Stay At Home Highlights - Part 1 Little Things

I don't remember exactly when all this started but when it started, I remembered myself fell victim to this notion too: this is just another virus that affects only the older person.

Guilty. Soon enough, the virus hit close and I started to panic. Just under short few months, this virus swept around the world and everywhere you know had recorded new cases. In the end of March, the first stage of movement restriction was announced. We soon had to adjusted our lifestyle to fit the one that is working from home as church was closed since mid-March and our first online service started on 22nd March.

This was not the first online service we had but soon enough, this has become the norm and now we have it online every Sunday at 10am on crossculture.net.au/live

So, if I could recall, our stay-at-home journey started in March and stretches to end of May. During this period, we seldom went out partly because I was paranoid and also partly because we love staying at home (introverts with me? Haha. Ok I am sort of half extro and half intro okay 😋) Our record was a 14-days long streak of staying at home without going out at all! Well, starting June, we thought that this lifestyle is finally over since restriction was lifted and we were allowed to go back to work in church office.

I mean.. How could anyone not love the garden? I was pretty late in the season since fall was over but when I needed a breathe of fresh air, I will always go here. I love gardens, Melbourne's garden especially. They are my favourite part in the city. 

Little did we know....My recent post here shared about the  second wave in Victoria that is quite worrying at the moment. Yesterday, Melbourne recorded 288 cases too! The number of cases was really alarming and then we were back to lockdown AGAIN. I guess I will have to adjust to the stay-at-home lifestyle AGAIN😕 But, in this post I want to focus more on reminiscing the past stay-at-home months and just want to share with you my highlights throughout this period. I honestly cannot tell you for sure what is going to happen down the road and sometimes it did feel that the light in the tunnel is still cannot be seen but I do hope that we will get there one day. 💙

1. Spending My Birthday NOT in lockdown

We went to Begonia Festival which was held in Ballarat to celebrate my birthday. It was an overnight trip as we spent 2D1N there. Looking back, this was the last trip we had before we started staying at home, which makes it all the more special. I am truly grateful for the beautiful flowers I saw during the festival, taking the old historical tram rides, and also the ducklings. Don't judge me from wearing down jackets because while the picture seems bright and sunny, it was actually quite cold from the wind. If you plan to go this place one day, shoot me a message and perhaps we can go together (One can always hope right? 😏)

WHAT is begonia? This is begonia! Begonia are these beautiful flowers. This festival apparently had a long history and every year it attracted a lot of visitors too!

And for friends who remembered my birthday, near or far, your wishes, thoughts and prayers are very very well appreciated. Even if you don't remember, perhaps you can wish me now in advance for next year birthday? Hahaha. 😉

2. Working from Home in My Little Sanctuary

This little space was upgraded to my working place throughout these working-from-home months. It is my quiet sanctuary as I worked at this space, surrounded by notes and polaroids of my loved ones.

How this place looks at night. By the way, we sort of design this space ourselves because it is supposed to be balcony without lights at first! We are pretty proud of what we did actually haha. (All furnitures are from Ikea.) PS: Ikea did not pay me for promoting their items.

I love my working space because it is a little space filled with things I love. If I am tired from working, I could look out from the window to view the city's skyline or turn to the side to see all the polaroids that I have taken throughout the years.

The city view at night! A little bit cloudy there because of rains.

This was not from my work space but from my dining area. 3 hot air balloons at the same time and we had the opportunity to see them because.. We are 'forced' to wake up much earlier to prepare to go to work haha. (Working from home no need wake up so early right. erhem. Sleeping Clothes = working clothes.. Or is it just me? 😂)

My first Polaroid was given by my secondary school friends as my university graduation gift (Shoutout to all my lovely sunshine friends💖) and I have been using it since then. These polaroids contain memories of friends staying over for countdown party at my place, memories of friends dressing up in Petronas for ladies day, postcards from friends from Taiwan, Perth and all the well wishes and little notes.

You can probably guess that I am a very sentimental person. Well, I am! Letters that my friends and my husband wrote to me are still being kept well and safe. (Hey, I even kept the Chinese New Year greeting cards that my friends sent, you remember those hardcopies cards? Sigh, back then when whatsapp is not even a thing and we hand-wrote all our cards to wish one another a Happy CNY with the pink envelope haha)

Yes, I have a whole bag of them haha. By the way, if you are interested to find out whether the one you sent me is still there, let me know! Let's do a treasure hunt.
PS: I am aware that I did accidentally reveal my age. I wonder for the kids nowadays do they still send greeting cards?

Little things..

As I looked back to the times I spent at home from March to May and browsed through the photos, I have to say... I DID NOT TAKE MANY PHOTOS AT ALL 😅. I remembered my friend Gary (shoutout to Gary who subscribed yay 😝 Thank you thank you! Haha) asked me why I did not update my blog and I replied him: COVID time nothing interesting happen lah haha.

But well, surprisingly when I browsed through the gallery, as few photos as I had, these little things are enough to bring a smile on my face. So if you are with me, wondering how this whole COVID situation has been seemingly hopeless, perhaps taking this time to appreciate the little things in life will be a good reminder that all hopes are not lost.

And this is not the end of the post haha. If you somehow appear in my life in the past few months, stay tuned as I dig back my gallery and come walk down the time tunnel with me. (See you for the next week post published on Saturday too 😃!)

~ loves, Susan