Kiwis in Lockdown – day four

March 29th 2020 – 6.00am (early night last night)….and day four begins….it’s going to be a long day.

Yesterday, Saturday, blew in sunshine, rain, wind (had to pull in the awning before it took off) and many memories of my wonderful husband…

It was our wedding anniversary, and one of those firsts that I have to navigate without him in this twelve months…it wasn’t sad memories though, it was the good ones as we hunker down in this place that was a happy place for Russ!

Same bench, same cushions, same beer (no that looks like lion red)

Back to the lockdown activities….

Coffee…phone rings….chat….clothes out ready for long overdue shower….coffee…phone rings again…..chat….text….unlock gate….head to shower….Dan and Floyd on road….ready for beach walk.

Oh well, no shower, throw on shorts, T-shirt, and off for beach walk – 3 meters distance. A few people/dogs on the beach, so pretty much an on leash walk, or rather drag, as a very excited mastiff (50kgs) and determined master pulled against each other for half an hour until Floyd decided he wasn’t going to win and started digging (wet sand) on leash…needless to say they both probably needed showers when they got home.

The birds are very relaxed with little human activity and no outside our community visitors, the beach is feeling like it used to…a place of calmness

Walk done, it was time for today’s jobs…On my return, George was folding the washing and everything (clean washing from the day before) smelt like meat! Our delightfully busy neighbour had his outdoor fire and bbq cranking up in the afternoon before and given my washing that smoked bbq fragrance….tea towels in a bucket of Dettol and napisan to soak! And washing rewashed!

As George was sorting his clothes out, and unpacking some winter ones (that he was sure he would not need until recently) I did my makeshift yoga workout….with a bucket of hot water and dettol….windowsills, skirtings, and floors on my hand and knees (character building for my knees on the wooden floor) throughout the lounge,dining, kitchen and bathroom areas…I know this sounds like a huge achievement but the size of the cottage (very small) brings this back into perspective.

Lunchtime, banana fritters, and a “‘Brad Pitt” movie afternoon…pushing out and limiting the happy hour (beer time) to 5-6pm!

So the kiwi lockdown is fraught with activities, cleaning, home cooking a short daily walk and the catchphrase “social distancing”. Some folks don’t even want to say hello, their choice, but seriously we are not robots and standing four meters away on the other side of a neighbours fence (hands in pockets) should be ok! A five minute chat and human contact at a distance is safe??? I guess time will tell we are all in a bit of panic mode as to how this disease will progress in our country!

On that note, yesterday while USA skyrocketed over 20k cases, we only saw the same progression as the day before with 83 positive tests, a plateau, a total of 451, since the virus first hit our shores about a month ago…we will continue to go up, we are all aware of this, but the slower the better and we will all rejoice in sliding down the other side until we hit zero!