There seems two ways of approaching this world war three panic - hoard, or take a more laissez faire approach, shrug, and say 'well, I can't control that, so I'll focus on other things'.
You'd think, as someone who prefers to be minimalist, I'd have less - but in this case, I think getting more in is the least I can do.
Having gone through my COVID supplies (they were going out of date, and we were moving house, and I wasn't financially able to replenish what I had) I thought maybe 'getting a shop in' would be a good idea. We were talking about it in the beach carpark, where all important conversations are held, like ailments (hips, knees, hormones), electric bikes, crowds, dogs, worrying about kids, and world war three.
Most of us were just worried about the fuel prices going up as Australians panic buy petrol and diesel. A friend of mine has a light plane and he'd already filled it to the brim, warning aviation fuel would go through the roof, which we're already seeing in some airline flight cost increases. As I edit this post for publication they've released 20 percent of Aussie fuel reserves to top up rural and agricultural fuel supplies that keep the country ticking and diesel is up the $2.70 AUD.
Were you paying attention? This is a potoroo, not a squirrel. It's an Australian marsupial, which don't save food for hard times, but are active foragers, relyng heavily on fungi.
Jamie is more fatalistic - and probably right, as he argues there's no point filling up with fuel because we're just going to run out in a week anyway and we'll have to top up the tanks at whatever the price ends up at. I was going to town anyway so thought I may as well top up the van. The petrol station with the best price (Apco) had long queues, noticeably because everyone was filling up the tanks rather putting in their weekly quota according to budget and need. By the afternoon, many pumps were empty and the Victorian government mandated that service stations have to let the public know about fuel prices the day before, and aren't allowed to raise them after 4 pm.
If fuel prices rise we'll be in more trouble than that - we'll also have supply train issues and the cost of living is going to go sky high. It's hard not to feel a little panic as we've all lived through The Great Toilet Paper shortage of 2020.
I have enough toilet paper, but winter lentils and peanut butter I am lacking.
Of to Aldi I went, to eerily empty shelves. This could, of course, be because of the long weekend just past, and it being the afternoon, and that Aldi is right next to the petrol station, so 'you may as well', right? I got some more rice, oil, sardines (ew, but Jamie likes them) and various non perishables such as stock cubes, tinned tomatoes, oats and panadol (why is it 87 cents at Aldi and over $3 everywhere else?) The last four six packs of oat milk, which we'd run out of anyway. No lentils though. Do people hoard lentils in an apocalypse?
Never fear - the Indian grocers, tucked down a side street, to the rescue. I needed paneer and some spices I'd run out of anyway. I grabbed the last four kg bag of red lentils and the last two bags of green lentils. Winter dal is rescued at least.
At home, stuffing food into my tiny cupboards, I wonder whether I'm being silly or not, and think about starvation in Palestine and how I'm damn lucky my tiny home won't be bombed (I hope) so my food is relatively safe (the chocolate digestives won't last long) and that I can afford to do a bulk shop. I joke with my friends in whatsapp about food we'd forgotten to get that day - turns out everyone of us in that carpark did a shop and fuelled up the car 'just in case'.
Today, I did an online shop as well, 'just in case' - two big bags of flour, some yeast, peanut butter (that's important!), tinned tomatoes, tinned fish, and so on. The cupboards will be totally stuffed, and Jamie will roll his eyes at me. The girls agree with me that sometimes the best way to deal with anxiety is to shop. We joke, of course. To a point.
Okay, I'm a panic buyer, I admit it. I quite admit I'm a squirrel hoarder. I think it's in my DNA, probably some world war two starvation issue. No laissez faire approach here, though I'll pretend to be in order to convince myself not to worry.
What will be will be, I will say, stuffing six big bags of dates into the bedroom cupboard 'just in case'.
Sure, not minimalist behaviour per se, but given the world climate, it's the least I can do.
With Love,
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