It’s a month since my last blog post.  I’ve been sewing during that time, and will update here on the blog soon.  It’s been a month of change.

The sun kept going up, and going down. Daylight hours grew longer and longer. Work from home started up again for me. Clare went back to school on site, then so did Stella.

Other than school going back, life continued to be centred at home.

And while all of this continued, the daily numbers of new covid-19 cases continued to go down. Every day we tuned in to the presser to hear what the numbers were and where things were at on the roadmap toward reopening. And gradually, some restrictions were relaxed and the numbers went down and down. And stayed down.

The 5km travel from home zone extended to 25 km – I finally got to go for a walk with my cousin Freya! And we were able to meet up in a park with Dan’s mum for the first time since she moved to Melbourne at the beginning of lockdown. So good. And eventually, the hairdressers opened as well.

Being able to have a haircut just felt so NORMAL. That was the best thing about it. Yes, the hairdresser and I still wore masks, but it felt so normal.

And then, lockdown ended. After 111 days since stage 3 restrictions began, that moved to stage 4, things eased considerably. From a daily high of 725 new cases at the beginning of August, we were down to a daily count of zero. The modelling was right.

On Wednesday retail businesses opened again. A number of restrictions on other workplaced eased. The ‘four reasons’ to leave the house were lifted. Hospitality venues opened again. Don’t get me wrong – there are still MANY restrictions about how everything is operating. Caps on numbers, density limits, still many activities not permitted, strict limits on inter-household visits, the 25km travel radius still remains in Melbourne as does the ‘ring of steel’ between Melbourne and regional Victoria. Masks remain mandatory. But it’s so good to go out for dinner with friends again, like we did on Friday evening. I am continuing to take life a week or so at a time. Because as well all know only too well nowadays, things can change – and they do.

I don’t really have the brain capacity to adequately describe how lockdown as been. At times we’ve been a deeply divided city, state and even country, and sometimes politics seemed to take over the public health imperative. Lockdown has definitely had a massive economic impact and many have really struggled with the negative mental health impacts. We’ll be dealing with the issues that have been created by lockdown for a long, long time. That said, I do think that we all pulled together and did what had to be done for the sake of public health. I have wondered a few times why most Victorians managed to adhere to lockdown, and think it might come down to Australians’ basic desire to have everyone looked after. We are a country with universal healthcare and social security, and I think that people from all sides of the political spectrum support those things (despite systemic imperfections). Letting the virus just ‘go for it’ wasn’t an acceptable proposition or a viable alternative to lockdown for the majority. I am sure that many people far cleverer than me have analysed all of this and will continue to do so, both locally and globally, those are just some of my thoughts (and I am well aware that not everyone will agree). Melbourne’s success in driving down covid-19 cases is being reported internationally. Let’s hope that others can learn from what happened here in Victoria, and be able to get the virus under some sort of control while mitigating the many negatives as much as possible. Meanwhile, we take our cautious steps back into our new normality, praying that all the systems that have been put into place since this second wave began have been refined and will be able to contain the cases that will inevitably pop up in the future. So far, so good. As I type this, I hear that Victoria once again has had no new cases or death in the last day. Boris Johnson has just announced a month long lockdown in England as total confirmed cases pass one million.

For us, what will probably be the biggest change of the past month is that Clare has finished school. She still has to do her final exams, with her last one on the 23rd November, but that’s it for formal classes. We began 2020 with so much excitement and anticipation for her last year. But all the things that Clare is involved in, and all the ‘lasts’ that create markers and help with the transition from one stage of life to another, evaporated. No last school production. No last Festival of Jazz. No last Mother’s Day morning tea, or Father’s Day breakfast.  No last music soiree. No last Carols concert. No last debate. No last liturgy, or last assembly. And obviously, none of these markers for us as parents either. But in many ways we were fortunate – Clare did get back to school on site for three weeks, and the school was able to arrange lots of special things to mark the end of the year within strict covid-safe guidelines. They had a pyjama day last week, and a dress-up day on the last day where the school provided a special breakfast, a gift parcel for each student, and a guard of honour as they left the school for the last time. And there will be a graduation ceremony once exams have finished, which will be students and staff only in attendance but will be live streamed for parents. We are incredibly proud of Clare and her cohort and her teachers – they deserve whatever celebrations and acknowledgements they can get! It’s been a year 12 like no other.

Oh 2020, what a year you’ve been so far. So many losses, for so many people, in so many different ways. Yes, there’s been some positives come out of it all, but gee those positives are extremely outweighed by the crap. And if I hear the word ‘resilience’ one more time I might just scream. I’d like to thank the many people who have contacted me during this time just to check in, to express solidarity, and to let me know how they are going. I send my best wishes and my love to all those who are currently living in places where covid-19 numbers are going up and up, and really do pray that things turn around for you soon too. I hope that the Victorian experience has given you hope.

To finish off, you may have noticed that my blog is now at a new address. The old one is currently redirecting here, but you might wish to update any bookmarks/subscriptions that you have, if you haven’t already. It will be getting a new look soon too – Clare ‘rebranded’ it as her major design project and assessment for Visual Communication, and I just need to do all the behind the scenes work to update. I’ll be back soon with some more sewing content – because really, isn’t that what we’re all here for!