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55 1/4
When it was my birthday in March, the Scientist had had to drop plans for a special birthday for me turning 55. It was that day that we went into lockdown and the best we could do was to bring home take away food to enjoy with the family. I had a good day anyway and life carried on.
A few weeks ago on the Friday, the Scientist said to me we were going out the next day and I needed to be ready to go by 10am. I wasn’t too sure what that was about so I was kind of curious. On Saturday I got up and got ready to go out and we ended up driving out through a new section of highway we hadn’t used before. It was kind of neat to see it from the car. I’ve rode out that way on my bike but not so far as we went this time. We turned off to Bullsbrook and drove along another road for a few kilometres. Then we passed by this place called Outback Splash. This used to be called The Maze but they have added a water park and expanded it considerably in the past few years. Anyway, I commented that I guess our destination wasn’t Outback Splash only to be told it was where were going. It was a bit odd to pass by a place we were headed to. We turned around on another road further along and went back to our destination. Then the Scientist went right past the entrance to the parking lot and had to turn around. I later learned these were just delaying tactics. I should have been suspicious since I know he wouldn’t easily miss these turn-offs.
Finally we were parked and went into to the entrance. But the Scientist made me wait outside for a bit while he was discussing something with staff. Finally we went through and sought out a particular “hut” (shelter) that we were aiming for. We did eventually find it and sat down at which point the Scientist did a little speech about how his plans for my birthday got ruined by covid-19 and so he was finally getting his plans into gear that day.
So I turned around to find three of my friends from tai chi there, with presents, to celebrate my 55 1/4 birthday. From my friends I got a candle and incense burner set, a tea cup with my favorite color purple, and a metal water bottle that had the color purple too. It was all very sweet.
Then we went off to the koala house to meet the koalas. We had special tickets to get up close and personal. The keeper took us through and set up a step ladder so we could pat the koala in approved locations and see what it was really like. This was my first time being so close to one. Decades ago when I was pregnant I had held a wombat and that was quite an experience. But these were the dozy koalas who were mostly sleeping. The one we had access to was agreeable enough for a while but after a few people had been up to see it, it moved itself to the back of the house and out of the way. Still we had a good look and I got a few photos on my phone.
Hello there! 
A bit shy 
Hide and seek
The koala house After this we returned to the hut and the Scientist went off to get a cake and the food he’d ordered for lunch. He came back with a huge tray of rolls with various fillings. It was a bit much for our small group of five so quite a few didn’t get eaten until much later.
Then it was time for cake and on there he’d written it was my 55 1/4 birthday and he had two candles to put on the cake. But there was the issue of blowing out candles and the idea was to remove them to a plate for the blowing part. But it didn’t matter as I expected because the breeze blew it out instead. The next thing was trying to cut the cake since there was a lack of any sort of knife. One of my friends made use of the cardboard backing of the candle and that worked enough to get the pieces we needed. It was a really yummy cake, homemade with buttercream frosting and lots of chocolate and decoration.
Special cake to celebrate my 55th birthday a few months late. Afterwards, the food was put away and we went off to the first of the mazes. We had been to the Maze years ago when the kids were much younger and had a good time. The hedge maze at the time wasn’t a thing yet because they were still growing it. But we could see where it would be. And it was quite a bit of fun although not particularly difficult. There were quite a few people going through and there was a natural reaction to just follow along but we did break rank and sought out our own pathways. It wasn’t long until we reached the center and stood on a platform looking over the maze. Then it was a pretty easy task to reach the end on the other side. I’m not saying it was simple but it wasn’t that challenging.
The second maze was a tire maze and the idea was to reach a certain point by following a color progression and jump across tires. I didn’t even realise where the goal was until after I’d gone through and come back out. I tried again and it was quite difficult to get through and we gave up. It was actually kind of tiring going round and round and there were also quite a few others doing the same but it was a lot of fun to try it out.
There was a maze/not maze with some other animals, mostly kangaroos we also visited.
Lounging around 
Lazy afternoon 
Rusty old ute
Kangaroo enclosure Next was a ring toss game that we all tried to play and had varying degrees of success. I managed to get one ring on the whole time. We took turns until we reach the goal on that one.
The last maze was the main attraction, a wooden maze that had several flags you needed to reach. I remember this from our previous visit and Game Fanatic was instrumental in helping us find all the flags. This time we made it through to a couple of flags and that was okay. The third flag was also doable. But trying to get to the next one proved a bit too difficult and we ended up going in circles and not getting any closer to our target. It was around this time my bladder made its needs known and it wasn’t too much trouble to get back out of the maze. I went off to to the toilets and the others came out of the maze and that was the end of that. I’d had stuck it out had my bladder not been so insistent.
Next we moved on to the mini golf part of the park. This was no great version of mini golf but we still had fun giving a shot. I managed to do par on one hole. The rest were kind of all over the place.
Afterwards, one of my friends bought us ice cream and we sat at a table outside the café to eat. It was in the midst of this final treat that the music that had been playing stopped and it was clear the place was closing down. So after we finished we left and came home. There had been ideas of carrying on the celebration afterwards by having a bit of a games night elsewhere but not all of us could go so we opted to leave it at that.
It was later that I realised it would have been better to say it was my 55 1/3 birthday since it was actually four months after my birthday so that was another fun aspect of the day. It was kind of surreal to be having a birthday celebration months later but it was definitely a unique one as my birthdays go. Even better was the fact that Lego Lover helped me finish the cake later on. He’s a bit iffy on cakes that leave the house but he was happy to enjoy all.
I will also point out the boys were both quite helpful in preparations. Lego Lover had the task of keeping me shopping on the Friday night while the Scientist worked on the cake. Game Fanatic kept watch to keep me out of the kitchen later that evening and even into the Saturday. It was very much a family project even though the boys didn’t come along.
Overall it was the most memorable birthday I’ve had in years. My 50th was another prominent one with a party at home but this was a totally different sort of thing. All great fun to share with the Scientist and my friends.
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Half a year gone
Hard to believe but half the year has gone by and it seems like just yesterday I was having a birthday. During lockdown it seemed time went quite slowly sometimes and other times it was just speeding past.
Here in Western Australia we are still quite fortunate and have reached stage 4 restrictions. We still have limits on numbers to stadiums and such but life is certainly close to being normal here. Our borders are still in hard lockdown and it looks like it might be some time for that change. It was due to move to stage 5 on the 18th but that has been put back to due to spikes in cases in Victoria and to a lesser extent in New South Wales. Now the plan is to move to stage 5 on the 1st of August. So we continue in our rather large-ish bubble in WA. International travel is likely some time off although it’s possible we will extend the bubble to New Zealand which has been mostly covid-19 free for a while now.
My swimming lessons restarted a few weeks ago. The first lesson back was quite a mess for me. I felt like I couldn’t do anything I had learned. But I was doing much better the following classes and I’m even improving on my breast stroke kick.
My exercise has been up and down. This past week I’ve done limited exercise but the couple weeks before I did much better. Overall, I think I’m doing far better than last winter but I could be better. I’ve got plans to do some swimming this evening along with tomorrow’s lesson and some swimming on Wednesday when I go to the pool with my client.
Our tai chi classes are back to meeting in person again and it’s so much better now. We got going again the last week of term and now it’s term break. However we are doing workshops during the break so we’re still attending and for longer hours.
One of the things I missed out on earlier this year was the opportunity to get my Animal Crossing Switch when it was released. I had no idea it would sell out so quickly and there weren’t restocks happening in Australia. But that changed late last month when new stock was announced for Australia and I managed to pre-order one for release on the 10 of July. Happily my order worked out and was deliver on the day and I am quite pleased. It’s rather expensive but I’m a long time lover of the Animal Crossing franchise and if ever I would buy one of these, this is the one to get. Even the box is quite lovely and it likely will be the only one in this how to be kept in the long term. Now we have consoles available for each family member and can play against each other. Lego Lover has the lite version of the console and the rest of us have the regular one which can be used with the tv. I had just about given up hope of getting one when the new stock was announced so I guess I was quite lucky in that.
Another thing that we are back to is organised games nights with our friends. At first we were taking a lot of precautions but since community transmission here has been zero, we have relaxed quite a bit. On the 4th, we had a special 4th of July day with special food and decorations for the day. It was more than our family normally does and we had such a good time together. It really helped to improve moods among us to be close with people we care about.
I am so frustrated to see the situation back home and to see people I care about about carrying on about wearing masks and the whole hoax conspiracy stuff. So far nobody close to me has got this but I worry that it’s a matter of time.
And who knows when I will get back to see my family. I imagine it might be still another year and a half before chances of getting back to the US is possible. And that’s only if the leadership actually changes since the current leadership is so lacking.
Well, I guess I have rambled on enough for this post. I am going to try to update on a few more things in the next week or so.
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Freedom
We are currently in stage three of lockdown. What this means is most businesses are now open and we are that bit closer to normal life. Except it will likely still be a while until we have to stop physically distancing.
Our state currently has 21 cases of covid-19 still ongoing with none in the hospital. None of these were community transmissions so I am feeling safer to be out in the community now. The current cases mostly came from a ship that came into port a couple of weeks ago. The others are people who came back to WA from overseas. All the current cases have been quarantined in a hotel while they recover.
My swimming lessons will be back in session the week after next. I haven’t tried to swim yet even though the pools opened a couple of weeks ago. Once I got notice the lessons were about to restart, I decided to hold off on getting one of the special temporary memberships. At the moment you have to book in to the pool and there are limits on how many people can be at the pool at the same time. I did go to the pool with my client through work but only got in to do walking in the water and didn’t get my head wet. At the time the change rooms weren’t available so it wasn’t ideal. But the weather has been unusually warm for the start of winter so it wasn’t too bad. Now the change rooms are available so it is far more useful even though the weather is still rather warm. (We still have windows open here as it’s not been cold enough long enough to close them.)
I haven’t felt confident enough to even consider going to any of the protests in the city though. I’m not sure how well they did the distancing at the previous ones but I feel it’s just too risky at the moment. I heard today there was a man at the Melbourne protest who was just diagnosed. I hope it hasn’t spread to others who were there. I guess we will find out more in the next week or two.
I forgot to add that the Scientist and I went out to eat at a restaurant on our anniversary (May 22) for the first time since before my birthday. It was a lovely evening and it was good to see restaurants more properly open again.
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Due to the stress and…
Last week we were able to attend a tai chi class in person for the first time in weeks. We “attended” on Tuesday night online but decided to drop in on the Wednesday morning class which was running due to restrictions being relaxed. It was wonderful to be together even with social distancing, which isn’t a big deal since we usually keep a bit of space to do the tai chi anyway.
Afterwards, the Scientist and I got bit of food and drink and hung out with tai chi friends for several hours. We hadn’t planned to stay quite that long but it was much needed and did a great job at improving mental health. The Scientist even took time from work (which he made up later) to go there. Anyway, it was great and made us hope for a quicker return to our own class which is held in a surf lifesaving club that hasn’t reopened yet.
That evening I noticed my lower lip was sore and I thought maybe I got a bit of sunburn there. I didn’t think much of it at the time but it was still feeling a bit off for several more days. I think it was Sunday I woke up and there were two cold sores on my lower lip exactly where it had felt weird before. I should have known although that wasn’t the most typical symptom I’ve had for them before. It’s been a few years since the last one. And usually they only come as singles but this is a double. I went to the pharmacy and got some medicine to help it heal. It was too late for the one that reduces the period of infection but I was able to get something to help it heal. I attribute them to all the stress of the previous weekend making itself known on my body. But then I was reading sunlight can also trigger so maybe a combination caused it. Anyway, it’s still healing and uncomfortable and another thing I need to avoid touching my eyes for…
Here in Western Australia we’re on day six with no new covid-19 cases and now there are only ten people still recovering in the state. It’s all looking good, especially since we did have restrictions relaxed. I’m hoping the venue for our tai chi will reopen next week. We have been doing our virtual classes on our patio but it’s supposed to be stormy tonight and I don’t think the patio is going to work due to wetness, wind and noise. And I don’t think I’ll be able to get to the class tomorrow where it might be difficult due to more rain tomorrow morning. Or not.
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Zero cases
I thought I would post that there have been no new cases of Covid-19 in Western Australia today. Yesterday there was only one. Three states in Australia record none over the weekend. Talk about flattening the curve. I just don’t want people to become complacent and start increasing interaction too early. There haven’t been any lifting of bans as yet and I suspect there won’t be any changes for a few weeks still.
Also good news is I went to the shops today and discovered toilet paper on the shelf, much like it was before the crisis. This was in both supermarkets in the shopping center so I don’t think it’s a fluke. I think people the rush to buy has finally passed and now people are back to buying as needed. Well, at least I hope this is the case.
In our family we’ve started watching new seasons of two reality series. The first was Masterchef which started last week and featured Gordon Ramsay all week. He seemed to love being there and was really a good mentor for the contestants. In this season all of them are former contestants who didn’t win from about eleven seasons, I think. The judges have changed for the first time and it seems to be working fine so far. It’s got to be one of the better reality shows out there. Even if they seem to bring contestants to tears on a regular basis. The other show is Lego Masters and that started last night and was excellent and it seems they are all quite likeable. I like this show for the Lego content but also because they seem to like to skewer reality shows on a regular basis.
I’ve been hard at work trying to do my album commentaries and have now finished four. The Scientist did his own version on Facebook and just finished yesterday. He wants me to share my posts there so I will start posting tonight with a few edits along the way. I’m still not sure what all the albums will be but I have settled on all but two of the artists now and the albums are mostly whittled down to a couple. I’m kind of going with the theme that these were albums associated with periods of time or events in my life so it’s not exactly favorites and it’s not exactly just influences. Anyway, I will have to write an introduction to my version and post the first album tonight. I think the good thing about posting here first is I can read them over a few extra times to make sure they make sense.
My exercise has been a bit more sporadic the past few days. I did do a long bike ride a few days ago that went pretty well. I normally ride to a further point but decided to stop after forty-five minutes and that seemed to work well. I’m glad I did because the last few kilometers tend to have a lot of hills to climb on the way back and I find I am done in by the time I get to the turn around point for my shorter rides. Yesterday I did an 8 kilometer walk in Whiteman Park near us and was fine until the last few steps to reach my car. That’s when I twisted my knee and bit and slightly injured some muscle or tendon or something. It’s nothing serious but I found it kind of funny that I lasted all those kms and was taking it easy those last steps and that’s when something happens. Today I didn’t go out as there were sporadic showers and I didn’t feel like getting stuck in it. I plan to use the spin bike at home and do at least 45 minutes and possibly up to an hour later on. I’m hoping to go out tomorrow and do a proper ride again.
The Scientist made an origami heart with an arrow through it a few days ago and it was lovely. Unfortunately I’d left it on our coffee table and for some reason one of our dogs got hold of it and chewed it up. Not sure what caused the dog to do that as they don’t tend to remove that sort of thing from the table. The Scientist did a new one for me this afternoon in purple and I’m keeping that in a much safer place.
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Dragging a bit
I’ve had a couple days where I’ve been dragging my heels a bit. The current environment is quite stressful, of course, and life doesn’t go on as usual. On Wednesday I wasn’t able to go to the pool or gym with my client and he had already gone on a bike ride in the morning. I ended up getting no exercise with him since it would have been pointless trying to get him out for a walk. Also trying to get him to understand that we can’t do normal things is a bit tricky right now.
I didn’t exercise at all the past few days, so effectively I missed three days of exercise. I could have gone out on my bike yesterday but I just couldn’t motivate myself to go out. Today, I forced myself to go to the pool and had a good swim in the end. It was really quiet there even though it was a warm-hot day with hot easterly winds. I was the only one doing laps for the first twenty minutes there. There were a few others that came during the hour I was there but only one of us per lane and a family in the non-lap lane.
I had a bit of a boost to mental health yesterday due to a new Animal Crossing game being released on the Nintendo Switch. This series is one of my all-time favorites and it was nice to sit down as a family while I started my new town.
I’ve also been inspired by something my brother did on Facebook where he posted a cover of an album that influenced your musical taste every day for ten days with no other information. I’m thinking of doing that here instead but I plan to write about it instead.
I haven’t done anything about my airline ticket as yet. Since there’s no change I’ll be travelling I guess it doesn’t matter too much right now. My idea is to shift my travel dates to later this year or next year instead. Not sure I really want to travel to the US late in the year with elections going on but I will consider it if it works out, I guess. I also have a sim card for AT&T that won’t be getting used now. I hope I can do something to allow use of it later on but I think these things expire within a few months.
Meanwhile I was rather horrified that the brand new first Costco went ahead with its grand opening on Thursday. People lined up around the store twice and it was a jungle there from what I saw from video footage on the news. And it’s still crazy there today. Even if I were interested, I wouldn’t think of going there at this point. Sigh.
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Life interrupted
It was just a matter of time but I am definitely not travelling now. I discovered by accident that my flight from Perth to Tokyo has been cancelled. Oddly I haven’t had any direct communication about this even though no time was wasted telling me the aircraft had changed not long ago. It’s only that first flight but I’m sure others will follow. The government here has stepped up warnings to advise do not travel. To be sure I’d already pretty much ruled out going anywhere anyway. I feel safer staying here than being back home.
I saw today that the “curve” here in Western Australia is looking pretty good compared to other places. Hopefully that will continue to be the case. Schools here are still open but many activities have been cancelled.
I am still working. My client needs to have regular support. Unfortunately the activities we do will have to be curtailed. I’m trying to figure out how to use that time while avoiding going out too much. The only alternatives I can figure out so far are going for a walk or bike ride (him riding, me walking). Last week we went to the gym and pool but it was a nightmare trying to keep things clean at the gym. The pool wasn’t so bad but it’s too crowded at the time we go so that’s not a practical activity right now. It’s going to be a monumental task getting any understanding of the situation by him. On the other hand, I’m sure it will be better for him that I am not going to be away for five weeks too. One of the other carers was supposed to be going to Europe in late May but those plans have also been wiped out.
Lego Lover and I went to Fremantle to see the cruise liner Queen Mary 2 as it departed. on Saturday. We got there and the quay was pretty empty. Rain was threatening and most of the people there were fishing. We found out about 45 minutes after departure time that Cunard had cancelled the itinerary and about 700 people were stranded here. I assume those passengers had arrangements to get home handled and that the ship was supposed to have left yesterday afternoon. We ended up driving back in the rain that night.
I’m still trying to keep up regular exercise. I went for a walk on Sunday and barely made it back before dark. I’d thought about riding my bike but was a bit worried about getting stuck riding in the rain. I don’t feel too comfortable riding on wet pathways so chose to walk instead. If it started to rain, I could always call the Scientist and ask him to pick me up. I’ve still been swimming a few times a week too. The pool is nearly deserted in early afternoon before schools let out so I can keep away from other people easily. The rains are supposed to have stopped for now so bike riding might be on the cards again, especially if the winds stay reasonably calm.
Grocery shopping has turned into a survival sport. Not that I’ve taken part exactly. I’ve had to get a couple things from the shops this week and saw that lots more shelves were empty. I know this is the case all around. Toilet paper is still quite scarce. The shops introduced an early hour for disabled and seniors but I heard the first day didn’t go well. The customers had to line up for ages and shelves were empty even when they got there. Keep in mind the stores are closed at night around here so the restocking should have been done overnight. Of course our local store doesn’t get toilet paper until 10am so that doesn’t work very well anyway.
The Scientist has been working from home this week. He did have to go in Monday but came home early and brought his fern back so it doesn’t die. The company hasn’t made it official yet but he and the other programmers have already taken that step and can now avoid the bus trip in.
Not a lot else happening at the moment.
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Travel or not
It’s still a month and a day until I’m supposed to travel so lots can happen before then. But as time passes it’s looking more like I will have to reschedule my plans. Even if I go, my ideas of doing a bit of road trip travel to see some of my family and friends may not be feasible either. It’s a bit hard to get excited when plans look like they are being dashed so quickly.
Then there are two scenarios that are worrisome for me. One is that I do go but get stranded there. I’m pretty sure we are handling the virus better here than back home and I think there’s a very strong possibility I could be quarantined there. I love my family but not sure I could cope for many extra weeks there. The other one that is rather firmly in the back of my mind is that I contract the virus myself and end up quarantined even before I go.
It’s still too early to make a decision but it’s not looking good. My hope are that any change to plans turn into a postponement of travel although I’m unsure when that would be. Maybe later in the year? As it is, the exchange rate with the US dollar is really poor right now…of course most of my visits home have been accompanied by this same situation. Maybe it’s a good way to avoid spending money?
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Travel
I’m going home next month for a visit after almost 2.5 years away. I organised my flights back in January, before all the covid-19 stuff began to dominate headlines. Fortunately I got my travel insurance before the cut-off so should be covered for any issues related should they occur. Well, hopefully not. As time goes on, of course, the chances of a change of plans becomes greater. It’s still weeks away so I will watch and wait to see how things go.
I’m travelling via Tokyo on ANA airlines, which now flies to Perth. This nicely breaks my trip into more reasonable flight lengths. I also discovered the seat space is far great with this airline than most others. I’m hoping to be less uncomfortable after flying this time. I have an 8 hour layover in Tokyo, all during the day so I really hope I’m able to sleep on what is essentially a red-eye flight. I’ll be flying in to San Francisco instead of LAX, which I’m hoping is beneficial. At the least it will be a change of scenery for me. On the way back I travel through Houston and end up with 18 hours in Tokyo. I’m planning to stay at a capsule hotel just to see what it’s like. The worst part on this leg of the trip is I have to disembark, collect my luggage then travel from Haneda Airport to Narita on my own. I’m sure it will be fine but I will be glad to get that over with. It will certainly be a different experience for me.
Anyway, now I’ve written this, I wonder if I will have to postpone my plans. Time will tell…