A topsy-turvy school holiday adventure to Melbourne

A while back we discussed the girls and I going to Melbourne for the July School Holidays, covid permitting of course, so we could catch up with friends and family for happy reasons and I could attend my final intensive for uni onsite. Everything was looking good so I booked our flights and then of course the next day another outbreak in Melbourne hit and the borders closed. We sat on it as the holidays drew nearer hoping that all would come good and at one point we cancelled the flights after they kept bumping us back as flights got cancelled left, right and centre. Of course a few days later things in Perth cleared up and Melbourne were edging closer to the 14 days of no cases so we bit the bullet, rebooked and headed out.

It was great to have some time in Melbourne. The kids caught up with their friends in Gembrook, I had dinner with some of mine to celebrate my upcoming 40th. We had time with both Dave's family and mine. As it turned out we didn't get quite as much with my family as we had hoped thanks to the removalists from NSW who brought Covid back into Vic.

I was down at Geelong attending my 3 day intensive to prepare for my final play therapy placement. By the end of day 1 Mark McGowan had shut the WA border - isolation here we come again. By the end of day 2 we were all running out the doors to get back to homes as the next lockdown was beginning that night, yay. So day 3 was spent hiding in Mum's bedroom so I could be online in peace.

I was a bit distracted that day as I was also watching everything change and getting the message that if we wanted to go home we needed to do it sooner rather than later. I didn't feel that we could wait until our scheduled flights in 3 days so was frantically trying to book earlier flights. The girls were disappointed as I wasn't going to get my 40th celebration with my family and we also had a planned Nailed it cake decorating challenge online with family which would occur mid tip. We compromised by making our cake the night before, adhering to the guidelines we had set making a Bluey beach cake.

Early the next morning my sister was driving us to the airport to get home. It was a logistical nightmare as our border passed were revoked mid-flight so that had to be redone, Dave had to send a car key back from Port Hedland with a coworker who thankfully brought it to us so we could get home and we had the next 4 hours of drive time before being stuck in the house for another 2 weeks. Unfortunately this also meant that we didn't see Dave for nearly 5 weeks as he had been away for a week when we left and then he stayed away while we isolated so he could go to work at all.

The kids were great during their now 4th isolation. They kept up with school work and found activities to do. Not being able to start placement yet, I threw myself into getting as much of my first assignments done as I could which worked out well later on when I got super busy trying to get my hours done before the end of term. We even had a Christmas in July day to break everything up with the elves visiting and bringing gifts, rocky road making and an online Cinderella pantomime watched with interstate family.

While it sucked we had to isolate again, it was worth taking the trip to see everyone, and I am glad I got a few days with my fellow students at uni. Hopefully no more isolating for us now!!!