Tuesday, 30 March, 2021
School’s out in Brissie! Suez ship floats again; Formula 2’s new Aussie champ; and Godzilla and Kong bust a record.
THE LOWDOWN
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Toilet paper rolls all over Brisbane were quivering in fear yesterday as the Queensland Government announced a snap three-day lockdown – sending Brisbanites to their local supermarkets on a familiar panic-buying spree.
Altogether less scared were the many thousands of school kids all over Brisbane who received an Easter Holiday early mark – with school cancelled for the next three days.
The lockdown followed the discovery of four new cases of coronavirus in the Queensland capital yesterday taking the number of cases reported to seven. The last time Brisbane went into a snap lockdown was back in January.
Western Australia reacted to the lockdown announcement by slamming shut its border to Queenslanders. Victoria designated Brisbane as a ‘red zone’. While NSW warned its people to seriously reconsider any Brissie travel plans.
For their part, the good folk of Brisbane got busy panic shopping -stripping supermarket shelves of groceries faster than you could say “but it’s only three days and the shops are going to stay open.”
Also out shopping yesterday were the boys from the Brisbane Lions AFL team. They flew to Victoria last Friday for their game against Geelong – but have been ordered to stay in Melbourne to play Collingwood on Thursday night, instead of returning to play them at the Gabba. Expecting they were only going to be in Melbourne for one night – none of them had packed enough undies to get them through the week. COVID undie shopping: it’s a thing.
SPIN THE GLOBE
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Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops. And today we’ve landed in Egypt – again – because there’s an update from the Suez Canal – where the massive container ship that’s been stuck for a week blocking traffic has been refloated, finally clearing the vital shipping lane.
A flotilla of tugboats pushed and pulled and finally managed to dislodge the ship – which is one of the largest in the world and as long as a skyscraper – and pull it into open water.
It means more than 400 ships that have been banked up on either side of the stuck ship can finally resume their journeys. The blockage has caused major disruption to world trade as thousands of containers filled with stuff bound for overseas customers have been left bobbing in the sea.
SPORTS TIME
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Going really fast is apparently something us Aussies are good at. Yesterday we told you about Aussie sprinting star-on-the-rise Rohan Browning – who has become the first Australian in 15 years to qualify to run in the 100m sprint at the Olympics. And today, it’s the turn of Melbourne teenager, Oscar Piastri – who has celebrated his very first Formula 2 race win in the Arab state of Bahrain at the weekend.
The 19 year old Piastri came from ninth place in the 23 lap contest to storm home and take the checkered flag .. which is the expression used in car racing to say someone has won the race.
Formula 2 is very similar to Formula 1 – the cars are just that little bit less powerful. Formula 2 is also regarded as the training ground for future Formula 1 race car drivers – which Oscar one day hopes to be.
Last year, Oscar won the Formula 3 competition – and his win over the weekend will mean the bosses who run the Formula 1 cars will now be keeping a very close eye on him. Vroom vroom…
POP CULTURE CORNER
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Given how large and noisy and destructive they both are – it’s perhaps no great surprise that Godzilla and Kong have broken recent box office records around the world, with the release of their blockbuster film at the weekend.
The giant lizard and his over-sized gorilla friend – and their movie, imaginatively titled Godzilla v Kong – pulled in an impressive $160 million dollars in the 38 countries it opened around the world at the weekend – including more than $8 million here in Australia.
Geez – you guys really like your disaster monster movie mash-ups eh?
It’s the biggest box office performance for any film since the coronavirus sent many cinemas into lockdown.
What do I mean when I say box office? The box office is where you buy your tickets at the cinema. So to say Godzilla v Kong broke pandemic box office records – it means their film sold more tickets than any other movie since COVID became a thing.
THE S’QUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- Which AFL team has had to go out on an emergency undie buying spree in Melbourne because of the Brisbane lockdown?
- Which Aussie city does new Formula 2 racing champ, Oscar Pistari call home?
- Name the movie that’s just broken pandemic box office records?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s March 30 … birthday of Aussie tennis champ, Sam Stosur, Dutch painting master Vincent Van Gogh – and also of the founder of Ikea, a bloke called Ingvar Kamprad … lover of the Allen key.
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today … Manoa from Gosford East, Lucas from Exeter, Xavier from Fairlight, Lily from Abbotsford, Jorja from Kempsey, Chase from Inverloch, Sadie from Forest Lake, Zachary from Maroubra, Tyson from Ashmont, Lucas and Omar from NSW, Savannah from Wallaroo, Kaanav from Pendle Hill and Sara from Pascoe Vale.
And some belated birthday shoutouts to … Poppy from Mermaid Beach, Oscar from Perth, Tegan from Wesburn, Vincent from Sydney, Odin from Wauchope and Diana from Cannon Hill.
Happy birthday one and all.
Today’s classroom shoutouts… 3/4G with Miss Meany at Holy Trinity Primary School in Curtin, class Michigan with Ms Mitchell at Barramurra Public School, Miss Nolan’s 4N class at Turramurra Public School, Stage 2 at Carlingford Public School including Ms McPherson and class 4M, and the Emmaus class at St. Peter’s High School in Maitland.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Brisbane Lions
- Melbourne
- Godzilla v Kong