No Soap For You! (Another Shopping Adventure in Corona times.)
March 26, 2020 11:06 am Leave your thoughts
Some of this happened and was written before the announcement that all unnecessary outings should stop, so don’t get your stinky panties in a twist that I ventured out of my bunker while the Corona Boogeyman is prowling.
Panic buying is still happening. I was making a cake and forgot the creme cheese I wanted for icing. My impromptu trip to the store saw me wait in line while people bought just-restocked boxes of tissues. The lady on the left (in the pic) had just taken a picture of the lines too. There was a 2 box limit on tissues. Because…when the shit hits the fan, they’re going to dine like kings on their 2ply!
The same store was a little emptier a few days later when I returned mid-week. Seems we now have X patterns on the ground to manage “social distance” between shoppers waiting to pay. Signs on the floor give instructions to stand on the X and move up slowly like an 90’s dole queue until you can get the hell out. 
I have questions…if the customer stands on the X but the Corona boogeyman is spread by droplets in the air if someone coughs or sneezes…then as the queue moves up, people will be stepping into the air where a (potentially) infected person was and breathe their germs…
Are the Xs just to make people feel like something is being done, that something like this can be contained? Is this placebo, to make people feel better? Because it didn’t work on me…It just embarrassed me when I stood between the Xs accidentally until thankfully everyone around me gave me dirty looks to make sure I toed the line!
E v e r y o n e I passed during shopping glanced into my trolley(shopping cart) to check what I was packing because there are limits on milk, tissues, paper towels, flour etc.
One guy was really studying the paper towels mum asked me to get for her about a month ago (-oops-) and people seemed to be checking over my shoulder to see where I got the precious items and if there were any left. I understand the toilet paper and hand sanitizer limits but there are other items that don’t make much sense to me, like the picnic napkins, certain brands of tampons and (apparently!) now regular soap.
There is a locally-made soap I buy. It comes in 2 scents. I usually buy two of each. I was stopped at the counter and soup-nazied into handing the extra ones back. The screen said, “item over limit,” and that it was calling staff…and then started flashing red so the cashier person had to come over. I mumbled something like… “Er, I normally get a few, I didn’t know it was-“ and the bitch snatched it back so fast I almost lost my balance.
Literally like this(time stamped for your convenience:)
“There are 1316 confirmed cases across the country, with 533 in NSW, 296 in Victoria, 259 in Queensland, 120 in Western Australia, 67 in South Australia, 17 in Tasmania, 19 in the ACT and five in the Northern Territory.” – 22 March 2020 source: news.com.au
NO SOAP FOR YOU.
I’m told that small numbers of infected people elsewhere in the world spread the virus fast. As I’ve said before, everyone’s experience is different but at the moment mine is that I live in what was considered the most isolated city on Earth until recently and I don’t see anything scary right now, apart from the general attitude of some people towards their “fellow man” and also livelihoods being shut down.
Sculptures by the Sea, a yearly community event where artists exhibit large displays on the beach, was cut short. Even though it’s open air, and at the time of writing this, there are apparently 1316 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, making up 0.005% of the population. The news article which broke the sad news went on to say that some sculptures will still be there because equipment to relocate the most large ones wasn’t going to arrive yet. The staff who help run it were not going to be there and neither were students who had planned school excursions to the event.
CC and I were planning to go. It’s tough for us to get time due to circumstances. We’ve been before…and CC’s commentary on some of the art is poignant, reflective and very insightful.
Some classic comments from last time include:
“I think modern art…is about making a -thing- that takes up a lot of space.”
After I pointed out some of the sculptures were worth thousands of dollars:
“I know what I should do, close my eyes and just start welding.”
“It isn’t entwined -at all-! Why’s it called Entwined?!”
www.instagram.com/everedenauthor/
So, I went…the day before the announcement that non-essential gatherings and outings should probably stop. No regrets. Parking was actually easy and there weren’t many people because it was mid-morning.
It was nice to get pics of the white sand and clear water I take for granted…but the nicest thing of all was only one older couple (out of all the people I passed) was talking about the Corona Boogeyman and how they didn’t see what the problem was at the sparsely-populated beach in summer/autumn.
It was good to hear people talk about other things, like their kids learning to swim and the great weather. I’m going to try and post a few different things soon, to break up the crap the media is cramming down our throats and helping produce blog content like this. We need places to get away from this BS…like watching movies or…
reading a book…
pssst, hey you, yeah…wanna buy my book? Ebook on sale atm. iBOOKs, kobo, amazon blabla(LOL!)
I am going to end this post with something I realised today and that we should remember…
I was paying for something. There was a table(!) between customers and the cashier to create distance, everyone had to reach over it to pay for their items.
I realised today that I have short arms – but that’s not the point,
It was strange, somewhat ridiculous that these measures were in place…and sadder if we find out it really is completely necessary for where we live. It made me MEH about everything, it compounded the Corona Persona stabby-ness I’m feeling from being bombarded by the media and the gloating politicians describing their new powers and legislation.
I hauled my purchases out into the car park. My trolley/cart had a bad wheel and kept pulling to the right. It was a struggle getting it to the car with (what feels like) a tweaked MCL and this cellular fatigue I have right now, and then starting the long, hot walk to the receptacle where the used trolleys go. A random middle-aged man came out of nowhere and said, “Hey, I got it.” and took my trolley from me. He said it was no problem and he put it back for me on his way towards the store.
Nice people still exist. The world is still normal if you notice, don’t forget that when you’re panic-buying dunny rolls and over-stocking your pantry with pasta you’ll never use.
TLDR:
*Corona Virus is still messing with my jam
*I have newshound blood coursing my veins. There are many Corona-related facts and articles I wanted to share but didn’t. lol Be thankful.
*Got soup-nazied.
*Did not buy a placebo mask to wear. Saw a handful of people with them on. One of them was a tall bloke with a black one. Kinda hot tbh. Click to #findjoyineverything or something.