A day in the life of...

Better Days

This is what my perfect day will look like once this isolation is over.

8:45am:

I will wake up. I will take a shower and wash myself with my favourite shower gel, its vanilla and strawberry. Ill get out and clean my teeth and comb my hair. I will dress in my favourite pair of black jeans that have a hole in one knee and I would wear my new space shirt with a silver tie. I will dress up today as it is a beautiful day.

8:55am:

I will put my dog Domino in his blue harness and then secure him in the car. We will take off to the dog park so that Domino can see his friends again. Its has been hard on us but I think it has been hard on our animals as well.

9:15am:

I will watch my dog socialise with his friends again, dig holes and just run around like a headless chicken. I will sit with the owners and just chat. I will savour the human interaction.

9:30am:

The ice cream man will drive past, and I will get a single plain cone for Domino and a Sunday for myself. It is a special day after all.

9:45am:

We head off from the dog park and head to a café to meet my friend Erika for coffee. We sit outside and my dog soaks up the sun, occasionally getting up to switch positions or smell someone walking past. Erika will have bought her 2-year-old son Dexter and we will laugh and talk and spend the morning talking and catching up. We will laugh as Dexter tries to eat an ice cream and instead gets a brain freeze, pulling a funny face.

10:30am:

I will head home and take Domino inside, before heading down to my 84-year-old Nonnas house. On the drive there I blast my music in the car, just enjoying the freedom. I listen to the Rocky Horror theme song album on repeat.

10:50am:

When I arrive at my Nonnas house, we hug for what feels like a lifetime. I get a little teary. She is my best friend and I have not seen her for months. I can smell her cooking before even setting foot in her house. She has cooked her lasagne ready for today.

11:15am:

We spend a bit of time in the garden, cleaning up the weeds and just talking. We laugh when her dog Tarina buries herself in mud but then complain because we then must catch her to wash her. We head inside and start to set the table.

11:30am:

With the table set we sit down and enjoy the lasagne, my Nonna pretending to get cross when I cover mine in so much cheese that you cannot even see the pasta. “Oh Alicia” she will say with a smile. I show her photos of sunsets that I have watched while being away. She shows me pictures of Alicia her nieces’ new baby. (no not me we just have the same spelling)

12:00pm:

We clean up from lunch, doing the dishes and flicking water at each other. We sit down and watch a movie, which we end up talking through the entirety of it as it was not a particularly good one.

1:30pm:

we sit down and play a little bit of poker and rummy, which I am terrible at. I somehow manage to win against the card shark herself and I claim my victory on the pedestal. We laugh about it and then I leave.

1:45pm:

I hug my Nonna for what feels like forever. When I detach myself, I smell like her perfume and it is a comfort knowing that I will smell like her for the rest of the day.

2:00pm:

I decide to drive the hour and a half to see my friend Hannah who I have not seen for over a year.

2:45pm:

I get pulled over by the police for a random breath test that takes me by surprise and I let the officer know that and we have a little laugh about it as I got the all clear to continue. Today feels like a dream, a little surreal.

3:30pm:

I arrive at my friend’s house and knock on the door. When she opens it, she screams so loud that I think that my ears will be ringing for a week. She jumps in my arms and we hug like there is no tomorrow. We are both crying. I go inside and we decide that we should go do a high ropes course.

3:45pm:

We get to the high ropes course and we are the only ones there. We get our safety brief and then get harnessed up, get our helmets and then we get started.

4:15pm:

We get to the second highest level and both our legs are shaking from adrenaline. There is a part in the course that you must jump down from and let me tell you that both of us would rather stick something in our eyeballs than try and attempt this jump. I end up having to push her off the edge and then I close my eyes and just jump. The feeling of falling hits me and I scream before the descent slows and the harness takes my weight. I open my eyes when I feel myself touch the floor.

4:30pm:

We leave the high ropes course and start to cruise back to my house. I have a gig tonight and it is time to get ready. I brought my friend along as she has never been to one of my gigs, but tonight is the night.

5:15pm:

road trips with my Hannah are the best. We crank the music and dance all the way. We listen to king for a day and we head bang so hard that I think I am going to head butt the steering wheel. We stop on the way and get McDonald’s. I get a wrap and chips and Hannah gets a quarter pounder. We eat the food and she feeds me chips, occasionally with me biting her fingers. We just keep laughing about it.

6:00pm:

We arrive at my house and I have another shower, do my hair up with gel and get my equipment ready. I plug my decks into my laptop and make sure the software is running smoothly. There is always an update that needs to be done whenever I plug my decks into it. For my gig I am wearing a snapback, my jeans, and my branded hoodie with The Lonely Explorer on it. That is my DJ name.

6:15pm:

While Hannah is in the shower, I run through my set, making sure everything is smooth and sounds good. I have recently added some new songs, so I am a bit new to the mixing of those ones. I practice and practice until Hannah is out of the shower and we are ready to leave.

6:30pm:

We arrive at Pink Duck and I set up my equipment and connect to the speakers. Hannah pulls up a seat next to me and I start DJing.

7:00pm:

We have quite a crowd tonight and I have people on the dancefloor busting a move to my songs. I play a huge mix of 80s and 90s as people come in to eat and just vibe with the music.

8:00pm:

With dinner rush over I can now play the songs louder and I start to change up my mix.

The setlist is as follows.

Juicy Wiggle,

Turn Down for What,

Bangarang,

Cheerleader,

Thanks for the Memories,

Boom,

Bohemian Rhapsody,

Old Town Road,

Dance Monkey,

Solo,

The Git Up,

Cha Cha Slide,

Rise,

Levels,

Purge, and finally

Stranger.

11:00pm:

I have been DJing since 6:30 and time really goes fast when you are having a good time. My friend Ricki came down for a bit and so did Erika. One of the perks of being the DJ is free food and drinks, so I got a couple of rounds for my friends. It was almost time to pack up and many people in the pub had moved onto the club just down the road.

11:15pm:

I turn off my music and disconnect from the speakers. I write up my invoice and get paid. I get in the car with Hannah and as we pull out, I get a call from an unknown number. I pull off the road to answer and the call is from someone who took my card at the pub and would like to book me in for a gig for their 21st. I said yes absolutely, send me the songs you want, the date and ill make you a mix.

11:30pm:

We get home and lay in bed, watching a movie and eating a bb bacon cheeseburger pizza that we got on the way home. My phone was lying next to me face down when it started going off like crazy. I checked my emails and saw that one was from The Big Bounce Australia, saying they were coming back to Perth in the next few weeks and they want me to come back and DJ for them just like I did in January over in Melbourne. I replied straight away saying I cannot wait.

11:45pm:

I gave Domino cuddles as Hannah fell asleep next to me. I let the movie play out as I thought about how perfect this day was. This was the perfect ending to a perfect day, and I wished that I could freeze time and stay in this day forever.

12:00am:

I fell asleep dreaming of all the possibilities there are now that we can do things again.