The Big Brainstorm

I've seen much more community spirit. Neighbours stopping for a chat, offers to help others shop or connect online and the wonderfully creative ways we've brightened our 5km bubbles: spoonvilles, rainbows and chalk drawings. Personally, I've enjoyed the slower pace of life and have felt very fortunate to have stable employment and a comfortable home. Working from home has been the main change and I've enjoyed the extra time in the week that this allows - work life balance feels much more achievable! Not needing to travel for work has meant we don't need to drive or use public transport anymore. We walk and shop locally. Pre-COVID, life was full of obligations. Places to go, people to see, things to do. Running from one thing to the next and always out and about. This experience has shown it can be really nice to be at home and in your local community. I hope we keep this new found sense of community, shopping local and slower pace. To do so, I think we need our shopping strips and community hubs to be lively, diverse and have green spaces to gather.

I was exclusively using public transport before Covid to get to/from work. Now I tend to keep to shops/parks that are near enough to walk, and have started driving to work.
Where I would previously have met up with friends at restaurants/pubs/houses, I am now socializing more in public spaces like parks, going for walks and having picnics. This is definitely influenced by whatever restrictions are current, but I think making use of parks and outdoor spaces will become something that I do more often after so many months stuck indoors.

I have started looking into moving house, and my idea of what is necessary and what is a luxury has changed since before covid. Before, the most important thing I wanted was to be well connected to the city by public transport, preferably closer in. Since our worlds shrunk to 5ks around, I am now more interested in finding somewhere that I could comfortably live if my world shrunk to that size again. For me this means being close to family, and having access to open/green spaces.

I've spent a lot more time walking, to the shops, to catch up with friends and become more active. My car has certainly spent a lot more time in the garage! People adhered to social distancing, although it felt like we needed more footpath space as people walked on the roads.
I've shop local a lot more and have learnt more about the local businesses in my area. I did shop on line a lot more and found it pretty convenient, although I missed being able to look at some things in person. I saw more shop vacancies.
I've seen a lot more of my neighbours who were also out walking and using our local parks and shops - to play, socialise and exercise. It was nice to bump into them more often.
There was so much 'street art' in our area - chalk drawings on the pavement and fences, like a local gallery. All expressing support for the local community. Spoonville, rock people all brought our community together in some way.
I felt lucky to have a job when others we're uncertain and more grateful for my home more than ever. The simple things felt more important - gardening, connections with family and friends over the screen.

Time to 'turn inwards' and reflect on "purpose" and what is really important in life: Family, friends, meaningful work.
TIME - to reflect, to restore energy, to meditate, to exercise, to connect with nature - through local walks, growing veggies, and heaps of gardening and cooking!
Walking local streets has meant making more connections with neighbours and the community around me. These walks have also triggered a keen love of photography of local plants, flowers, birds, and street art which I then enjoy sharing with others on social media. This has created new connections with people outside my usual network and built rewarding new relationships.
Supporting local shops has become intuitive - I now feel disloyal buying from outside the area!
Shopping online has become a way of life and accepting time delays has activated a greater sense of appreciation - not instant gratification from 'retail therapy'.
Less waste and consumerism. Repairing things and sharing things. I share an electric lawn mower with a neighbour rather than buying another one and we swap, with my 'whipper snipper'!
Keeping in touch with family by weekly Zoom sessions with a 'Show & Tell' format has been fun and given all members of extended family a chance to speak and focus on what interests them - which has actually provided more of an opportunity for everyone's voice to be heard rather than just the usual ones.
Even my mature age "Women's Group" has managed to meetup monthly online! Even if it took us 30 minutes to get everyone online the first time around! But now we are all pro's at connecting and sharing as we used to - and don't have to travel at night to meet. We will probably keep this going after COVID and just meet face to face less frequently.
Working remotely has been a joy. I have all the technology I need to work productively and connect with my team and my 'customers'. Daily catch ups online has maintained our team bond and shared the workload. For those living alone it has been a critical touchpoint.
For me personally, it has meant two and a half hours less driving each day, less wasted time finding a park (and moving my car frequently) - which has allowed me to have more energy to put into my working hours, AND more flexibility to juggle WHEN I work with family commitments. Creating much more balance.
All in all, I have found COVID to be a very positive experience - apart from the heartache of hearing the news about other people's suffering.
Lets hope more good comes out of this and our future "new normal" takes on the positives of what we have learnt form this unexpected disruption to the high speed life we led before.

I've been going to the park every morning, and I've seen much higher usage. Lots of people have puppies as well - so that is going to be a trend that will have to stick around for a time. On the flip side, people have been leaving more of their rubbish behind, not picking up after their dogs, and the Natural resource areas have new 'tracks' through them that weren't there before COVID.
I've changed the way I shop - keeping it more local. When I have to shop at the big supermarkets, I try do click and collect.
I've started listening to podcasts on my walk which has been entertaining as well as informative.
Being able to spend more time in nature, and walking the dog has brought me joy.

I love my home more now and appreciate it more especially as we had time to do a bit of painting etc. Also use my local shops a lot more and as a result i feel more connected to my local community and feel good about supporting the local traders. I dont like the increase in traffic and noise starting to increase again

During Covid we found we tried to support our local area in eating out (or in), we would normally eat out outside of our local area, during this time we found some great gems. I would like to see our shopping strips to be more lively

Definitely more people using their local parks - it has become a community meeting spot.

I have found I walk a lot more than I used to. If I needed to go anywhere I always used to hop up and out into the car - now, if it's within my 5km my first reaction is to walk. As a result I'm much more 'incidentally active' and also shop more locally.

I am grateful for the relationships we have built with our local coffee shops and community groups over the past few months. Through COVID-19 we have definitely strengthened our ties and feel more connected to the Kingston community. I was very impressed with the ways they reached out to us and encouraged us to reach out, to make that happen.

Before COVID-19 I was also very guilty of overfilling our family diary with social commitments. Now that restrictions have eased I'm going to try hard to maintain a little 'white space' in our lives 'for play', whether that be at home or outdoors as a family - we have discovered so many more great local parks and reserves!

Lately, what has been bringing us joy is being back at our gorgeous beaches with friends.