Taking it Day by Day

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I'm very lucky to be living and working in a house where I can stay safe from the pandemic. It means I can continue to stay in Australia while even earning some money at the same time, and while nothing is open and social distancing is needing to be practised, it's a good time to save money. Plus, Australia is not on full lockdown (yet) and may be one of the much safer and less affected countries, especially compared to the UK.
However, it's still difficult to not be concerned for the future. I'm a big planner, and it's hard to not know what will come in three months time. I'd love to plan some travels for when I'm done here, but it's impossible to tell when, or indeed if, that might be possible.

Settling down to work in a family home was always going to be a strange adjustment, and now I can't go out as much it's even harder to get used to a change that drastic that fast. When compared to the typical backpacker life, this is completely different; swapping bunk beds for my own room, late nights for early mornings, and beer bottles for baby bottles. Instead of everything being covered in sand and goon, everything is now covered in sticky fingers and glitter.

That's all fine as living in a lovely house with delicious meals cooked for you every night is a welcome respite from backpacker life. But the part I'm missing the most is of course the best thing about solo travelling: meeting other people. So, like everyone else in the world at the moment, I'm doing what I can to keep in contact with friends I've met on my travels, friends from home and family back home in lockdown. Family Quizzes have been a recent favourite, keeping me sane and grounded.

I am lucky that in Queensland not everything is locked down just yet, and I can still travel a tiny bit and see some sights of Brisbane. But this I really just mean some natural sights of the area, where I can stay by myself away from other people and not have to touch anything. My new favourite place is Mount Coo-Tha and J.C. Slaughter falls, where I'm lucky enough to be just a 20 minute drive from. I'll definitely be visiting a lot more now since the kids have gone back to kindergarten (which hopefully tells you how much safer Aus is than the UK at the moment), so I have more free time.
Down at J.C. Slaughter

Plus, if there's anything we can take from this pandemic it's that if there's something you want to do and it's possible and safe to do it, then do it. Don't wait around as you never know when it may not be possible again, so you can't take the small things for granted. And something as mundane as walking to the shops may be very exciting.

Hope everyone is keeping safe and sane back in the UK, sending lots of love. If you are bored in lockdown send me a message, I'd love to hear from you!

Shepp x

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