Another seven weeks has passed since my last post. I think the reason is obvious: nothing really has happened. Still working remotely and going for runs and bike rides. I guess I’m now first-time doing winter biking as the winter weather is not so unfriendly for biking compared to Finland. But hey I once saw my own breath while riding back home after sunset. So, the temperature goes usually down under 10 degrees Celsius at night. During daytime it’s not uncommon to go for a run or bike ride with shorts and short sleeve shirt. I guess it’s comparable to second half of September in Finland except it hasn’t rained that much.
The corona restrictions in the state and country have been eased gradually and since the start of June it’s now allowed to spend night somewhere else than your home. Also, at that point we have been able to go dine-in in restaurants similarly to Finland. During the first week of that I took the opportunity and went to eat lunch at the centre of Melbourne. The experience was a bit different in the hamburger place I went in. First, I had to read a QR-code to register into the restaurant for contact tracing and then go straight to table marked for eating. In the table there was another QR-code, which opened a site where I selected what to buy and paid within the web site with my card. Then they brought the burger to my table. Nevertheless, it was a nice change to the usual lunch at my couch ordered in from Uber Eats.
As now it’s possible to use accommodations outside of home, I’m finally having my first mini road trip as during the next weekend I’m driving to the Great Ocean Road. Plan is to go and see the coastline, some waterfalls, redwood forest and hopefully some nice animals caught in front of my camera. At least the rental car is not too expensive as the smallest option is only about 15€ per day. So, it means it’s another go at the left-side traffic but generally it should be easier outside of the city centre. I have been a bit lucky as over a week now there has been some corona hotspots in Melbourne with daily new infections being double digits. Because of that those suburbs that have the hotspots are going back to stricter restrictions. The area I’m living is not among them, but the affected areas are on the west, north and east side of this one.
It looks like that I don’t have to think about visiting Finland this year as just last week the tourism minister of Australia said that it’s likely for the borders to stay closed until next year. But I don’t stress too much about it as Zoom or other similar video conferencing tools work well to see friends and family. As in the last post I mentioned taking part in #RemoteworkBeardChallenge, I think I’m dropping out. I have seen now what it is like without any substances that would keep it tidy. The photo in the last post still looked ok, but it was now getting out of hand. Well nothing that a visit to a barber wouldn’t fix. 😁
Beardie, before 
Beardie, after
First kangaroos (not wild) spotted 
Another view of the skyline of Melbourne 
Colorful bathing boxes at Brighton Beach 
Albert Park 
Almost round rainbow from the apartment window 
Another street art 
Jone's adventures Down Under 