In my youth, not long after passing my driving test, myself and a friend set off to Bristol in my old ford Escort - the trip should have taken about four hours.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
A friend of ours was a first year at one of the cities unis, and the plan was to party the weekend away.
About three hours into the drive smoke began to bellow from the engine bay.
I pulled off the road and swung the car into the first parking space I could find.
Tomorrow Today’s Connect9 program goes digital during pandemic
We popped the bonnet, put our hands on our hips and tried to work out a plan.
It was around 7 pm on a Friday.
There were no car-repair places open, and I had not been sensible enough to sign up to the AA, the UKs equivalent of RACV.
The situation seemed to have no good conclusion.
Tomorrow Today thanks volunteers
Suddenly a van pulled into the spot next to us.
A guy jumped out and asked what the issue was.
By some stroke of luck a mobile mechanic was on his way home and spotted us with the bonnet up.
Half an hour later the car was patched up enough to get it going.
Benalla street art goes bridal
The sensible thing would have been to turn around and nurse the car home, which is what the mechanic advised.
But the impulse of youth took over and we headed on to Bristol, and we made it.
I don't recall the weekend in detail. But I do recall the Monday, when we set off on our way home.
About an hour into the return journey smoke started to bellow from the engine bay.
Benalla’s history to be revived with impressive water project
We pulled over into the first town we found and got in touch with a mechanic.
However, by this stage the car was not an easy fix.
Several tow-trucks, eight hours, and a fortune later we just about made it home.
But the car was dead.
Mayor and Member for Euroa make pleas to save Benalla’s Target
Fast forward a few years, I won't say how many, and I am living in Benalla when I first heard about coronavirus.
Like most of us, when the news of another pandemic hit I was not prepared for how it would affect Australia.
Having lived through SARS, bird-flu, Ebola, and a number of relatively recent pandemics I felt it would be one of those things I watched on the news, but something that would not affect me directly.
We all found out very quickly that was not the case.
Vale Mayor Geoff Oliver – popular former mayor passes away
So for the past couple of months we have been living under restrictions designed to slow the spread of the virus.
And as a country we have been very successful.
So successful that we are now slowly lifting restrictions, and if all goes according to plan we will be back to normal before too long.
But it is important for all of us to realise that easing the restrictions does not mean we are back to normal yet.
About 60 West Gate Tunnel workers made redundant from LS Precast
Right now, it is the equivalent of myself and my friend standing on the side of the highway deciding weather to push on as we had planned, or head home and save the car.
We made the wrong decision that day.
And sadly I see lots of people making the wrong decisions at this point in time.
I turn on the news and see parks in Melbourne full of people.
Helen Haines calls for end to childcare wars
I walk down Bridge St and see very few people social-distancing.
I'm in the supermarket queue and see people trying to stand right behind me. They look shocked when I ask them to step back.
I overheard a group on the street last week talking about how good it is that coronoavirus is over.
That is just not true.
Central Hume PCP celebrates 20 years in Benalla
The worst-case scenario right now, is a second spike.
The damage to the economy from the initial wave of infections will take years to repair.
More than a hundreds of lives have been lost across the country.
A second wave would be devastating.
Benalla to receive Federal drought support funding
Could our small and medium-businesses survive a second wave?
Could our larger businesses?
In many cases, no.
How would those people filling parks and failing to social distance feel if they discovered they had passed it to someone who it killed?
Helen Haines Op-Ed: One year on – ‘doing politics differently’
Right now we hear lots about what happened during the Spanish Flu pandemic some hundred years ago.
It was the second wave of Spanish Flu that killed the most.
We, as a country, and as a rural city, have to avoid a second spike.
And we still have the power to play our own small part in making sure that does not happen.
Splash park switched on ready for summer opening
While we have been insulated from a lot of the coronavirus issues out in regional Victoria it is important to note that we are once again welcoming tourists and visitors to our part of the world.
If one of those visitors brings coronavirus to Benalla and we are not continuing to social-distance, wash our hands and look out for the most vulnerable in our town, we could literally lose friends and relatives. Some of us will also lose our livelihoods.
And it's not that difficult.
We have so much more freedom than in many coronavirus hot-spots like the United States and United Kingdom.
John Davies celebrates 90th with friends at Cooinda
We can go to cafes and get a coffee.
We can go to local shops.
As of Monday we can even eat out.
That is not only great news for the social side of us all, it is vital to our local businesses.
Bowtell completes Colbinabbin silos
The last thing any of us need is to have all those freedoms restricted again in a month or two just because some of us couldn't just take extra precautions for just a few more weeks.
Making it back to a state of normality is in our hands, and small amount of sacrifice now can help us avoid a heath and economic disaster in the near future.
If you would like to send a letter to the editor on this, or any subject, click this link
Editor