To sleep in. What a delight! No school lunch to be made. No laptop to switch on or inbox to inspect. I read a chapter of a book, practise some Japanese. Outside it is raining. No gardening! There are hot cross buns for breakfast. A late breakfast. A breakfast when I feel like having one.

It is good.

It is Good Friday.

I haven’t been sleeping well for weeks. The stress of work has permeated my nights. Meetings in my calendar, random calls for support. Do Japanese to keep on the leader board. Practise my kata. Help with homework. What’s for lunch? My head is crammed with learning and writing JavaScript, ReactJS, Redux, PHP, CSS, REST API’s, WordPress. I dreamed a WordPress theme and then I made it (I’ll post about Subconscious later. Not today. I cannot bear to think of web code today).

So, yes, it’s good to have a day when the office is closed, the school is closed and the shops are closed and it’s wet outside.

But then it cleared up. Which is okay, because we just went down to Cape Solander in the Camay National Park at Kurnell.

The big waves of the Pacific rolling in and crashing against the sandstone cliffs. Run-off from the rain ponds atop those cliffs reversing direction and turning into fountains of spray by the winds that blow off the ocean. Swirling wind ripples dance across the scrub and the surface of the ponds. The sound of hidden frogs.

You would not know that we are so close to Australia’s largest city. This is what I need, far away from a computer screen and outside with the natural world.

We first came here during the pandemic, an escape within our local government boundaries. Watching the aircraft continually passing across landscape, storm clouds in the distance, wheels down as they descend into Sydney Airport, I am reminded of limited air traffic during the pandemic times. The odd cargo flight, the few Qantas Dash 8’s returning from the regional areas with essential services. Flights we couldn’t get on.

Now the world is open again. But sometimes I find myself missing the quiet of the lockdowns, without the expectations of driving around the city or beyond, of household duties limited by the fact that services and parts were simply unavailable.

We returned home in the late afternoon light with dramatic storm clouds to the north, providing a spectacular skyscape. A short arc of a rainbow was a bright streak in the sky against dark backdrop. Later, after the north was pounded with hail, it was own turn with a loud and bright sky show of thunder, lightning and driving rain. Then it passes.

Tomorrow we go to Canberra for a night’s stay. It’s just to get out of the house we’ve been spending so much of our time in. But I sort of wish that I could just stay home and play with my electronic toys or stream a movie or just build something random instead of driving. Things I haven’t been able to do due to work.

It would be nice to go for a proper holiday. I deserve it. I need it. Unfortunately builders are supposed to be coming soon to make repairs on water damage and that means time and a lot of money. Then there’s all the other house stuff that I’m supposed to do. So we have just one night away.

Then it’s back to the grind.