Goods
• WITH his wife in hospital for the past two months for a medical condition that has nothing to do with the Covid-19 outbreak, an 86-year-old Picnic Point resident has been “scratching around home” on his own. Last week his neighbour’s two children dropped by with a shopping bag including biscuits and toilet rolls. “It really got to me,” he said. “Their father said they just asked if they could do it. They’re really nice people, the nicest neighbours you could ever want.”
• SAYING she was moved to tears, Caroline Chisholm Special School teacher Debbie was in a Padstow cafe buying pork rolls for lunch for the 20 students at school on Wednesday, when another customer said she would cover the $70 cost of the lunch. “I tried to talk her out of it but she said it was her way of thanking teachers as she knew we were doing it tough,” Debbie said. “She wouldn’t let me take a photograph of her or even give me her name; I just wanted to thank her so much and to let Torch readers know there is still so much kindness in Canterbury Bankstown.”
• UNDERSTANDING their community’s cultural needs and a point of connection for residents to get their supplies, services and connect, village shops like those in Condell Park, Georges Hall, Revesby, Greenacre, Padstow and Panania, have never been more vital. With larger stores closing down and supermarkets under siege, it is important to keep shopping locally as much as possible to keep local economies afloat and locals in jobs.
• EASTER travel is off and rightly so, but it might be the right time to set up camp in the backyard, the driveway or even the living room. Launching ‘Camp at Home Heroes’, Keelan Howard from the Caravan Industry Association of Australia, says upwards of 300,000 Australians usually go camping over the Easter Weekend. “Camping offers so many benefits to our health both physically and mentally, and these benefits can still be enjoyed from your own home,” he said. Visit Let’s Go Caravan and Camping Facebook page for competitions and tips.
• PLENTY of Australian and international musicians, singers and comedians are moving performances online. #TogetherAtHome is a virtual event series launched last week by Global Citizen, the World Health Organisation (WHO), and artists such as Vance Joy, Chris Martin, John Legend and Guy Sebastian. On Twitter, Steve Martin also put up Banjo Calm and Banjo Balm – no jokes, just a masterful and soothing banjo solo.
• THE Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has congratulated the NSW Governments on removing local government supermarket curfews, which will help the trucking industry and supermarkets restock. “Our members told us that local government curfews were the single greatest regulatory impediment to restocking Australia’s supermarkets,” ATA CEO Ben Maguire said last week.
• THE Local Government NSW (LGNSW) has welcomed the decision by the NSW Government to postpone the state’s council elections until September 2021 because it provided certainty to Australian communities during these extraordinary times.
Bads
• IT has been suggested that foxes might be licking their figurative lips following the rapid increase in the number of backyard chooks. Anyone deciding on keeping “panic” chickens might be well advised to make sure their new hen houses are well secured or they could find themselves missing out on all those lovely fresh eggs.
• RECENT runs on seedlings from garden centres are also a sign that some people are hoping to become a little bit more self-sufficient in the coming months although they will have a bit of a wait to harvest the fruits (and vegetables) of their labour.
• HOMESCHOOL is all good fun says one Greenacre parent, at least until the ‘teacher’ gets stood down for drinking on the job and the students are suspended for fighting. “If nothing else this has highlighted how much of a pay rise our child care workers and teachers deserve,” she said. “After this is all over no-one will be arguing that they deserve to be treated with much more respect.”
• FORGET autonomous cars in the future, a Narwee resident wants to know why we can’t have automatic indicators on cars right now. “The number of cars turning without any indication at all is ridiculous,” he said. “It’s not that hard, and if you can’t find the indicator perhaps you shouldn’t be behind the wheel.”
• CALLING it ridiculous and disrespectful to elderly people, Stephanie, 74, of Milperra, must now shop daily at a Revesby supermarket because of new purchase limits. “I used to go with my son, or he would go, once a week to do my shopping,” she said. “I am on a walker and it is not easy for me to shop daily. I feel like I am being punished because of all of the hoarders who have emptied the shelves and it’s not fair.”
• A TORCH scribe also wants to know why some drivers swing out ever so slightly to the right when they are turning left (or visa versa) after nearly getting sideswiped by two separate cars on her journey into work. She swears she was entirely in her own lane in both cases when the other drivers moved across from theirs.
• UNIMPRESSED to see a pharmacy taking advantage of shortages of hand sanitiser by upping the price, a Revesby resident says he won’t be back. He said there was no price on the shelf and when he took a 450mL bottle of hand sanitiser to the till he was told it would cost $30. “I nearly fell over,” he said. We think some businesses would be wise to remember that this too shall pass and that shoppers have long memories.
• ASKING when is the madness going to end, a caller said the designated early hour for seniors to do their supermarket shopping was not working. “Apart from those seniors being disadvantaged that can’t get there that early because they rely on carers turning up or transport via the community transport bus, the rest of us turning up the normal opening time, find there is nothing left,” he said. “One day last week at a major local supermarket, just after 9am, there were just three packets of frozen peas, frozen french fries and a packet of frozen potato – everything else was gone – so this is obviously not the solution.”
• WANTING to warn others, a Greenacre reader got a call from the ‘NBN’ threatening to cut off his phone in 24 hours if he did not push number 1 on his phone. “I did so, and a foreign sounding man started asking for my details like my birth date and address,” our reader said. “I got a bad feeling as I knew the next question would be for my account details and I said to him, I don’t believe you’re from the NBN and he immediately hung up. I then contacted my provider Optus and they said the NBN never call and only send letters. The police have since confirmed it was a scam.”
