After finishing work on Friday, we got up early - but not to go to the airport, and fly to Cairns, as we have had planned for months. To go to the hospital, and have covid tests, so we can go home to Castlemaine, in regional Victoria, without the risk of taking the virus there from Melbourne.

Cairns is all cancelled. A pity, because it had all the makings of a very interesting and pleasant twelve days away from Melbourne's winter. But with Melbourne now in Lockdown No. 7, and Queensland declaring Victoria (very reasonably) a "Hot Spot", we are not permitted to go there.

So, we are here in Castlemaine for 2 weeks, sort of experiencing what it may be like to be retired, before returning to a final month of work in September.

Work is becoming strange, as retirement approaches. There are many patients whom I have known for many years, who will miss me. And I them! Last week I was visited by a patient I'd last seen 19 years ago, before he moved out of the area. He'd heard I was retiring, and really came to say goodbye.

I thought I had done my last home visit, and written my last death certificate, but last week was persuaded to visit another old, and elderly, patient at home; and after doing what I could helped her to a calm and peaceful death at home. Being able to do this is one of the more satisfying parts of life as a GP.

I thought I'd put in my last IUD, but then more have appeared. And I suspect I will have a minor flurry of skin excisions when I return for my last month at work, as I am far more experienced in this than any of the other doctors there.

So we will get on with making some of the changes we've planned here. Along with selling Finsbury, our Airbnb house, and re-aligning the boundary between the houses, and making somewhere to park the motorhome, I have decided to sell my motorcycle and give up motorcycling. I've used it very little in the past couple of years, and prefer riding on my pushbike - more exercise, and I don't have to put on all the protective clothing. So it has been listed for sale. A decision reinforced when I saw a patient last week, who, since I saw him last, has lost the bottom of one leg. Motorcycling accident. He is very accepting of it, but I'd really not like it to happen to me.

One benefit of lockdown (there aren't very many benefits) is that we have been doing more walking around the local area here in the goldfields. We have tended to not use the car much when we are up here, but have found that using it to drive a little way - less than 10km - opens up a large variety of interesting walking trails. And while at present travel in Melbourne is limited to 5km, up here it is not.