Although the days of panic buying toilet paper and pasta may seem long in the past, the absence of available venues to satisfy our hunger for a meal cooked by someone else is still present.
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Come this Monday the 1st of June though and we'll be able to cruise into our favourite haunts, sit with family and friends and enjoy a night out.
For the Hopkins family who run Nellie's Cafe in the Bernardi's MarketPlace forecourt and Nellie Ryan's Restaurant on Adelaide Street, the cafe's re-opening will be welcomed by their many customers.
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"This has really affected a lot of the older residents in Blayney who would regularly come and gather here for a chat, sometimes hours at a time," Sue Hopkins said.
Ryan Hopkins said that as a family business the restrictions meant that they could still offer employees work as soon as the doors re-opened.
"Technically we are still employing as many people as we did beforehand," he said.
Assistant manager of the Exchange Hotel Lenore Wooley said that the hotel will re-open on Thursday for 10 people or less and will ready to welcome up to 50 patrons from Monday.
"We'll be really strict about the social distancing and the guidelines because we don't want there to be a second wave of infections," she said.
"If we see or hear anyone coughing we'll be asking them to leave."
Owner of the Royal Hotel Damon Taylor said that he's been caught short by the governments relaxation of the rules, but says that his clients will love it.
"We've taken the opportunity to renovate completely the dining room and outdoor areas, but we won't be finished until next Thursday," he said.
"On Monday though we'll be opening as much as we can according to the social distancing rules."
The Tattersalls Hotel's Cameron Cole said the return to trading was coming a lot earlier than expected, and is hoping that it's not premature.
"We've been lucky that we have the drive through bottle shop to keep us going," he said.
"We worked with our accountant to put in place a plan that was until September or October and although it's good to get back operating, I hope we haven't jumped the gun."
Whereas for the Hopkins the social distancing measures in the cafe are somewhat easier to implement, those around the hotels are still uncertain with both Cameron Cole and Damon Taylor still wondering exactly what the rules are.
"The rules are fairly unclear as to how we can serve people at the bar and other areas of the hotel, but we should have a better idea when Monday comes around," Mr Cole said.
Mark Logan
Started working in newspapers in the 1990's in the darkroom of the Pastoral Times in Deniliquin before moving to Millthorpe in 2003. Soon after arriving I started as a photographer at the CWD. Now a journalist at the Blayney Chronicle.
Started working in newspapers in the 1990's in the darkroom of the Pastoral Times in Deniliquin before moving to Millthorpe in 2003. Soon after arriving I started as a photographer at the CWD. Now a journalist at the Blayney Chronicle.
