So we find out on Thursday morning. I'm in the kitchen, radio on, listening to the news. It's my morning routine. Two cases, I do a double take then calculate my jabs. I wanted to wait for 12 weeks but I also said when Covid got to the South Island, I'd jump. Sunday will be 7 weeks since jab one, and I have to add two for the immune response to kick in. Two cases in Christchurch, this is not a future maybe event. I stop for a millisecond. We've caught up with the rest of the world. Our waiting is over, the feeling safe, listening to death and lockdown riots, somewhere else's problem. Human nature supposes, it won't happen to me. The faraway near has arrived. I make breakfast and lunch, put on my mascara and glide off to work on my bike. Same as usual but today the world feels different.
I have a boring meeting discussing how to improve staff/student relationships for the nth time, before school, a six period day, during which I skip my duty to ride home and pick up the car, a marking meeting after school, then another boring PPTA regional committee meeting where I'm beside myself by the end. I watch the 1pm press briefing with my Year 13's. We all want to know whether we'll be in lock down tomorrow. Not yet, but the cases live in Bishopdale, a stone's throw away. They went to Auckland to do child care, were not vaccinated and have been visiting take aways and being social without scanning. Being that dumb has got everyone in the shit. I don't understand the exemption to go to Auckland as a woman told her story yesterday on RNZ that she wanted to go into Auckland to nurse her dying nephew but her request was denied, in spite of support from her GP, her MP and others. It was a one way trip to say goodbye to someone very dear. And she was double vaxed. Systems are not only inhumane, they are also downright disastrously flawed.
Friday the tension rises in the English workroom as one of us does not want to get jabbed. She's stressed to the max and has lost her voice. It's electric, verging on drama and there's talk of lockdown protests, and how unfair a mandated vaccine to keep our jobs is. I don't think so and there's nothing I want to say. We need to get on with doing the best we can to mitigate the inevitable. We saw the disaster Covid wrecked in Europe, America, Brazil and India. I feel like the vaccine is a privilege. We're not being conscripted to fight in the trenches at Gallipoli.
I know I won't work over the weekend so stay and slog through my marking till nearly 6. My 202's film essays are not great, but that's normal for exam practice. I've earned a drink and meet Chris and his work mates in Cashmere. Going out feels different. We're quietly watchful. The bar is full as people stay near home, venturing out in their hood. In the car on the drive over I learn that someone from Christchurch, double vaxed, Covid negative before boarding, has arrived in Tonga. Covid is one sneaky virus, but more to the point, how did that happen? This case throws things wide open. Mystery. I drink red wine at home.
Saturday is quiet out and about too. Folk are cautious, waiting to gauge the spread. At Freshchoice the Vogel trays are bare. I go to Corinne's Halloween party, the only guest. Shhhh. Covid might find you.
On Sunday I get my second jab. I'm looking at my phone trying to take a photo when the needle goes in. It stings then settles and I feel only slight irritation as the day wears on. I roam the garden trying to plant the groundswell of plants I've accumulated. First I need to make space. It's a mind bending puzzle. Trees aren't that easy to move so I look carefully for a spot for my pear tree. They can grow tall. I don't consult the plants but I do talk to them as I bury them in the soil.
We have no new Covid cases over the weekend or the beginning of the week. I gain confidence we might avoid an outbreak. Meanwhile it's spreading up north and the discussion is all about vaccination rates so we can get back to 'normal.' The country is split...Covid v Covid free, vaccination v non-vaccination, Maori v non-Maori. Numbers up north gradually climb....Waikato, Tamaki Makaurau, Northland. The debate at school dies down and we get on with work. At home we keep trying to eradicate scabies; it's got a long tail too. Meanwhile, Kahu goes all out and gets his first mullet.
I have a difficult end to the week: I knock the end of tui's beak off, sorry....the car warrant costs $757, ouch. But Covid in Bishopdale stays at two cases and I get NK Windows round at last to fix windows and doors which are stiff. One more house job ticked off.
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