Eating Out in Covid Times

 Eating out since Covid 19 emerged has changed the related flavour, experience and satisfaction - and I am not talking  about the food.

For starters, we are not even sure if the place is open, when we want to go visit.  Many outlets no longer make it a disciplined effort to update on websites their opening hours or when they do close, due to some 24 hour given notice of lockdown authorised by people external to the hospitality industry.

If we then arrive at the venue of an open cafe, restaurant or pop up outlet, we most likely see eager customers patiently lining up outside the door.
They are not in queue to purchase tickets for a good gig (that is rare now) or a fantastic physical reality sale ( online is so convenient now, except for  possible hiccups in the  parcel collection process).

Instead we are subject to mindfulness about social distancing requirements - that ever changing rule on how many square metres we have to be from the nearest human being, or group of strangers also here to get some food.  There can be tape markers on the floor or seats to help us realise this new normal. 

To discourage us spewing our unwanted DNA or simple saliva,  we are to face mask up at any indoor venue - or in this case of munch places, only allowed to remove the contraption when we actually eat.

When we do enter the dining place, we are asked to compromise our personal privacy by using the QR scan code - and no smiling please. 
Even if we want to pull up our own buckstraps of responsibility, the powers that be operating the related phone apps have a rather patchy reputation in having stored data hacked - or just may be relishing in tracking our where abouts for their own discretionary use.

We all want to fight the Covid  - but would it not be easier to not let the Coronavirus breach our borders, not come in to circulate and inevitably not make us commoners run around like headless chickens in trying to comply with ever changing, minutely detailed rules?

The reality is that best public health management can often be superseded by political opportunism, economic priorities and other deserving or not so reasonable precedents, especially when the powers that be exceedingly remind us daily that they are following best medical and scientific advice.

Back to our eating venue - and we finally get a table, precisely placed to not let us be bothered by being too near to people we do not know in this infectious Covid strain age.

There are hand sanitisers placed at the venue - and we appreciate such thoughtfulness.  The success of any anti-Covid measure depends on the management of its weakest points in the process. Here at our table are usually menus that have been used by others, tap water bottles that are shared around and condiment containers that cannot be provided individually.  A few outstanding places are aware of such potential transmission weak points, and take extra careful steps - this is much appreciated and hey, we all have to get practical when we eat out.

Nobody has contracted Covid 19 from consuming food.  It is the environment where food and drinks are served  commercially that increases or decreases infection risks.

Small and tight indoor spaces with poor air circulation are the canaries in the Covid infection coalmine.  Where you see groups huddled together inside venues, the risks increase further.  Add a relaxed atmosphere, where customers let down their guard and understandably have Covid as the last thing on their minds, for a change.

Most Covid outbreaks identified in Australia so far have been caught through leakage from overseas arrivals. The Covid then spreads to household family clusters or in crowded social hubs like pubs and RSL clubs or to vulnerable aged care residents who live in closed up facilities.  Ah yes, infectees who show no Covid symptoms do go to dine in restaurants and Covid jumps over to other customers there.

It is essential to our mental health that we can still dine in at venues, even when some governments are not willing to exterminate Covid. It is vital to small businesses and the economy that eating outlets are allowed to operate with optimal arrangements that benefit both providers and customers. 

#yongkevthoughts