Goodbye July

richard Avatar
Goodbye to the old. 50 is not old when you’re 70, but unthinkable when you are 30. Ancient when you are any younger than that. Image by @yoyoqua

Zoom went June

Well that month disappeared quickly. It’s been busy!

I finished one video project and have done more than a dozen interviews for the next. All mostly via Zoom. Some was field footage and shooting though, and it made me realise how much I still have to learn. The sound was OK, but my camera skills need practice. Slow pans, manual focusing, getting visual elements to help the narrative…

I’ve also got four episodes of the podcast lined up as well as some trailers to promote it on air. I haven’t done much more outside of that for it. More on that later

Quick retreat

In NZ we’ve left lockdown and everyone is trying to go back to the before. You can shop at will, travel, there’s school sport, and televised rugby. So more than 90% of the nation is happy that life is normal enough again. Those that aren’t happy probably need to take a look around the world and reassess. We have so much to be thankful for, most of all there’s no community transmission. Yes, industries are suffering, people have a lot to deal with, but that was the same before. Now it’s different industries. Most of us talked about realigning, changing for the better. Now we have to follow through.

The nation seemed outraged at a couple of border failures – but the response to the failure was exemplary – all cases since have been caught at the border. Imagine how we would feel if we were in Victoria – suburb by suburb lockdowns, police on each floor of apartment buildings, road blocks… again, we don’t know how lucky we are, mate.

Lots of people are talking about holding on to the good changes that have happened; it’s getting harder though. The ‘return to normal’ seems include acting like Covid-19 wasn’t a thing. But you can’t have a skirmish with a pandemic and then take it all back. Some fundamentals have changed.

For me, I’m thinking hard about how I balance things – money, family, work. I’m determined not to go back to full-time work stress. This will bring other stresses, but for now, I’m ok with that.

Lockdown made me broaden my network, reset my approach and look around for new opportunities. The good news is there’s plenty out there – it’s time to follow up on them. Wish me luck.