Plague Update #26 - The Sweat is Safe, for Now

Well, the coronavirus is doomed.  The International Cricket Council is considering implementing a rule that will prevent players from spitting on the ball.  It's a start I suppose, possibly in time they can extend that to preventing players from spitting on the pitch, the grounds and each other as well but you know, baby steps.  For those who feel that cricket just isn't the same without an exchange of bodily fluids (and who doesn't) the Council was quick to assure outraged players that smearing sweat on the ball would still be permitted.  Rules governing appropriate moments to vomit, sneeze and urinate are still under consideration.  Seriously, they're ruining the game.

In other news I took a week off work to recover from the grinding routine of stumbling from my bedroom to my home office and spending the day sitting in front of a computer spilling coffee and biscuit crumbs onto the keyboard.  I looked around for exciting things to do and realised that the best I could come up with was stumbling from my bedroom to my home office to sit in front of a computer and spill coffee and biscuit crumbs onto the keyboard.  I would like to say the coronavirus has had a major impact on my life but sadly it hasn't.  Incidentally for those relatives who may have wrinkled their brows in confusion at my use of the term "home office" I would like to assure them that I've simply renamed my junk filled spare room for tax purposes.

Things have actually opened up a bit in Australia.  We're now at the point where interacting socially in public is possible but sufficiently inconvenient to make you reconsider exactly how dependent on human interaction you are.  At present we're all staring at the gradually improving numbers with deep suspicion waiting for a possible second wave.  Which makes virus watching a little like surfing although with a different sense of anticipation.

Seriously though we can tell that people in Australia are starting to get a little more confident by the type of news stories that are being reported.  For several weeks it was all about "new cases" and "latest deaths".  Now we're starting to get stories like "45% of Australians Admitted to Feeling Very Lonely in May".  The implication being that this is due to the coronavirus restrictions and not just business as usual.  In the same article it was also mentioned that more relationships appeared to be under stress at the same time as well.  Apparently the only thing worse than being alone during the pandemic is being forced to associate more closely with your nearest and dearest.  This is hardly surprising, most relationships rely on the fact that there will be several hours of most days when the loving twosome (or whatever) don't actually have to see each other.  It is amazing how quickly your partner's charming little quirks can become reasons for divorce when you're exposed to them 24/7.

Of course an enforced stay at home does mean that both partners can spend more time with the children.  This is catastrophic news for parents and children alike.  I was, I like to think, a reasonably well behaved child but even I attempted to limited my interaction with my parents to the occasional mealtime.  Since my mother provided the meals this really couldn't be avoided.  As for the parents; well if we as a society really wanted to raise our children we wouldn't have put so much effort into creating a state that provided long term child minding facilities (they're called schools).  The end result of this pandemic is that we're going to have a generation of parents and children with a better and fuller understanding of each other.  The consequences of which are likely to be catastrophic.