In this week’s extra-long Flat Chat Wrap, obsession with coronavirus is spreading like, well, a virus. Jimmy and Sue discuss how it may be having a crippling effect on that other viral sensation from recent years … Airbnb.
Not only are their potential guests staying home, whether or not they want to, there was the decision by Airbnb head office to waive all cancellation fees, plus NSW hosts are about to be hit with another blow … new laws coming in next week mean unit owners will be able to pass by-laws banning short-term holiday lets from their blocks.
With many holiday letting hosts virtually dumping their properties on to the residential let market, that’s a lot of prime apartments and houses coming up for knock-down rents – well, compared to what they were getting from tourist.
So there will be a lot of choice for renters, not least the decision of whether to go for long leases – in case the tourists come flooding back in Spring and they get turfed out to make way – or to gamble on there being even more uncertainty and disruption down the line when their flexibility will be at a premium.
Jimmy and Sue discuss which are the best options.
With many apartment gyms and pools being closed due to the coronavirus threat – rather than being managed properly to avoid breaching the social distancing regulations, residents are having to fall back on their own resources. J&S recommend the Centr fitness videos promoted by actor Chris Hemsworth with six weeks free membership.
If that sounds too much like hard work, try the Seven-minute Body Weight workout – aka the “hotel workout” which you can do in your own home without any additional equipment. There’s an excellent example here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jru5B044HOs
You can load versions of that on to your phone so you can take it with you (if you were allowed to go anywhere.) By the way, Jimmy has heard that Fair Trading is about to issue guidelines that suggest the cautious committees who shut our strata gyms down may have gone too far.
Meanwhile, you can do what J&S did which was to dig out all their old unused exercise gear – and there’s a lot of it – plus buy a couple of weights from a sports shop (if you can get them, Jimmy says they’re selling like toilet paper) then find an online workout that suits you.
And if just the thought of exercise is stressing you out even more than fear of Covid-19, Sue recommends this article in The Conversation about enjoying the simple pleasures of life.
And for Sue they include this hilarious video about a man who thinks he’s receiving a Skype call: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0VHQj-6lBA.
And finally, a song about what we do – or plan to do – during our coronavirus-enforced isolation, purloined from this BBC Sounds podcast of The Now Show.
This is now being discussed in the Flat Chat Forum