Livin' La Vida Lockdown Day 26: Happier times?

When this picture was - 'happier times'

At the time - we both thought it can't get worse than this - sterilising groceries, all the luggage, the tools, doing the drop everything into a washing machine upon entry into the house, wearing masks all the time, bleach, sanitiser, the fear of airports ramping up, taxi drivers starting to feel nervous around tourists, Singapore slowly becoming a no go zone for work, all of Asia creeping day by day towards locking us in and locking us out.

At the time we thought - this is about as bad as it will get - a nagging feeling that it was probably not a good idea to bounce around Asia over the coming months. Better not head to Vietnam this month - another trip to Thailand can wait - we will get back to Bali in a month or two - reschedule all works. Let's just ride this out. How bad can it get?

Yes. Well - I can quite openly and safely say - we were wrong. It did get bad. And really, really quickly. I look at this picture now and realise this was actually a good time in our lives - we were in one country for a start, we could walk around freely and things were open - like countries, borders, airports and shops. I had big eyelashes, wore dresses and red lipstick - all important things. We still drank Guinness and ate our heads off. We could swim in a pool, visit a temple, go to a cafe, shop in a mall, book a ticket on a plane, plan a dinner out and use a gym - we had choices. Choices matter.

I now have the privilege of time, isolation, perspective and distance - and as surreal as this composite image is - it reminds me that my life has been like this since late January. That is a long bloody time. We wore masks to dinner and ate lobster on Valentines Day - people back home thought it was funny and kinda cute - that was our normal. It truly seems like a lifetime ago now.

Life is weird. That is all. Wear a mask folks.