Alternative therapies

Do you ever have restless nights where you feel awake and asleep at the same time?

Last night was filled with waking dreams, tinged with COVID-19 and work anxiety. The two are closely entwined right now because many of the NSW cases are linked to licensed venues, so I’m constantly researching stories about them.

It’s also less than two weeks until the Australian Drinks Awards, so I’m strung out from all the comms stuff involved in that.

Not a recipe for relaxed nights or days.

Before I fell in love with the ocean, my favourite form of therapy was walking up steep hills.

It saved my sanity in the desolate months after my marriage break-up. When things felt like they were getting on top of me, I’d pull on a pair of trainers and walk uphill until the panic subsided.

As an added bonus, I lost a heap of weight.

Then I met DD, got drugged up on dopamine, started working longer hours and no longer had the time or inclination for hill therapy.

I’ve porked up a bit since then – I try to kid myself I haven’t by wearing stretchy clothes, but my underwear gives me away. It only half covers my butt and boobs these days.

So it’s a good thing I finally got back to the gym yesterday. It would also help if I stopped eating sweet biscuits for morning and afternoon tea.

Who knows how long the gym thing will last. Queensland announced yesterday that it’s closing its borders to 77 Sydney suburbs … how far away can full lockdown be? Though Gladys is still insisting she won’t be going there.

Anyways … thats my long-winded way of saying my replacement form of therapy is splashing in the ocean and I’d been hoping to do it in Queensland sometime soon. Unfortunately July is out of the question due to the Australian Drinks Awards and I’m getting a bad feeling about August.

I’m very cranky with those security guards for shagging chicks in quarantine and setting off community transmission on a grand scale in Victoria and NSW. So bloody thoughtless to put so many people’s lives in danger.

Plus I was really looking forward to floating in water that was warmer than 17.7C.  Instead, it looks like I’ll be watching and waiting and making last minute decisions to pop to places close to home, which means braving the local, chilly sea in a wetsuit.

I have a tentative weekend away planned with Newie friends. But the destination for my post-Drinks Awards week off is in a holding pattern.

Who would have thought 2020 would see our lives so upended by a pandemic. I can remember marvelling when people were locked into their apartment blocks in China in January and thinking blimey, that’s a bit full on! Now it’s happening in Australia.

We were so cocky about having COVID under control.

My other form of therapy … as you’ve probably noticed … is writing the blog. I think it’s my way of making life feel like it’s more under control. I type the bad stuff out of my head at night, take another look in the morning, edit it heavily so no one thinks I should be checked into a facility, press publish and get on with my day.

What’s keeping you sane during the COVID maelstrom?

Song of the day: Kate Bush “Running up that hill”