Board games

Tim said, "The three of us are stuck here together in lockdown, and we have all these really great board games. Why aren't we playing more board games?"

I said, "Because that doesn't sound like a fun way to spend our lockdown time?"

Tim said, "But why don't we try it? Let's play a board game."

I said, "Ok fine. We'll play one of your board games. In fact, we can play all of your board games. One per night until there is a widely distributed vaccine for covid-19. And we still won't get through all of them!"

...

Jonathan said, "Why does it take 45 minutes just to get through the rules? I am not doing this every night for the next 57,324,532 nights until we get through all your board games."

Jonathan said, "Why did you put that there? Are you a moron?"

I said, "No, he is a jerk."

Tim said, "Why are you two so loud?"

Jonathan said, "Why are you so grumpy?"

Tim said, "No talking when it's not your turn."

I said, "But I can sing! La la la la la!"

Jonathan said, "Is this game still going?"

I said, "Do you remember why we don't play board games? We have to go on living with each other in lockdown after this game is over."

Two and a half hours later, we finished playing the game Puerto Rico for the first time in eight years. (Tim has a little paper in each game -- he keeps track.)

As he left the living room, Tim's face was lit up with a perfect little happy smile.

Jonathan and I rolled our eyes at each other.

One done, 57,324,531 games to go.

The fabulous staycation

We postponed our January trip to the coast because of bushfires. Tim's March vacation was cancelled very last minute due to pandemic. The family July trip to the US was cancelled not long after, for the same reason. Since we're at home now 24/7, we can work 24/7 forever and ever and ever. Right?

Not right.

I was going insane. Just because I can work, doesn't mean I can work, if you know what I mean. Stress, headaches, zoom aches. Jonathan's school holidays arrived, and it was time to turn everything off and do something completely different.

We couldn't leave the country, and didn't really want to travel in a pandemic anyway, but how to signal to my body that we were doing something new and different? I switched beds. I decided to take the guest bed for a few days. Tim groaned a bit, so I assumed he'd be staying in our bedroom, but nope. He decided to join me. So then Jonathan looked around and decided that if no one was in the master bedroom, he'd change the sheets and stay there. So voila! New sleeping arrangements!

What do you do on a normal vacation? Lots of walking and sightseeing. I decided on a couple of very long urban walks, departing from our front doorstep, and taking the entire day. We would go hiking for our staycation! Far away from the wifi at home!

Only my first day off, it was pouring rain.  Buckets and buckets of rain. What do you do during a regular vacation when the weather is bad? Thinking back to winter vacations from my past, I decided upon puzzles and movies and books and hot chocolate!

Here is our puzzle from day 1:

And then on day 2 it was still pouring rain, so I did another one!

I realised after the fact that I had been working on the puzzle over Independence Day in the US, which in retrospect was a perfect day for the Washington DC puzzle.

Day 3: The rain was not as heavy, so I convinced the family to walk with me through the botanic gardens up to the river.

And then along the river. There are bike/pedestrian trails running for miles and miles along the river, and forking off into various suburbs. I have taken this trail when I have commuted by bicycle to Monash. Tim and Jonathan had never been on it. It's a fun trail. Where the highway crowds the river, they have floated the bike path out on the river itself.

Or dangled it between the freeway and the creek.

But after only an hour or so Tim and Jonathan began complaining. How long were we really going to walk? And soon after, we took the tram home.

Day four of the staycation: We walked to the park to the east, across two busy streets, and then around the small lake there. The views are really great.

Day five it was raining again. We had made a puzzle swap with neighbours. They took the cereal boxes and Washington DC puzzle. We picked up their map of Melbourne. This puzzle was a little more evil.

But I finished it anyway.

The other big news from day five, which probably deserves its own blog post but likely won't get one, is that we finally had our online citizenship ceremony. We were all sworn in as Australian citizens. Hence completing the Melbourne puzzle that day was apropos.

Day six: The sun came out!

We walked to the north, past the Shrine, closed and empty.

To the flower clock, where I took two photos without having to wait for any tourists to get out of my way.

We then wrapped around the tan track, and headed home by way of South Yarra, where the Victorian houses looked stunning in the sunlight.

These are pricey houses, very rarely for sale. The one across the street, similar in shape and age, had a sign up "accepting expressions of interest." I was interested. Tim looked it up when we got home. They want seven million dollars. I'm not that interested.

And one last photo from that walk: elm trees in the setting sunlight.

Day seven. A full week of staycation. Due to spreading of coronavirus, Melbourne went back onto full lockdown. Only four reasons to leave home: for health, e.g. to be tested for the virus, to shop for essential groceries, to exercise, and to work for essential workers. But I am inessential. And on staycation. For exercise, we walked up to Southbank. 

The National Gallery of Victoria was closed.

The Eureka tower was closed, shown on the right below. Anyway, it looks like it won't be the tallest building in Melbourne for long, if it hasn't already been overtaken by the building under construction on the left.

On Southbank there were no buskers. No tourists. Not many walkers. Almost no bikers. It was really eerie. The last time we were here, we were elbow to elbow with people.

But the views were still good.

Home again via the tan track.

By the time I've finished this post you'll have narrowed down my address. I guess you can come visit, then. Only not for at least six weeks, because we are locked down again until then.

Day eight: I took no photos on day eight. I had a massive migraine. I spent much of the day lying on the guest bed, because Jonathan had moved into my room and my own bed. It is never fair to have migraines on vacation -- staycation. I think I should get that day back to do over again.

Day nine. Rain again. We did our second puzzle from the neighbour puzzle exchange. And when I say "we" I mean Tim and Jonathan helped me spread it out the night before, but then abandoned it early. When I woke up before them the next day, I went into the living room and spent two hours finishing it before anyone else got up.

Day 10. We cleaned. Swapped sheets. Moved back into my own bedroom. Packed lunch. Off to bed early. Although we are in lockdown again, high school students in grades 11 and 12 went back to school as usual -- because the state hasn't figured out how it could do two different end of year requirements for high schools based on whether they were locked down or not.

So this morning, staycation over, we walked Jonathan to the train station so he could go off to school. And then I came home to seven hundred billion emails from a week away from work.

But thanks to a week away, I was ready for it.