izmeina | The Dead Zone

After what seemed like a century of sizzling stinking hot days, we had almost a week of 28 to 30 degree days. I felt almost human again.
But then today a nasty stinking 36 popped up out of nowhere. Not just hot but extremely humid and muggy.

So once again I am feeling totally brain dead and unproductive. The old mojo is definitely missing in action.
It is so sad walking on the verge hearing the grass crunch like cornflakes.
I don’t want the lawn anyway and hope to get lots of ground cover plants up and running when the weather turns.

But pottering in the garden seeing another plant turn up its toes every other day is just so depressing.
Soon I will be left with nothing but the old established trees and grape vine, succulents and dragon fruit.

I had planned to squiggle here on Wednesday 23rd but was once again too tired and brain dead to make the effort. I had been thinking that it was exactly 2 years ago on Monday 23rd March 2020 that was the start of the Great Lockdown.

From midday, all cafes and restaurants were take away only and all pubs and bars were completely closed.
The city and streets were like a ghost town. It was so surreal.
Since there was so little else to do, people signed up fro the Toilet Paper Wars.

We were lucky here in the Wild West. Our full lockdown ended in mid May while in Melbourne it went on for over two years on and off.

There was the odd one week blitz here now and then but not a major impost compared to over east.
My grand plan to go to Amsterdam in September were put on hold and then totally cancelled. I had the tickets already paid for. Luckily I was with Emirates so I got every single penny of the cost of my ticket back within 2 weeks of applying.

So flying with Emirates is still unticked on my bucket list.

It was strange getting used to being a domesticated snake. It was also sad to see just how many businesses never survived the lockdowns.

The cafes and restaurants that did remain drastically reduced their opening hours.
Landlords are very good at putting up rents in boom times but very reluctant to reduce them during the bad times.

I was very upset to discover that my old lurking ground The Juicy Beetroot in Fremantle is now take away only. Cheapskate that I am, I turned up for Happy Hour at the usual time of 2.30 but the cupboards were bare. Everything was gone. That was when I seen the Take Away only sign.

But what is particularly sad, the business is now for sale. The man who owns and built up the business over at least 20 years may end up walking away with nothing through no fault of his own.

If it’s not lack of foot traffic that is the problem, it is lack of suitable or even unsuitable staff. So many cafes and restaurants have signs stating their new drastically reduced opening hours because they have either gone take away only or cannot get sufficient staff to do table service with their usual times.

There has been more change in the last 2 years than the 20 years before that.

These days, every time I go out to a cafe for a coffee or lunch, I am aware that it may be my last visit because next time it will be boarded up.

Even sending stuff overseas is not what it used to be. Postage prices are up, delivery times often take 3 times as long as pre Covid days and now with all the Brexit stuff slowly moving through the pipeline, it looks like Book Depository is off the menu for presents.
Any deliveries in EU countries get slapped with huge taxes and stamp duty.

There is nothing more embarrassing than sending someone a present and then finding out that they have to pay for it.
With Christmas exactly 9 months away, these days it is never to early to start planning for it. .