Out of the Office.


What a difference 8 hours makes.
From starting that last Friday before annual leave neatly dressed and ready for the day ahead to …

this.  At the top of the last flight of stairs to my level at the car park in bare feet because my blisters have blisters.

I don’t know about you but despite the general pace of life having slowed down since the pandemic debuted, I’m still finding that I need theses ‘week and a bits’ off every few months.  Our days are simpler in many ways with so many restrictions in place but we also have that much more uncertainty and new territory to navigate in our daily lives.  The complexity is draining.  The projected long term implications on every aspect of our lives as a result of these ‘unprecedented times’ are overwhelming.  I know I could avoid reading the news about what may lie ahead but at the same time being ‘prepared and informed’ is part of my DNA.

My new bottle of a favourite perfume arrived in the mail last night.  Much like my barefoot in the work car park stairwell on the way home photo, it illustrates just how deeply my life has been impacted by Covid 19.  In the grand scheme of things, very much at the first world problems end of the spectrum.  I still have my job, I still have the same hours and salary that I did back when the world was more certain, I can meet all my bills, the household diet has not suffered due to financial constraints (time constraints, definitely, though), my family is healthy.  

It’s just that, you know, I’m here.  Home.  Wings clipped.  Not packing for adventures abroad.  Not notifying my bank about my overseas travel destinations.  Not somewhere elsewhere buying perfume as a memento of my destination.  
Enough of the ‘have nots’.  What about the ‘haves’?  I have the means to purchase that replacement bottle of perfume here in Sydney.  I have the matching soap from my stash from my travels last year (it’s the little things, this is me you’re dealing with…).

I have the week ahead with the little guy, pottering around the house and beyond.  Making our own fun.  We have a new terrarium.  It’s meant to be watered every fortnight.  I wonder how tall it will grow?  What do we do when it outgrows its cylinder?  Will living in a terrarium alter its growth rate?  So many questions.

I have time and nowhere to rush to in the mornings.

I have my Opal card and access to all the public transport options I need in the city thanks to our collective efforts in ‘Doing the 3’ and keeping our daily case count admirably low.

I have a fabulous city I call home.  

It will be no hardship being a tourist in my own city for the week and a bit ahead.

I have the luxury of time and that famous Sydney springsummer weather with which to enjoy it.

I might even squander a great deal of that time lost in my books.

Out of the office and into the chill zone.  What’s not to like?


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