Lockdown 2.0, Day 51

 A much quieter day today. I was surprised that there weren't many branches down around our place, one big one and a bunch of little ones - elsewhere there were trees down all over the place and some people didn't have power back yet. We had a calm morning at home, pottering around, doing some puzzles, browsing the internet, I did a bit of my course, chatted to both Mum and Dad on the phone. Caitlin and I went for a walk mid afternoon, it was sunny and actually fairly warm, a nice day to be out. Luna is getting much better at walking off lead and not chasing kangaroos. Amelie played games online with a friend. When Tony got home from work he took me over to Mum and Dad's - with Dad having minor surgery yesterday he's not able to drive at the moment, so he offered me his car while mine is at the mechanic. It was cool to have time in the car chatting with Tony, and exciting to be so far from home - the first time I've been past Yarra Glen in 4 weeks. It was great to see Mum and Dad, they're looking well and we talked for a bit before I took the car. On the way home I bought a Mint Hot Chocolate in Yarra Glen then sat in the car for a while at my favourite spot on Old Healesville Rd and read my book and listened to music. It was a beautiful afternoon and in between reading I really soaked in the view. Great view of the standing water in the fields across from our place, too. I drove home the long way from there and arrived feeling very relaxed after some time on my own. Also felt good driving a manual car, I've missed that. We had a hodge podge of dinner, everyone getting what they felt like eating, then Caitlin and I watched The Bodyguard - I'd never seen it, and was inspired by seeing Lorelai sing 'I Will Always Love You' on Gilmore Girls a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed it and it felt like a comfortable way to end a very up and down kind of week.

Lockdown 2.0, Day 43

 I realised last night that we have completed 6 weeks of lockdown- if we’d stayed on the original Stage 3 plan, today’s the day that restrictions would have eased. Although we have all had our crazy moments this week in particular, I’m impressed that we have got this far and on the whole are pretty happy and mainly getting along. There’s still about 4 weeks left of Stage 4 and who knows what after that, but I’m feeling hopeful and positive about the future.

It was a good day today. Chats with Liam in the morning, a game of Othello with Amelie, work on my photos, number puzzles, watching The Dragon Prince with the girls, sorting out the piles of fabric that have been taking over our lounge room. Liam went for a bike ride, the girls and I went for a long (slow) walk - I’m still sore from my strength training and Caitlin from Cheer training last night. 

At 4.30 we video called with 2 other families for our hot chocolate festival. Liam and 2 of his friends made their hot chocolates and then chatted while they drank them. (We had ordered lots from the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie, they came with melts to put in hot milk, couverture choc to melt and pour in, a flavoured marshmallow and a treat of some sort to make it super special. Liam had a wagon wheel slurp, Caitlin a ginger one, mine was Gatytime themed and Amelie’s chicken shaped marshmallows with a sprinkle covered egg. The girls and I made ours and we FaceTimed with the adults.. After a while one of them had to go, and I kept talking to my other friend while we had a glass of wine together.  The hot chocs were a great experience and the conversation was really fun. 

We had a pork ragù for dinner - made by the chef at de Bortoli - it was amazingly good! We kept watching the Dragon Pronce and I started making something with my t-shirt yarn, then did some of my creativity course and have ended the day feeling very happy and content.