Seeing the Family Again

The hardest thing about being in isolation is being separated from our children and grandchildren. At least that part is drawing to a close. With the latest relaxation of the restrictions, we can now have up to five people visit our houses. That meant that we would finally be able to spend time together as a family. It had been over ten weeks since I have been able to talk face to face with my grandson and I was missing our fun time enormously.

Our plan was to make a quick day trip back to our house in Melbourne, so that we could share a meal and some time with our eldest son and our grandson. We arrived home just before lunchtime and were relieved to find that everything was just as we had left it. It did seem a little strange to have so much space to move around in, after being in much smaller quarters for the past two months.

One of our favourite local eating places is the Oven Kraft cafe, but we were worried that the pandemic might have closed it permanently. We were quite happy to see that it was still open and serving their normal range of food, albeit take away only. Although it would have been great to sit outside to enjoy our lunches, that was not possible. We sat at our dining tables and opened the packaged food. It was a reminder of our previous life.

I then packed my chain saw and went to our son's house to help with some tidying of the back yard. The saw does not get used very often nowadays, so it was a bit exhilarating to hear that old ear splitting roar once again.

Later in the day we all sat down to a take away pizza dinner. I showed my grandson how to pick padlocks (they are never too young to get started). I even unearthed my old collection of marbles to show him that I used to be something of a marbles champion. It was probably the only sport that I was any good at, and I still have a huge number of old marbles as evidence. I am not sure if marbles still have a place in the modern world, but he seemed interested enough to want a bagful to take home with him. Since I am unlikely to play with them again anytime soon, I had no problem handing them over.

We even had time to watch a fascinating video about the landing of the ESA probe on a comet. What a staggering piece of astro navigation that was.

Then we locked up the house and drove back to Inverloch. It had been a long day, but a very significant step in our return to regular life.Baca lagi