Day 096 – Hairdresser & Celebration

Welcome to Day 96!

My husband’s first day back in the office after the Easter break means that I’m left to manage the socialising by myself.  It’s not as much a chore as it is demanding on the energy.

First up was a trip to the hairdresser.  A trip to the hairdresser is usually a wonderful reprieve from the pressures of the day.  Particularly, if you have your hair coloured.  While the dye is being absorbed, there is a period of time where the apprentices get you a cup of tea, coffee or water.  This treat is usually accompanied with another treat in the form of some cookies or a chocolate.  The time can be spent reading, playing a game on your smart phone or simply sitting and enjoying the moment.  I’ve done all of these, but today I did the latter.  It was wonderful!  The colourist was lovely, and the stylist was her usual amazing self.

Once I had my haircut, it was time for my nephew’s.  In my life, I’ve been exposed to five adolescent boys.  From memory the thing that has been the most difficult at this time in their lives is getting them to go for a shower/ bath.  One of my friends had such difficulty getting her son to wash, it had become a thing during the hot summer days to just throw herself into the pool with clothes on and her son thinking this was great would do likewise.  Once wet, a shower was an easier coax.

At the barber mentioned to my nephew that the build-up of dirt and fat on the scalp could lead to itchiness, inflammation and possibly impede hair growth.  He was then given a “Nu brush” to shampoo his scalp with to remove build up and stimulate hair growth.  My sister and brother-in-law were grateful to the barber for imparting the wisdom on their son – he hadn’t been listening to them.  

The first signs that things are heading in the right direction when it comes to the coronavirus (COVID-19) became a thing of joy as it looks like New Zealand (NZ) and Australia (Aus) will be forming a travel bubble.  This is great news, since I’m keen to either go snow-skiing or visit Doubtful Sound as a travel destination in the next year.  It might even be both, finances permitted.   Of course, there’s the proviso that if an outbreak occurs while you’re located in either country, or one of the countries initiates a lockdown you could get stuck in a 14-day quarantine.

One of the other things that happens while you’re at the hairdressers is that you can get an update on the news.  While there the discussion led to vaccinations and the lack of vaccinations received from overseas to which we were promised access.  The 3.6 million Astrazeneca doses allocated to Australia saw 3 million get repurposed to Europe where the need is greater, since Australia has been able to manage its outbreaks before it got too bad.

Concerning news was that the vaccination may not be enough, not even to reduce the severity, because the variants outpace the vaccinations (6 Apr 21, The Conversation). In uplifting news the University of Queensland has continued, possibly as part of a thesis, to develop its own locally grown vaccine.  This could come in useful, particularly if Europe and the States keep getting new waves of the virus.  As long as Australia is managing its outbreaks, it’s unlikely to get more of the vaccines.  There’s also the rare blood-clotting that appears to be overreported compared to its severity in the news – on the cynical side, it could just be our government promoting the dangers to regulate demand until it’s been sorted out.  From what I had heard the number of people getting blood clots is about the same as the number of people that would normally get blood clots.  Obviously more information is needed.

After the hairdresser, my sister and I decided to compensate up for the lack of an 80^th birthday party for our mother.  There was a lot of running around trying to divert our mother’s attention away from the massive balloons with an eight and a zero on them from being seen by her.  It meant at one point that I needed to run on my recovering ankle – ouch!

Amidst the chocolate cake with strawberries, a found sparkler and a couple of candles, the evening was a success!

Let’s see what the cards have to say!