we had a beer ...

... in a pub.

Yesterday we did something that seemed quite extraordinary, but was once commonplace.

We had lunch out in a country pub.

The day had been cold, cloudy, windy and threatening skies. Too unpleasant to work outside in the garden, so we decided to play hooky.

The easing of restrictions in country Victoria mean that we can now go out for frivolous reasons, and that pubs and cafes are open (with restrictions on table numbers, and it is table service only). Normally we might have celebrated with a bushwalk or a bike ride but the weather was against us so we settled for a drive and perhaps a little photography.

Our original aim had been to work our way round to Mount Beauty and the bakery there, but we never got there. We'd taken a detour to Harrietville, and when we got there we found the pub was (a) open and (b) doing lunch, so on the spur of the moment we went to see what was on the menu and stayed for lunch.

The pub was quiet, in fact we were the only customers for most of the time and the staff were really pleased to see us. They had been opening in the hope of attracting walkers, but the weather had put people off. That and people were still being careful, I guess because it's school holidays ...

After months of lockdown, it was really strange to sit in a pub, have a beer and a pulled pork roll. I realised that I'd become ever so slightly agoraphobic over lockdown, but equally being able to get out again was so nice, so enjoyable, I'm sure the agoraphobia will pass ...