Lisa’s lowdown

In this week’s column, the McLure family of Smiths Beach nervously ponder whether the current easing of regional lockdown restrictions will continue, while unearthing old-fashioned entertainment.

“In, out, in, out …

By the time this goes to print who knows whether we will be in or out of another lockdown.

At this point we are kind of out. It’s nice to be back at work again.

Last Monday I was determined to have the kids complete all of their remote learning.

I spoke to Evie's teacher, the lovely Mrs Taylor. She said the teachers had spent their entire weekends planning for a week of remote learning.

Our educators work so hard behind the scenes and I for one appreciate them so much. So we owed it to them to have a good hard crack at the tasks provided.

Evie was happily working away on a group chat with her friends doing their work together and helping each other. It was very sweet. My other child seemed to have grown devil horns overnight and was not at all inspired to make any headway.

We got through it only to be told that regional areas had an early release, and kids were going back to school the following day.

My phone went bananas with messages from fellow parents celebrating the news.

It's definitely a whirlwind.

I came home from a walk on Saturday to find the family had set up an indoor skipping rope game in the loungeroom, one end tied to the staircase and one of them operating the other end. What could possibly go wrong?  I've given up trying to have any kind of control in this house.

They were having fun and even roped Tim into having a go (pun intended). It did, however, give me an idea: I went to the local craft shop and bought a long piece of elastic and taught the kids how to play old-school elastics. Evie took it to school and even the teachers had a go, reliving their childhood school lunchbreaks.

We have been Googling all of the old rhymes and moves and they have it set up inside between two chairs. It's not the quietest game, especially when Evie's up at 6.30am jumping around, but it’s definitely less stressful than a giant indoor skipping rope.

The salon has been buzzing this week, playing catch up from our catch up. Clients have been superbly amazing.

It seems the same clients keep being the ones booked in when we go into lockdown each time. Everyone has moved on from being upset about it, and have managed to find a bit of humour in the situation.

I have one client who has been in three times on the days they have announced a snap lockdown. Another client who was in on the same day asked to have her future bookings line up with this lady, as she seems to have good luck in getting her colour done in the nick of time.

There's something very satisfying in making a person feel so good about themselves with a nice cut and colour and sending them off with a smile.

It’s not just about the application, but also the socialness of the salon environment. It's a beautiful space to work in.

On that note, I'm off to repot some plants: the trees are getting their leaves back, the flowers are starting to bloom.

I love this time of year when nature starts to awaken from its winter hibernation.

If only the weeds in the garden beds would get the memo.”