Almost Like Christmas

Life in lockdown does tend to become a little monotonous. In our previous lives we had lots of things to look forward to. Visits to the grandchildren, bike rides with our friends, coffees by the lake, lunches at our favourite cafes. The weeks tended to pass quickly because there was always something to do or a place to go.

Now that most of those things are no longer possible, the days do tend to drag by rather slowly. There is only a limited amount of time you can spend reading books (or picking locks) before you start yearning for something else to do. Today was a Thursday, not that it really makes much difference any more. Every day is the same. Rather than calling them by the days of the week, I have started to classify them by their weather type - lovely day, windy day, wet day, etc.

On a normal Thursday we would have had the regular Thursday ride to look forward to. We might have been riding the Warby Trail and having lunch at the Carriage Cafe, or maybe we would be riding to Waterways and having lunch at the Nest, or maybe exploring a brand new trail. Thursdays were always active, and the time spent with our friends was precious.

But what about today ? The sunshine had retreated for a while and it had been replaced with a canopy of grey clouds. It was not perfect riding weather, but I had another idea. We had previously noticed that the big bakery in Inverloch was apparently still open, I suggested to Maggie that we could buy a couple of take away pies for lunch. She did not seem convinced, but reluctantly agreed to come along, provided she could marinate herself with antiseptic every few minutes.

AT least we did not have to touch the door handle, as the doors opened by themselves. Inside the huge bakery all the tables and chairs had been stacked against the rear wall. The place was deserted and it looked so sad. This place is usually one of the busiest places in the town. It just looked wrong for it to be completely empty The display cases were still fully stocked with pies and a wide range of cakes, but there were no customers to buy them.

The young assistant seemed happy to have something to do. I commented on how sad it was to see the place empty and she replied that it was like that every day now. I could not help but wonder how much longer the business will be able to survive under such circumstances. We bought a couple of cakes as well, just to help the bakery (and also because they looked delicious).

The other highlight of the day was the food delivery from Woolworths on line. We have been ordering our groceries once a week from the Woolwoths in Wonthaggi. Although the process is rather tedious, it does avoid the need to attend the store and I have to admit that it is sort of exciting to have a driver bring all the parcels to our door.

When you are of great age, you do quickly forget what you might have ordered. That means that opening each bag is a bit like opening a lucky dip parcel. You find all sorts of stuff that you cannot remember ordering. To add even further to the excitement, we find that Woolworths will randomly replace out of stock items with other items that they seem to think you might be interested in. We had ordered blueberries, but got raspberries instead ! Just as well we both like raspberries.

It was almost like Christmas Day.Read more