One of the best things that came out of COVID lockdowns here in Melbourne was the 5km radius rule. We could travel no further out than 5km radius from our home which made it interesting to discover nooks and crannies in your own area you would otherwise have not known about.

I discovered new laneways, public art, cafes and parks. Spoovilles too which seemed to pop up during this time too. I discovered community service groups and clubs.

Yesterday I decided to go onto Google maps and find a local park I hadn’t been to before and found the Huntingdale Wetlands.

I took my parents too so they can do this as their daily walk.

It wasn’t a bad place. A bit of overgrown greenery with flowing creek that was full of water from the recent drains.

Just above us was the M1 a major highway although we could hardly hear the noise of traffic through the noise barrier and the trees. When we got to the overpass, there was a few tunnels we could go through but my mum is claustrophobic and there was no way she was going through them.

Underfoot was all damp sand and the air in the tunnels was dank so the idea of the recent rain probably making these tunnels into quicksand came to mind. We turned around and walked back along Scotchman’s Creek but not before my father cracking a joke that he’d found a human bone while he was walking on the sand. To top matters, he walked past another guy on a bike and asked if he’d seen any zombies in the area.

Obviously he has an overactive imagination just like I did. It just seemed like a place where you’d bury bodies or there’d be zombies.

Other than that last night we went to the movies to see Mrs Harris Goes to Paris. Andrew was the only bloke in the cinema and had booked the tickets because I wanted to see it. It was set in London 1957 and about a cleaning lady who had lost her husband during the war. She saves up money to spend it on a beautiful Christian Dior dress in Paris. Along the way she has a lot of fans because she follows her dreams. A wonderful feel good movie with stunning dresses – and French language which I tried to listen rather than read the subtitles.

On another note, my newest book that I’m reading is Sacco’s Gang by Italian author Andrea Camilleri about a true story of a Sicilian family in 1926 defying the local mafia. It’s written in a wry and amusing manner but the idea of anyone having to live like this unde mafioso rule is horrifying.