Unexpected things I’ve missed during the lockdowns
Melbourne, Australia is now up to the sixth lockdowns since the pandemic began. SIXTH! In total we’ve crossed the 6 month mark of time spent in lockdown so far. In all that time, there’s the obvious things that you come to miss: missing a social life, travelling overseas, attending concerts and the like. However, here are 3 things that I really didn’t expect to miss so much.
Nature & the little hikes
I live right next to CBD of Melbourne which has a plethora of places to walk, run and explore that I’m very thankful for. Over the past few years, I had taken to exploring little trails and hikes within an hour radius just to be a bit further away from the hustle and bustle. While I do miss my overseas travel, these little day trips are the things I’m missing the most at the moment.
The first few lockdowns opened my eyes to what was there right in our own backyard. Somehow, I miss these more than visiting exotic places since I know they’re so close, but outside my artificial 5km boundary.
Being an outsider on weekdays
Normally, I don’t have any time free during a weekday except maybe once a month maximum (though generally this only really happens 2–3 times/year). One of my favourite things to do on these rare occasions is to saunter down to a cafe after sleeping in and enjoy my coffee so slowly that it’s almost cold by the last sip.
I know I’m normally part of rushing around of the day to day, but I just love being an outsider on the weekdays and watching the world go by. Unfortunately, with rolling lockdowns and slowly easing restrictions, that buzz of activity is replaced by desolate streets and closed cafes.
My morning commute on public transport
Yes, really. I used to routinely take public transport to work everyday and given so many of the exposure sites have been along train/tram lines, I decided to drive until everything settles back down.
Melbourne (in my opinion) has a pretty decent public transport system and I simply loved the 30mins or so of sitting on a train, listening to a podcast and editing photos on my phone. Most of my Instagram posts used to be edited on these rides to and from work!
It was almost a meditative way to bookend both the start and end of the workday and it’s the ritual I’ve surprisingly missed the most!
What about you? Have you missed anything unusual during these strange times?
Howdy, I’m Raffy — an anaesthetist, who dabbles in photography, podcasting, coding and email newsletters. If you liked this post, come say hi over at raffyhalim.com
