Stuff that happened in April

I've hung onto this blog about 15 years longer than most of the people I started blogging with. At first, it was a fun place to throw out my thoughts on life and the world, and hear others' thoughts in the comments. It was also a place to let far away family and friends know what was happening in our lives, when they couldn't see us frequently. 

And then the world moved on beyond blogs, and we got used to living far away from family and friends. But the blog was still a fun place to put out thoughts and photos, for me, writing for my Future Self. Sometimes, now that I am Future Self, I look back at old posts and remember Past Self, as though Past Self and Current Self and Future Self are really very different. They don't feel different. They're actually all here all the time, bouncing around in my head when I would prefer quiet. Needing therapy. And yet, here I am. Posting. 

Let me also state for the record that it has become more tricky, deciding what to write, and finding the energy. My life is all tied up in the lives of other people in complicated ways, and a lot of the interesting, funny, thought provoking stories I would tell are not really my stories to tell at all. And even if they are my stories, I think of them while walking, or working, or on the train, and forget them before I sit down to write. If I bother to sit down to write. Writing takes energy, and I've been saving up energy for Important Wordle, or similar tasks.

I've also developed complicated opinions and world views that don't match the world views of the people I was writing to back when I started the blog -- as though those people aren't just versions of Me, versions who have also moved on and developed their own uncomfortable opinions.

In any case, while writing an update on April for my family, I realised I might want to put some of that update here. For the occasional reader. For Future Me. And also because I couldn't really remember what happened long ago in April until I started looking at photos. 

So here goes. Stuff that happened in April.

1. The Grand Prix came back to Melbourne. In 2020, the Grand Prix was the first event shut down by Covid-19, when a team member from Italy tested positive the night before the race. And then the city shut down. And the borders didn't open in time for a Grand Prix in 2021. But in April, 2022, the Grand Prix came back. 

The mysterious reader in my head will be wondering why we care about the Grand Prix. Of all the updates, why that one? We are not really race car people, here. 

The reason why is that we live only a few minutes' walk from the track. So when the Grand Prix comes back, it comes back with lots and lots of noise. Cars we cannot see whine around the track nearby, all day. Helicopters just hover. And hover. And hover. Good grief, helicopters. Take a break!

And there are airplane shows in the daylight.

Fireworks at night.

Noise. 

April began with noise.

2. Easter.

Easter is a big national holiday here. The Melbourne museum only closes two days of the year: Christmas, and Good Friday. The university was closed. 

To celebrate, we took a long walk through the Botanic Garden. 

... And home past the trees turning for autumn.

We didn't go away for the Easter break this year. But we did spend a little more time walking. We took a long walk along the bay on Easter Sunday.

And then came home and enjoyed a fancy Easter dinner, motivated by Jonathan, who said we needed to be more serious about celebrating holidays. It takes more thought to plan a fancy meal, though, when the family now only cooks vegan meals. What replaces the roast lamb or turkey for a holiday dinner? (Answer: just omit the roast. There is enough of the other foods to go around.)

3. ANZAC day is also in April, the week after Easter this year. ANZAC day is a day to remember the lives lost in war since World War I. There is a dawn ceremony held each year, also not far from our home. I was tentatively planning to attend this year....

Except I was invited to attend a conference in the US virtually that weekend. I woke up on Saturday morning at 5am to listen to talks, and to give a talk at 8am. And then on Sunday at 5am to listen. So on Monday morning, when I did wake up at 5am in time to get dressed and go to the ceremony, I actually rolled over and went back to bed.

Yes. I am also disappointed in my Past Self who couldn't be bothered to get out of bed for such a major event held in-person for the first time in two years. But I also sympathise with past self. Unless life is full of other stressors, it can be hard to get out of bed. 

And then back to work. 

And that was April.

You see? There are some interesting fun things that happened, but nothing that really needs special noting. And if there had been something needing special noting, I probably wouldn't have noted it here, because I was too busy living it. That seems to be the problem with keeping a blog.

But I'll try to keep up anyway. Because I don't know how to stop.