Having spent a few years in Melbourne-or at least nearby, in Elsternwick down the Nepean Highway, I can understand your dismay. However, I think that there is great value in a time of enforced rest and sleep. While you and I may well be restless, there are so many things healing. Others hurt, like the great redwood forests on fire. Life goes on, life ends, life changes. Melbourne was, is now, and will always be one of the world's great, livable, walkable, rideable cities, beautiful in location, richly diverse in people and culture. Covid is a blip on the universal timeline. A blip. So are we. That we choose to see shutdown as bad is a choice. There is much to be gained from slowing way down, thinking more, observing more, breathing better air. Of course there are losses. All transitions demand them.

Some we might regain. Others not. And there will be, if we are willing, great gains.

I deeply miss my travel. I have no idea when I can return to the planes and trains and new horizons that feed my soul.

In the meantime I seek them here, including in the unexplored territory of my soul. All worthwhile journeys.

I love Melbourne. She is still a great gem. Quiet, but still brilliant. The street buskers will be back.