23-March - Monday - Some of us are leaving Bali

So here we are, us 2 travelling lads, sitting at Denpasar Airport, waiting for our Sydney flight. We spent our day at our oasis, our villa, immersed in the lush tropical green of the plants, luxurious furnishing and a pool to jump into when-ever the heat got too much. We all just needed a lazy day of “dolce far niente” after the emotional roller-coaster of these past couple of days. Something positive has come out of all this kafuffle! This last week has completely taken it out of us, tested us, challenged us, but our bond has grown stronger than ever. We did a last visit to the shops, as my dearest brother insisted on cooking us a simple plate of spaghetti al sugo, a home cooked meal to bring back some normality, a final family meal before we now parted ways. Us flying to Perth via Sydney hoping we land prior to the border of Western Australia closing; them waiting for Friday to fly to Zurich via Doha, also hoping our home state of Ticino is not going to be put into lock-down from the rest of the Swiss states. We are all on the way to quarantine, once we made it home. We will all be able to rest, once we all made it home. We farewelled each other with hugs that summed up the intensity of what we just went through, and promising to find the day that we will laugh when reminiscing this trip and how COVID-19 tried its best to push and squeeze every inch of sanity out of us but failed! Is COVID-19 the test for our generation, like WW2 was for our grandparents? If it is, I’m already learning that talking, laughing and cursing with our dearest friends and family needs to happen in person; that I will pick up a phone and call for a chat over sending a text, like we used to do when I was young; and that I have little need for needing to follow world events as they happen, I’d rather read it from a well-educated journalist who summaries and analyses it on my behalf. And finally, my social media footprint will become smaller than a grain of sand, as I rather look up and see the world than look at a screen in my palm, giving me dry eyes and a sore neck.

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