Lockdown Fun March/April 2020

April fools day! (If only this was an April Fools joke!) We have been in lockdown for a week already! While reflecting on the first week of New Zealand's lockdown I realised we have a whole new vocabulary. We now talk about 'staying in our bubbles', 'self isolating', 'flattening the curve', 'physical distancing', 'clusters', 'community transmission', 'alert levels', essential and non essential businesses and of course 'lockdown'.  I started to think about this because Joel told us yesterday that Nikau was telling his brothers they couldn't interrupt Mummy because she was on a 'conference call'. (i.e. she was live teaching.)  He said a couple of weeks ago Nikau wouldn't have even known that conference calls existed. It's a brave new world when a 5 year old understands what a conference call is. I went for my daily walk this morning; there are not nearly as many people out in the morning as in the...

It's only Day 6 and I'm already cleaning out kitchen drawers!! By the end of this, the place will be spotless. (Although that's a bit hard to achieve with the bathroom renovation ongoing.) Bex set up an online Countdown account so I can shop for Dad if necessary. I talked with him this morning and he has plenty of supplies at the moment, but we've told him to make a list as he uses things and not to wait until the last minute to let us know what he needs. He told me yesterday he was talking to Margret's son in Auckland and he, Dad, taught Chris how to use FB video messenger. Dad was very proud of himself! While out walking this afternoon I saw an elderly friend of ours in her garden. Her late husband used to do the electrical work for Hendersonbros. While being careful to maintain a safe physical distance we had a chat. She is 83, and for the first time had gone on a trip to Australia with some friends. Unfortunately their trip was cut short and after 48 hours o...

This morning I decided to go to the local supermarket early to avoid the queue. Fortunately I had gone early enough to miss the queue but what a surreal experience! First a masked man offered me some hand sanitiser and directed me to the sanitising wipes so I could wipe the handle of the trolley. While the shelves weren't empty they certainly weren't as full as usual and the layout of the store seemed different to what it used to be. It's only Day 5 of lockdown and already I felt uncomfortable being around people and finished my shopping as quickly as I could. I had to wait in the red circle by the checkout to ensure I was maintaining an appropriate physical distance and a perspex screen separated me from the checkout operator. A very different experience to my weekly Countdown shop just over a week ago! The other unusual sight today was two nurses consulting with patients in their cars outside the doctor's surgery. Finally I have succeeded in video chatting with Da...

Today dawned cold, wet and windy, a good day to stay indoors and do the housework. We even lit the fire for the first time this year.  63 new cases today, a total now of 514. Sadly New Zealand now has one Covid19 death. The sun broke through this afternoon  so we decided to go out for a walk. It seemed that we were joined by every man, woman, child and dog in Stokes Valley.  When I got home I rang Dad to see how he's doing. Unfortunately my brother has broken his elbow and can't drive, but his partner has delivered groceries to Dad. I'm trying to teach Dad to use whatsapp video calling. It has proved to be rather a daunting task. Dad receives the call but he hasn't been able to work out how to answer it. We'll keep on trying. I spent about an hour and a half this afternoon teaching Dad to access this blog but unfortunately we haven't been able to add it to his home screen. Oh well, it kept Dad and I connected for some time. We will continue to work on this probl...

Today is cold and wet but I decided to brave the elements and go for my customary walk. The streets seemed even quieter today than yesterday. Sadly boredom is already beginning to set in and cleaning the fridge relieved the symptoms for a short while this morning. (Unfortunately it wasn't on the to do list, maybe I should add it just so I can cross it out.) About lunchtime I decided to go down to the local New World to pick up some supplies. One look at the rather long, social distancing queue waiting in the cold made me realise that we actually still have enough supplies at the moment and doing the shopping in this new reality is a fine weather task. Our total cases has increased by 83 over the last 24 hours taking the total to 451. Two days ago when I started this blog the total was 283. Scary stuff!! The wardrobe shelf and floor is now also tidy. I am trying to pace myself. On Thursday Geoff applied for the business subsidy, ecpecting that, under the circumstances it...

My first thought today was wondering how long it will be before we stop referring to the days as Monday, Tuesday etc, but as Day 13, Day 14 etc. It's not easy to know what day it is when there's no differentiation between the week and weekdays. I went for my morning walk today as usual. While I was walking along George Street a little girl called out hello from an upstairs window and a lady who was chatting to her neighbor from her balcony also waved and called out Good Morning. While Geoff and I were sitting on the front porch having lunch a mother and her little daughter walked past, stopped and waved to us, then the Mum said, "Oh look they have a teddy in the window."  Makes me realise that in our very busy lives we don't connect with people in this way. Out total has risen to 368, an increase of 85 from yesterday. For the first time we have someone in intensive care. We have been having problems with our computer screen starting up so we decided to test ...

In the middle of the night last night I thought about setting up a blog about how lockdown has gone for us. I thought maybe it would help use up some time, seeing as working from home isn't an option for me and it will be interesting to see what happens as the lockdown period continues. Who knows I might just give up! I also thought it might make good reading in years to come lol. So Geoff has written a very long list of all the things we can get done around the house during the lockdown, biggest job being renovating the bathroom. That involved some speedy trips yesterday to Mitre 10 and Bunnings to get all the stuff before the lockdown started, while maintaining the required 2m social distance. (Here's hoping he hasn't forgotten anything!) Will be very interesting to take a look at the list at the end (whenever that might be) to see what we have achieved. This morning I went for a walk as I usually do if I'm not working. (They say maintaining routine is important.)...