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It has taken me a long time but finally I have ended up with two bridge partners I really enjoy playing with. And we have games lined up for Wednesday and Saturday - I was so looking forward to it.
Now comes the email telling us that we need proof of vaccination to get into the venue, a country club. Oh it hurts. The partner I just rung suggested going to the doctor and see if he will give me a quick exemption note and then see if I can get the club to allow me in for the game so I will try that and offer to stay out of the restaurant area.
We are still no cases in my locality but they have just opened up the restrictions on travel from Sydney all the way to the border. I might not want to go out soon.
The spot I live in is usually hopped over by people travelling up the coast.
I hope you are all keeping safe.
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Leslie - get vaccinated. Not to play bridge, but to save your life and others.
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Hi John, I thought it was a bit funny that it was playing bridge which had driven me to the plate. it was only later I realised people would read that as me making light of serious things.
I would definitely get vaccinated if I can but I believe they will give me an exemption.
The two reasons you get a permanent exemption are if you have already had anaphylactic shock from the vaccine or if you have had it from a component in the vaccine. That is a question I can't answer with certainty but I am hoping the doctor can. Or that he will give me an exemption until it can be determined. This is not like going allergic to something, if it gets me I will be at death's door before they have finished giving me the shot.
From my perspective considering that every new exposure to a drug is a risk, and there are no known cases in my vicinity it is not a good risk to take. At the minimum I would need someone standing by my side.
For the doctors clinic, I can't imagine it's a risk they would welcome either.
I do have a serious plan - I have deliberately targeted my doctor. He strikes me as an intelligent active reasonably kind young man. I will talk to him, I have a phone consult appt tomorrow. If we can work out whether the risk is reasonable re components of the vaccine and he is ready to help me if we're wrong then I think I would be able to go through with it though admit to being scared.
It's a lot to ask, of both of us, so I'm hoping he will give me a temporary exemption and I will go and play bridge while it's still an option and voluntarily take myself into lockdown at the first case.
I am very good at social distancing and mask wearing these days, and don't pose a threat to anyone. 
Modified by lesley at Mon, Oct 11, 2021, 12:21:00
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Glad you are taking it seriously, and I hope it will be safe for you. I used to love playing bridge. Haven't done so for over 40 years.......
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Bridge Base Online, John - you can play a set of 4 hands against robots off the leader page without having to log in.
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Tried it. Unfortunately I didn't understand the accepted meaning of my own bids. Last hand I ended up in 5 clubs with only 6 clubs between us! 
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yes that does happen, you can read what their and your bids are supposed to mean in the upper righthand square but those robots don't even keep to their own rules!
I am just back from an evening of bridge and it was a lot of fun. I am so glad I went, good to see old faces and the man on the front desk who read my letter and let me enter was very nice. I have to say the food was not great, but it was just fun to eat with a group of people and catch up. And I have to say my partner and I played a blinder. Don't know what the score is yet but it's good.
She is an interesting woman, fairly new to the game. Insists on not taking bridge seriously and is prone to fall apart when it comes to 1NT bids. She makes some awful mistakes and some of them work out really well, and anyway, she just settles in and plays a really good game and hits the spot over and again. And that's why we like playing together, we can just settle in comfortably together and have fun. I think she might be quite wise not that she'd admit to it.
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So I talk to the doctor. He says due to my history of anaphylaxis I can't be vaccinated in a clinic anyway it has to be one on one - I found that reassuring. He has written a letter (so I am flagged now) and I go to see an immunology specialist - that means travelling to Byron Bay which was off my list of places to go. But he will do blood tests and is certified to make an exemption if I need it. I will admit the doctor was uncertain I would be able to take the current vaccines but he thinks there are new ones coming that might be okay. The wrinkle is the vaccine is not like an insect bite or contrast dye which are out of your system fairly quickly - and the only cure for anaphylactic shock is removal of the thing you are reacting to.
Fortunately I didn't tell my brother about it til after we had finished our online game of bridge. He could not accept I might be unable to get vaccinated.
I wish there was a test so a scrape of your blood could be tested rather than your whole being. But there isn't and so while there aren't any cases locally no one is going to consider vaccinating me, I am likely to get an exemption certificate. I have the letter, will that get me in the club for a game of bridge tonight, idk.....
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Come on now, girl! Billions of people have received vaccines and are alive and well, and not infected with COVID.
Get your vaccine. I'm not even going to say "please," because you should know better.
I swear. I do not want to hear that you died of COVID when you could have gotten a simple shot or two.
GET YOUR SHOTS!!! SHEESH!!!!
Modified by Cynthia at Wed, Oct 13, 2021, 13:58:50
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Hi Cynth, 
I wish it were that simple. If I can get vaccinated safely I will. My next step is an appt with an immunology specialist.
My doctor said to me there isn't a clinic in Australia will vaccinate you with your extensive history of anaphylaxis. And I didn't even tell him the half of it.
I am finding it pretty intense emotionally, most of the time I ignore it myself. But now it is that element of public safety. when I showed my letter at the club last night he said you're still the same person you were last time you came aren't you. Made me feel better straightaway.
Yes, heaps and heaps of people have been safely vaccinated, but for a few people it hasn't gone well.
I saw a program where they were talking about the small pox vaccine and said there's always a small group of people who can't be vaccinated - they're called the bystanders. And the stats showed that, I can't remember exactly but either 35 or 45% of the cases of small pox were in the bystanders. So if you are a bystander your odds are not so good that's for sure.
As things stand though, there are still no known cases in my area. good enough for me, I'm too scared to think past my nose, but from my doctor's perspective he sees the dangers of covid in the future and so I am hoping the immunologist can help.
Modified by lesley at Wed, Oct 13, 2021, 15:18:14
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The specialist I was referred to is practising in Sydney now so I am booked in for a video consult in a month's time. An hour long! But that is the thing I liked about her in the video I saw on YouTube, I could see she wants details.
I am hopeful of learning helpful things from her but no longer really entertain the idea of getting vaccinated - I haven't even finished relating my history and they are already saying no to vaccination.
But yes to bridge! I have been touched at the way people are responding, like we still have common ground - not having the vaccine is scary and having the vaccine is scary too.
I am one of a team of four playing in a regional bridge tournament next week, it's okay tho, that will be it, we can comfortably expect not to win, we are all playing for the fun of it.
My partner is an indomitable 89 year old, he's just wise enough to sit back and enjoy the way I play these days.
It doesn't look like it's long now until people start travelling up the coast from Sydney and also there's talk about our international borders being opened to the double vaccinated. I'm going to be ducking for cover, at least for a while.
Fortunately my long laid plans for staying home are now underway - lap pool with heated magnesium salts water. I am hoping it will look like a perched lake under the sky. For the moment it's this gorgeous hole in the earth I am awestruck at the skills and hard work that's gone into it so far - it's all formed up with the steelwork and ready for the cement pour.
Fascinating to discover these people, with their bulldozers and steel share the same love for rocks earth and clay that I do. And they dug me up some tubs of clay.
I found it exciting years ago when I found clay down the coast but here where I live - it means all the more. I'm slaking and sieving it. Feels good, very elastic. really not sure how colour will go til I fire it. mainly white clay from the flow of the underground spring and there's a little bit of iron oxide attached to the shale, I have a bucket where there is lots of iron crusting onto the clay.
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Lesley,
Wow! That's going to be a nice lap pool!
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yeah, it's pretty exciting. still ages to go before a swim tho.
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