Issues and Organising

Friday's an early flight to Wellington for the delayed PPTA Issues and Organising Conference. It's good to see everyone and even better to have a day off school. The weekend is busy with meetings, speakers and socialising. I present on Saturday and Sunday on the part time issue, along with the five women who testified in the court case. It lasted four years, the union put $1.5 million into fighting it and we lost. The premise was that, because most part time teachers are women, it is a gender equity issue. Now we have to go back to putting pay equity into our contract round. Over the weekend I eat with these women and join their quiz team. They're tight. And they've got spirit, but it was sorely tested by this fight. And the disappointment of losing. But none of us are giving up. Equity is non-negotiable.

I drive to the Town Hall on Sunday night to hear how 700 musicians combine- school kids and a handful of the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. It's a big sound and the timing's not bad. 

My plum tree is flowering, it must be spring. The days are lenghtening enough that I can come home and do some work in the garden before dark. And there's a lot to do. On Tuesday afternoon we get news there is Covid Delta in the community in Auckland. On the 6pm news Jacinda and Ashley announce we're going into Level 4 lockdown. Just like that. We're what happens when you delay, Sydney, and we haven't got widespread enough vaccination to wait. So I go to bed reassured that this issue will give me enough time to organise my garden. Not saying I'm happy about the break, but it's come at a good time.

PM: Good evening, everyone. As we advised earlier this afternoon, we have a positive case of COVID-19 in the community. We will not be in a position to identify if this is a case of the Delta variant of COVID-19 until genome sequencing is returned tomorrow. However, every case we have had in MIQ recently has been the Delta variant of COVID, and Delta is surging around the world. While we cannot confirm it yet, we need to assume that our case will be too, and that has shaped all of the decisions we have made this afternoon. Public health officials have been working at pace this afternoon to gather information on the case and their movements, and I will pass to Dr Bloomfield shortly to set out the facts as we currently know them, including locations of interest that have been identified so far.

But first I want to assure New Zealand that we have planned for this eventuality and that we will now be putting in place that plan to contain and stamp out COVID-19 once again. Going hard and early has worked for us before. While we know that Delta is a more dangerous enemy to combat, the same actions that overcame the virus last year can be applied to beat it again. I’ll now pass to Dr Bloomfield.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield: Thank you, Prime Minister. Kia ora koutou katoa. So just to update you on the details around the community case that we announced this afternoon, to recap: just after midday, I was alerted to a positive COVID-19 test result in Auckland. This case was identified when the person presented to their GP yesterday — Monday — with symptoms and was tested. So to start with, I want to thank both the person who has tested positive and, of course, the general practice. We can only act on cases if we know they are there as soon as possible. The case is a 58-year-old male from a household in Devonport on the North Shore of Auckland. He became symptomatic on Saturday, 14 August, so the infectious period is considered to have started on Thursday, 12 August. Importantly, and this has been fundamental to our advice to the Government, at this point there is no obvious link between this case and the border.

Whole genome sequencing is being rapidly carried out at ESR’s Auckland laboratory for this case, and we expect to have the results through in the early hours of tomorrow morning. The whole genome sequencing will help us learn about this infection and whether or not it is confirmed to be one of the Delta variants we have seen overseas, and it should also give us information about potential links to other cases. You will be aware that every case that we have in New Zealand in managed isolation—the sample goes to ESR for testing, for whole genome sequencing. That’s not always successful, but we have a database, of course, of all the previous ones that have been sequenced successfully. So it will help us with our source investigation, and in the meantime, as the Prime Minister said, we are assuming this is the Delta variant, as all of the genomes sequenced over the last at least three weeks, and, in fact, all but one since late June, have been Delta variant.

The person lives with his wife, who was also tested yesterday and yesterday returned a negative test. Both individuals have been self-isolating at home until this point. On their earlier movements, the couple travelled by private vehicle on Friday, 13 August to Coromandel township and stayed the weekend there, returning to Auckland on 15 August. The case has a small number of workplace contacts who are isolating and being tested. The man is not vaccinated but was in the process of actively booking his vaccination—had had trouble with the website but had been making efforts to do that. His wife is fully vaccinated. I do want to commend the case for being a frequent user of the New Zealand COVID Tracer app. This has helped very much in helping us speed up identifying locations of interest. We have identified, at last count, 23 locations of interest: 13 are in and around Coromandel township and 10 in Auckland.

What Next

We part timers meet during lunch. Our break is so short we barely get meetings started before the bell ends them. I've asked for the meet up to help prepare a presentation at the next PPTA conference on the 'success' of our branch in getting some paid non-contact time. The school is given funding but, because of  an 'endeavour' clause which dates back to 2002, they can choose to say they tried. At our kura part timers started a push in 2015; we got our first payment in 2016. Not full pro rata but a start. Five years later it feels like we need to go further. Checking in, we all feel the same: we need to be paid fairly.

First Friday of the month is Eat My Shorts at 12 Bar- dinner at Robyn's and a party after. I'm home just before Kahu at the end of his night shift. On Saturday I pick up plants I've bought on Marketplace. The year is getting on and it's time to start spring planting. I've just finished the lettuces I planted late summer. They made it through frost and winter storms but now they've had it. I don't owe them anything. The woman I buy from has a backyard of seedlings, edibles I've never heard of...it's time to widen my horizons. 

Judith, Karen and I travel out to Sumner together for Patsy's 65th birthday. We've known each other for 20 odd years, starting in our 40's. Hard to think that time has gone and Patsy is retiring. Lucky her. I'll be working till I'm 70. If I can make it. So we're relaxed, jovial and easily slip into gossip over bubbles. Patsy has partial hearing and her daughter, Nirvana and Nirvana's partner don't hear much at all. Patsy and Nirvana end up having a fight but a quiet one. It's all in the body language and gesture. Most of it goes over my head but the concept is amusing- a silent argument. 

On Sunday, Kahu and I visit the nieces, all growing. I buy a Van Gough NFT. Another interesting concept. Don't think I'll become a millionaire overnight. They're a virtual gamble where sums of money are exchanging hands between people who make money through Bitcoin and other virtual forms of speculation. We live in a weird world. 

On Monday there's snow. Not enough to settle and not enough this time for kids to stay home. Spring snow. I take money to Shanna to get Kahu's curtains started. About time. Robyn's is exhibiting as part of a shared exhibition. 

The rest of the week goes. On Thursday I visit Anjie's attic trying to find dress ups for the lip sync. I'm Ariana Grande in the staff item. Not sure why I volunteered but I can't back out now.

                                                    Odd, out of place, and about to fall over

                                                                 Robyn and her work

Open Ended

 Friday lunchtime we part time teachers meet again. I want to revise our experience as I'm going to speak about it at the union Issues and Organising Conference. It feels like water under the bridge but when we start talking we realise we're not done yet. There is wrong to be righted. We're still not paid equally because of the 'endeavour' clause in the STCA. It gives our full time colleagues, I'm one now, five hours paid non-contact time, and us none. Unless management decides otherwise. In 2015 we asked for paid time and, after a year, got a minimal amount. Talking about it, we realise we're not done yet.  And everyone looks the other way.

I have dinner with Robyn then we drive into town to boogie to Eat My Shorts at 12 Bar. I taxi Robyn home then go in circles to find a party with Sharyn. Good to party with a different crowd'ish. Everyone is 60 and still getting wasted. That's why we work. Or it's a consequence of work.

On Saturday I make a rare trip to town. Murals still going up... Christchurch is street art city. I buy seedlings as spring is making me want to plant. The time of the year when the sap is rising. Old friends, Karen, Judith and I go to 

Curtain Call

Surely this must come to an end. Kahu's curtains are proving difficult to chose. I've taken William Morr'is books home when I realise the cost is similar to others and I much prefer his designs. So it's going to be expensive, the price of a small car probably. And I wait with baited breath while Shanna does the quote. At school it's Cook Islands language week and a competition to get a photo with Cook Island props. I learn that hello is Kia Orana. 

On Sunday Robyn holds a memorial for her beloved Llew at his Peace sculpture in Sydenham. It's a sad but happy crowd. Llew holds so many fond memories for us all. He was a vital man and a generous spirit. Liked to shake things up and managed to make the conservative Christchurch establishment tie itself in knots with his nudes. Human.

The days are beginning to draw out at last but it's cold and we get rain. Good for the garden.

Behind the Eight Ball

I call in to pay at Interior Effects to pay my last bill, door handles. They hadn't asked for payment but I knew I had at least three handles I hadn't paid for. $700 later. I visit Neil to say hi, he's pottering away in his workshop and we exchange notes. Then I head in to get myself ready for the new term. I don't know how I managed to come back at the last minute after hols and get by. But then, I wasn't full time. 

I manage to catch up on a pile up of small jobs, curtains being one. I send some pictures to Shanna to show her the flaws Annie, Sharyn's carer, has pointed out. The pleats, hem and seams. Most of the making actually. Teresa drops by to prune and take away foliage she can sell. I hadn't noticed how much the magnolia at the back had grown. And she slices a couple of sprouting bits on the cabbage tree. 

On Saturday I find topsoil give aways on Marketplace. I swing into action, borrow the school trailer and head to Lincoln. They have a small digger and I'm loaded up in ten minutes. At home the wheelbarrow is my useful tool, a spade and muscle power. Doesn't take long. 

I take it easy at a party and drive out to Lincoln on Sunday. The digger is gone so I get help to shovel the dirt in. At home, Kahu is reluctant as usual, spits the dummy and then apologises. Late night, empty stomach, hormones....they're a tricky combo. I feel like I've accomplished something at the end. The drops off the back path are shallower. But I need more....next weekend maybe.

Monday dawns and a long week stretches ahead. First week back seems impossible but by Thursday I know I'm going to make it. Head down, bum up.

                                                                     B7- my classroom

                                                                     Pleat problems

                                                                         Hairy hems

                                                                      Cabbage tree chaos