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.