We’ve made it to the end of Term 3 and two weeks of school holidays awaits. My phone reminds me that tomorrow we are scheduled to begin our stay at Uluru. Except, of course, that was cancelled a long time ago. We are not going anywhere outside of our local area for the next two weeks, not until New South Wales reaches its 70% double dose vaccination level.

On Wednesday Alex and I made our first trip outside the Local Government Area since July (June is his case) when he contributed to the above figure with his first Pfizer vaccination. They were only made available to twelve year olds on Monday and I made sure to get up early that day to book an appointment for him. It was our first visit to Macquarie Fields and he said the 100 km/h ride down the motorway was a bit scary, that’s how long it’s been since we’ve been outside of 80 km//h maximum zones.

The continuing threat of COVID-19 was brought home to me today when my brother announced that he was positive. His toddler foster daughter had caught it at day care and tested positive on the day of his second vaccination. Being immune compromised even a first dose of vaccine was not enough to stop him catching it from her and now it has spread to other members of his immediate family.

Meanwhile, there are people in the city centre protesting the lockdowns and others ignoring the health orders by not wearing masks properly or gathering in larger groups. They are putting people like my brother at risk, but I’ve stopped fussing about them, we are doing what we can ourselves. B and I are both double vaxxed, Alex should be the same by the time the state opens up.

With that certainty, life has settled into a rhythm. Work is busy and stressful, but that would be true lockdown or not. I’m not minding it. Alex has excelled at remote learning and it has been a pleasure helping him. Am I the only parent saying that?

I suspect that the school holidays may be harder without those activities to keep him occupied. Alex does miss his friends and teachers. At least he gets to play one of them once a week during the still permitted tennis lessons.

To celebrate the end of term B ordered a delivery of a kilogram of salmon from Tasmania. We made sushi and a dinner of pan fried salmon on a smashed peas and leeks with a side of seasonal vegetables. It was very good and far cheaper than going outside for a meal.

In some ways I’m glad that we had to cancel the trip to Uluru. I’d love to go there for the first time, but we had a problem. We managed to get the not-cheap accommodation, but the airfares were so outrageously expensive that we were thinking of calling the whole trip off anyway.

It would be nice to be able to go somewhere, to see something other than our own house and greater neighbourhood. Even if it meant just driving somewhere else within the state again. It is what it is.