Farewells, Coronavirus Concerns, Aesthetic Company
Last Friday night I attended two farewells of a very differing nature. One was at The Prince Alfred as an unofficial goodbye organised by Greg S., to a few work colleagues who had found greener pastures. It was a good opportunity not only to catch up with said individuals but also everyone else nearly all of whom I hadn't seen in the previous eighteen months or so, and I spent a good portion of my time in conversation with NinjaDan and Andy B. I had to make my apologies and left a little early to attend a second farewell; this one an impromptu gathering of SF fans by Grant W in memory of _fustian. This event was held at the Great Northern Hotel, in my old haunt of Carlton North from some twenty-plus years prior. It's been a long time since I've been in that part of the world and took the opportunity to take a walk down Rathdowne Street at the end of the night for remembrance.
Whilst the company and conversation I was in for both events was excellent, I must confess to a sense of unease in being in such a large, crowded, indoor, public gathering. Certainly, both bars were checking in for double-vaccinated status and so forth, but nevertheless, we are aware that vaccination does not give one 100% immunity (a misconception that seems particularly common among anti-vaxxers from my encounters). Of course, now we have the latest Omicron variant, of it seems current vaccinations are "probably" effective. In the next day or so, I shall write up a post on variant as part of my regular tracking of such things. It all dovetailed quite well on the Friday with a presentation to our workplace by one Dr David Price, who was the lead author of a rather good paper on tracking the coronavirus in Australia in the first year.
Still, assuming all is well I continued through the weekend in the company of lei_loo, starting with dinner with her mother, brother, and brother's partner on Friday night at their new and rather modern home. Robin T., is a rather spectacular chef by trade whose "simple pasta" was simply astounding (this said, being a specialist pasta chef is part of his current work). In further venturings took some time on Sunday to visit the National Gallery of Victoria which, again due to the circumstances of our time, I hadn't visited in over two years. If I'm going to live in the arts precinct of this city, I'm going to make use of it. At least that venue wasn't so crowded that one was rubbing shoulders with other patrons! This entry was originally posted at https://tcpip.dreamwidth.org/328471.html.
Whilst the company and conversation I was in for both events was excellent, I must confess to a sense of unease in being in such a large, crowded, indoor, public gathering. Certainly, both bars were checking in for double-vaccinated status and so forth, but nevertheless, we are aware that vaccination does not give one 100% immunity (a misconception that seems particularly common among anti-vaxxers from my encounters). Of course, now we have the latest Omicron variant, of it seems current vaccinations are "probably" effective. In the next day or so, I shall write up a post on variant as part of my regular tracking of such things. It all dovetailed quite well on the Friday with a presentation to our workplace by one Dr David Price, who was the lead author of a rather good paper on tracking the coronavirus in Australia in the first year.
Still, assuming all is well I continued through the weekend in the company of lei_loo, starting with dinner with her mother, brother, and brother's partner on Friday night at their new and rather modern home. Robin T., is a rather spectacular chef by trade whose "simple pasta" was simply astounding (this said, being a specialist pasta chef is part of his current work). In further venturings took some time on Sunday to visit the National Gallery of Victoria which, again due to the circumstances of our time, I hadn't visited in over two years. If I'm going to live in the arts precinct of this city, I'm going to make use of it. At least that venue wasn't so crowded that one was rubbing shoulders with other patrons! This entry was originally posted at https://tcpip.dreamwidth.org/328471.html.