israel has a high vaccination rate and no lockdown. I fact PM Naftali Bennett has written a book denouncing lockdowns as a failure of government.
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