Why I miss lockdowns: Phil Brown

There were lessons to be learnt by pausing and reflecting on life – how precious it is and how important the ordinary things are, writes Phil Brown on the positives of lockdowns.

We were waxing lyrical about lockdowns the other evening and reminiscing about how much we enjoyed them.

I’m not sure if you’re supposed to enjoy lockdowns but let’s face it, they had some good points.

I’m thinking of those lazy days working in my home office with ABC Classic playing on the radio and the morning sun streaming in through my window. Mid-morning we would take the dog for a walk up to the local cafe, which was serving takeaway.

Sometimes we would walk around the neighbourhood and on those walks I would notice things I had never noticed before. And I appreciated our suburb and our home in a new way. Lockdowns were bad for business and of course Covid took a terrible toll but it forced some of us to pause, to stop and smell the roses as it were. And there were days of family togetherness which were quite cosy and of course the big winners were our pets. They had us home all day; that was bliss for our pup.

Phil Brown discusses the positives to lockdowns.

Also it made us take stock of our domestic surroundings and work out what we needed to do around the house.

We cleaned out the pantry and the kitchen drawers and we did the window blinds and found all sorts of other chores to do to distract ourselves from work.

Admittedly it was hard to get motivated sometimes, but the best thing, for me, was to shave as usual, go through the motions of getting dressed and go straight to the desk.

In the afternoons a siesta was even possible (how continental) and in the evenings there was time to prepare meals that one might not ordinarily be able to in the usual workaday rush.

For all the negatives, lockdowns had these positive aspects. We watched old movies and read a lot and I didn’t have to go out to the theatre at night like I usually do, so I was in my dressing gown and reclining by 7.30 every evening. I wonder if any of you are reflecting on this now life is accelerating again? As wonderful as it is, there were lessons to be learnt by pausing and reflecting on life – how precious it is and how important the ordinary things are.