There was a 21 in the number of reported Covid cases in New Souths Wales on the last day of 2021. 21,151. A record.

As the year ends, so does the resistance to the spread of Covid. Or rather, 2022 will be the time to rely on the vaccines to protect us. The Omicron strain spreads too easily and we all must hope that it is as “mild” as reported when we inevitably catch it.

Alex is double vaccinated. B and I both received our booster third dose. The Moderna knocked me around for at least a week, but if that protects me from a more serious disease then I have no complaint.

The pandemic dominated the year. From the middle of the year until midway through the final term Alex studied at home. He got straight A’s in his first y ear at high school and it was wonderful sharing in his learning. Bar a few short visits into the office, both B and I worked from home the entire year. It is difficult to imagine working anywhere else now. The problem is that it is also difficult to imagine doing anything else. Work was consuming and even visits to the shops carry an undercurrent of fear of infectious crowds. Travel, that all consuming obsession of years past, feels like an impossible dream.

Before the pandemic, the travel that punctuated our year defined our memories. We weren’t without it. In January, a road trip around rural New South Wales. In April, our first visit to Darwin and Kakadu, an amazingly wonderful experience. Yet they both seem so long ago.

As I sat in the pool on this last day of 2021 I watched a couple of planes coming and going in the clear blue late afternoon skies. A UPS Boeing 747-8 flying off to Singapore. An AirAsiaX Airbus A330-300 arriving from Kuala Lumpur. Maybe there was just a glimmer of the old feelings.

Maybe it is not impossible. The pandemic is at a tipping point and the situation will change rapidly. Hopefully for the better.

Farewell 2021. You weren’t the best year. Neither were you the worst. You just were.