We had a very sociable start to the year. The Midsumma festival ran through January and February. This year we went to several events. The Carnival had great weather. We were scheduled to help out at the Argonauts stand promoting our learn-to-row program. There were also competitive events between the many gay sporting clubs present. Argos won two of the four events: the drag lip sync battle and the tug of war. I was on the tug of war team.



The scattering of Sandy Mitchell’s ashes took place early on a Friday morning. I was able to delay the start of my work at St Vincent’s in order to attend. It was a touching ceremony. Later the same day we went to the Australian Open. We saw John Millman play Roger Federer in a very good match.



Midsumma also included a pool party and pride march. We went to both. I was nervous about the pool party as I was on call for St Vincent’s that day. I was lucky not to be called in so we were able to stay the full length of the party. Pride March was on the following weekend, also our 17th anniversary. We marched with the Argonauts and spent a little while at the party at the end of the parade.



Our anniversary dinner was delayed until the following day. We had a very interesting meal at Vue de Monde. It was even better than the last time we ate there. The following morning I drove to Sorrento to make a few changes at the holiday house. After staying there between Christmas and New Year we had identified some things that needed to be fixed and I got a number of them done on my free Tuesday. The house has been getting quite a bit of use from cousins and friends.

I was fitted for contact lenses at the start of the year to alleviate my increasing presbyopia. Now on work days I can wear a single lens to give me monovision: sharp close vision in one eye and sharp distance vision in the other. It’s a good solution for times when taking glasses on and off would be annoying.

By mid-March everyone seemed to be reflecting bleakly on the future. I got in a month early with this, suffering a major emotional setback in February. Jay has showed a lot of patience while I have tried to put myself back together and Derek has been keen to help.



From February 14 we joined an Atlantis cruise from Auckland to Sydney. I had thought of this as part of a 50th birthday celebration. As it turned out, we were incredibly lucky. The cruise was less than half-full. This was due to a combination of factors: it was a long itinerary starting on a Friday, it arrived in Sydney a little too early for Mardi Gras and the target audience of Americans were spooked by the Australian bushfires and then the coronavirus. Because of the poor sales, last-minute deals on cabins were available which meant that two friends, Maurie and Derek, came at the last minute and were able to get cabins to themselves for less than half the usual cost of a shared cabin. The service level on the ship was great with more staff than passengers, but I doubt Atlantis will be doing this itinerary again for a long time.



The cruise was tame by the standards of Atlantis cruises we had previously taken. We stayed up late dancing three nights and got off the ship in every port. The train trip in Dunedin and our tour of MONA in Hobart were the highlights. I finished two books and felt positively relaxed by the time we arrived in Sydney. It was Derek’s first cruise and he seemed to have a great time. I made an album of photos from the cruise online.

Mardi Gras was the weekend after the cruise. For the first time in years, we stayed in Melbourne and had a quiet weekend. We chose a good year, as the main party was very oversold and not a good experience. We did miss seeing friends in Sydney however.



The following weekend was ChillOut in Daylesford. We had never been to this before, always being a bit tired after Mardi Gras. This year we stayed the long weekend in Daylesford and went to most of the events: the Bush Dance, the local pub, the Carnival and a Sunday evening party in Hepburn Springs. We also had time to look around Daylesford, including a walk through the excellent botanical gardens. We caught up with several friends from Melbourne and met some new people.



By the time we had finished the following week’s work in Melbourne, the anxiety over COVID-19 was really ramping up. Essentially all the events we have tickets to and all the work events in the near future have been cancelled. Jay has been asked to work from home as much as possible. My work is highly uncertain: the public hospital is planning for a rush of elective surgery before the wave of respiratory illnesses hits. My private work is likely to be suspended if health care is significantly disrupted (which seems almost certain to happen in the next few weeks).

At home, we have put aside a bit more non-perishable food and regular prescription medicine than usual and lined up some books and Netflix shows. Derek is visiting us and with the rapid changes in travel rules and availability, we maybe hosting him for a while. I have been considering when to suspend visiting my mother as I’m very likely to acquire the virus from work and absolutely should not be contacting people in the nursing home while that is a risk. I was expecting turning 50 to be featuring more heavily in my thoughts when it's two weeks away, but no such luck.

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