Funemployment

I can't help but feel like all my funemployment has been practice for this lockdown business. All those childhood summers that didn't last quite long enough, all those Christmas vacations that could have lasted just a few days longer, last Sept/Oct when I was preparing for my departure to Australia - all of it was just a preview of what social isolation would be like. Can I just tell you: I LOVE social isolation! No pants required most days, so many endless hours to read all the books I want, not even allowed to go out so no need to feel FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) about social events that I only sort of wanted to go to anyway. It's amazing. I've been giving some thought into my extroversion and can't decide if that's actually accurate... I'm way too content living like this to be a real life extrovert, right? Or maybe I am still an extrovert but having beautiful relationships that sustain me by phone, video chat, email, Facebook, and in person in my shared house is making up for the lack of social outings in the real world. Not sure.

Every time I talk to anyone back home, I feel like a broken record: "I am SO LUCKY to be in Western Australia right now." Seriously though. Nov-Jan I was so lucky to be out west and missing the bushfires that devastated the east coast, now I'm living in a place that has such a firm hold on this virus that we're talking about lifting restrictions SAFELY (unlike at home where literally thousands of people are dying every day and they're going to re-open the economy anyway, which I just cannot wrap my head around). We're on Day 7 in a row of no new infections in WA, down to a total active case count of 14, but still restaurants and bars are closed (except for takeout), travel is still restricted within the state, and we're still limited to social groups of ten or fewer people. I realize that the US and Australia are different countries with different norms, but, like, this is a pretty free country, too. I'm not living in North Korea here. But when I've mentioned the state borders being closed with mandatory 14 day quarantines if you cross for anything other than government-sanctioned reasons (ie. you're a truck driver hauling goods, you're a health care worker, etc), everyone back home is like "well that just wouldn't work in the US because it's a free country" and my mind is blown. For the same reasons that we don't allow people to yell "FIRE!" in crowded venues, I can't imagine why public safety isn't being taken more seriously. I digress.

I'm spending my days, as I mentioned, in comfy clothes and reading books. Wiebke and Weronika (pronounced Veronica, if I haven't mentioned that already) and I cook together a lot of nights and we take turns doing the dishes and it all feels pretty much like utopia. Bit like being in college again, actually, with the sometimes day drinking, constant laughter, and fun outings to buy groceries. I leave from time to time to hang out with Nat and Mick - they just moved to a new house last week that is LITERALLY around the corner from my house and it's only magnifying the feeling that I'm re-living college - and with Simon, who has been introducing me to the most beautiful dairy products I never knew existed. For instance, non-homogenized, full cream milk. OH MY GOODNESS. I love milk, always have. Grew up on 2% or Whole Milk when Mom decided to treat us. But I had no idea that "Whole Milk" at home is NOT the same as full cream milk. Simon had some full cream stuff and I asked to try it and I honestly can't imagine something more wholesome and delicious. It's basically like drinking melted ice cream (which, fair enough, some people might think is gross. But not me.). So then I found some full cream CHOCOLATE milk at the grocery store and had to try it. My mind was blown. There was like a 2 inch cap of cream at the top, a quarter inch of separated chocolate on the bottom, and drinking it is like having the world's richest chocolate milkshake. Heaven. Just this week, I learned about double cream. Think yogurt consistency, but you just eat a dollop of it with fresh fruit or a homemade apple/rhubarb crumble (don't ask how much butter/sugar was involved in the making) and think to yourself "yes, yes; I could die happy now." Anyway, all of this does NOT jive well with my complex feelings about how cows are treated in the dairy industry and certainly doesn't help me in my quest to consume less dairy, but it's a weird time we're living in and if double cream and the world's richest chocolate milk make things feel better, so be it.

One of the best parts about being back in Perth is having easy access to scuba diving again! Exmouth, though located next to one of the most biodiverse reef systems in the world, doesn't have the easy shore diving Perth does. You need a boat to get to most of the sites up there. So I've been soaking up as much under water time here as I can!

Easter Morning dive with Nat

Diving with the boys: Colin, Rich, and Mick (he's hiding on the far right by his car!)

For a while, social distancing rules stipulated that you could only be out in public in groups of two (and it was recommended that both people live in the same house). Nice thing about diving, though, is that everyone can very easily get ready at their own car, you can walk to the water at a distance, and then convene under water as safe dive buddies! A friend I made up in Exmouth, Corinne, also moved back down this way when the borders were shutting down, so I've gotten to dive with her since being back in Perth. Being able to soak up these last few weeks of warm weather as we settle properly into autumn has been so so good.

When I was up in Exmouth, I was slathering sunscreen on constantly throughout the day and was still browning up fast. Skin cancer rates here are higher than almost anywhere else in the world and locals swear that you should buy sunscreen here and not bring it in from elsewhere (like the US) because the formulas are different. Stronger. So anyway, I was spending so much time on the water up there that I decided I needed a bathing suit with more coverage and I bought this utterly charming long sleeved suit that I got to wear exactly one time before moving back down here. We were having a game night two weeks ago and I got so excited telling them about this suit that I can't wait to get to wear again that I fashion showed it to them. And then we were talking about flannel shirts (my one true love, other than full cream chocolate milk) and so this happened:

Floral bathing suit + Flannel = High Fashion

Anyway, talking about how much I love this suit made me want another one and there was a SALE and so, long story, I now have two long sleeved bathing suits.

Dad's Daily Report today mentioned his concern that I not slip into alcoholism while living this hedonistic, college-esque life. So today is Day 1 of "Help Dad Stop Worrying" dry spell. So the W's and I are just back from the grocery store where I picked up some new non-caffeinated teas (I can't drink tea past noon or I can't sleep) and I have some chicken stock I made last week that I can sip on as well. This afternoon Wiebke is working, I'm finishing this post (which they've been reminding me for like 3 weeks that I'm supposed to write), and Weronika is making homemade waffles with the waffle maker she bought this week. It's a murky weather week in Perth - winter seems to have arrived with all its wind and chilly rain - so I'm having mushroom soup and some of my new tea for lunch. Bought some nice looking ricotta and a good loaf of bread so I'll make little ricotta/honey toasts for appetizers and then I'm on dinner duty tonight: cheddar/zucchini/carrot fritters with a dill mayo side. Yum :)

Weronika made these sweet potato fritters last week and they are SO GOOD. Little spinach and tomato on top with a dollop of unsweetened yogurt. Bomb.

She's gonna be so pissed I snuck this photo of her

Wiebke's 30th birthday was last Friday and Weronika is an event planner at heart. So we did some sneaky shopping to get decorations and ended up with this:

Wiebke is immune to the siren call of sweets, so we got her a kilo of hummus instead of cake

Weronika's middle-of-the-night handiwork

Birthday Girl

I taught them how to play beer pong but we couldn't find pong balls so we used toy cars!

Fruit for dipping in melty chocolate

 

It was an awesome day. Plus, while I spent the morning helping Nat and Mick move into their new house around the corner, Wiebke was on dog-sitting duty with Cooper and they got to go play all morning!

As I do at the end of every post, I'll try to be better about updates on the blog :) For the last month or so, I've been reading as much as possible to take advantage of my Kindle Unlimited subscription of books. I got through almost all of Jeff Wheeler's books (really fun fantasy novels with magic and fierce lady characters) before my subscription ended yesterday. So now that I don't have that as a time constraint, I'll be free to blog!

Also just saw the latest gov't numbers and we're 8 days in a row with no new infections and down to 11 active cases! YAY PUBLIC HEALTH POLICIES THAT WORK!!!