{"id":1393,"date":"2020-05-24T15:57:15","date_gmt":"2020-05-24T05:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?p=1393"},"modified":"2020-05-24T15:57:15","modified_gmt":"2020-05-24T05:57:15","slug":"melbourne-trains-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?p=1393","title":{"rendered":"Back at work"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The staff at Richmond cheer strutting their stuff to “Funky Town” during Covid-19<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Although I work in an “essential service,” I decided to use up some of my holidays at the beginning of lockdown because I knew there’d be nothing to do. The Zoo is closed, there are no tourists and we are 88% down on customers.\u00a0 But I went back to work this week.\u00a0 And there are still customers.<\/p>\n

An infectious diseases specialist was working on his laptop in the waiting room while waiting for a train and told me that the hospitals were all ready for a second wave of infections with a ward full of prepared beds and plenty of spare ventilators in ICU. \u201c Keep washing your hands\u201d he said. \u201cAnd don\u2019t touch your face.\u201d We were interrupted then by another less respectable looking man who told us that the Covid-19 tracing app was compulsory, Big Brother was upon us and that we wouldn\u2019t be able to use hospitals or get into Bunnings unless we had the app on our phones.\u00a0 He waved his fist and kept crying \u201cResist! Resist!\u201d until the train fortuitously rolled in and took him away.<\/p>\n

One of the Zoo volunteers dropped by to have a walk around the outside of the zoo.\u00a0 It\u2019s closed tight and she said she was missing the animals terribly.\u00a0 According to the on-line Zoo keeper chat the animals, especially the monkeys and apes are also missing the entertainment of the visitors.<\/p>\n

Those of my regulars who are still working were happy to see me.\u00a0 Probably my return is a sign of normality.\u00a0 I missed my Burmese hospital cleaners who apparently are now driving to work because it\u2019s safer from infection, but my Vaccine makers from Sequirus labs were there in force.\u00a0 They hard at it making more flu vaccines.\u00a0 The uptake has been tremendous this year and the government has asked for an extra million and a half vaccines for our southern winter, which must be made before they can get their start on the regular flu vaccines they always make for the northern winter.\u00a0 If you are run down from having the flu it increases you chance of catching Covid-19.\u00a0 They don\u2019t have any news on a Covid-19 vaccine.<\/p>\n

Although the station was very quiet, the Park itself was like a high street.\u00a0 It was one of those golden autumn afternoons when there is just a tinge of chill in the air and a constant stream of people went past on foot or on bicycle, including the many happy golfers.\u00a0 Their club house was opened last week.\u00a0 One of my regulars stopped and told me how happy he was, all was back.\u00a0 He\u2019d had to make do with a putting machine in his living room for the past 6 weeks and as he lived alone it had been very lonely.<\/p>\n

I suspect this is also true of the man with out of control hair who is still using the train to carry all the timber for his new shed bunker\/ and still likes to stop and tell me ALL the details of everything.<\/p>\n

The person I most wished to speak to did not stop and talk.\u00a0 Why is a man in high vis, walking through my railway station with a such a huge hole torn in the back of his work pants that I can see half of his blue star spangled boxer shorts underneath?\u00a0 Alas I will never know.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The staff at Richmond cheer strutting their stuff to “Funky Town” during Covid-19   Although I work in an “essential service,” I decided to use up some of my holidays at the beginning of lockdown because I knew there’d be nothing to do. The Zoo is closed, there are no tourists and we are 88% …<\/p>\n

Back at work<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[80,18],"tags":[96,191,17,190,19],"class_list":["post-1393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-stationstories","tag-australian-writer","tag-covid-19","tag-melbourne","tag-metro-trains-melbourne","tag-station-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nBack at work — Jane Routley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?p=1393\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Back at work — Jane Routley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The staff at Richmond cheer strutting their stuff to “Funky Town” during Covid-19   Although I work in an “essential service,” I decided to use up some of my holidays at the beginning of lockdown because I knew there’d be nothing to do. The Zoo is closed, there are no tourists and we are 88% … Back at work Read More »\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?p=1393\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane Routley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-24T05:57:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"JaneRoutley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"JaneRoutley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/?p=1393#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/?p=1393\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"JaneRoutley\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/52bbf97934d227f91587b63f31c917c6\"},\"headline\":\"Back at work\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-24T05:57:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/?p=1393\"},\"wordCount\":593,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/52bbf97934d227f91587b63f31c917c6\"},\"keywords\":[\"Australian writer\",\"Covid-19\",\"Melbourne\",\"Metro Trains Melbourne\",\"station stories\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\",\"Station Stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/?p=1393#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/?p=1393\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/?p=1393\",\"name\":\"Back at work — Jane Routley\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-24T05:57:15+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/?p=1393#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/?p=1393\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/?p=1393#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Back at work\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Jane Routley\",\"description\":\"Official site for the award winning author.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/52bbf97934d227f91587b63f31c917c6\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/52bbf97934d227f91587b63f31c917c6\",\"name\":\"JaneRoutley\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9b44c0428b3b57851ae7a9b2d92406e86c70d2b29b2ef9e46b55c1890900fac6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9b44c0428b3b57851ae7a9b2d92406e86c70d2b29b2ef9e46b55c1890900fac6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9b44c0428b3b57851ae7a9b2d92406e86c70d2b29b2ef9e46b55c1890900fac6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"JaneRoutley\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/9b44c0428b3b57851ae7a9b2d92406e86c70d2b29b2ef9e46b55c1890900fac6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\"},\"description\":\"I was born in Melbourne, Australia, went to Preshil, Strathcona, and Monash University where I studied history, and RMIT where I became a Librarian. I've had a variety of careers, including Fruit Picker and Occult Librarian and I lived in Germany and Denmark for a decade. Now I'm back in my beloved Melbourne and working on the railways. I've published 3 books as me including the Aurealis Award winners \\\"Mage Heart\\\" and \\\"Fire Angels\\\" as well as \\\"Aramaya\\\", and one book as Rebecca Locksley - \\\"The Three Sisters\\\". My short stories have been widely anthologized, appeared in Meanjin, and have been read on the ABC. My favourite writers are Jane Austen, Angela Carter, Sara Douglass, and Janet Evanovich. My current life ambition is to see an erupting volcano.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/janeroutley.com\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Back at work — Jane Routley","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?p=1393","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Back at work — Jane Routley","og_description":"The staff at Richmond cheer strutting their stuff to “Funky Town” during Covid-19   Although I work in an “essential service,” I decided to use up some of my holidays at the beginning of lockdown because I knew there’d be nothing to do. The Zoo is closed, there are no tourists and we are 88% … Back at work Read More »","og_url":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?p=1393","og_site_name":"Jane Routley","article_published_time":"2020-05-24T05:57:15+00:00","author":"JaneRoutley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"JaneRoutley","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?p=1393#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?p=1393"},"author":{"name":"JaneRoutley","@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52bbf97934d227f91587b63f31c917c6"},"headline":"Back at work","datePublished":"2020-05-24T05:57:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?p=1393"},"wordCount":593,"commentCount":1,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52bbf97934d227f91587b63f31c917c6"},"keywords":["Australian writer","Covid-19","Melbourne","Metro Trains Melbourne","station stories"],"articleSection":["News","Station Stories"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?p=1393#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?p=1393","url":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?p=1393","name":"Back at work — Jane Routley","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-05-24T05:57:15+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?p=1393#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?p=1393"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?p=1393#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Back at work"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/","name":"Jane Routley","description":"Official site for the award winning author.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52bbf97934d227f91587b63f31c917c6"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52bbf97934d227f91587b63f31c917c6","name":"JaneRoutley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9b44c0428b3b57851ae7a9b2d92406e86c70d2b29b2ef9e46b55c1890900fac6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9b44c0428b3b57851ae7a9b2d92406e86c70d2b29b2ef9e46b55c1890900fac6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9b44c0428b3b57851ae7a9b2d92406e86c70d2b29b2ef9e46b55c1890900fac6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"JaneRoutley"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9b44c0428b3b57851ae7a9b2d92406e86c70d2b29b2ef9e46b55c1890900fac6?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"description":"I was born in Melbourne, Australia, went to Preshil, Strathcona, and Monash University where I studied history, and RMIT where I became a Librarian. I've had a variety of careers, including Fruit Picker and Occult Librarian and I lived in Germany and Denmark for a decade. Now I'm back in my beloved Melbourne and working on the railways. I've published 3 books as me including the Aurealis Award winners \"Mage Heart\" and \"Fire Angels\" as well as \"Aramaya\", and one book as Rebecca Locksley - \"The Three Sisters\". My short stories have been widely anthologized, appeared in Meanjin, and have been read on the ABC. My favourite writers are Jane Austen, Angela Carter, Sara Douglass, and Janet Evanovich. My current life ambition is to see an erupting volcano.","sameAs":["https:\/\/janeroutley.com"]}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"JaneRoutley","author_link":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?author=1"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"ab-block-post-grid-landscape":false,"ab-block-post-grid-square":false,"gb-block-post-grid-landscape":false,"gb-block-post-grid-square":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"JaneRoutley","author_link":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/?author=1"},"uagb_comment_info":1,"uagb_excerpt":"The staff at Richmond cheer strutting their stuff to “Funky Town” during Covid-19   Although I work in an “essential service,” I decided to use up some of my holidays at the beginning of lockdown because I knew there’d be nothing to do. The Zoo is closed, there are no tourists and we are 88%…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1393"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1398,"href":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1393\/revisions\/1398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janeroutley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}