As you walk around the main block in Lismore, you can hardly walk fifty metres without seeing another grouping of hand-printed signs stuck to empty shop windows. These signs promote everything from bands playing and theatre productions, to natural health workshops, and (increasingly) signs from businesses looking for staff or saying they can’t open due to staff shortages. It’s like in the early days of COVID, except the staff shortages now are because people have moved away, after last year’s catastrophic flood.

Earlier this week I wrote a post describing the sadness I was feeling about the apparent “lack of progress” in the city’s recovery. When I went to the supermarket on Monday, there weren’t a lot of people around town, and no one seemed all that happy. By Friday night, things had brightened up a little, with reasonable crowds at some of the city’s pubs.

It was also great this week to experience a “micro school reunion” with my bestie from high school . The last time Louise and I were in Lismore at the same time was for our school reunion in 2004. As it’s forty years since we finished at Richmond River High School, we resolved this week to hold a proper reunion on the October Long-Weekend. In the days since I’ve been calling it at a number of bars to find a suitable venue, or at least that’s my excuse.