It's a truth universally acknowledged that you usually only miss something when it's gone.  I can't count how many times I have cursed the crowds at busy venues when working, or out and about, and how much I always said I hated having to push through people.  When working and carrying all my camera equipment, some of which protrude a fair way out and thus limit my usual ability to slip unnoticed through small spaces, I suddenly transform into a serial apologiser and I find myself repeating the same lame excuses    'Excuse me ma'am, sorry sir, please sir can I just squeeze through there, oh goodness, I'm so sorry, oh bloody hell, whoops a daisies'   as I tried to ease my way through the heaving crowd, trying desperately not to bump into anyone with the end of my 500mm lens, or the camera hanging off my waist belt.  Equally, trying to bend your torso suddenly to avoid having a hole burnt through whatever I'm wearing by someone's evil cigarete butt th...

I'm sitting in my office at my computer.  As usual, my Burmese kitty Maxie, sits is on my lap.  He makes it far more difficult for me to type when he does this, but I like having him with me so unless I need a cup of tea or my legs and butt have gone to sleep I usually never kick him off. It's 5 April.  I  should  be at my Mum's house in Sydney.  Yesterday, in any other year, I would have been busy at Royal Randwick working hard on Day 1 of The Championships and expecting to go straight on to the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.  This morning I should be dog tired.  My neck and shoulders should be aching and I should have sore legs as a result of having traipsed approximately 10km around Royal Randwick racecourse carrying my heavy gear with me. Not this year.  I have to say that pandemics suck.  Utterly!  We, like many others, are effectively locked out of work while the nation and world tries desperately to control the relent...