CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Mikey Harnett (30, Betoota’s Old City District) has spent the last two days going over photos on his phone. He can’t take the grin off his face.
Like hundreds of thousands of other Australians, Mikey took full advantage of the loosening of state government social distancing restrictions and went for a 10 km walk with one of his mates that he hasn’t seen in person since February.
“It’s gonna be hard to top haha” he says to our reporters over a zoom call this arvo.
“I mean, to have Jason there, with me in the park. Just walking.”
“I know a lot of people, like Victorians, don’t have it as good as I do. I’m wary of that. But, still. I can’t get over it.”
“It was a real throwback. Just being able to peel off a couple hours to hang out with each other. Haha. It was so sick”
Even with the cutback of restrictions, the new legalised outings are still limited to members of one’s own household, or yourself and one other person.
On top of this Queenslanders are still required to stay within 50 kilometres of their homes.
Lucky for Mikey and Jason, they live exactly 49 kilometres away from each other, so they were able to meet at Betoota Bicentennial Park – which roughly marks the halfway point between their two residencies.
While it is not lost on Mikey that his usual weekend catch-ups with mates outside of pandemics actually involve much less health-friendly activities like binge-drinking and reckless gambling – he says after two months in Iso, a walk in the park is just as good as 12 hours at the pub on a December bender.
As he looks out the window with a cup of tea this arvo, Mikey takes a phone call from Jason who called to chat about how good that walk was, again.
“Haha how good was it!?” says Mikey, for the second time today.
“So good”
“Oi we should do it again next weekend”
“You free?”
“Yeah sick. Same place?”
“Mad”
