I’ve become somewhat fascinated lately about the way in which people apply hand sanitiser. It’s everywhere you go, from the supermarket to the pub. As I’ve observed others, it seems to me there’s two types of user. There’s the get it on, rub your hands about a bit kind of user. A bit like when men go to a public toilet! And there’s the slow, rub it in like it’s hand-moisturiser kind of user. Have I missed anyone?

Personally, I’m not one for applying publicly available hand sanitiser. Even though it’s “sanitiser”, I figure it’s best not to use the same sanitiser bottle that someone else has used. Gross!

As I’ve been to supermarkets and pubs (my two favourite establishments), I’ve noticed people have become less strict about “social distancing”. People seem less-inclined to stand on the spots on the floor.

Last Friday night, a friend and I went out for dinner, and it seemed like the restaurant we went to had the same number of patrons as normal. As we looked around the room and counted, we noticed they had just as many as they were licensed for. It was wonderful to catch up with my friend. She’s been avoiding social contact lately, as she has been living with breast cancer for the last two years. In fact, it was two years to the day since she was first diagnosed. Though we’ve caught up with video conferences, she’s only just begun to get out and about. She joined friends at a restaurant last weekend, and we caught up for an awesome meal (and a couple of bottles of wine), and great conversation.

I’m still enjoying working from home. In fact, in the last few days I’ve come to realise I PREFER working from home. At first, the blurred line between work and home life bothered me. The early advice was that you should stick to your working hours, and have clearly defined limits between the so-called 9-5 hours of work and the rest of your life. In reality, my job has never been like that. I’ve always done a fair bit of unpaid over-time. Over the last few months, however, I’ve been able to manage things much better. I really like to get up early and do a few hours, and then take a mid-morning break for a coffee, and a walk around the neighbourhood. Later in the morning, I’ve returned to work and have sometimes had meetings where I’ve also been able to do some lunch preparation. Before the meeting you put something on the stove, move your computer to the kitchen, and you can keep an eye on things, occasionally stirring the pot (both literally, and sometimes in the meeting too!!).

Over the last few months I’ve continued to take “work free Wednesday”. As mentioned previously, I’ve had some excess leave which I’ve been reducing on a weekly basis. In reality, I’ve continued to do some work meetings on Wednesday, as there hasn’t been much else to do. But now that shops and galleries have re-opened, I’m going to become a little more determined to have my “leave day” as an “actual leave day”, and not allow the two to blur.

I’m most looking forward to taking a few days off in a couple of weeks time to visit my family on the North Coast. There was a a Jet-star offer a couple of weeks ago which allowed me to snap up a $70 return flight, so of course I bought a ticket. In my family we have a fair few older people who I’ll be seeing, and we also have a new pregnancy, so I’ll be wanting to make sure I’m as healthy as possible, so will grab a COVID-19 test to protect them. Though I feel healthy, I participated in last weekend’s #blacklivesmatter rally, so I figure I should get tested to make sure my family will be okay.

Oh, and of course, I could use hand sanitiser, too, shouldn’t I?