COVID restrictions are beginning to ease in Victoria and with it we are allowed to catch up with one other person for a picnic or if vaccinated upto 5 other people and their dependents. Lil Miss has missed her best friend through all this period only having intermittent contact when lock downs were ended but through most of winter soccer practice was cancelled, curfews enacted (I'm anti Curfew) and distence limits put in place.
So it was a dark, cold winter for all of us which left us feeling quite isolated and little miss kept asking me about when she could catch up with her friends again. I didn't know the answer to that question and it broke my heart. Yet I kept telling her that soon, this will all be over and we will laugh at all of this.
Soccer isn't back open for training but facilities are able to be accessed and the club have made themselves accessible to the local community to exercise as families and play some sport. It isn't much but it is better than nothing and significantly supports people's mental health and providing some normality in people's lives.
Furthermore, the canteen is back open and trading unfortunately its not the clubs bistro but it still has access to beer, wine, hot chips, hot dogs and coffee. With the easing of restrictions it is permitted to catch up with a mate and have a beer although many local government areas do prevent public drinking but the Premier did state it is not something that will be actively enforced. So I'd take that as long as you didn't get too drunk in public and behaved as an adult we will be OK.
The hour or two that we have only been allowed out for has also been extended to four hours which back in 2019 if you asked me to spend four hours at a park with kids I would not have thought of a worse hell. But now it is pure bliss and four hours isn't enough.
The club celebrated the lifting of restrictions by having a sausage sizzle for FREE. Social distencing and checking in was still required as per state guidelines and parents and attendees were able to do the right thing with no aggressive behaviours or protesting which was fabulous to see from our community.
The club canteen has been open for a few days now since the restrictions have lifted and we've attended everyday to buy two 6 Chicken nugget packs, two hot dogs, two coffees and a ham and cheese toasty for mum.
We've been coming to support our local club and their staff who all reside in our community and having the ability to remain employed through this period it is vital that any money I have saved gets spent in the community to aid recovery and keep workers in work. That community unity is further exhibited by the club with their generosity and provided free food to so many so that they can come and enjoy the day with their families and not be worried about not having any food. It's beautiful.
We finished off the day at the park which is also located on the grounds and the kids played hide and seek, climbed all the equipment and had a wonderful time together. It had been months since normality was provided to the children's lives.
As out four hour window was coming to a close it only felt like we were present for 30 minutes, not wanting to be caught out and slapped with a $5000 fine we started heading off which brought tears to lil miss' eyes as she asked when can we see bestie again? The answer was alot clearer and easier to give. Why don't we go get ice cream tomorrow at the new ice cream shop here eyes filled with excitement as for the first time in a long time, it felt that this was finally starting to end and we were going to get through it.
She screamed in excitement Yeahhhhhh! ICE CREAMMMM