I guess that after the combination of last year's sadnesses with mum, followed by the indulgences for my 50th, I thought that this year would be a little more sedate. We hadn't paid much notice to what was happening in China until we were in Whistler and I started to read about what was happening in Italy.
What I'd initially thought to be a mild SARS-like thing which would be contained, was obviously snowballing exponentially into something much worse, and it was becoming apparent that everything needed to be cancelled. Eventually it was the Australian State leaders who convinced the Feds to shut the country down, which would prove a bullet well dodged. But that also meant shutting down the hospitals for all elective surgery, and most of my employment and income.
There was a lot of PPE training and Covid intubating scenarios and practice, however in the end I had next to no contact with any Covid first-wave patients that I'm aware of. During the first lockdown, we were permitted to travel between houses, and with the kids home-schooling or on holidays, that meant most of our time was spent down at the Prom.
In fact it was almost the holiday we'd always wanted, and we did so much. Heaps of walking, beaching, kayaking, fishing, cooking, exploring, gathering mushies and chestnuts, bonfires, sunsets, some epic soccer matches with Balti, and an incredible amount of gardening such that I got several large stone paving projects completed which would have otherwise taken me years of weekends.
When Lucie broke her foot on the first day down there, I also got myself accredited at Foster Hospital which would come in handy later in the year!
