If you don’t follow the twitter page Year Progress, your probably better off. It’s a dangerously deceptive and more often than not, disheartening status bar that always seems to be more full than it should be. This written update comes at the timely halfway point of this eventful year. I did have a blog almost ready a few months ago but due to my negligence and procrastination by the time it was ready to publish it was well outdated (even more so than my Father’s sense of fashion). So anyway, with some ctrl+c and ctrl+v magic I’ll fill you in now.
We crashed through the first quarter of 2021 like a freight train. Our thriving Melbourne metropolis was once again humming after a period (or an era) of mundane inactivity. How quickly our lives and schedules were once again over filled. Like toddlers on a sugar high we burned off excess energy by hastily relieving ourselves of the burdens of spare time and saved money. At the same time, signs of the cold season appeared as the air grew teeth and the once sporadic appearance of down jackets and beanies became more and more frequent. Every year I am still surprised by how cold it gets. Apparently as we lose daylight savings we also lose the sun. Melburnians now scurry from one heated room to the next, always with pocketed hands and hunched shoulders. The WA boy inside me always yearns for home around this time of year. Fortunately and unfortunately a few Perth trips were coming up.
Given the dubious nature of Australia’s inter-state travel, trips to Perth carry a weight of nervousness and unpredictability. The ever-looming threat of a 14-day quarantine is constantly anchored in the back of our minds. After our Christmas experience under the tyranny of the hypersensitive WA government we’re extra nervous. However, if any good learnings have been achieved in last 18 months it’s that anything can and may happen but that’s no reason to live in fear. The heart breaking news of my Grandmother passing was the call for sombre trip home. For the occasion it was a wonderful weekend to see family and friends and a beautiful time to commemorate the life and memory of Grandma. A few weeks later we were lucky enough to make a return trip to witness our friends get “married”. The echo of another COVID interrupted event from 2020. The celebration of their commitment a year on was just as sweet as if it occurred on time. Two equally important and opposite occasions which called for dog sitters, packed luggage and quarantine scares.
Around that time Ash and I were in deep conversations about her work. The anxious stress of her nine-to-five was beginning to bleed into other areas of her life. Sleepless nights and nauseous stomachs were the bi-product of an employment which slowly and painfully degraded her soul. It’s distressing to witness your loved one carry a burden which you wish you could shoulder yourself. The limited support I offered was well short of adequate and at some point down the line we decided enough was enough. It was an obvious, but by no means easy, decision to hand in her resignation. With no where to go and no means of income it was a leap of faith and fear.
And when one leap doesn’t seem to get you there, two will usually make the distance. After some persuation from our business-savvy brother-in-law, the plunge into self-employment seemed like a pretty inviting option. Thus, Tove Interiors (click the link!) was launched. A cute and stylish family run company to provide interior design services for any kind of residential renovations (did that sell it to you?). So yeah, I’m now the husband of a business owner. A lot of perks here to collect but mainly I’ll be attempting to claim Netflix subscription as a work expense.
As Tove was beginning to take shape, Melbourne’s infallible hotel quarantine system had an EXTREMELY rare breakout. Mix this in with a few rogue citizens crossing borders and you get a near little cluster of COVID exposure sites. And by neat I mean unpredictable. And by unpredictable I mean a forest fire that ran rampant through our city. Raid sirens rang out as we ran screaming into the safety of our homes. This was serious. Only the brave or the stupid would dare go outside and risk flu-like symptoms. Thus Victoria’s workforce were called to stay at home. However, the overlords at AFL house have very different interpretations of “stay at home”. Victorian AFL players and staff were whisked out of the state with barely enough time to pack a bag. Somehow my name was deemed important enough to warrant including on our travel list. Ahead of our clash with Freo at Optus I accepted my sentence of a week’s quarantine in Sydney.
This was the first time Ash and I spent extended time away from each other. Feelings were glum and multiplied by a poor wife abandoned during a lockdown. Ash didn’t enjoy it one bit but she took it on the chin as a loyal and supportive partner. It was a new experience for me to travel with the team and a great opportunity to get more involved with the club. We got the win over Freo and arrived home with smiles on our faces, naively thinking that period was behind us. Two weeks and a hard loss later we were once again sent away for the sake of the game. Same story, same trip back home but still no closer to seeing any family. Optus Stadium or Mars, it didn’t make a difference. AFL is an odd industry. We are by no means essential. It’s still just a game but the lengths that are reached to keep it alive are extraordinary. But football, and more generally sport, holds a piece of Australia’s heart and I can only hope that punters turn a smile as they watch games each weekend when they’re locked inside.
I’ll probably write some more about my footy experiences this year in a future blog but I don’t need to drag on about it here. 2021 is off to a cracker. The pointy end of my PhD approaches too with about a year left on my scholarship. I couldn’t care less about that now though. Once Tove takes off, I’ll never work another day of my life. So please give her business some love on your socials, I really, really need it!