Lisa’s lowdown

Lisa McLure managed to get her second Pfizer shot before news of the Covid-positive case on Phillip Island. Here, she again returns to her lockdown column, explaining how a friend dealt with queuing at a long testing site, and how kids Evie and Angus and husband Tim beat the boredom by dressing up their unhappy cat Eric, who now has an internet following.

“Going into lockdown this time feels almost like waiving the white flag: let’s just get it done and hope everyone is ok and I don’t end up locking the kids in the cupboard under the stairs.

We actually don’t have a cupboard under the stairs but now with lockdown Tim has time to build one.

With our spare time we decided to dress Eric, our ragdoll cat, in a pink penguin jumper. That gave us the idea to make a number of different outfits for him, including Nurse Eric.

I videoed him in his nurse outfit taking care of a DIY Smiths Beach testing queue of Evie’s dolls. I put it on Facebook and quite a few hundred people watched it.

Next we’re going to do Press Conference Eric and dress him up like the Premier.

A friend of mine said she’s going to make him more costumes, so watch this space.

Eric glares at us for 10 minutes until we take the outfit off him.

He just flops and submits. He deserves it for waking me up at 4am every morning by bonking me on the nose.

I just want to make people laugh, anything to ease people being a bit frightened and anxious, even for a moment. So Eric doesn’t realise the joy he’s bringing to the world.

I’ve noticed a bit of tourist bashing on community Facebook sites, but the people who bought Covid to the island were on their holidays having a nice time. Obviously, they were doing the right thing and used the QR code everywhere and supported local business – pretty much every local business by the looks of it.

It was bound to happen and now it has.

Although everyone is in a bit of disbelief.  A weird sense of shock has come over the island. All the businesses have been doing the right thing and trying to look after everyone for so long.

My heart broke when I saw San Remo Fisherman’s Co-op manager Paul Mannix on the TV news. 

He was so devastated. 

He’s worked so hard to do everything right – and even copped abuse for doing the right thing by some customers – and now he’s a Tier1 site.

My friend owns G’Day Tiger café in Cowes, which was one of the Tier2 sites, so his family and his staff are being tested and in isolation.

Another friend was at the Jolly Lolly Trolley at the exposure time. 

So on Saturday she got in the car to get tested with her three kids, waiting a few hours with snacks and iPads to keep them entertained. 

At the request of Bass Coast CEO Jan Child – who spoke to every carload in the line – they went across to Wonthaggi to take the pressure off Cowes staff. 

One of the nurses came out and asked the line of cars if they minded waiting an extra 15 minutes so the nurse staff could have a break. They have been thrown into a massive workload.
I think a lot of people got tested out of fear they may have it.

I got my second Pfizer vaccination last Tuesday, so just before the lockdown. It was easy: I booked both of them online and just drove up and got the jab.

After each of them I got a headache for a couple of hours, so I drank heaps of hydrolyte and curled up on the couch. 

But that was it, no other effects.

As for home schooling again, Cowes Primary is so prepared for snap lockdowns the kids came home with the dreaded paper bag full of their work.

The first home schooling last year was a huge deal.  Now we know what we’ve got to do.

That’s not to say the kids completely comply. There will still be a need to reinvent the wheel every day to get them on board.

My personal training studio was already closed and we of course had to close (Elements) hairdressing studio. 

We can’t rebook everyone at this early stage because we don’t know when that’s going to be, how long we’re in lockdown.

Now all I have to do is ensure I stay off lockdown online shopping. I keep getting parcels that turn up and I forget what I bought.

Lockdown this time is what it is. 

Let’s just get it done.”