When I was teaching in TAFE (Technical and Further Education i.e. post-school) classes, at one stage I was working with the literacy and numeracy teachers. I sat in on one of the numeracy classes and the teacher was doing the numerical estimations topic. She was talking about scenarios like being at the supermarket and doing price comparisons on different brands. At that stage supermarkets were not showing the price per unit under the price of the items so the calculations needed to be done either in your head or with a calculator. E.g. if a 300 gram can of beans costs $1.20 is that better value than a 400 gram can which costs $1.50?

This is something I have always done whenever I shop, however for a lot of the students in that class this was a whole new way of thinking and decision making.

So then I was thinking about the panic buying of toilet paper. One estimation of the duration of the COVID 19 pandemic is about 6 months. so, if a family uses 2 toilet rolls per week and they panic-buy 5 packets of 30 toilet rolls, thats 150 toilet rolls divided by 2, that's 75 weeks' supply of toilet rolls for that family, or 1.5 years worth.

Have they really thought this through?

Anyway, after yet another dawn raid on the elderly & disability shopping hour I have finally come home with a packet of toilet rolls. I now do not have to contemplate making my own or using soap and water or an ancient Roman sponge on a stick. I have also offered some of my meagre stash to my sister and her hubby who are currently in self isolation after returning from overseas.

So, no more of this up at sparrowf@rt malarky. I can sleep easy tomorrow morning.