But today, the Lebanese bakery is bustling as a stream of customers queue to order its sweet and savoury delights. Business is back, though not quite at full speed.

"It's starting to pick up," said Amar Ayouch, one of the proprietors of the family firm.

"You have days when it's busy and then days when it's dead. But it has picked up."

The clutch of shops is a good barometer as official figures for Australia as a whole indicate growth out of the pandemic has been brisk.

The bakery adapted to the enforced closure, putting more emphasis on deliveries and takeaways.

"We moved the cash register to the door," the proprietor said.

"We always had hope and always try to think positive. I'm grateful that we can operate."

Across the shopping centre, that sense of cautious hope is echoed. A common feeling is Canberra is coming out of the pandemic, albeit gingerly.

Around the corner from the bakery, David Fax at the Alexander Fax Booksellers said people were still cautious about browsing. And bookstores need browsers.

"I think there are a lot fewer people moving around shopping centres like this," he said.

"People are still wearing masks. They don't stay out shopping for long."

His business has been selling online as well as in the bricks-and-mortar store since 2002. The pandemic has bumped up the proportion of trade online but partly because more than three months of closure halted the in-store trade. Mr Fax has multiple sclerosis and so was very vulnerable to COVID. For safety's sake, closure was necessary.

Of course, the worst-hit stores have gone. Travel was a casualty and the travel agents which remained said it had been "tough".

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But the rest have soldiered through the worst, often helped by each other. Storeholders stuck together, said Fares Deakh of Golden Kut barbers: "We support each other here. Sometimes all you need is a chat."

And customers were loyal. Sonia De Sousa said when she reopened her Belle La Vie beauty salon, people were so grateful they tipped generously and offered to pay extra.

"I was crazy-busy. It was fantastic after we reopened. Everyone was just so grateful that I could reopen," she said.

She's been in business for 23 years, offering facials, waxing and other beauty treatments.

Some of her customers are elderly and alone, so they value the contact, both physical and verbal. "Touch is very important so I have a lot of older clients who live by themselves, and they were keen to come back," she said.

Her business was closed twice - it has to be face-to-face so there was no way around the pandemic - "I found that frustrating and that made me anxious" - but now the anxiety has gone. "It feels now like it's back to normal. People are really grateful. I've been busy and it's wonderful," she said.

The general mood is times are looking up but "normality" is still some way away.

"It feels like it's coming to an end but it's not happened yet," butcher Reece Travers said.

As Fares Deakh of Golden Kut barbers put it: "Our biggest lesson is never take anything for granted."

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