Released
The lockdown is finally ending. As of tomorrow at midnight, we’ll finally be allowed to shop at stores, to see friends from more than one other household at a time, to go to the pub or a restaurant again. These three months have felt like eternity, and as my partner can attest to, I have been very impatient and grumpy at times. But it was worth it: today there were zero covid cases in the entire state of Victoria.
I am so relieved to get our freedom back, but anxious about the future. I really hope we don’t have to do this again. And as things get worse and worse in the US, and my own good fortune can only do so much to make up for watching everyone else I know struggle. Now it will be our turn to conspicuously have fun while others go back into lockdown, likely with less impressive results.
Nothing this year really feels like a victory, but I’ll take what I can get for now.
Here are some things I am looking forward to doing in ye olde Melbourne now that I’m allowed to leave my house:
Sit on a tram for an hour to go the distance a car could go in ten minutes
Spend $25 on a cocktail at a bar where the bartenders wear suspenders
Spend the price of a down payment on avocado toast at a cafe
Sit on the beach next to faux-hippies smoking terrible weed in St. Kilda
Be subjected to a bad busker in the CBD
Lecture people about how much worse things are in the US, but IN PERSON this time
Complain about overpriced booze and the relentless measuring of drinks at Australian bars, but IN PERSON this time
Explain why bars are better than pubs to anyone who will listen
FINALLY EXPLORE THE CAFES AND RESTAURANTS IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD (SUBURB) THAT I MOVED TO THREE MONTHS AGO
That’s all for now.