the after

There is a strange phenomena at the end of the summer holidays, a kind of communal sigh of relief, as the village returns to 'normal'. The Australia Day weekend heralds the end; the end of busy and bustling, the end of people everywhere, the end of cars clogging up the streets. Literally overnight they are gone, back to school and back to work, and a stillness and slowness descends. The locals reclaim their streets and their favourite coffee spots and their beaches and walking tracks. There is a pleasantness to 'back to normal' and there is a sense of loss too - gone is the energy of people and activity. In its stead emerges again the regular rhythms and routines of people and place, a village coming back to itself...