New South Wales recorded 9,995 COVID cases today and 14 deaths. With the temperature soaring to 29 degrees around Campbelltown today, I had the idea to take the family to the beach. My wife suggested the Macquarie Fields Leisure Centre instead. I had never been to the Leisure Centre in Macquarie Fields before, so I agreed to have our sun splash around in there.
The drive took twenty minutes. We parked in the gravely car park, and then followed our chirping son to the Macquarie Fields Leisure Centre automated entrance doors.
Being Turned Away For Not Wearing Face Masks
Once inside the foyer, I looked over the entry gates to the hundreds of people bustling around the 25 metre heated indoor pool, toddler pool, and splash park up the grass hill outside.
However, my spell was broken when a tall, American-sounding black male swimming instructor breezing past us towards the front entrance remarked in passing, “You have to wear face masks in here guys.”
Both my pureblood wife and I didn’t have face masks on. My child bouncing around the floor certainly did not wear a face mask. Those meager words that confronted our choice not to comply with COVID-19 vaccine mandates brought a sudden change to my otherwise cheery demeanor.
Moments later, the middle-aged brunette female behind the counter also complying with her COVID-19 vaccine mandate workplace regulations around face-mask use mentioned to us, “You have to wear face masks before you can enter.”
I looked beyond the entry gates to see a majority of the patrons were wearing face masks.
But it’s a pool and aquatic centre. It seemed unnecessary to put a face mask on only for the mere honor of standing in the Macquarie Fields Leisure Centre foyer before us purebloods entered into a pool. It sounds really illogical to be asked to do comply to those types of COVIDSafe standards.
I was frustrated. Three months since medical apartheid in New South Wales was abolished, we’re still being forced to wear a face mask in this one business, on a day where we had visited dozens of businesses and not been asked to wear a face mask in any of their premises.
The Macquarie Fields Leisure Center is a holdout. I think the reason they strictly follow rules is because the Leisure Center is council owned and operated. Australian state and federal government bodies must adhere to their own regulations.
Running Out Of N95 Face Masks
We came to stand in the beating sun outside the Macquarie Fields Leisure Centre entrance doors.
“Just wait here,” I told my wife.
She remarked, “I don’t think we have many face masks in the car.”
Normally when a business asks us to comply with unreasonable rules based on flawed medical advice, us purebloods would boycott the business and go elsewhere. But it was a hot day, and our kid really wanted to swim today.
I popped back to the car. As I foraged through the glove compartment, I could only find one N95 face mask. We didn’t have two face masks. We only had one face mask left. It was a condition of entry that both adults who enter this business must wear a face mask, so us purebloods were in a spot of bother.
Too angry to turn back now however, I figured I’ll play a trick on the staff at Macquarie Fields Leisure Centre that I learned from the staff at JB Hi-Fi.
Playing The Medical Exemption Card
I returned back to the Macquarie Fields Leisure Centre front entrance. I walked over to my wife and handed over the N95 face mask.
“We only have one face mask,” were my grim words.
I gave her that single N95 face mask. She put it on.
As we walked back inside the Macquarie Fields Leisure Centre, I had a somewhat normal expression on my face, yet with an immovable tinge of bitterness smeared over my bared teeth.
One lady in front of us was being served. A lady obliviously queued behind us.
As we walked forward, the lady behind the counter had a cringe of fearful anticipation in her lip, as if to say, “Oh no! This guy is going to give me trouble. I don’t want to have a confrontation today. Not today!”
We waited in line, me without a face mask on after being asked to put a face mask on, and my wife with a face mask on.
I thought, this vaccine mandate showdown is going to look really awkward for all parties involved.
However, I had a plan!
I knew what I wanted to say.
I was thinking, I might just tell this woman that I have a face mask medical exemption.
If she asks for proof, I planned to tell her, “I don’t have the exemption paperwork on me, but I have schizophrenia. You can ask my doctor about that if you want.” That was going to be my line.
As the female staff member was free, us purebloods walked up to her counter.
It was as if someone had been playing high-suspense shrieking horror movie chords up until then. You could cut the tension with a knife.
In a conciliatory tone, I said, “I don’t have a face mask. I do have a medical exemption.”
In an absolutely relieved tone, she breathed out a sigh of palpable relief, “I am so glad to hear that. I’m able to let you in. But if the police do come in, you need to show them proof of your medical exemption.”
I told her, “Yeah, that’s fine.”
Open Sesame And Open For Business
In my mind I was shocked that Australia has come to a point where a fellow Australian would remind me that it is a criminal offence to breathe fresh air in public in Australia. I’ve been through this a couple of times. So it’s not a thing for me anymore.
Something deep down tells me that this woman didn’t want to have a confrontation over COVID-19 vaccine mandates. She was just glad that I said the right thing to pass into the Macquarie Fields Leisure Center.
It is like she was waiting for me to say the magic words, “Hocus Pocus. Open Sesame.”
I paid the $13 dollar combined entry fare for one child and two adults. Despite the COVID-19 vaccine mandate face mask standoff slash compromise, Macquarie Fields Leisure Center was pretty good. We had a lot of fun in there as a pureblood family getting the better of the belching summer weather today.
Diary Of A Mad Chaos is a daily diary written from March 1996 until today, of which individual books and book series have been created, namely “The Lost Years” an exploration of young, entwined love, the “Wubao In China (猎艳奇缘)” book series which provides an extensive comparative analysis of the cultural differences between Eastern and Western societies, and the book titled “Foreigner (华人)” an exploration of race relations in Australia.
