It would have been Mum’s 97th birthday today.

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Grrrrr. Grrrrrrr! I am irritated!

I went out today (to buy the April Silicon Chip magazine, the last I buy from a newsagent before my subscription starts), and to do my grocery shopping, the first in a week.

I wore a face mask and dishwashing gloves and used my alcohol spray as sanitiser before touching a trolley. But I only saw one other person, out of maybe 50 people or more, wearing a mask. Only three other people wore gloves! What is this? Don’t these people know what’s going on? Don’t they care? I think this is the case – it’s all too much trouble for them. It’s the great Aussie attitude – “She’ll be right mate. What are ya worried about?”

I’m worried because I am at high risk. I don’t care how much trouble it is to you, don’t put me at risk with your lackadaisical attitude.

There was a disinfectant spray bottle at the entrance to Woolies but it sure wasn’t easily seen. I used it but I only saw one other person use it. Grrrrr.

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I filled my trolley and then got stuck behind a blue line waiting for a guy and his wife to clear the aisle. There seemed to be a price problem. That took several minutes. Then the Woolies price assistant and the wife moved away and the guy just stood there chatting to the checkout lady. I was leaning on my trolley getting fed up for a full five minutes or more. Eventually I said, “What’s the problem?” The guy said “Huh?” I said, “How long are you going to be?” He just said, “I don’t know” and continued chatting to the lady.

I was so fed up by now that even though the aisle was empty apart from him, I had to move to another one and wait for two other people to go through. Small loads, luckily.

Finally I was motioned forward and put my shopping bags at the start of my goods, to find that they won’t put your goods in your bags now. What??!! They touch all your goods to scan them, but they won’t put them in your shopping bag. Why?

This is like Aldi. You put all your goods through the checkout but put them back into your trolley, then pack your own bags on a counter outside the checkouts. But at least there is a counter. There’s nothing at Woolies. All your goods are just piled onto their rotating bag holder.

OK, if I’m not going to get service at Woolies, I’ll do my shopping at Aldi. After all, they are definitely cheaper. Why should I pay more at Woolies if I’m not going to get a better level of service?

There was another stupid thing: I had picked up three small tins of chick peas in various savoury dressings, small 70g cans like tuna or salmon or shredded chicken. But when she put my three little 70g cans through the checkout, I was told I’d exceeded the limit of two cans per customer. Whaaat?? Lucky I had a mask on because I was fuming by now.

I’ve calmed down now but that was not a pleasant experience. As I said, I’ll go back to Aldi next time.

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I’ve just heard on the ABC News: gun shops in the USA were closed, but they’ve been told they can reopen as the Supreme Court has rulled that gun shops are an essential service.

Only in America! World’s most stupid country.

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The supermarkets are asking for penalty rates to be removed for staff working night shifts while this pandemic is on.

The problem is, once we (the unions and labour movement) give in and allow this, it’s London to a brick that the companies won’t want to give them back again. This is them sticking their screwdriver into the crack and testing the strength of the edifice. No! Stay firm. These rates have been hard won over many decades and we shouldn’t give way.

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I’m disturbed at the premier’s insistence that the German cruise ship the Artania must leave Fremantle port now, even though they have sick people (crew) on board. He’s even threatening to use the Navy to force the ship to leave! How would they do that, put a shot across their bows?

I can see one side of his logic, which is that he doesn’t want to set a precedent such that other cruise ships see WA as a safe haven where they can enter and berth. But how many other cruise ships are lining up to enter Fremantle? There were three last week, but two are gone now without having to use strong arm tactics. I don’t see any more cruise ships lining up or lurking just over the horizon.

This is a humanitarian issue, surely. If they have sick people, even if they’re crew members, surely we should help them. I want the ship to be allowed to stay until they say they are clean and don’t need any hospitalisation.