WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO | This series, introduced in our classikON What’s ON (subscribe here), shares our Ambassadors thoughts at this time. They are voices of the audience, with a range of knowledge and history with music, for some music is their life and others it is an escape from their life.
For me, it was a strange time before this strange time.
I tore my calf in early December and had several weeks of bed-rest surrounded by laptops, phones, and my cat Killa. Plus, the sounds of the RFS Operations channel for the fires near my parents in the Blue Mountains. It got really close to them and Dad was out on trucks. They had no power and no land line due to the fire, so I only received a message from them every few days. In the last week of work for the year, the RFS comms mentioned their street and unable to concentrate, I moved my leave to start a bit earlier.
Fortunately, we all got to spend Christmas Day together in Sydney. It was magical.
Then fire came near my home in the Southern Highlands and on NYE morning, Killa and I hobbled onto the last train to Sydney before they closed the line.
January and February in Sydney was great. I was away from the fire when it exploded a few suburbs south and moved quickly north. There was some sense of Summer normalcy by watching the test at the SCG. Physiotherapy was close by. I didn’t have to travel 15 hours a week for work. I could get classikON set up for the year after the fire induced delay. Cricket, concerts, theater, bars, restaurants and friends were around the corner. Although, Killa missed his garden.
I’ve been working towards renovating my home and when the fire was out, my builder started without us in the way.
In March our team at work went to AB mode, I spent the first week working from a city apartment and the second week back in the office. As I watched the lock downs increasing and a renovation stage finishing, it was time to come home. Since March 28, I’ve only left my fence-line a few times to go to my local shop for milk and parcels.
Missing an entire Summer in the garden has provided many opportunities and the autumn weather has been lovely. Changing my work hours for early starts, late finishes, and day-time gardening breaks; spreads the loads on technology that very quickly had to go from a culture of supporting flexible work agreements to encouraging working from home. Work was really busy, plus checking in on how colleagues were managing with the rapid change. I’ve had a home office for decades through my previous business, classikON, and working from home in the Highlands part-time, but for some it was completely new and unnatural. I supplemented my home office with items from StageKings and regularly check their site to see what new items they have on offer.
It was strange not having the extended family in the Highlands for Easter, but we caught up via zoom and watched a concert on Melbourne Digital Concert Hall, then reconnected for “drinks” afterwards.
I started the year in a city bubble away from the fires and now I’m in a Highlands bubble away from COVID-19. I generally talk to my neighbours over the fence. During Summer we would normally have had drinks and coffee catch ups, but they were mainly interrupted by fire, not COVID-19. Almost all my fabulous local shops now deliver, so as a non-driver in a car tilted location, I’m in a better position and it is great to keep supporting these local suppliers.
I miss the occasion of going to live performance, having dinner beforehand, escaping to another place during the performance, and debriefing afterwards. I don’t yet, but will look forward to getting dressed up for going out as well. I’m looking forward to getting to more performances in the Highlands, when the time comes, instead of travelling back to Sydney.
