Bubble and pique: Singling out buddies can be fraught

Still waiting for someone to ask if you’ll be their “bubble buddy”? You’re not alone.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian did Greater Sydney a favour this week by announcing that people living alone could form a “single social bubble”.

“If you have been living by yourself, you are allowed to nominate one person that is allowed to visit you,” she said on Wednesday.

People living alone in Greater Sydney can now nominate a bubble buddy.

Such a provision had been tried and tested in Britain, South Australia and Victoria, where it worked well to buoy flagging social spirits.

Given that the Australian Institute of Family Studies says one in four Australian households contains just one person, the Premier’s new rule is going to make life a lot more pleasant for a lot of people. Think of all those chats over a cup of tea, all those heater-side hours in front of the TV, watching Ted Lasso with a macaroni cheese and another person.

Or you could take the pragmatic approach. Enterprising solo dwellers in other parts have quipped about nominating their handyman as the buddy (gotta get that bathroom finished) or even their hairdresser.

Joe O’Brien of the ABC.Credit:     

However, as Isaac Newton declared: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

If one in four households are flying solo, and they can choose only one person to bubble with, then at least half of households will miss out on the hottest invitation going: do you want to be in my bubble?

I can hear it now: Instead of being asked where you live, or where you send your kids to school, the social question du jour will be: how many people asked you to be in their social bubble? Or, cruelly, has anyone?

It’s a one-on-one thing that aims to keep a curb on the spread of the Delta strain, so of course, people will decline all but one invitation.

Then there is reading too much into it. ABC News Mornings presenter Joe O’Brien encountered this on Wednesday, tweeting: “Just asked a mate if he would be my bubble buddy during Sydney lockdown. Him: ‘I thought that was a gay joke. Is that true?’”

Were he to be rebuffed, O’Brien had nothing to fear; strangers on Twitter were keen to offer themselves as back-ups.

And if you have siblings and your mother living solo hasn’t asked you to be her buddy, don’t jump to the “I knew it” conclusion that you were never her favourite child.

Spare a thought for The Guardian‘s Steph Harmon, who tweeted: “Nothing sadder than me messaging my mum to see if I can be her singles buddy - and her leaving me on ‘read’.”

Rita Glennon is a Herald journalist.