1 April 2020

People in Perth – hasn’t it been a little cool in the mornings recently?!!? I’ve had to wear a longer sleeve tee shirt when I walk the dog in the mornings! Fortunately the afternoon walks are still ok, but I can see that before too long I’ll have to wear a long sleeve shirt or wear a cardigan in the afternoon as well!!  Winter is coming!!!

Now – to explain to the folk in the northern hemisphere…. our maximum temperature is going to be 26C today, and in the next couple of days it will drop to 24!!! I may as well pack away the swimming gear – that’s not gonna be needed for another four or five months! And I’ll probably have to start thinking about where I put the rug for the bed. The light doona has done fine for the past six months but it won’t take long before it’s not enough.

Now – people on the northern hemisphere, where the temperature would be hard pressed to get into double digits on the best of days at the moment…. would you be whinging about 26 degrees? Or even 24?? (And yes you Fahrenheit mob will have to do conversions yourself!)

Perspective.

I read a lovely post on the internet recently (thanks Barbara!) about how your perception of your partner has possibly changed by them working from home.

Quotes like “I’m married to a “Let’s circle back” guy – who knew?”, “My partner has a work voice”, “Mine said ‘why don’t we table that and revisit it in a couple of days – he’s never tabled a damn thing and revisited anything in 36 years of marriage!”, “My husband is pleasant and patient on the phone – it’s like invasion of the body snatchers”, “turns out my husband can small talk, just not with anyone we know in non-work life”. And I can relate to all these, because I overheard Simon thanking someone on a work call for “bringing that to my attention”. Not something he’s ever thanked me for.

Perspective.

Age is another time for different perspectives. Your view on what constitutes “old” changes a lot, depending on how chronologically superior you are.  The size of a house is different to a child than an adult. Definitely, what it takes to look after a pet is different to a child than an adult. Everyone over the age of 50 will tell you that years only go for half as long nowadays, whereas kids will tell you the school day (you know – back when they had to go to school) takes forever.

Perspective.

We have ALWAYS known that males have a different perspective to females, on many many many issues. Simon is convinced that if I go for coffee with a girlfriend, it should take about 20 minutes, and that is even with him being overly generous on how long it takes to drink a cup of coffee!!! Males generally speaking have a rather warped view on who does what amount of work around the house, and females seem to think a visit to the hardware shop to buy something is a simple matter of going to the relevant aisle, picking up the item, paying for it and going home!

Perspective.

And of course currently we have the perspective of “doing it tough” in the pandemic situation. Those doing it tough are those in ICU’s, those caring for them, and those who are maintaining essential services while the rest of the world has to lay low. Yes there are hard times ahead for many with job insecurity or loss, and business closures. But it’s not life or death, is it?

I am not in any way trivialising the impact this is having on people, but the very vast majority of us will come through this pandemic with stories to tell our grandchildren, and a hopefully more caring attitude towards each other. Businesses will reopen, jobs will be got, and while countries will struggle to deal with the debt caused by trying to keep economies afloat – we will be able to move on.

We will be able to hug each other again, and socialise with friends and family.

Let’s try to make sure that as many of us as possible make it to that stage, ok?