Melbourne is back in Stage 4 lockdown.

[groovergirl]

Howdy all. I'm in Melbourne, and it's just been announced that we're back in Stage 4 lockdown from midnight. It's because of some coronavirus cases in a quarantine hotel at the airport.

We've done this before, and everyone was saying "You've got this, Melbourne!" and telling us how awesome we were. But we've been so awesome for so long, and we're all so tired of this. I think most Australians are prepared to do masks and practical precautions for the long term, but these sudden hits to work, school and social life are hard to bear. I couldn't see my family in Sydney this past Xmas because the border was closed.

Hand-hold, anyone? I'll be OK tomorrow. Just in despair now.

Everythingthelighttouches. Thankyou for sharing your story. I think that is exactly it isnt it. We are in the thick of it in the UK.

You explained that very nicely @OverTheRubicon, thank you.

We're 2 months into the third full lockdown in London, because Tier 4 is a lockdown too. Apart from the brief chaos of police not letting people in one block of flats walk nor buy groceries, there is no real difference between what is it isn't allowed, certainly not in way that has affected cases. We missed both Easter and Christmas last year. Many businesses are closed or struggling with restrictions, many parents are struggling between work and children at home, it's -4 and it's wet. I hope these snap lockdown keep working for Australia, but a serious reality check is needed by many of these posters (if they are real).

@RosesforMama

"why would anyone in the UK bother to read a thread with Melbourne as part of the title if they were going to be offended (as many on MN are, about anything)."

Because the title just sounds newsy, Melbourne back in lockdown. You have to open and read the OP to discover that (at the time) she was asking for a handhold.

Well I bothered reading it because i live in the UK and my parents, sister, cousins nieces and nephews are all in Melbourne.

Anyway. To reiterate what I have said a few times already- this bloody covid is shit and it is shit for everyone.

I bothered reading it because I’m interested in Australia. I used to live there. I wondered what was going on.

I didn’t expect to find somebody whingeing ‘like a pom’ about a five day lockdown, especially on the context of this being a UK site.

Wouldn’t say it’s offensive, just annoying.

@Hardbackwriter

I kind of get why so many Australians and New Zealanders are so smug - after being used to the 'cultural cringe' it must feel very good to feel world-leading and like other countries are looking to you as an example of 'doing it right' (even if that narrative ignores the huge advantages they had compared to Europe in handling this). It's not terribly kind, though.

I genuinely haven’t read any posts where Australian/People from New Zealand have been smug. I’ve seen posts talking about how their governments have handled this differently and I’ve seen posts explaining circumstances.

What I have seen is lots of posts from U.K. residents being scornful of other countries’ more successful handling, predictions of how it will all come falling down and positively crowing about it when it does. I’ve seen posts from U.K. residents simultaneously saying how the U.K. situation is the worst ever ever and that no other citizens can dare complain because ‘read the room’ AND that their countries handling of it will ultimately be the wrong thing.

There’s a lot of bitterness and misery on MN at the moment.

I’m in Wales, where restrictions have arguably been harsher and longer than those in England. I work in tourism. DP’s 15 year old successful business is tourism based and destroyed overnight. DS is 4 and has had a term in school since February half term 2020. My Nan died alone in a care home last year and I couldn’t go to the funeral. My family live in Kent and I have seen them once since Christmas 2019.

I can still exercise my humanity and recognise that the OP needed some support when she posted. There’s nothing like that sinking, sick to the stomach, skin tingling coldness that hits you when you hear you’re being slammed back into lockdown.

I agree wit the PP are on life support right now. That is how it feels. And with the repeated easing of restrictions ad hoc here and there it is like it feels like a cleaner coming and unplugging the life support so they can hoover and then plugging the life support back in again.

To be honest there isn’t a lot of Uk based news on over here other than I very superficial headline. You do need to search for more in-depth information. For those of us with family in the uk we will seek this out for whatever area they are in.

If you have no ties to the Uk then you are getting a snap shot of a headline plus a lot of mumsnet posts about curtain twitching and grassing the neighbours up for having a visitor, then the infighting ones a lot like this post ( oh London has to lockdown now, try being in Manchester)

I’m sure you don’t get a lot of Australian news in the Uk other than the odd headline.

I'm in Melbourne.

No question- the UK have it worse. I have relatives there and the worst part of the pandemic (for me personally) has been my worries for my relatives in the UK.

It's not the average person's fault that their government are incompetent.

There is a lot of anger on this thread, but I think that's makes a lot of sense. The OP asked for compassion, but one of the signs of burn out and trauma is compassion fatigue. It wasn't a fair request to make.

Anyway all of this to say, to those in the UK- I am sorry. You're doing something incredibly difficult and traumatic, and the last thing you need is a bunch of Australians rubbing their good fortune in your face or minimising your experience.

I’m not sure why there’s quibbling over this being a UK/international site - take a look at the MN local boards, the articles (in fairness I don’t think anyone reads the articles or uses the local boards much), the product offers/tests etc.

It’s the internet, of course people can post wherever they like but this is very much a UK and female centric site. In fact it’s further tipped into another demographic of middle-class southern women. It’s bizarre to argue that’s not a fact.

Perhaps we could all be united on the fact that there really some places that are having it worse than either the uk or australia e.g Brazil.

For what it's worth, I really hope the five days is enough in Melbourne. I don't want any more countries losing people the way we have. I also hope Australia gets the vaccines rolled out soon (and everywhere else). The vaccines are the one bright spot we have here at the moment, 14 million currently given. Let's hope we are seeing the beginning of the end of this disaster.

Then we can go back to squabbling over cricket and whose beer is better

Hugely insensitive. Can't get my head around why you would complain to people who have it worse.

Melbourne here too. My family are all in Perth. I haven't seen them since Christmas 2019. Mum has tried to come about 4 times to meet my baby and literally every time we've gone into lockdown and one time Perth did. My grandma is in her mid 90s and I'm becoming increasingly concerned that I won't see her again. She's in reasonably good health but I wouldn't be surprised if McGowan made vaccination a condition of entry to WA. I will get it when I can but will most likely be in one of the last groups to be offered it.

Day to day I am keeping it together. But because I'm resigned to living with a level grief as opposed to because I'm strong if that makes sense. It sucks. And I'm sick of being told "it could be worse" by well meaning people. Of course it could be worse and of course everyone in the world has been affected in some way. But I do feel very sad and sorry for myself and I'm tired of this. I want my kids to be able to go to school, kinder and their other activities. I hate that my 3 year old keeps asking if the "cawona by-wus has gone away yet?"

Im so tired

Just want to add, I have ENORMOUS sympathy for everyone in the UK. You've had a horrific time of it with the double issue of lockdowns and real fear of illness. But it isn't a competition about who has it worse. I know one person who has now rescheduled their wedding for a third time. My husband has had to take a 40% pay cut. My cousin died of cancer and we couldn't go to her funeral. This is shit for everyone.

Our 2nd lockdown was long and hard and psychologically I think we thought we were out of the woods so to speak, especially being in summer and with vaccinations on the way. So this has come as a blow to us all. Plus I don't think any of us who lived in Melbourne through the last lockdown truly expect this to only go for 5 days. The last one was only supposed to be a few weeks initially.

@DipSwimSwoosh

Hugely insensitive. Can't get my head around why you would complain to people who have it worse.

Could you elaborate your personal circumstances then in case we inadvertently post about something nice that you don't have?

FFS the "me, me, me, boo hoo, four Yorkshiremen" competitive misery is shameful.

as far as I can tell, Brazil has no lockdown but lots of deaths. It's a different balance of problems than places with strict lockdowns.

@eaglejulesk

Great post *@Wakeupalready*

I tried. Same to you.

I think what it comes down to is people from Melbourne only talk about the lockdown, the rules, the fines. So what they personally had to suffer through. They don’t talk about the health system collapsing under the strain, because it didn’t. They don’t talk about people with life threatening conditions being denied treatment, because they weren’t. They don’t talk about not being able to access an ambulance, because they always could. They don’t really talk about the people who contracted covid, because most of them don’t know anyone who did. And they never, ever, talk about the deaths. Because they are an inconvenient reminder of the failure of their government, when all they want to focus on is their own heroic sacrifice.

But people in the UK can’t avoid the positive cases or the deaths. They can’t sweep uncomfortable facts under the carpet. And that is why it is entirely inappropriate for anyone from Australia to be demanding sympathy on this forum.

Wow. Clearly we cant agree that a place where people actually suffocated to death because the hospitals ran out of oxygen have actually got it worse. No Brazil haven't had a lockdown. Perhaps their corrupt, inept government couldn't actually implement that in their already poverty stricken nation. Some 4.8 million people in Brazil exist on no income at all apparently.

But nothing is worse than a lockdown in our developed nations eh?

I think I will have to hide this thread now. I'd be less irritated watching the Trump impeachment proceedings.

@AcerLady I completely agree with you that it has been a whole other level of hell in Brazil. Absolutely horrific and it makes me grateful that I live in the U.K.

Me too, very grateful. Despite all our problems.

Once again, I truly hope we all get through the next few weeks/months everywhere and we can start to put this all behind us.

I really am going now before it all starts again!

@OverTheRubicon

I can on this post because I have friends in Melbourne, and I felt sympathetic. Op was reasonable to be worried. Others were reasonable to feel like 5 days is small.

But then seeing the absolutely clueless posts from some of the other Australian residents (mostly Victorian residents) on here is infuriating. Here in the UK we know it's been shit, but even at the height of it we were hearing about how others had it harder, like the children of Spain shut inside flats for 6 weeks or more. Apparently, though, either the Australian media or very selective reading of Mumsnet posts has led many of you to truly believe that it was harder to be locked down in a city where you and anyone you love had minimal risk of actually getting covid, where the rest of the national economy could keep going, and where you could emerge to a more normal life, was worse than anyone else.

Just because we weren't always being policed, didn't mean that most people broke the rules. So yes, dickheads had a slightly easier lockdown in some of the UK, but 90% of people followed guidance anyway, and most of the rest did their best around reasons like.poverty.

No we couldn't go from tier 4 to tier 2, and yes some cities were locked down

Travelling between states to see family is not the same as driving to the next town over (which most people didn't do even when it was guidance and not enforced). It's more like flying to Europe (which we also can't do).

It's not the UK individuals' fault that the government hasn't made some big missteps or that our country is a travel hub that isn't self-sufficient for food provision. People aren't intrinsically worse behaved than amazing Australians.

Even if you disbelieve all of this, remember that right now over 115,000 of our friends and family are dead of covid. Many others have been damaged by a year of late or cancelled medical treatment. Our children have missed a lot of a year of schooling. Many of us are unemployed or will know someone who is.

To use the shed analogy, it's more like telling someone whose town is on fire that you've got a spot fire in your shed. Good on you for getting to it early, wish we did! And we know that you had a partial fire earlier in the year, which wasn't nice.But then please don't go on it, and in particular please don't talk rubbish about all the reasons it was our fault and you did better and that's why we should feel sorry about your shed.

All of this.

The majority of the UK haven't had one single day that's been normal in 11 months. Most shops, hairdressers, restaurants, cinemas etc have been closed for 6 to 8 months, and you've had to wear masks to go there when open.

My son has had 10 weeks of school. Lots of his friends only had 6 weeks due to having to self isolate twice. His football (outdoor) was only on for 2.5 months, and parents had to distance even though it was outside.

I don't know anyone who doesn't know someone who has died from covid. Some have been elderly, but three were in their mid forties, and only one of them had an underlying condition.

Well done to all the posters (wherever they are based) calling out the racism

Racism? Who's a what now?

@MrsTerryPratchett

Well done to all the posters (wherever they are based) calling out the racism

Racism? Who's a what now?

Yes, I was a bit nonplussed by that too

Certainly Brazil has had it worse than the UK. I personally wouldn't dream of posting on a forum that has a large majority Brazilian membership, about how tough we've had it in the UK since this would be insensitive. However, presumably SparklysMagicPiano would be happy to do that

I wasn't aware that MN is only for UK residents.

Yes, I guess the majority of posters are UK based, but I see many posts from people who don't live in the UK, and they are just as entitled to have an opinion as anyone else.

I agree that your Brazilian example would be insensitive, but that isn't what is happening on this thread.

I can't be arsed to AS and actually count them, but there were endless threads about "why didn't the UK do what Australia did, they've cracked it?" Nobody was discouraged from posting about that - this is no different.

This pandemic is hard for everyone whichever hemisphere they happen to reside in, and people are allowed to be in despair even though their situations are not the same as in the UK.

I haven't seen my children or grandchildren for over a year now as they are in a different country. That's unlikely to change anytime soon. Is it OK for me to ask people not to post anything that mentions seeing their family because I can't?

Nope. Thought not.