Michael Gerard Bauer Author

Blog #9 2020: Hotel Quarantine DAY FOUR

Posted on October 20, 2020 by mgbauer

Back again.

First up congratulations to anyone who correctly identified the intertextual links to the two films in the previous blog.

Especially ALEX G. who picked “All work and no play makes Ard a dull girl” as being a reference to THE SHINING.

And ANIL T. who identified my comment about the carpet “really tying the room together” as a refence to THE BIG LEBOWSKI.

Sadly because of Covid-19 regulations I am unable to post out the expensive prizes. Don’t worry Alex and Anil. I’m disappointed too.

And now for something we’ve all been waiting for – ROOM FEATURE OF THE DAY!

Yes, it’s the personal, flexible, directional, book-seeking bedside light!

I’ve been in lots of hotels that either don’t have bedside reading lamps or have ones that are so dull they are useless or are only capable of lighting up the page of a book if you lie them on their side in order for the light to escape past the lightshade part which is too thick to actually let any light through it! Don’t get me started. But this little light (which is there in addition to a bedside lamp) is perfect.

Well done personal, flexible, directional, book-seeking bedside light. You are a champion and a well-deserved recipient of my Room Feature of the Day!

NOW TO THE BIG NEWS.

You really won’t believe what happened today. Seriously. You won’t. When you read this you’ll say, “Michael that’s absolute rubbish! You’re either starting to hallucinate or now you’re just making stuff up to fill up your blog.

Well all I can say is that sometimes fiction is stranger than truth!

Here’s what happened. While Adriana was in the shower I noticed these suspicious items spread out on our couch.

Of course I know what they are now – dress-making patterns. Obviously.

But then I quite understandably assumed that Ard had somehow got her hands on detailed plans of the hotel air conditioning duct system and she was planning to escape from quarantine via those ducts, Tom Cruise Mission Impossible-style!

It placed me in a very tricky position.

But as a good citizen, in order to protect the health of my fellow Queenslanders, I thought it best to report my wife immediately to Hotel Security.

And well, long story short, she was arrested (mid-shower), questioned for two hours by Australian Federal Police, eventually found innocent, given a warning and released back into my custody.

So all’s well that ends well!

And as I said to Ard, sometime – maybe ten or fifteen years in the future – she’ll look back and laugh about it all.

So not a good day for Ard but at least I had a lovely relaxing quiet couple of hours to myself, so I guess every cloud really does have a silver lining.

That’s it for today.

I’ll leave you with tonight’s STORY BRIDGE colour which is PURPLE!

Cheers
Michael

PS: And today’s meals for the foodies:

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Blog #8 2020: Hotel Quarantine DAY THREE

Posted on October 19, 2020 by mgbauer

Yes it’s hard to believe but it’s already ~~GROUNDHOG~~ DAY THREE here in the 5 Star High Security Marriott. Honestly it seems like yesterday that I was moaning and whining about it “only being DAY TWO“!

Anyway I’ve got loads to report so I’d better get a move on.

For those of you who bought a ticket in the What Colour Will the Bridge Be Tonight? Sweep, the answer was RED! (Although Ard said it was PINK. And there’s a chance that it might have been MAROON.)

TRIVIA TIME! Can anyone name a song that references the Brisbane STORY BRIDGE?

BZZZZZ! Time’s up. Congratulations if you said Johnny Chester: Glory, Glory (I’ll be back to see the Story Bridge), and my sincere condolences to you for being old enough to remember.

Here’s the chorus:

Glory, glory I’ll be back to see the Story Bridge
And spend my time just lazing in the sun
Amen, amen I’ll be coming back again
Just as soon as jobs I have to do are done.

You can listen to the song in all its glory (see what I did there?) HERE.

Are there any other Story Bridge tunes? If so let me know.

Now, back to more serious matters.

I must say that they are really looking out for our welfare as we hunker down here at the Marriott. We’ve already had three phone calls – one from a lovely RED CROSS lady, one from the DEPT of JUSTICE and one from QLD HEALTH – all checking on how we are coping and our mental and physical state.

I’m pleased to say that my wife and I are both going well. Today for example, I managed to do some important editing of something I’m working on.

And even Ard at one stage was bashing out something rather energetically on the laptop.

So all good here!

In another exciting development I have decided to incorporate a new segment into this quarantine blog entitled – ROOM FEATURE OF THE DAY!

Yes that’s right, each day – either for good or bad – I will highlight some aspect of our hotel accommodation for special attention. I know, right. I can only imagine how excited you all must be feeling!

So without further ado the ROOM FEATURE OF THE DAY for Monday Oct 19th is (drum roll please): THE CARPET!

Now for some this might come across less as a floor covering and more as a cry for help, but I believe it really ties the room together.

Well that’s it. Nothing much else of any interest has happened here.

Unless of course you count the ghostly apparition that visited the room late last night and which I managed to catch on camera just before it flashed across the room, burnt a hole in the exterior wall and disappeared into the ether.

Cheers
Michael

PS: BROWNIE POINTS to the first reader who correctly identifies the two films subtly alluded to in this blog (apart from Groundhog Day).

PPS: Feel free to send a message, question, observation, cheerio, tribute, confirmation of your undying love etc in the COMMENT section below.

PPPS: And if anyone is interested in our daily meals:

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged story bridge | 8 Comments

Blog #7 Hotel Quarantine DAY TWO

Posted on October 18, 2020 by mgbauer

Still here.

Nothing much has changed.

Although last night the story Bridge was lit up in Lions’ colours.

It didn’t seem to help.

This morning we rang up and asked for our first ‘fresh air’ break.

Not long after a police officer called at the room and accompanied us in the lift to the balcony pool area of the hotel. There’s room there to walk around a bit while wearing masks and social distancing from other quarantinees.

It was great to get out for about 20 minutes on a gorgeous day in beautiful Brissie.

Besides that it’s been a jam-packed day.

I watched the Wallabies give the All Blacks someone to run over the top of.

I did some reading.

I ate everything that has so far appeared at the door.

I trimmed my beard.

AND I was responsible for making one cup of tea and two cups of coffee (so far).

Meanwhile basically all Adrie’s managed to do as far as I can see, is complete some sort of yoga routine and to make this dress for our grand-daughter.

Someone really needs to get their (her) act together!

Ok I’d better sign off now. I have to start to think about getting ready to begin waiting for our dinner to arrive. Then there’s the eating, and you know, it never ends!

Might just have a quiet evening in tonight to recuperate …

Cheers
Michael

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Brisbane Marriott Hotel, Covid-19, quarantine | 2 Comments

Blog #6 2020: Hotel Quarantine DAY ONE.

Posted on October 17, 2020 by mgbauer

For the past 5 weeks my wife and I have been staying with our clever, gorgeous and hilarious one-year-old grand daughter and her proud parents down in Melbourne as Melburnians and Victorians in general have been continuing to heroically battle to bring the Covid-19 virus under control. (see photo below)

But yesterday we flew back to Brisbane where we must now spend the next 2 weeks in hotel quarantine (guarded by Qld police, Federal police and the army) before being allowed to go to our home.

So this is DAY ONE of our 14 days locked down in a hotel room. Or it might be DAY TWO if we can count yesterday afternoon when we arrived as DAY ONE which I’m not sure we can, so as you can see we’re only in DAY ONE (or DAY TWO depending when you start the counting) and already I’ve started to lose some touch with reality and the passage of time!

Having said all that, if you are going to spend 14 days locked in a hotel room, the 5 star Brisbane Marriott Hotel in Queen Street is an excellent one to do it in.

We have a lovely spacious room here and the management is very obliging. (Of course, how lovely and spacious the room appears after seeing nothing but it for 14 days is yet to be discovered.)

Our room also has a beautiful view of the Brisbane River and the Story Bridge which as you can see by the shots below, is ever-changing. (Although perhaps not always changing the way one might hope.)

Also the meals (which mysteriously appear outside our door three times a day) have been very tasty and generous so far. See below. In fact if this keeps up for 14 days and we fail to develop some kind of Olympic style athlete fitness regime, they might need to widen the door or use a crane to extract us out of here!

Anyway in order to counteract all this possible over-eating and sedentary lifestyle, both my wife and I have planned a range of activities to keep ourselves busy and our minds and bodies active.

She’s doing lots of yoga, crosswords, sudoku and novel reading, plus she’s had her sewing machine delivered so she can complete a number of major sewing projects.

And I’m watching TV and seeing how long I can grow my hair and beard.

Well that’s about all I’ve got time to blog about for now because I’ve got to … um …

Anyway until DAY TWO (or possibly DAY THREE depending on … well see above …) here’s some random photos of things that I think might have happened since the last time I blogged.

Cheers

Michael