I have to report that I am suffering PCSD – Post-COVID Stress Disorder. Symptoms include a deep sense of doom that any plans for concerts or performances will be dashed at the last minute by State governments closing their borders, mixed with bouts of severe absent-mindedness.

Guy Noble

I recently got on a plane to Brisbane to conduct and host the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in a variety of concerts. New South Wales had a few cases of the dreaded virus and I was fearful that the Chief Medical Officer in Queensland would wield her border guillotine. As the flight came into Brisbane we seemed to take a slightly different approach and hold our altitude longer than I would normally expect (given that I am an experienced pilot and air traffic controller). I immediately went into SBCM – State Border Catastrophe Mode. We were going to be turned back to NSW, we would land and be carted off in a bus to quarantine and the happy people of Toowoomba would not get to hear the jokes I had crafted about Shakespeare’s influence on classical music. Of course, nothing of the sort happened and the...