New Normal

Now that (all) shops are re-opened and everybody seems ecstatic about the fact that they can get a proper haircut again it is a weird transition time when most office workers are still working from home and comparing notes on when they are returning to their respective workplaces. Many, myself included, are not all that keen. What's the point of exposing yourself to the risk of public transport only to be in an eerily deserted office where you'll sit metres apart from your colleagues and can't really have any normal types of meetings with. In general, I've grown quite fond of the perceived safe bubble of my suburbian (temporary) home and on the 3 trips to Vienna last week I was happy and eager to return there. Had you asked me two months ago if I would ever gravitate towards village life and be glad to exchange Vienna for it, I'd have laughed. What happened to this passionately "urban" girl? I find comfort and joy in cooking up a storm and am happy in the sunny upstairs room where my sewing machine is. Truth be told, I don't really feel the need to go anywhere right now, least of all abroad. Okay, ask me again when it's super hot and I'd have been at the Cote d'Azure, but doing what I loved to do is not the same when you have to wear a mask and consider every person near you as a potential virus-transmitter. If I can't have my "old normal" back, I'd rather stay in my little lockdown bubble a little longer than become friends with the "new normal" too soon.