One year on

Today is the one year anniversary of Barney's death. We were due to have a healing ceremony at his bench overlooking Collaroy beach but we are in the strictest lockdown we have experienced yet so we simply arranged to meet the Wakes-Millers at the bench and look like we were exercising (one of the only activities allowed). 

The bench is in an amazing spot and we got there to find lots of flowers had already been left by other friends of the Wakes-Millers. The bench had also been covered in red tape by the authorities which is a covid precaution they are taking to stop people staying stationary. Bella had wrapped the bench in purple ribbon which, together with the flowers, we felt indicated the bench should not be sat on so we removed the red "official" tape. It is a completely magical spot with amazing views north up the coast and I can imagine that we will all spend time here together over the years remembering Barney. 

As I mentioned earlier we are back in lockdown and on Saturday morning as cases continued to rise thanks to the Delta variant, Gladys Berijiklian, NSW Premier, decided to shut all retail and construction sites to try and get the spread under control. These restrictions are more onerous than they were over a year ago and it seems incredible that this is where we are after doing so well in the "first round". We are currently locked down until 30 July but no-one believes it won't be further extended.