A couple of months back I was driving out to the wheatbelt in the morning listening to the ABC. Russ and Nadia were talking to a young bloke in Melbourne who had been locked down in his two room apartment for over two months. The Vic government has just eased up the restriction on strict isolation - apparently single people could nominate a 'bubble buddy' that you could have over for a few hours once or twice a week - only one 'buddy', at your place or theirs, only for a couple of hours.
Their were talking to this bloke - in his early to mid twenties - about what he had been doing in isolation. He was a student, studying online, watching Netflix and playing Playstation. That's it, Netflix and PlayStation everyday, every week alone - Uber Eats, drop it at the door. Total lockdown.
He was ecstatic that he could have a couple of limited times a week with another human being. They asked him about who he would nominate as his buddy - a family member, a friend? But here's the clincher: Nadia said to this bloke (words to the effect) "Isn't this great for you, this will surely help you through this lockdown period, won't it? You can now get a mate over to play PlayStation with you, or share a movie, can't you?"
Ok, I don't know if there's something that prohibits the discussion of certain common pleasures that all humans participate together in on ABC radio or not, but I was gobsmacked. A Playstation buddy after weeks and weeks of solitary confinement? Honestly, sometimes I think there must be some kind of parallel reality happening that I just can't fathom.
A young single bloke in his twenties - what do you reckon he thinks about 24/7? Wait thirteen more days...what?
Go Hoges, go Freo!