The last normal week

I have a strong sense of deja vu right now.

It feels like the weeks before the world locked down due to COVID-19.

Back in March 2021, a bloke called Santiago Mayer tweeted: “A year ago this was our last normal week and nobody knew it.”

Are we having another last normal week and nobody knows it?

This time it’s fuel shortages and war mongering that’s grinding normality to a halt.

The tangerine tyrant wants to ‘take Iran’s oil’ like he did in Venezuela.

Tens of thousands of US troops are being deployed to the Middle East.

The tangerine tyrant has revealed Cuba is his next target for military action, in the meantime he’s blockading oil into the country, leading to daily blackouts, severe gas shortages, soaring prices and deteriorating medical care.

The Australian Government has its fingers crossed that we don’t reach level 3 of its new fuel action plan, which would see voluntary rationing.

I could go on.

When the reports first started coming out of Wuhan in January 2020 about a strange virus, I never imagined it would have such a devastating global impact.

I was still blithely booking airfares to Ottawa for the World Skipping Championships and Air BnB accommodation for a week in Hawaii.

By early March it was clear things were getting a little crazy. Someone pulled a knife during an argument over loo rolls at Woolworths, police tasering a guy who started attacking someone in the Big W toilet paper section and Mount Druitt Coles stationing a security guard permanently in their loo paper aisle to monitor panic buying.

In mid-March, travel between the US and Europe was banned, the International Jump Rope Union cancelled the World Skipping Championships … I started to wonder is this how the world ends, not with a bang but a dry cough?

By my birthday, the coronavirus was officially on my shit list.

I was supposed to be going to Comedy Steps Up for Bushfire Relief at Sydney Opera House that night and DD had booked a night at a fancy hotel so I could wake up on my birthday in five-star luxury.

Cancelled.

We had tickets to see Tim Minchin at the Enmore Theatre two nights later.

Cancelled.

On March 19, Australia closed its borders and the rest of the year entered a downward spiral of lockdowns and sad news.

The world has been in roller-coaster mode ever since and we’ve become a bit blase about tumult.

Equity markets have been holding high valuations despite rising geopolitical risks, inflationary pressures and recession warnings.

The tangerine tyrant has declared that the war with Iran is “won” when it quite clearly isn’t.

And we’re blithely preparing to head off on Easter breaks.  

What comes next? Will people start pulling knives in arguments over petrol? Will the supermarket shelves empty out again? Will planes stop flying?

Who knows what next week will bring?

I’m determined to seek out fun while I can. I might not be going to Byron Bay any more, but I’m in peak planning mode for an alternative adventure.

Stay tuned.

Song of the day: Frankie Goes to Hollywood “War”