Edgeworth's Gary Lawless is putting Bella the dog in charge of guarding toilet paper.
"We have a reasonable number of rolls ferreted away, due to my wife's fortunate habit of overstocking the pantry [before the panic]," Gary said
"Now, if I can only keep my freeloading relatives from finding out about our little hoard, all may be well in the castle.
"However, not being a very trusting soul and knowing my relatives well, I am placing a guard on the stock we have stashed in the cupboard above the handily located downstairs loo.
"I have chosen our dog Bella for this duty, as she is a good watchdog and comes cheap. Unfortunately she is easily bribed, so I will have to watch out for insubordination and dereliction of duty.
"At the moment, though, she seems happy enough. I dare anyone to reach past her to attempt unauthorised access to our stash."
Handy Advice
Pets and hand sanitiser don't mix.
"With the current pandemic, hand sanitiser is becoming a very sought-after staple in most Australian homes," said Nadia Crighton, of Pet Insurance Australia.
"Pet owners need to be aware that it is toxic to pets."
Hand sanitiser usually contains ethanol, which can cause alcohol poisoning in pets.
"If ingested it can cause issues with pets. So it's a good idea to keep it out of reach from your curious companions," Nadia said.
"If your pet does ingest any amount of hand sanitiser, it's important to seek veterinary advice quickly," she said.
Plan B
Andrew and Bill Whitbread-Brown, of Cardiff Heights, cancelled their overseas trip last week due to the coronavirus.
"We decided to go to plan B - a month's tour of southern NSW," Andrew said.
They tried Wagga Wagga first. The Wagga Wagga Mardi Gras was due to be held, but it was cancelled.
They went anyway. They saw lots of colourful shops decked out in rainbow colours.
"Best of all, there was toilet paper available," he said.
"The shoppers at the Wagga Wagga Big W were grinning from ear to ear."
After Wagga, they went to Junee, Griffiths, the Snowy Mountains, "then home to bunker up".
At the Snowies, they were glad to see vegetation growing back after the bush fires.
Spotless Singapore
Singapore was getting a lot of attention on Wednesday after Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Asian tiger had kept schools open and had "minimal cases reported".
Some pointed out that Singapore was doing temperature checks daily as kids enter school. One tweet mentioned that "spotless Singapore" was the "cleanest city in the world", while noting Australia wasn't exactly a world leader in cleanliness.
This brought back a memory of a trip to Singapore a few years back.
At a museum, the cleaners were noticeable. And there were quite a few of them, constantly doing the rounds. Cleaning wasn't just a once-a-day-thing or a when-we-get-around-to-it-thing.
The country has long been committed to hygiene and cleanliness. It cleans relentlessly. Part of this culture stems from it being a tropical area. If cleaning isn't done thoroughly, things can get messy quickly.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Singapore ran campaigns to keep toilets, factories and bus stops clean. Competitions highlighted the cleanest and dirtiest offices, shops, factories, government buildings, schools and public vehicles.
The standards were aimed to boost morale, reduce sickness and develop a social order for strong economic growth in industry and tourism.
In the end, everyone would benefit - along with the public good.
Singapore is also famous for its anti-litter and spitting fines. And, of course, its import ban on chewing gum.
Joke of the Day
This humorous tweet has gone viral [it feels kind of wrong to use this term now]: "You realise how isolated you have been when a world pandemic happens and you need to make almost zero changes to your lifestyle."
