The First Weeks of Self Isolation

Fancy meeting you all here!

You are probably thinking what in the world has Lauren managed come up with now?  Well now that you have asked the answer is... I now have a lot of time on my hands, since i made the decision to close the salon for the meantime, and i thought why not share the experiences, thoughts and ideas i have come up with and how i feel about everything. 

If you have ever stepped into the salon you would know by now i love to share every aspect of my life with everyone. You are all my family and if i cant do it at the moment while doing your hair I might as well share it on here with you all.

You are probably finding yourself asking yourself what should I be doing? should I feel bad about doing this? or plain and simple i'm just going to binge watch something that has no relevance what so ever just so i don't have to watch the news. 

Well I have found myself thinking these exact things. For example I watched 'Tiger King' in one night! Like I just sat there and watched the whole thing with Corey like the ANIMALS we are, just because we didn't have to go to work the next day. Kinda felt like a teenager again, staying up all hours of the night breaking the rules just so we could say we have watched it and tell everyone who we see (which is no-one as I haven't left the house in 4 days).

Some days I have cleaned the house and even got up early and walked the dogs, some days i have stacked the dishwasher and sat on the couch and done nothing and to be honest felt so guilty about it, as Corey has been working long hours just so we can keep the roof over our heads, but in all honestly I bloody give credit to all the ones who stay home as stay at home mum's or dad's and the retirees because that shit is BORING and so so so repetitive. I'm telling you all now i'm so sick of picking up bloody socks and finding them everywhere. anyone would think a bloody caterpillar lives in our house.

On a plus note I have taken time out for myself which I never do.I am always so busy working huge hours 60 hours a week at least 55 on the floor normally and the rest at home working on the business whether it be social media, book work going through everything and researching products, so for me this is just not what i do. I'm someone who has to have something going all the time, i'm always looking for the next thing half way through doing the other maybe i should of been a chippy or tradie they always start something and never finish it... hahahaha (im going to get in trouble for that one). I have started to realise that its ok to take some time out and just step back and put the breaks on and take everything that is going on around me, for god sakes I have even realised my hair has been growing because i'm getting time to actually take to notice and take the time doing it.

I have also gotten back into doing things and having things around me which make me feel inner peace. Anyone who knows me knows i love everything spiritual, crystals, tarots and just being more in tune with myself and everyone around me. I have been thinking for a long time I wanted to bring something like this into the salon and changing the whole vibe of the shop, bringing my two loves together so that is exactly what i'm going to doing. you we all see it the changes happen i wont be doing readings or anything like that but I will be getting in some more things to sell in the salon along the lines of this. Im so excited to bring this into the shop. That is just one of the things to keep my mind off many other things i'm having to deal with with everything that is going on around the world and in Australia.

Lets just recap on what what myself and Corey have had to deal with in the last three weeks. we where told we non essential services and where going to be closed down which was bloody scary at the time, Corey and I prepped ourselves and said we could do it for a while but for how long? Savings don't last forever as we are both self employed with two houses,a car loan and bills still coming in. We then woke up to realise we still both could work which was amazing. In our heads we where thinking... YES one more week we knew we could work.. We worked and we both worked long long hours. We then heard hairdressers could work but have to have 30 mins to do a service which it utter BULSHIT! I was raging when I heard this absolutely fuming as where many hairdressing friends of mine. I had  come to the conclusion I would close on the Thursday after I had worked myself till 12.30am started at 9.00am on the Wednesday mind you to get everyone in and ran myself into the ground mentally and physically. Woke up Thursday morning to say the ban had been lifted which yes is great but I had had enough. I was so so so ANGRY that the government thought yes we where essential but we have to do our work with social distancing when we could! which we can not do!  I was also so angry the government must have thought myself and every other hairdressers health was not important. I spoke to so many hairdressers and we all felt like we where dirt on the Priminister's shoe. Nothing was there to protect us and our health but beautician's and tattooist where able to close and because the government said they where to close they where able to access funding straightaway. Us hairdressers couldn't access any of funding as the government and may i state still has not yet said we cant work in the circumstances. So i'm still unsure with what i am entitled to at this stage. I closed the business for now for the health and safety of myself and everyone who stepped foot into the salon. I don't regret closing, I don't regret looking after myself for once. As hairdressers we are people who would come in early or stay back late just to fit someone in or fix someones hair or help someone out if they have a function because we put everyone else before ourselves, and for once i was choosing myself and my health over that and to be honest i don't feel bad i know i've done the right thing.

In and amongst all that we lost Corey's pop right when the funeral restrictions came out now that was bloody hard on his whole family. As the aren't able to have a funeral that this man deserves. In my eyes you need funerals to grieve and go through all of those emotions that follow. The family has had that stripped i know its all in the right thing to do at this time but its so unfair.

oh.. and lets not forget........

on top of all that we are now in limbo with what we should do with our wedding. The happiest day of our lives which i've been dreaming about and hoping for might be pushed back and happen next year now which is a hard one to take as well. We haven't made a decision on that just yet we will wait for another month and see so if everyone could stay the F#*k inside that would be great.. hahaha 

We also have just found out Corey has no more work at the hospital from now so we are now looking at anything we can do to make sure we can still put food on the table. Like I'm doing fencing .. who would of thought!

We see the light at the end of the tunnel we are looking at all the best things we have in life and looking at everything with our cup half full rather than empty. The best thing is and as weird as it sounds there are so so many people who are exactly like us out there so many families are doing it tough or harder, and  my hat goes off to everyone of you. We are all in this together and there is something so humbling about that. 

Stay humble, Say hello and Support local 

Its the best we can do right now for everyone.

THANKS for stopping bye and reading this bunch of utter most crap and wasting 10 minutes of you time it means a lot.

signing off 

LAUREN

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