So I’m back home now after a short trip away and took the time today to catch up on errands.

I took the day off work today because I worked on one of my days off last week, so it’s a day in lieu.

Today was meant to be the start of our landscape work but we received a message that it now has been pushed back to 26 July due to supply chain issues and delays in other projects. Truth be told, I was expecting it. Any trade work nowadays, you’re waiting months for it. We have been on the waiting list for our landscape work now close to 12 months but there’s little we can do. We have paid the deposit and just like everything now, it’s “hurry up and wait”.

If people still think that the world hasn’t changed or that things are slowly going back to “normal” (whatever that means) then they’re obviously been living under a rock. Things are never going to go back to how things were.

Today I ran around to organise things around the house and run errands. Then, I headed to our local pharmacy where I found out that I could get both the flu and covid boosters at the same time. There was only one staff member about a handful of people waiting to be served. You could see some people getting agitated because not only was she serving customers, she was also answering phones. She was busy and obviously exasperated. There was nothing you could do except wait your turn.

This reminded me of the different customer service people at the hotel I stayed at last, the supermarket, the bank, post office, and other places in recent times where I noticed that I’ve been queuing a lot of late.

Waiting is now part of life.

Other things I noticed is that level of customer service has drastically reduced to bare basic thanks to Covid or lack of staff. For example at my Brisbane hotel, the kitchen was closed as they didn’t have a chef, nor could we get breakfast nor were my rooms serviced for 5 days straight because of lack of cleaning staff.

Now part of me thinks I’m patient enough anyway and I’m not naive enough to think that businesses will go back to what they were before. My suspicion is that we will end up paying more for basic services (just see how basic it is using budget airlines) while we get used to this new world. That is, it’s changing the way we used to do things. Businesses are doing it hard but it seems to be a Catch-22 situation. They need staff, in order to pay staff their right wages, they need new business. And so it goes.

Well anyway, finally it came my turn to be served and I managed to get my asthma preventative. It’s a medication I have to take for the rest of my life to keep my airways open and have less reliance on ventalin. My asthma started up once again I was home (funny, I didn’t need it in Brisbane ?). Today, I’ve had to use my ventalin twice today and got breathless again which is worrying.

Then the pharmacist told me I’m eligible for the 4th Covid booster too and if I wanted to, I could have it done immediately. I agreed.

Whilst in the room she gave me the booster and then she asked if I wanted the flu shot as well as we don’t need a time delay between them. What the hell, let’s do them!

So now I’m all boostered up. It gives me the peace of mind to have both done.

Afterwards I headed to the parents to see how they’re faring and if they wanted me to do anything for them.

At times I feel they too are getting overwhelmed with things which is understandable. The world is a little crazy at the moment. The queues, the delays, unable to speak to humans for enquiries about utilities, using the internet, technology, frustration with the new world of everything being on apps, online or done through the iPhone. They’re of a generation who grew up in extreme poverty after WW2 and now face a world that is so foreign and unrecognisable to them. They rely a lot on my support. I don’t know how others in their position who may not have family or know to use technology survive in this day and age.

At times, I feel they are now retiring into their own safe space. That, being their house and garden. When they talk, they are fearful of the future, of the world “out there” and the impending threat of World War 3. They talk about the signs (we younger ones don’t see them they say because we haven’t lived through conflict, war or invasion).

It’s concerning to always be talking about war all the time, the fact that they bring up the hardships they experienced after WW2 and thinking they’ll never see it again – but here we are. They’re concerned about the life of future generations after them.

There’s fear. Fear everywhere and so I come home, close that front door, lie on the couch and think, “I can’t do this right now, not now!” I need my quiet time again to centre myself and not let the worries of others suck me in because invariably I end up taking it on and it gets me down again.

I have to find a way to extricate mentally at times because in near future, I’ll be drawn into taking more responsibility and I need to be physically, mentally prepared for everything that comes my way.

Last night I dreamt of snakes. I dreamt I saw snakes in the house and there was one that was in my bed and it but me on the neck. I think I must have swotted it away in my sleep as I woke up soon after that.