It involves sitting outside at a socially-distanced table on Lonsdale Street in Canberra and eating bacon, mushrooms and two poached eggs on gluten-free toast for Ms Andrews-O'Donoghue and eggs hollandaise (an "emulsion of egg yolk, melted butter, and lemon juice") for Ms Myers.

They are both wearing faux leopard-skin pyjamas because that's what you do for Saturday brunch on Lonsdale Street. Ms Andrews-O'Donoghue has enormous, square dark glasses.

The dogs, Tiana and Missy, seem happy enough, with their bowls of water.

The grand and utterly amiable ladies don't want tables to be closer together despite the Prime Minister's recommendation that the current rule for small restaurants of at least four square metres per diner should be cut to two square metres.

"I'm still a little bit pessimistic about the whole thing," Ms Andrews-O'Donoghue said, worried about the return of the virus. "I'm waiting for the second wave. I like the distance and I like the gap between tables."

Ms Myers added: "I don't like people too close to me, anyway."

It was the first time they had been out to eat together since lockdown. They were testing the water - and the poached eggs.

All was good. "It's a self-nurturing kind of thing," Deidrie said. The "spiritual journey" they said they were on was never explained.

The difficulty for small restaurants like the Rye Cafe was plain. Customers like tables spaced apart but the space cuts revenue for the restaurant.

The cafe's proprietor, Gurmeet Singh, said that at the moment he's only allowed 20 people inside but if the current mandated space was halved to two square metres, he could serve 40 people.

"It would help us increase our revenue and get more people on board with more jobs," he said.

It would mean a new routine for the waiting staff. Because they would still need to keep their distance, he would allocate a part of the small dining area to each waiter so they didn't bump into each other.

The ACT's Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, has indicated the change will come to Canberra next month.

A few doors down from the Rye Cafe, Evan Mannan of Lonsdale Street Roasters was exasperated. "There's a lot of confusion and that's not good for a business like ours," he said.

But he admitted that the change would be good. "It will benefit us tremendously," he said, increasing his current maximum of 20 customers by another 10.