Keeping connected during COVID-19

We’re on the Eve of Easter and, for me, five days away from work.

Thank goodness for the Internet. I get to see my 5-month old baby granddaughter Tilly, who lives across town with her parents, a few times a week via Facetime. My youngest son texts me and even called the other day, from the commune he’s living in the Coromandel (don’t ask), and my other granddaughters make so many TikToks it’s like they’re in our living room every day.

Facetime, Zoom, Messenger, Skribbl.io and even TikTok all help stay connected while staying part.

For some people, this connection via the internet is new. They’ve had to ramp up pretty fast over the last three weeks. I have a family member who is beyond impressed that you can order groceries online with your phone; that there are funny videos to be shared via WhatsApp; that YouTube has interesting, up-to-date content. He’s not alone, I work with people who are in the same boat who have had to increase their digital literacy finally, and fast, after years of skating by.

This might be the catalyst for some companies to actually transform, digitally.

BUT ANYWAY - Bubbles; we’re all in our isolation bubbles. Controlling who we have contact with (nobody) so after 14 days with no COVID-19 symptoms we can merge our bubble with my daughter’s bubble, and the grandkids can come and stay. We can share the weight of childcare between two households, and lessen the boredom the girls are experiencing.

Thank goodness we live close so we’re all local.

What a year this week has been

Ten days into Lockdown and I keep forgetting we’re in Lockdown.

Not that I’m going out or walking too close to people or trying to do things I’m not supposed to do; I just keep forgetting that I’m not retired. I am very fortunate that, for now, I am able to continue to work from home.

But this is mostly how I imagine retirement for me would have been before COVID-19. Staying at home, quilting, cooking lunch, knitting, going for a walk around the block, talking to my kids via Facetime. It’s kinda lovely it wasn’t so terrible.

My idea of how my retirement might’ve been may well now be a dream never to be reached. The economic repercussions of this pandemic will last for years (some say longer than the Great Depression) and that might also affect my retirement savings when get to retire, if I get to retire, all those things are floating higher up into the air with each passing day.

Hope you’re doing well; that you’re safe and with people you like who wash their hands often.

Lockdown Town

This afternoon our Prime Minister let us know the whole country is to go into lockdown from 11:59pm Wednesday 25 March 2020.

We’re trying to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus so as not to overwhelm our medical services, in the hope we will save as many lives as we can.

We’ve been anticipating that once there were any cases of the illness that couldn’t be traced to travel, all bets would be off. And there they were, two cases of coronavirus that couldn’t be explained by travel, so likely to have been transmitted through community.

The PM mentioned that it our initial lockdown would be for four weeks, maybe longer.

While we are all used to working from home in our team, the thought of squinting at my laptop screen for that long wasn’t appealing. So I pulled the Mini up to the front of the building and piled my entire desktop setup in and brought it home; stands, mouse, keyboard - the lot!

I am a very privileged individual who can manage their work life like this.

My first day in lock-down tomorrow and my grand daughters will be spending the day here while their mother does her last day before taking her teaching online.

We’ll all continue to do the best we can, for working from home, and for slowing the progress of this virus.

By the way, we have the best PM. Just sayin’