Victorian Lockdown 4.0

 So we are into our 4th lockdown in Victorian. It has become something we can cope by now. I don't know about anyone else but for my family, not much is different, except that just when we are getting used to "going back" to work/school physically again, we are now all at home again.

Question is, how long is this one gonna last and why is it Victoria again? One can't help but watch how the Victorian government deal with this one. Hopefully some lessons have been learned from our previous experience and things will be better handled. 

But what is our state government doing this morning? Dishing out money ($250m) again and blaming the Federal government for not helping to dish out more money, on top of other things such as slow vaccine rollout. Instead of working on improving the vaccination telephone lines that were choked up and crashed, causing lots of people anguish and more stress, the Andrews government tried to deflect the attention by pointing blame at the Morrison government. Taking advantage of this crisis to score political points, is that clever or despicable?

The $250m package will come from Victorian taxpayers, fine, we have no choice. But VIC state government wants Federal funding, that means all Australians, to be compensating for their businesses as well, which to me is a double whammy for Victorians. And if Fed government helps Victoria during their state-wide lockdown, then when SA or Western Australia or any other states announces their lock down due to a couple of COVID cases in their state, won't they have to help in the same way as well. There will be no end. Where do you think the Federal Government's money comes from? Trees?

Some Victorians' businesses and livelihoods may be suffering as a result of this lockdown no doubt but think long term and do not buy in to the comments from the VIC state government. All handouts comes from tax payers, if you don't already realise. If you don't want to be paying more taxes for other states' incompetence or their self-imposed knee jerk lockdowns, we need to be careful what we are asking for now.

My Year of the Ox

 I was born in the Year of the Ox, about 4 cycles ago. Today I celebrated my 48th birthday. It was my 13th celebration in Australia. And for the first time in my life, I got a surprise birthday party.

Hubby got organised, it was later revealed, about 1 month ago. He formed a chat group behind my back with my best buddies and arranged for them to get me out of the house for tea party at San Churros. I was supposed to return around 6pm and I thought he was taking me out for dinner. 

The plan was kept secret from me and I suspected nothing about the stock pile of pork loin steaks in the freezer. I thought he was a bit over zealous when the pork chops went of sale. I even used up some for our dinner one night, but he could say nothing. I had no idea even when I met up with the girls for the briefest birthday celebration ever with no cake. When they abruptly said they had to go, I brushed it off that everyone must be really busy. Who would expect that they will then turn around and end up at my house later?

When I got home, KK was cutting up cabbage. I saw Hubby frying tonkatsu pork outside. Oh well, so it's home cooked dinner tonight, I thought. Then as I was checking out the gifts I got, the door bell rang. I thought it was a neighbour coming by to collect her parcel, which she'd sent to our house. However it was the hubby of my girlfriend, with his hands full, carrying food. After about 5 seconds of me staring at him, stunned, surprised and speechless, I figured out what's going on. Wow, for the second time in my life, my husband had managed to surprise me. The first time it was at our wedding, when he turned up suddenly on stage to sing me a song during the church ceremony. In between then and now, he can never keep a secret from me, which isn't such a bad thing, except when it comes to birthdays, I've always managed to know in advance what he's planning. This was necessary, by the way, to prevent him from buying things that I don't want or don't need. Very practical but very unromantic.

So it was a good feeling knowing that these people in my life cared enough about me to plan a lovely surprise on my birthday. I had a great day, beginning in the morning with my favourite coffee and almond croissant near South Melbourne market, then doing some research from my so-called birthday present. 

I guess this year, I'm really feeling a little different from before. I'm more relaxed and don't really worry about how many people will care about my birthday. I decided to just focus on appreciating the things I already have. People who don't care are probably not worth me caring if they care or not too...makes sense?

I told my son today, growing older is not fun so that's why we need birthday celebrations to cheer us up.