Beauty 365 … Stories of Love and Life for Everyday

Quite scarily, Day 13 of lock-down on Phillip Island saw the beaches close, limiting some of our fresh air freedoms a little more, hence, the opening of our ancient and ever evolving games cupboard.

Board games have a colourful and checkered history in Phillip Island childhood memories.

My family escaped down here every school holiday - and I mean, every - summer and winter. On the last day of school term, bags had been mysteriously packed when we arrived home from school and we were off, usually stopping for some sort of fabulously greasy takeaway, somewhere along the way down, for dinner.

Volatile and unpredictable weather conditions often made for long days and evenings, trapped inside, escaping from gale-force winds and icy coastal showers. My siblings and I had intense and unending games of Monopoly that dominated the whole living area and regularly ended with accusations of bankers cheating, houses being thrown across the room, money being torn… My parents would break it up by ordering us to “get the silliness out” of us by running down to the beach in just our bathers (ie. togs, swimmers, Speedos, cossies or whatever else you non-Victorians would incorrectly like to call them). A quick dip in and out, and oh yes, the “silliness” evaporated, replaced by absolute numbness!

Day 13 and our own kids extracted “Celebrity Heads”, a more recent addition to the cupboard. I laughed as I noted the characters they unwittingly pulled out for themselves: Mary Poppins, Muhammad Ali, and John McEnroe, all quite accurate character matches!!

In the evening we played Balderdash, a family favourite. The evening was made more special with a dear friend of ours joining in via video; almost like he was with us, aside from the fact that he couldn’t partake of the chocolates we were devouring.

Feeling grateful for modern technology and the closeness it allows us to have with our family and friends during these days.