The photo is from Vernon Thomson, it serves as a reminder that even when our customers aren’t shopping us, it doesn’t mean to say that they don’t love our product – and so I don’t take it personally when you are all quiet.
And so I wish to tell you an anecdote on Lockdown Sydney.
Yesterday I cut my own hair for the second time, this time it wasn’t just a trim on the sides and I was really trying to give it a good go – but I butchered it. And now I have the right side of my head looking pretty ordinary and I am contemplating shaving the whole thing off and starting again.
I don’t mind lockdown. I don’t think it affects me like it affects others. I usually go between my Studio and my apartment which are 500 metres apart. I ride my bicycle more. I now have two electric bikes I’ve built. I’m proud of both. They are to my mind little works of art and allowing me to lower the mileage on my car, lower the cost of my petrol bills, I no longer get parking fines and I am faster in traffic to the city than if I went by car.
The downside is I run the risk of having an accident. I’ve had a good run too, but I was thinking on the subject of calamity and tragedy yesterday as I wrote out my daily affirmations. I thought to myself how lucky it was I hadn’t had an accident. I use my hands every day. I need to be able bodied. I thank my lucky stars I’ve not had a bad accident for over a decade. Touch wood three times. Then two days ago outside my apartment block I witnessed a fifteen year old whizz past me on an electric skateboard at an alarming speed, he was on the straight from Vaucluse on a major road, in the middle of the road, in the lane closest to the oncoming traffic. He was at the speed I ride my e bike down the hill. No helmet. Skinny guy. No t shirt. He was basking in the glory of our spring sunshine and blue skies. It was the weather we live for here in Sydney. Then something orange in colour seemed to break off on the underside of his electric skateboard and he was flung to the ground and hit his head on the grooved concrete patch of road. I was so alarmed. I looked around and saw that the road was near empty owing to covid. Normally it would be peak traffic with the school run outside Kincoppal School. I jumped out of my car and ran toward him. He got up and was startled and he stumbled around, seeming like a chook with no head. I ran towards him and as I got near him, he looked to be falling again. I could not say whether I caught him before his fall or whether he got his own feet. But I managed to get him to the ground. He tried to get up. I told him to lie down. Then I waved down the cars that were now coming towards us. They stopped. Both lanes. It was a great moment. They seem to understand what had happened. A couple from one car and a man from a second came out. The boy kept trying to get up. I kept telling him he had had a bad accident, to stay still.
I rung 000. I don’t think I have ever had to call them since the mid 90’s when I chased a burglar out of our family home’s garden. It took forever to answer. Then a lady asked what service. I said ambulance. She said hold the line. I could hear her ringing ambulance. No answer. Longer, no answer. Still longer it rang. No answer. “What the fuck do you guys do over there?”. I was really quite alarmed. Concurrently one of the other guys that was assisting was also on the phone to 000. “They can’t get through” he said. I called Rose Bay Police station and thankfully a constable answered, and they sent out some squad cars.
There were enough people around the boy now. I excused myself as I was late to pick up my daughter from school. I was rattled by what I saw, and it was an omen of how fragile our veneer of a working functional city was. I had read in the Sydney Morning Herald that our health services were already stretched. I’d had an economist friend tell me that Woolworths was now struggling with logistics to deliver stock to supermarket shelves with a portion of their workforce in quarantine and their logistics team having no special treatment for vaccinations. Concurrently I had received an email from Australia Post saying they had a two-week back log of parcels to clear because they had the same problem.
Welcome, I thought, to the post pandemic world. We needed to vaccinate this city post haste but even then, what were the time lags in getting back up and running. And what happens when the vaccines no longer work? What if it was me on my bike that had that accident? With the ambulance taking its sweet time. The lady at the end of the phone of the ambulance had said when dispatching – has the person been in close contact with COVID? Have you had symptoms of COVID? Have you touched the person ? Nobody is to touch the person and do not ask the ambulance to attend to him until they have put on their PPE ? Oof, I think it was such a wakeup call.
Add to this another conundrum. We had been running LOT sales to move out older product and to generate cash during this unusual period. But I had noticed that after the initial enthusiasm, the tide was turning. People were literally running out of money or being extremely cautious with their spending. It was occurring at a time that we were investing more of the proceeds of sales into new product lines and it caused me to halt a few new projects I was hoping to undertake.
Life has a strange habit of delivering important messages right when you think you have got it all worked out. I was of the assumption that when the website slowed last year, that it was time to focus on the local Australian market and wind down the website. When the Australian market went into lockdown, I made a concerted effort to ramp up the website and approach our overseas customers again. Unfortunately, as I see it, both are now quite affected. The result will be that we invest less in new designs and it signals further cost cutting to come. As if we hadn’t trimmed up enough as it were.
Now, I am of the belief that my product is the litmus test of what’s happening in the economy. But I am told that every business thinks they are… But to my mind this is the reasoning – you shop bow ties and neck ties when you are confident that all your bills are paid, that you are looking forward to wearing something nice, that things seem to be on the up. I know my own spending feels that way. But now, sadly, it seemed like things were not going my way despite having been told by friends that I would always have market for what we did…
No, nothing is safe anymore. You will be forced to play out each day as it comes. Don’t get complacent. And that boy was a reminder of just how bad things can get if you get into a jam. The ambulance won’t be rushing to help you. The hospital may give you COVID. Your income stream could be wiped before your eyes. I could hear the boy crying that his pelvis was aching. I could see him feeling dizzy with a headache and the side of both his temples grazed and red with blood. Oh my, we could be in for a pickle. So my advice to all of you is stay safe and if you don’t feel up to spending any money with us, I totally understand.
Oh and about the boy - I randomly bumped in at the service station to the couple that I left him with. They said he was fine, bruised and battered but fine. Let's hope that's also a favourable outcome for the whole city.
As always, you can talk to me by Whatsapp +61413140994
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