Like the Bunyip of Berkley’s Creek, I find myself forced to confront my own image of myself in the mirror of covid19. After delivering a tirade along the lines of ‘How dare the government force me into a pigeon hole and try to define me by a number? I pay my taxes. I have been running my own business – from home – for years!’. My Bunyip mirror looks back at me with a frown and says, ‘What are you? Is this really you?’ Having grown up in small, isolated country towns, one of them a lot like the Coolgardie of Clara Saunders’ time, one would think I would be able to handle isolation. But while I do acknowledge the need for our current lockdown, and I’m cheering because it does seem to be working, it has caused me to question whether I really am who I thought I was.

In these uncertain times everyone is under pressure. There is a sense that we no longer have any control of our lives. The law is changing daily. Responsible, law abiding citizens are threatened with huge fines just for leaving their house. Couples who have inconveniently fallen in love are banned from spending a night under the same roof. Adults who have railed against the amount of time children spend on their computers have taken away schools and sporting activities and driven those same children back into the arms of technology. In a world gone mad is it any wonder some of us loose our cool occasionally?

On the bright side, at least coronavirus is throwing up some funny moments. Today someone sent me a cartoon showing Greta Thunberg, incandescent with rage, saying, ‘This is not the way the world is supposed to end! We are meant to have a climate catastrophe! Not some beer virus.’

Keep smiling and stay calm.