Lockdown, Western Australia style

Context: I decided to move back to Perth. I dithered about it long and hard (right up til when I was filling my fuel tank at 6am with a fully packed car, getting ready to pull out of Exmouth), but ultimately decided I'd rather take my chances in a global pandemic near other people rather than away from them. I imagine this means I won't have much chance at surviving a zombie apocalypse, where I'm pretty sure you're supposed to GTFO of population centers and find yourself a grocery store or whatever to take over as your home base, but that's a different kind of apocalypse story. In this one, having access to a ventilator (God forbid) seems more important than having access to ready fishing grounds (though Perth has plenty of fish if it comes to that). So Perth it is.

My landlord drives me crazy, as we've established, but he's an extraordinarily giving human being. I can't remember if I mentioned this in my last post, but Michael called me up to tell me I was welcome in his home about a week before I left Exmouth. There wasn't a room available in my old house, but he wanted to be sure I knew I had a place to stay in Perth. Two days before I left Exmouth I got a text from Wiebke and a call from Michael, both letting me know that one of my former housemates was moving home to Brisbane since her med school was closing its doors for the foreseeable future. They both wanted me to know I had a room to live in and people who wanted me there. Michael told me "you don't even need to let me know if you decide to come down, just let yourself in" and gave me directions for the hide-a-key. He said we'd figure out rent when I got here, but not to let that stop me; we'd work something out. I think it was that spirit of welcome, more than anything, that made me think coming back was the right call. And while Michael was the one who provided the physical space to live, my other friends down here were making sure I knew they'd take care of me if it came to that. I am so lucky.

Anyway, we're doing the social isolation thing here just like everywhere, though probably not as well as we should be. The girl who is living in my old bedroom is super: funny, sweet, kind. The poor thing just got here from Poland a month ago; talk about a welcome party for the kickoff of her global adventure. Irena, my Russian roommate, has been hiding in her room for most of the last two weeks. I always expect her to just start squirting me with bleach when I say hello in the kitchen, and she's appropriated one of the dish towels, kitchen sponges, and a set of dishes as her own. She's also sequestered her food in the shared pantry on the top shelf where we can't accidentally breathe on it. The other three of us, Weronika, Wiebke and me, had a movie night the other night with wine and snacks and giggling, so we're taking a different approach. To each her own!

Wiebke is the only one who's still gainfully employed. She works for HelloFresh and had been going door to door encouraging people to sign up. That obviously had to stop, but they were kind enough to offer her a job as an online customer support person! So she works from home and most weeks she gets a free box of food from their leftovers in the office. I volunteered my car for collecting it, so I get to share in the bounty. Excellent.

I keep thinking that I should be using these days of free time to do things besides cook and drink wine, so I've gotten motivated to work out a little. I told Michael I'd keep an eye on his house here, so I go over a few days a week to bring in the mail and water Grace's potted plants. It's maybe a half hour walk to get over there, so I get some sunshine in, stretch the legs, and feel like I'm giving him one less worry. I did some yoga yesterday (we'll see if I can get back in the rhythm of a regular practice), went for a run on Sunday (not likely to stick), and have been trying not to snack all day long.

Even pandemics can't keep millennials from their avocado toast!

I made a homemade loaf of no-knead bread and forgot to take photos of it, but it tasted amazing.

I also keep trying to kick my ass into gear about uploading all these photos I've been taking under water, but my GoPro and phone don't like each other, and my GoPro and laptop like each other even less, so it ends up being a more obnoxious, time-consuming task than it ought to. Even so, here are some cool things under water for your viewing pleasure:

All those guys are from my Jurien Bay outing back in November (I know, I'm terrible) when I went snorkeling with a bunch of cool cats and kittens from Perth Scuba.

That video ^^ is from Wiebke and my most recent sojourn down south. It's from Hamilton Bay, which is a protected nature reserve for rays. The rays were so intrigued by the GoPro - pretty sure they thought it was food - so they were all over us.

Today's agenda: job hunting. Wish me luck!