Hello...it's been a while. I'm not sure exactly how long even. My life in Sydney Australia has been a weird year. My last place ended up flooding due to a plumber being sent in to repair under a kitchen sink...finding an obsolete and outdated part...then not attaching the old one properly, overnight, dripped down a wall and waterlogged essentially the entire place. My kid lost her bed that we got her for her birthday...just got waterfucked by the time we noticed what was happening. So we had an emergency move. Much smaller place. Same area. Kid had to change schools she was enrolled in for her first year due to change in address...big fuck around. We had to empty out a garage...didn't get to keep many things...and had to ditch so many things on account of the smaller place...so there was junking, donations etc...it sucked, we lost a lot. Ended up about 9000 down between the move, the movers, and my old PC fucking up at just the right time, so I hadda buy one of those too...while I love the new performance machine...the necessity of the expense at the time was a further bit of shit I did not need. Then we had these crazy storms...they didn't effect me personally but man...so many big trees got blown through houses, across electrical cables, such big areas effected, cut off, power was out in some places for like weeks. We were actually driving when it happened and, it kind of went down on either side of us, so, roads were blocked...then...turned back, into roads that were blocked. I remember this one day we took about 3 hours to get home on a usually 30 minute trip. Helped a few people though, picked up some trees along the way. Then...the fires came along and everyone forgot about all that...seemed a minor inconvenience. I won't go into this too much. We bought a big load of supplies to the local rural fire brigade command, got showed around, that was cool...ish...considering the circumstances. Well...I'm not sure when they stopped, but they did. So much smoke, and I'm sure you've all heard about the kind of animal death count. Pretty aweful. Then some weather shit started up again. Comparatively small area compared to the last one...but it just so happens that on my friends birthday, which falls on Feb 14th (embarrassing ass birthday to go out on), a big ass tree got blown down, and landed on top of his house while he and his parents were there. They were fine...his dad came pretty close to getting crushed...only an armchair he was in stopping a big beam from coming down right onto him. So they've been out of a home through all this shit...thankfully their insurance did them right and they've been put up at hotels. His parents are elderly though...not ideal. It sucks...we would have him over for a meal here and there and just to take a load off from the stressful alien situation...and now because of this covid crap, we can't even do that any more. It hurts, we were being kind of a pretty important support system, making sure they got shopping and he was eating (he kind of...goes on pause when he's in crisis mode), and that he just had a place to relax and be outside his situation for a bit...and now, since, we haven't really been able to do that. I can't *legally* hang out with my brother as we are from different addresses, and he's stuck working at a supermarket where he forever reports idiot customers getting too damn close at times like this...so there's some shit going on there too. Sent the kid to school...when this coronavirus shit was just becoming heard of as a pandemic. Thing is, one of the parents had just come back from Wuhan within a window that might not have been a good thing...and we'll never know, because they won't test people...but so many kids in her class got sick...and a lot of time off. My girl got sick, so we all got sick...and I theorise we might have actually had it already...the family has a pretty good immune system, but I do recall some pretty obvious symptoms. So we ended up taking her out of the school about 2 weeks before the official school holidays started, and more and more parents did the same. Now we've been home schooling her...which has been interesting, and I gotta say she really impresses me...getting her across simple reading before she went to kindergarten sure helped her along. Her first ever school photos got cancelled...that is depressing... She's doing well, when she's at school just FYI, I'm very proud of her. She helps people, and has shown a great deal of empathy towards other kids. I actually feel horrible for her though...first year at school...only attended like a month out of first term, just making friends, that all got thrown into the wind, after the losing our place, after her losing one of her best friends (my cat)...she's had a harder personal year than myself or the wife...but she's taking it in slow stride, and it's been both amazing and sad to see her hold onto hope and positivity, get all her school work done (her teachers love her) and just kind of live at the age of 5 in a time where there is some shit going on that I've not seen in my 30+ years. As a first time parent it's been both an interesting and stressful time to negotiate. On top of all this...I was offered to upgrade from adsl2+ to NBN...which literally ended up being a month and a half without any internet connection. The girls school stuff and my own online course required us to buy a laptop and a wireless connection just to keep up, at all...incredibly slow connection... Ridiculous fuck around. It got fixed the day before yesterday. I won't even bother going into this ridiculous covid19 situation much...it's fucking with everyone...though the hoarding bullshit has pissed me off to no end. Been kind of interesting seeing certain businesses forced to evolve, and kind of sad seeing some smaller ones go under, or not have much chance at recovery. Just adds to everything. So yeah...bit of a shitty 12 months in all honesty...and the last couple things is why I haven't been around...I could have been, but it's been a pretty busy/loaded time, I'm sure everyone's not having a great year of it. But anyways...just thought I'd stick my head in and say hey. I'm catching up. I might not be on as much, but I wanted to touch base. I will be around at some point. I hope everyone is doing well, and I'm sorry if you guys are having a shitty 2020 too right now. We'll pull through. All the best to you and yours. - B.
Quight a read, and it's nice to hear back from you. Covid has put the wrench into everything, seen on the news today that a 30 year old restaurant just up and called it quits. My dads out of a job so home time is "awesome" at times, and I'm the bread winner now lol.
What’s up @CheebaWeeba! Glad to see you pop in for a minute. Sorry to hear about the troubles you and yours have been having. My wishes and energy are soothing your way my guy, to you and your family.
Much love and blessings to you and your family mate. I hope things will pick up again soon for you and your family and that you make it through these tough times we are all facing together. And welcome back.
Heeeeey guys, thanks for all the comments...I'm a lazy fuck so I'm not going to reply to them all personally, but it's cool to see you lot are still kicking about the place, and yeah... All is well on my end, no coronavirus (though wondering about sending my kid back to school...), pretty settled in the new place now for some time, and yeah, things are going "ok". Fuckin' hell though...2019 and 2020 have been some shit, eh? Thanks for the well wishes, and in turn I hope all of you and yours are doing great. - B.