Never before have we appreciated the little things in life more than we do right now.

Our city, our region, is adapting to the COVID-19 climate. And with the exception of a handful of people hit with fines for breaching social distancing restrictions last week, we seem to be doing it fairly well.

Times have changed, and don't look like returning to normal any time soon. But it is impossible to deny there are some tiny silver linings in our now heavily disrupted world.

Dying for a night off cooking dinner? Pick up the phone - many of our cafes, restaurants and pubs are waiting for your order.

In other news

Can't visit someone for their birthday? There are still plenty of local bakers plying their trade and offering contactless delivery - send some cupcakes or custom cookies instead.

Annoyed you can't get out to a gig? Tune in to some of the livestreams that local bands have been testing out to stay in touch with their fans.

Have no idea how to plant something? Ask your neighbour - who no doubt you've had more chats with in the past few weeks than you have in the past year.

Which brings us to yet another important point.

There will be plenty of people saying they're going OK in this new world of isolation.

We're now essentially into the third week of staying as close to home as we possibly can and you can almost guarantee a decent proportion of those people actually aren't feeling their best.

Look out for one another and, just as importantly, take care of yourself.

Now's the time to master your text chat, learn more about video calling over the internet, or even break out the old pen and paper - just don't forget the stamps.

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