Bouncing back.
28 April 2022
The day after I posted the last update I failed my COVID PCR clearance for returning to work. Jay tested positive on RAT shortly afterwards so we spent a week in isolation. For him it was just a regular week of working from home, but because my work is necessarily in-person, I had an additional week off.
We did our workouts in the garage, which was a familiar routine after months of lockdown in Melbourne over the last two years. With three vaccinations each, neither of us got significant symptoms; it was just like a mild cold.
We lifted our spirits at the end of isolation by going to Sorrento for the weekend before I returned to work, and then to the Australian Open on the Friday where we were lucky to see Ash Barty play in what would be her final tennis tournament. We tried to make the most of the Summer events this year as the calendar had been so devastated the last two years.
Midsumma Carnival was an impromptu farewell for Mike, one of our anaesthetic fellows from SVH, as the formal farewell function was cancelled due to close contact rules for hospital employees. The Midsumma Pool Party was also a lot of fun as we had good weather and my on-call day for the hospital proved to be quiet.
Jay organised lunch at Moonah, a 12 seat restaurant at a winery near Torquay for our anniversary. The degustation menu was beautifully presented but not as challenging or interesting as some others we have had.
For the first time in many years, there was a Northside Pride festival this year. It was funded by the State Government to mark 40 years since decriminalisation of homosexuality. The street setting worked very well in the hot weather as there was ample shade and all the licensed venues were open and serving drinks. We stayed much longer than we had intended and I annoyed Josh Thomas by being a fan.
With the transition to control of COVID by widespread vaccination, the rules for nursing homes began to be relaxed and so we were able to take Mum out again. Cathy made the most of this with outings several times a week through the good weather.
We had not been to Sydney for Mardi Gras in three years, so this year we went up for the weekend. It was great to see Beau again after so long. We had great tickets for the parade event at the SCG, sitting in the front row. We didn’t go to the main party, but instead to Apollo the following day and then to Extra Dirty on Sunday night. ED was the most fun because almost all the guys we knew in Sydney were there, so it was quite a dancing reunion after the pandemic.
In mid-March Jay had his first overseas flight since we went to New Zealand at the start of 2020. He went to San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference. At the same time he was excited to be able to see Derek in person after we had spent the last two years working out with him over FaceTime.
At the end of the conference, I joined Jay for two weeks to visit family and friends in the US. The flight was not that much more trouble than before COVID: I needed a fresh negative PCR result to enter the US and to prove my vaccination status, but otherwise it was just the usual passport control delays. As always I found the long flight somewhat daunting at the start, but soon forgotten once I had arrived.
We spent a few days in Palo Alto visiting Jay’s sister’s family there and also Joel and Sam in the city. Both my and Richelle’s birthdays fell during our stay there, so there were two excellent cakes. San Francisco was showing the impact of the pandemic very obviously in the city, with many businesses boarded-up and even more visible homelessness than usual.
The best birthday present I received was the news that the promoter for the opening party of Folsom Berlin had asked to use a photo taken of us last year for the event poster. I thought that by 52 my chance of being a poster-boy had long since passed.
From SF we flew to Port Charlotte in Florida to visit Jay’s parents. They had just sold their condo there and were about to move out. They took us to see the Ringling Museum in Sarasota which was surprisingly interesting and also gave us the news that they were planning to visit us in November this year. As we had been considering when there would be an opportunity to get married with Jay’s parents and my family in the same place at the same time, this meant we could nominate November 5 as the likely date we will marry. I’m told this is quite a short lead-time to organise everything, but we’re not planning on an elaborate ceremony.
Back on the West Coast we stayed with Kelvan in Los Angeles and spent some time with other friends we also hadn’t seen in person for a long time: Yoav and also Trammell. The number of people living on the streets in Los Angeles was more confronting than in SF, just because of the contrast from our previous visits. Around the Gold’s Gym in Venice were quite significant encampments.
We had a good workout at Gold’s Venice despite the $US40 cover until I managed to injure my shoulder doing dumbbell presses. It was almost the end of the vacation as I was already looking forward to getting home, but this made me even more keen. We passed our RAT tests to be allowed to re-enter Australia. Our flights left a 12 hour layover in San Francisco so we had one more day spent shopping with Richelle and Holden followed by an excellent dinner cooked by Scott before we came back home.
My shoulder has remained troublesome at the gym since we got home, which has been frustrating. It is slowly improving and I will make a time to see a physio. The weather was getting cooler with the start of Autumn, but we still had some beach weather on the weekends in April, so there were two more visits to Sorrento. While we were there at Easter we looked at the sculpture garden at Point Leo Estate and enjoyed the degustation dinner there my sister had given us for Jay's birthday.
Our other activity since returning home has been enjoying some of the other freedoms which were curtailed during the pandemic. We went to see the Queer exhibit at the NGV, the stage musical Moulin Rouge (which was a disappointment), and a couple of the Comedy Festival shows with friends. I have been feeling a bit burnt-out at work, so I have been limiting my work to an average of three days a week, and looking forward to our trip to Western Australia in July.
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We did our workouts in the garage, which was a familiar routine after months of lockdown in Melbourne over the last two years. With three vaccinations each, neither of us got significant symptoms; it was just like a mild cold.
We lifted our spirits at the end of isolation by going to Sorrento for the weekend before I returned to work, and then to the Australian Open on the Friday where we were lucky to see Ash Barty play in what would be her final tennis tournament. We tried to make the most of the Summer events this year as the calendar had been so devastated the last two years.
Midsumma Carnival was an impromptu farewell for Mike, one of our anaesthetic fellows from SVH, as the formal farewell function was cancelled due to close contact rules for hospital employees. The Midsumma Pool Party was also a lot of fun as we had good weather and my on-call day for the hospital proved to be quiet.
Jay organised lunch at Moonah, a 12 seat restaurant at a winery near Torquay for our anniversary. The degustation menu was beautifully presented but not as challenging or interesting as some others we have had.
For the first time in many years, there was a Northside Pride festival this year. It was funded by the State Government to mark 40 years since decriminalisation of homosexuality. The street setting worked very well in the hot weather as there was ample shade and all the licensed venues were open and serving drinks. We stayed much longer than we had intended and I annoyed Josh Thomas by being a fan.
With the transition to control of COVID by widespread vaccination, the rules for nursing homes began to be relaxed and so we were able to take Mum out again. Cathy made the most of this with outings several times a week through the good weather.
We had not been to Sydney for Mardi Gras in three years, so this year we went up for the weekend. It was great to see Beau again after so long. We had great tickets for the parade event at the SCG, sitting in the front row. We didn’t go to the main party, but instead to Apollo the following day and then to Extra Dirty on Sunday night. ED was the most fun because almost all the guys we knew in Sydney were there, so it was quite a dancing reunion after the pandemic.
In mid-March Jay had his first overseas flight since we went to New Zealand at the start of 2020. He went to San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference. At the same time he was excited to be able to see Derek in person after we had spent the last two years working out with him over FaceTime.
At the end of the conference, I joined Jay for two weeks to visit family and friends in the US. The flight was not that much more trouble than before COVID: I needed a fresh negative PCR result to enter the US and to prove my vaccination status, but otherwise it was just the usual passport control delays. As always I found the long flight somewhat daunting at the start, but soon forgotten once I had arrived.
We spent a few days in Palo Alto visiting Jay’s sister’s family there and also Joel and Sam in the city. Both my and Richelle’s birthdays fell during our stay there, so there were two excellent cakes. San Francisco was showing the impact of the pandemic very obviously in the city, with many businesses boarded-up and even more visible homelessness than usual.
The best birthday present I received was the news that the promoter for the opening party of Folsom Berlin had asked to use a photo taken of us last year for the event poster. I thought that by 52 my chance of being a poster-boy had long since passed.
From SF we flew to Port Charlotte in Florida to visit Jay’s parents. They had just sold their condo there and were about to move out. They took us to see the Ringling Museum in Sarasota which was surprisingly interesting and also gave us the news that they were planning to visit us in November this year. As we had been considering when there would be an opportunity to get married with Jay’s parents and my family in the same place at the same time, this meant we could nominate November 5 as the likely date we will marry. I’m told this is quite a short lead-time to organise everything, but we’re not planning on an elaborate ceremony.
Back on the West Coast we stayed with Kelvan in Los Angeles and spent some time with other friends we also hadn’t seen in person for a long time: Yoav and also Trammell. The number of people living on the streets in Los Angeles was more confronting than in SF, just because of the contrast from our previous visits. Around the Gold’s Gym in Venice were quite significant encampments.
We had a good workout at Gold’s Venice despite the $US40 cover until I managed to injure my shoulder doing dumbbell presses. It was almost the end of the vacation as I was already looking forward to getting home, but this made me even more keen. We passed our RAT tests to be allowed to re-enter Australia. Our flights left a 12 hour layover in San Francisco so we had one more day spent shopping with Richelle and Holden followed by an excellent dinner cooked by Scott before we came back home.
My shoulder has remained troublesome at the gym since we got home, which has been frustrating. It is slowly improving and I will make a time to see a physio. The weather was getting cooler with the start of Autumn, but we still had some beach weather on the weekends in April, so there were two more visits to Sorrento. While we were there at Easter we looked at the sculpture garden at Point Leo Estate and enjoyed the degustation dinner there my sister had given us for Jay's birthday.
Our other activity since returning home has been enjoying some of the other freedoms which were curtailed during the pandemic. We went to see the Queer exhibit at the NGV, the stage musical Moulin Rouge (which was a disappointment), and a couple of the Comedy Festival shows with friends. I have been feeling a bit burnt-out at work, so I have been limiting my work to an average of three days a week, and looking forward to our trip to Western Australia in July.
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