(kinda) Lockdown Missive #12

9 February and 23 February 2020

Hello all,

I thought I would avail myself of　t e c h n o l o g y　and send another electronic mail with text and images to update you all on recent developments in our household.

Though we’ve ‘endured’ a brief lockdown, this isn’t quite a lockdown missive. Though I honestly thought they would extend the five day ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown. Fortunately this was not the case. So I bring you images of Archer’s and Finn’s respective hairs-cut (like governors-general; attorneys-general; poets laureate etc.). And even if you saw them already, I am going to clog up your inboxes with moar.

Hair necessities

It took quite a while to get Archer in the barber’s chair for his first haircut back in...2017 I think? He wouldn’t sit still and definitely didn’t like being more than arm’s length away from us. We had no such problems with Finn. The hairdresser was really good with him and knew exactly how to pacify him (it’s amazing what kids will do for Chuppas-Chup). He sat pretty still as piles of hair fells from his head.

While this was going on, I stood by Archer as he got a very fashionable cut. But, being an old hand, he was fine with it all. $50 later, both boys had very stylish hair cuts!

Miscellaneous adventures in the outdoors

Since the last not-missive, we’ve been on a few adventures to various places. Of course, in the context of our lives, ‘adventure’ means travelling to a destination in our car along a made road, probably getting out at the other end and walking before returning to the car, finding a cafe and heading home.

The brief lockdown limited our range for a few days but in the grand scheme of things, it was fine. Playgrounds remained open (thank dog) so we were easily able to wander around and avail ourselves our nearby parks.

Prior to the lockdown, I took the kids to Birdsland Reserve in Belgrave which is a lovely bush reserve and wetlands. I thought getting there nice and early on a Saturday morning would mean some peace and quiet. Oh, Richard, you simple fool. Of COURSE dozens of Trailrunners take over the park, running up and down the usually peaceful bush tracks. There’s something about any level of formal organisation that spoils otherwise nice things. Like running is totally fine, but organise dozens of them in one otherwise quiet place at an otherwise quiet hour and it’s kinda annoying.

But I digress, I did enjoy not moving out of their way. After all, it is a public park with a shared path and I’m just as entitled to stop dead on the path and look at the ducks with my kids as those twats are to infest it with their huffing and puffing and oh my god some of you people should not be running at all.

Anyway, it’s (usually) a lovely bush reserve and wetlands. Ideally, visitors don’t get wet from the wetlands but it wouldn’t be an adventure if one of our children didn’t fall in a lake. Just as Icarus flew too close to the sun, Archer fished with his net too close to the edge of the lake. Splash (see the aftermath in the image below).

The following day, all four of us visited Grants Picnic Ground just past Belgrave in the Dandenongs and enjoyed a walk along one of the tracks.

Just to prove I don’t have some irrational hatred of people trying to better themselves through fitness, there were runners along this track and I was perfectly fine with it. See, they decided individually that it would be great to go for a run. Fantastic! Great for them, I say.

It's a great place to walk and, well, do anything really. After the walk, we zoomed up to Menzies Creek in time to see Puffing Billy toot by. The Menzies Creek station (which used to be not a whole lot more than a shed) now hosts the Puffing Billy Museum with a whole heap of interesting stuff. We must ride again!

On the Australia Day public holiday, we visited Werribee Zoo because why not. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we saw many animals even wilder than our own children.

I finally got around to building the bike Finn got for Christmas—though I couldn’t find the seat...so had to borrow one from another bike 😬. Having had the benefit of watching Archer and his bike, Finn is already burning rubber around the house. It’ll be interesting to see how he goes on the paths outside—I think he’ll be on to it quicker than Archer was.

I’ve also been riding a bit more, taking the opportunity to ride into the city a couple of weekends ago (only 20km...it brings great shame upon my younger self). With Archer on his own bike (and too heavy for my bike’s child seat), Finn now occupies that position by poking me in the back and asking endless questions as I puff along hauling his heft.

On the weekend just past, I took the kids to Healesville Sanctuary and we had a ball. It’s such a lovely part of the world and is always nice wandering around and seeing things furry and spiky. Conranderrk Creek runs through the Sanctuary (eventually flowing into the Yarra) and in the warmer months, they open a ‘creek play’ area which Archer just loves. He is essentially the Siren of the Creek, chilling in the very chilly water. It was difficult to extract him from there.

Favourite animals included: the reptiles of the reptile house, echidnas, koalas, emus ('ow ow nanna no') and whatever crap they had had to get from the gift shop. My favourite parts of the day included: getting a coffee as soon as we got there, eating hot chips and getting another coffee before we left.

We don’t need no education

Archer has returned to kinder for 2021 and surprisingly the kinder remained open during the brief lockdown. They ease the kids into it, beginning with 2-hour sessions and slowly expanding them to the full day. Finn’s also been easing into child care. He will be starting there soon but he’s had orientation sessions to help him find his way before we leave him there (*gulp*) by himself this week! But this is progress. We look forward to having three full days of actual time at home to work until office life returns to some normality (for me anyway).

Conclusion

Well, the end of another period of time. Hooray. Congratulations for doing that thing.