Isolation diaries part 22: Across the river

By Andrew Johnston

Nov 24, 2020

HELLLLOOOO New South Wales.

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It’s good to be back, my friends.

I drove across the border to go to the shop, and I won’t lie, it was excellent.

While I think the police have done an excellent job, and I’ve enjoyed my interactions with them when I have gone through the checkpoint, I won’t pretend I was sad not to stop.

While we’ve all been appreciative of what has been done in the past few months, and how it's usually been pretty easy to get through, it’s not something we will miss.

Far from it.

It’s nice to go to Moama without any concern, fiddling around in our wallets for ID, making sure our permits are up to date.

Even something as simple as not waiting 30 minutes in the car just to go to Moama beach.

It’s taken a lot to get here, but we are here now.

That said, this week was a strong reminder that this virus is still very much an issue.

We spent a hot minute worrying about South Australia and the possibility it could be the next disaster zone.

And, for the first time, we have seen Victoria lock down its borders to another state.

It is almost unthinkable that we are on the other side of this now.

Standing on the outside looking in is a really strange feeling.

There’s a scene in The Simpsons where Lisa is ruining a party, and Marge yells out “Bart no!”

The scene zooms out to show Bart standing there calmly, saying “what?” to his mother.

Marge replies, “Sorry, force of habit.”

My sister sent me that image last week, changing Bart to Victoria, and Lisa to South Australia.

And, while we shouldn’t be downplaying a virus like this, it did feel nice to not be the ones causing the trouble this time.

The good news is South Australia reacted incredibly quickly to the threat, and was able to turn things around pretty quickly, and hopefully his border wall will be up for a short time only.

No one knows for sure, but now that we’ve had another taste of freedom, we all want more.

I love South Australia — two of my best friends live there, and I haven’t been able to see them since they got married earlier this year, so I want to see them again soon.

I don’t want to see anyone locked down at Christmas, I want us all to see our families, and I have no doubt there are some people who are heartbroken at this latest development.

But the situation in South Australia will be okay.

We will get through it and move on to bigger and better things.

Selfishly, I hope it’s before the cricket starts.

The Adelaide day/night Test is a great one to watch.

One of my favourite sporting events.

And it’s good to have something to look forward to.

That is a goal to work towards.

But things are looking up again.

Everything at the moment is worth a celebration.

Hell, just the fact it doesn’t take 11 hours to cross the bridge is worthy of a celebration.

And we watched Victoria take another step forward on Sunday.

It’s hard to say what is going to come next, but for now, it’s well worth celebrating where we are.