Happy Freedom day Anniversary !!

Happy anniversary ! Of what , you ask ? Of the day we got back our freedom. This time last year, the city opened up after more than 100 days in possibly the longest COVID related quarantine lockdown. Remember  ?

Well, in case you don't , here is page to refresh your memory. 

It was a hard earned victoria. For all Victorians.

Summer's out !

I think we can officially say this, Victoria's summer's out, until December this year. Just checked the accuweather forecast , and the temperature is not expected to cross over 27 for the next 3 months. And I still don't know they can do it this accurately ( they are pretty much spot on), but they usually able to predict temperatures months ahead, with a variance of 3 degrees ! So that's it, we never had a summer last year. We sort of just drifted the low 30s for about 5 days in all of Feb, and off we go to a wonderful autumn !

Which just brings back the old realization: how  time flies ! This time last year, the world was just starting to realize that 2020 won't be the fun and games everyone expected it to be. Australia was still a month away from its first official lockdown. At this point, we were still getting our morning runs and noon beach trips. Australians were still planning their international holidays, and international students were still coming into the country. 

And by all means, the worst may be over here, but it has definitely not ended. Australia officially rolled out their first vaccine shots this week, and best estimates say it will be till October until a sizeable chunk of us get them. And just like in every cucumber country, there are fierce anti-vaxxers here as well; who would rather get the disease over sacrificing their irrational beliefs.

Technically, it is better for our species to let these people by. You know, evolutionwise.

Victoria has just voted to extend its state of emergency till December this year, to have that level of caution. Hopefully this will rein in the more adventurous folk, by levying heavy fines for rule breakers. 

The La-nina is still around, and it is expected to bring gloomy weather, with overcast , cloudy skies and long rains. Friendly reminder, rain is always good. Yes, you need to carry an umbrella, but at least you will have water round the year to grow those avocados. But the chilly, cloudy skies is a bummer, and a reminder that harsh winters are just around the corner.

Times up. Time to go find that missing glove and raincoat. Have a chilly good day !

Happy Freedom Day !

 Happy Freedom Day, Melbourne ! Good to see everyone back. Lets not rush into things, we have got a long and glorious summer ahead of us.

A scientific opening up of the state

This just in. After more than 3 months under probably the world's harshest COVID-19 induced lockdowns, the metro area of Melbourne, and the state of Victoria is cautiously &  slowly opening up to a summer of hope. 

From midnight tonight, the city's imposed restriction of travel within 5 kms of resident's home, is being relaxed to a generous 25 kms ! And the max time limit of 2 hours is also gone for good. Families in the city can now be outdoors for however long they wish to be, as long as they don't mingle too much with other families. Outside of the family bubble, social distancing still applies, people have to wear masks and stay 1.5 m apart. But that is a small price to pay to the relative freedom this move brings to the millions locked down in the city. 

And if you can't already tell from my ear-to-ear smile, I am one of those millions who will now be able to enjoy a bit more of the elusive sun.

But nothing is set in stone, as the premier has repeatedly warned. If the case numbers grow , the restrictions will return. So we could still, technically, lose it all, if we decided to ignore the rules at the risk of public health.

But keeping that aside, Victoria's scientific and often extremely strict approach to containing this virus stands in stark contrast to how other states, and countries have bungled their own approach. After losing the plot by a ill-handled hotel quarantine system, the state had to hibernate for many months to earn their right to taste freedom again. And yes, many hundreds died during that time, and thousands of businesses went bust, but the state chose the lesser of two evils at every point. In the absence of a vaccine or anti-dote, the govt decided to save lives, instead of opening up for the sake of its destroyed economy. And this is where other countries, like the US, UK and India have got their priorities wrong.

Kudos to the city, state, and to the millions of Victorians who saw us all through. Yes this winter was longer and harsher than usual, but we can now look forward to warmer days in the sun. 

While the rest of the world decides to learn from us.

Tis the season.

The weather in Australia continues to surprise me. Its as if someone is closely monitoring the calendar. It’s the start of September, and presto ! winter is gone. The cold, harsh sub 10 degree nights have now changed to 17 degrees. Daytime tops 20. That can only mean one thing: spring is here. Warm days abound. Had to switch the heater to ac mode.

The change of seasons here is truly amazing. Looking forward to warmer days.

 

A stitch in time.

Victoria is right now in its 4^th week of its stage 4 restrictions, which was enforced starting August 2^nd. This is more of a curfew than a simple restriction and is far stricter and fine grained than the earlier restrictions. And it seems to be working. Take a look at the graph of new cases being reported in the state of Victoria.

The 2^nd of August is right in the middle of this graph, when the number of cases being reported was at its peak. And then the counts go down gradually, as soon as the curfew hits the city, and later the state completely. It is a familiar pattern, the number of infections decrease as soon as the primary vector, humans ,are immobilised. Everyone is staying locked in , until 13^th September, the date these restrictions are scheduled to end.

Simply put, a stitch in time saves nine.

It is not , and was never, that easy to ask Victorians to stay in. Aussies are an outdoorsy folk, the live outside, under the sun and in the rain. They could maybe stay in a few weeks, but definitely not in months. All through this period, there have been conspiracy theorists and plain idiots calling for a boycott of the curfews, asserting falsely, that it violates their ‘freedom of movement’, whatever that means. There were also calls from small business owners to re-open in a controlled way, in order to bring back much needed business. Add to this the bunch the virus deniers and anti-vaxxers, you have a gathering of monsters to control. Having never experience a war first hand, and not used to being ruled under a regime, people here take their own personal freedom for granted, and not  a privilege. The only thing the country had going for it was the small population. At 25 million people, there are more people in the state of Kerala in India than the total population of Australia and New Zealand combined ! So some police presence on the road, and the new of Australian Defence Forces patrolling the streets was enough to herd in the dissenters. And of course, the heavy fines 😊.

So verdict ? It seems to be working. One can only hope the course will hold steady until the counts come down to 0. And hopefully, this will the last time this lesson need to be learnt. This is our second time doing this, remember ?

Can’t go back. There can not be a third wave.

Birds in the city

It is spring time in the city. After a particularly stretched winter, I can now hear bird sounds in the morning again. Not just simple chirping charping. Melodius, long , complex bird songs !

Always a good sign, the birds are the first to know of the changing season. The next few months are going to be pleasant , cool and a little rainy (hopefullly), until we get fried by the harsh Australian summer.

Not looking foward to that. Summer is the worst part of the year.

Best museum visit ever !

Today I learnt a lot. Because today, I went to the museum. I felt like a kid again, and boy, was it fun. This would be my best museum trip ever. I visited the Melbourne Museum in Carlton, just because I had a day off and didn't kmow what else to do. A day well spent.

First off, I have always had dual relationships with museums. The name is supposed to spark curiosity, and fun, and questions. But the museums in India are so poorly done, the only question it invokes is "Why is this place still open ?". They don't have that many speciemens, due to …well, lack of funding. They focus on near history, our recent past only, and no address what we know in the long term. And they also don't bother about the future. They put up paintings and sculptures on their walls, but they don't spark curiosity.

But I have had better museum visits outside India. The natural history museum in Helsinki had dinosaurs. The one in Austria focussed on European flaura and fauna. Also..Vikings ! These guys really know their stuff. So I had high hopes when I walked into the largest museum in the southern hemisphere , in Melbourne.

The dinosaur walk was front and center. And they talked at length on the earth, meteorites, and a little too much about crystals and stones. Nothing fancy about that. One or two collections would have been enough. But upstairs, they talked about evolution, and the principle minds that worked behind that idea. And a room full of taxidermied animals ! And more bees and butterflies !  Some of Darwin's and Owens' original specimens are also on display, you have to squint to spot them ! The focus was on animals found in Victoria, but they also added a polar bear and a panda. The whole arrangement, lighing, and occasinal sound effects were all perfect.  Just enough information to answer your queries, without a long monotnous speech. Sadly, I missed the marine room.

The outdoor installation of Forest history is very cleverly done. I doubt anybody else would have thought about that. They already had giant trees in the back, and they built underground installations to show the birds and animals of such a forest.

Wonders never cease. They have spent a good portion of their space to talk about Victoria, and Melbourne's own little history. Through detailed research and hundreds of actual historical pieces, they have told a continous story of this city from its colonial past. The original natives of this place is mentioned, and without sugercoating, they have also detailed the cruelty these people had to suffer at the hands of 'white-men'. After the gold rush, and a huge influx of migrants, the city planners really had to work overtime to get back to a planned, livable city.

This is where the history of Melbourne differed from a place like..well, an Indian city. Through planning , and efficient government, they built the most livable city in the world, out of slums and closed mines. They go through both the world wars, and were able to successfully move to modernizatin. There are separate exhibits of objects used in all these various time-capsules. The first electrical appliances, the first cable driven trams, old movies, and radios, and then music and footy..the time travel was instantaneous ! I specially adored the pieces designed for their maritime history, with scale models of wooden clippers, and large luxury liners, even a navy ship. They have these little photo albums placed at various points, with real photos taken by people living in here, in various points of time. Thanks to photography, we can now glimpse how they lived , more than 120 years ago. No question, they put on their best clothes while posing for the cameras !

So, in closing, this is how a museum should be designed. There is no way a place can cover 4 billion years of history in a day. The key is to show snippets, and answer questions that really matter. If you have a spare day, spend it at the museum, you feel like a kid again. You won't be dissappointed.

New Lounges at Melbourne T2 !

 

For a long time, the tourist city of Melbourne was notorius for not having a general access lounge in its international terminal (or even domestic, for that matter.) except those for business class travellers. Well starting April 2018, they have opened multiple new lounges, and one by Plaza Premium. Looks to me they actually rearranged the ones they actually had, the AMEX lounge in T2 is now Plaza Premium.

Its a little watered down than what is generally expected from PP. But theres also another AMEX, apart from Etihad and Emirates lounges. They are all conveniently housed one level down from the international departure gates. With a selected range of foods, an open bar, and juices, they are visibly focussing on larger population of travellers. There were four dishes on offer, apart from the salad and cold cuts, and coffee and snacks. But if you walk through the path to the restrooms, you enter another section equally spacious, and with an identical buffet.

There are enough charging pods and wifi for everyone !

 

 

 

Happy Journey !

Winter in the city

Brrr…Chilling out there. Today the whole city was covered in a thick layer of mist. Only the bottom few storeys of each high-rise was visible. Checked the temperature; 5 degrees! Haven't seen these temperatures outside for the last...well..many years. That was when I was in Europe, where it went below zero in the winter. 5 degrees is what they call spring time. I started recalling the tricks we used to use during those frigid European winters, heaters on, warm fluids. Even the fill-the-warm-water-bottle-under-bed hack.

It is good to be away from the heat, though we still do get some sun, but its not that harsh. That was really missing in Europe, the winters there are long and dark. Even at peak noon, the sky just turns a little light blue. And for the rest of the day, it remains dark. Street lights are on all day. In office all the blinds were down, otherwise you just wouldn't feel like working. I used to carry a torch to use near my apartments back then.

So this is what a Melbourne winter feels like. I think I am going to enjoy the next few months.