OPINION: Covid-19 social distancing, working from home in Tamworth when the cat turns your home office into a war zone

It's fair to say my relationship with my friend and roommate's cat Totty [short for Tater Tot] has been tenuous at best.

Her sometimes lovable, yet equally terrifying Jekyll and Hyde personality and blatant disregard for the old adage don't bite the hand that feeds you has made for an interesting six days of social distancing.

Journalists at ACM have, where possible, started to work from home in an effort to protect the more vulnerable in our communities.

We aren't the first generation to step up for the country.

Except our grandparents went to war, all we have to do is sit at home.

So argue with your roommate about who gets to clean the linen closet on lunch break. Win the battle. Feel superior in the knowledge your roommate will tackle Dante's Inferno (the Tupperware drawer). Roll out of bed and put on a T-shirt. Gallantly sign into that Google Hangout in pyjama pants. Take chances. Spent $333 on new linen. Afterpay it and tell yourself you deserve it.

Wear Glen 20 as perfume. Wipe your hands on a highly-absorbent Golden Retriever. Sign a petition against China's wet markets. Thank healthcare staff. Smile at strangers from 1.5m away. Dream. Dismantle the patriarchy. Be kind. For God's sake stop buying all the toilet paper.

Spread love, not germs.

These are all things we can do to stop the outbreak of COVID-19 inundating our Intensive Care Unit beds, and flatten the curve.

Working from home is definitely better than homing from work.

Just six days into it all I've already started to miss the banter and back-and-forth with my team.

But most of all I miss fellow Leader journalist Billy Jupp's mother's hummingbird cakes [colloquially known around the office as 'Jupp cake'], which usually make the journey from Victoria to Tamworth in a suitcase.

Thank God freight is still considered an essential service.

- Madeline Link is an ACM journalist