Lest We Forget: ANZAC Day in Isolation + How I’m Coping

Hi there guys! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

First of all, I’m going to sincerely apologise for my extended and unannounced break from blogging. Sorry about that. But I’m also not going to feel too bad. I obviously needed a break, and with the Covid-19 pandemic and a host of other things, my mind wasn’t really on blogging.

But I’m back for now. How long or how consistent this will be I’m not sure, but I’m just going to take things one step at a time and we’ll see how it turns out.

To ease back into the swing of things, I’m going to give you guys an update on how life and isolation is going for me. Strap yourselves in, ladies and gentlemen. Let’s go.

For those of you who don’t know, last Saturday was ANZAC Day here in Australia. Its kind of Australia’s version of Veteran’s Day (except, we also have Remembrance Day on November 11, so I guess it also isn’t?), and it falls on the anniversary of the Gallipoli Landing in World War I, one of Australia’s first conflicts as a nation. ANZAC Day is our biggest holiday (after Christmas and Easter) and its one that historically has united us a nation, no matter what trials our country has been going through at the time. Usually, millions of people participate in dawn and sunset services across the country, line the roads at eleven o’clock, or march in the many ANZAC Marches.

This year, of course, things were very different. Dawn services were cancelled, there were no marches, and the service at the National War Memorial included only a handful of important people and no crowds.

I love commemorating ANZAC Day, both as an amateur historian’s nod of respect to the past, and as a thanks to the people currently serving in our defence forces, so I was pretty devastated by the decision to cancel these events, though I understand completely why it happened. So I had to come up with my own special way of remembering the ANZACs this year.

In the end, I got up at 5:30am, wrapped myself in several layers, and grabbed my hefty, Lord of the Rings style cloak, and my dog, Hugo, and I walked up to the top of the hill at the back of our property. Huddled together in my cloak, we watched the sunrise, then played the Last Post and the Rouse, courtesy of YouTube, on my phone and had a minute’s silence. I prayed, thanked God for the people He raised up to protect us, and prayed for the current members of the defence, both here in Australia and deployed overseas.

Later on in the day, Hugo and I went to the local war epitaph, where it was really lovely to see that members of our community had left wreaths as usual. I didn’t leave a wreath myself, as I didn’t have anything to make one, but it was nice to still be able to visit it, and know that other people are still commemorating too.

At dinner time, I headed up my family’s ANZAC/Remembrance Day tradition and played a bunch of Aussie war songs, including, of course, the iconic “I Was Only 19”, by Redgum.

So, that was my ANZAC Day, definitely different to usual, and the first time in years that I haven’t been to either a Dawn or main service in commemoration, but it wasn’t bad, and it was nice to see on social media all the others who were remembering in a similar way.

But how’s things going in general? To be honest, pretty good. I’ve been anxious about the pandemic and the uncertainty surrounding it, of course, and I’ve had a few moments where I’ve really not felt good, but I have nothing to complain about and I think its important to focus on the good things more than the bad.

So yeah, there’s been bad, definitely. I had a break from work when staff hours were cut at my job, but I’m back at work now, so I’m grateful for that. For those of you who don’t know, I also work at a puppy daycare, so that’s another thing to be thankful for (though, playing with puppies all day is not all it is cut out to be. It’s pretty messy).

I’ve also started to get back into writing. I was planning on doing Camp NaNo this month, but amidst anxiety about coronavirus and finishing off assessments for my studying, it got waylaid. But that’s ok. I’m planning on finalising one of my four projects as the one I’ll choose and develop to the point that I can be pitching to agents. It’s a hard pick though. I love all my babies a lot.

Career wise, I’m also doing pretty well. I’ve almost finished my Certificate in Dog Training and Behaviour (the end date has been pushed back til June now, because of Covid-19) and once I’ve finished that I’m going to be looking at opening my own business. I’m also hoping to begin on the long path to gaining a Diploma in Auslan Interpreting as well, because that’s been a passion of mine for a long time.

I also semi-moved house so I’m living with three other girls, one who’s been my best friend for literally my whole life, so that’s a lot of fun too.

What else? Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about socialisation and I have A LOT of thoughts. I’m the world’s most introverted introvert, but I’ve really missed normal interaction with other people. I haven’t been to church in over a month now (six weeks, I think?) or dance classes, and I’ve only seen my friends one or two at a time and only really outdoors. It’s starting to get tiring and its actually quite draining. So even introverts are struggling at the moment 😀

Anyway, I think that’s enough from me for now. How are you guys doing? How’s isolation been treating you? Are you still at work? For those of you who are studying, how’s your study going? I look forward to hearing from you!